More Tom- BBC and BF!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I think they must've had an inkling that they'd only have a brief window to work with Mary as I know that this and next year's stories were all written and recorded within a short space of time last year.

[SiHart]

And one more cover...

[Si Hunt]

Gorgeous cover, but THREE Nick Briggs scripts in a row? Have we been mean to him in a past life?

Appropriate title for Mary's final bow.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

There are actually four Briggs scripted stories in next year's season -2.2 & 2.3 and then two part season finale 2.6 & 2.7 - I think they must've been in a rush to get this season written and recorded and save some money at the same time.

[Simon R]

Great.

[Si Hunt]

It all bodes well for another stunning season.

[Anthony Williams]

Frankly, I'm just glad that we'll be getting some new Tom 'n' Tamm stories - it's such a shame that they'll be the last

[SiHart]

But at least we have them to look forward to.

[Stuart Wallis]

And the CDs...

[Rob McCow]

I'm most of the way through this Tom / Tamm season:

The Auntie Matter - Great fun, the perfect environment for the first Romana! 5 stars
The Sands of Life / War Against The Laan - Some decent moments and a fairly interesting sci-fi villain. It is just about possible to go wrong with David Warner.
The Justice of Jalxar - Inoffensive, but very very slight.
Phantoms of The Deep - Inoffensive again, but there's a lot of confusion about the imaginary goblin threat and the real squid threat and the friendly squids and the telepathy and alien spaceship and the submarine and the 1940's submarine... hang on, was the '40's submarine ever explained?

Two Nick Briggs Dalek stories to go. And you know my thoughts on Nick Briggs Dalek Stories.

[Rob McCow]

OK - this is a shocker. The Dalek Contract was actually good! Yes the Daleks are still utterly wretched but the story was fun. There were some good laughs with Romana, the Doctor and K-9. It was entertaining and moved along at a reasonable pace.

David Warner's 'Cuthbert' is still one of the weirdest villains they've ever had. Should be straightforward, but it just doesn't make any sense that he's got that accent and likes brown sauce on his chips. Why?

[Nyder]

I've listened to White Ghosts - most enjoyable. This third season of Fourth Doctor Adventures is far superior to the first two seasons.


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[Rob McCow]

You're joking - don't make me listen to more of these buggers, Dave.

[Rob McCow]

And so we reach The Final Phase.

After a first half full of fun and adventure, we get back to standard Big Finish Daleks-Want-To-Invade-The-Multiverse plot and it becomes hard to care about anything. Anything at all. Ever.

I even thought this might tie into the Gallifrey series, where the Daleks invade a portal that would give them access to all times and spaces and dimensions. Sadly, this was a completely different story about a completely different set of Daleks invading a portal that would give them access to all times and spaces and dimensions. At one point the Doctor asks the Dalek Supreeese what the point of it all is. It seems to me that the point is so that a certain writer / performer can do all the funny Dalek voices and noises he's been practising throughout the years.

Oh, but Mary! Mary and Tom were so wonderful in this. Although Tom's performance is never quite the same as it was in the 70's, Mary's Romana hadn't changed a jot. Her voice seemed exactly the same to me and it was fantastic. And I mustn't forget John Leeson as K-9. There was a good gag actually where K-9 suddenly reveals he has a 'Stealth' mode.

There were some other good actors in it too, but they were playing Nuroribbian Colonists and Rebels, so I can't remember a bloody thing about them. Who cares anyway?

Overall the season had some good high points, but was a sadly wasted opportunity to recapture the feel of the Graham Williams era of Doctor Who.

[Stuart Wallis]

Is it just me, or does "nuroribbian" sound like some sort of vitamin suppliment?

[SiHart]

Can't wait for these!

[Si Hunt]

Me neither. Presumably they were recorded in different studios? Wouldn't it be nice if, in their relative old ages, Tom and Lalla could have joined the same recording for it and done a nice photo shoot.

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

What, and deny Clayton Hickman and his magic photoshop machine another nice little earner?

[SiHart]

Well hurrah, I'm listening to The Romance of Crime and it's rather fabulous!

[Si Hunt]

"The Darkness of Glass" is exactly like "The Curse of Ratanapura" but not quite as good.

Also only one of the female characters is in the cast list which is suspicious. "Hire another actor? Can't you just do a slightly different voice and we'll say no more about it."

Si.

[Rob McCow]

We've now listened to the WHOLE of Season 5 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures. Here's my rundown (Down and down and down) of the season:

5.01 Wave of Destruction
A fairly ho-hum adventure set in the 1960's with the Vardans turning up to ruin everybody's day. Kind of does something new with an old monster but has the same problems as in their original appearance - they're far too powerful and incomprehnsible. It's got MI5 in it but doesn't really capitalise on the intrigue you could have with the secret service involved.

5.02 The Labyrinth of Buda Castle
A vampire story! I think they were going for "how would vampires work in the real world?" angle, but it ends up with all the silliness of the vampire legend at the forefront. Add to that another irritating name - Zoltan Frid - and it's all quite forgettable.

5.03 The Paradox Planet
A good one this, the first of a two-part story on a planet where the past is at war with the future. It's well thought-out too, with bombs being strategically placed by the people in the past to blow up bases in the future. Some nice twists, especially the one about Machina, the AI who seems to be running things.

5.04 Legacy of Death
Not such a strong conclusion to the two-part story, it all gets a bit too messy.

5.05 Gallery of Ghouls
This one was great fun, with Celia Imrie giving a star performance as a Madame Tissot. It's a real pleasure to have a witty script with genuine laughs, because most of this season is pretty serious and grim.

5.06 The Trouble With Drax
The highlight of the season. Not perfect, but very entertaining. Drax is running a convoluted con involving the Doctor and Romana. Everything gets more and more complicated and ridiculous, but ties together well at the end. In future, I think I might just listen to the John Dorney BF's because he's streets ahead of their other writers at the moment.

5.07 The Pursuit of History
5.08 Casualties of Time
And so we round off the season and the Cuthbert / Conglomerate series with a big two parter featuring a returning villain in a plot that threatens the sanctity of the web of time.

And it's simply the worst story Big Finish have ever put out.

Stupid things happen for no good reason. Characters are shunted in and out of the audio at random. There's no sense of place or direction. There's fan-fiction that's better than this - but not much fan-fiction that's worse. Half-way through I asked Si if we were listening to the story on shuffle mode, because there was not a lick of sense anywhere.

Here's a brief summary of the denouement:

Cuthbert is back in time at an iron-age settlement and he has a bazooka (A BAZOOKA ARE YOU FIVE YEARS OLD?) and the Doctor and K-9 follow him the TARDIS to stop him then they get back in the TARDIS to go somewhere else looking for Romana who is helping the Laan and the Oortag (WHO?) because Mr Doric keeps threatening to kill someone if she doesn't so she says "Oh alright!" (NO MORE CLICHES PLEASE) the Doctor picks up Romana after she's used the AI to bring the Laan into existence to repair the time problems (NO IDEA) but the Laan as they are now who are too weak so she makes an avatar of herself to go into the place where the Laan are but she doesn't have enough Artron energy (SO WHAT) then the Doctor, Romana and K-9 go back in time to find Cuthbert wasn't aiming his bazooka at the settlement he was aiming at a spaceship and the spaceship is about to start a nitrogen inversion that would cause the fire in the iron age settlement to turn into a firestorm (NO REALLY) and destroy everything and Cuthbert is working for the Black Guardian and if the Doctor stops Cuthbert destroying the spaceship and burying the tritonium he needs for his time machine it will destroy the web of time and Cuthbert misses the spaceship twice with his bazooka (JESUS WEPT) and the Black Guardian disappears laughing after a chat with the Doctor where he explains his plan (OFF YOU GO) then the Doctor takes everyone into the TARDIS and puts himself into an avatar with the Laan (WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SPACESHIP?) but it drains his mind and leaves him blanks because there was a power fluctuation (MEANINGLESS) and just as we think he's dead a space parrot that is not a parrot comes through the TARDIS doors and takes him into space then they drop off Cuthbert and Romana goes back the TARDIS and the Doctor is fine (WHAT HOW WHY WTF) .

Finally Cuthbert decides he has "Free will" which basically means that from now on he's not going to be evil but nice for no f***ing good reason.

It's utter, utter b***cks from start to finish. I'm angry that they got these great actors in to say these lines, I'm angry that I spent time listening to it and I'm angry that there are lots of reviews out there saying that this was a good story. This one had me screaming and not in a good way.


I could go on... But I'll leave it there.

[Stuart Wallis]

The odd cliché there then - hidden among several downright peculiar ones! Perhaps you should shove that last story on shuffle mode - it won't make any less sense...

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Big Finish's Tom Baker at 80 interview is today's christmas sale offering at £2.99 a download.

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