Demon Quest

[SiHart]

It's released today. Will anyone else be listening to the new series from BBC Audio?

Si xx

[stuartdg]

Good birthday pressie to come then(along with Sherlock)

[SiHart]

Apparently you can download the first one for £2.95 on iTunes.

Si xx

[Jon Masters]

I await them arriving in stock at my local library service

[Simon R]

I'm only just getting round to listening to Horny Nest.

[SiHart]

Si xx

[SiHart]

Who would create so operatic an image for the third CD? yes... JUNE HUDSON!



Si xx

[Rob McCow]

Hurrah! We enjoyed the first part of Demon Quest on the way to Sittingbourne yesterday. It's similar in tone to Hornets' Nest, but I thought it was a bit slicker and more fun.

I think it's fab to get the Fourth Doctor involved in car boot sales and church halls.

[SiHart]

Si xx

[SiHart]

The story continues ...

I didn't think The Demon of Paris was all that great. Dome good ideas- I did like the idea of the Doctor meeting Tolouse Latrec- that's soemthing that feels right, but I found the story unengaging. I'm not sure that the colour of Paris was conjured up all that well, and I found the ending was abit of a mess. It was as if I'd jumped a couple of tracks and missed something important.

A Shard of Ice was much, much better. A cracking fairy tale style story, with an atmospheric snowy/ icy setting and a memorable villain. Jan Francis was pretty awesome as The Ice Queen 9she has a good old cackle) and Samuel West as Albert Tiermann gave the part a dignity and felt real. Exciting story and probably the best of the series so far.

Si xx

[brandynigma]

Well, having picked up the download version for £12, I've finished listening to these.

The series is a big improvement on Hornet's Nest: Mrs Wibbsey and Captain Yates get more of the action, and using different narrators in each play keeps the device fresh. However, I did have a problem with some of the narration- namely when actions are described that could have been achieved through sound design and dialogue.

I also think the plays would benefit greatly from including a cliffhanger at the midpoint- the stories seem somewhat languid at an hour a piece, especially given their 'enhanced audiobook' format.

The relationship between the three mains is far better in this series as well. The Fourth Doctor, Mrs Wibbsey and Yates are not only great as a trio, but do very well in pairs too (Doc/Wibbs and Doc/Yates). Baker now seems quite taken with his co-stars, and there is a far better vibe between he and Franklin this series.

Richard Franklin is the standout performer here for me. Yes, I'm aware of his reputation as a man and certainly, his performance in the TV series is probably the weakest of the UNIT Family- but he's really very good in these plays. His cautious nature builds perfectly on his new life from the end of his time on TV, and was a big factor my deciding that Starfall was my favourite play of this series.

Susan Jameson plays a far more rounded version of Mrs Wibbsey this year, and she takes to her role as a fully fledged companion with great aplomb. She comes across best in The Demon of Paris, showing courage, intelligence and compassion.

Tom's performance is, as always, very high quality- but it takes a fair suspension of disbelief to accept these plays as an extension of Season 15. Big Finish seem to have Tom sounding a great deal closer to his late 1977 self that BBC Audiobooks do. This is a minor niggle, though, and the Doctor gets to show a great deal of his trademark guile, especially in A Shard of Ice and Sepulchre.

And why couldn't we have had Nellie as a companion on audio?

Finally, yes, the ending of Sepulchre is a cheap trick; but it makes me want to grab Serpent Crest, so at least it's not a failed cheap trick.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

That's quite a good price for the download version (Big Finish take note!)
That said I'm finding the Audiogo website rather difficult to navigate!?

[SiHart]

Glad you enjoyed them Brendan. As you may remember, we were so disappointed with the revelation of the returning foe behind it all that that rather clouded our judgement of the series. I did really, really like A Shard of Ice. It was tremendously atmospheric and had a woderful dark fairytale vice that worked really well.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Just to clarify I've not actually got Hornet's Nest but there doesn't seem to be a download version for the boxset as a whole and buying the 5 individual episodes as downloads adds up to £27.45 whereas the CD boxset can be obtained from BBC Shop for £31.50 (as opposed to £40 from audiogo and around £35 from other online retailers)

I have to admit one of the things that put me off this series was knowing it was originally intended to give Tom the opportunity to work with Nick Courtney again and sadly the Brig was too ill to take part. I suspect that the second and third series have probably been written more with Yates in mind though and from the reviews I've read I am a little intrigued but knowing that some people really don't rate Hornet's Nest very highly I'm more inclined to buy the Jago and Litefoot boxset or something else I haven't got yet.

[SiHart]

I think people don't rate because it wasn't what they expected. After years of Big Finish and their full cast plays I think people were disappointed that these didn't slavishly follow that model of audioplay and went down the narration/ conversation route.

Personally I've been glad they've made their own course and did something different, if not always all that sucessfully. Also Paul Magrs' work tends to divide opinion too of course.

[Nyder]

Just been on the AudioGo website - they're selling the complete Demon Quest set for £7.86 in mp3 download format

[SiHart]

Or you can hear it on BBC 4 extra the week after next...

[Nyder]

Even better!

[Jon Masters]

Or you can hear it on BBC 4 extra the week after next...

I think they're only doing Hornet's Nest

[SiHart]

Sorry, yes , got confused by the ten episode thing- not thinking they'd divided Hornet's Nest into 10 half hour parts.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The download version of the complete second series is now only £7.86 from Audiogo