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  1. #1
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    Default Big Finish in Season 24

    Big Finish have added a number of stories that would sit within Season 24. Rehabilitating Melanie Bush and the Seventh Doctor from the depths of fan popularity, these adventures ahve added to and expanded the season. But what do you think of them?











    Si xx

    I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.

  2. #2
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    Looking at those five releases, there's a definite downwards trend!

    In terms of actually capturing the feel of Season 24, none of them have really succeded. Then again, none of them were probably aiming to! The one that comes closest is 'Bang Bang A Boom', though it's a little too knowing in its style.

    Flip-Flop had a fairly ingenious way of splitting the plot up, but I don't think it was that great a story. They kept referring to something going on at the Space Yacht Pinto with the Quarks that sounded like a lot more fun I'm pretty sure it had Dan Hogarth voices for the aliens, which is always a treat.

    Unregenerate! started well but lost its way. I can't remember much about it now.

    Red was dRedful, bad in every conceivable way and one of my top ten worst BF stories.
    Pity. I have no understanding of the word. It is not registered in my vocabulary bank. EXTERMINATE!

  3. #3
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    Doing season 24 audios was always going to be tricky because those bits of season 24 that work do so largely in spite of the scripts and the actors not because of them. You would struggle to put any of these plays into the TV run without them seeming very out of place.

    Fires of Vulcan is obviously magnificent. Its strengths are the script and the acting of everyone involved. It is worlds ahead of New Who's take on Pompeii and in one story it almost retro-justifies the casting of Bonnie Langford.

    Bang Bang is a lot of fun - the plot works, the jokes work and the cast is mostly really good. It holds together better as a story than the previous Christmas adventure and just about stays on the right side of self indulgence. Done on TV in 1987 though it would've been terrible.

    Flip Flop is great as a concept story and the gimmick really works but the rest of the story has been somewhat sacrificed to make the two-disc gimmick's structure work. I'd love to see them try something similar on TV - perhaps in a Children in Need telethon - giving different regions the two episodes in different orders.

    I've listened to Unregenerate several times and I still can't remember what happens. Mel gets a bit sanctimonious with a cabbie who is a little bit woah and a little bit waaay. That's all really.

    Red is a strange beast. The world it creates is a good graphic novel world - very Andrew Cartmel - and the themes about violence, masochism, sadism and drugs are the sorts of things he hints at in other stories during his era. It's not all together clear what's going on though or how the Doctor sorts it all out. If indeed it is the Doctor that sorts it out.

    Big Finish has done a lot for the less popular parts of 80s Doctor Who and Mel is certainly near the top of that list. They have never quite captured the reality of season 24 but I think they capture the intention. I imagine Red is closer to the original vision of Paradise Towers (for example) than the rather am-dram TV production ended up being.
    Dennis, Francois, Melba and Smasher are competing to see who can wine and dine Lola Whitecastle and win the contract to write her memoirs. Can Dennis learn how to be charming? Can Francois concentrate on anything else when food is on the table? Will Smasher keep his temper under control?

    If only the 28th century didn't keep popping up to get in Dennis's way...

    #dammitbrent



    The eleventh annual Brenty Four serial is another Planet Skaro exclusive. A new episode each day until Christmas in the Brenty Four-um.

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