BF 152: The Silver Turk

[Anthony Williams]

According to outside sources, this is now available to download from the Big Finish website, with physical CDs being sent out soon.

Rate and discuss this exciting adventure with the Eighth Doctor, Mary Shelley and the Cybermen here!

[Si Hunt]

According to all sources, the street's the place to go.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Shaftesbury Avenue is the only street I know of where you could go to buy this.

[Anthony Williams]

For those that don't want to wait to here the new Eighth Doctor theme, you can hear it here!

Enjoy!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

For those that don't want to wait to here the new Eighth Doctor theme, you can hear it here!

Enjoy!

Enjoy is definitely the word! I haven't been so excited since I heard the David Arnold version for the first time

[Dirk Gently]

It's a bit messy at the start/slow to get going & abrupt at the end but otherwise very good.

[SiHart]

And people say the start of Murray Gold's most recent version was messy- that's terrible. It's not so bad when the theme's main melody kicks in, but I have to say i don't like it very much at all.

[Anthony Williams]

To me, it sounds like they've tried to go for a cross between the TVM theme, and the first Murray Gold theme...

and the result is that it just sounds a little messy.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The beginning bit with the bells is a little messy but overall I do like it. I think the intention is to fit in with the new trilogy being set at a much earlier time in the 8th Doctor's life (post TVM but Pre-Charley and a long time Pre-Lucie), also the clip of this story on the most recent podcast features a mention of former companions Samson and Gemma who appeared in Terror Firma.

[brandynigma]

The short version I rather like. The full version- well, the diddly dums don't have the dums, so it's just diddly all over the place. It's at it's best from here.

And that electric guitar is just RIDICULOUS.

It is, however, better than the version used on The Company of Friends, which sounded like someone had accidentally switched the echo on.

The play itself- I've listened to the first half, and think that Paul and Julie make a great team. The script is wonderfully evocative, and there is not a duff performance in the bunch. The historical detail is laid in carefully and doesn't detract- I didn't know what the real Silver Turk was, so it was nice to hear the story.

[Stuart Wallis]

I absolutely hated the David Arnold version - at least I could tell that this one's meant to be the Who theme; it's an improvement, but that's the best I can say about it.

[Si Hunt]

Isn't funny how bears like honey, things change and some things stay the same but the 8th Doctor Audios have always just sounded that bit more integral and... better than anything else. Listening to "Elite" and then this, you'd think 20 years really had seperated them.

I've heard Episode 1 so far - very well written, refined script, typically Marc Platt, Paul McGann is wonderful and the new girl is as you'd expect - not brilliant, but I expect she was cheap. I'm sure the Alien As Historical Freak Show idea isn't new though - wasn't it done with a Zygon, and then again in "Other Lives" with C'Rizz? And the Episode 1 cliffhanger doesn't seem to know that there's a Cyberman on the CD cover.

I'm enjoying it though.

Si.

[SiHart]

Listening to "Elite" and then this, you'd think 20 years really had seperated them.

Hang on, isn't the idea with the Lost Stories (he says, never having heard any of them) that they ape the era they're coming from? Hence why it feels like 20+ years seperate them?

[Si Hunt]

Hang on, isn't the idea with the Lost Stories (he says, never having heard any of them) that they ape the era they're coming from? Hence why it feels like 20+ years seperate them?

True, Si. But it almost feels as though things like plot development, dialogue and audio production values are twenty years ahead here. Not intentional, surely?!

Si.

[Si Hunt]

This was a good, decent play, well performed and with an integral, lucious sound design. Some great, spooky concepts at play here - this is exactly the sort of story they should be doing on TV.

A few problems - there were a few too many characters, and I struggled to work out who was who, particuarly Mary sounded a bit too similar to the Countess. And while the wooden people are a great idea, I'm still not too sure who made them and how. Or how they sounded like various other characters and looked indistinguishable from them when they were made out of wood. There's good carving and there's miraculous carving!

But this is so far ahead of "The Elite" and even "Robophobia" it's unreal - there's something about the freedom of doing McGann stories on a blank canvas that just seems to lift everything.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Marc Platt + Cybermen seems to equal success, doesn't it? Whereas most of the other Cyber-stories that BF have done haven't been that well regarded - think Sword of Orion and Kingdom of Silver. Although there was the Reaping/Gathering/Harvest trilogy, probably the last brilliant thing that I heard from BF.

[Si Hunt]

Kingdom of Silver is surprisingly popular on fan ratings site "Timescales".

Si.

[Junkyard]

This was a good, decent play, well performed and with an integral, lucious sound design. Some great, spooky concepts at play here - this is exactly the sort of story they should be doing on TV.

A few problems - there were a few too many characters, and I struggled to work out who was who, particuarly Mary sounded a bit too similar to the Countess. And while the wooden people are a great idea, I'm still not too sure who made them and how. Or how they sounded like various other characters and looked indistinguishable from them when they were made out of wood. There's good carving and there's miraculous carving!

But this is so far ahead of "The Elite" and even "Robophobia" it's unreal - there's something about the freedom of doing McGann stories on a blank canvas that just seems to lift everything.

Si.

I agree with Mr Hunt on this one, it's a great story. Although I didn't have the problem distiguishing the characters. It does have great atmosphere, very Gothic. FYI Si, Gram made the wooden people (shades of The Mahogany Murderers).

There is more freedom with the 8th Doctor compared with the others. 4th to 7th Doctor stories have to fit in with the TV continuity, more or less. With the 8th Doctor, Big Finish were able to start from scratch.