BF 093: Renaissance of the Daleks

[SiHart]

A random landing in London and a trip to the Savoy Hotel yield unexpected results for the Doctor. Tea, scones, an American general who knows far too much, and the threat of a Dalek invasion of Earth.

Meanwhile, the Doctor's companion Nyssa is in Rhodes during the time of the Crusades, where her position proves to be distinctly precarious.

It seems the Doctor's deadliest foes have woven a tangled web indeed. And in order to defeat them, he must cross the forbidden barriers of time and walk into the very centre of their latest, most outlandish scheme of conquest.



Nice cover!

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

Not sure I'm so keen on the new cover designs, really - having the Doctor in the 'title strip' is all very neat, but the actual image is a bit dull. As for the plot, it sounds really rather trippy!

[Dirk Gently]

Having the Doctor in the title strip reminds me of the old PDA's. It's not a bad cover design, but it is all Daleks & TARDIS and nothing else. So not much imagination used then.

[SiHart]

I think it looks rather cool because of its simplicity.

Nice Davison pic. My favourite one you know.

Si xx

[Jon Masters]

I agree with Tim about the PDA connection, and I always thought they were some of the smartest covers too.
Might save us from some of the nasty photoshopped Doctor picures we've ha in the past.

[Andrew Curnow]

I thought for a minute it said 'starring William Hague'. Now that would have been scary...

[Si Hunt]

I don't like the new cover design! It's odd, I thought that was just for the McGann BBC7's. What with "Nocturne" coming out in February with the old design, it now seems like it changed and then changed back.

I'm suspicious that there is no trailer for this on the "Nocturne" CD. What with the odd writing credit, I detect troubles during production.

Si.

[Andy Frankham]

Why is there no author credited on the BF site? 'From a story by Christopher H. Bidmean'? Do I detect some behind the scenes problems with this one, then?

And to be honest, not overly impressed with the cover design either. Those Daleks look obviously CGIed, and wow, the TARDIS in the centre. How exciting it is to look at. Not.

[SiHart]

As Tim posted on the New BF releases thread:

Someone quoted this post from John Ainsworth (not sure where from) on Roobarbs the other day:

Regarding Chris Bidmead and 'Renaissance of the Daleks', here's the story:

Big Finish has produced literally hundreds of audio dramas over the last few years. In very few cases, if indeed any, has the script remained entirely the work of the author. Drama is a collaborative affair which means that scripts will often include the work of the script-editor, producer and director as well as the credited author. The involvement of these others can range from minor dialogue changes to quite major re-writes of the entire script - all with the intention of making the play as good as it can be while still conforming to practical requirements (length, number of actors required etc). Despite all these other hands, most authors are happy to allow the play to go out with their name attached to it, even if sometimes substantial parts of the script have not been written by themselves.

Renaissance of the Daleks was subjected to the same script-editing process as all scripts. This, like others, did require some re-writing and editing to take place. Once Chris Bidmead was made aware that changes had been made, he requested that his name be taken off it as he felt he could no longer lay claim to it being his work. Chris's request was made quite amicably and does not appear to have been based on a critical judgement of the quality of the final script. In fact, as far as we are aware, Chris has only read the first few pages of episode one of the script-edited version.

Of course, we were disappointed that Chris felt he could no longer be credited as the author as we strongly believed that 'Renaissance of the Daleks' was still very much his script. Having talked to him about this, Chris kindly agreed to allow the 'from a story by' credit to be appended to his name.

Si xx

[Andy Frankham]

Oh dear. I think that's called 'towing the party line', and is clearly not the entire truth. But then that's no surprise, the PR man of BF is hardly going to admit that anything worse went down. I'm more than a little sceptical myself. Must be old age creeping in.

[stuartdg]

Has now been released

[Rob McCow]

Ours arrived!

I love the new cover design, even if the Daleks are a bit too photochopped. The inside spread is fantastic however! Scary Face! It's a pleasing and overdue re-design for the range after about 70 CDs. Though you know Who fans, all 100 should look exactly the same!

I'm excited about this one. Heaven help us all!

[Dirk Gently]

Mine turned up at 7:15 this morning...I was trying to have a lie in today.

Any way, it looks really lovely inside. And for those that haven't got it yet, Dimensional Nullity!

I haven't listened to it yet & I'm in the middle of some Bach.

[Stuart Wallis]

It's obviously worse than your bite.

And for those that haven't got it yet, Dimensional Nullity!

And the same to you!

I might just get this one as there's those pepperpot thingies in it.

[Wayne]

I'm not really a Bidmead fan, but i've ordered this (from Play for 9.49) for the obvious reason.

[Dirk Gently]

I listened to this this morning & I'm quite impressed. The premise is really quite brilliant & the story works well. I'm not so happy with Nyssa's storyline & the nerd who jumps on board is annoying but the Dalek story is rather good.

I'd give it 8.5 / 10.

[Pip Madeley]

Does Davison try and flush the Daleks out of his TARDIS at any point?

Just seen that cover... bloody Nora, that's bad. The TARDIS doesn't look too interesting at that angle at the best of times, but the Daleks look badly rendered, too much like CGI...

[SiHart]

We thoroughly enjoyed episode 1 last night, as it was nice and intriguing and a little bit odd.

Si xx

[Paul Monk]

Is the cover one of those Magic Eye things? Its looks like one.
I might get this as I can't help but like dear old Christopher Hamilton Bidmead and his funny ways.

[Stuart Wallis]

It is indeed a Magic Eye! Look at it in a certain way and you end up with the script for the last two episodes of this new series, and a migraine.

[WileyKat]

Odd story, this. It isn't dull, and there's lots of energy and life in it, and some fun scenes. But it suffers from being "from a story by Christopher H Bidmead", which means, like Logopolis, that it presents some things as if it were hard Sci Fi, but they're actually palpable rubbish. Trying to be realistic and failing is far far worse than not being realistic at all.

Decent performances all around, but it doesn't feel like a fifth doctor story - indeed, it could be any doctor at all.

[Stuart Wallis]

Decent performances all around, but it doesn't feel like a fifth doctor story - indeed, it could be any doctor at all.

It only really felt like a fifth Doctor story because it had the Doctor at best, only partly responsible for the Daleks' defeat, a la Androzani. It also felt a bit Bidmead in that it wasn't until towards the end that things really started happening. It wasn't as bad as Logopolis or Castrovalva, because at least it started well, but with the large cast only really there to help put the appearance of the Daleks off until the end, not much better than average I'm afraid.

[Si Hunt]

This is a bizarre story, but it's also a whole lot of fun! Having the Doctor and his friends chasing around after toy Daleks is bonkers! And it feels like there's about twenty million people in the TARDIS.

Crazy, but enjoyable!

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

We thoroughly enjoyed episode 1 last night, as it was nice and intriguing and a little bit odd.

Si xx

Is that as far as you got, Si?

[Wayne]

I'm not really a Bidmead fan

And although this is slightly more memorable than most recent BF's for it's unusual premise, I'm still not really a Bidmead fan for hearing this story. It's on eBay.