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Bicyclops posted:The first Sontaran is pretty short. If you want tall Sontarans, you'll have to wait until the Baker era. They tried the tall design for awhile, but it turns out that tall Sontarans have a lot of difficulties with pool chairs.  The chair was a noble warrior indeed. Glory to the Sontaran empire!
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May 12, 2015 20:24
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Still one of the greatest scenes in the show. It seems I'm mistaken, though. Those are still the short ones. The tall ones must be from Six's era.
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May 12, 2015 20:26
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Bicyclops posted:The first Sontaran is pretty short. If you want tall Sontarans, you'll have to wait until the Baker era. They tried the tall design for awhile, but it turns out that tall Sontarans have a lot of difficulties with pool chairs. I guess the angle is just wrong, or the helmet is adding to his height, because he looks about as tall as the humans around him.
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May 12, 2015 20:28
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I do remember the idea of the Sontarans being kind of menacing in that first serial with Sarah Jane, but that by the end of it, they were already pretty absurd, and for some reason they continued to be featured.
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May 12, 2015 20:29
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Hit or miss Clitoris posted:It's been well established by this thread that the reason Hinchcliffe hasn't worked on Who in forever is because it detracts from his day job of haunting the beds and closets of children everywhere. The Big Finish boxset he worked on was pretty radric.
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May 12, 2015 20:38
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Bicyclops posted:I do remember the idea of the Sontarans being kind of menacing in that first serial with Sarah Jane, but that by the end of it, they were already pretty absurd, and for some reason they continued to be featured. Stupid ending aside, seeing something as real-world brutal as "death by dehydration study" in The Sontaran Experiment is still pretty chilling.
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May 12, 2015 22:20
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After The War posted:Stupid ending aside, seeing something as real-world brutal as "death by dehydration study" in The Sontaran Experiment is still pretty chilling. That serial also benefited from being only two parts long.
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May 13, 2015 00:14
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When everybody uses guns anyway, is there any advantage to warriors being tall? Tall gives you a longer reach for melee weapons, but guns exist. Short and stocky would give a lower center of gravity. You could also have lower more efficient ceilings (nobody does because television, but they could). Might have an advantage on high grav planets too. The changing height could be in universe too. Sontarans are grown in clone batches, right? And the various clone lines have a bit of competition with each other. So it is possible that they experiment with size a bit to come up with the best warriors for given environments.
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May 13, 2015 00:28
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 Note to Sir Arthur Aston, governor of the town of Drogheda, 10 September 1649. "Sir, Having brought the army belonging to the Parliament of England before this place, to reduce it to obedience, to the end effusion of blood may be prevented, I thought fit to summon you to deliver the same into my hands to their use. If this be refused, you will have no cause to blame me. I expect your answer and rest your servant. O. Cromwell." Sylvester McCoy is the Doctor in The Settling X X X X X Cast Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor) Sophie Aldred (Ace) Philip Olivier (Hex) Clive Mantle (Oliver Cromwell) Roger Parrott (Doctor Goddard) Hugh Lee (Fitzgerald Clare Cathcart (Mary) Ian Brooker (Colonel Sinnott) Written By: Simon Guerrier Directed By: Gary Russell Trailer - http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/popout/the-settling-248 X X X X X The most interesting thing about King Charles the First is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the start of his reign...but ONLY 4 foot 8 inches tall at the end of it because of... Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England Puritan Born in 1599 and died in 1658 September Was at first only MP for Hunting Don, but then he led the Ironside Cavalry At Mars ton Moor in 1644 and won then he founded the New Model Army And praise be, beat the Cavaliers at Naisby and the King fled up North Like a bat to the Scots But under the terms of John Pimm's Solemn League and Covenant, the Scots handed King Charles the first, over to... Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England and his warts Born in 1599 and died in 1658 September But alas, oy vay! The disagreement then broke out between The Presbyterian Parliament and the Military who meant To have an independent bent and so the 2nd Civil War broke out And the Roundhead ranks faced the Cavaliers at Preston Banks And the King lost again, silly thing, stupid Git And Cromwell sent Colonel Pride to purge the House of Commons, of the Presbyterian Royalists leaving behind only the rump Parliament,which appointed a High Court at Westminster Hall to indict Charles the First for tyranny, ooh! Charles was sentenced to death even though he refused to accept that the court had jurisdiction. Say goodbye to his head! Poor King Charles laid his head on the block in January 1649. Down came the axe and in the silence that followed, the only sound that could be heard was a solitary giggle from... Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, ole Born in 1599 and died in 1658 September Then he smashed Ireland, set up the Commonwealth and more He crushed the Scots at Worcester and beat the Dutch at sea in 1653 And then he dissolved the rump Parliament And with Lambert's consent wrote the instrument of Government Under which Oliver was Protector at last Monty Python, Oliver Cromwell X X X X X The Settling is a pure historical without any science fiction or fantasy trappings. It's also incredibly boring, lacking for any source of major tension and full of poor characterization, all topped off by a poor attempt to “humanize” one of history's most polarizing figures. It all adds up to The Settling simply being a poor story overall. In teaching Hex to use his senses to establish where the TARDIS has landed, the Doctor realizes that, once again, the TARDIS has taken its passenger to another historical hot spot – Drogheda, Ireland, 1649, where 3,100 English Loyalists and Irish Confederates are about to be massacred by 18,000 English soldiers under the command of Lord Oliver Cromwell. During the fighting, the trio are separated- Ace falling in with the defenders of Drogheda, the Doctor caught up with a very pregnant commoner named Mary, and Hex being brought before Cromwell himself. In the future Lord Protector's custody for several weeks, Hex attempts to sway Cromwell for committing a future massacre , while Cromwell tries to take Hex's advice and become a better man. But history demands the infamous Sack of Wexford take place... I should preface this review of The Settling with this – I'm Irish-American. My great-grandfather came over to America from County Cork in the late 1890's, nearly 350 years after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. According to what my father told me when I was studying for the AP European History exam, simply mentioning the name “Cromwell” in the house would be enough for my great-grandfather to curse up a storm. Oliver Cromwell a member of the English gentry and a relentlessly driven Puritan who believed God guided his every action. In mid-17th century England, he sides with the Roundheads against the monarchy of King Charles the First, who strongly believed in the divine right of kings to rule according to his own conscience and without parliamentary consent. Cromwell rose through the ranks, taking command of the New Model Army to defeat the royalists, and signed the king's death warrant in 1649 condemning Richard to the chopping block. Dominating the newly formed Commonwealth of England, his detractors sent him to Ireland to conquer the rebellious island and bring it back under English control. Frustrated by the leaders of the Commonwealth (the so-called Rump Parliament), Cromwell dismissed them by force in 1653 and becoming Lord Protector of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Passing away just five years later from natural causes, upon the English Restoration in 1660, Cromwell's corpse was dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. Needless to say, Cromwell's reputation is...mixed. To keep it simple, one man's freedom fighter (John Milton) is another man's terrorist (Winston Churchill). Where he was considered among the top ten Britons of all time by a 2002 BBC poll, mentioning his name in Scotland or Ireland isn't strongly advised. In the hands of a novice writer, choosing such a controversial figure at such a pivotal time in history could have spelled instant disaster. With Simon Guerrier behind the pen, however, the story initially had a chance. Guerrier has penned numerous stories for Big Finish, primarily in the Short Trips and Graceless ranges, along with several Companion Chronicles and even a few adventures for the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors for IDW Comics. For such a veteran writer, The Settling turns out...functional, from the point of view of a husband to an English teacher. The plot unwinds as it should, and makes sense, but that's the highest point the story hits. The overall narrative device for the story is Ace and Hex in the TARDIS, having tea and discussing the events of the story, intercut with the story itself. While the Doctor and companions turn out OK 99% of the time, using this device undercuts any source of tension regarding the characters, such as when Hex is threatened with being burned at the stake during the first episode cliffhanger and threatened with hanging during the third act cliffhanger. Deep down, the listener knows Hex will be fine, but the “discussing what happened as it happens” method robs the the story of any tension or nail-biting. The characterization of a few of the players is way off as well. One of them, thankfully, is NOT Sylvester McCoy. Caught up in events, the Doctor does his best to fulfill two conditions: keep his companions in one piece, and do his best to keep his little corner of the adventure tidy and safe. While Ace and Hex shoot the first concept in the foot very early on, the Doctor spends much of the story focusing on the one thing he can control; keeping Mary, a pregnant woman from Drogheda, safe. While the big picture beings to swirl around him in the latter part of the story, early on the Doctor tells everyone to not fight if they can help it (Cromwell's forces did respect civilians) and persuades Mary to put the gun down and not shoot looting soldiers. Of course, later on he does march Mary through the pouring rain towards Wexford in an attempt to find the live twin brother of her now dead husband...but it does lead to a pretty great second act cliffhanger where the Doctor realizes that he's going to have to be a midwife as Mary's waters are gone! Sadly, this does lead to the Doctor being “out of the action” for most of the story, sidelined from the narrative into the b-plot. But, we do get to see a bit of the quiet anger of the Doctor later on, as he assists with helping Cromwell's wounded soldiers even though he knows they're going to get back up and go on fighting and pillaging. It's a nice “do no harm” moment that shows the Doctor's contradictions and McCoy handles it very well. When the Doctor finally confronts Cromwell, for once there isn't this explosion of rage from the Doctor. Instead, he simply tells Cromwell that he thinks what the Lord Protector had done is wrong and he needs to consider his actions in the future...and then turns back to the surgeon for a discussion about possibly founding the Royal Society of Medicine. McCoy is the best part of The Settling and it's a drat shame the rest of the story doesn't match up to his performance. The biggest missteps in terms of character come from Ace and Hex. I don't know if this was supposed to be Hex's “coming out” story (kind of like how The Council of Nicaea was supposed to be Erimem's) in terms of stepping into his own as a companion, but if that's the case I'm not that enthused. Granted, Philip Oliver does a very good job with Hex in this story in some ways, as someone who's confronted with one of England greatest heroes/greatest monsters, who he tries to see more of as a man than some mythical figure. It sort of works, but it boils down to Hex yelling at Cromwell that things shouldn't be done in a bloody and brutal way, and Cromwell agrees until the situation calls for that EXACT method, rendering Hex's involvement useless. Early in the story, Hex, true to his medical training, is very reluctant to fight and impresses Cromwell in standing up to a soldier, but later on has picked up a sword and is holding his own against Cromwell's soldiers, possibly killing a few of them in a HUGELY out-of-character moment recalled in the TARDIS by Hex that's given the barest lip service. Likewise, Sophie Aldred's Ace is way too happy to go charging into battle. This is an older Ace/Dorothy, someone who's see war up close (Battlefield) and personal (Colditz). So why is she gleeful to see history happen by running into the very middle of Drogheda when she and Hex know what's going to happen? Yes, Ace is brash and brave, but this moment early on in the story is just SO out of character for her. And the Doctor finding her “dead” is never explained – all but gone one moment, fine and coughing the next. My other major complaint with this story is the lack of consequences, and that comes down to Cromwell himself. Guerrier's script paints Cromwell more towards the “monster” side of the ledger, but he does give Cromwell a few “human” moments. It's not enough to make up for the fact that Cromwell IS a monster and does absolutely horrible things (his “I do atrocities now to prevent great atrocities later” reasoning” is smacked down by the Doctor during the fourth episode), but the performance by Clive Mantle stays firmly grounded, without any chewing of scenery or moments of large ham. Mantle is another veteran BBC actor, known for a ten year stint on Casualty and more recently as Greatjon Umber on HBO's Game of Thrones. Mantle covers the gamut of emotions; anger, rage, piousness (his repeated admonishing of Hex's “oh my God's”), and determination, mixed in moments of regret and hopes for peace. Guerrier and Mantle don't set out to rewrite Cromwell's past, but lay it out in an even manner, based upon historical evidence; the massacre in Drogheda and sack of Wexford DO happen, but if there was someone there who tried to mitigate Cromwell's excesses, how would it go? I could imagine it going much like Hex and Cromwell's exchanges in this story, which is high praise. The supporting cast...eh. Hugh Lee is the plot device to move the characters from Drogheda to Wexford, twin brothers Keiran (Mary's husband and soldier at Drogheda) Fitzgerald and James (twin brother to Keiran and officer at Wexford) Fitzgerald. Roger Parrott, aka Neville Chamberlain in The King's Speech, has a decent part as Doctor Goddard, a surgeon in Cromwell's army who serves to give the counterarguments to Hex or Cromwell. Claire Cathcart's Mary is another plot device who's sole purposes are to give the Doctor something to do away from Ace and Hex AND provide the catalyst for the fighting in Wexford to stop when, after being shot through the lung, she miraculously survives. She also serves to add a bit of humor with her pregnancy and labor in the third episode. But Mary mentions that her and Keiran got married quickly because she found out she was pregnant, and that the people of Drogheda think her baby is cursed and the reason Cromwell is attacking them. And nothing more comes of this plot. Hex debates leaving the TARDIS and asking Ace to come with him.. And nothing more comes of this plot (though it's done better than Erimem's waffling in Three's a Crowd). Hex and Ace see war up close, with Hex killing a few soldiers. And nothing more comes of this plot. Hell, nothing seems to come from Hex, Ace, and the Doctor meeting Cromwell. That's what really makes The Settling fall flat. There's just no sense of ANYTHING that happened having any meaning at all. Granted, not every audio is going to shake the foundations of the universe, but there's no sense of urgency, no sense of peril, no sense of a lesson learned. And there IS the potential for one, when Hex and Ace discuss how the Doctor repeatedly tells them “history can't be changed,” and they conclude that perhaps the Doctor means the big things can't be changed, not the little moments. It's a quiet scene and one that I really wish had been expounded on. Coming off of The Kingmaker and the Fifth Doctor being accused of keeping history secure regardless of the cost to the common man, having the Seventh Doctor involved in “a tweak here and there” would have been an interesting little discussion. But, in the end, it seems like the events of The Settling are just a nusience to the Doctor. As Hex and Ace are having their moments of the soul inside the TARDIS, he's spending a few hours outside talking to people. And that's pretty much the entirety of this serial. A whole bunch of noise and words, but in the end nothing really happening or getting accomplished. Although, there is ONE thing that got settled...Hex hits on Ace, Ace says she sees him more as a "little brother," and it's left at that. This was a weird review to write, and here's why. I do look at other reviews online for the stories I'm reviewing, partially to make sure I'm not accidentally plagurizing someone's work but also just to see where my reviews fall with others. I'm usually not too far off, in that I'll like something that the general consensus disliked, or only like something that other people loved. When I checked out this story's reviews, however, they were universally high. A lot of praise was given to it for being a solid historical with Hex being amazing and kudos to Mantle's performance as Cromwell, with few missteps. I actually went back and listened to The Settling a second time just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I stand by my initial thoughts. The Settling is boring, has no real tension, and aside from Oliver Cromwell's portrayal and the Doctor having a few moments, there's just no real meat to this story.  Synopsis – Aside from Clive Mantle's performance as Oliver Cromwell, there's just nothing to recommend about The Settling, a boring tale with poor characterization for the companions and a Doctor that treats the main storyline as little more than an annoyance. 2/5. Next up - YOU ARE NOW INSIDE THE CUBE Paul McGann is the Doctor in...Something Inside CobiWann fucked around with this message at 03:43 on May 13, 2015 |
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May 13, 2015 00:48
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CobiWann posted:Synopsis – Aside from Clive Mantle's performance as Oliver Cromwell, there's just nothing to recommend about The Settling, a boring tale with poor characterization for the companions and a Doctor that treats the main storyline as little more than an annoyance. 2/5. I'm just as surprised as you were to learn this is a highly regarded story elsewhere. It's an utter mess, nothing has consequence, Ace and Hex act out of character frequently, and the Doctor is almost callous in how he happily mostly disregards everything else in order to satisfy his intellectual curiosity on an almost completely unrelated subject. It has its moments, but I'd certainly put this story somewhere in the bottom half of Big Finish audios in terms of quality, and it wouldn't be close to the middle.
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May 13, 2015 01:57
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I think there were some Hex portions of The Settling that I liked (and I did like a lot about Mary, even if I needed your review to remind me that she existed), but when I try to remember it, I just think of Cromwell, whose story was so boring as it was depicted that all I hear is "Buh baaaah, buh baaaaaaaaaaaaah." I agree that it was a very poor attempt to humanize him, especially since he seems to simply commit atrocities with very little apology or remorse, and is made to be human mostly by the story choosing to depict the Irish as superstitious witch-hunters. I'm Irish-American too, though, enough that my great-uncles would speak Gaelic for the stuff I wasn't supposed to hear, so I was raised to believe the guy was a complete monster. Maybe we're just the wrong audience for it, but I think it's the story itself. I just listened to one that had both Florence Nightingale and Leo Tolstoy, and I think it does a much better job of sticking with the characterization of the companions and how that is affected by the historical figures in question.
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May 13, 2015 03:37
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Is "The Science of Doctor Who" any good? Usually these types are specials are either fascinating or horrible. Netflix is recommending it to me. I'm a bit concerned it's all going to be about ill-conceived half-cocked hypotheses about how a TARDIS could work.
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May 13, 2015 07:33
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Jsor posted:Is "The Science of Doctor Who" any good? Usually these types are specials are either fascinating or horrible. Netflix is recommending it to me. I'm a bit concerned it's all going to be about ill-conceived half-cocked hypotheses about how a TARDIS could work. I liked it! It's Professor Brian Cox and he's very good at both knowing what he's talking about and making it sound interesting. It also has some cute bits with Eleven, if I'm remembering right.
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May 13, 2015 08:25
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Angela Christine posted:When everybody uses guns anyway, is there any advantage to warriors being tall? Tall gives you a longer reach for melee weapons, but guns exist. Short and stocky would give a lower center of gravity. You could also have lower more efficient ceilings (nobody does because television, but they could). Might have an advantage on high grav planets too. The Sontarans come from a high grav world, which is why they are short, and much stronger on other worlds.
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May 13, 2015 09:57
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Peak Sontaran evolution:
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May 13, 2015 10:03
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Jsor posted:Is "The Science of Doctor Who" any good? Usually these types are specials are either fascinating or horrible. Netflix is recommending it to me. I'm a bit concerned it's all going to be about ill-conceived half-cocked hypotheses about how a TARDIS could work. Yeah, it's fun! His first Royal Institution Lecture, "A Night with the Stars" is also quite good. They're just these little populist science showcases that he does, with a lot of great guests/audience members.
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May 13, 2015 15:05
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Would you guys recommend Love and War?. It's on sale for the next 48 hours... http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/love-and-war-776
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May 14, 2015 15:53
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I would, but I like Benny more than most.
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May 14, 2015 15:56
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Gaz-L posted:I would, but I like Benny more than most. If River Song drank pints, she'd be Benny.
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May 14, 2015 18:09
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The_Doctor posted:If River Song drank pints, she'd be Benny. Yeah. I'm listening to The Company of Friends during my commute at the moment, and that's her in a nutshell. I've only heard her stuff that's on the Doctor Who Main Range, though.
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May 14, 2015 19:10
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Was looking at the Worlds of Big Finish specials and apparently I already bought Love and War last December for a couple of bucks less than they're asking for it in the current sale. Suppose I ought to get The Wormery instead.The_Doctor posted:If River Song drank pints, she'd be Benny. If ever there was a way to sell me on a character, this sentence would be it.
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May 15, 2015 13:06
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Box of Bunnies posted:Was looking at the Worlds of Big Finish specials and apparently I already bought Love and War last December for a couple of bucks less than they're asking for it in the current sale. Suppose I ought to get The Wormery instead. The Wormery’s a personal favorite of mine, especially if you consider it taking place right directly after Trial of a Time Lord, when Peri’s gone but before Evelyn shows up.
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May 15, 2015 13:33
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River Song has always struck me as being nothing so much as GMS being *extremely* pissy that he never got a chance to write an NA with Benny in. (Mind you, if I were in his place I'd be pissy too because Benny's probably the best thing the NAs did.)
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May 15, 2015 15:13
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CobiWann posted:The Wormery’s a personal favorite of mine, especially if you consider it taking place right directly after Trial of a Time Lord, when Peri’s gone but before Evelyn shows up. First rule of Doctor Who and all, but... you're dead to me now. 
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May 15, 2015 19:05
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After The War posted:First rule of Doctor Who and all, but... you're dead to me now. [Shaun and Ed attempt to confront two zombies using Shaun's Big Finish CD’s as improvised throwing weapons] Shaun: Now, some of these are limited- [Ed throws the first CD from the box, which misses and shatters on the wall of the house] Shaun: Woah woah woah, what was that!? Ed: I think it was The Chimes of Midnight. Shaun: Man, that was an original pressing! Ed: For gently caress’s sake. [Looking through Shaun's collection for suitable CD’s to throw at two approaching zombies] Ed: The Fearmonger? Shaun: No. Ed: Colditz? Shaun: Definitely not. Ed: The Rapture? Shaun: Throw it. [Ed does so; it misses] Ed: Okay...Nekromanteia? Shaun: Throw it. [Ed throws it – clipping Mary in the side of the head] Ed: Seasons of Fear? Shaun: No. Ed: The Wormery? Shaun: I like it. Ed: Ah! Bloodtide. Shaun: That's Liz's. Ed: Yeah, but she did dump you.
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May 15, 2015 19:19
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Ed: Creed of the Kromon? Shaun: I'd forgotten about that one. gently caress it, let's let the zombies win.
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May 15, 2015 20:13
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Trin Tragula posted:River Song has always struck me as being nothing so much as GMS being *extremely* pissy that he never got a chance to write an NA with Benny in. (Mind you, if I were in his place I'd be pissy too because Benny's probably the best thing the NAs did.) Which isn't saying much. Benny is like the most Mary Sue-ist character ever created.
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May 15, 2015 21:59
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Davros1 posted:Which isn't saying much. Benny is like the most Mary Sue-ist character ever created. After the Doctor, you mean?
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May 15, 2015 22:57
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Gaz-L posted:After the Doctor, you mean? You'll have to wait for Thirteen if you want Mary Sue 
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May 16, 2015 00:10
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 Absolution ends C'Rizz's time with the 8th Doctor, and as a final story for the character it reflects him perfectly - stillborn potential with frustratingly inconsistent characterization, a frequently changing background, the introduction of apparent well-known "facts" out of nowhere, and a messy resolution that seems to forget or ignore most of what went before, with the only saving grace being the presence of Paul McGann and India Fisher as the 8th Doctor and Charley. By the time it's over, I couldn't help but feel relief that the millstone of a character was finally gone, something that is basically reflected in the final scene between the Doctor and Charley themselves. Since I've been so frequently critical of C'Rizz I think I should point out yet again that I don't think there is anything wrong with Conrad Westmaas himself, but that very few people could make the often-conflicting material work, and this story is no exception. Charley goes to visit C'Rizz in his room on the TARDIS, which is essentially the closest thing he has to a personal and private space. So while he welcomes her in, he's clearly uncomfortable with her handling stuff, especially when she gets her hands on an object he calls the Absolver, which he attempts to downplay the significance of while trying to convince her to put the loving thing down. Not quite grasping his mood, she opens it, and the TARDIS immediately reacts with a lurch, sending them flying as something emerges from the Absolver and creating a chain reaction of problems, including the disappearance of C'Rizz from the TARDIS. Charley makes her way to the console room where the Doctor rather dramatically informs her they've come to Hell - they've passed through a puncture in reality that has lead to a world that seems to match all the various versions of Hell that crop up in religions and societies all across the universe. Whether it is supernatural or more mundane, the TARDIS doesn't like it at all, things are falling apart as the laws of physics appear to be breaking down, and even the inside of the TARDIS isn't safe as the console overheats and they're forced to flee to a back-up console room and re-wire things so they can land, where the engines immediately shut down and refuse to restart. Stranded and effectively blind with something knocking on the door, with characteristic good cheer the Doctor decides to open the doors and head outside to see what is going on. There he meets the last "human" survivors of this hellworld - Utebbadon-Tarria - hiding in a fortress behind a forcefield, while outside in "the Outlands" twisting, grotesque demonic creatures who were once "human" now roam, under the guidance of the warlord Aboresh. C'Rizz is with Aboresh, summoned by the man's telepathic powers and told he is the Chosen One (ughh), the one who will absolve them of their sins and get them free of this hellish world they've been trapped on for 3000 years now. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Charley learn that the people of the fortress are former scientists from a technocratic society who have fallen back on almost mindless religious fanaticism in reaction to the nightmare the world outside has become. Welcomed as guests, the Doctor rather gleefully takes advantage of their hospitality to poke his nose in and investigate what is going on, solving a 3000-year-old mystery is less than half a day. As the Doctor encourages Chief Priest Cacothis (formerly the Chief Scientist) to turn back to science and rational thought, Aboresh is encouraging C'Rizz to return to his own religious roots, teaching him to make use of powers he was either unaware he had or unwilling to use before. The souls from past stories that C'Rizz "saved" in his Absolver now roam the Outlands like a giant amoeba, a formless mass of captured psyches/"souls" that eats up everything in its wake, adding them to its own mass. The parallels between both stories is well done, as the Doctor pushes for the rational, C'Rizz is slowly embracing the irrational, until finally the two stories come into contact as C'Rizz feels his powers spiraling out of control in a direct parallel to the well-intentioned but failed experiment that turned this planet into a hell-world. The problem is that the religious and scientific elements of the story really don't mix, or rather seem to sit completely separate from each other other and never interact, meaning there is never any sense of explanation or resolution of major themes of the story. Utebbadon-Tarria was presumably a regular world until the experiment created the bizarre conditions they've lived with for the last 3000 years. But were the mutations, immortality and telepathic/kinetic powers simply the unexpected result of an experiment gone wrong, or did they open a literal portal to hell (or a hell like world)? What is the significance of the fleet of stranded ships from a race familiar to the Doctor they find floating in space in the solar system? What happened to the "gremlins" that make their way into the TARDIS during its initial problems? Who exactly are the souls inside the Absolver? That last one is obvious, but only from the context of previous stories with C'Rizz, and if they're going to rely on prior information to inform stories, then it doesn't help that they "reveal" or flat out make up poo poo about his so-called backstory to fit into THIS story. The most egregious example of which the reveal that C'Rizz was genetically engineered or straight up made in a laboratory to serve a specific function for the Eutermesan people. This element is pretty much just thrown out there outta nowhere, and only because it fits into what they want to do in THIS story. C'Rizz's entire time in the audios has suffered from this - he's been such a blank slate that it has allowed individual writers to just decide specific abilities/backstory for him as the occasion suits, leaving his backstory a complete mess of conflicting ideas that bear little relation to each other. If C'Rizz was "built" to house "souls" and thus afford the Eutermesans' immortality, then why was he allowed to give up his role in The Foundation in order to be married? Did he have these telekinetic/pathic powers all this time or was it only possible due to the unique conditions of this planet? Was his desire to "save" people the result of his engineering or his training? Was that his Dad in the final story of the Divergent Arc, or his creator? Why the gently caress does he physically turn into the Devil at the end of the story? How the gently caress does "absorbing" the genetic assimilator's wave work? It's possible I missed the explanation, but did he "fix" the people of the planet and restore them to their original forms? After the Assimilator fires, all of the other characters apart from the Doctor, Charley and C'Rizz are never seen again, but I assume that they were "cured"? Which doesn't actually solve any of the myriad problems that caused their situation in the first place. It's like the writer was so dedicated to an ironic inversion of a chosen one to devil to messiah story that any other consideration was secondary or just dismissed. C'Rizz's salvation was the important theme, but by removing the other characters from the tale completely (again, I might have missed a throwaway line explaining what happened to them) at that point, it renders them irrelevant, which makes all the stuff about them feel like a waste of time. The rivalry between Cacothis and Aboresh, the science/religion debate between Cacothis and his daughter, the belligerent relationship between the two guards etc, none of it actually goes anywhere or gets resolved in any way. Having finally fulfilled the spirit of his intended function and having actually SAVED the Doctor and Charley as opposed to the perversion that was his prior "saving", C'Rizz's character arc is complete.... if only that character arc had been present outside of fits and starts during his entire run. It all ties back to his original guilt over L'da's death, and having balanced that "sin" with the "salvation" of the Doctor and Charley, he allows his body to fade into ash and blow away after a final goodbye to the Doctor and Charley. And with his death and his removal from the Doctor/Companion dynamic.... things immediately get good and interesting again! The Doctor and Charley depart the planet in the fully repaired TARDIS (even if the people have been restored, what about the hole in reality that caused all this in the first place?) and the Doctor immediately begins happily chattering away about where and when they can go next, throwing in the easily misinterpreted comment that things will be "better now". In what feels almost like a meta-reference, Charley rails at the Doctor and accuses him of never liking C'Rizz or wanting him around in the first place (fair enough!), and being happy that he's gone so things can go back to "normal" (again, fair enough!). The Doctor is hurt by these comments, even more so when Charley insults the TARDIS, saying he only cares about that old bucket of bolts and not any of the actual living companions that come with him. He's hurt, but he defends that stance by pointing out that he cares for all his companions but they ALL go, eventually, they all leave him in one way or the other, and the only constant in his life is the TARDIS. But Charley's outrage, her guilt and despair over C'Rizz's death etc, leave her in too vulnerable a place to allow him to reason with her, and she declares that it is time to go home. She thought home was the TARDIS, but now it is clear to her that this is only HIS home, and she wants to go back to hers. The Doctor points out that he can't take her back to where he got her, because that's inside a crashing airship, but she doesn't care, she wants to go. Her own time with the (8th!) Doctor is nearly up, as McGann prepares to shift into the 8th Doctor Adventures series of audios, and so this story ends on a depressing and angry note, and the only positive to take out of it is that there is no more C'Rizz! Absolution attempts to provide just that for C'Rizz as a character, and justify his lengthy presence in the monthly range of Doctor Who audios. You could argue how well or otherwise it achieves this goal, but even if it works in THIS story, it can't really salvage the conflicting characterization that has plagued C'Rizz almost from the beginning. Originally intended to be present in a lengthy Divergent Universe storyline, he remained when that storyline got cut short and never really seemed to fit in, frequently being the "also-there" character while the Doctor and Charley got the lion's share of the good stuff. In this story he overshadows everything, to the ultimate detriment of the narrative, but at least an attempt is made to give him a proper sending off, and to finally try to wrap up the disparate elements of the character introduced willy-nilly throughout a run that seemingly didn't even have the fishbone of a basic character arc. And for all the negative talk C'Rizz and his time on the TARDIS has provided, at least there is always one thing he will have going for him. At least he wasn't Adric.
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May 16, 2015 03:41
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I think my biggest problem with Absolution is that the Eight/Charlie argument feels a bit forced and that we, as an audience, are pretty included to agree with the Doctor. That and it is a C'Rizz-focused story.
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May 16, 2015 03:46
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Bicyclops posted:I think my biggest problem with Absolution is that the Eight/Charlie argument feels a bit forced and that we, as an audience, are pretty included to agree with the Doctor. Yeah, I'm half tempted to just blow through Memory Lane/Absolution/The Girl Who Never Was just to get past C'rizz and Charley (who I like but agree it's time to go) and get to Lucie Miller and Season 1 of the EDA's before diving back into the main range. Even in Something Inside C'rizz just felt superfluous.
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May 16, 2015 03:53
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Memory Lane is admittedly one of the better ones in terms of the (admittedly stale) group dymanic there. Eddie Robson (who also writes a whole bunch of the early EDAs and some of Six's stuff during that period) does a decent job of making them all interesting again for that one story. But yeah, I remember feeling bored with them, something I never thought that I would be, given Paul McGann and India Fisher's dedication to always giving their best.
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May 16, 2015 03:57
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I think we can call agree that the next TV season can't come soon enough! I honestly can't recall the last time I was this excited for a new season...
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May 16, 2015 04:01
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Yeah, the Doctor/Charley/C'Rizz combo just felt stale to me, but I would have liked more than one story to get a chance to enjoy the Doctor/Charley combo a little bit more before everything got changed up.CobiWann posted:I honestly can't recall the last time I was this excited for a new season... Season 6  Edit: I tell a lie, I was stoked for season 8 after Day of the Doctor and Capaldi's appearance at the end of Time of the Doctor, which made that first half of Deep Breath rather disconcerting.
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May 16, 2015 04:03
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I am very excited for season 9. I really hope that this time, they can just lean on the chemistry we saw between Clara and the Doctor in that Peter Pan-like segment of the Christmas episode and just allow the two of them to have adventures together. I understand the purpose between introducing tension between the Doctor and his companion, but I think I just want to watch them enjoy themselves traveling together and dealing with their losses 
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May 16, 2015 04:08
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I quite liked The Girl Who Never Was, so I'd say at least that is worth a listen.
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May 16, 2015 04:09
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May 16, 2015 04:11
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Bicyclops posted:I am very excited for season 9. I really hope that this time, they can just lean on the chemistry we saw between Clara and the Doctor in that Peter Pan-like segment of the Christmas episode and just allow the two of them to have adventures together. I understand the purpose between introducing tension between the Doctor and his companion, but I think I just want to watch them enjoy themselves traveling together and dealing with their losses Oh absolutely, and I think the fact that Jenna Coleman was initially going to leave the show at the end of season and then requested to come back for the Christmas Special and THEN requested to come back for Season 9 indicates that she really enjoys being on the show and working with Capaldi (who wouldn't!?!) Is that Martha Jones about to crash into that lighthouse? Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 04:19 on May 16, 2015 |
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May 16, 2015 04:12
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The_Doctor posted:I quite liked The Girl Who Never Was, so I'd say at least that is worth a listen. I had some issues with it, but I really love the mad way that everything came together. It's a really excellent example of Big Finish taking a ton of chances instead of playing it safe, while also celebrating the history of the Doctor that is basically theirs. It's definitely worth hearing.
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May 16, 2015 04:13
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