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Which non-Power of the Daleks story would you like to see an episode found from? This poll is closed. |
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| Marco Polo |
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36 | 20.69% |
| The Myth Makers |
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10 | 5.75% |
| The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve |
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45 | 25.86% |
| The Savages |
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2 | 1.15% |
| The Smugglers |
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2 | 1.15% |
| The Highlanders |
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45 | 25.86% |
| The Macra Terror |
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21 | 12.07% |
| Fury from the Deep |
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13 | 7.47% |
| Total: | 174 votes | ||
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I remember reading somewhere that they realized it looked too much like a penis so they put a cape on it. Which... doesn't help.
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Jun 25, 2016 14:56
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Rochallor posted:I remember reading somewhere that they realized it looked too much like a penis so they put a cape on it. Which... doesn't help. "You know what this alien needs? A foreskin."
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Jun 25, 2016 17:47
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BSam posted:I listened to the first episode of the big finish churchill set, it was pretty great, now i'm watching rose, really wish ecclestone would do an audio or two. Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill as the Ninth Doctor was pretty awful though. Nick Briggs needs to step in next time to do his
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Jun 26, 2016 05:06
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Chairman Mao posted:Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill as the Ninth Doctor was pretty awful though. Nick Briggs needs to step in next time to do his They should just get that fellow from The Kingmaker, he eerily sounds like Chris Eccleston.
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Jun 26, 2016 07:41
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Gordon Shumway posted:They should just get that fellow from The Kingmaker, he eerily sounds like Chris Eccleston. Who, Jon Culshaw? 
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Jun 26, 2016 11:59
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FreezingInferno posted:Who, Jon Culshaw? There are radio adverts in the UK with both Tom Baker and Jon Culshaw as Tom Baker (not in the same advert) and it always takes a moment to work out who I'm listening to.
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Jun 26, 2016 12:12
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The_Doctor posted:There are radio adverts in the UK with both Tom Baker and Jon Culshaw as Tom Baker (not in the same advert) and it always takes a moment to work out who I'm listening to. Really? Because Culshaw manages to make every one of his impressions sound a lot like Culshaw.
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Jun 26, 2016 12:20
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It's better than a lot of his other ones, but most are pretty terrible. Remember, it fooled Sylvester McCoy.
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Jun 26, 2016 14:02
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"Tom, have you been in the pub?" ( Which is probably the Doctor Who actor equivalent of "Is the sky blue?", "Is the Lord President Prydonian?", or "Does a Draashig poo poo in the woods?")
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Jun 26, 2016 14:10
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The size of them, a drashig poo poo would probably destroy the woods. I keep meaning to record my John Hurt impression and give it you lot to savage.
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Jun 26, 2016 14:20
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Gordon Shumway posted:They should just get that fellow from The Kingmaker, he eerily sounds like Chris Eccleston. He sounded like him, true, but he was completely deadpan. It worked for the character in the audio, but it was completely lacking in Eccleston's personality and spark.
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Jun 26, 2016 14:33
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Rhyno posted:Giant Penis Monster. You haven't answered the question
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Jun 26, 2016 20:45
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Chokes McGee posted:You haven't answered the question  If you didn't have time to click the YouTube link earlier.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:46
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Fil5000 posted:Really? Because Culshaw manages to make every one of his impressions sound a lot like Culshaw. Dead Ringers was better on the radio entirely because Jon Culshaw didn't have to look like the people he was impersonating.
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Jun 27, 2016 00:51
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 Short Synopsis: Things get Wilde at Ford's Theatre Long Synopsis: The 6th Doctor and Evelyn arrive in Washington in 1865 and discover that Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is being auditioned for at Ford's Theatre, 30 years before its publication. John Wilkes Booth is dead, President Lincoln is coming to visit, and a dying old man has multiple plans in place to secure his own future. What's Good:
Assassin in the Limelight is a solidly constructed audio story that takes great care to not let anybody or anything fall by the wayside. Keeping the locations to a small number and delving into the character and motivation of the supporting cast helps give them solidity which in turn makes the world they're in feel real. It plays around in a fascinating period of history, and the American setting doesn't feel too out of place since the majority of the American cast are played by actual Americans (including the poor bastard who played the Penis-Dalek in Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks). But it is also too self-referential to other stories by the same author, features a protagonist who is frankly more irritating than compelling, and wrecks an otherwise nicely tied off ending when it can't resist dangling the prospect of more of that same villain in an epilogue twist. But of the three that Robert Ross has written I am aware of, this is certainly the best, and if there is to be yet another Knox story at some point in the future (amongst those I haven't heard or those still to be produced) I can only hope the upward trend continues. Medicinal Purposes was quite frankly offensive, Pier Pressure was just kind of a boring mess highlighted by one enthusiastic performance in tribute to Max Miller, but Assassin in the Limelight is actually a pretty good story underneath the hammy smugness of a villain the author wants so badly to be Moriarty to the Doctor's Holmes.
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Jun 27, 2016 05:05
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Yeah, I was of the same "wait, they killed WHO" vein when I first heard this story... But you know the real reason why Lincoln was shot, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldPsrkjGLkg
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Jun 27, 2016 15:50
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 Thomas Brewster is haunted by the ghost of his drowned mother. But she is not the only apparition to disturb his dreams. Every few years, he is visited by a mysterious blue box... Helped by his new assistant, the young Scots scientist Robert McIntosh, the Doctor struggles to unravel the twisted knot of temporal implausibilities which bind the TARDIS to Thomas Brewster. Meanwhile, lost in the stews of Victorian London, Nyssa must face a host of spectral creatures gathering in the fog… Peter Davison is the Doctor in The Haunting of Thomas Brewster X X X X X Cast Peter Davison (The Doctor) Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) Leslie Ash (Mother) Christian Coulson (Robert McIntosh) John Pickard (Thomas Brewster) Barry McCarthy(Creek) Sid Mitchell (Pickens) Trevor Cooper (Shanks) Written By: Jonathan Morris Directed By: Barnaby Edwards Released: April 2008 Trailer – https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/popout/the-haunting-of-thomas-brewster-273 X X X X X The Haunting of Thomas Brewster may best be described as “Oliver Twist meets the Bootstrap Paradox...or does it? A story about aliens ensuring their future comes to fruition by messing with the past embraces its audio roots with a wide cast of supporting characters straight out a Victorian Age, some very lovely sound work, a handful of quality performances, and one of the more memorable cliffhangers Big Finish has put together. The story doesn’t quite gel into a perfect mixture. However it gets more right than it gets wrong while introducing another original Big Finish companion whose turn here is a bit thin but holds plenty of future potential. Thomas Brewster is an orphan. His mother drowned while he was very young. He was raised and educated by the church until “apprenticed” by his harsh schoolmaster to a small time criminal and his crew of street urchins who make a living removing anything valuable from the muck and marsh of the Thames. Life doesn’t appear to hold much for him. However, there are two constants that may yet provide him with a means to leave his life of hardship. One is a blue box that has appeared time and time again throughout his life. The other is his mother, whose ghostly apparition promises that they could be together again. All it would take is a few pieces of scientific equipment, which under her direction could build a device that would bring her back from the beyond. A device that is far too advanced for 19th century London…  Jonathan Morris has written a LOT for Big Finish. Name a range and odds are he’s contributed to it in some manner (most recently a story for the second Survivors Box Set, a haunting story called Cabin Fever about a quarantined Channel ferry). The Haunting of Thomas Brewster is Morris’ third story for the main range, following up Bloodtide and Flip-Flop. Both tales were entertaining and ambitious, although they also suffered from noticeable flaws. The Haunting of Thomas Brewster continues that trend as Morris turns in a story that could have been broadcast as a legitimate BBC radio drama. Via first-person narration, Brewster spends the first two episodes experiencing just how awful Victorian Era life was for the lower class, interacting several stock Dickensian characters along the way (who sadly suffer from thin characterization). The story opens up on a shell-shocked young man trying to come to grips with his mother’s passing while his relatives give various excuses on why they couldn’t possibly take him in. After his uncle forces Brewster to confront his mother’s corpse, they take him to the local church where a stern taskmaster raps his knuckles for getting the slightest lesson wrong. After years of this abuse, Brewster is handed to a riverman as an apprentice – a riverman who’s really a low-level crime boss who uses a group of young boys to poke through the muck and mud of the low-tide Thames for anything that’s fallen off of a trade vessel…or anything that could be picked from the pockets of someone who fell into the river and met an unfortunate end. Throughout this childhood however, Brewster is haunted by a ghostly apparition clad in all black – the ghost of his mother, begging her child for help to be freed from her undead state. It leads to a chilling moment to end the first episode. Brewster’s mother normally appears to Brewster at a distance, calling out for him to help her. He finally gets close to her as he’s paddling across the Thames and has a glimpse of what she looks like… quote:She had been in the water five days before they found her. It’s such a simple line that lets the viewer use their own imagination to conjure up this specter’s horrible appearance. It’s one of my favorite cliffhangers Big Finish has pulled off so far, horrifying in its simplicity. Thomas Brewster is played by John Pickard, best known for his work in the 1990’s BBC sitcom 2Point4 Children as well as numerous appearances on Hollyoaks. Brewster is the archetypical Dickens character and Pickard does a great job playing him as an imperfect being – he’s not ambitious, he’s not too bright, and he has no qualms breaking the law to get what he wants (including pickpocketing the TARDIS key from Nyssa at one point). When Pickard talks about Brewster’s devotion to his mother, it’s not the mother he knew but rather the mother he wants to know, and one does get a sense of just why Brewster is going to all these lengths to bring his mother back. Beyond that however, there’s really not much more to Thomas Brewster that we see during this story. He’s not charming enough to be the Artful Dodger, but not caustic enough to be Adric (which is probably a blessing considering an infamous upcoming story). Brewster makes an impact, but not enough of one that would normally last beyond a singular story…although, the very end of The Haunting of Thomas Brewster makes it clear that Brewster and the Doctor will meet again. Pickard’s turn as Brewster is enough to give me hope that future stories will flesh out this new companion and add a few more pieces of characterization. On the other side of the coin, the Doctor and Nyssa are caught in a time breach that has drained the TARDIS of power. The presence of a ghostly apparition catches Nyssa’s ear as it sings Apples and Oranges, before its touch instantly sends Nyssa to London, 1867. A young man named Robert McIntosh is there to greet her and brings her to the Doctor, who has spent the better part of a year teaching science at the Royal Society while waiting for her timeline to catch up to his. Posing as a scientist has allowed the Doctor to gather the necessary equipment and materials to repair the TARDIS (although he had to grow a beard as the members of the Society dismissed him as being too young, and his assistant, McIntosh, has been too polite to even mention the blue box sitting in the corner of the Doctor’s office). While waiting for Nyssa, the Doctor has heard of several break-ins to nearby homes and shops. Nothing too valuable or expensive has been stolen, however the list of pilfered items are of a scientific bent. Soon, the Doctor and Nyssa cross paths with Thomas Brewster, who has been stealing these items as the behest of his mother’s ghost. Once activated however, the machine doesn’t bring forth Brewster’s mother. Instead, creatures of fog race through the breach (”A life form based upon suspended gas particles” says Nyssa, ”living pea soupers” cries Brewster) and suffocate anyone they touch. It’s here that science fiction collides with Charles Dickens, blending together in a respectable and intriguing manner. The fog creatures hail from Earth’s future, but it’s a future that hasn’t yet been set in stone. In fact, the chances of the particular future where the fog creatures control the Earth coming to pass are incredibly small. In order to tilt the odds in their favor, the fog creatures drain the life energy of their future Earth, all the way down to the very rocks, to open up a time corridor to 1867, honing in on the latent physic abilities of Thomas Brewster. With his “mother’s” guidance, Brewster constructs a device to establish a time tunnel between 1867 and 2008. The existence of the fog creatures in Earth’s past will increase their temporal odds of also existing in 2008, helping to bring about their specific future. It’s a very unique mix of the Bootstrap Paradox (as seen in Under the Lake/Before the Flood) and quantum mechanics (all futures are possible, no matter how remote the possibility). The time travel aspects might be a bit confusing, but not to the Doctor. One thing that stands out in The Haunting of Thomas Brewster is how comfortable the Doctor is with coming up with a solution (or several solutions) to the problem at hand. The Fifth Doctor is a Doctor who always seems to be blindsided by events, but instead of being over his head this time out the Doctor, as fitting for someone who is a TIME LORD, manages to work out, adapt, and change up his methods for fighting the fog creatures. The final method for helping Brewster defeat “his mother” once and for all to send the fog creatures back to a future where they will never exist feels legitimately earned instead of a deus ex machina or chrono ex machina. It helps that Peter Davison (along with Sarah Sutton) both dive into the script and don’t let go. The behind-the-scenes for this story stress how much fun the pair were having. Even with Nyssa’s role sometimes seeing her as the damsel in distress, Sutton gets a chance to play up his character’s scientific side, trying in vain to explain the situation to Brewster and McIntosh (”You had me until ‘Bootstrap’” McIntosh says after she tries to explain a Bootstrap Paradox to him) and having a nice moment where she relates how she coped with her father’s death vs. how Brewster is dealing with his mother’s passing. Davison however REALLY shines. Even when he violates Who canon by landing the TARDIS inside the console room of the TARDIS without any muss or fuss all he can say to Nyssa’s concerns of a time ram is ”Really? I thought it was neat”. There are flashes of anger as the Doctor yells at Brewster for letting the fog creatures back into the world at his mother’s behest and sheer disbelief as Brewster (twice!) steals the TARDIS. But for the most part this is a Time Lord doing what he does best – slowly unravelling the myriad strands of a Gordian Knot of timelines and pulling on the right ones, ensuring the TARDIS shows up where it needs to be in order to solidify the “real” timeline, and feeling a little bit proud of himself along the way. So, for all the praise, there are a few points where the story falters. The secondary characters, even for Dickens clichés, are thinly outlined and really don’t add anything beyond “oh yeah, this is a Dickens-esque character.” Even Brewster’s partner, who makes allusion to loving Brewster beyond a platonic nature, isn’t given much to work with before he dies at the hands of the fog creatures. The exception is Christian Coulson (a young Tom Riddle from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) as Robert McIntosh, the Doctor’s assistant for the better part of a year who is very put out when he finds out just who the Doctor is that he’s capable of time travel. McIntosh’s reaction is very sincere – anger and disappointment, revealing that once Nyssa is safe he’s done working for or travelling with the Doctor. It’s a nice change of pace from the “everyone forgives the Doctor” cliché that pops up all too often. Brewster’s mother also doesn’t get fleshed out beyond the closing line in the first episode. As the point woman for the fog creatures, it felt like she should have been more involved beyond coercing Brewster and threatening him when she doesn’t get her way quick enough. The sound work is very well done, setting the stage of Victorian England through lapping water, distant church bells, and the chronic cough of its inhabitants. Where it gets a little weird is the music. There’s a musical motif that moves throughout the story, a decent little ditty that would be fine for use as a scene transition. However, it pops up quite often. Very often. And not in short snippets, but five-to-fifteen second intervals. It threatens to trip up the pacing of the story and risks smacking of padding out its runtime. Thomas Brewster joins the ranks of Charlotte Pollard as an original Big Finish companion with The Haunting of Thomas Brewster, a fine story that mixes Victorian era motifs and time travel aspects. With some tweaking, it’s a script that would have fit perfectly on the small screen during Peter Davison’s run as the Fifth Doctor. It’s not a perfect audio, with clichéd secondary characters and an antagonist who suffers from being a bit of a blank slate, but the performances and plot more than make up for it. While it may not have been the perfect introduction for Mr. Brewster, it’s one that is intriguing enough for me to look forward to future releases featuring him as a companion. Well, not ALL his future releases. I’m looking at you, The Boy Who Time Forgot… Pros + Neat mix of the Bootstrap Paradox and quantum mechanics + Peter Davidson’s performance highlighting how good a Time Lord is with temporal dilemmas + Thomas Brewster has great potential as a character… Cons - …that isn’t quite utilized in this story. - Central villain isn’t much of a threat - Overuse of the musical motif.  Cobi’s Synopsis – The Haunting of Thomas Brewster introduces a potentially interesting new companion with a story that features Peter Davidson’s strong turn as a Time Lord trying to untangle a Bootstrap Paradox via quantum mechanics. Next up - Someone has been tampering with time, muddying the waters of history for his own purposes. Time itself is out of joint and the chief culprit is the enigmatic Doctor Knox… Colin Baker is the Doctor in…Assassin in the Limelight
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Jun 27, 2016 18:52
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https://www.google.com/amp/www.radiotimes.com/amp/news/2016-06-18/the-most-divisive-doctor-who-episode-has-been-revealed?client=safari So RadioTimes had a poll to determine the most divisive episode of Doctor Who. Turns out it's our old favorite, In The Forest of the Night.
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Jun 28, 2016 02:02
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Of course it is. Did a soundtrack with the guitar version of Clara's theme ever get released?
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Jun 28, 2016 02:13
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Radio Times posted:In comparison ... Vengeance on Varos ended up 57% good vs 43% bad. Many say it's a classic.
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Jun 28, 2016 02:16
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Gotta say, this image is a really terrible rendition of the utter horror alluded to in the actual story itself. TL posted:https://www.google.com/amp/www.radiotimes.com/amp/news/2016-06-18/the-most-divisive-doctor-who-episode-has-been-revealed?client=safari To be fair, there is always a level of recency bias when it comes to these type of surveys. Radio Times posted:Some episodes were found to be more loved than we expected, others we thought deserved a chance were roundly condemned, and a fair few people pointed out that we probably could have included more episodes people disagree on. The Doctor Who fans hivemind strikes again!
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Jun 28, 2016 03:36
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Happy birthday Lalla Ward!
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Jun 28, 2016 16:28
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CobiWann posted:Happy birthday Lalla Ward! You can't just go around stealing other people's birthdays!
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Jun 28, 2016 17:04
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Enjoy another year married to a crazy racist!
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Jun 28, 2016 18:09
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Jerusalem posted:The Doctor Who fans hivemind strikes again! The Whovemind. (Sorry.)
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Jun 28, 2016 18:46
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The Leisure Hivemind. 
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Jun 28, 2016 19:11
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The_Doctor posted:The Leisure Hivemind. The Hivemind Robber.
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Jun 28, 2016 19:18
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Rhyno posted:Did a soundtrack with the guitar version of Clara's theme ever get released? I believe there's one coming out in August.
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Jun 28, 2016 19:35
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No, not the hivemind probe.
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Jun 28, 2016 21:17
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Box of Bunnies posted:No, not the hivemind probe. 
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Jun 28, 2016 21:34
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CobiWann posted:Happy birthday Lalla Ward! Loved hearing her intro when I went to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff.
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Jun 28, 2016 23:56
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CobiWann posted:The Hivemind Robber. The_Doctor posted:The Leisure Hivemind. Box of Bunnies posted:No, not the hivemind probe. See, we can't even agree on what to call our hivemind!  The last one is the best one though! MrL_JaKiri posted:Enjoy another year married to a crazy racist! Emma Watson is racist? 
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Jun 29, 2016 00:01
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Timby posted:I believe there's one coming out in August. About freaking time.
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Jun 29, 2016 00:11
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Jerusalem posted:Emma Watson is racist? She's a self-loathing Muggle.
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Jun 29, 2016 03:36
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CobiWann posted:She's a self-loathing Muggle. She's hoarding the Troughton tapes too!?! 
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Jun 29, 2016 04:27
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Big Finish are adapting Lance Parkin's Cold Fusion!
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Jun 30, 2016 11:24
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I'm not familiar with him but I read up on him and apparently he always makes a point of including a random character who is written as if they were being played by Ian Richardson, and thus the dude is okay in my book 
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Jun 30, 2016 12:08
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Jerusalem posted:Ian Richardson The guy from the Grey Poupon commercials?
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Jun 30, 2016 12:11
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CobiWann posted:The guy from the Grey Poupon commercials? You may very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment. You're not wrong. He's also the original House Of Cards guy, among many other things. He was in Bleak House, Murder Rooms, tonnes of good stuff. Father of Miles Richardson, who plays Brax on radio. Last role he played was Death in Hogfather, ironically.
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Jun 30, 2016 12:26
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Open Source Idiom posted:You may very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment. Oh, I'm very aware he is (was) Francis Urquhart and in a bunch of other things. I like pretending I know nothing about British television. It causes J-Ru to jump off a roof sometimes.
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Jun 30, 2016 13:22
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