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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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The_Doctor posted:Also, Dalek Time Controller! This shirt is completely unacceptable now that Daleks can fly.
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Aug 22, 2016 12:01
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 09:37 |
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The_Doctor posted:Also, Dalek Time Controller! It bugs me that it doesn't match the syllables of the original line. 
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Aug 22, 2016 12:53
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The_Doctor posted:Also, Dalek Time Controller! It's neat that we can actually be excited by a specific Dalek appearing, rather than just "  oh. daleks."
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Aug 22, 2016 14:01
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 "It stalks you. It whispers. It wants you to turn around. It wants you to look. But if you do... If you see it..." Talmouth is a lonely seaside town. No-one has heard from it for days. No-one who goes in comes out. Something has happened to Talmouth. Has it been taken over by aliens? Or is it something far, far worse? Gwen Cooper's come to Talmouth to find out. What's happened has to be seen to be believed. But by the time you’ve seen it, you’re already dead. Eve Myles is Gwen Cooper in Torchwood: Made You Look X X X X X Cast Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) Matthew Gravelle (Darkness) Marilyn Le Conte (Mrs Rhodes) Ross Ford (James) Written By: Guy Adams Directed By: Scott Handcock Produced by: James Goss Script edited by: Steve Tribe Released: 2 August 2016 Trailer - https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/popout/made-you-look-1394 X X X X X Torchwood: Made You Look closes out the second season of Big Finish’s Torchwood range with an atmospheric story set in an empty village. When Made You Look hits, it hits with a creepy apprehension filled opening act. When it misses, it stumbles, spending too much time wandering about towards an inconclusive ending without ratcheting up the tension in any significant manner. English seaside resort towns usually look abandoned during the off-season. But to Gwen Cooper, there’s more to the empty streets and shops of Talmouth that meets the eye. Three days ago, the citizens of Talmouth began to disappear into thin air. When Gwen arrives on the morning train, the only inhabitants left are Ms. Rhodes, the blind owner of a local inn; James, a homeless bloke; and a charming sounding individual who makes fleeting appearances in the corner of one’s eye. A brief flicker the first time. A sudden appearance that makes one turn their head the second time. The third time’s the charm however, as the eyes are ripped from the victim’s sockets and their bodies dissolved, the last thing they see the true form of Darkness… Made You Look is Guy Adams’ third contribution to the Torchwood range, following up on the season one closer More Than This and season two standout Moving Target. More Than This did a great job showing how a normal civilian would react once caught up on the chaos that is a day in the life of a Torchwood Three operative while Moving Target run on maximum tension and the barest of breathers as the characters ran for their lives. Made You Look attempts to combine the elements of those stories as the investigation of the abandoned town turns into an desperate attempt to escape to the nearby train station while harried by a villain who can’t be seen. Instead of weaving the two elements together however, Adams’ script instead puts them back-to-back. The first half of Made You Look is a gripping affair as Gwen arrives at the town of Talmouth. Aside from the lack of people, everything is perfectly normal. The lights are on, the shops are open, and dinners are sitting on kitchen sideboards getting cold. The only clue that something is wrong are the ravings of a homeless beach bum (James, played by Ross Ford who voice the alien Saviour in Broken) about a man that will kill him should he lay eyes upon him. This man is a…alien? Force of nature? It’s never quite described…who calls himself Darkness to give its low intelligence prey something to identify it by. Darkness is played by Matthew Gravelle who featured in several of the non-Big Finish Torchwood audios. Gravelle attempts to go for the charming villain type, one whose condescension of humanity is hidden underneath feigned niceties. His constant taunts of Eve attempt to quantify him and identify him, to “place him in a box,” have a nice ring to them, and his pure glee at devouring James’ body once the beach bum sees him for the third and final time makes the horrifying slurping and cracking noises that much worse. Gravelle’s performance however walks the fine line between “charmingly evil” and “ridiculously pantomime.” There’s a sense of menace at first that eventually becomes too gleeful and too “hiding behind a smile.” And there’s never truly a sense of what Darkness really is given by Adams’ script. Is he an alien? Some creature from the see? A powerful psychic energy? Darkness can move incredibly fast, kill people by his very appearance, control automobiles to drive Gwen and Ms. Rhodes off of the promenade, mess with people’s perception of space and distance to make a fifteen minute walk to the train station take over half a day, cause seagulls animals to attack the pair, and imitate Gwen’s loved ones in an attempt to convince her to open her eyes and sacrifice herself lest they lay their eyes on him…this is one powerful villain, an antagonist who could give even the Doctor a moment’s pause. But after his initial introduction and part in James’ demise, Darkness isn’t a threat aside from throwing cars at Eve and Ms. Rhodes to force them onto the beach. He’s more of an annoyance than anything else. The bulk of Made You Look’s second half is spent with Eve and Ms. Rhodes (Marilyn Le Conte) travelling up the beach, attempting to reach Talmouth’s train station in an attempt to get Rhodes to safety. A longtime local inn owner, Rhodes’ survival against the Darkness has come from the fact that she’s blind. Beyond that piece of information however, Ms. Rhodes is nothing more than a lodestone around Gwen’s neck for the back half of the story, giving Gwen something to do, someone to save from Darkness as opposed to actually solving the mystery. It’s a good ten-to-fifteen minutes of the pair walking up the beach, complaining about the fog, complaining about the distance, stating that it can’t be THAT far, Rhodes complaining about her hip, Gwen encouraging her to come along and it isn’t far now, Rhodes wondering just how effective Gwen is at stopping alien threats (meta-comment for Torchwood as a whole?), Darkness taunting them, and repeat. Ok, maybe it’s not exactly that cut-and-dried, but it is definitely during the beach walk that Made You Look grinds to halt and doesn’t really recover. Darkness tries to screw with Gwen by making her believe her husband Rhys is going to come looking for her and in order to save him, she has to open her eyes to look upon Darkness and sacrifice herself, only for Rhodes to scream Rhys isn’t real because as a blind person she knows the difference between a voice and a voice with the body. In the end, he’s defeated because Gwen and Ms. Rhodes refuse to look at him and “give him anything else to eat,” leaving him howling on the promenade like a toddler throwing a tantrum…but Gwen mentions that they’ll lock Darkness in a box to get rid of him. If you can’t see him or look at him, HOW are you going to lock him up? On one hand, Eve Myles is fine as Gwen – the curious agent poking her nose into a mystery and determined to stop the bad guy at all costs and doing whatever she can to save whomever she can. On the other hand…she’s fine as Gwen. There’s nothing that stands out to her performance with Made You Look. It’s a solo Gwen story…and that’s a bummer as the Big Finish range had yet to give us THE Gwen story. Jack Harkness has Uncanny Valley. Ianto Jones has Fall to Earth. Hell, Suzie Costello who only appeared in a handful of televised episodes had Moving Target. While Forgotten Lives, More Than This, and now Made You Look are fine stories, none of them hit the level of “classic” or “standout” that the other Torchwood characters have gotten. This story has no mention of the Committee (which I’m going to guess will play a huge part in the upcoming Torchwood: Outbreak), decent performances, solid sound work (it’s Big Finish and Blair Mowat/Steve Foxon, so you know the sounds of waves lapping on the shore, screaming seagulls, and even footsteps on the rocky sand are going to be top notch), and a few tense moments. If this had been a television story, the keyword would have been “filler.” Made You Look isn’t a bad story. Made You Look isn’t a good story. Made You Look is A story, and its flaws are only magnified when compared to the other stories in the Torchwood range. Random Thoughts - There’s definitely a Silent Hill vibe in the first half of the story minus the faceless nurses and packs of screaming babies - After recording More Than This in 2015, Eve Myles sent out a tweet stating “Thank You. Massive Goodbye. GC.” I’m imagining Big Finish saying “hey that’s cool Eve, thanks for coming in for these two stories, don’t mind us we’re just going to sit here working on this four-part story with John and Gareth…if you see any of the script pages lying around, please return them to us. Take your time holding on to them, of course…” - I realized about halfway through writing this review that I had been typing "Eva Marie" instead of "Eve Myles..." Cobi’s Synopsis – Made You Look’s first half holds up thanks to a tense atmosphere, but the second half falters under closer observation due to a meandering plot thread and a weak conclusion. Next up - With the city sealed off and murderous mobs raging through the streets, Torchwood has to save something even more important than the human race… John Barrowman is Jack Harkness, Eve Myles is Gwen Cooper, Gareth David-Lloyd is Ianto Jones, Kai Owen is Rhys Williams, and Tom Price is Andy Davidson in…Torchwood: Outbreak
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Aug 22, 2016 18:43
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It would seem a shame if BF didn't eventually combine their Torchwood and UNIT licences...
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Aug 22, 2016 18:54
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The_Doctor posted:It would seem a shame if BF didn't eventually combine their Torchwood and UNIT licences... Just in general I've always been a bit perplexed at the existence of both UNIT and Torchwood. There seems to be a whole lot of overlap in their mission statements.
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Aug 22, 2016 18:57
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jivjov posted:Just in general I've always been a bit perplexed at the existence of both UNIT and Torchwood. There seems to be a whole lot of overlap in their mission statements. Didn't the BBC not want them to use UNIT originally?
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Aug 22, 2016 19:02
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How different would history be if they had chosen Crowdhoot for the Doctor Who revival masters
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Aug 22, 2016 19:19
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The_Doctor posted:It would seem a shame if BF didn't eventually combine their Torchwood and UNIT licences... Jack: Captain Jack Harkness, pleased to meet you Osgood. Doctor: Jack, stop flirting. She might be a Zygon. [Pause] Jack: Really...
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Aug 22, 2016 19:39
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Villains like the one you describe in "Made You Look" really need more to them than just the initial creepy factor - it sounds like the author had the start of an interesting premise and then really didn't know how to follow it up.MrL_JaKiri posted:How different would history be if they had chosen Crowdhoot for the Doctor Who revival masters Doc Who Rot was the codeword for the wilderness years!
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Aug 22, 2016 22:41
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We missed a treat with the 'didn't make it out of preproduction' series Hotrod Cow. 
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Aug 22, 2016 23:53
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jivjov posted:Just in general I've always been a bit perplexed at the existence of both UNIT and Torchwood. There seems to be a whole lot of overlap in their mission statements. The ultimate UNIT/Torchwood story that has yet to be made is the encounter between UNIT and Torchwood and Jack and the 3rd Doctor in the 70s (or 80s depending on your point of view). Think about it. For Torchwood, their mission statement is to find and stop The Doctor. Jack's quest from 1890 to 2010 or so was to find the Doctor and get the hell off Earth. For 5 or 6 years, the Third Doctor was stuck on Earth fighting the same alien invasions that Torchwood was. There's no way the two orgs didn't overlap at some points. But of course, the Doctor can't know about Torchwood because of causality, and Torchwood can't know about him being on Earth for the same reason. So I can see a story where the two organizations run into the same alien, Jack gets his hopes up that he's met up with a Doctor after 9, but gets crushed when he finds out that's not the case--and has to protect the Doctor from Torchwood and finding out too much about his future. Book Tim Trealor and John Barrowman NOW!
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Aug 23, 2016 05:20
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My personal theory is that Torchwood was basically mothballed in the 60s/70s, and then revived in the 80s when Thatcher came across it. Torchwood as we saw it in Canary Wharf was all very 'for the Empire' which is a very Thatcherite position.
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Aug 23, 2016 09:08
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The_Doctor posted:My personal theory is that Torchwood was basically mothballed in the 60s/70s, and then revived in the 80s when Thatcher came across it. Torchwood as we saw it in Canary Wharf was all very 'for the Empire' which is a very Thatcherite position. Thatcher putting money into a government branch and creating jobs? That's far too silly even for Doctor Who.
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Aug 23, 2016 11:36
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Thatcher putting money into a government branch and creating jobs? That's far too silly even for Doctor Who. True, however Thatcher reviving a mothballed agency purely so she could order them around instead of letting an international organisation run things? Entirely within character.
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Aug 23, 2016 11:45
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Torchwood would just be her answer to America's Strategic Defense Initiative, aka the Star Wars Program.
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Aug 23, 2016 12:03
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Australia got halfway through building their own Torchwood, which successfully and impressively defends Sydney against alien attack before work is even finished on their home base. It is soon privatized before the work necessary to allow them to protect anything but the east coast, and falls into neglect and disrepair literally immediately.
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Aug 23, 2016 12:23
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Good God "Planet of the Daleks" is so dull. Dull dull dull. I've been forcing myself through it even though I've fallen asleep twice and I can't even remember what happened in episode 1.
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Aug 24, 2016 22:56
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Tim Burns Effect posted:Good God "Planet of the Daleks" is so dull. Dull dull dull. I've been forcing myself through it even though I've fallen asleep twice and I can't even remember what happened in episode 1. It doesn't help that they change the plot several times over the course of the story.
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Aug 24, 2016 22:58
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Tim Burns Effect posted:Good God "Planet of the Daleks" is so dull. Dull dull dull. I've been forcing myself through it even though I've fallen asleep twice and I can't even remember what happened in episode 1. The daleks get defeated by a man with a jumper
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Aug 24, 2016 22:59
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Tim Burns Effect posted:Good God "Planet of the Daleks" is so dull. Dull dull dull. I've been forcing myself through it even though I've fallen asleep twice and I can't even remember what happened in episode 1. Nothing happens until the cliffhanger. It's a good shock that reveal. That there's a Dalek on this planet. Who'd ever have guessed?
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Aug 24, 2016 23:03
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There's one bit in Planet that always stands out to me, where a couple of Daleks are in a room that gets flooded with some kind of plague or bacteria that they were working on. One of the Daleks starts quietly and gets louder and louder as the realization hits it,"We can never leave. We can never leave! WE CAN NEVER LEAVE!" Just that slow realization of its own doom was handled really well I thought.
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Aug 25, 2016 00:15
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jivjov posted:Just in general I've always been a bit perplexed at the existence of both UNIT and Torchwood. There seems to be a whole lot of overlap in their mission statements. Then you've got the Forge as well. The Forge was basically Torchwood, except they had vampires working for them. The_Doctor posted:My personal theory is that Torchwood was basically mothballed in the 60s/70s, and then revived in the 80s when Thatcher came across it. Torchwood as we saw it in Canary Wharf was all very 'for the Empire' which is a very Thatcherite position. Neddy Seagoon posted:Thatcher putting money into a government branch and creating jobs? That's far too silly even for Doctor Who. It's really more of a Harold Wilson thing to do.
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Aug 25, 2016 01:55
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Wheat Loaf posted:Then you've got the Forge as well. The Forge was basically Torchwood, The Forge sucked and was awful and almost comically usele.... oh wait, you're right. 
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Aug 25, 2016 04:38
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Jerusalem posted:The Forge sucked and was awful and almost comically usele.... oh wait, you're right. Torchwood Four-ge.
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Aug 25, 2016 10:03
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The Unbound Universe Bernice Summerfield thing came out today.
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Aug 25, 2016 10:27
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MrL_JaKiri posted:The daleks get defeated by a man with a jumper But enough about Remembrance  jivjov posted:The Unbound Universe Bernice Summerfield thing came out today. This is kind of awkward because the Warner Doctor stories are really good but I've not experienced any Bernie stuff so I don't know what to do.
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Aug 25, 2016 10:37
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Box of Bunnies posted:This is kind of awkward because the Warner Doctor stories are really good but I've not experienced any Bernie stuff so I don't know what to do. She's a time-travelling archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting.
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Aug 25, 2016 10:38
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Cerv posted:Nothing happens until the cliffhanger. Did Terry Nation make it compulsory to have the word Dalek in the title of any episode they were in? Frontier in Space is the only one I can think of that doesn't have it in there.
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Aug 25, 2016 10:45
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The_Doctor posted:She's a time-travelling archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting. So I just treat her as Unbound River and things will be fine e: okay, I've been and listened to the trailer and am tempted to eventually pick this up just on the strength of Warner and Gatiss. Too much Doctor Who! Fancy going back twenty years and telling some fans thirsty for anything at all that we would be complaining about too much Doctor Who. Fil5000 posted:Did Terry Nation make it compulsory to have the word Dalek in the title of any episode they were in? Frontier in Space is the only one I can think of that doesn't have it in there. Apparently that wasn't on him. quote:Because Terry Nation had not written for the show since 1965, he initially believed individual episode titles were still being used — a practice which had actually been dropped after The Gunfighters. His scripts were thus titled "Destinus" (Nation's original name for Spiridon), "Mission Survival", "Pursued", Escape or Die", "The Day Before Eternity" and "Victory." (INFO: Planet of the Daleks) Box of Bunnies fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Aug 25, 2016 |
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Aug 25, 2016 10:50
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The_Doctor posted:She's a time-travelling archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting. Don't mind me, just taking the flimsiest excuse to post this! http://i.imgur.com/WMCkkvx.gifv 
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Aug 25, 2016 11:20
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Jerusalem posted:Don't mind me, just taking the flimsiest excuse to post this! God, one of my greatest regrets is telling one of my friends that Night had McGann in it before he watched it. The sheer joy of that reveal was fantastic
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Aug 25, 2016 11:23
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Jerusalem posted:Don't mind me, just taking the flimsiest excuse to post this! I'm pretty sure I'd heard about Night being a McGann short but even then god that was still so good. Just that voice and then there he is
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Aug 25, 2016 11:27
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Cerv posted:Nothing happens until the cliffhanger. Surely shock reveal is that Daleks are invisible. Not the existence if the Dalek.
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Aug 25, 2016 11:29
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So what's the best way to get into Summerfield stuff? I took a gander at the BF website and it looks like all the old single releases are CD only, and I prefer to stick exclusively to downloads.
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Aug 25, 2016 11:29
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jivjov posted:God, one of my greatest regrets is telling one of my friends that Night had McGann in it before he watched it. The sheer joy of that reveal was fantastic I still remember in the build-up to Day of the Doctor, seeing the thread has a huge number of new posts one day, clicking on it and one of the first unread posts was,"Hey guys apparently there's gonna be some short released tonight?" and then I found it and watched it and HOLY poo poo IT'S MCGANN! 
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Aug 25, 2016 11:38
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Just finished up Torchwood: Ghost Mission. Having a story from Andy's POV was brilliant, and I was very fond of the Norton character. But I'm really burned that whole thing turned out to be some kind of vague Committee plot. The Committee stuff really needs to pan out in the back half of "Season 2" or the upcoming box set or I'm gonna be really disappointed.
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Aug 25, 2016 11:49
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jivjov posted:So what's the best way to get into Summerfield stuff? I took a gander at the BF website and it looks like all the old single releases are CD only, and I prefer to stick exclusively to downloads. Just listen to the two Who boxsests ("The New Adventures of" and "The Triumph of Sutekh") Avoid her solo stuff. When on her own, the character is downright insufferable. Some people will suggest the Who Audio "The Shadow of the Scourge", saying it is good. Those people are wrong. It is very bad.
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Aug 25, 2016 13:07
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Davros1 posted:Just listen to the two Who boxsests ("The New Adventures of" and "The Triumph of Sutekh") Avoid her solo stuff. When on her own, the character is downright insufferable. Some people will suggest the Who Audio "The Shadow of the Scourge", saying it is good. Those people are wrong. It is very bad. It's only good if you really, really, really miss the New Adventures era of Who. Which is to say it's bad, yes.
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Aug 25, 2016 13:41
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 09:37 |
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jivjov posted:Just finished up Torchwood: Ghost Mission. Having a story from Andy's POV was brilliant, and I was very fond of the Norton character. But I'm really burned that whole thing turned out to be some kind of vague Committee plot. The Committee stuff really needs to pan out in the back half of "Season 2" or the upcoming box set or I'm gonna be really disappointed. It doesn't pan out sadly, but it stops being shoehorned in. There's a mention in Moving Target but nothing in the final two. I'm betting Outbreak wraps up their story arc. On a whole though I've enjoyed Big Finish's run and wouldn't mind a third series down the road.
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Aug 25, 2016 13:49
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