I kept a list of my immediate responses to the myriad of Big Finish discs I listened to in both 2010 (here) and 2011 (here). To keep tradition going I continue here and expect this year to be marked by both the addition of the Fourth Doctor and Blake’s 7 (and also Counter: Measures). Who knows! First up I know there will be main range, and the ranges mentioned above. Oh and some specials for the Sixth and Eighth Doctors! I’m excited already and it’s only January 6th! Also there was Davros Day (here)! Following the excellent March releases I invested in some earlier main range titles and also decided to add a best and worst of the year. I then fell for the UNIT: Dominion marketing and invested in the whole specials range.
April saw the relaunched website and another 1-50 sale which allowed me to get another bunch; June a sequence of random-ish two-day sales that got me lots of Companion Chronicles (and then a subscription) as did the DWM #448 special offer. July (thankfully according to my piggy bank!) saw just a solitary extra purchase in the David Tennant sale. Meanwhile in October I popped along to the Cult Publishers Expo and picked up a good handful of titles to plug gaps ahead of imminent releases.
November saw Colin in the Jungle and we ended the year with more solid releases. With the 12 Days of Christmas Sale and other bits there is already a backlog for 2013!
The best and worst of the year
For me the best audio I have listened to this year was The Child, and the best old release was Thicker than Water with the year’s best release being either UNIT: Dominion. Dark Eyes, Gods and Monsters /The Emerald Tiger or The Butcher of Brisbane. Home Truths / The Drowned World were rather good as well. As were lots of others!
The worst (for me) was Terror Firma out of everything I have heard.
The greatest stories
Blake’s 7 kicked off with the great Turing Test a tale of Avon and Vila that was slap-bang back in the original series. Paul Darrow was in fine form carrying the plot (who is more or less human - Avon or an Android?) with Michael Keating bang on the money providing counterpoint as Villa; the peak of the second series, and of the boxsets so far, was False Positive a tale narrated by Gareth Thomas that was a compelling layered tale of manipulation;
The First Doctor (via the Companion Chronicles) gave the wonderful The Revenants a story given away via DWM #448 (see review here) which featured William Russell as Ian Chesterton (and also Sharon Small as Janet / Jeannie) a great tale set on an Orkney Island (Hoy) set just after Dalek Invasion of Earth (review here); of course the wonderful Sara Kingdom trilogy (reviewed here) consisting of Home Truths, The Drowned World and The Guardian of the Solar System are up with the very best; I also like The Return of the Rocket Men which I felt made a better story though oddly enough made me like the earlier story more; diving back I also listened to The First Wave which now means I have to get the early Oliver stories as this was wonderfully evocative of this era of the show;
The Third Doctor appears by proxy courtesy of The Last Post which was Caroline John’s last appearance as Liz Shaw; this tale makes an excellent sweep of capturing the whole flavour of the first season of the Pertwee era and also expanded the back-story of Liz with the introduction of her mother;
The Fourth Doctor kicked off a strong March with Wraith of the Iceni which I review in depth here. This more limited cast and pure historical worked well for me in terms of balance of performances and sheer story telling, something the TV series tends to overlook in its pursuit of visual treats. Louise Jameson is excellent as Leela throughout; December brought us the sublimely beautiful The Child which I am full of admiration for;
My introduction to the world of Jago & Litefoot began with the wonderful The Mahogany Murderers Companion Chronicle. This was fortunate as the CD Extras revealed that this was the seed for the spin-off series of which I bought Series 1 in a sale. This story grabbed me immediately and to think that it had been 32 years since Talons was amazing; series 1 led off with The Bloodless Soldier. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the (much more recent) Emerald Tiger though putting that to one side a triumph of an introduction with the continuation of Mahogany Murderers, some great music, Lisa Bowerman extending the range of Ellie and a solid play was made exceptional by the last few minutes and the actions (and performance) of Henry Gordon Jago; The Bellova Devil kept the standard high with its tantalising undead or fraud story line; the quality continued with The Spirit Trap which played to Jago’s character superbly with his intimate knowledge of theatre and thus seance fraud;
The Fifth Doctor shone with The Emerald Tiger Barnaby Edwards’ spiffing yarn in the style of Burroughs, Conan Doyle, Kipling and Verne that was both homage and great romp (review here). Contender for best release of the year; inevitably the trilogy ended with another equally strong (better?) tale in The Butcher of Brisbane which even had a fantastic sound track, along with clever plotting and a good set of quality performances (reviewed here); coming in September alongside the end of the Black & White trilogy The Burning Prince kept it simple and did it very well. the four story release 1,001 Nights was also very good and probably the best of the four story releases so far;
The Sixth Doctor kept the flag flying for March with Wirrn Isle which I pick up as part of my trilogy review here. Suffice it to say this was the strongest of the three releases; I immediately afterwards listened to Thicker than Water which I liked immensely - Mel slightly underused, great story for Evelyn and a lovely touch bringing in The Seventh Doctor; the Special Releases gave us the delights of Voyage to Venus a lovely tale that also featured Jago & Litefoot;
The Seventh Doctor began his trilogy with Protect and Survive which was fantastic for Sophie and Philip who got to really show off their skills in a story they dominated (Sylvester being away filming The Hobbit). I would have made it a contender for best of the year but it suffered from Sylvester being away and part III felt (to me) not as polished as the rest. A good start to the trilogy though; next up the multi-layered Black & White which gives us four companions, the story of the Black TARDIS and the set-up for the finale. Good interplay with Ace not liking Lysandra or Sally Morgan, the Beowulf story and much ‘I didn’t see that coming’; then we got Gods and Monsters which was a superb piece of work on many levels (trilogy review here); September was an awesome month, even Porject: Nirvana was a great piece of work; to top it all we then got the amazing UNIT: Dominion which gave us Klein, Raine and the skyheads; the Drashani Trilogy came to an end with with the creative explosion that was The Shadow Heart. There was much to enjoy here despite one or two minor moans;
The Eighth Doctor hit the nail on the head with Other Lives a great tail of dressing up, the Great Exhibition, humour and also some really dark scenes where C’rizz is held captive as a freak. Given my avoidance of the Divergent Universe and disappointment with the two previous of these tales this is a gem; the mighty Dark Eyes also hit several spots and bodes well for the future of this sequence.
The near misses
Blake’s 7 also gave us Solitary and Counterfeit in boxset 1. Of these the latter is the strongest story though for me it took a while to get going, Blake then really came to life and the twist with Travis was good. Solitary although I like Vila a lot I did find took its time and ended in the only place it could. It also felt like a very long story; boxset 2 contained The Magnificent Four a Cally story welcoming Jan Chappell to the range which on another day I might have put amongst the very best. This story really explores Avon through the eyes of another character who for a change isn’t Blake or Vila.
Despite the bonus of Servalan as played by Jacqueline Pearce in a psychologically interesting tale called Wolf which explored a lot of Servalan’s personality and as per the first story in boxset 2 this was once again through the eyes of Cally. For me this was difficult in that I couldn’t follow the narrative and the flashbacks well towards the end which caused me to lose the way;
The First Doctor appeared by proxy in Companion Chronicles The Transit of Venus which I rather enjoyed and reviewed here. Like Pirates this was a nautical tale penned by Jacqueline Rayner and apart from a slightly rushed ending was a decent tale of Cook’s voyage that led to his discovery of Botany Bay; The Time Museum (reviewed here) was a solid tale featuring Ian Chesterton originally intended to be released at the 50th anniversary and very nice it was too; Home Truths could have been excellent but in places this tale of beings from the underside of reality and plants controlling space ships seeding the universe with navigation beacons didn’t work perfectly; The Rocket Men is really good but for me was edged out of the upper echelons by the odd sequencing of the action which wasn’t easy to follow on audio;
The Second Doctor appeared courtesy of Zoe’s memories in The Uncertainty Principle a story that had strengths and weaknesses and the central part of it I thought worked well (sadly this is third in a run of Zoe stories I am doomed to hearing in reverse order; The Memory Cheats worked better than The Uncertainty Principle and here the strength was in Zoe’s character in the interrogation suite more than the embedded story. Worth noting that Wendy Padbury’s daughter plays the interrogator; Helicon Prime had a rather tame story hidden inside a great portrayal of the Doctor by Frazer Hines;
The Third Doctor was represented in The Many Deaths of Jo Grant which I review here. This tale from Mark Wright and Cavan Scott was nominated for an award and despite some obvious elements is a well told tale in which Ms Grant does indeed (as far as she is concerned) die 412 times! Obviously not the best way to spend your time at work; as Jo Grant was first up I will also credit Pertwee’s Doctor with Tales from the Vault which was better than I thought it might be part way through;
The Fourth Doctor kicked-off 2012 (and his time with Big Finish!) with Destination Nerva a tale that had a lot to recommend it (review here) with Tom closer to TV style rather than some of the AudioGo / Paul Magrs madness and Louise Jameson really capturing an early / naive Leela well. It also improved on a second listen; the arc also scored well with April’s Dalek romp Energy of the Daleks; the season ended with The Oseidon Adventure which became a bit of a farce (oh no, I’m an android!) but overall was a solid story that wrapped up the two parter (with some gaps); December’s subscriber bonus gave us Night of the Stormcrow which was very well put together and apart from some very slight gripes would have been up with the best!
The Fifth Doctor headed an amusing Short Trips in Lant Land a tale of virtual / nested realities that amused me with its calling Turlough Derek (you had to be there!); the main range trilogy continued strongly with The Jupiter Conjunction which was within a whisker of being great and let down only by a slight is Nyssa is dead oh no she isn’t ending, and a slight shame about Adric; I surprised myself by liking The Eye of the Scorpion in that Erimem isn’t anywhere as pompous and irritating as I found her in other tales and I thought both Peri having a free reign with the Doctor out of the picture and her growing friendship with Erimem worked well in a decent desert adventure romp. I eventually listened to the much rated Peri and the Piscon Paradox which I found a little dark for my tastes, though very well performed;
The Sixth Doctor began the main range with new companion Flip in The Curse of Davros a great tale that balanced history, drama and a level of tongue in cheek (review here); going back in time I listened to Cryptobiosis and enjoyed it. I thought the soundscape worked well, Nicola Bryant was in great form and ok it was obvious that Amy was a mermaid but so what this was a solid piece of work, and it was free! The Sandman was a decent enough tale, I thought the story attempted more than it achieved (the Clutch i.e. the rag-tag collection of ships didn’t work for me) but gave Evelyn a chance to see a new side of the Doctor; Medicinal Purposes I found to be a mixed bag: David Tennant was excellent but the story seemed clunky to me; The Acheron Pulse had good and bad bits and I felt there was a better story hidden away round the edges. I liked Voyage to the New World but had some problems with it;
The Seventh Doctor tale Live 34 impressed and apart from the slightly rushed ending would have been there amongst the greats; I quite liked The Shadow of the Scourge thought felt that Lisa Bowerman’s performance as Bernice Summerfield rather crowded out Ace. The plot also raced fantastically over two episodes, crammed in a whole releases worth of intrigue then for me floundered pretty much as the Doctor did when his plan fell apart; Dust Breeding didn’t work for me initially then improved a lot on the second disc. I might not have been helped by having just been reading Interference Pts 1&2 set on a planet called Dust and also there are elements of this that didn’t work well for me (e.g. the painting = super weapon);
The Eighth Doctor scored a big hit via the Companion Chronicles with the rock solid Solitaire which I reviewed here. Generally very well-regarded, I liked it but prefer other stories;
The rest
The First Doctor tale Mother Russia as narrated by Steven wasn’t that bad but I found it uneven so have relegated it to this category.
It isn’t awful by any means but it failed to grip me when I listened to it. Another listen might help but I have already too much backlog! Oh to be so cursed;
The Third Doctor suffered in a rare Short Trips appearance with Neptune a tale that was so (not-) gripping I fell asleep to it and was so uninspired by what I did hear that I didn’t bother giving it another go; the Companion Chronicle The Doll of Death had the makings of a good story (and it isn’t that bad) for me, though, it seemed over focussed on getting the complicated time-trickery to work over giving Katy a real chance to shine; I was also disappointed not to enjoy the Brigadier in Old Soldiers. I felt that he had too much of the narrative and the story (parachuting Doctor!) didn’t satisfy me;
The Fourth Doctor didn’t inspire me in Renaissance Man a tale with no actual problems it just didn’t excite me at all, sadly; the highly popular Trail of the White Worm didn’t leave a good impression despite many promising elements I just feel that Tom was allowed too much license to ham it up in a pantomime way. I reserve the right to change my mind when I listen again;
The Fifth Doctor’s Winter for the Adept left me cold, despite (or not helped by) India Fisher in her first BF role as Peril Bellamy (as near to Charley Pollard as makes no difference) and despite Andrew Cartmel being the writer. I found the tale stilted and the arguing between Nyssa and the Doctor wearing; not awful but Primeval I found lacking. The idea of the early days of Traken, the Source and the founding of the Keeper was ok, I thought Nyssa a bit better than normal but the effects on the villain Etrayk were odd and undermined the quality of Stephen Greif’s performance; as part of my completing the 1-50 range I eventually suffered the nasty, noisy confusion that is Nekromantia. I actually came out of this with more sympathy for Erimem (apart from her cat fixation - is this written for children?) but so much is wrong with this horrible story I don’t know where to begin;
The Sixth Doctor and Flip didn’t light my fire with The Fourth Wall (review here). It isn’t terrible and maybe belongs above but I found this self-indulgent. Flip was ‘killed’ very early so in her second adventure was off stage for half the story (luckily resurrected) and the only decent lines were then left to the fantasy villain. I think this was more fun for the writer and cast than it was for me; I also struggled with The Holy Terror which is widely regarded as a classic on the forums. For me I both don’t like the Frobisher Penguin concept (I have no read the comic strips in which he occurs) and also the plot although dark and comic in good mix rushed to its ending, I found the child killing uncomfortable and we never understood who Eugene had actually been nor why he ended up in the situations he was in as opposed to it happening to anyone else.
I also found …ish very mixed. I felt that Peri was excellent, the beginning tried to be too clever but it really got into its stride by part 3. The ending I felt lost the momentum and reminded me of The Word Lord which was of course produced after this. Not a terrible tale, just not the best; Pier Pressure (review here) felt to me as though the plot needed a polish. Much to recommend and certainly not terrible despite what you might read on the forums;
The Seventh Doctor won’t be very happy but The Rapture felt like a tale that had a better story hidden somewhere inside. Ace got some back story, everyone went clubbing and some generic aliens were threatening ‘young people’; all this plus a surreal usage of Tony Blackburn. I didn’t think it was awful (like some people) but it certainly could have been better; the Dark Flame didn’t set my world alight. It felt too crowded with both Benny and Ace fighting for air time in a story that had some really nice parts (the android) and some really obvious parts (the reveal that there was more than one cult member); now to be different - Love and War I thought was ok but nothing special. Spot someone who doesn’t know the Benny stories and found this difficult to follow though much better than other Benny + Ace stories in terms of the balance of characters; I also didn’t feel that Crime of the Century achieved much beyond introducing the wonderful Raine Creevy played by Beth Chalmers
The Eighth Doctor came roaring in with the awful Terror Firma; now I hadn’t heard any of the divergent universe and at first thought this sounded brilliant, sadly 8 billion Daleks, Davros in the TARDIS, memory wipe, metal covering of the planet and the mad party goers was just too much for me in the end and I regretted the £5 I spent on Davros Day; Scaredy Cat was better but still rather confused and unsatisfying for me with the Southampton Blue Tit and a rambling plot.
