The title may not be snappy but this is something I have been toying with for a while. It’s a quick list of the first fifty Big Finish main range titles and my own views of what are the titles you might want to collect first. Given the news of the new pricing I thought I would produce this to give any newcomers to Big Finish some sense of where they might like to invest first. Don’t forget the prices will never go up so why not bookmark this post and refer back to it whenever you feel like investing?

Rating the main range

My definitions are:

• Classic – must have, great stories
• Essential – you need this to follow a story arc, or for some other reason
• Good – the best stories
• Interesting – this has one or more features that make it worth listening to

The first fifty

Release	Title	Guide	Notes
1	The Sirens of Time	Essential	Surely you must have the first release?!
2	Phantasmagoria	Good	The main range quickly finds its feet
3	Whispers of Terror	Interesting	Already Big Finish show that they are serious. Lisa Bowerman is a star
4	The Land of the Dead
5	The Fearmonger	Good	A powerful story with Jacqueline Pearce
6	The Marian Conspiracy	Essential	The first appearance of Evelyn!
7	The Genocide Machine	Interesting	First Dalek story and part of a mini-arc
8	Red Dawn	Interesting	Sets out part of the Big Finish Ice Warrior mythos
9	The Spectre of Lanyon Moor	Good	The Brigadier and Evelyn with a great supporting cast
10	Winter for the Adept
11	The Apocalypse Element	Good / interesting	Lalla Ward and more of the Dalek mini-arc
12	The Fires of Vulcan	Interesting	Say hi to Melanie Bush
13	The Shadow of the Scourge	Interesting	A Benny cross-over story
14	The Holy Terror	Interesting	One for Frobisher fans
15	The Mutant Phase	Interesting	A re-worked AudioVisual tale and part of the Dalek mini-arc
16	Storm Warning	Essential	The Eighth Doctor joins the party and we meet Charley
17	Sword of Orion	Classic	Cybermen and a wonderful re-telling of an AudioVisual classic
18	The Stones of Venice
19	Minuet in Hell	Interesting	The Brigadier and a re-work of an AudioVisuals tale
20	Loups-Garoux	Good	This one lingers long in the memory
21	Dust Breeding
22	Bloodtide
23	Project: Twilight	Essential	Introducing The Forge and (indirectly) Hex
24	The Eye of the Scorpion	Interesting	The introduction of Erimem
25	Colditz	Classic	The introduction of Klein and David Tennant!
26	Primeval
27	The One Doctor	Interesting / Good	Humorous but not to everyone’s taste
28	Invaders from Mars
29	The Chimes of Midnight	Classic	A ghost story for the Eighth Doctor and Charley
30	Seasons of Fear	Good	A New Year’s feast of adventure
31	Embrace the Darkness	Interesting	An odd but well told story
32	The Time of the Daleks	Interesting	A Dalek story that doesn’t really work but is part of the mini-arc
33	Neverland	Essential	A key part of the early Charley arc
34	Spare Parts	Classic	Beware the Cybermen!
35	…ish
36	The Rapture	Interesting	Back story for Ace and Tony Blackburn!
37	The Sandman	Interesting	The dark side of the Sixth Doctor
38	The Church and the Crown	Good	Fun with Peri in the Paris of Dumas
39	Bang-Bang-a-Boom!
40	Jubilee	Classic	The Dalek story that went on to TV
41	Nekromanteia
42	The Dark Flame
43	Doctor Who and the Pirates	Classic	Singing and emotion in a finely wrought piece of genius
44	Creatures of Beauty	Interesting	An odd tale that plays with the form
45	Project: Lazarus	Essential	The Forge arc continues
46	Flip-Flop	Interesting	We meet the Slithergees in this clever tale that can be listened to out of order
47	Omega	Interesting	Guess who?
48	Davros	Interesting	And guess who again?!
49	Master	Interesting	Does what it says in the title!
50	Zagreus	Classic / Good / Interesting / Mad	Zagreus sits inside your head…