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I recently picked up Volume 2 of The Tenth Doctor Adventures. I was scanning the front page of the Big Finish website and a bulletin popped up saying they still had some of the limited edition sets available and I thought "well, there's only 5,000 so I might as well. I'm curious how the Tenth Doctor is on audio anyway." The limited edition set is absolutely beautiful. Big Finish may charge extortionate prices, but they know how to cater to fans. Each box is numbered and mine was somewhere in the 4,000s so if you want to get one too there's probably still a few left.

I used to really dislike the Tenth Doctor, but I've warmed up to him a bit now. I think my previous dislike was just a reaction to everyone at the time saying he was the best Doctor ever. He'd probably still rank in the lower half of my list of my favourite Doctors, but I like him a lot more than I used to.

I haven't listened to the first volume of Tenth Doctor Adventures so this was my first rodeo with the Tenth Doctor on audio. Although not with David Tennant in a Big Finish production as he previously appeared (before he played the Tenth Doctor) in the Unbound stories Sympathy for the Devil as a foul-mouthed UNIT commander and Exile as one of a pair of bumbling time lord agents (a role I hope he reprises at some point because it was fucking hilarious).

I've only listened to the first story in the set so far, Infamy of the Zaross, which was pretty good. I still wish Tennant had kept his native Scottish accent for the Tenth Doctor (which we only got to see in "Tooth and Claw"), because I'm not a huge fan of the estuary accent he ended up using, but he's still able to comfortably slip back into the role of the Tenth Doctor.

Can't really say the same about Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. I was never a fan of the Rose character, but she can't even get the voice right. Maybe it sounds different on audio or maybe her voice has changed because she's older and has had two kids or maybe she was just phoning it in. Either way it just sounded... off.

I've also ordered The Time War series featuring the Eighth Doctor. The second boxset's coming out soon and features what looks like a future incarnation of the Eleven which was enough to convince me to get it then and there.
The Valeyard said:
Yep ... Big Finish recently released a 5-disc boxed set focused on Jenny (The Doctor's Daughter) which is also available in a bundle with an upcoming release based around Lady Christina (Planet of the Dead)
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See, I was joking about the Handles spin-off, but I actually liked Handles and wouldn't mind seeing a spin-off with him. Why the hell would you spin-off a series from two of the worst characters from two of the worst episodes in Doctor Who history?

I'm also amazed they haven't done a spin-off about the Paternoster gang. That one would be a no-brainer considering fans actually wanted it and Dan Starkey (Strax) does loads of work with Big Finish now.
 
TheImportantFart said:
I'm also amazed they haven't done a spin-off about the Paternoster gang. That one would be a no-brainer considering fans actually wanted it and Dan Starkey (Strax) does loads of work with Big Finish now.
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Worst part of that is we are now robbed of the inevitable full crossover between Jago and Litefoot and the Paternoster gang that would have come from it. (Strax actually DID cross over with Jago and Litefoot, oddly enough)
I don't actually *like* the paternoster gang- Vastra is a flat out hypocritical bitch most of the time, and Jenny and Strax are just obnoxious... but I'd never say no to more Jago and Litefoot.

By the way, I still think the "Jenny" in the paternoster gang is Jenny the doctors daughter.
 
Speaking of Jenny... If you consider yourself to be a fan of Disney's Star Wars (and Sony's Fembusters) then you'll probably *love* "Jenny - The Doctor's Daughter: Series 1."

For the rest of us...
Jenny's a bit of a Mary Sue, even compared to recent Mary Sues like Rey in Star Wars..

She is able to: Pilot pretty much any ship she comes across (including at least 2 completely different "super secret special ships with totally unique controls that noone else could ever figure out") within moments of entering them, beat an alien from a warrior race (who is implied to dwarf her in size and have super strength) in unarmed combat, because she is a "born soldier" (though she would NEVER kill anyone), and at one point she is able to cobble together an almost fully-functioning vortex manipulator out of scrap she had lying together in a matter of minutes while under attack by the main villain, because she "knew what one smelled like" (Or some other similar shit. I was too busy banging my head into the wall to remember the full details)... All of this while almost literally being "born yesterday"... A "joke" they make at every chance they can, because of course they do.

In contrast, her companion is dull as dishwater. His name is Noah, because he is from nowhere, get it? (If not, then you're probably a sexist, just saying) He doesn't know who he is or where he came from, and while it isn't especially a problem that they don't really find out the answers to all of those questions by the end of the box set, it *is* a problem that he fails to ever develop a personality of his own outside of saying: "____* (common thing everyone would know)... what's that?" and the inevitable, "_____** (totally obscure random thing noone would know) yeah I know what that is." (To which Jenny replies, "How do you know what ____** is when you don't even know what _____* is?"... seriously, they make this "joke" like 3 different times).

The stories in this set range from run of the mill but tolerable, to utter horse shit.
The third story "Neon Reign" is particularly bad... Jenny and her cardboard cutout of a companion go to a world where all (as in, it is stated that literally every single one) men are fat, lazy, and strung out on a poorly defined drug... while the women all work themselves to death and starvation.. (symbolism?) The best part, the villain of the piece- "The Dragon Lord" is a woman with daddy issues who presents as a man due to internalized misogyny (they never actually use those words, but it is *so* obvious that they wanted to. )

My favorite story of the set, (mostly by nature of it not doing anything particularly insidious in and of itself), was the second one: "Prisoner of the Ood". It's more or less a traditional base under siege story, despite the "base" being a random English neighborhood. It works, and dis actually have a twist that I legit did not see coming...

That twist being that the villain of the piece, whom they had set up as being male, and who had actually been voiced in what ended up being unreliable flashbacks as male (though I admit the justification for it here *totally* works) was actually a female all along... (Are you seeing a common pattern here? because I did...)

Actually, that's kind of a huge problem I had with this set. The bonus feature interviews claimed that the writers (ALL of them were men, if you were wondering) went out of their way to make as many of the villains that they could be female, because Jenny is a female, so she needs female villains...
Just like how the Doctor... download.jpg always... 9F2PpTWQ.jpg has..2W6RHVo8.jpgmale... tumblr_inline_mjgs0h3nsS1qz4rgp.jpgvillains... rani.jpg
This goes to the point where they apparently flipped the gender of the main villain of the set to be a female after writing it. It's a geriatric cyborg, the grandma-nator if you will. (Hilariously enough, they actually made a photoshop mockup of her for the cover.)
unnamed.jpg




In the bonus feature interviews, the entire cast and crew talk continuously about how "funny" Jenny is... It's literally the "women are funny" argument taken into overdrive... In the story, Jenny herself even insists to Noah (who reacted like a cardboard cutout... perhaps appropriately for once...) that she *is* funny after making a quip that really wasn't particularly funny.

Staying with the bonus feature interviews, as they were really the most insipid part of the lot, it really seems like they were *really* pushing to make this box set be the "See?, Doctor Who works when the main character has a vagina!: Series 1..."

Even though at this point we have now had: at least 3 different attempts at a Sarah Jane Smith spinoff... (One of them with Big Finish themselves), "Gallifrey", Arguably Torchwood, 3 entire River Song box sets (with at least 2 more scheduled for imminent release), and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting. Point being, this is not a new concept, and it has been done before WAAAY better already.

One thing I guess I want to make clear. Georgia Tennant isn't *really* the problem here, it's clear that she's performing the part she has been given to the best of her abilities... It's a shame that the writing really isn't up to par, and they were really trying to push social issues far more than they were trying to tell decent stories...

Probably the most interesting part of the story was a blink and you'll miss it cameo from the 10th Doctor after the end credits of the last story
(Side note: dialogue after the end credits in a medium like audio is particularly shitty. Most people, myself included, are going to stop an audio at the point of an end credits theme that they've already heard multiple times before. It was only random chance I even heard this tbh)
where he *just* missed crossing paths with Jenny- And if that ends with a re-meeting up between 10 and Jenny at a future date, that could be cool.. But I somehow doubt it.
My rating: 4/10
 
Time War series 1 arrived this week and I've listened to the first three stories. Pretty good so far, but I think you're supposed to have listened to the War Doctor audios to properly appreciate certain plot points since the Eighth Doctor stories are meant to be prequels.

I will say it's nice for the Eighth Doctor to have a decent theme on audio for a change (even if it's just a reuse of the War Doctor theme). The Eighth Doctor theme from the TV Movie is my favourite of Doctor Who theme of all time:


But for the Big Finish audios we got... this:


Which is okay, but it's just too quiet and subdued to be genuinely exciting. It's leagues better than this piece of shit though:


Quite why Nicholas Briggs thought it was acceptable to layer the First Doctor's theme over the Third Doctor's and call it a day I'll never know. It sounds cheap and lazy, which is what it is.

After that we got this, which starts off well but then speeds off the rails. At least this one had some effort put into it:


But in terms of Big Finish Doctor themes, none of those are as good as this:

 
UnKillFill said:
boxset sucked because they ate the kewl-aids
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evidently I was right to skip this

this has me worried for the lady christina boxset

i never saw the doctor's daughter but i did see planet of the dead

someone on the not the big finish forums suggested an idea among others where christina meets the fourth doctor, which would give a double meaning to Ten's line about them being a great team

idk how you feel about that

it's starting to look like @Judge Holdek was right all along
 
Mr. 0 said:
someone on the not the big finish forums suggested an idea among others where christina meets the fourth doctor, which would give a double meaning to Ten's line about them being a great team

idk how you feel about that
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I don't have any strong feelings about that (or indeed anything about Tennant's final partial season). I don't think Christina was a particularly memorable character, but I'll probably check out the box set anyways.



Mr. 0 said:
it's starting to look like @Judge Holdek was right all along
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Not sure specifically what you're talking about here.
 
So I recently got a chance to listen to all three of the currently released "Diary of River Song" Boxsets...

I know I've previously stated that I didn't much care for the character of River Song, but these box sets have pretty much completely changed my opinion of her... (I still hope she never shows up again on the show, especially with Jodie Foster(lol) as the new Doctor... Wouldn't make sense with how amazed she was at seeing Capaldi, and "The Husbands of River Song" really *has* to be the the last time River saw the Doctor before Silence in the Library...)

Unlike previous "reviews" I've given here, I'm not going to go into *too* many details, other than saying check these out if you're on the fence... It's still gonna be pretty fucking long as it's 3 entire box sets...
The gimmick for each of these box sets is that in each one, River interacts with a previous incarnation of the Doctor in some way. The general conceit that River *can't* meet any Doctors before 10 isn't necessarily one I agree with, (Who says 10 was telling the truth when he said he never met River before? Rule 1, the Doctor lies.) But it is handled well enough... usually (but *not* always) with River blanking the Doctor's memory after the end. (And every time that actually happens, it's handled better than you'd think)

River's interactions with the classic Doctors are very often highlights of the boxsets, some of them are actually quite surprising.
8 views her as a knowledgeable colleague (and never actually meets her *here* [he actually meets her in person *earlier* in the Doom Coalition, but she has some contrivance as to why he wouldn't recognize her]), 7 (rightfully) views her with an air of distrust, 5 basically takes her on board as a companion for a bit, and most surprisingly (if you know Sixie at all) 6 pretty much falls head over heels for her. I'm actually amazed at how ok I am with that... the way it's handled is *typical* Sixie though, and that helps. (Also, she legit loves his fucking terrible-ass jacket... lol)

Anyways, here's a generic breakdown by the box set.

Series 1- This set relies on the Doctor far less than than the next 2 will, which is actually somewhat admirable... (Though it is my least favorite of the three, so it's debatable how good of a decision that really was) River actually spends more time with a *fake* doctor, and a LOT more time with a fake out companion/villain than she does with 8 (who's basically a glorified cameo in the final episode). It's not a bad thing, and it gives River a chance to stand on her own. I didn't especially dislike any of the stories in this set, but there really was no standout episode either.
Overall- This boxset had the unenviable task of making a fairly unlikable (in my opinion) character into something softer. It doesn't *quite* get there... She is a complete bitch to pretty much everyone she meets in the first 2 episodes, and that is *typical* TV River as far as I'm concerned... but she *does* soften up in the other 2 episodes, and that was enough to convince me to dig into the rest of the series, and I'm glad I did because it's all uphill from here.

Series 2 - I'm always happy to see Sixie in action and 7 comes along for good measure.
7 shows up in the first episode, 6 shows up in the third, then they "team up" with River in the final episode. (It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but *spoilers*) Really the only episode I didn't like much was Episode 2, "Five Twenty-Nine" It wasn't a bad story... But one of the characters (played by Alex Kingston's real life daughter) is just awful in it. She's playing a robot, but she doesn't *sound* like a robot... she sounds like a person *playing* a robot if that makes sense, and it's enough to drag the episode down a lot.
My favorite episode of the set was Episode 3: "World Enough and Time". Sixie and River are absolutely adorable together (and I threw up a little in my mouth typing that) but they really do have great chemistry with eachother. The story was also really funny, if not wholly original... placing the 6th Doctor into an office setting (not unlike in "Big Finish 48 - Davros"), but it's still a great idea, and covers entirely different ground.
Episode 4 "The Eye of the Storm" is a de facto team up of 6 and 7 (though they don't spend much time together) with river. They've met before previously (in the Big finish 50th I believe) and I *love* how much they hate eachother. It was also a really good story.

Series 3 (surprisingly) was my favorite boxset of the three, despite featuring my least favorite Doctor (5). I don't want to spoil much of this to be honest... It's hard hitting, and IMHO there isn't a bad episode in the bunch.

It starts strong, and expands both River's and the show itself's chronology. (We *finally* find out what *actually* happened to Madam Kovarian after Demon's run.)
River and 5 get along well enough, but I honestly don't have much else to say about them... (It's not the reason I love this set so much). I *do* love the stories in it...
Episode 1 - "The Lady in the Lake" I'm not going to spoil this (aside from saying it has nothing at all to do with King Arthur, as you might guess from the title... which in retrospect, is actually kind of a spoiler lol), but there was a lot to love in this episode, including a twist I legit did not see coming... and I'm always happy when that happens.
Episode 2 - "A Requiem for the Doctor" was probably the weakest of the bunch for me, but I still thought it was really good. It showed for once what would happen if River traveled as an actual companion with the Doctor. Weirdly, despite Amadeus Mozart being a part of this episode, he has almost nothing to do with it...
Episode 3 "My Dinner with Andrew" is batshit insane, and I absolutely *love* it for that. It's actually in the running to be my favorite BF episode I've heard this year. Its only real competition so far is "Jago and Litefoot Forever"... (Which tbh it probably loses to on principle, though there's no shame in that) It's timey-wimey madness done excellently, and I won't say a word more.
Episode 4 "The Furies" Is a satisfying end to an excellent boxset. Kovarian is a MUCH better villain on audio than I remember her ever being on the show proper. This episode also really delves into why River is as fucked up as she is. (which was VERY welcome to me. This is probably the straw that broke the camel's back in me no longer disliking River.)

The one thing in these box sets that was surprising by it's absence (especially considering the recent "Jenny: The Doctor's Daughter"), was social justard bullshit. The only place I *really* heard it was in the bonus feature interviews, particularly in series three, where they broke their arms patting themselves on the backs for having "both strong female protagonists and antagonists"- It really has to be said that EVERY SINGLE episode, except one (the very first episode in Series one) was written by a man, and the director for the lot of them was a man as well.

I have to say, I am somewhat worried about the future of this series... an episode of the upcoming Series 5 will apparently be called "The Bekdel Test." (And yes, it was also written by a man, why do you ask?) Series 4 though will have River meet the 4th Doctor, and I admit I am curious to see how that goes down. (Hell, SJW politics aside, Series 5 will apparently see the return of The Eric Roberts Master... I am STILL planning on getting that boxset just to see how the hell they explain *that* nonsense.)
 
UnKillFill said:
So I recently got a chance to listen to all three of the currently released "Diary of River Song" Boxsets...

I know I've previously stated that I didn't much care for the character of River Song, but these box sets have pretty much completely changed my opinion of her... (I still hope she never shows up again on the show, especially with Jodie Foster(lol) as the new Doctor... Wouldn't make sense with how amazed she was at seeing Capaldi, and "The Husbands of River Song" really *has* to be the the last time River saw the Doctor before Silence in the Library...)

Unlike previous "reviews" I've given here, I'm not going to go into *too* many details, other than saying check these out if you're on the fence... It's still gonna be pretty fucking long as it's 3 entire box sets...
The gimmick for each of these box sets is that in each one, River interacts with a previous incarnation of the Doctor in some way. The general conceit that River *can't* meet any Doctors before 10 isn't necessarily one I agree with, (Who says 10 was telling the truth when he said he never met River before? Rule 1, the Doctor lies.) But it is handled well enough... usually (but *not* always) with River blanking the Doctor's memory after the end. (And every time that actually happens, it's handled better than you'd think)

River's interactions with the classic Doctors are very often highlights of the boxsets, some of them are actually quite surprising.
8 views her as a knowledgeable colleague (and never actually meets her *here* [he actually meets her in person *earlier* in the Doom Coalition, but she has some contrivance as to why he wouldn't recognize her]), 7 (rightfully) views her with an air of distrust, 5 basically takes her on board as a companion for a bit, and most surprisingly (if you know Sixie at all) 6 pretty much falls head over heels for her. I'm actually amazed at how ok I am with that... the way it's handled is *typical* Sixie though, and that helps. (Also, she legit loves his fucking terrible-ass jacket... lol)

Anyways, here's a generic breakdown by the box set.

Series 1- This set relies on the Doctor far less than than the next 2 will, which is actually somewhat admirable... (Though it is my least favorite of the three, so it's debatable how good of a decision that really was) River actually spends more time with a *fake* doctor, and a LOT more time with a fake out companion/villain than she does with 8 (who's basically a glorified cameo in the final episode). It's not a bad thing, and it gives River a chance to stand on her own. I didn't especially dislike any of the stories in this set, but there really was no standout episode either.
Overall- This boxset had the unenviable task of making a fairly unlikable (in my opinion) character into something softer. It doesn't *quite* get there... She is a complete bitch to pretty much everyone she meets in the first 2 episodes, and that is *typical* TV River as far as I'm concerned... but she *does* soften up in the other 2 episodes, and that was enough to convince me to dig into the rest of the series, and I'm glad I did because it's all uphill from here.

Series 2 - I'm always happy to see Sixie in action and 7 comes along for good measure.
7 shows up in the first episode, 6 shows up in the third, then they "team up" with River in the final episode. (It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but *spoilers*) Really the only episode I didn't like much was Episode 2, "Five Twenty-Nine" It wasn't a bad story... But one of the characters (played by Alex Kingston's real life daughter) is just awful in it. She's playing a robot, but she doesn't *sound* like a robot... she sounds like a person *playing* a robot if that makes sense, and it's enough to drag the episode down a lot.
My favorite episode of the set was Episode 3: "World Enough and Time". Sixie and River are absolutely adorable together (and I threw up a little in my mouth typing that) but they really do have great chemistry with eachother. The story was also really funny, if not wholly original... placing the 6th Doctor into an office setting (not unlike in "Big Finish 48 - Davros"), but it's still a great idea, and covers entirely different ground.
Episode 4 "The Eye of the Storm" is a de facto team up of 6 and 7 (though they don't spend much time together) with river. They've met before previously (in the Big finish 50th I believe) and I *love* how much they hate eachother. It was also a really good story.

Series 3 (surprisingly) was my favorite boxset of the three, despite featuring my least favorite Doctor (5). I don't want to spoil much of this to be honest... It's hard hitting, and IMHO there isn't a bad episode in the bunch.

It starts strong, and expands both River's and the show itself's chronology. (We *finally* find out what *actually* happened to Madam Kovarian after Demon's run.)
River and 5 get along well enough, but I honestly don't have much else to say about them... (It's not the reason I love this set so much). I *do* love the stories in it...
Episode 1 - "The Lady in the Lake" I'm not going to spoil this (aside from saying it has nothing at all to do with King Arthur, as you might guess from the title... which in retrospect, is actually kind of a spoiler lol), but there was a lot to love in this episode, including a twist I legit did not see coming... and I'm always happy when that happens.
Episode 2 - "A Requiem for the Doctor" was probably the weakest of the bunch for me, but I still thought it was really good. It showed for once what would happen if River traveled as an actual companion with the Doctor. Weirdly, despite Amadeus Mozart being a part of this episode, he has almost nothing to do with it...
Episode 3 "My Dinner with Andrew" is batshit insane, and I absolutely *love* it for that. It's actually in the running to be my favorite BF episode I've heard this year. Its only real competition so far is "Jago and Litefoot Forever"... (Which tbh it probably loses to on principle, though there's no shame in that) It's timey-wimey madness done excellently, and I won't say a word more.
Episode 4 "The Furies" Is a satisfying end to an excellent boxset. Kovarian is a MUCH better villain on audio than I remember her ever being on the show proper. This episode also really delves into why River is as fucked up as she is. (which was VERY welcome to me. This is probably the straw that broke the camel's back in me no longer disliking River.)

The one thing in these box sets that was surprising by it's absence (especially considering the recent "Jenny: The Doctor's Daughter"), was social justard bullshit. The only place I *really* heard it was in the bonus feature interviews, particularly in series three, where they broke their arms patting themselves on the backs for having "both strong female protagonists and antagonists"- It really has to be said that EVERY SINGLE episode, except one (the very first episode in Series one) was written by a man, and the director for the lot of them was a man as well.

I have to say, I am somewhat worried about the future of this series... an episode of the upcoming Series 5 will apparently be called "The Bekdel Test." (And yes, it was also written by a man, why do you ask?) Series 4 though will have River meet the 4th Doctor, and I admit I am curious to see how that goes down. (Hell, SJW politics aside, Series 5 will apparently see the return of The Eric Roberts Master... I am STILL planning on getting that boxset just to see how the hell they explain *that* nonsense.)
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I noticed from Doom Coalition that Big Finish handle River Song a hell of a lot better than Moffat did towards the end. I've wanted to check out The Diary of River Song, but the boxsets are really expensive and unlike with other releases, Big Finish don't allow you to buy them all in a bundle to make things cheaper (although if that's changed let me know), so I'm holding off for now.
 
TheImportantFart said:
I noticed from Doom Coalition that Big Finish handle River Song a hell of a lot better than Moffat did towards the end. I've wanted to check out The Diary of River Song, but the boxsets are really expensive and unlike with other releases, Big Finish don't allow you to buy them all in a bundle to make things cheaper (although if that's changed let me know), so I'm holding off for now.
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There does appear to be series 1-3 download bundle for $60 USD (Each one is $30 USD on its own) it's obviously more for the physical editions.
 
TheImportantFart said:
So there is.

Welp, I know what my next purchase is.
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Lol... let me know how you agree, and especially disagree with me. I haven't really heard any other opinions on River's boxsets, so mine are in a vacuum....
 
TheImportantFart said:
What am I looking at?
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A leaked screen shot of Jodie Whitaker's Doctor wearing derpy goggles that make the sonic shades look subtle... and staring, mouth agape, at what appears to be her new sonic dildo screwdriver.
 
UnKillFill said:
A leaked screen shot of Jodie Whitaker's Doctor wearing derpy goggles that make the sonic shades look subtle... and staring, mouth agape, at what appears to be her new sonic dildo screwdriver.
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The sonic shades were actually Capaldi's idea not Moffat's.
 
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