Doctor Who (Doo wee wooo)

[The Mask]

This season has been so refreshingly good after the nightmare that was Capaldi

Spoiler

It's crazy right Jett? I'm pretty certain that the Doctor is the Timeless Child. I have a feeling it's gonna have something to do with infinite regeneration or something similar that lets them keep the series going. It's an interesting story. Also curious to see what happens to Gallifrey now

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[Jetthebinturong]

For me Capaldi was the best dream ever. Series 11 was the- not quite a nightmare... grey, boring dream. But this series is a marked improvement.

Spoiler

I think that's what it will be, but I hope it isn't.

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[Jetthebinturong]

So I'm just dropping here that I've started to plan a Doctor Who fanfic series. This will be pretty new Who-ish in style, with around thirteen distinct "episodes" per series. It won't be following any already-existing characters, unless they appear as guest stars. It will follow a new Doctor with a new companion, new TARDIS, new sonic screwdriver, etc. I'm not sure how many series I will end up doing - I have ideas for multiple Doctors, but I don't even have enough ideas for one full series yet.

I have outlined the first chapter of the first "episode," if anyone's interested in reading it.

[Jarky Thistlebrush]

This sounds really cool! I'd definitely be interested in reading it. Will it be in script format, or just normal book style?

[Jetthebinturong]

It would be in regular prose format. I guess they'd be about novella-length, since 45 minutes would seem to translate to about 80-100 A5 pages, judging by the classic Who books I have. Of course I'm not gonna limit or stretch the story to fit an arbitrary runtime, since it will never appear on TV and there's no point to that, but I think each story will generally follow the structure of a standard new Who episode.

I've actually come up with concepts for all 13 stories of my first "season" and just finished outlining the second chapter of the first "episode" so I'm making fast progress with the planning. Hopefully the writing itself will be just as fast.

Here are some tentative titles for the stories:
Episode 1: The Trade
Episode 2: The Red Viper
Episode 3: Pride
Episode 4: The Wreck
Episode 5: [Something] Pass
Episode 6: The Temple in the Lake
Episode 7: The Wrath of [Something]
Episode 8: Beneath the Surface
Episode 9: The Survivor
Episode 10: (Okay I lied, I don't have a name for this one yet)
Episode 11: To the Bone
Episode 12: Radiance
Episode 13: Barren

The reason episode 10 doesn't have a title yet is because To the Bone was originally a two-part story, with the first part being called Cold Comfort, but I felt like I needed more stories to make the development I intend to happen believable. I only just came up with the new episode 10 idea.

I actually ended up with more ideas than I needed, so a few of them have been shunted into the second "season." I might have my big finale idea shunted into "season 3" though.

[Jarky Thistlebrush]

Sounds really cool.
I was once considering writing something similar, I had even started the first episode-y thing... But then I had an idea for an original novel and it all kinda got scrapped.

[Jetthebinturong]

Haven't been online in a while, but I'm just dropping in to say I've started listening to the Big Finish audios. The first 50 (I think) stories are free on Spotify, so I've been listening to the main range. I've listened to two stories so far.

THE SIRENS OF TIME: A multi-Doctor story featuring Five, Six and Seven. ... It was okay? Sylvester McCoy's voice acting is a little off, the side-characters are uninteresting, and the ending is anticlimactic. I did love the interplay of the three Doctors, they bounce off each other quite well. The plot was fairly interesting, and they managed to create some tense and exciting scenes - mainly in the Fifth Doctor's strand of the story. It's also like really low on worldbuilding. Which is a problem because it attempts to introduce all these high concept elements, and also a side-character with loads of history, but we understand nothing about any of them. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't a strong first showing for BF. I'd give it maybe a 5.75/10?

PHANTASMAGORIA: A Five and Turlough story. Very interesting plot with some entertaining characters and interesting ideas. Some quite weird moments though, and a couple of unnecessary characters whose only purpose is to reveal a twist to the audience earlier than the later reveal to the main characters, which would have been more impactful. I also wasn't a great fan of Mark Strickson's voice acting, and Turlough's characterisation seemed a bit off to me. I did like the way they portrayed the relationship between him and the Doctor, as there's only really one story on TV with the two of them alone together, and this fleshes out their dynamic a bit more. It also provided me with some shipping fuel, but, you know, that's not a thing most people care about. I think I'd give it a 6.75/10

WHISPERS OF TERROR: This is a Six and Peri story, and though I'm aware that Big Finish tried to redeem Six in their later audios, in this he was as insufferable as he's ever been. Worse than he ever was on TV, imo. The story itself was quite interesting, but it was a simple story that was very dragged out. It had a couple of interesting characters, notably Visteen Krane, and some clever twists, but was mostly just okay. The main plot twist is super obvious but it takes the main characters so long to work out it's ridiculous. It tried to be the first audio story to play with the idea of audio as a medium, but I don't think it quite succeeded in doing that. Overall it was just okay. 6/10

Big Finish is not showing itself as a strong force yet. I hope it improves, given its awesome re##:1055tion in the fandom.

THE LAND OF THE DEAD: A Fifth Doctor and Nyssa story, which on the offset makes me apprehensive, because imo Nyssa is the least interesting companion in Doctor Who - a whole lot of wasted potential. But in this she was pretty good. In fact this was the best Big Finish story so far, imo. Still not great, which it honestly could have been, but good. The main problem with it is that towards the end it just becomes super dragged out and kind of boring. The first few parts are some tense, exciting horror with some really interesting and enjoyable side characters. And the Doctor was written brilliantly - I loved the dialogue in this story. But when the mystery starts to unravel I just find the explanation to be slightly ridiculous, and the writing gets a bit weird with Monica in the final part where instead of acting scared in this life or death situation which has been terrifying her up to this point, she starts quipping and acting kind of blase about it. There was a bit of poor voice acting too - namely Andrew Fettes as Gaborik. And then there was that random hint at a romance between two of the characters at the end, which hadn't been previously developed in the story at all. Overall it was just a good story, 7/10

THE FEARMONGER: A Seven and Ace story, which is automatically a good sign. Once again though, Sylvester McCoy had some moments of poor voice acting. The exploration of the relationship between Ace and the Doctor is brilliant, and goes some interesting places. The plot itself was interesting and unfolded very nicely with some interesting twists. The characters were well-drawn, and well-voiced. However it sort of stumbles with the themes. What it says about fear is very accurate. But what it says about racism is sort of undercut by the fact that we never actually hear a speech from Sherilyn Harper, the audio always fades out before she actually says anything specific. So the commentary on racism kinda just ends up being generic stuff like "racism is bad and is inspired by irrational fear." Though it has some nice commentary on the role reactionary politics has in stoking those fears. The worldbuilding is also pretty poor as a result. We can surmise this is a near-ish future Britain, but what's actually going on in regards to the sociopolitical atmosphere of the time is very unclear. There are some vague lines about anti-immigration policies, and more importantly, ethnic cleansing. The latter of which seems like a big deal the story should address and not just gloss over. The final scene is really weird too - it seems to completely undercut the story because Mick hasn't learnt anything. Maybe this is part of the pessimistic attitude towards the idea of change that Ace espouses. The story also feels like it starts in the middle - you're just sorta thrown into the action without understanding what's actually going on. It's pretty disorienting. Overall it's pretty good, probably the best story so far, but the flaws are pretty glaring. 7.5/10

THE MARIAN CONSPIRACY: A Sixth Doctor and... Evelyn story? Who the heck is Evelyn? Of course I'm being facetious, I knew about Evelyn a long time before ever starting Big Finish. For those not in the know, Doctor Evelyn Smythe is the first ever companion to be introduced in the audios. She's a 55 year-old History professor. So, you know, not the common companion template. And she's awesome. Her chemistry with the Sixth Doctor is incredible, and she's just such a fun character in general. Her excitement at being able to interact with the history she's dedicated her life to is just great. The Doctor himself was also very endearing and charming in this story. The plot was simple, but effective and well-written, and some of the side-characters were quite endearing. It was also an interesting look at Queen Mary, which portrayed her accurately without turning her into this complete monster. That said, I do think the Doctor was a bit too sympathetic to her. Overall I'd say that this is the first genuinely great Big Finish story, mostly because of Evelyn, and I'd give it an 8.5/10.

THE GENOCIDE MACHINE: Wow this story is really clever at subverting your expectations from the title and cover. I think I'm firmly into the era where Big Finish have hit their stride, and begun experimenting with the creative and brilliant ideas they're reputed for. And quite frankly, I'm shocked it happened so early. This is a Seven and Ace story, a point in its favour, and Sophie Aldred really gets a lot to do as Ace, for a variety of reasons. That said, the true stand out is Sylvester McCoy - he still has some moments of unconvincing acting but my god he brought his A-game to this performance. I really wasn't feeling this story for a long time - Elgin is an annoying character, the running joke of Prink not speaking was both painfully unfunny, and a lot of the time an inappropriate tone to take for the circumstances - but there's a shift partway through where this story just becomes brilliant. The ideas it plays with are incredibly imaginative, and Elgin proves his worth to the story eventually. It is a little difficult to follow though, and I did have to look at the wiki plot summary to clarify the things I didn't understand. That said, still an incredibly strong story, 8.5/10.

RED DAWN: Listened to the next Big Finish audio, Red Dawn. It's a Five and Peri story, which means I'm reluctant to consider it part of my own personal Doctor Who canon. For those not in the know, Five and Peri only had two stories together on-screen. The first was when they met, the second was Five's regeneration story. I find the latter much more impactful if Peri is some random person the Doctor has just met and barely knows, than if they've gone on hundreds of adventures together. It's a shame though, because this story is damn good. It's also an Ice Warrior story, and the Ice Warriors are one of my favourite Doctor Who species. This story definitely does not disappoint with their portrayal. Something I have to note immediately is that I absolutely love the music for this story. It's not something I've noticed in previous stories, but in this one it's great. The characters are pretty regular stock archetypes of a classic Doctor Who story, but one in particular is a very well-written version of his archetype, and a very compelling character in his own right. The voice acting was a little spotty in places, but the aforementioned character was always voiced perfectly. The story is tense and exciting with a brilliant climax. Something interesting is that the Doctor and Peri barely do anything in this story, for the most part they are carried by the movements of the side-characters. It's an interesting thing that rarely happens in Doctor Who. The story itself was basic, but tense and exciting, and the climax was absolutely brilliant. It has a couple of ideas that are just sort of tossed in there though. Overall this is a basic classic Doctor Who story, but it is a very strong execution of a basic classic Doctor Who story, and I loved it. 7.75/10

THE SPECTRE OF LANYON MOOR: It was a Six and Evelyn story, which was a nice surprise because they haven't put Evelyn on the cover art yet, but it also heavily features the Brigadier. Unfortunately, it was just an okay story. The plot was pretty decent, with some interesting characters and some bizarre ones. Most of the twists were predictable, but there was one that was really shocking. There were some really unnecessary bits of the plot that felt like they were just there to be a bit edgy, which I didn't like. Big Finish kind of has a problem with that, as well as with purely evil villains. I found a lot of the voice acting to be extremely annoying. I already love Six and Evelyn's relationship - the way she confronts him and grounds him is really interesting and it's just nice to hear about. The Brigadier was a fun presence, even if he didn't add too much to the story. And the finale was pretty anti-climactic as well as a bit dragged out. As a nice note, this story did teach me a lot I didn't know about aspects of British history and ancient structures I hadn't heard of. 6.5/10

WINTER FOR THE ADEPT: A Five and Nyssa story, which as I've said before is not my favourite combination. And this story was just boring. All of the side-characters were super annoying, the mystery wasn't intriguing, and the plot was dull and had way too many ideas that it didn't have time to explore properly. At least it was well acted and the plot was coherent, though it was basically an exposition relay race. 4/10.

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

'appy Doctor Vho Day, everybeazt! 60th anniverzary!

[laland]

I'm watching season 2 right now. Awesome show