vivdunstan

I've been continuing to slowly rewatch the early Peter Capaldi incarnation stories. But not feeling the urge to blog about them individually. And also, frankly, struggling to keep watching fully through many of them.

I find this early stage of his Doctor so phenomenally unlikeable. I watch it for Clara, not the Doctor. And then I constantly wonder why she sticks with him. I'm used to post regeneration trauma and all. And, hey, I watched through the Sixth Doctor stories 40 years ago. But I don't have the patience for it this time. And I'm finding it a particularly difficult set of stories to rewatch.

Against that Peter Capaldi's casting was one of the most exciting for me in Doctor Who ever. And he would go on to be superb in the ninth season, with the Doctor's character and relationship with the companion heavily reworked. But I struggle to rewatch much of season 8. I still think it was a fundamental mistake in approach by Steven Moffat.

Yet there are some absolute standout classics even in this year. "Listen" and "Flatline" are both superb. And I have a really soft spot for "Mummy On The Orient Express", despite the Doctor/companion extreme angst.

But, yup, not a happy fan rewatching at the moment. It's just as well I'm enjoying the Fifteenth Doctor's new stories on TV so very much!

On to the Twelfth Doctor era. I'm going to dissect this episode quite a bit so best put things behind a spoiler cut. ( spoiler space )

Continuing on with these, and it's another other trip away from the Collection, with Benny requested to retrieve an archaeological artefact for one group of aliens from another set of aliens. And quickly finds herself involved in strange goings on. Albeit with an unexpected hanger on ...

This story is a prequel to the Big Finish Doctor Who (Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor) story The Sandman. Which I haven't heard yet, but was ok about. Since this time I'm dealing with a prequel not a sequel, I'm not missing out on masses of back story.

Where I did struggle was visualising the aliens. The cover image helps. And voices of non human characters are clearly differentiated, and comprehensible. But I wanted to "see" more, if that makes sense?

Benny has a quasi companion in this, a human space gypsy type character, who rather amusingly is acted by Benny actress Lisa Bowerman's brother Robin. Their voices do sound quite similar at times! He was an interesting character, and does return (or previously had appeared, depending on which chronology you are looking at) in The Sandman story.

It's another story where Benny's status as a mother is important, because in this one a young alien creature latches on to her, with devastating consequences. Here things got harder to follow, with often very incomprehensible audio. This section also felt overly stretched. The whole audio was over 70 minutes long and I think could have been edited down more effectively to 60 minutes.

The ending is a mixed bag, not entirely happy. But it does end with a rather nice scene in a bar. With drinks.

So yes, an ok one. Some good points. But not stellar.

Cover of Bernice Summerfield and the Bone of Contention

Continuing my Benny audio listen, and taking a slight detour from the official Big Finish Benny audio season 3, to listen to another story slotting into the middle of season 3. So I'm in the right chronological order, but listening to a Benny story that was released separately from the others.

This story is the fourth in a series of linked Excelis Saga Doctor Who stories from Big Finish, set on a mysterious world, featuring the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors. All 4 stories, as well as a separate music suite, are available together in a collected download bundle.

The earlier Excelis stories with the various Doctors are worth listening to. Guest star Anthony Head is particularly strong. But this 4th story is separate, and can be listened to on its own. Benny has arrived accidentally at Excelis, where she finds a decaying empire, and learns of a mysterious artefact "The Relic". And meets enigmatic time traveller Iris Wildthyme. Iris is another spin-off character from the Doctor Who books published in the Wilderness Years of 1989-2005. She is well acted by Katy Manning, and always worth listening to.

This story itself is a mixed bag. On plus, the scenes with Benny and Iris - usually together, but sometimes apart - are great value. However far too much of the rest of the script involves mega info dumps. So much for the "show don't tell" school of writing. To be fair it had material to recap from the earlier stories. But that could have been handled better, rewritten, or trimmed. It's a shame, because the core scifi idea that the story spins around is strong. And the pairing of Benny and Iris is dynamite. But the whole package needed to be presented in a different way.

I'm glad I listened to it again though. But I'm more critical this time around of the writing.

Best quote: "A handbag!"

Cover of Bernice Summerfield and the Plague Herds of Excelis

Finishing relistening to Doctor Who audio "The Chimes of Midnight" from Big Finish, while revisiting some of the comic art previews drawn for the early Big Finish audios in their Doctor Who Magazine coverage. Those were such a treat to see each time in the magazine, back in the day, a couple of decades ago.

Here are those for audios "The Chimes of Midnight" (2002), "The Stones of Venice" (2001), and "...Ish" (2002). Others can be found in the Doctor Who Wiki.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Entries tagged with sixth doctor

Rewatching Doctor Who: early Twelfth Doctor stories

Rewatching Doctor Who: Deep Breath

Bernice Summerfield: The Bone of Contention

Bernice Summerfield: The Plague Herds of Excelis

Big Finish in comic art form

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