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Continuing to catch up on my gargantuan Big Finish Doctor Who audio backlog.
This one is rather fun, and includes Liz Shaw's Mum as a quasi companion.
This one is rather fun, and includes Liz Shaw's Mum as a quasi companion.
Big Finish currently has an up to 50% sale on its Companion Chronicles series of Doctor Who audios. Many are available to buy only in download form now, but they are offered DRM-free, in MP3 and M4B formats that you can download to keep, as well as play in the Big Finish mobile app. The current sale runs through until 23:59 (UK time) on 5th May 2025.
The Companion Chronicles audios from Big Finish audios are reduced cast audio plays, told usually by a single main companion, with a small additional cast added on. This works surprisingly well, and they are IMHO one of the strongest series of audios that Big Finish ever produced. Each Companion Chronicles story is typically about an hour long.
Ones reduced in the sale that I would especially recommend are, focusing on the lower priced ones, all available as downloads for £1.99:
The Companion Chronicles audios from Big Finish audios are reduced cast audio plays, told usually by a single main companion, with a small additional cast added on. This works surprisingly well, and they are IMHO one of the strongest series of audios that Big Finish ever produced. Each Companion Chronicles story is typically about an hour long.
Ones reduced in the sale that I would especially recommend are, focusing on the lower priced ones, all available as downloads for £1.99:
- Frostfire, set in Regency London, with 1st Doctor companion Vicki. One of my all time favourite Doctor Who stories ever.
- The Transit of Venus, an adventure for the original TARDIS crew, narrated by Ian.
- Find and Replace, with an older Jo Grant meeting the 3rd Doctor again. Plus bonus Iris Wildthyme. Phenomenally moving.
- The Magician's Oath, a story from 3rd Doctor companion Mike Yates, with surprising emotional heft.
- The Mahogany Murderers, that would form the template for a spinoff Big Finish audio series starring 4th Doctor friends Jago & Litefoot.
- Solitaire, 8th Doctor companion Charley Pollard meets the Celestial Toymaker. And the Doctor is a ventriloquist's dummy ...
Bernice Summerfield: The Draconian Rage
Oct. 24th, 2024 12:41 pmContinuing Big Finish's series of audio adventures with Doctor Who spinoff character Bernice Summerfield. And we get to this one. Which sees Benny off to an alien world, negotiating courtly intrigue, deadly plots and some truly horrific treatment.
This is the first Benny in a while where I'm not familiar with the alien species depicted. Shock horror I have never seen 1973's "Frontier in Space" (first aired when I wasn't yet a year old). So I've had to look up to find out about the species and its history. And even what it looks like. That's ok, I'm fine with that.
What I'm less happy about is that this audio is a sequel - and not in a slight way - to an earlier Big Finish main range Doctor Who audio featuring Benny, Ace and the Seventh Doctor. To be fair that Doctor Who audio was originally released just a few months before this Benny audio. But at this distance of 21+ years I'm listening to the later audio and haven't heard the earlier one. And as a listener - or reader, or whatever - I always feel frustrated, admittedly somewhat irrationally so, when there's a major callback to a previous story I don't know. I feel I'm unfairly missing out on stuff, and not getting the full feelings I would if I'd heard/read the earlier one.
Now I was told much that I needed to know about the prior story in this audio. But I had no familiarity with a past prominently featured and mentioned character. And little emotional connection with the past events at all. So that aspect of things fell very flat for me.
But there was much to like. Beware though some truly gruesome things happen in this audio. Which you are not spared from by hearing just the audio only. If anything that may make things even worse. Extremely effective sound effects! But yes, I enjoyed, with a major proviso.
This is the first Benny in a while where I'm not familiar with the alien species depicted. Shock horror I have never seen 1973's "Frontier in Space" (first aired when I wasn't yet a year old). So I've had to look up to find out about the species and its history. And even what it looks like. That's ok, I'm fine with that.
What I'm less happy about is that this audio is a sequel - and not in a slight way - to an earlier Big Finish main range Doctor Who audio featuring Benny, Ace and the Seventh Doctor. To be fair that Doctor Who audio was originally released just a few months before this Benny audio. But at this distance of 21+ years I'm listening to the later audio and haven't heard the earlier one. And as a listener - or reader, or whatever - I always feel frustrated, admittedly somewhat irrationally so, when there's a major callback to a previous story I don't know. I feel I'm unfairly missing out on stuff, and not getting the full feelings I would if I'd heard/read the earlier one.
Now I was told much that I needed to know about the prior story in this audio. But I had no familiarity with a past prominently featured and mentioned character. And little emotional connection with the past events at all. So that aspect of things fell very flat for me.
But there was much to like. Beware though some truly gruesome things happen in this audio. Which you are not spared from by hearing just the audio only. If anything that may make things even worse. Extremely effective sound effects! But yes, I enjoyed, with a major proviso.
Rewatching Doctor Who: Hide
Sep. 18th, 2024 06:37 amContinuing my (oh so nearly finished) Matt Smith era rewatch, and it's on to this spooky thriller.
( spoilers )
( spoilers )
Daisy Ashford is brilliant as Liz Shaw, the part her mum Caroline John played on screen.
Doctor Who The Box of Terrors
Nov. 15th, 2023 09:05 pmI don't listen to many audiobooks now. I mean books read by a narrator - not audio plays like most Big Finish Doctor Who audios. I'm too heavily asleep for much of the time, and can find them difficult to keep up with. But I've just treated myself to a Big Finish audio novel coming out very soon, that combines the Third and Fourth Doctors, with their Sarah Janes. It's read by Jon Culshaw who from the trailer sounds like he's doing a fine job of the two Doctors. His Sarahs aren't so good, to be expected. But I think I will enjoy it a lot. At 535 minutes duration it will take me a very long time to get through it all though!
