#Big Finish Reviews

[hifithepanda]

Home Truths- 8/10

First in the Sara Kingdom Trilogy

*Old Review*

Home Truths was performed by Jean Marsh, written by Simon Guerrier, and was released in November 2008.

Short Summary: Sara Kingdom tells a story to a traveler of an adventure she had with Steven and the Doctor.  The trio had arrived at a house only to find the two inhabitants dead.  

I- what the hell.  First off, the first half of this- up until the reveal that the house was sentient- really freaked me out.  The light breathing, wind, and creaks that were occasionally heard sent chills down my spine.  I almost had to move to a busier part of my house so I wouldn’t lose my mind.  Then again, I’m a bit of a wuss so a lot scares me.

I really enjoyed this story.  I was paying full attention the whole time (which is rather impressive considering that I have such a short attention span) and was eager to know what happened next.  The story of Alex and Richard devastated me from the get-go.  The reveal shocked me and I was heartbroken to figure out that Alex had killed Richard.  Although the “sentient house” trope could get dull I think the script played it out very well.  There were a lot of twists and turns and the ending actually made you feel kinda bad for it.  You can tell this was written for a trilogy- or at least meant to have a sequel.  The ending is definitely more of a cliffhanger which makes up for the rather bad ending of part one.

Now, while I was rather confused at the fact that Sara Kingdom was alive and telling stories but, in the end, I was rather impressed with how it tied into the story.  

I thought the trio’s dynamic was lacking a bit.  They weren’t as good as Steven’s other Tardis teams, but I’ll benefit from the doubt and say it was just because I don’t know them very well. 

As for Steven, he didn’t do much in it, but then again, it was a Sara Kingdom story so what did you expect?  He did “die” in it which was certainly… not very fun.  

8/10

Friend Death Count: 0

Steven Tortured Count: 1

The Doc does some messed up shit to Steven Count: 0

#doctor who #steven taylor #sara kingdom trilogy #big finish #big finish reviews #home truths

[colorful-horses]

charlie

#just a simple redesign #wanted to give charlie a little seasoning. she needs a little smth smth. thought a goat motif would suit her .... because. hell and whateve #shes got cute hooves and big ears #tried to make as minimal changes as possible to stick to her original vibe #this concludes my hazbin posting. thanks for tolerating it #ill have a helluva boss review post in the next couple days when i finish watching it. after that im done #back to your regularly scheduled pony programming #charlie morningstar #hazbin hotel #fanart #my art

[welcometogrouchland]

your talia in your newest comic is very pretty 💜 shiny hair save me….

AHH THANK YOU SM I didn't shade her hair originally when I was coloring cause I was trying to streamline things but it looked so incomplete without it...I can't help it if she has L'Oreal model energy. Anyway you're always really nice on my Steph posts so here's some misc Stephs I had lying around as thanks for this ask (feat one of those alt cowl designs i posted back when!)

#dc comics #dc #stephanie brown #batgirl #batgirls #asks #i have many wips that I don't feel are worthy of posting but yknow? these ones aint half bad #I've already done a lot of my essential steph reading so now I'm just looking for other stuff shes been in #she's briefly in the GA trade I'm reading rn! big win! I didn't even know that when i bought it but fate is fate #I'm gonna read batgirls at some point but i have to be in a headspace for it w/ the requisite amount of context #also i know it's one of those series you need to stick with to get the maximum amount of enjoyment with it #since every review I've read has said ''i know it starts off rough but PLEASE just get past the midpoint it gets better'' #so i gotta be in that headspace too #(demons in my head saying 'or you could just reread cass' batgirl run' and I'm like STOP I NEED TO FINISH GA AND BB LEAVE ME BE!!!) #anyway thank you for this it was really nice <3 #mine

[john-bracket]

#john peters you know the farmer? #welcome to night vale #jack harkness #captain jack harkness #doctor who #torchwood #big finish #jonathan sims #jarchivist #the magnus archives #polls #jack’s was peer reviewed muah

[gracelandmp3]

just saw someone compare china mievilles worldbuilding to jkr as though they were both equally good . siri why does god allow suffering

#just finished rereading perdido street station and was Thinking About it so i went and looked at storygraph reviews #to see what other people had to say #first big mistake!! #anyways mutuals if any of u wanna chat abt this book hmu

[77yearsteam]

The History Between Us: Unboxing and Review

Doctor Who: The History Between Us Zine | Unboxing/Review

You’ll never guess what—we’ve been reviewed!

YouTuber Jack Reeves of 10th Doctor cosplay and Doctor Who Community Show fame got his hands on the History Between Us a little early to give everyone a teaser of what to expect! In 14 minutes of genuinely joy-inspiring video, Jack takes us on a tour through the zine and its packaging as well as some of his favourite pieces of merch.

Please watch—let’s let Jack know how much we love the video and get him some views!

#doctor who #the master #thoschei #spydoc #13th doctor #sacha dhawan #zine #twissy #tensimm #jodie whittaker #10th doctor #cosplay #review #dhawan!master #torchwood #sarah jane adventures #big finish #big finish audio

[demigodofhoolemere]

When you know a character and their material like the back of your hand and you see someone say something about the character as if it’s a known trait of theirs but you’ve literally never seen that happen

#saw a review for an old first doctor novel that said that steven’s ‘capacity to fall for the wrong type of woman’ was ‘very much in place’ #his… his what? #is this a thing that happened repeatedly in the novels for some reason and i’ve been blissfully unaware of it? #he literally never gets anything romantic in the show #you can see steven/sara if you squint like i did and apparently big finish did as well #but that’s it and that’s already a stretch #and at that sara is not the wrong kind of woman so it wouldn’t describe her anyway #is this about steven being attracted to the drahvin for a hot minute or something? #because it was literally about a minute. very quickly realized that they suck and then never looked at them like that the rest of the story. #but there’s nothing else to draw from lol #so i have to assume that either the novels kept doing this to him for some reason #or this person is just living in a dream world about who steven is lol #i’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it’s the novels because i know some very odd choices have been made in them #but still. what??? #classic who #steven taylor

[vanweezer]

sometimes a friendship is one guy away from his phone while the other guy is infodumping about the bring it on sequels

#nate tag #if i had the powers of a youtuber i would be quinton reviews style video essay-ing the fuck out of the bring it on sequels #yall dont understand meeeeeeee #gabrielle union......KIRSTEN DUNSTTTTT....SOLANGEEEEEEEE RIHANNAAAAAAAAAAUUGGHHKIDJDJFJF #see i like the first bring it on. big fan of that #i cannot stand all or nothing however there are parts that i think. are noteworthy #i dont remember the name of the romeo and juliet motifs one i think its in it to win it??? #fight to the finish??? something???? #everything outside of those core three is like a fever dream to me they dont get it theyll never get it they couldnt DREAM to get it #but aoughhhh my god these MOVIES. YALL. IF I HAD THE POWERS OF A YOUTUBER!!!!!

[aurikku]

It's been a long time. I'm glad I got to see it through the near beginning and to the very end.

This is their story.

#aurikku #april 18 is now officially Memento Vivere day #seriously this fic is peak #like #the grail of reads #AND SHE CONTINUED IT LIKE 15 YEARS LATER IS WILD #I'M STILL HERE #I WAS STILL WAITING #AND LIKE #IT'S FINALLY FINISHED #ONE OF THE BIG TWO GETS COMPLETED #IS WILD #SO THANK YOU ENKIDA #ONCE I REREAD AND CATCH UP #I WILL LEAVE THE BEST REVIEW I CAN #BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THIS FIC MEANS TO ME #I'VE REREAD WHATEVER WAS UP SEVERAL TIMES #I'VE BEEN AROUND SINCE ALMOST THE BEGINNING #I'VE NEVER LEFT #I'M SO GLAD YOU CAME BACK AND GRACED US WITH FINISHING IT #SO THANK YOU #also I would pay to pick Enkida's brain #seriously #I'd love to interview her

[seashell-telephone]

To be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers

“In the future, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the galaxy transform themselves”

This type of speculative fiction feels almost too real, and it made me think that yea.. in this world scenario, these very big decisions would make anyone crazy if they had to make them alone. This story is scifi from a very vulnerable human perspective and its beautiful and kinda scary, but in a good way. By the end i was feeling emotional and oddly sad. Not because of the ethical and philosophical theme, or because the ending was depressing, but because of the dilemma that the book ended with. And i agreed with the point made in the end, that how we feel about the things we do matters just as much as actually doing them.

#as always with this author there is the sense of.. #you cant do it all alone #we need each other and we need compassion to be able to do the big important stuff in life #in whatever form that takes #digital journal #mine #september #2023 #reading journal #books #finished books #book review #speculative fiction #science fiction #becky chambers #to be taught if fortunate

[sparrowsabre7]

8th Doctor Main Range Audio Drama Mini-reviews

I've been listening to the Big Finish 8th Doctor stories on Spotify (the first 50 Main Range dramas is on there, plus a lot of the following "8th Doctor Adventures" stories) so I wanted to give a bit of a run down of my impressions.

Storm Warning

A solid start, classic Who shenanigans and introduces a solid companion in Charley Pollard, she's feisty and fun, but also not madly enamoured with the Doctor like so many companions can be. It makes for a fun reintroduction to the 8th Doctor, not seen since the movie some 5 years prior, allowing him more time to breathe.

The premise of humans trying to make first contact in order to steal alien weapons is tried and true but the cast elevates it and makes it more entertaining than it sounds. Lord Tamworth makes for an interesting support character, especially when his role could have been taken in a very cliché direction. The final scene sows the ongoing thread of Charley having been saved from her intended fate and the potential consequences of that.

7/10

Sword of Orion

Doctor Who does Alien/Aliens but with Cybermen and a background helping of the Android/Human conflict of Blade Runner, and it works bloody well. The initial mystery intrigues and while everything feels off from the start it's not til quite a way through that things start to make sense and align.

A more forgettable cast of characters (with many being left to be cannon fodder) but the premise is strong enough to bear out the runtime.

8/10

The Stones of Venice

Ugh. The first real dud. a somewhat tedious romp through a collapsing Venice with plot twists a savvy listener can see coming ten miles off and the longer they put off the "reveal" the more tiresome it becomes. The art curator was a fun enough support character but the upper class humans vs lower class aliens along with prophecies and a pining King leave for a very rote story that does little to excite or entertain and leaves the Doctor and Charley feeling irrelevant for large swathes of runtime, aside from use as props.

4/10

Minuet in Hell

This is more like it! A real mystery to sink one's teeth into. While it's somewhat frustrating that Eight has amnesia (again!) it works in the story's favour, weave a complex web of a narrative trying to see how all the narrative pieces interlock. Some of the performances (mainly the Americans) are a little hammy for my taste, but why make Doctor Who if you can't be a little silly for once. The return of the Brigadier more than makes up for Eight's rather limited airtime, but the audio tortures us by frequently putting the amnesiac Doctor with him but not letting them recognise each other until the drama is almost over. Nonetheless, an entertaining ride.

7/10

Invaders from Mars

A somewhat lacklustre alien invasion story, another with humans using alien tech to gain power, buoyed a little by some great performances from some actors and some truly unhinged and unrecognisable turns from Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes doing the thickest American Mobster and Russian agent accents you've ever heard. There's also a delightfully scenery chewing turn from who I assume is Nicholas Briggs as the aliens. Nothing much of note here aside from this being Mark Gatiss' first DW script and sadly, much like some of his TV DW work, it's a lot of interesting ideas thrown at the wall, only some of which hit satisfyingly.

5/10

The Chimes of Midnight

This is it. This is the big one. A truly fantastic story, classic time loop premise but not in the usual fashion. It weaves a narrative that confuses and engages in equal measure throughout along with a lot of great work from the two leads. Has all the hallmarks of DW's best (perhaps not surprising that the writer Robert Shearman also wrote one of the all time great NuWho episodes in "Dalek" - in turn based on his audio drama "Jubilee") and would heartily recommend to any DW fan interested in getting to know the Eighth Doctor. I would say you need to have at least heard "Storm Warning" first to get the most benefit, as it ultimately centres on Charley and the paradox of her existence.

10/10

#doctor who #eighth doctor #reviews #audio dramas #big finish

[hifithepanda]

Frostfire- 6/10

**Old Review!-- ignore some odd phrases and wording lol**

Ooh wow, first review okay I’m gonna keep this short.  So this story was performed by Maureen O’Brien and was written by Marc Platt.  It was released in January 2007 and it was the first Companion Chronicles released.

Short summary: Vicki tells a story to this entity (later revealed to be the remaining piece of the phoenix they meet later in the story) about an adventure she had with the Doctor and Steven.  They landed in London in the 19th century and had to figure out what was up with this strange egg.  Surprise, it was a phoenix and wanted to live.

This story was, overall, very ‘meh’ to me.  Don’t get me wrong, Maureen was fantastic in it and all the voices she did were great.  The story itself just felt very basic.  It just kinda puttered along slowly.  The cuts to older Vicki were nice and they might’ve been one of the best parts of this story.  

My main complaint is that I feel like Vicki was characterized very badly in this story.  She doesn’t seem like that bubbly, excited girl who we know from the screen, her interactions with Steven and the Doc weren’t as playful and teasing, and she felt very subdued.  She was also quite violent- Like, she was determined to destroy this phoenix and, in the end, basically did.  Another weird thing was the absolute insistence that Vicki was in love with Steven.  Jane Austen (who appeared) was convinced they were a couple and although Vicki told the audience she just thought of him as a brother, she told Austen that she was in love with him and started listing his “admirable qualities” and called him handsome??  Also, she talked about how in love she was with Troilus (this is a Troilus hate account be forewarned).  

As for Steven, he didn’t do a ton.  He was fawned over by the ladies- which I found hilarious and did not blame them one bit.  However, in the story’s defense, it was a Vicki story so I won’t be too harsh because of that.

6/10

Friend Death Count: 0

Steven Tortured Count: 0

The Doc does some messed up shit to Steven Count: 0

#doctor who #steven taylor #big finish #big finish reviews #frostfire

[icewindandboringhorror]

While I don't know much about it, I would probably bet there are tons of issues with the cruise industry that would make me not actually appreciate it broadly speaking - HOWEVER, I do really love a lot of the interior design of some cruise ships.. How it's almost like a miniature city crammed into one area. Multiple sections with all different aesthetic designs, a variety of shops, restaurants, activity centers, community seating areas, communal use spaces (like gyms, laundry, pools, cafeteria/buffet (which I always love anywhere)), etc. etc. but then also everyone has a little nice clean comfortable looking space of their own to retreat back to if they'd like to be alone. Maybe it's something akin to the idea of 'walkable cities', where everything you could ever want to do is kind of right there just a short walk away? I also especially love how so much stuff is stacked on top of other stuff, a layered cluster of spaces, bright open atriums, and when they're set up with little walkways down the center between a bunch of rooms so it's almost like a mini city street with apartments lining it, etc.. They often seem like they'd be SUCH a cool place to live permanently, IF only something identical was just built on solid land instead lol

#currently watching a channel on youtube where some person is reviews/tours cruise ships or something #and I'm just like wow the whole traveling part would be miserable hell and I would hate trying to get off of the stupid ship everyday #and see seomthing and make it back in time or etc. but OOOOO THE BEDROOMS! love the TINY minifrige!! eeee .. lol #perhaps just an extension of of my obsession with communal spaces. also love hospitals. nursing homes. hotels. AIRPORTS!!! #thats just how humans are meant to live for me. my ideal situation is that sot of thing like big beautiful bright communal places #but i also hate socializing i just like the idea of like. the entire communal world is in front of me but i also have my own little space t #retreat back to. youre not forced to participate. but the world is right outside your window if you WANT to go. ALSO people watching is fun #Plus i think part of what i hate most about Going Places and Doing Things is the commitment of it and traveling #especially in america where its like to get ANYWHERE it's a 3 hour drive or 15 min drive #or 20 min drive or 1 hr bus ride or blah blah. the idea of having plenty of fun little things to do that are all solidified #in ONE single complex that is also where your room is would actually encourage me to do things more because if #my health issues start flaring up or i get overwhelmed or etc. i can literally just... retreat back to my room that is a reasonably short #walk away. instead of like ''UGH now not only do i feel too bad to finish my excursion but ALSO i have a 40 min car ride ahead of me'' #etc. Not saying that even in that situation I would become Super Extravert Thing Doer like i still LOOVE a quiet lifestyle mostly alone do #ing the same 5 repetitive tasks over & over again working on specific hobbies. but just that i WOULD go out SLIGHTLY more and do Activities #if the activities were already brought to ME. like a cruise ship layout where you have your little room private space but when you feel #like it on your own terms you could venture out and go to a little cafe or a swimming pool or etc. WITHOUT even having to leave #or get in a car and travel. just walk form your room to The thing. amazing.. ground breaking.. BUT especially the layers are important. I #dont mean just 'have the same features but in a way that theyre on land' I mean LITERALLY translate the EXACT layout of the cruise ship but #on ground instead. Like I want a full community cafeteria on the middle floor of my apartment complex. there should be a pool & waterslide #on the roof. A community games room on the 4th floor. a library right under my bedroom. etc. etc. Though maybe ideally I would say #add a little extra space like most people couldn't live their entire lives in a cruise ship room layout. But maybe just have the rooms expa #nded to the average size of like a 3 bedroom apartment. and then still stack them on top of each other.. More spacious decks so people can #have some plants (but also a community garden somewhere too). ANYWAY... Idk I just always love the aesthetics. I would love to tour a cruis #ship but like NOT go on a cruise EVER lol.. but just.. SEE the space. I love interiors so much. Also makes me think of worldbuilding like. #I think cruise ships could also be good inspiration for underground stacked cities in layers. things like that. OR just actually the fant #asy world version of a cruise ship lol. Though Nanyevimi's oceans are all so treacherous that non-inland water travel is avoided as much as #possible (even if it's more tedious to travel on the land) and would rarely be done for leisure. still.. river cruises could exist.. >:3c #In Nanyevimi the oceans are akin to how Outer Space is on earth (seen as a mysterious unexplored dangerous area etc).. a cruise ship of #rich elves setting out on a Groundbreaking First Ever Ocean Cruise & it just goes Wrong like a sci-fi 'trapped in space' type thriller LOL

[dwimpossblog]

Two's Company

The Doctor searches for the cause of his degeneration in Two's Company, but one of his old companions has been duped into helping another renegade Time Lord!

View On WordPress

#60th Anniversary #Big Finish #Colin Baker #Doctor Who #Dr Who #Harry Sullivan #Jackie Tyler #Lady Christina de Souza #Once and Future #Review #Two&039;s Company

[graciousdragon]

guess who finally bought a cheap record player and is going to try to figure out how to use it shortly 👍

#rys.txt #i'm tired of not being able to listen to my records so i finally bit the bullet lol #reviews on it weren't super promising (better than most in the price range but still not promising) but idc if it sucks i'll just return it #it had one of those security tags on it and i paid through self checkout and i had to go through like 3 different employees #to find someone who could get it off for me 💀 #the only other thing i bought was a fucking. pack of gum. i was just stood there with a big ass box and a single thing of icebreakers cubes #but anyway. i had to finish an essay first before i opened it but i'm done now so i'll crack it open soon #if it works i'll post a video :]

[brostateexam]

19% done and I am learning some things about myself.

excited to be done with the leather armor and to be back to stitching in the more brightly colored bits in a few more sessions

#productive stabbing #for instance: i probably don't want to do a pattern that's just one big piece like this again. #also: when a review says there are too many unnecessary color changes: believe that person! #ill finish this piece for sure. but i have about 800 stitches left in 5 slightly different shades of brown and i'm dooone with this shit rn