Various work stuff plus some Doctor Who audios

[eve11]

What? A substantive post? Really?

So I've been at a conference for these past 3 days plus today, and yesterday I gave my talk and sat in on our panel for work, and today, well, I'm pretty much coasting. Been leaving the house at my usual 6am and not getting home until 10pm-ish, daily. SO glad it's Friday.

My talk went okay, except that the Mac computer I tranferred my slides to sabotaged my animations, so I had to improvise. Also I was my usual very nervous, stuttery self, what with the fact I hadn't practiced. BUT, on the good side, it's over. Yay!

I've been listening to more audio adventures. Having made it through Eight and Lucie, as well as the latest ones with Eight, Charley and C'rizz, I moved also over to some Sixth doctor plays, along with a few Fifth Doctor plays I hadn't heard yet. Note: this has been over the past two weeks or so. I've been doing a lot of driving. That's my excuse anyway, for burning through these like crepe paper on a candle.



Wherein I blather about Eight and Lucie, and a little bit about Eight and Charley:

So, the BBC7 audios-- I kind of like these, more for the characters than the plots. I think I'm a little begrudging to Lucie because she's not Charley. I do like her spirit though, and how she sometimes messes up but still always tries. Out of all of the stories I think I liked the bookends, Blood of the Daleks and Human Resources the best. Blood of the Daleks had the most coherent plot out of all of them. I liked the twist with the evil scientist switching bodies with his assistant. Plus I liked the end, where you almost hear the announcer say "Telos" before the communication shuts off. lol! The Glam Rock one reminded me too much of Land of the Dead (though it wasn't that bad)-- randomly locked up in some building with creatures that will eat you, with much of the horror coming from the visuals there. And with a petulant teenager who you wish would off it but instead his cool sister gets the axe. I didn't really get the sound bridge thing, and they didn't do it so well. On the other hand, I liked that the shady music producer survived, and I liked Auntie Pat, plus Lucie sticking her foot in her mouth.

Immortal Beloved was one of those ones that had a good premise, but the plot at the end made me go, wtf? Rather deus ex machina, to forgive the expression. The original Zeus must've been really, really stupid to let them transfer himself into the machine-- there's no way he could control whether or not they were going to double-cross him at the end. Plus Hera's heart attack was really well-timed. Phobos had a good premise but again, the whole reveal came out of nowhere-- there was really no way for anyone to figure out what was really going on, PLUS the Doctor really just trusted the old guy at his word after he was like, "No, there's something worse!". I did like how he beat the creature at the end, and sorry to see the lady it had possessed die. In some cases I think the audio writers fall into the trap of information-happy characters. They can't show something visually, so instead they have a character act as a plot device by doing a lot of talking when they have no in-play reason to do so.

I liked Human Resources, even though they gave away the Cybermen on the cover. Grrr. Was the big CEO guy the same guy who played Doctor Stoker in "Smith and Jones"? He sounded like him. I also like the picture of the Eighth Doctor in a business suit.

Also listened to Time Works, Other Lives, and Memory Lane. Of those, Memory Lane was definitely my favorite. I loved the mundane made creepy-- ice cream trucks, telly and the street where all the houses are the same, the hidden ship and the lego reconstruction, the repetetive mind-frelling, very cool. I liked the premise behind Time Works too, but I think it suffered a bit from the Deus ex machina-- they set up a lot but the resolution was only kind of so-so.

Overall, I have the sinking suspicion I might actually be willing to listen to Paul McGann read the phone book, because his voice is awesome.




Wherein I blather about the Sixth Doctor, and various companions:

So off of some comments on bigfinishlove I listened to "The Wormery" and "The One Doctor", and I also listened to "Medicinal Purposes" which had been sitting on my hard drive for a while. The Wormery was one of those ones that seems to be making sense for most of the time, then slugs you (yeah, okay, that was intentional) with something so out there you wonder what kind of drugs the writers had been on. I liked Iris Wildthyme a lot, and the Doctor's interactions with Bianca, and Iris' unrequited love. I also really liked the narrator woman (Mickey?), and the little twist at the very end. The plot, though, went from somewhat plausible to incomprehensible pretty quickly. Seriously, being taken over by Tequila Worms??? OMGWTFBBQ! Worms get into your head and control your thoughts, and then also there was something wherein they were controlling the crowd with singing? Again, OMGWTFBBQ! But I did like the explanation for Bianca and her trans-dimensional cafe.

Also listened to "The One Doctor" which by far is my favorite Six story so far :) I loved the criminals Banto Zame and Sally-Anne, I loved the poor Jelloid who missed the furniture delivery (and his song, omg!), the Stardis (it flushes when it moves, lol!), the infinite shelves, definitely a lot of fun. Also I loved the little extra they had from the quiz game at the end, too funny. Not sure how to define Mel's character, though. She seems rather generic. Plucky, I suppose, but still kind of generic.

Just finished listening to "Medicinal Purposes" this morning, and the whole thing just did not work for me. I couldn't follow what was going on, nor could I really understand any of the motivations of any of the people, including the Doctor. I suppose this was trying to highlight him being alien and not having the same kind of moral code, but ugh, they really made me NOT like him in this one. I didn't like anybody except maybe for Mary Patterson, and then she got murdered for no good reason. Couldn't figure out who Burke really was or why Hare was protecting him, or in general what the hell was going on, then the explanation made no sense. Plus you had a lot of character information moments too-- there really was no reason for Knox to tell the Doctor anything, or Hare to talk with him, or for them basically not to just kill the Doctor and be done with him. Then they throw in some kind of time loop that just seriously confuses me. Plus David Tennant did a fine job with his character, but I kept hearing the Tenth doctor too, which was somewhat distracting. And they scare the pants off this poor idiot kid, then drop him off to be murdered and soldier on. Um, excuse me? Also, the sound might have been off on my recording, but many times the characters would talk too quietly for me to hear, but when I turned up the volume, then when they shouted or increased pitch, it was too loud.

I think I will try "Jubilee" next-- I've heard good things about it.




Wherein I blather about the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Perimem:

Listened to "Son of the Dragon" and "Circular Time". I was kind of ambivalent about Son of the Dragon because I thought it would be about vampires, but actually it was historical, and I enjoyed it a lot. Except, I get that Erimem understands Vlad and all, but the thing is, the man was also ready to turn on her in a split second and have her murdered! How can you have some kind of relationship with someone who has that amount of power? It struck me as a very tentative, abuser/abused relationship, and I'm glad she didn't stay with him. I get the message that he was a "good man" in his own time, and I suppose from Erimem's perspective he was pretty progressive. But Peri was right the whole time-- I think it would've ended badly eventually, if Erimem had stayed. Overall though, it was a good story with some well-rounded characters. I liked John Dobrin a lot, too.

Circular Time was awesome. I think the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa get the best story lines. They might be my favorite audio pair ever. Nyssa got a bad rap in the show itself but I think she really comes into her own in the audios. I absolutely loved the one with David Warner as Isaac Newton, how he basically figures out everything about the Doctor because of the coins in his pocket. And he still has time to dress up at night and fight crime! I also really liked the sedate story for autumn, how things always evolve, and after a while even your "happy place" loses something just to the passage of time. I thought it was lovely that Nyssa got to actually DEAL with the horrors of the destruction of her planet, and the Master basically murdering her father and taking over his body. It was a very subtle story, but I thought it was beautifully done.



Anyway, that's my rambling, for now.

Except ETA: I asked other places, can someone point me to a press release or something detailing Paul McGann's place in Big Finish? I'm hearing he's leaving the monthly release rotation? (*is sad!*) Are they going to do more of the shorter BBC7 audios? Anything? (see above re: my willingness to listen to Mr. McGann read the phone book...)

Comments

I'm a verrrrry lonnnely Jelllloid, sitting all alllllonnne . . .

[cryptile.livejournal.com]

I have made notes of your reviews so's I can look them up myself. It is, she noted darkly, a year since you introduced me to The Kingmaker.

I liked how Lucie started off as borderline useless and decidedly uninterested by the Doctor and ends up almost too proactive and gung-ho on the detective work. It's weird that Eight is the straight man now, but at least he can pull it off.

Also, Jubilee? Worth it.

Re: I'm a verrrrry lonnnely Jelllloid, sitting all alllllonnne . . .

[eve11]

I loved the Jelloid song! He was great. That whole audio was just fantastic. :)

I've obtained Jubilee and will be listening to it at the laundromat today :)

[maniacmarshall.livejournal.com]

So glad to hear that your talk went well! I was thinking about that while your were gone, but I wasn't too worried about you. I figured you'd be just fine :)

Yes, they ARE doing a second season of BBC7 audios staring 8 and Lucie Miller. (They are already accepting pre-release orders at the BF website).

There are at least 2 more regular 8th doctor Audios coming, one this month and one in December.

As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any announcement that he is leaving BF's regular rotation, though I wouldn't find that unlikely since BBC7 seems interested in keeping him around for quite some time.

Jubilee is good. I think in a lot of ways it's better than "Dalek" which was adapted from it.

Yes, 5 and Nyssa have gotten good writing. No complaints here of course :)

Glad my eevee is back (hope you don't mind the nickname)

[eve11]

My talk was okay-- not great, but as I said, it's over now, thank goodness.

I am eagerly anticipating the next two 8th doctor BF releases. I keep checking the BF site to see when "Absolution" is getting released. Glad to hear Lucie and 8 are getting another series-- although I prefer the longer format to the shorter 50-minute episodes. That could be just because I want to hear more more more :)

I've gotten ahold of Jubilee and will be checking it out today whilst at the laundromat.

[maniacmarshall.livejournal.com]

But how many of the longer ones was he doing a year? Generally 4 correct? He will be doing eight of these, so as far as actual air time, it's fairly similar...

That being said, I think the longer ones allow for more plot development. It's the same situation we sometimes run into with new tv series vs old.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

They're definitely doing a new series of "BBC7-style" 50 minute audios. Here's a link to a transcript of a little article from Doctor Who Magazine about them: http://mcgannlibrary.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=919

I haven't seen anybody from Big Finish confirm that there won't be any more of the older-style 4 episode releases featuring the 8th Doctor after the release of "Absolution" and "The Girl Who Never Was", but I'm guessing we won't see them for a while, because:
a) They might feel that the 8-part BBC7-style series with McGann plus additional audios in the main Who line with McGann is too much McGann. (There is no such thing as too much McGann, but still.)

b) It seems like Big Finish are intending to give Charley and C'rizz a rest for a while, so to do more audios in the main line, they'd either have to create another new companion for the 8th Doctor, use Lucie (and have two separate Lucie timelines in two different formats), or do some stories with the 8th Doctor travelling alone. (Actually, I'd be interested in a few solo 8th Doctor stories - I've heard a couple of solo Doctor stories from other doctors, and they can be interesting.)

c) Big Finish have published their release schedule for the main Doctor Who line for the first half of next year, and it's all 5th, 6th, and 7th Doctor plays through June. (http://www.bigfinish.com/index.asp?function=WEBPAGE&page=3)

On the other hand, I think Big Finish are probably keeping their options open (which is probably why there has been no big prominent official announcement about the 8th Doctor in the main line.) I've been hoping to see the 8th Doctor get a release with 4 linked short stories on it, akin to "Circular Time" and "100", and I can see them maybe slipping something like that into the main line while keeping most of McGann's work in the BBC7-style format.

And there's absolutely no reason to fear that we'll be left McGann-less: there will be 8th Doctor audios. It's just a question of the format.

[eve11]

Thanks for the news and the links! :) I do hope to see more of the monthly releases from 8 as well, but heck, I've also got a backlog of Six and Seven to work through too :)