|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 27, 2011 19:27:46 GMT
Oooh, possibly. He's in the actual War Games too. Still a sale is a sale. Grab while the iron is hot. Yip. I will be stocking up on Target book readings while they are cheap! -Ralph |
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 28, 2011 18:49:27 GMT
....no, no I won't. The Edge of Destruction sounds compressed to fuck. Sound quality not what it should be. I'll stick to ripping the audio off the CD's!
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by legios on Feb 28, 2011 21:23:09 GMT
Lower bit rate probably. I shall not bother either in that case. A shame, I could do with more Target readings, but no matter.
Karl
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Feb 28, 2011 21:27:03 GMT
It's definitely a lower bit rate. To be fair, I have quite a fine ear for audio, so mileage may vary.
I shall report on The Cyberman one when I get to it.
The CD target readings I picked up sounded fine.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by legios on Feb 28, 2011 21:33:47 GMT
It's definitely a lower bit rate. To be fair, I have quite a fine ear for audio, so mileage may vary. I have developed one, so my standards are higher than they used. Is that the one read by she-who-was-Polly-the-rather-Dolly? The ones I have heard sounded fine enough. I guess they just wanted to keep the file size down for online distribution. A bit of a shame really. Karl |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 1, 2011 12:04:41 GMT
I have had a delivery of a mighty 35 Big Finish CDs (!) at work! That's pretty much my budget for the month blown, but in my defense they were ridiculously cheap and I'm a sucker for a bargain. (Did anyone else grab any while they were up?)
Do I have any stars / duffers here?
#42 - The Dark Flame
#59 - The Roof of the World
#62 - The Last
#64 - The Next Life
#66 - The Game
#67 - Dreamtime
#70 - Unregenerate!
#73 - Thicker than Water
#75 - Scaredy Cat
#76 - Singularity
#77 - Other Lives
#85 - Red
#86 - The Reaping
#89 - No Man's Land
#90 - Year of the Pig
#91 - Circular Time
#92 - Nocturne
#93 - Renaissance of the Daleks
#94 - I.D.
#95 - Exotron
#96 - Valhalla
#97 - The Wishing Beast
#99 - Son of the Dragon
#100 - 100
#109 - The Death Collectors
#110 - Boy that Time Forgot
#113 - Time Reef
#115 - Forty-Five
#123 - The Company of Friends
#139 - Project Destiny
#140 - A Death in the Family
#141 - Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge
#142 - Demons of Red Lodge
#143 - The Crimes of Thomas Brewster
#VIII - An Earthly Child
|
|
|
|
Post by legios on Mar 1, 2011 12:55:07 GMT
The Next Life is probably the biggest turkey that you have there in my opinion. It was the story that had a large contribution to my dropping away from the Big Finish stuff for a while. Most of the others there I haven't heard until you get to Project Destiny.
That was quite good, and I rather liked A Death in The Family.
Lurkers at Sunlights Edge is.... competent but unfortunately rather uninspired and rather wastes its central conceit. Demons of Red Lodge is an anthology and some stories are better than others, but overall it is pretty good.
Only just started Crimes of Thomas Brewster so I can't really comment on that one.
Karl
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 1, 2011 13:05:33 GMT
Saying that, I liked Axis of Insanity which I hear isn't well liked.
So far the only Big Finish that I absolutely hated was Sirens of Time. I mean crikey, way to launch your range BF!
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 1, 2011 18:44:57 GMT
I will defend The Sirens of Time until my dying day!
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 1, 2011 19:11:11 GMT
I have it arrived today!
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 1, 2011 19:29:36 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 1, 2011 21:54:52 GMT
Sirens of time, Spectre of Layton Manor (neither of which I'd heard before) and Spare Parts which was borrowed and never came back.
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 2, 2011 10:17:28 GMT
Sirens of time, Spectre of Layton Manor (neither of which I'd heard before) and Spare Parts which was borrowed and never came back. Spectre is really good! I like the concept behind Sirens of Time (1 story each for each Doctor, then they all meet up at the end) but the actual execution is horrid, I can barely listen to it and understand what is happening. The last part is great, but the first three might as well have not happened. |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 13, 2011 15:59:17 GMT
I'm at the end of the Big Finish Divergent Universe arc. Not terrible but not brilliant either. It seems they shot themselves in the foot by first saying they were doing something brave and different by setting it 'in a universe without time' and then realising that this was insane, and just doing a load of bog-standard stories.
The best stories from these two seasons are the ones that DO take the opportunity to do something different, namely Scherzo and Natural History of Fear. Those two are ace. The Last was above average too. The rest are so-so.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 13, 2011 17:49:09 GMT
What scuppered the Divergent Universe arc was that the TV series was unexpectedly recomissioned and BF were under orders to get the Doctor back into the regular universe. IIRC licencees were obliged not to have product too dramatically different from regular DW for when it was back on air (hence why the resolution of the BBC Books 8th Doctor was postponed under after the Eccelston run ended and the reveal of the Daleks being behind the big arc there was changed, the BBCi 9th Doctor run was canned quietly, etc). The Divergent Universe was originally envisoned to run for longer.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 13, 2011 18:06:21 GMT
The Divergent Universe was originally envisoned to run for longer. Oh lordy lord |
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 13, 2011 18:52:23 GMT
The best stories from these two seasons are the ones that DO take the opportunity to do something different, namely Scherzo and Natural History of Fear. Those two are ace. The Last was above average too. The rest are so-so. I completely agree! -Ralph |
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 13, 2011 18:54:36 GMT
The Divergent Universe was originally envisoned to run for longer. Oh lordy lord Yip. It was BF's Big New Direction. Hence why there was a big build-up and hype to it at the time. However, the launch title of the new direction ( Zagreus) rather had its thunder stolen (and the 18-month run-up) somewhat negated by the announcement that very month that DW was coming back to the telly. Just one of those things that didn't pan out due to external factors. -Ralph |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 13, 2011 19:26:27 GMT
Haha wow, it wasn't that interesting a new direction, given that they mostly went for stories that could be set anywhere anyway.
That said, I'm really liking The Next Life. Sorry guys!
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 13, 2011 19:29:33 GMT
You are mad.
That was the story at the end of a year of mostly poor stories that put me off BF for around 4 years after being a loyal customer!
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 13, 2011 19:44:33 GMT
You are mad. That was the story at the end of a year of mostly poor stories that put me off BF for around 4 years after being a loyal customer! -Ralph It has Sir Paul of Darrow in it!! |
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 13, 2011 19:54:36 GMT
Yep, and miscast in a wasted role that fails to utilise his talents.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by legios on Mar 13, 2011 20:38:19 GMT
It has Sir Paul of Darrow in it!! As Ralph says, painfully miscast. But when a badly miscast Paul Darrow turns out to be the most interesting thing going on in your story then it is a clear sign that something is very wrong. I found The Next Life to be a horrendously painful slog to get through, and it just felt that it capstoned everything that was wrong with the McGann-doc Audios at the time. Indeed, by the end of the first disc I was far from happy about what it had cost me. After not enjoying most of the Divergent Universe arc (really only Scherzo and Natural History of Fear had been worth my time in listening to) I only lasted a further two stories before I parted company with Big Finish for a time. I suppose someone had to like The Next Life, and apparently that person is you. Karl |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 14, 2011 9:23:36 GMT
I had a dream where I listened to the most amazing Dr Who Companion Chronicle. Is that nerdy? D:
In my defense re: Next Life, it was really cheap (a fiver I think) and I've been ploughing through the McGann ones; so there was no artificially built-up anticipation or expectations, if anything they were lower than normal due to comments. But it made sense as a story (which is more than I can say for Zagreus), it actually EXPLAINED the 'Divergent Universe' having no time when it obviously did, and didn't drag at all.
But really, the 'Divergent Universe' was supposed to be their big game-changing shakeup? Really?
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 14, 2011 10:21:20 GMT
It was, but they had to cut it short so most of the big plans got shelved.
Andy
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 14, 2011 10:36:15 GMT
It was, but they had to cut it short so most of the big plans got shelved. Andy Do we know anything about these plans? I mean, two seasons is pretty generous for a 'proof of concept' that never really got delivered upon. |
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 14, 2011 19:55:47 GMT
Nowt that I'm aware of other than 'It was meant to go on for much longer'.
-ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 15, 2011 19:51:21 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 15, 2011 20:47:34 GMT
Good to hear, a bit less thrilled that it is single disk releases (which tend to be about as expensive as the double disks when all is said and done!) but still... |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 25, 2011 18:00:34 GMT
Got a new cd drive, and have dipped into the Companion Chronicles again with A Town Called Fortune (it was super cheap off ebay, little risk to me if I didn't like it!) Wish me luck!
|
|
