Big Finish 6th Doctor audios
May. 23rd, 2014 06:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI decided to begin at the beginning with the 6th Doctor audios, so today I listened to Whispers of Terror, The Marian Conspiracy, and The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. Whispers is 6 and Peri, both Marian and Spectre are 6 and Evelyn, and Spectre also features the Brigadier.
Whispers of Terror is an audio play. It knows it is an audio play. It really really wants you to know it is an audio play too. Auuuuudio. A U D I O. It thinks it is being really very clever, doing all sorts of things that it couldn't get away with in another format. And okay, fair enough, I guess, it was just a little clumsy about it. Obvious plot is obvious, concentrating on other things. Its other problem is it is 6 and Peri, which means 6 at the beginning, at his most objectionable, shouty, grumpy and arrogant. Yes, even by the Doctor's standards. He's not really fun to spend time with. Neither is Peri. And they spend half the time getting at each other. So why do I want to hang out with them for the length of the story? Answer, on the whole, I don't.
6 and Evelyn though feels a bit different, and I would happily hang out with Evelyn for an afternoon entirely without TARDIS related adventure. History geek meets time traveller, very fun. The Marian Conspiracy is a great introduction, using a more familiar historical background to concentrate on the new companion within it, and tying all her quirks to the plot. It's a proper time travel story, with the ethics of time travel right in the middle of it. And while the plot depends on errors they aren't forced looking, they make perfect sense. Nice well written story, this one.
And I like Evelyn. I read some quote about how all the Doctor's companions are basically the same quirky feisty misfit who hasn't figured her life out, because that's the kind of person who runs away from everything. Which is wrong headed in so many ways, but, evidence, Evelyn Smythe. 55, on top of her career, able to take charge of students or faculty with equal ease, entirely dismissive of women too focused on a man, historical or otherwise, and both willing and able to argue with the Doctor. She isn't running away, she has research to do. She's a female human, but I don't see her having a whole lot in common with, for instance, Amy Pond, or any of the other teenagers he's travelled with. To make them sound the same you have to flatten the description out to cover pretty much anyone.
I think starting Big Finish 6 audios with 6 and Evelyn would work pretty well. Good story, interesting character. And then in her next two stories you get the Brigadier and Romana, though the Romana one is part of that Dalek Empire thing that I can only remember the last part of, and might benefit from being listened to with the other parts.
... so that's tomorrow's entertainment agenda sorted then...
It's kind of annoying being stuck being nocturnal with no assistant and no leaving the house, but I am at least getting a lot of Doctor Who listened to.
Whispers of Terror is an audio play. It knows it is an audio play. It really really wants you to know it is an audio play too. Auuuuudio. A U D I O. It thinks it is being really very clever, doing all sorts of things that it couldn't get away with in another format. And okay, fair enough, I guess, it was just a little clumsy about it. Obvious plot is obvious, concentrating on other things. Its other problem is it is 6 and Peri, which means 6 at the beginning, at his most objectionable, shouty, grumpy and arrogant. Yes, even by the Doctor's standards. He's not really fun to spend time with. Neither is Peri. And they spend half the time getting at each other. So why do I want to hang out with them for the length of the story? Answer, on the whole, I don't.
6 and Evelyn though feels a bit different, and I would happily hang out with Evelyn for an afternoon entirely without TARDIS related adventure. History geek meets time traveller, very fun. The Marian Conspiracy is a great introduction, using a more familiar historical background to concentrate on the new companion within it, and tying all her quirks to the plot. It's a proper time travel story, with the ethics of time travel right in the middle of it. And while the plot depends on errors they aren't forced looking, they make perfect sense. Nice well written story, this one.
And I like Evelyn. I read some quote about how all the Doctor's companions are basically the same quirky feisty misfit who hasn't figured her life out, because that's the kind of person who runs away from everything. Which is wrong headed in so many ways, but, evidence, Evelyn Smythe. 55, on top of her career, able to take charge of students or faculty with equal ease, entirely dismissive of women too focused on a man, historical or otherwise, and both willing and able to argue with the Doctor. She isn't running away, she has research to do. She's a female human, but I don't see her having a whole lot in common with, for instance, Amy Pond, or any of the other teenagers he's travelled with. To make them sound the same you have to flatten the description out to cover pretty much anyone.
I think starting Big Finish 6 audios with 6 and Evelyn would work pretty well. Good story, interesting character. And then in her next two stories you get the Brigadier and Romana, though the Romana one is part of that Dalek Empire thing that I can only remember the last part of, and might benefit from being listened to with the other parts.
... so that's tomorrow's entertainment agenda sorted then...
It's kind of annoying being stuck being nocturnal with no assistant and no leaving the house, but I am at least getting a lot of Doctor Who listened to.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-23 10:00 pm (UTC)I understand that she's basically retired from BF now for health reasons. A great shame.