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March 29, 2024, 02:53:40 PM

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Old Doctor Who - Part 4

Started by Ambient Sheep, June 04, 2020, 11:02:35 PM

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Quote from: M-CORP on January 13, 2021, 08:18:19 PM
Didn't finish the Day Of The Doctor book because I just found it too old and familiar, being used to the TV version.

It's bloody great, and changes more stuff than a Hulke or Cotton novelisation. Loads and loads of seeing events from different characters personal perspectives; while most of the plot is the same, very few of the individual events are; when jokes from the telly version are in the book, he usually changes either the set-up or the punchline, and more new jokes than you'd get in a hundred years of Chibnall episodes. Go back when you're in the right mood and you'll probably love it.

Jerzy Bondov

The Rose and the Day of the Doctor novelisations are both terrific. I'm really looking forward to Shearman's Dalek one, should be good.

pigamus

So do they own Target now, or is it just some kind of licensing deal

purlieu


Doctor Who and the New World Order St Anthony's Fire by Mark Gatiss

I enjoy a good mystery. And this book has mystery in spades. After dropping Ace off for a holiday in a forest on a nearby planet, The Doctor and Benny head off to Betrushia to see its famed rings. When they land in the middle of a war between two facts of the reptilian species living there, the book threatens to go down that road. But then we have the armies unable to contact any of their cities and major towns, city-sized black ships flying over and destroying everything in sight, inexplicable earthquakes, an amorphous yellow creature rising from the ground and eating people, and rumours of an ancient evil - The Keth - returning to destroy all life on the planet. Meanwhile, an unnamed woman (Ace, obviously), spends her life, shaved-headed, in service to a Cathedral run by a sadistic faith whose main aim seems to be killing anyone who doesn't serve Saint Anthony, and torturing anybody who does. As she escapes her monastic life, she discovers she's actually in a technologically advanced building (the black ship, obviously).
It's a proper page-turner of a book, and I got through it in two sittings. The religious satire in it is about as unsubtle as they come - the sadistic, murderous zealots trying to indoctrinate or kill the whole galaxy turn out to be Catholics - but I enjoyed its bluntness, particularly as the leader, Magna Yong, is clearly a grotesque, exaggerated character written for laughs (at one point he tortures and kills a kitten). The resolution is basically just technobabble, reminiscent of some of the more questionable Star Trek episodes, but this didn't bother me too much as I generally enjoyed the writing and overall story.
I was quite surprised to find the book is rated quite poorly by a lot of fans. After a lot of exceptionally slow, boring stories and tedious grimdark shit, this felt like a breath of fresh air to me. The Betrushians are a believable species who are written with enough sympathy to make them feel like 'people', whilst regularly reminding us that they are in fact reptiles. The plot had enough mystery and interesting reveals that were neither patronising nor inexplicable or oblique to keep me wanting to read more. The main characters were all very well portrayed. Great stuff.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: purlieu on January 15, 2021, 06:23:37 PMwritten for laughs (at one point he tortures and kills a kitten).

Nothing really to add, I just thought it would be funny to strip that of any context. I do remember this one being one of my favourites at the time it came out though.


Gurke and Hare

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on January 16, 2021, 04:14:20 PM
Lovely little Tom Baker interview here:

https://twitter.com/grahamkw/status/1350455577806336004

Thanks for that - I didn't realise he was writing more memoirs, that's fantastic. Bless him.

Pranet

Seem to be remember someone on here bemoaning the fact that the Wife In Space website was taken down- well Neil Perryman has put it back up "until lockdown is over".

http://wifeinspace.com/

daf

Cracking stuff!  (anyone else here got the full set of paperbacks?)

Gurke and Hare


daf


purlieu

Fucking hell, that's a bold move.

Gurke and Hare

You have to chuck out a dud every now and then, you can't just leave them all until the end. Anyway, it's not as bad as its reputation suggests. Yes, the first story is the worst thing ever, but the rest is good. Yes, it is.

Malcy

Always enjoy the special trailers they do for these sets.

purlieu

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on January 21, 2021, 01:41:11 PM
but the rest is good. Yes, it is.
Oh God it's not. Paradise Towers is a good idea utterly ruined by an appalling script, laughable acting and CBBC production values. Delta and the Bannermen is a non-story with a couple of mildly amusing lines in it. Dragonfire is the only half decent story there. I hate myself for paying £50 for this horrible, horrible series.

Quote from: purlieu on January 21, 2021, 02:06:43 PMI hate myself for paying £50 for this horrible, horrible series.

That's pretty much what I said when series 23 was announced.

Peru

Wow- £50 for the worst series of Doctor Who ever broadcast.

Deanjam

The extras usually justify buying these for me if the seasons are a bit weak. The curse of being a completest.

Deanjam

Quote from: Peru on January 21, 2021, 02:52:34 PM
Wow- £50 for the worst series of Doctor Who ever broadcast.

Both of Colins are worse due to the presence of Colin.

daf

Oi! Colin is actually the BEST Doctor Who!

And I am unanimous in this!

Replies From View

£50?  Wow.  Quite surprised they can justify selling a season 23-26 set for the same price as any preceding one.  They are half the length of any season after 1970!  Only a third of a 1960s season!

Replies From View

Quote from: daf on January 21, 2021, 03:18:06 PM
Oi! Colin is actually the BEST Doctor Who!

And I am unanimous in this!

Honestly, when I see interviews of him from this era I think he could have been a good Doctor.  He had a quiet, dry, eccentric wit that came across when he could be relaxed and spontaneous.  But I don't think he was capable of portraying those qualities without being spontaneous.  With any script, anything rehearsed, he was ponderous and theatrical.

The bellowing, stomping Doctor.  Not my cup of tea personally but my preference has always been for nuanced and interesting things rather than that kind of one-note, big-faced, overly actorish stuff.  You're not miles away on a stage, Colin!  You can try something more subtle!

McDead

I'm delighted this set is coming out, but fuck me, fifty quid for fourteen episodes... The extras better be bloody good.

daf

Quote from: Replies From View on January 21, 2021, 03:21:54 PM
£50?  Wow.

£44.99 actually, and if you order it from Amazon you could get it for £39.99 and they've got a £5 off (for any order over £25) - type in DISCOUNT5P in the vouchers box at the checkout.

Limited to the first 10,000, but it was still available this morning, so worth a go (only works once though!)

Replies From View

Quote from: Deanjam on January 21, 2021, 02:53:21 PM
The extras usually justify buying these for me if the seasons are a bit weak. The curse of being a completest.

I reckon that if you already have all the DVDs they should give these blu ray sets to you gratis, as a reward for being a good human being.


Tokens, mate.  Weetabix style.

daf

Quote from: Replies From View on January 21, 2021, 03:24:18 PM
Honestly, when I see interviews of him from this era I think he could have been a good Doctor.  He had a quiet, dry, eccentric wit that came across when he could be relaxed and spontaneous.  But I don't think he was capable of portraying those qualities without being spontaneous.  With any script, anything rehearsed, he was ponderous and theatrical.

The bellowing, stomping Doctor.  Not my cup of tea personally but my preference has always been for nuanced and interesting things rather than that kind of one-note, big-faced, overly actorish stuff.  You're not miles away on a stage, Colin!  You can try something more subtle!

It sounds like a joke doesn't it - "Colin Baker is the Best Doctor" - but then I'm weighing his tiny TV ouvre against well over a hundred Big Finish stories - all a world away from the bellowing prick character he is on the TV.

Off the top of my head, one to get a flavour would be 'Doctor Who and The Pirates' - it's free on spotify, Bill Oddie's in it, and episode 3 is a musical! (All you need to know is that he's currently traveling with a middle aged history lecturer called Evelyn Smythe - who has a fondness for chocolate cakes)

Norton Canes

I've got all four S24 DVDs and I find myself perfectly well catered for in the extras department. There's nothing that would tempt me to fork out a further 40-something quid on the same episodes, certainly not desperate looking stuff like At the Doctor's Table.

Norton Canes

If they'd put the entire extras budget into refashioning Paradise Towers with Sylv, Bonnie and new guest cast, making it look vaguely competent and professional... then I'd be interested.

Blofelds Cat

Quote from: Peru on January 21, 2021, 02:52:34 PM
Wow- £50 for the worst series of Doctor Who ever broadcast.

Not been watching the current series then?

Norton Canes

Season 23 wants to sort this out in the car park right now