Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

Yeah, I've had trouble with the audios--I've only listened to maybe 10, and have mostly been pretty disappointed, but I keep going back because it's new (to me) Who! With the real Doctor actors!

Cass is a very 90s companion name.

Kess iirs.

several of them are way better than 98% of televised Who ever.

And which are these?

The I, Davros one was really great. I haven't listened to very many.

I've only listened to a couple of dozen, so someone else may have more thorough opinions. But!

If you just want to try one, Jubilee should be it. The story that got Rob Shearman commissioned to write Dalek in the Eccleston series, but approximately 92x better than that. Features Colin with a middle-aged history professor named Evelyn, an excellent pairing.

She also appears in (lots but I'll recommend) the Gilbert-&-Sullivan-as-Who romp Doctor Who And The Pirates!, by Jac Rayner. This is heaps of fun.

Rob Shearman also wrote an earlier Colin story, The Holy Terror, which features his companion from the DWM comic strip, Frobisher the shape-shifting penguin. It's clever and twisty and uses sci-fi to talk about human nature, and is really really well-written for the radio-play medium. (These all apply to Jubilee too, except more so.)

Another lighter one with Colin is The One Doctor, as fun and funny as you'd expect from Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman. Warning: does feature Mel as the companion.


If you can handle her though, and want more comedy, Roberts and Hickman also wrote the Sylvester audio Bang-Bang-A-Boom, which is a parody of 90s Star Trek and Eurovision, at the same damn time.

A classic-series-style Sylvester & Ace was one of the first audios, but written by a Virgin New Adventures-era author, Jon Blum: The Fearmonger.

I dunno if there are any really great Sylv audios. Robophobia, by Nicholas Briggs, is fun for all the opportunities it gives him to rrrroll his Rs, and interesting to hear him without a companion.


Really great Davison though: The Kingmaker, by Nev Fountain. A historical with time travel twistiness, and lots of great jokes. And in-jokes. (Features Peri and an audio-only companion I don't know anything about and is clearly in the middle of an overarching character arc.)

Spare Parts is Davison in the secret origin of the Timelords, by Marc Platt, and is great and terrifying. Not least because of Nick Briggs doing a version of the Tenth Planet cyber-voice. Features Nyssa.

A meat and potatoes Davison with Tegan, Nyssa and Turlough being written in character really well: Heroes Of Sontar, by Alan Barnes.


WIGGY McGANN has so taken to Big Finish that he moved to having his own line of "seasons", also broadcast on radio, and now is doing annual box sets of linked stories.

Rob Shearman wrote another really good early one for him and companion Charley: The Chimes Of Midnight. A Christmas story and a horror story.

Gatiss' best Who ever (or least crappy) might be an Eighth & Charley: Invaders From Mars, mixing Doctor Who and Welles' War Of The Worlds.

In the first "season" of Eighth stories, once those spin off, Horror Of Glam Rock is what the title promises, written by Paul Magrs. This is with companion Lucie Miller, played by Sheridan Smith, who is great with Eight.

The second season has another Magrs story, The Zygon Who Fell To Earth, which could be fun to visit before we get certain aliens on telly again in the 50th.

All of Season Three is meant to be good, but I haven't heard it. I did listen to almost all of Season 4 on the iPlayer when they were repeated on radio early this year though, and that was a great experience - one of the most consistent and coherent series of Who ever, with characters and subplots and themes recurring across the multiple stories.


WILL THIS DO?

I still like Gatiss's Nightshade book a ton

I've only listened to the Big Finish up to about #70, and some of the newer McGanns, but that's a pretty solid list of the good ones. I'd add some that are good in the sense of classic TV Doctor Who, like Spectre of Lanyon Moor, Winter for the Adept, Loups-Garoux, Dust Breeding, and my personal favorite "Ish...". Oh, and in the interest of equal time, The Rapture, Minuet in Hell, and Time of the Daleks are horrifically bad.

secret origin of the Timelords Cybermen

I watched the "Night of the Doctor" mini-episode and made my roommate watch it and he asked me halfway through if I understood what they were talking about, and I admitted I had no idea. Still, enjoyable to watch!

Ahhh hah yeah very fans-only, this mini-ep

Loved Chimes of Midnight and Dark Eyes. When the Big Finish stuff is good it's great. I tend to read reviews and ratings first, because otherwise it can get dire

That's the thing, I've watched all of the new series and have seen probably a half dozen serials from the first four Doctors.

tried to show the mini episode to my wife last night and although she kind of remembers #8 her interest waned after one minute and then when I looked over during the regeneration she was engrossed in her phone.

That's the thing, I've watched all of the new series and have seen probably a half dozen serials from the first four Doctors.

Apart from McGann being the Eighth (this comes after 4), everything else in the episode either refers to nu-Who or is explicitly explained onscreen. You're fine.

i was able to follow it fine and loved it. i came on w/ 11, know very little of what came before (i know which is which and what they look like and general opinions and cw of each era but until i watched a youtube clip of all the regenerations i had no idea what colin baker for example sounded like), keep meaning to watch earlier (in particular classic ie thru davison) stuff but never have the time. the strictly fanboy stuff i esp love though, it reminds me of being a kid and watching movies and shows like (but not) doctor who that were filled w/ mystery for me either cuz of backstory from before i came in or cuz of some aspect or plot point that was going to be incomprehensible to a six year old. it synced well w/ how i experienced the world at that time.

Those ladies are originally from The Brain of Morbius, they are the Sisterhood of Karn on that planet which is near Gallifrey (I think?) - they have a secret elixir that has time-lord regeneration powers. AFAIK that was the only part that is from the original series.

NB: Brain Of Morbius is a story that showed onscreen faces of the Doctor pre-Hartnell, that have never been referred to before or since. So an appropriate link for this episode.

faces of the Doctor pre-Hartnell

Meaning Hartnell was not the first incarnation? I've seen Morbius but don't remember that.

xp True, I didn't think about that!

chap, these faces appear in the mind of Morbius during some sort of psychic wrestling match him and the doctor are engaged in. It could easily be argued that the pre-Hartnell faces are a creation of the the doctor trying to fool Morbius or confuse him or something.

Brain Of Morbius is a story that showed onscreen faces of the Doctor pre-Hartnell, that have never been referred to before or since

Yeah, this is a pretty contentious claim. Also, some of them are probably Morbius's faces.

It's only contentious because nerds; it's plainly what the production team intended at the time. (As well as in-joking by including themselves.) And yes, some are Morbius and some are the Doctor, and we don't know which are which, but having Robert Holmes as either a core identity of The Doctor or an unbalanced enemy of the show's centre make for rich and delightful readings.


NB: Holmes hadn't made up the 12-regeneration limit yet, so the assumption at this point was effectively of unlimited possible lives; the limit cropped up for an in-story purpose the next season. It's funny how collective fandom decided that one-episode throwaway would become canon forever, but the earlier Doctors one-episode throwaway would be forgotten.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y8uNMPJfwQ

Here's the clip btw. One of them looks kinda like Colin Baker. Like the dude with the Victorian tache.

They're all production staff. Barry Letts goes talks about it on the Brian DVD. I can spot Bob Holmes, Douglas Camfield, Phil Hinchcliffe and Barry straight off.

Ok im gonna have to watch "Brain of Morbius" stat! Also i need to catch up on my post-Tom Baker Doctors.

I think I have muddled in my head Barry Letts and Christopher Barry's likenesses. Also I'm pretty sure Graham Harper is the one before Douglas Camfield.

Haha I never knew the Morbius faces were production staff, that's awesome

It's funny how collective fandom decided that one-episode throwaway would become canon forever, but the earlier Doctors one-episode throwaway would be forgotten.

Well, to be fair, fandom didn't decide that. The showrunners did, by making multiple references to the 12-regeneration limit before the reboot started, and the First Doctor being explicitly called such multiple times as well.

that plural is misplaced*, I don't think anyone used it again until JNT, during the Bidmead season, and then still only in the context of The Master -- which context of course showed inherently and textually that the "limit" wasn't actually a limit. It didn't become a tedious embedded part of show canon until L3v1ne got his fingers into the continuity, and the Time Lords started appearing every third story and being exactly the same every time, instead of almost completely different every time as they had been under Dicks' and Holmes' various influences.


(come to think, Terrance might actually be responsible for this - if he used it in more than one Target novel, that's all the reinforcement it would have needed. ISTR the Morbius novel being explicit about the earlier faces not being all Morbs' though?)


*apart from the noun not being a thing that existed at the time but u kno

sic, one day i'm buying you a beer for that big finish summary.

also: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-11-15/doctor-who-50th-anniversary-david-tennant-and-billie-piper-named-best-doctor-and-companion

Best Doctor

Actor %

David Tennant 56.1
Matt Smith 15.93
Tom Baker 10.05
Christopher Eccleston 6.59
Patrick Troughton 2.86
Jon Pertwee 2.38
Peter Davison 1.59
Sylvester McCoy 1.36
Paul McGann 1.35
William Hartnell 0.9
Colin Baker 0.88

Best Comapnion

Character / Actor %

Rose Tyler - Billie Piper 25.09
Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen 15.42
Donna Noble - Catherine Tate 12.32
River Song - Alex Kingston 9.09
Amy Pond - Karen Gillan 4.79
Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines 4.1
Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman 3.49
Ace - Sophie Aldred 3.09
Clara Oswald - Jenna-Louise Coleman 2.65
Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman 2.54
(Colonel then) Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart - Nicholas Courtney 2.39
Romana - Mary Tamm, Lalla Ward 1.89
Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill 1.8
Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins 1.26
K-9 - John Leeson, David Brierley 1.14
Jo Grant - Katy Manning 1.01
Leela - Louise Jameson 0.97
Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding 0.83
Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant 0.73
Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill 0.67
Ian Chesterton - William Russell 0.51
Nyssa - Sarah Sutton 0.49
Adric - Matthew Waterhouse 0.48
Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford 0.44
Harry Sullivan - Ian Marter 0.42
Strax - Dan Starkey 0.34
Turlough - Mark Strickson 0.31
Liz Shaw - Caroline John 0.28
Craig Owens - James Corden 0.25
Madame Vastra - Neve McIntosh 0.15
Dr Grace Holloway - Daphne Ashbrook 0.11
Melanie Bush - Bonnie Langford 0.1
Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke 0.1
Lady Christina de Souza - Michelle Ryan 0.1
Vicki - Maureen O'Brien 0.08
Steven Taylor - Peter Purves 0.08
Polly - Anneke Wills 0.07
Jackson Lake - David Morrissey 0.07
Sergeant Benton - John Levene 0.06
Jenny Flint - Catrin Stewart 0.06
Dodo Chaplet - Jackie Lane 0.04
Adam Mitchell - Bruno Langley 0.04
Captain Adelaide Brooke - Lindsay Duncan 0.04
Ben Jackson - Michael Craze 0.03
Astrid Peth - Kylie Minogue 0.03
Katarina - Adrienne Hill 0.01
Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin 0.01
Kamelion - Gerald Flood 0.01
Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh 0.01
Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury 0
Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling 0

Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury 0

Obviously being crazy was a prerequisite for entering the survey.

Tom Baker over Matt Smith? the hell you sau

say

don't say

Romana - Mary Tamm, Lalla Ward

oh come on, you can't split up Romana I and II? what a weak survey.

adric beat strax

I don't think anyone used it again until JNT, during the Bidmead season, and then still only in the context of The Master -- which context of course showed inherently and textually that the "limit" wasn't actually a limit.

I was thinking of Mawdryn Undead where the fact that the Doctor is the Fifth Doctor and has eight regenerations left is pretty explicit, it is a plot point. I don't know much about the behind-the-scenes stuff, but it clearly wasn't something the fans just took from the Deadly Assassin and nothing else.

ie me otm.

http://youtu.be/rEmm6UP5G88

Fuck, I can never get these bastards to embed.

Just paste in the "long" Youtube link, a la:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEmm6UP5G88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEmm6UP5G88

giant spoiler is out for the 50th but I won't actually mention it here. if you search around you'll find it. no idea if it's true.

went to a Waris Hussein Q&A on Sunday, and later stood beside him while watching a staged recreation of An Unearthly Child.

I realised I didn't actually care about spoilering the episode for myself that much and had a look and it turns out that a) that is a massive spoiler and b) I really, really hope it happens.

other ppl itt might care tho so pls guys

Yeah I'm not going to mention it here.

I'm assuming this is the one that was in Bleeding Cool yesterday, that the individual in came from said the BBC had explicitly asked him not to release it but fuck'em?

Not a spoiler, rather a new minisode:

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2013/11/the-last-day-201113103008.html

The clip is currently listed for £2.49 in the United Kingdom store, or for free in the United States.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c203/abunay/FunnyStuff/WTF-DoctorWho.gif

Check the update: confirmed mistake, free everywhere now.

Or just go here

http://io9.com/the-time-war-is-hell-in-the-newest-doctor-who-minisode-1468384384