Doctor Who General - /WHO/

APOLOGIZE! Edition

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>2005 was 12 years ago

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I hope it'll match the quality of last year's Fivey trilogy, but I don't think it will.

Am I the only one who rather liked the Slitheen? They had a dry, dignified wit to them that was kind of refreshing

youtu.be/cWUBaTL2Y8g

It's a bit bland, but it's still very Fivey (that's not meant to be an insult.)
Finished episode two. It ended on a cliffhanger type thing that you can just picture as a classic "monster-attacking-somebody-and-somebody-about-to-die" scene. It was Adric. Though time can be rewritten, I can't imagine that I'm really expected to believe that this is where Adric dies.
Taking a break for now.

What would be a good introduction to the Big Finish series of adventures? I would prefer something that works very well as a standalone rather than a piece of an epic of stories?

Also, if anyone would care to provide some more info it'd be appreciated?
>Which Doctors have some of the best stories?
>Do the episodes heavily range in type (drama, comedy, mystery)?
>What would you say the quality of the episodes are? Better than, less than, or equal to previous episodes?

I've heard spectacular things about the Dark Eyes series that involves McGann but i'm worried I'd have to plow through his entire back catalog to appreciate/understand?

>They had a dry, dignified wit
Yeah those fart jokes were the pinnacle of refined humour

Give me farting green monsters over ISIS zygons any day of the week.

I have no idea why I decided to end every sentence with a question mark. Kinda stupid.

I wouldn't say any day of the week but they definitely are better than Series 1 made them out to be.

That's got me thinking, are there any major fan edits for Doctor Who like autists do for movies? I'd actually like to see an anti-cheese cut for RTD era. No fart jokes, no pop-music, no Doctor/companion romance.

What would /who/ do to RTD Who?

What would /who/ do to Moffat Who?

>inb4 delete everything
Let's say you had to keep most of the stories, or most of the episode.

If you want standalone stories, try The Holy Terror, Jubilee, Master, Spare Parts, The Silver Turk, or Davros.

1, 6, and 8 usually have the best ratio of good stories.

Genre can vary heavily at times. Depends on the writer mostly. If it's written by Shearman, Morris, or Dorney, you've got a good'un.

Oh God, the quality. The quality for the early Main Range jumbled so much from absolute classics to complete shit. It found some stability when Briggs took over about ten years ago, but it's still haphazard at times. It helps if you use Docoho, The Time Scales, or Styre from audioreviews if you need to figure out which audios are worth listening.

I've only listened to McGann and Hurt audios, both exceptional for the most part.

The EDAs are probably the easiest to get into. Much shorter stories than the monthly range, sort of a NuWho format as opposed to the classic 25 minute episodes in long series.
Some of his series have small arcs, but much less involved than NuWho.

>Do the episodes heavily range in type (drama, comedy, mystery)?
Yes. Pretty much every type has been done. There are some really good horror/mystery stories in McGann's monthly range, there are some really fun episodes, some really experimental bizarre stuff, and not McGann but Colin Baker has a musical.

>What would you say the quality of the episodes are? Better than, less than, or equal to previous episodes?
They vary too much. Robert Shearman always writes GOAT stories, Briggs has some good stuff and a bunch of shit. For the most part the EDAs gradually increase in story quality with each episode, his last series (4) is fucking GOAT and continues on into Dark Eyes 1 which is like a four-hour long masterpiece.
Unfortunately they decided to keep doing box sets instead of series, so Dark Eyes 2-4 are kind of meh, and DC is mostly garbage from what I listened to. McGann's quality has been in decline because of this shit, but Hurt is much better with the short box sets.

>What would be a good introduction to the Big Finish series of adventures?
It depends on what you're searching for !
If you want to try out audio, Chimes of Midnight is GOAT, cheap, features Eight which can be a nice novelty for you, and uses the fact that it's audio well.
Deadline is also a nice standalone, bleak but great, it's a "what if" kind of story, one hour long, that follows the life of a person who was supposed to create Doctor Who but didn't. Sounds weird but worth it.

>Which Doctors have some of the best stories?
It depends on who you ask, but I have always felt that Six has loads of classic, and more than any other Doctors on audio. A lot will disagree.

>Do the episodes heavily range in type (drama, comedy, mystery)?

Ye,s they even go in places left unexplored by the show (historicals with post-sixties Doctors, meta-narrative with the incredible Doctor Who and the Pirates, Star Trek parody, story told through radio recording, story which can be listened in different orders, story told through the eyes of an autisitc child, some stuff are bleaker than the show can afford to be, while some stories are full-on comedies.
>What would you say the quality of the episodes are? Better than, less than, or equal to previous episodes?
I'm not sure I understand you, but the overall qualities varied by Doctor.
Six used to be really strong but has gotten some poor stories lately, while Five had an incredible run last year after quite a lot of mediocrity before.

A lot of audios are average and not esential in the slightest, but at its best I think that BF is better than the TV show. And quite a lot of what they do or did is very interesting.

what is the GOATest Doctor Who idea you have ever thought of?

>are there any major fan edits for Doctor Who like autists do for movies?
There's some website with fan edits for every story ever made.
I'm searching for it right now, will psot soon.

Got it !
whoflix.wordpress.com/

I can't tell you because I'm going to be showrunner one day.

>In Cart
Jubilee
Chimes of Midnight
Blood of the Daleks

>Undecided
THe Holy Terror (do I need to know anything beforehand?)
Zagreus (same with this title).
War Doctor (there are about to be four box sets, which one do I go with?)

>listening to Big Finish podcast
>Hear Briggs mention Rob Shearman
>Get excited
>Turns out they only had lunch together and Shearman still has no fucking idea when he'll write another audio

Goddamn it.

All you need to know about The Holy Terror is that 6 is traveling with a talking penguin.

And fuck no to Zagreus. Do not listen to that. It ranks near Dimensions in Time as far as shitty anniversary specials go. People talk shit about Briggs, but at least he can churn out a good story once in a blue moon. Gary Russell on the other hand is always horrible.

For the War Doctor, start with Only the Monstrous.

Get Holy Terror, Colditz, and War Doctor 1

You just made me remember that I've talked to Shearman before. I messaged him about writing for Doctor Who and he gave me writing advice. He's a nice guy.

Jubilee is amazing, one of the first stories I ever listened to.

If you want something with 5 in I would recommend Spare Parts, really good Cybermen origin story.

I mean in addition to the three you already have

why has Shearman never written for the show other than the GOAT Dalek episode?

what did he say?

come on lad tell us, I'll be the Moffat to your Miles

He wanted to take a break from Doctor Who in general to focus on short story writing. Also, he found writing a dozen drafts for one episode excruciating to do.

Holy shit, I didn't think it would actually be a thing. Have you actually watched any? There's way to much text for me to get an idea of what I'd be getting into. A short list of cuts would have been nice but the guy writes a fucking paragraph for each thing he cuts and each thing he didn't cut, I don't want to read a book to find out what the edit is like.

I haven't watched since the last few specials. Is it really worth it or should I just wait for Moffatt to fuck off? It sucks, I really want to like Capaldi's Doctor but his stories are just so lame.

>what did he say?
It was a long time ago, I can't really remember. We talked for awhile. I think he just said the usual things, like write as much as you can so you improve. And the usual "if you want to write for doctor who you should probably try establishing yourself as a writer with non-doctor who work first". Not super helpful stuff but he was polite and encouraging, said something about me already being ahead of him when he was at my age since I'm already actively thinking about writing or something.

I also messaged Sarah Dollard after I saw Face the Raven to compliment her work. She wasn't as interested in talking, which is far enough since I'm a stranger and they probably get random messages all the time, but she was still polite.

>the last few specials
what episodes?

That's the thing, I don't remember shit. The last thing I remember was Clara being the deus ex machina as usual. She doesn't die.

Your cart is good.

The Holy Terror would be a nice addition, Zagreus asks you to have listen to all Eight audios before it and a bit more to be barely understandable so no, and since the War Doctor stories are more expensive than what you have I'll wait to see if you enjoy the format before buying.

Considering the last few specials are the only episodes we've had for a year you've missed literally nothing.

He's very nice.
He accepts his fans on Facebook, so contacting him is quite easy.

I watched Planet of Giant (the pacing felt too fast) and Timelash (technically better I guess but lost its "So bad it's good" charm).
Try some and you'll see if it's your thing.

Should I still just wait till Moffat leaves since he seems utterly incapable of handling Capaldi's Doctor

Met him between Series 1 and 2, asked him if the Daleks would return.

inability to handle writing the doctor is really not Moffat's flaw

>What would be a good introduction to the Big Finish series of adventures?
These have covered most of it - I'd add that a great jumping-on point for Six is The Marian Conspiracy, which introduces Evelyn Smythe (an older lady who teaches History, very different from most companions - she brings out a whole different side of Colin's Doctor, kind of like Wilf with Ten).

Of what I've heard, Six and Seven's stuff has probably been the best - Six got some special attention from the writers, since his TV era was kind of dodgy, and Seven has a really strong run with Ace and hex from The Harvest to A Death in the Family.

For Seven, either The Fearmonger (exellent Seven and Ace story, feels like it could have come straight from Season 26 with some scarily prescient political bits) or The Harvest (which introduces Hex and kicks off all sorts of future developments, although it stands alone well too) are good.

There's also a "Villain Trilogy" that's strong - in particular, Master goes super dark and adds an interesting bit of backstory to the Doctor/Master relationship.

Five's stuff is more traditional, including a lot of sequels to Tom Baker stories, but Spare Parts and The Kingmaker are notable exceptions. And the Fourth Doctor stuff just isn't terribly inspired most of the time, unfortunately.

Yeah, that's why I messaged him in the first place. He seemed to have a reputation as being very approachable. I wish Big Finish accepted submissions, because I honestly think Rob would look over my work and give me advice on how to improve my chances of being accepted if I asked.

But what is the goal of his edits? Is he just trying to abridge everything, fixing continuity, removing farts or other bad decisions? I can't tell what he's actually doing to the stories.

the fan edit of Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent LITERALLY cuts out the entirety of Heaven Sent, skipping from Clara's death in FtR to her being saved in Hell Bent

>'fan edit'
>removes the GOAT episode

what did he mean by this

wat
how does hell bent work without heaven sent

Its goal is to "improve" these stories, from the perspective of an autistic fan.

See for yourself :
whoflix.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/face-the-raven/

>Fan editing the stories individually held no appeal for me whatsoever, so a Movie Edit was always the only option. That presented certain challenges as none of them lead directly into each other

>as none of them lead directly into each other
wat

>tfw the next Miles could very well be someone currently messing around on fan sites like the rec.arts.drwho people did in the 90s

It's a pity they don't keep open submissions in general; the VNAs discovered like 10 or 15 great writers that way. At least Obverse still does it occasionally.

Thank you guys for proving your thoughts on what Big Finish stories are worth listening to. I checked out the catalog and to say it's exapnsive is an understatement. I see main ranges, adventures, box sets, anniversay specials, and spinoffs within the doctor who universe (I was a fan of Torchwood). It's daunting to say the least. One of my friends said listen to Storm Warning if I want an reintroduction to McGann but I heard it wasn't that good. The follow up Sword of Orion I heard was a much stronger episode but fif watorm warning was good then I can add that.
>The Eighth Doctor has always fascinated me because initially he only had once appearance but I late discovered much of the stories that made him stand out were collected in Big Finish.

one more question, is it true that the Sixth Doctor received a proper send off in the Big Finish series because his send off scene was fucking atrocious

...

>Its goal is to "improve" these stories, from the perspective of an autistic fan.
I see. Him writing paragraphs didn't really cover the overall point which is where I was confused. I just started reading some and what I did read in the classic serials just all seemed like he was just shortening stuff, but also adding in weird bits like Hartnell's face to the credits.

Which brings me back to my original question, what kind of things would /who/ autistically cut from RTD Who?

>the showrunners of the future may have used /who/

>It's a pity they don't keep open submissions in general
Yeah, that's honestly what the EU should be about. Training grounds for new writers. It's particularly weird with Big Finish because one of their most active writers (Matt Fitton) was discovered through accepting fan submissions, so you'd think they would be more open to it. And their yearly short trip submission in memory of the BF employee that died is kind of pathetic. It's like the absolute minimum they can do.

>one more question, is it true that the Sixth Doctor received a proper send off in the Big Finish series because his send off scene was fucking atrocious

Yes !
youtube.com/watch?v=BL5pxqYbqlg

Proper? Not really, it was pretty fucking dumb but it was an actual story as opposed to randomly getting shot and bumping his head on the console.

Yeah, in a box set called The Last Adventure. Not the best Sixth Doctor story, but it beats Spiral Scratch and Trial of a Time Lord.

Besides just skipping episodes like Fear Her, I dunno. Lance Parkin once wrote a blog post about how if six-parters like The Ice Warriors were written in the RTD era, it'd only be one episode. You wouldn't have much padding or awkward silence to cut out.

...

Is Moff legitmately /our guy/?

...

I want to see what the place is the Walking Woods. They will do an episode there?

My guess is it's some kind of huge forest where the trees can move and walk around

Sounds hella cool

Someone spoiler me on The Last Adventure
do the events of the story actually result in 6's regeneration, or does it still end in "6 bumped his head and died"?

Ok, but will an episode can be there? This is what I am asking.

No TooMany, I don't think they are having any plans of making an episode in the Walking Woods.

...

Yes. He and Mel pass through a cloud of particles(?) that are only poisonous to Time Lords.He collapses, and nearly doesn't regenerate.
I actually haven't listened to it in forever so I might be getting the details wrong. But the general idea is there..

so they both just forget it happened in typical audio fashion?

Top 3 Favorite Stories of all of NuWho!
>2+ part stories count as one continuous story.
>Pick the episodes that you personally enjoy most of all.

1. Listen
>Half of what makes this episode amazing is the art direction and lighting. Every location is a visual spectacle. The other half is the use of the audience's own imagination is used in the story leaves me with a lingering feeling long soon after.

2. Heaven Sent
>Capaldi the one man show left me absolutely speechless upon my first viewing. Every subsequent watch makes me ponder how other iterations of the Doctor would have fared in such a situation. In terms of NuWho doctors, I think 8 and 9 wouldn't have any issue, 10 having issues with the self sacrifice, and 11 being entirely unpredictable in this situation.

3. The God Complex
>This episode wears it's Stanley Kubrik's style proudly and it's all the stronger for it. A monster than systematically converts individuals into religious self sacrificing fanatics is terrifying and the culmination of the Doctor having to shatter Amy's faith in him was heart wrenching. All in all a fantastic episode.

3 Worst.
1. Fear Her.
>Almost every single episode that involves a child I fucking hate. I despise everything with Coal Hill.

2. Love and Monsters
>A woman got converted into piece of slab and spends the rest of her life giving BJ's to a piece of garbage human being.

4. Forest of the Night.
>Nothing happens...the episode. Also psychic children.

3. Kill the Moon
>The moon is an egg. The Doctor decides to let the human race guide itself and Clara loses her collective shit and hates him for it. I can see her point of view because the Doctor "assumed" she would get the answer right, but that's only because she made an executive decision and said fuck all to democracy. I almost wished Clara got the answer "wrong" because I would have enjoyed seeing the Doctor's reaction.

He usually doesn't talk about previous regenerations.
But maybe they had some kind of explanation. Again, it's been a long time.

>2+ part stories count as one continuous story.
Obviously, and I assume you are saying this because of the last thread, I wasn't being pedantic, that guy listed Heaven Sent and Hell Bent as if they were the same story.

>being this pedantic
They lead right into each other.

So would you count the Key to Time stories as one continuous episode then? How about the E Sapce trilogy? Trial of a Time Lord?

No those are separate episodes.

>Am I the only one who rather liked the Slitheen? They had a dry, dignified wit to them that was kind of refreshing
>>>
> Anonymous 01/13/17(Fri)23:41:02 No.78366188▶
>youtu.be/cWUBaTL2Y8g ypories?
>>Do the episodes heavily range in type (drama, comedy, mystery)?
>>What would you say the quality of the episodes are? Better than, less than, or equal to previous episodes?
>I've heard spectacular things about the Dark Eyes series that involves McGann but i'm worried I'd have to plow through his entire back catalog to appreciate/understand?
>>>
> Anonymous 01/13/17(Fri)23:50:27 No.78366493▶
>
>>They had a dry, dignified wits any day of the week.
>>>
> Anonymous 01/14/17(Sat)00:02:35 No.7tence with a question mark. Kinda stupid.
>
>I wouldn't say any day of the week but they definitely are better than Series 1 made them out to be./14/17(Sat)00:05:54 No.78366921▶
>File: I-don't-like-it.gif (1.48 MB, 340x256)
> (OP)
>
>That's got me thinking, are there any major fan edits for Doctor Who like autists do for movies? I'd actually like to see an anti-cheese cut for RTD era. No fart jokes, no pop-music, no Doctor/companion romance.
>>>
> Anonymous 01
>I've only listened to McGann and Hurt audios, both exceptional for the most part.
>The EDAs are probably the easiest to get into. Much shorter stories than the monthly range, sort of a NuWho format as opposed to the classic 2ts.
>>>
> Anonymous 01/14/17(Sat)00:20:32 No.78367332▶
>
>>What would be a good introduction to the Big Finish series of adventures?
>It depends on what you're searching for !
gtrkiozjg

But they all lead into each other and are part of the same overarching story.
Ark in Space leads directly into The Sontaran Experiment too.

It's not really pedantic, barely anything carries over between the episodes.

Isn't The End of Time the only story to actually be called Part 1 and Part 2?

I think you may be right! Also Bump!

Oh fuck, page ten.
Uhhh, uhhh, I got the Gunfighters and Warriors of the Deep today!
Let's talk about those!

They should play a rendition of this as incidental music in a random episode.
youtube.com/watch?v=-WiRCjfZ6jg

Watched Caves of Androzani yesterday, absolutely GOAT, and the 3rd part cliffhanger is one of the best

Downloading some OldWho right meow. Would you recommend literally starting from the first season or should I just start with a Doctor I want to learn more about?

I literally know nothing about the fifth doctor. Would I be fine jumping right in to Warriors of the Deep?

If you can stand reconstructions, start from season 1, otherwise, start from season 7, with Jon Pertwee, Spearhead from Space

Start with Four. It's good to get the general premise. Then go back to Three when you feel ready, then One and Two when you think you can. It's all great, but some people need to acclimate a little first.
Also Warriors of the Deep is considered one of the worst stories, so I wouldn't recommend doing that, no.

I'll do what you said, start with Baker and work my way backwards. I'm glad you and didn't immediately dismiss the first season as I would like to eventually get a comprehensive look at his "entire" life span. I feel right now I only have a good handle on 9 onward. I'm trying to get into 8 through the audiobooks (I think I'll rewatch the movie tomorrow), but I know jack shit about the Doctors prior to McGann other than basic facts.

If you want to learn more about his entire life span, you'll also have to look into 6B, the audios and the books

Pertwee is good too, but for the most part it's a very different feel than the rest of the series. More heavy in science and espionage than space adventures. It's still good, but it might skew your view of the classics.
Don't try and marathon multiple stories a day though. Take your time and stick to maybe one a day. They're essentially movies.

I know what I'm doing tonight.
youtube.com/watch?v=PSYYdDVCUHI&list=PLRzGkC9jHgJacfobvGdVCLp8Qbq20AFi1

There's a fan edit of Time of the Doctor that skips 11's final scene in the TARDIS and a bunch of stuff at the beginning.

>mfw

>Whilst Capaldi is excellent in this ep, all we really need him to do is to solve the puzzle of where he is and get to Gallifrey so the fun can really begin. Capaldi going solo works incredibly well, making him the first solo Doctor since Tom in The Deadly Assassin. As an idea for having a solo Doctor story it works really well and I wouldn’t mind more solo flights for Twelvy in the future – mind you, must’ve been weird for Peter at the readthrough, with him the only bugger on his side of the table!

I don't understand this guy
He says heaven sent was a good episode but he cuts it all because it's not necessary?
What is he actually trying to achieve with these cuts?

>Should I still just wait till Moffat leaves since he seems utterly incapable of handling Capaldi's Doctor

If you dislike Moffat, yeah probly best to wait till he leaves. He's only writing for one more season anyway.

Personally, I enjoy the Moff written eps overall, more so than some of the other writers. In fact, will miss him when he's gone.

Suggestion: in the meantime, to get a feel of what Chibnall's Who may be like, you could re-watch Torchwood S1 & S2. Also Chib's Who episodes 42, The Hungry Earth/ Cold Blood, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and Power of 3. Also, the Pond Life mini eps are good fun.

>making him the first solo Doctor since Tom in The Deadly Assassin
But 10 and 11 both had companionless episodes.

Don't forget this, it's the best thing Chibnall has written for Doctor Who.
youtube.com/watch?v=XWU6XL9xI4k

But 12 had the only speaking role in heaven sent. That's a little different to your regular companionless episode

My fanedit of Face the Raven uses the last five minutes of Heaven Sent at the end. I did it in response to Whoflix, who got snippy when I suggest he use at least the ending of Heaven Sent

but then why mention The Deadly Assassin?

autism

So I take it Chibnall is going to be the new showunner? He writes good slice of life type/funnier stuff.

>So I take it Chibnall is going to be the new showunner?
yeah

>he seems utterly incapable of handling Capaldi's Doctor
what did you mean by this?

He means just the Doctor and just the villain. Midnight and (I assume) A Christmas Carol had the Doctor on his own companion-wise, but he interacted with other people filling in the role.
For most of The Deadly Assassin, this isn't the case. And even the parts on Gallifrey don't really have him actively speaking to people.

>He writes good slice of life type/funnier stuff.
Examples please