Doctor Who

[McDohl]

But Walken as the Sixth? That would mean he was the doctor everyone hated. and I can't hate Walken.

[Smiler]

Everyone hates Colin Baker????

[Thad]

Well, everyone hates the Sixth Doctor. There's a difference.

Consensus seems to be -- and I'm inclined to agree -- that Baker wasn't the problem, it's that the show was being run by people who didn't like Doctor Who.

I hear he's gotten quite popular with his recent Big Finish work.

[Bal]

I think Walken was put in that role because both he and Colin Baker are known to be a bit, lets say, over the top at times.

[Thad]

New recurring character cast. Some sites are using the word "Companion" and others aren't, but wouldn't it be interesting if we had a fiftysomething Doctor bouncing around spacetime with two schoolteachers again?

And giving Clara a coworker might help alleviate the Generic Companion Blues she's been suffering. "Nanny-turned-teacher" can absolutely make for some intriguing stories -- I should know, I married one -- and I think some of Clara's better moments (Nightmare in Silver, the beginning of The Name of the Doctor) have been built around her job description.

[Büge]

[Thad]

Doctor Who Humble Bundle features a bunch of comics and an Android game.

I liked the Tenth Doctor comics all right, didn't catch much of the Eleventh Doctor ones, and thought Prisoners of Time had a strong start but was disappointed when Pia Guerra couldn't finish it. (EDIT: I have not read Prisoners of Time; I confused it with The Forgotten, a previous multi-Doctor miniseries from a few years back. As for Prisoners, I thumbed through it in the store and wasn't impressed with the art, but that's all I can say about it.) I haven't been able to get my hands on The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who but I've been wanting to give it a read because it's Paul Cornell.

[Kayma]

Briefly considered that bundle, but I don't think I can do it. That serenity/Buffy style of drawing real life actors in too close a manner is too off putting for me.

[TedBelmont]

Briefly considered that bundle, but I don't think I can do it. That serenity/Buffy style of drawing real life actors in too close a manner is too off putting for me.

That's one of the reasons I couldn't get into the Civil War-era Thunderbolts comic, because for some reason someone decided Norman Osborn really needed to look like Tommy Lee Jones with weird hair.

[Thad]

Briefly considered that bundle, but I don't think I can do it. That serenity/Buffy style of drawing real life actors in too close a manner is too off putting for me.

I'm inclined to agree, but keep in mind you're looking at covers, not interiors.

Like I said, I haven't read most of these, but I remember a good big chunk of the Tenth Doctor era was drawn by Paul Grist and, for my money, looked pretty appealing. And I caught Mark Buckingham's name on some of the covers; he's the main artist on Fables and I like his work. (That said, as noted above I DID flip through Prisoners of Time and wasn't impressed.)

It might be worth seeing if you can get a better look at the interiors (through online reviews or whatever). The Bundle page really should have included some actual pages to look at instead of leaving everyone to judge the books by their covers.


EDIT: Oh, they DO have a few pages of each set. Series 1 and 2 and Prisoners of Time do indeed look pretty bad, though it bears noting that you're only looking at the first few pages of a single issue of each rather than a sampling of the multiple issues each set actually includes.

I DO like the look of Series 3 and The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who, even if the latter definitely DOES fall under the "drawing Matt Smith" category.

[Büge]

That's one of the reasons I couldn't get into the Civil War-era Thunderbolts comic, because for some reason someone decided Norman Osborn really needed to look like Tommy Lee Jones with weird hair.

If you look closely, the artist also made Robbie Baldwin look like Fight Club-era Edward Norton, which was actually kind of clever and lazy.

[zaratustra]

bitch you do not diss norman osborn written by warren ellis to my face

[Thad]

[Thad]

Let's talk Big Finish.

I've listened to a few Eighth Doctor audios.

Storm Warning is the first (and McGann's first return to the role after the TV movie). It's pretty decent and has a zeppelin.

The Chimes of Midnight is fucking exquisite; it's widely regarded as the all-time greatest of the Big Finish audio stories, and with good reason. It's a murder mystery and an excellent time loop story all in one; I'll leave it at that but also suggest that you should probably listen to Storm Warning first because it helps to know a little bit of Charley's backstory.

I have mixed feelings about An Earthly Child. It's nice to catch up with Susan and meet the Doctor's great-grandson Alex (played by Paul McGann's son Jake), but I couldn't suspend disbelief for the premise that Alex has made it to his teens without finding out his mother is an alien. It feels a lot like setup; Susan and Alex show up a couple more times after, including in To the Death, which is one everybody keeps recommending to me.

And Shada is adapted from the unfinished Fourth Doctor serial written by Douglas Adams; you can listen or watch a limited-animation version for free at the Beeb. It's definitely a Fourth Doctor story with the Eighth Doctor shoehorned into it (and has to spend some time in the beginning on explaining why Romana and K-9 are along for the ride), but Adams's material is strong and it's fascinating to see how much of it he reused in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Professor Chronotis is, unsurprisingly, a Time Lord).


Beyond those, there's a pretty prodigious body of work there and it's hard to know where to go next. Some links:

Ratings and reviews:
The Time Scales
Big Finish Reviews

Best Of lists:
doctorwho.tv
What Culture
Warped Factor

Guides:
Den of Geek
The Digital Fix

And somebody in a Bleeding Cool comments thread recommended the following to me (including Doctors 4-7 as well, though I've been focusing on 8 here):

Fourth Doctor: Renaissance Man (haven't listened to many of his, have to catch up)
Fifth Doctor: Kingmaker, Loups-Garoux, Roof Of The World, Son Of The Dragon, Council of Nicaea
Sixth Doctor: Condemned, Davros, Holy Terror, Wormery, Project Lazarus
Seventh Doctor: Colditz, Master, Bang Bang A Boom, Fires Of Vulcan, Death In The Family, Harvest, Fearmonger, Live 34, Settling
Eighth Doctor: Storm Warning, Chimes Of Midnight and Earthly Child (I still have to mention them though you've heard), Scherzo, Faith Stealer, Neverland, Seasons of Fear, Silver Turk, Minuet In Hell (some revile it, I love it), To The Death and the two Dark Eyes sets.

The ones that seem to keep showing up (other than the ones already mentioned) are:
Neverland
Blood of the Daleks (1, 2)
Human Resources (1, 2)
Lucie Miller/To the Death
Dark Eyes (1, 2)

Maybe I'll turn my eyes (ears?) toward those.

Anybody else listened to these or have any recommendations?

[Thad]

[Büge]

Er, yes.

Although, it would have been a delight to see Marty Feldman as a companion.

[Thad]

Yeah, thought I'd seen that posted but couldn't find it at a glance. Usual complaint with big general dump threads as opposed to more focused and specific ones.

Anyway yeah there it is again.

[Lottel]

I have mixed feelings about An Earthly Child. It's nice to catch up with Susan and meet the Doctor's great-grandson Alex (played by Paul McGann's son Jake), but I couldn't suspend disbelief for the premise that Alex has made it to his teens without finding out his mother is an alien. It feels a lot like setup; Susan and Alex show up a couple more times after, including in To the Death, which is one everybody keeps recommending to me.

BRAG TIME! I met Paul McGann and had him sign my CD of an Earthly Child and he was beyond thrilled to do so. It was his favourite thing he's ever done Who-wise, simply because he loves his son and to help his son achieve his dream of becoming an actor is the best thing he could ever do, according to him.

As he was signing my CD, he kept pulling out pictures of his kid out and point to him and saying "That's my son there! Look at that shirt! What a kid." Eventually the convention manager came over and politely told him to move the line along. That's when Paul put his arm on me and introduced me to the guy as his good friend.


But yeah, it's not the GREATEST audiobook my great, awesome story aside.

[Thad]

[Caithness]

It's very convincing.