Good afternoon lady and gentle readers, recently it was Big Finishes 21st anniversary of releasing Doctor Who output. Blimey 21 years, what better way to celebrate than with a list and for your pleasure I have ranked the first 100 releases of The Big Finish monthly range. Enjoy!
100. Nekromanteia, this story comes in last and its due to an incident in the story that I wont go into yet I firmly believe everyone whose heard it will remember. The unpleasantness haunts the story and makes it a story I will most likely not listen to again.
99. Pier Pressure, sadly the lowest story due to quality and at this point I must stress that this is my opinion which you are free to disagree with. Its dull, plodding and at times a struggle to listen to. The sequence where The Doctor takes liberties with a deck chair and a pensioner maybe the worst in the series. There are a few rather nice things in this play such as a nod to Carry On Screaming and a lovely William Hartnell. Max Millar played by Roy Hudd is very good casting. The best way I can sum this up is during a high point of boredom the characters start playing eye spy.
98. Scherzo, if anything I feel a bit churlish putting this play so low. As a theme it reminds me of Waiting for Godot with meaningless and possibly endless repetition something that I find eerily scary and horror is a recurring theme of Robert Shearmans Big Finish output. The play is both a story in its own right as well as dealing with the aftermath of the previous story and season arcs. At this point I want to point out that I listen to these stories blind without any knowledge of the story. Looking back at the actual plot of the story its something that should press my positive buttons, however the reason I have this so low is because The Doctor and Charley are acting so annoying during this story that it just drags the story down. This is the first story I've come to that I will freely admit could move in the rankings with a re-listen.
97. Scaredy Cat, I have no memory of this story what so ever bar a child endlessly repeating "scaredy cat" over and over again and the fact that Arthur Bostrom is in it. I remember not liking it but from what I gather it was heavily rewritten due to the TV show returning to our screens hence why its so short.
96. Terror Firma, oh eck its the third 8th Doctor story in a row! Don't worry I will be squeeing about Paul McGann stories later in the rankings. This story sees the 8th Doctor, Charley and C'rizz return to the main universe however they unfortunately run into Davros and the Daleks. There is an aspect of this story very memorable that links back to an earlier story. Its a very interesting story as a whole and quite frankly its down this low due to the strength of other stories rather than weaknesses of its own. Hearing Paul McGann interact with Terry Molloys Davros is a delight. This is the start of an interesting direction for C'rizz and a good jumping on point. If you're looking to pick a TARDIS team and follow it along. Personally I find this story a tad unsatisfying due to the debate between The Doctor and Davros however it is often interesting.
95. Roof of the World, a rather dull forgetful story that does something pretty bloody awesome with the Big Finish created companion Erimem. For one episode this is genuinely Big Finish at its height going in an unexpected direction, shocking the listener and raising the level of the story to something special - for an episode. The surrounding story is rather forgettable though.
94. Red Dawn, the earliest story in the range so far featuring the 5th Doctor, Peri and the Ice Warriors. Its another case of one good episode as the opening episode feels like a William Hartnell era first parter as the regulars explore where they've landed mixed in with a ship landing on Mars. Things turn remarkably uninteresting when the Ice Warriors wake up and as such its a weak comeback for our favourite Martians. Of note is an interesting cast featuring Georgia Tennant, Robert Jezek and Stephen Fewell.
93. Invaders From Mars, another 8th Doctor story appearing early but this is a tale of two halfs. The first two episodes are dreadful with not a lot going on and having to many characters to introduce. The second half is absolutely gorgeous - full of ideas and charm. Also the Orson Welles War of the World plot kicks in. In fact I'd recommend only listening to the second half Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson are amongst the guest cast. Some people moaned at the time that it was a waste given they were saddled with American accents. I however think they're good value and lots of fun as is the story if you give it time to get going.
92. The Dark Flame, its a rare main range appearance for Bernice Summerfield as she hooks up with the 7th Doctor and Ace. As a story its not very rememberable bar the fact Bernice is in it. In terms of quality it feels a little bit off - like the mix is wrong. On paper its a very traditional story however there is no fluff its a bit depressing. Michael Praed off of Robin Hood in the 1980s is lots of fun however with a good OTT performance.
91. The Creed of the Kromon, it is a genuine shock that half of the bottom 10 stories in this ranking are made up of Paul McGann stories. Creed sets the tone for the divergent universe arc, it introduces The Kro'ka, gives The Doctor a new companion in C'rizz and seriously screws with Charley. My enduring memory of this story is trying to listen to it and falling asleep five times, for ages I had no idea how this story started. Rest assured this story is interesting, has a bit of a hard task in setting everything up given the nature of the previous story. There isn't a lot of fun to be had here as its very dry and paced terribly - it feels like it goes on for days - what we do get is technically well done, well acted and well written however its paced terribly and feels like it goes on for days.
Drawing conclusions from this part of the rankings theres a lot of stories that I like - even if its one episode. There are a lot of stories here which I would say aren't bad, to take a cricketing analogy there are a lot stories that take a swing and miss. I hope you enjoyed this ranking and look out for more.
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