Big Finish Monthly Ranked 10-6

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. This is the second round of the rankings taking from 10-6. As usual beware spoilers and enjoy!

10. The Fearmonger, we go into the top ten with the first proper 7th Doctor story in which he is accompanied by Ace. So much of why this story is so high is due to the feel of this story, in which we had to wait an agonising six months for after Sirens of Time came out. I haven't mentioned it very much in these blogs but so much of what Big Finish does best is the sound design - making a story sound like it came from the era its set in. If you were to ask me what release in this ranking list sounded the most like a TV story from the era I say "The Fearmonger" every time. It genuinely sounds like it could have come from season 27 while also having the feel of a very early NA. Its moody and atmospheric in a way the TV show could never be. Added to this we have an engaging political plot, a good guest turn by Jacqueline Pearce off of Blakes Seven and is doing interesting things with the audio medium.

9. The Church and the Crown, without doubt this story if the best romp in this list. The 5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem land in 1626 and its essentially Doctor Who does the Musketeers. It is utter fun, full of witty lines, fun characters and a few eyebrow raising moments. The mission statement for this story must have been "FUN" as its so high in my list due to the enjoyment level. Peter in particular sounds like he's having a whale of a time, even when the plot kicks in theres an element of fun and Peter remains as breathy as he did during season 19. I refuse to put it any lower and sometimes being a good straightforward is enough to score high.

8. Arrangements For War, we're back in wandering into unexpected areas territory as we get an intimate love story nestled inside a war story. Its the 6th Doctor and Evelyn in a story that is pivotal to Evelyns overall story. Its both one of the smallest scale stories as well as feeling like an epic. This is a proper weepy, one for valentines day a story that will take your hart rip it to shreds and then put it back together again. Both The Doctor and Evelyn go on an emotional journey during this story with neither exiting the same as they entered. Going back to how I said it was pivotal to Evelyns overall arc neither character exit this story the same way they entered it. 

7. The Pirates, this is going to be one of the hardest stories to sum up - on one hand its Doctor Who doing Mills & Boon with pirates and on the other hand its Doctor Who ripping your heart to pieces. This is one of the most emotional stories Big Finish have done while at the same time it has a singing Bill Oddie in it. This is a deep dive of emotions while being disguised as a romp, I love it when stories are working on multiple levels and the first time I heard this story it absolutely ruined me. An amazing story but a hard one to revisit.

6. The Kingmaker, its the 5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem in a witty romp that is also a whodunnit a whatdunnit, a history lesson and a morality lesson. Again this story is utter fun and packed with witty gun dialogue. However there is a lot going on, as opposed to a contract being taken out on The Doctor instead he has a writing deadline looming and what should be a fact finding trip to finish his book turns into four episodes of shenanigans and silly buggers that are a joy. There is twist after twist, revelation after revelation and a string of unexpected (off screen and on screen) cameos. Again we're working on multiple levels as when the jokes and revelations hit the stories asking the listener questions that linger long after the disc ends.

Thank you for reading and the top five will be published in the coming weeks.

Heroes - Company Man

After a Christmas break its back to season one of Heroes picking up exactly where we left off as Matt Parkman and Ted Sprague break into the Bennet household in search of answers. We see the scene we ended on last time from the opposing characters point of view. From this point onwards we get a tight intricate character study of Noah Bennet. Its astounding that I have no memory of this episode as its quite simply one of the best. Also I'm wandering into "bad fan" territory as I'd forgotten that Eric Roberts made an appearance - sharing two scenes with Christopher Eccleston giving us a mini Doctor Who and the Master confrontation.

The meat and bones of this story is the writing team singling out one character and doing a deep dive on them. In this case its Noah Bennet, we are told his back story in flashbacks and the episode sends him on a journey with a hart breaking ending. Even before the end of this episode I was looking at Noah differently and considering he's a major player on the show the ending has far reaching consequences for everyone. Everyone involved in this episode is on their A game and I hope somebody won something from this episode be it director or cast. 10/10 and without doubt this was a classic.

Big Finish Monthly Ranked 15-11

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. This is the second round of the rankings taking from 15-11. As usual beware spoilers and enjoy!

15. Thicker Than Water, we're wondering into areas that I never expected Big Finish to go into here. Its an emotional story as Sixy decides to take Mel to see Evelyn and we see how and what she got up to after leaving The Doctor. Its an emotional story and an integral part of a story line throughout the main range. We get a cameo from a character who should be year and its in character that they are here. This feels like a loving bow out from Maggie Stables and at the time of writing I am reaching release number 120 and have no idea if I'll ever hear her again. Cudos to Big Finish for making me care about her.

14. Minuet in Hell, the final story in the 8th Doctors first season. Many people find this story annoying and stupid where I find it daft as a brush and bonkers. The Brigadier gets to meet the 8th Doctor and the crazyness with Gideon Crane is my kind of dark psychological horror. Daft and silly but I like it.

13. The Genocide Machine, the first appearance by the Daleks taking on the 7th Doctor and Ace in the opening part of The Dalek Empire arc. Its a lovely romp that starts with the Doctor returning some library books and escalates to the Daleks trying to take over one of the biggest repositories of knowledge in the universe. The Daleks appearing is just magic and this is the story I think of (ahead of the TV stories) when I imagine the sound design.

12. Loups-Garoux, as I said earlier in this list Mark Strickson turns up so infrequently as Turlough it still feels like a novelty when he does. Big Finish get Turlough, he's a fantastic character but a rubbish companion. Here we have a story featuring werewolves and having a companion whose first instinct is to run and lock themselves away in the TARDIS adds so much to the story. Rather than horror this release scores high because of its presentation of Brazil, the werewolf community and Peter Davison who after taking a while to get into the swing of things is in fine form.

11. The Marian Conspiracy, here we have it the origin story of Evelyn. What a fantastic character and what a fantastic performance by Maggie Stables. Those early scenes where she meets the 6th Doctor are pure magical and this is the first step of Colin Baker taking the Sixth Doctor in the direction he didn't get to go on TV. The initial mystery of what is happening to Evelyn and the journey back to the time of Queen Mary are intriguing. More importantly this is Big Finishes first deep dive into the past, they'd tip toed around historical stories before but this is the first time they flex their muscles. Without this story the range becomes more limited and we don't get a number of my favourite stories as well as at least one yet to come in this list.

Big Finish Monthly Range Ranked: 20-16

 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. This is the second round of the rankings taking from 20-16. As usual beware spoilers and enjoy!

20. Omega, its the 5th Doctors entry into the villain trilogy in the build up to Zagreus with this being my favourite entry in the trilogy. Omega is one of those characters that have a lot of story in them and hasn't  been used much over the years so its quite the treat when he does come up. Apart from his two televised stories this is the first time I've come across him and I'm happy to say there is a trend of leaving Omega in a more interesting place than when we found him. I love this story, its playing games with the listener - bait and switch on multiple occasions. We're constantly on the back foot, where are we, how did we get here, is this really the right time to be referencing Talking Heads? Certain information we get during this story is wrong, which we work out fairly early on but the crux of the story is why its wrong. Up until the end of episode three nothing makes sense and then something happens that changes the nature of this play. On top of that we still have a quarter of the action to go and the story is still developing. There is a lot going on in this entry, I'd recommend watching the two Omega TV stories before listening. If you don't you'll get nothing from this story, if you do you get a heck of a play with very good re-listen value.

19. Colditz, Nazis the old Doctor Who metaphor, until we get to the seventh Doctor era where they started popping up on a regular basis. Its the 7th Doctor and Ace going up against Nazis but this time on their own territory in their own time in Colditz ****ing Castle! Full of references to the TV series and board game this part of the story is at times ripping yarns and harrowing. But wait theres more! Theres a timey wimey plot as well! We get the introduction of Elizabeth Klein and she's got about as many secrets as the 7th Doctor usually has. We have a multi layered play full of novelty value for an early appearance of David Tenant, of interest for introducing Klein and a tight intriguing play in its own right.

18. Flip-Flop, if you asked me to name one writer I've encountered in Doctor Who spinoff that I'd like to see go on to bigger and better things (who hasn't all ready) it would be Jonathan Morris. I first came across him with the book Festival of Death and since then his stuff has a high hit rate with me. This story is from the experimental stage that Big Finish went through in 2003 and sees the 7th Doctor and Mel in a story where the two discs can be listened to in either order. The play is absolutely nailed to the plot with no moment to breathe but personally I love this aspect. I've heard this story on multiple occasions in both orders and the story still works. Its a proper bonkers timey wimey comedy as opposed to the timey wimey serious story that was the previous entry. The story doesn't come with first or second discs it comes with black and white discs. Amazingly if you listen to the black disc first its a much darker story. recommended Highly!

17. Creatures of Beauty, its another 2003 experimental story this time with the 5th Doctor and Nyssa. Its also slightly timey wimey as the story is told out of order offering more multi listen value. We start the story about two thirds through and spend the majority of the play filling in the gaps and seeing events from multiple angles. Its very interesting and a play that feels like its developing more as we go through. The reason this play is so high in my personal rankings is because of the ending, let me clarify that when I say the ending I don't mean the final act or episode I mean the final few seconds of the play. Up until those moments on the first listen I had this down as a good decent story but the final seconds hold a twist that I didn't see coming and caused this play to sky rocket in my estimations.

16. Zagreus, the 50th story in the range and the 40th anniversary (along with the preceding Villains trilogy) story! After a wait of eighteen months since the last 8th Doctor story (eight years for me due to falling behind) and that cliff hanger that it ended on we finally made it! This is a proper epic story, three discs long and strap yourselves in its going to be a long ride. I know there are aspects that fandom doesn't like but I love it. Its one of my most re-listened to stories, Jon Pertwees unexpected appearance is so emotional, Nicholas Courtneys role is lovely and I love the assorted regulars from previous eras playing different parts. Theres a good slab of continuity as series regulars & unexpected friends turn up as spin offs are launched and we're plunged into the divergent arc. A story that looks backwards as well as forwards, a story with an eight year build that for me was ultimately worth it.

Heroes - Unexpected

 Blimey when did Matt Parkman become an engaging character? I know it was in the previous episode but does anybody have the timestamp down to the mini-second? After a rut we are in the thrust of some dynamic episodes, there is no wasted space and every scene is jam packed - just when you think things can't can any better Stan Lee turns up.

This is what the series does best, taking characters with different motivations and throwing them into situations then going with whatever sticks. We have the full range of emotions crammed into 40 minutes of TV. The only downside of this episodes is there are a few characters put in jeopardy that its hard to care about as they haven't been fleshed out enough, namely Simone and Sandra. In particular this episode I enjoyed Mohinder and Sylers mission - and screaming at Mohinder to start noticing the blatant signs about Syler.

We have a new character added to the mix this week in the shape of Hana Gitelman who appears to be based on the X-man Sage. She essentially puts together a mini field team for a mission in a nice homage to the X-men, setting up the cliffhanger and the promise of another intriguing episode next week. On another note I hope Ando hasn't been written out as his double act with Hiro is one of the best things in the series, 9/10.

Heroes - Run

 Now this is more like it! Run is a proper fun episode and it feels like the series has climbed back onto the horse. This episode is so good Matt and Nikki two characters whose storylines were collapsing under the weight of boredom together and it works! Its taken them forever to get Matt away from the police force and now they have he's already been put in interesting positions whilst also being able to use his powers in the field.

Nathan Petrelli and the stuff with Claire is also engaging while the stuff with Mrs Bennet is very worrying indeed. As well as this we get a brilliant arc set up with Mohinder and Syler that is proper panto yelling good - if you weren't yelling at Mohinder to look in the kitchen you're watching this show wrong. On top of all this after treading water for two episodes Hiro & Ando are back to doing fun stuff with a storyline that feels like good farce. Closing things off we get another fun cliff hanger as Nikki is given a new target in the shape of Nathan. Brilliant stuff and the show needs to be more like this and less like the previous few episodes 8.5/10.

Heroes - The Fix and Distractions

 Due to time issues just a few notes on these episodes:

Heroes is a show that has left an impact felt in shows today, however one of the main lessons that has been learnt is editing and season length. This is not a 20+ episode a season show and should be done in ten or thirteen episodes if their not doing a monster of the week format that lends itself to the format. The pace is killing the show and some storylines have been spinning for weeks.

The narration is getting worse with each episode.

Christopher Eccleston is a tough watch, as far as I know its the first thing he did after Doctor Who and he looks like he's had the weight of the world on his shoulders. His hyper performance is reminiscent of Sylvestor Mccoy losing it while sat on the table in the Silver Nemesis documentary. Also notable is the fact Chris has a bit of the Braun Strowmans about him which was widely rumoured during his time at Cardiff.

Hiro and Ando's story should have been done in one episode, its cute but feels like the writer is writing down at us.

Noah and Syler have been booked perfectly so far, we get some 50/50 booking these episodes but its good booking and raises both to main even level.

Matts storyline is a mess, if the producers didn't want to explore what happens when a rank and file cop gets powers don't give them powers. 

Nikki, Jessica, D.L. and Micah is dead in the water, its dead there is no life to it and it needs to be put against the wall and given a blindfold and cigar.

Isaac and the thought and effort that goes into the paintings is the best thing about these episodes. When we eventually reach the events he paints there is still a surprise or two to be had.

Claires storyline comes across well and we get another guest actor who would go on to reach fame in Glee. The cliffhanger to "Distractions" with the Nathan Petrelli popping up unexpectedly is good 

In short these episodes are largely unwatchable with some of televisions worst bad habits with the odd good thing to remind you why you're watching. 1/10 and needs to improve.