[Doctor Who] audio dramas — intro 

There are a lot of Doctor Who audio dramas, and it's somewhat overwhelming to figure out where to start.

So I'm making a guide: averylychee.neocities.org/doct

It contains some advice, as well as a complete list of every audio drama, in a "Natural Listening Order".

As I listen through the audio dramas myself, I'll be providing a simple indication of which ones are really good and which ones aren't.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas — other threads 

(previous thread, detailing some stuff about the page I made (but not really anything about the dramas: computerfairi.es/@lizardsquid/ )

I'll be making updates less frequently in this thread as I do in my thread about the Classic TV show: computerfairi.es/@lizardsquid/

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

The Genocide Machine is the first audio drama to be kinda disappointing – the first 3 parts are fine, but once the last part starts, you already know how it's going to end and you're just waiting for it to happen.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I still need to track down copies of the old BBC radio dramas:

* Doctor Who and the Pescatons
* Exploration Earth
* Slipback
* The Paradise of Death
* The Ghosts of N-Space

I'm particularly interested to listen to the Pescatons, because the story was "unusual for its depiction of a genocide devised and led by Sarah and the Doctor, without either character displaying even a tinge of remorse."

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

The BBC can't possibly be making a profit off any of these, can they? Why aren't they in the Public Domain, or on a collection disc?

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I've updated the webpage: it now has a button that hides the reviews, in case you want to just use my guide as a listening order and not have my opinions prejudice you.

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Follow

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

hmm, I started listening to one of the BBV not-really-cannon audio dramas, and it's quite good... maybe I *should* add the non-cannon ones to the guide...

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I've decided to follow the same rules as the tardis wiki:

tardis.wikia.com/wiki/T:CAN

So the unlicensed BBV audio dramas that feature The Professor (Sylvester Mccoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) won't be in the guide.

I'm mostly doing this because if I need to draw a line somewhere, otherwise where do I stop?

For example, should I put the Doctor Who Crossover Adventures (featuring Discworld and Xena characters) in the guide? crossovers.org/doctor-who/

I like them, but.... no

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

...or, maybe I should?

now I don't know...

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I've noticed a trend in the early Big Finish dramas: the 5th Doctor Stories center around ghosts or spirits.

Phantasmagoria involved a ghost vacuuming people up in 1700s london.

The Land of the Dead involves First Nations beliefs about the spirts of the land causing ancient creatures to wake up from hibernation.

(Red Dawn wasn't about ghosts or spirits.)

Winter for the Adept features a poltergeist haunting a school.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas | Sale! 

Until the 7th of January, there's a sale on at big finish!

Go to bigfinish.com/offers/v/bigfini

and enter the code KRAMPUS, and it will give you access to a number of audio dramas for sale for much cheaper than usual.

I got
• Gallifrey Series 1
• Night of the Stormcrow (a 4th Doctor Bonus release)
• Trial of the Valeyard (a 6th Doctor Bonus release)
• The Beast of Kravenos (a 4th Doctor Adventure)
for only $13
(instead of the $42 it would have cost me otherwise)

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I've updated the guide so the Torchwood stuff makes more sense.

They started Torchwood dramas with episodes set at various times through out the TV show's chronology, and released them as "series 1" and "series 2"

But then they wanted to make a continuation of the show, "Torchwood Series 5"

So to make it less confusing, they rebranded the other Torchwood dramas as "Torchwood Monthly Range".

The TARDIS wiki is a bit confused about this, so I'll be fixing that next.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I finished listening to The Beast of Kravenos – it's pretty good, but I'm not going to add a recommendation to my list yet.

Partly because it's part of Segment 214 (and I'm only up to Segment 3), but also because I want to see if my opinion changes after I watch The Talons of Weng-Chiang (The Beast of Kravenos features 2 characters from that story).

For future me: my current opinion is that it is worth listening to, but isn't highly recommended.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

a few things:

• I finished listening to Segment 3! I really enjoyed it. (Now to go back and listen to Segment 1)
• I've updated the guide so that instead of saying "No" on the dramas I didn't love, it says "Maybe" – because that's what I actually mean, and I should be clear about that. (The "no" was carried over from when I was also reviewing audiobooks, and the first one, "The Lair of the Zarbi Supremo", was garbage)

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I want to make the page easier to navigate, but I'm not really sure how – I can allow segments to be folded, but they'd reset after the page is reloaded. I also want to add a checklist, so that you can tick off a box next to the ones you've listened to, but I'm not sure how to do that*

*at least, with the way I've set up the guide – a previous version of the guide was automatically generated, and so the code for a checklist was simple.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I could add a table of contents, but since there's 259 segments that would be a 259 line table of contents right at the beginning.

I'm really not sure what to do...

[Doctor Who] audio dramas | behind the scenes 

I've simplified a part of my source file, so now instead of each segment being a big multi-line thing with a bunch of html, it's just a single line:

[Doctor Who] audio dramas | behind the scenes 

This also will make it much easier to implement things like next/previous buttons, without having to manually put them in

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I'm listening to Doctor Who and the Pescatons.

This is really, really bad. It's confusing, it keeps switching tense between sentences (sometimes it's present tense, sometimes it's past tense), and the main plotline is basically "some aliens ask for the Doctor's help to resettle after their planet is destroyed, and he says no because... reasons?"

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

in the scene I just listened to, the Doctor was captured, held prisoner, and then while imprisoned subjected to a mental battle.

...but then suddenly he just leaves???? He goes directly from "being captured" to "having escaped".

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

Like, here's the actual thing word for word:

"we had been locked in mental battle, as the mighty zor had struggled to absorb my knowledge of the galactic universe and solar system.
However, my resistance was more than the pescaton leader had anticipated, and his mental pressure was no match for the special powers I had been gifted with.
I found my way back to the surface, and escaped from the evil that had almost engulfed me on the planet of pesca."

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

(my editor brain really wants to fix that first sentence too... why is it "had"??? it should be "we were locked in a mental battle, as the mighty zor struggled to absorb my knowledge")

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

The Doctor: But what if my plan didn't work? Hadn't Zor proved himself to be invincible and all powerful?

um... no? There was no proof of that.

Also, the Doctor keeps saying that the Pescatons are evil, which.... feels really out of character.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

also, Sarah Jane and the Doctor are simultaneously acting like they've been travelling together for ages AND like they've only barely met each other.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

alright, now that's finally finished…

my main question is... how did this happen? How did the writer (who had written for Doctor Who before) end up writing something that was so garbage?

How did the producers not notice that something was wrong?

How did Tom Baker narrate and perform this without going "hold on a minute, this doesn't feel right."

Doctor Who and the Pescatons is, almost certainly, the worst Doctor Who story I've had the displeasure of experiencing

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

I've had to add a "don't listen" category to my guide, JUST for Doctor Who and the Pescatons.

I strongly suspect that it will be the only story on this page to get a "don't listen".

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

[Doctor Who] audio dramas | help wanted 

I'm still looking for the following BBC audio dramas:

• Slipback (1985)
• The Paradise of Death (1993)
• The Ghosts of N-Space (1996)

If anyone knows of a way to get them (even if it's "pirating"), I'd appreciate it.

(I'm also looking for a way to get the BBV audio dramas, but I suspect that's going to be much more difficult, especially since BBV no longer exists.)

Show newer

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@lizardsquid I vaguely made a start listening to Jago & Litefoot, as there seem to be a lot of BF audios on Spotify.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@wyrddrgn yeah, I'm glad they put a bunch of them up on spotify! (and Google Play, which is where I'm listening to them)

I haven't gotten around to Jago & Litefoot yet, but I hope to enjoy it when I do...

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@lizardsquid I'll probably carry on with it when I resume commuting to the office on Monday.

May have to tactically investigate what else they have.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@wyrddrgn I have a list somewhere, I'll see if I can find it...

Doctor Who, racism 

@lizardsquid oof, Talons of Weng-Chiang is probably the most racist serial in main series Doctor Who. It does introduce Jago and Lightfoot, and the Time Agency (who don’t show up again until Captain Jack), but that doesn’t excuse what it does with its Chinese characters, or how the Doctor starts treating Leela a lot worse during and after. (It is Victorian, but that’s not an excuse either.)

Doctor Who, racism 

@DialMforMara yeah, I saw some clips recently, and it's horrendous

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@lizardsquid Were the pescatons the ones who asked help? If so, why would they do that?

Is the doctor ever established as a mental powerhouse?

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@BatElite yeah, the pescatons asked for help, and then when the Doctor refused (it's never explained why he refuses to help) their leader tries to have a mental battle with him.

And then the doctor just walks away, I guess??? I don't even know

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@BatElite oh, and yes – timelords are established as having strong mental powers fairly early on in the series. In Season 1 of the TV show, in fact!

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@beadsland ::P
the crossovers are actually the first doctor who audio dramas I listened to, many years ago

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@lizardsquid How have I never known of these?

In other news, it should be kept in mind that BBV has a sordid backstory, its spearhead having been plying a pretty shady venture under the guise of fan art, despite repeated cease and desist efforts by the Beeb (who he sought to suggest affiliation with--"BBV" indeed"). Fellow's effectively blacklisted from other productions thereafter.

So perhaps not the best benchmark to establish canonicity of other works.

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@lizardsquid Oh, yay!

I just went hunting for enough info to dredge up Dominique Boles's "Doctor Who Reference Guide" on the WayBackMachine, only to find the site is back up. I thought it had been permanently retired!

drwhoguide.com/who.htm

[Doctor Who] audio dramas 

@beadsland I knew BBV was definitely skirting the lines of copyright law, but I didn't realise it was *actually* shady

And yeah, the reference guide went down for a while, and then suddenly re-appeared

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Computer Fairies

Computer Fairies is a Mastodon instance that aims to be as queer, friendly and furry as possible. We welcome all kinds of computer fairies!