I finished slipback. It basically answered the question "What if Doctor Who was written in the style of Hitchiker's Guide?"

The answer to that is "it would feel anticlimactic and not actually be that funny"

ok, I made a table of contents.

And I'm convinced it's completely useless – in order to use it at all, you need to know what you're already looking for, and then read through a list of 259 different segments. It would be easier to just search the page.

Coming up soon is Bernice Summerfield Series 1, and I want to know if Bernice Summerfield is the kind of thing I want to listen to. So I have 2 options:

Option A – buy Series 1
Option B – buy "Bernice Summerfield – The Story So Far", which is intended to be a good introduction to the range.

(continued...)

It makes more sense to get The Story So Far (especially since I have that advice in my guide) but:

Series 1 is 6 stories (2 hours each) for $50
The Story so far is 3 stories (1 hour each) for $20

Now, obviously $20 will be better if I don't like the series. But if I *do* like the series, $50 for 12 hours is way better value than $20 for 3 hours.

(oh yeah, and the $50 price for series 1 is for the CDs, including delivery, whereas The Story So Far is a download.)

The page is now significantly updated!

It's prettier, it's been proofread, and it has easy navigation between segments!

https://averylychee.neocities.org/doctor-who/audio-guide/

(I also listened to The Paradise of Death, which was good)

I've now ordered Bernice Summerfield Series 1... hopefully I enjoy it

Listening to The Ghosts of N-Space... it's weird to have a Doctor Who story that explicitly states that there is an afterlife, and that ghosts really are dead people coming back to try and fix what went wrong.

it gets "worse" – one of the characters has an alchemical formula for the elixir of eternal life, and it works!

Now in Doctor Who, this generally has some kind of sci-fi explanation. But in this, the explanation is basically just "alchemy works, actually", which is really unsatisfying*.

The Ghosts of N-Space is a good story, and a good audio drama, but it doesn't really feel like Doctor Who.

*the actual explanation given is that the formula allows someone to merge with their N-form.

Previously it was explained that N-forms are the forms people take after they die, and the forms that they use as they travel from real space through N-space to the afterlife.

So in reality, the explanation for why the Elixir of Life is real is "the afterlife exists, but to get there you have to pass through N-space, and if you get stuck you become a ghost. This formula allows you to merge with your ghost, which means that you cannot die."

Which doesn't feel like a Sci-Fi explanation to me.

I just finished listening to Segment 1 (the BBC Radio Dramas)

Not the greatest segment., but still fairly enjoyable.

https://averylychee.neocities.org/doctor-who/audio-guide/#segment-1

With this segment, the simplicity of my recommendations is fairly obvious to me – The Ghosts of N-Space is much better than Slipback, but both get a "Maybe" rating.

Both of them aren't quite enjoyable enough to warrant a "yes".

so today I listened to an audio drama outside of my listening order – it was Trial of the Valeyard, which is from Segment 123 (I've currently only listened to Segments 1 and 3).

So, my question is this: do I review this now, and have this reviewed audio drama mixed in with all the unreviewed ones, or do I review it when I innevitably get around to it when listening in the "proper" order?

extra context: this is a standalone release, it's not in the middle of a series or anything

I just realised another thing about "The Ghosts of N-Space" that makes me like it less.

In the audio drama, the Doctor introduces "N-space" (short for null-space) as the place between here and the afterlife. Now, aside from all the problems I have with that on its own, it ignores a much more salient problem: "N-space" was already a term in the Doctor Who Universe.

N-space refers to *this* universe, in contrast to E-space (an alternate universe).

(E-space originally featured in the 4th Doctor stories Full Circle, State of Decay, and Warrior's Gate; and has since featured in a small number of audio dramas and novels. N-space has featured in almost every single piece of Doctor Who media, by mere virtue of being the "default" universe)

Listened to "The Choice", which is one of the fan made spin-offs.

It... wasn't as good as I hoped. In several scenes, I was rather confused as to what was actually happenning, and the tone kept rapidly switching back and forth between "comical" and "intensely dark".

I've now listened to the first 3 segments!

https://averylychee.neocities.org/doctor-who/audio-guide/

I'm also now ready to listen to all the subsequent segments up to segment 9, so.... exciting!

@lizardsquid
City of Death is same style but better (and actually script edited by Douglas Adams)

@DialMforMara I'm looking forward to it!

@lizardsquid she's basically the prototype for River Song, so I'm hoping so

@DialMforMara oh! how so?

@lizardsquid she's an archaeologist who dates multiple incarnations of the Doctor, and she has nice snarky chemistry with Seven

Is my understanding from fandom discourse; I haven't listened to many audioplays because they're expensive

@DialMforMara we'll see, then!

@lizardsquid
There are a lot of ways in which Doctor Who is space fantasy. Mostly that they almost never explain how things work.

@DialMforMara yeah, but every other time there's been ghosts, there's been some other explanation (like aliens, or echoes from an alternate dimension), whereas this is literally just saying that ghosts are real. And that just makes a bunch of other episodes make no sense - why would the doctor assume that a ghost is actually something else, if they already know ghosts are real?

@lizardsquid
Is this a Christmas panto serial? Weird stuff happens in those. Like galactic Eurovision, and space Top Gear, and the Doctor having to work with a con man who impersonates him.

@DialMforMara nope, this is entirely serious. It has a similar vibe to The Daemons

@lizardsquid welp

@lizardsquid Maybe give a judgement now, and then you have something to come back to later?

Because 120 segments sounds like it might take you a good long while, maybe a year.

@lizardsquid (As in, reflect on it when you have processed the surrounding material too)

@lizardsquid So The Story So Far is a synopsis of half the stories? Or shorter edits?

But if I know you you'll want to have as full a grasp as possible for you recommendation thing, and I'm guessing if you liked TSSF you'd want Series on afterwards, making $70?

I don't know what your finances are like at the moment but it seems expensive to me either way... :/

(Also weren't you looking out for when a shop got some other Dr Who thing back in stock?)

@lizardsquid I suppose it depends on what you're trying to go for with it? Are you going to try and judge it?

I don't know, heck.

@BatElite oh sorry, that is unclear!

The Story So Far is a specially released collection of brand-new stories, that are set at various times throughout the history of the show. It's designed to help get newcomers into the show, without being overwhelmed by the 21 seasons that have already been released