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Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Main Range 24: The Eye of the Scorpion 

aaaa this one was amazing!

It explored a period of history that the show rarely seems to want to touch (Ancient Egypt), created some interesting historical political drama and mixed it with alien influences...

it's so good

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Update ✨ 

I've now listened to all of segment 9!

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Next up is some more Bernice Summerfield, which I am looking forward to!

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Upcoming Stuff 

I'm looking forward to an upcoming audio drama, which they just announced is going to feature a meeting between the first and second doctors.

Here's a behind the scenes video of Frazer Hines and Peter Purves playing the 2nd and 1st Doctors:
youtube.com/watch?v=fXGZqE6bgr

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Update ✨ 

Update: I got rid of some javascript!

Previously, the page would load all the tables, but the table rows would just be a default colour. Then, a script would go through each table and set each row to the appropriate colour.
This meant that whenever you loaded the page, the colours would suddenly pop in after a second or two.

But now: all that processing happens ahead of time, so the colours are already there when you load the page!

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ coding things 

This was actually quite complicated to do: my source file is markdown, and markdown's convenient table format doesn't support tables with custom colours on each row. I could use custom colours if I manually make the tables in html but that makes them very hard to edit.

So what I had to do is make a filter that converts the markdown tables into html tables, then looks inside the table to see what my review is, and then sets the row colours accordingly

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ coding things 

If you're curious, the source for my website is here: nest.pijul.com/AveryLychee/lyc

`Filter.hs` and `Abbrevs.hs` contains all the code that allows me to make the audio guide without having to write lots of repetitive html.

The file that contains the actual content of the audio guide is `src/doctor-who/audio-guide.md`.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ New Intro 

I've rewritten the intro section: it's now longer, but it should give readers a bit more flexibility.

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Since it's quite long, I won't ask anyone to do this for me, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new intro section (it's everything before the segments themselves).

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Update ✨ 

Really big update this time!

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

• Rewrote the intro section.
• Re-arranged *the entire listening order*, to hopefully make it easier for people following along to keep track.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Details on the new ordering 

The old ordering was:

"Each series is organised by the release date of its LAST episode, and then placed in the list accordingly."

Which made sense for the original guide, which was just one continuous list of audio dramas.

But when I added numbered segments to make navigation easier, suddenly that no longer really made sense, because it was messy.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Details on the new ordering 

So the new ordering is based on half years.

For each half year:

• First, add a segment for all the Main Range releases from that half of the year.
• Second, add segments for each named Big Finish series with their concluding episode in that half year.
• Third, add a segment for all of the BBV releases from that half year (if there were any).
• Finally, add any miscellaneous or special releases into a "Misc" segment.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Details on the new ordering 

By doing it like this, it means that the guide doesn't feel completely random, and instead it has a clear repeating pattern.

About a third of the way through the guide, the number of releases per month increases drastically, so the segments from then on are based on quarter years instead of half years, but it's the same pattern.

Anyway, the conclusion is: the new ordering is slightly harder for me to make, but much easier to follow.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Update ✨ 

New Stuff:

• The BBC Audiobooks are now part of the guide (all 148 of them >_>) — you can find them in the "Misc" segments from 2005 onwards.
• There are some new navigation tools from *outside* the segments: each year of releases is marked, and includes links to jump forwards or backwards a year, and also a small section indicating what's new in that year.

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Thoughts on Dalek Empire 

I'm 3/4 of the way through Dalek Empire, and I'm liking it a lot.

I genuinely have no idea how it's going to end. Every single episode has added more mysteries, and gone in completely different directions to what I expected.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Advice Wanted 

I'm considering re-arranging the tables.

Which of these do you think is better?

(Images: 2 versions of the same table.
In the left version, each row is ordered as: Audio Drama name, then Review, and then the featured characters.
In the right version, each row is ordered as: Audio drama name, then the featured characters, and then the review )

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ More thoughts on Dalek Empire (Series 1) 

Heck, I really did not expect it to end like that.

I definitely recommend listening to Dalek Empire, it's amazingly well produced and kept me constantly wondering what was going to happen next!

(I've known about Dalek Empire's existence for quite a while, because a lot of fan sites talked about it, even ones that didn't mention the other audio dramas at all. I can see why it got so popular!)

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Update ✨ 

I've finished listening to all the audio dramas from 2001, so now's a good time to point you all to my guide again:

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

If you haven't looked at it for a while, you might notice that things have been re-arranged!

The intro is on its own page, you get more choices, the *entire ordering* has been modified and simplified, you can navigate year-by-year, and more!

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Invaders from Mars (review, slur mention) 

I loved Invaders from Mars, it's really fun.

"Hallowe'en 1938.

A month after a mysterious meteorite lit up the skies of New York State, Martian invaders laid waste to the nation. At least, according to soon-to-be infamous Orson Welles they did. But what if some of the panicked listeners to the legendary The War of the Worlds broadcast weren't just imagining things?"

Except…

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Invaders from Mars (review, slur mention) 

…at one point someone uses the f-slur.

Why did you do this, Gatiss. You could have just not used that word.

But ignoring that, Invaders from Mars is a fun (and somewhat meta) story, and it's (almost) one of my favourites. I'd really recommend it!

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Invaders from Mars (review, slur mention) 

to be clear about it being one of my favourites:

it's very silly and naff and a parody of pulp radio plays. It's a lot of fun, but it hasn't got much depth.

I still really enjoyed it though.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Spoilers for second "season" of 8th Doctor stories 

interestingly, the story contains a bunch of historical innaccuracies, because part of the overall plot-arc for this "season" is about how Charlotte, the Doctor's companion, shouldn't exist, and the paradox is tearing the fabric of time itself into pieces...

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ The Chimes of Midnight 

The Chimes of Midnight is incredibly good.

I really love stories where things start mysterious and then get even more mysterious...

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ The Chimes of Midnight 

A concern, though: I don't know how much sense it makes if you *haven't* already listened to Storm Warning.

It's probably perfectly fine, but I'm not sure...

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Seasons of Fear 

aaaaa Seasons of Fear was really good!

I really love time travel paradox stories, and this one is really interesting and engaging.

It's also definitely where the arc of this "season" of 8th Doctor stories starts to really kick in, and it's exciting... I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next!

(The reason "season" is in quotes is because it's not officially a season, but it's still got a story arc.)

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Embrace the Darkness 

I listened to Embrace the Darkness half a month ago, but I really loved it.

This "season" of 8th Doctor stories is really hecking good.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Meta 

For all the stories in the audio guide, the middle column is for "Featured characters", which gives you a good impression of which companions and recurring characters are going to feature in the story, without actually requiring a full description.

Except I discovered recently that the source I got that info from was perfectly happy to spoil surprise reveals and such, so I'm going through the guide and removing instances where things are spoiled by that column.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Advice wanted 

In the course of doing this, though, I realised that the column for the Unbound stories makes no sense. The Unbound stories are all set in various parallel universes, with various "what if"s as the guiding principle behind the story. So instead of just saying which alternate reality characters are present, I've replaced the Featured Characters column with a "What if" column, explaining the core conceit of the story.

Do I need to clarify any of these?

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Update ✨ 

I'm going to link this again, even though the recent changes aren't super visible:

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

What's new:
• I've removed all the (accidental) spoilers from the Featuring columns.
• I've updated the way boxsets are represented. Since you cannot buy the stories individually, it didn't make sense to recommend them individually, so instead boxsets are now recommended as a whole.
• I've finished listening to Segment 13!

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ note 

(note that I have yet to actually recommend any boxsets, so you can't really see the boxset stuff "in action", but it does make it more clear what is and isn't a boxset)

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

I've been listening to The Gods of the Underworld, and.... I'm really struggling to stay engaged with it.

I'm really not sure why!

The first audio book (The Doomsday Manuscript) was a really enjoyable listen.

This one has lots of the same stuff: interesting villains with mysterious motivations, an archeological site which isn't what it seems, and Lisa Bowerman's performance is as incredible as usual.

But I'm just... bored.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

The only explanation that I can think of is that the author has put the main characters into lethal peril and then gotten them out again with nary a scrape thrice now, and we're only 2 hours in to the book.

So perhaps I subconciously don't view the perils as being genuine?

But I'm not certain that makes sense - I am concerned for the characters' safety, and I don't know that they're going to survive.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

like, this doesn't feel like a bad book, or a boring book. It feels like a book that I'd love.

And yet I'm not loving it?

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

Whelp nevermind, the author just introduced a new character as "sexy and oriental-looking"

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

Gods of the Underworld is actually interesting and engaging now.

It took 1/3rd of the book to get there, but I'm actually enjoying it.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

This book is alternating between engaging and "gods this is so obviously written by a straight man".

• All the women (aside from Benny) are described by how attractive they are.
• the character Stahl is a handsome, strong, anti-hero; and Benny inexplicably has a crush on him.
• Almost all of the important characters are men. But I do appreciate that there *are* other women in the story, which is more than I can say for some of the dramas

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

• there have been plenty of opportunities for interesting character drama that the author hasn't taken, opting for more action sequences instead. This isn't an inherently bad thing, but it is a choice that men seem to make more often than women.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Bernice Summerfield Audiobooks 

This book also has the same problem that a lot of sci fi has - there's a romance subplot that feels tacked on and insincere.

Which is especially frustrating, because Benny already has this really interesting dynamic with her ex-husband

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas ░ Update ✨ 

I've added a bunch of recent releases to the guide (26 new audio dramas!), and I've updated the segment names to be more consistent– so instead of something like

Cyberman (Series 2)
UNIT — Incursions

we now use

Cyberman: Series 2
UNIT: Incursions

Some of the segments were a bit hard to rename (I'm looking directly at you, Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles: The First Doctor: Volume 02 ), but overall I think it looks much better.

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

I've spent most of today rewriting the recommendations for new listeners section, and now I'm slowly going through the guide and rewriting most of the text explaining the segments.

I *feel* like I'm improving things, but I don't know if I am actually improving things, or if I'm just enjoying shuffling words around.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid no offense, i'm not reading this huge ass thread but i just wanted to reply to this post which came into the fediverse to let u kno
that
ur not alone! (cue drum beats)
i used to listen to big finish and i wanted to get back in but the releases compared to timelines is fuckin wacky and even if i do remember where i got up to i'd have to relisten to a bunch of shit or have recaps
its just daunting

Follow

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan I'm hoping that the ordering that I've come up with would help with that kind of thing!

But I can't say for sure, because I'm still listening to the early stuff.

I've heard that some of their more recent stuff (from the past couple of years-ish) has been trying to be a bit more standalone, so you can listen without needing all the background context.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid i've seen a chart that has catalogued timeline but i just really dont like retreading ground which is what i'd have to do
for context i got up to the white door black door with 7th doc, forgot where i was with 5th, i think 6th is inherently tied to 7th and i JUST got up to the box sets with 8

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan I'm not that far yet, but I can definitely understand not wanting to retread stuff you've already heard!

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid also i feel like a lot of the stuff theyre pushing out actually does need context like isnt it all time war stuff linked all together, even unit getting involved via the war master interacting with them

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan that's true – I had taken the stance that stuff like River Song and the War Master showing up in UNIT as being like "as long as you know who this other character is, you'll be fine following this story", but I don't know how true that is because I haven't heard those yet.

Could "a story with the Master in it" really requrie much more context than "the Master is in it"?

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid
@lizardsquid oh wow you're actually not that far because it looks like you're listening to them all
i just found this guide and listened to what it suggested
this is an odd dichotomy, ive listened to more than you have but i've bad memory and you're fresh so you might know more lol
and yeah but i have this sort of completionist mindset where i wanna know where in that character's timeline they're at
not so much for river but very much for other characters

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid like to further elaborate like you could watch the five doctors on its own but i want to have a decent grasp on the 3 incarnations before 5 that show up - i wouldnt watch all of their stories but id want to know more about them
but this is different in audio where i feel there are arcs being established where it helps to know where the characters are at when you encounter them

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan I mean, this is why my order sticks as close to release order as possible – the character development happens at the same pace as you.

But this is kind of my own completionist mindset – I want to listen to everything and I want to listen to it all in order, I don't really want to select a release, and then try and listen to all the potential backstory for that release, I want to have already heard the backstory.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid i understand that
fair warning, like i alluded to at a certain point release order doesn't correlate to chronological order
i don't know how skewed the narratives get but just a heads up in case things get confusing in the future
the 8th doctor from my memory you can pretty much just roll with release order and connect the dots but 6 and 7 and even to an extent 5 all get sort of weird timeline wise

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid as an aside i might follow along your thoughts on the audios and try and pick up where i left off should you eventually get there

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan it sounds like you're 10 years ahead of me, so it'll take a little while!

I think a difference between us is I don't really think about "where I'm up to with the 7th Doctor" as being distinct from "where I'm up to with the releases in general."

Perhaps that would change if I took a big break from stuff?

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan (and perhaps that will change when it gets as confusing as you imply it does)

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid i was about to say no way but gee i really am about 10 years ahead
its not as daunting as it sounds
i think a break would effect it but if it does get confusing as i do remember it to be it does matter. it's pretty clear cut to begin with but things get weird if memory serves right.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan I looked up Black and White, and it does sound very confusing if you lose track of things...

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@skelltan I will be putting a "required listening" notice in my guide on dramas that require other stuff first, but I've yet to come across much like that.

Doctor Who • Audio Dramas 

@lizardsquid smooth sailing at the moment but wait until you get to about 50, zagreus - it's not crazy or anything, just saying that (and past it) is where you sort of need to have requited listening

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