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| A Big Finish Subscriber writes... |
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The main advantage of subscribing to the BF CDs over simply ordering them is that you get one free disc in every set of six. That’s a pretty good incentive to subscribe when able – even over the convenience of not having to go to that rare Big Finish stocking store or buying from a speciality website and paying full price plus postage and packing. Or even eBay where you can see discs go for two or three times their cover price once the testosterone begins to flow and the male ego decides it won’t be beaten, it simply won’t be beaten (to come over all Logopolis for a second). So I thought it might not be too gruesome to look back over my subscriptions and ponder which of each sextet was free, gratis and for nothing. Sub 1 The Eye of the Scorpion This is a tough one to start with because there are no fewer than three which took me an awfully long time to get round to listening to. Not the most obvious reaction to shelling out seventy quid in advance. It wasn’t until The Raputre arrived through my letter box that I got round to listening to Colditz. Invaders From Mars had had an ominous three goes at episode one (once was the DWM freebie) before I finally got through it. Primeval arrived and I was going to listen to the whole thing that day but somehow I never did. Without going into too much detail (I have dedicated articles to write after all) I would say Primeval is my free CD because I’m currently re-listening to it and it has held my attention so well that I’ve fallen asleep half way through each of the three episodes. Sub 2 Seasons of Fear If we’d gone off first impressions then it would be a no brainer to pick Embrace the Darkness as my cost-free CD. I really wasn’t keen on Mr Briggs’ homage to the burning out of eyeballs. Time of the Daleks had to be great because it had the Daleks AND Paul McGann in it. How could this land mark event be anything other than fab? And the much maligned …Ish at least tried something we’d not heard before. Colin Baker was in his element and the banter with Peri was witty rather than tiresome as it had been on the telly. But as time went on and discs got second spinnings I became more fond of Embrace the Darkness and its atmospheric horror. My thoughts about …Ish slid down from "brave and original" to "that’s silly" but Time of the Daleks suffered worst of all. I mean, what is it about? It’s a lot of nonsense about Shakespeare being erased from history while all people need to travel in time is a mirror. Or something. I’d suggest that the story could’ve been much more interesting had the Daleks not been in it (small time villainy by their standards, as someone once said) but I suspect the only reason it was commissioned was that someone in a high place (or state) liked the idea of Daleks spouting the Bard’s finest. I’m glad I didn’t spend the hard stuff on a one line joke stretched into two boggling hours. Sub 3 The Rapture This is possibly the hardest decision of all. Do I choose the story that I really disliked or the one that was so dull I never got round to finishing it? How does one decide which is the worst? The sad thing is that the Sandman promises so much. Can the Doctor really be a bad guy or is it all just twisted history passed down through the generations? The answer is that I don’t know because the second disc is as virginal as it was when I opened the bubble wrap envelope all those summers ago. Nekromanteia on the other hand kept me coming back night after night in the hope that it would get better. There was a germ of unsuspected promise at one point but it was lost under clichéd soldiers and unbelievably clichéd witches. I’m too lazy to get up and find a coin to toss so I’ll pick Nekromanteia as the bottom of the pile because deep down I can’t help feeling that there is more chance that the unknown will prove interesting than there is that the known will redeem itself. Sub 4 Omega An interesting batch of discs because the first three – the so called Villains Trilogy – is without a doubt the best three-month in Big Finish’s range. You can read my individual thoughts elsewhere but suffice it to say that these three were worth the price of admission on their own. The next three are an equally interesting bunch though for different reasons. Zagreus is a sprawling mess that I still need more time, and a second proper listen, before I can truly judge. The Wormery was released in the same month as Zagreus for no obvious reason. Either Big Finish wanted two main releases each month (having had the Unbounds from May to October and Shada coming out in December) and so slotted The Wormery in alongside Zagreus or they were simply embarrassed with it and had to release it under cover of darkness in the hope that people would buy it without realising. It’s not a bad story per se but it is decidedly odd and a struggle to get through. Scherzo is probably a work of genius and it’s therefore my fault I’m not in love with it. The Wormery thus earns the honour of freebie of the sub. Sub 5 The Creed of the Kromon It’s peculiar how it’s the new ones – freshest in my mind – which are also the hardest to be objective about. I dislike people who slag off new things because it feels somehow wrong to be so instant in your dismissal. Equally I find it an unappealing trait if one declares the latest thing to be the best ever. But I’m a peculiar old thing and can’t stand it when people equate age with quality and proclaim it an impossibility that anything new could possibly be as good as something old. It was the attitude to have about Doctor Who in the eighties and early nineties and would probably have put me off fandom for life had I been aware that such a body existed. But you don’t need to be any kind of age snob to know that Creed of the Kromon sucks the fat man’s balls and I’m glad that I didn’t technically pay for it. So there we have it. My conscience and bank account feel better in the knowledge that I didn’t give good money for Primeval, Time of the Daleks, Nekromanteia, the Wormery or the Creed of the Kromon. Yes yes yes subscribing is good because it pumps money back into Big Finish blah blah blah. But it also means you don’t pay for the crap. So go on – you know it makes sense.
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