Random Stories Appreciation Rant Vol 1

Here's a fun new concept!
Once in a while, I'm not doing a full Set review or whatever. I mean yes, I am listening to Stranded right now (and the first ep is bloody marvellous) but I hope this to be a recurring post type where I bring up 4 or 5 random stories that I want to talk about but can't be bothered to come up with a connecting tissue for them. Or maybe I have come up with a theme but they're from different ranges. Or maybe they're even novels or TV episodes! Who knows, I'm literally making this blog up as I go along, and I have infinite power to do as I please.
...Please don't X out. These few, although seemingly random, are all tangentally related.
Here goes my first attempt!

Short Trips Volume One: Rise and Fall

I never would be able to justify talking about Rise and Fall anywhere else, but it feels so distinctly like something only the Hartnell era's bold stupid genius would do.
At the time, the show didn't have formula yet. You'd get 1 Parters, 2 Parters, 6 parters, 13 parters, they didn't give a crap. And this seems, if not on BBC Budget, entirely up their alley, as it's a perfect send up of everything I like about the era (with the large sections of things I can't stand scraped out)
Give this one a listen, it's free on both Soundcloud and Spotify, and it's positively gorgeous.

I mentioned theme, and here's my next one.

Virgin Missing Adventures:
The Empire of Glass

You bastard, You're just talking about what you damn well please!
Yes
Yes I am
Just try and stop me, Empire of Glass is a magical book, and if it's the only book I ever talk about on the dang blog, so be it. The Character work in it is simply astonishing, the crotchety evocative figure of Hartnell is omnipresent in a way that he always should be, given a weirdly deep character study for such a character, really leaning into...frick, just read the thing.
You know, from this blog, you'd think I was this massive Hartnell stan. Nope. Maybe it's my modern sensibilities, (I don't know, I usually love Black and White TV) but I can't stand his era on television, minus a few diamonds in the rough. He often leaned into caricature, especially earlier on, but the first doctor in expanded media has extraordinary depth to him, hidden behind all of those HMMs, he's a digified figure that I had always wanted to appreciate on television, but, y'know, if I don't like him there, I'll take some dang good books and audios instead.

Vesuvius Rising

You thought my last jump was insane

Oh you sweet summer child

No, I'm taking the fact that Braxiatel is tangentally in both this and Empire of Glass to talk about this smooth as hell mystery piece that legitimately, unlike any other sci-fi story that I have ever seen do this...feels like Space Poirot.

Naturally, this is the best thing ever. 

Mysteries in Space stories often rely on y'know, random guest character uses teleporter or whatever to kill person and get away with it, but Vesuvius uses a fascinating concept, let me just set the scene, so you can give it a listen. 

After a random introduction to the status quo with Benny, Brax, and her kid, Peter... Benny, Peter and Ruth (No, not that one) visit a centuries old cryogenic spacecraft, where they find

1. A dead body

2. And 2 survivors in suspended animation who both entirely could have commited murder, both accusing each other

3. No, that's it, it's just a good story

Next is, 

Encore of The Scorchies

"I'll never get a spinoff at this rate!" 
I say I'm allowed to make another such jump because both stories include Lisa Bowerman. That's the point of this new article type, it's not very cohesive. 

Easily the best version of a Doctor Whosical, (I mean, yes, DWATP is literally perfect, but it's only a musical for 20 minutes) Encore of The Scorchies is literally a full on 1 hour musical event with about 10 songs, all of which are really very good, and is topped off by being the most meta thing related to Doctor Who you'll ever hear. Minus the next one on the list. The songs had me bowling over with laughter. Not to be missed, and the finale to the whole thing is really unbelievable. If you must do one of these stories, let it be this.

The Theatre of Dreams

Further establishing Jago and Litefoot, a supposedly grounded Victorian based series that strives to be realistic as the most meta and weird spinoff, The Theatre of Dreams is a delight. Begone, Tropical Beach Sounds, because this is how you do a fourth wall killer. It's blatant, it's uproarious, I could hardly believe they were actually going this far in an audio drama. 

I can see you.

I can see you through the screen

Close your blinds.