Plum Pudding Reviews

The Warehouse by Mike Tucker Okay, so this one might be one of the most run of the mill Doctor Who stories on audio that I've heard - but it does it with style and it does it without making me want to stop paying attention every two seconds like Shield of the Jotunn did for instance. It's a classic Doctor Who 4-parter. While We Are The Daleks was a bit of an idealized version of season 24, this essentially is season 24, and it uses it to it's advantage. It's just season 24 with the slightly tweaked more palatable versions of Seven and Mel - and the result is actually really good! I was honestly surprised as hell the more I listened to this one: I kept thinking, "oh, I've heard this idea a thousand times!" or "wait, let me guess, x is totally lying," and I technically was right, but somehow the play didn't bore me. A subtly smart piece of writing is one that can grab your attention even if you know that it's doing something you've se...

We Are The Daleks by Jonathan Morris Are Daleks scary? Some would say yes. Some would say no. I would say it depends greatly on the mileage of the story. I'd be hardpressed to find the Daleks in many stories intimidating. Point to most Classic or Moffat/Chibnall era Daleks that have the durability of a wet sponge and my head tilts downward out of boredom. In many ways, there is quite an argument for Dalek fatigue. And I tend to groggily agree, half awake, just about to drift off-to sleep, and then a story like this jolts me to attention that "YES! NEW THINGS CAN BE DONE WITH THE DALEKS!" And then proceeds to literally kill me for Two Hours. We Are The Daleks is the Seventh Doctor I like - it's less in tone of the silly season 24 or the morbid Hex audios, and it finds itself a very good balance to go with. It's not a comedy. It's not a horror. It's not bonafide shooty shooty action adventure or boring sci-fi aliens talking about the tachyon emitters being ...

  A New Trilogy of Stories Starring Brenda Blethyn and Linda Hamilton as the Doctor and Sarah Connor! 4.1 Dates and Numbers  The Doctor and Sarah investigate an old UNIT country house where time is damaged, and it seems that UNIT's temporal dating problem isn't just relegated to the 70s and 80s...  4.2 Doctor Who And Why Are There So Many Fucking People In The TARDIS Holy Shit Seriously. You'd think they could give us a little space.  4.3 The Mary Shelley Multitude When the TARDIS lands for the billionth time in Villa Diodati, Sarah Connor persuades the Doctor to pay attention to continuity issues for once. 

  NCBBDAS: The Mary Shelley Multitude Starring Brenda Blethyn and Linda Hamilton  Chapter One "Okay, so, Sarah, I have a great idea for your first journey into History!" The Doctor smiled. She did a giddy jaunt around the TARDIS console, her coat's many various layers jittering and billowing with excitement as she moved. "Well, technically I have been to the 70s. Or the 80s."  "Yeah, but you've lived through that." The Doctor paused. "Or at least the Terminator Movies you did. Anyway. Actual History. Step out those doors, and I'm going to take you to Ancient Mesopotamia!" * * * The Doctor and Sarah Connor stepped out in unison, and Sarah was shocked to see the Doctor jumping up and down, huffing and swearing.  "Ooh, bleedin heck!" She groaned. "It's the fecking Villa Diodati again!"  Chapter Two "The Villa Diodati?" "The Night Mary Shelley first thought up the idea for Frankenstein, literally cha...

  NCBBDAS: Doctor Who and The Why are There So Many Fucking People in The TARDIS, holy shit Starring Brenda Blethyn, Linda Hamilton, Carole Ann Ford, Jemma Powell, William Russell, Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves, Ajaz Awad, Jean Marsh, Tom Allen, Lauren Cornelius, Anneke Wills, Eliott Chapman, Frazier Hines, Deborah Watling, Wendy Padbury, John Culshaw, Daisy Ashford, Katy Manning, Sadie Miller, Christopher Naylor, Louise Jameson, Jane Slavin, Mary Tamm, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, George Watkins, Mark Strickson, John Culshaw again, Nicola Bryant, Caroline Morris, Robert Jezek, John Pickard, Maggie Stables, Lisa Greenwood, Miranda Raison, Robyn Holdaway, Bonnie Langford, Sophie Aldred, Lisa Bowerman, Tracey Childs, Beth Chalmers, Phillip Oliver, Jessica Martin, Maggie O’ Neil, Amy Pemberton, Yasmin Bannerman, Travis Oliver, Daphne Ashbrook, Yee Jee Tso, Julie Cox, Callum Blue, India Fisher, Conrad Westmaas, Sheridan Smith, Niky Wardley,...

  Jago and Litefoot Series Eight Jago and Litefoot Series Eight is the Eighth main installment in the Jago and Litefoot Series (wow, how could you have guessed) and it's certainly a far cry from many of the other sets - being mostly a series of four individual stories with only a loose connection between the final two, instead of the usual four episode arcs that the series is so good at. And the result? Well, it's more Jago and Litefoot, isn't it? The victorian atmosphere and comfortable characters are as astonishing as usual. This particular set has some really high highs, and some low lows (or as low as this series can get, which is still, admittedly, quite decent) and I feel there's little I can say to the stories as a whole: after all, they're all quite different.  Encore of The Scorchies by James Goss Encore of The Scorchies is a sequel to the companion chronicle The Scorchies, and basically the result of James Goss realizing his joke in Night of 1000 Stars abo...

  Dalek Universe Two To make up for the fact that I got away scot-free on the big one with Dalek Universe One, I got spoiled to hell and back on Dalek Universe Two, and as such I am coming at this from the perspective that literally nothing in the boxset surprised me. Nothing at all. Somehow, I got spoiled on everything in the Trojan Dalek and The Lost, even the most minute details spontaneously combusted in my face, and I knew everything from hour one to the part three cliffhanger. I am not sure HOW I got spoiled to such an extent so quickly - probably a partial mixture of reading other people's theories on where the series went as of Dalek Universe One and me actually being spoiled on the few actual surprises. So ...poop.  Nonetheless, Dalek Universe Two (whilst not set One's magnificent ascendency) is an assured affair from a TARDIS team that is legitimately stellar in every sense of the word. It's done for Tennant that was once done for with every other Big Finish Docto...

Ninth Doctor Adventures: Responds To All Calls Responds to All Calls is the perfect antidote to those who were put off by Ravagers epic scale and overly complicated timeline. It’s certainly a more assured release - definitively reminiscent of those early 10DAs where the evocation of the era is utmost in the creator’s minds. It’s what I assumed the 9DAs would be initially- just like the 10DAs, The 4DAS prior to the boxset era or the 8DAs with Lucie, Responds to All Calls is unassuming in that it is quite frankly - just Doctor Who. And like those series, it bleeds modern simplistic 45 minute story structure. And perhaps that is smart of it: Ravagers, for all of its insanity and original ideas, was covered in pitfalls, ultimately feeling more suited to the Eleventh Doctor’s era. And with Eccleston having such a short life on television, we are ultimately learning to love his work again. His portrayal is different now, not by much, but all the same, it is like learning to like a new Doctor...

  The Face of Evil by Chris Boucher I've always loved Leela.  I'm not sure what it is about her in particular, but the character in general has always been a fascinating one to me. Leela does take a bit of influence from those before her, but for the most part, she serves as an impressively new figure in the series, and she would have to be. The audience were so dearly attatched to Sarah Jane, the only way they could possibly move on is with something completely different. And they certainly did. Leela was different. The only time she screamed in the entirety of her run was when a Rat was gnawing on her leg (Louise Jameson wanted Leela to be distanced as far as possible from the screaming hysterics of some companions prior.) Despite her primitive surroundings (which made her a good audience identification figure) she was also fiercely intelligent. Result? Leela possesses a balance that very few companions have. Some have gone as far as to call her a prototype for Ace - an act...

 All Consuming Fire by Andy Lane and Adapted by Guy Adams Whilst most of the novel adaptations that I have heard so far, (Nightshade for example) have felt that they were merely compressed and budgetary forms of the original tale, All Consuming Fire gives itself quite handily to the audio format. While of course, it is no doubt also a compressed form of the story, I felt, as I did with Love and War that it was a worthy one in its own right. All Consuming Fire is also very unique from the Doctor Who standpoint that it is legitimately a crossover with Sherlock Holmes and to some degree, the Cthulhu Mythos. Those waiting for an explanation shan’t get one, even if you wait after the credits for the story’s bonus scene, which instead of explaining the stories inclusion of fictional characters, consists entirely of Sylvester McCoy adopting some cats. It’s a bold move, to tell an essentially quite simple Doctor Who story from such an angle - and while the story is technically full cast, i...

 

Dedicated to Una Stubbs Sherlock Holmes:  The Adventure of The Impetuous Majesty To Sherlock Holmes, she was always, That Bitch. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. To his eyes, she eclipses the entirety of the establishment of government. Whenever a bill is announced in these modern days, whenever Mycroft mentions Saturday Afternoon tea, whenever a veneer of a building that he had appreciated is knocked down, the resulting emotion is but a sly utterance of that bitch, in between breaths, and then the conversation is deftly moved elsewhere.  I am speaking of course, of her Majesty Queen Alexandrina Victoria Regina, Queen of Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Empress of India, and Head of The Commonwealth. Or as she is otherwise known, That Bitch.  I had seen little of Holmes, at the time. Due to the success of the matter of The Bruce Partington Plans, Holmes was due a celebratory Dinner. And as such, we were both busy in preparation. Of course,...

 Well, I’ve just read a ton of Batman comics. I’m now going to review them, and go into a bunch of the storylines. Talk about what works and what doesn’t. Let’s go. The Court of Owls is based as all shit. It’s a really compelling opening to the New 52, introducing a new and really rather excellent villain to the Batman Mythos. I love the atmosphere oozing from every page, it’s moody as hell and a tiny bit deranged, but still Batman-y and camp enough to have some enjoyment in it, like all the best B-man media. The way that the Court is presented gives it importance to both Batman’s childhood, and the other characters as well, Nightwing’s connection to them being a particularly cool retcon. Even if their whole existence, is, well, obviously a retcon. I think what makes me enjoy it a lot is it feels new and sharp rather than a storyline like the Long Halloween or Hush (which I read before this) featuring a shitload of villains, it’s focused. The best scenes are in the Court’s catacomb...