Plum Pudding Reviews

Shadow of the Daleks 1 and 2 Adversity breeds Creativity. I highly doubt we'd have gotten something as bold and strange as Shadow of the Daleks' two MR releases if it were not for COVID-19. The spots that would have taken Shadow's place in the main range (The Lost Resort, Perils/Nightmare) had a difficult time coming together, and as such, Big Finish had two slots in their series that needed to be Fifth Doctor themed, and basically no one but Peter Davison and four other actors to do it with. It's ironic that the whole endeavor, one of Big Finish's oddest moves is a result of restraint in format. But as said - that helped the whole thing come together. It's really rather fascinating to me.  This being said, I have very little clue how to review it - because neither the anthology, boxset, or wholesale review formats really fit Shadow. I don't know what I'd rate some of these stories to be frank, and even the lesser stories all have a point to them that I ...

  Scorched Earth by Chris Chapman I've tried to write the review for Scorched Earth for around a month now, and quite frankly, no words precisely would do to describe this one. It's at both times, a fantastic showcase for the Sixth Doctor, genuinely immaculate and moved me to tears - and also for some reason I can't persuade myself to rate it incredibly highly. Like, no score I've given it makes sense to me in my head, because Scorched Earth is one of those stories that's kinda weirdly meh until it all comes together at the conclusion and then you see how it properly works. I already feel I'm being too harsh, but If I'm too nice, than I feel I'm being too nice. This is draft #47 for this damn review though, so I'm putting it out regardless, and I hope you aren't confused as hell by me contradicting myself every other sentence. Scorched Earth is good for a few reasons - it's essentially a character conflict that gets out of hand via alien mean...

  The Grey Man of The Mountain by Lizbeth Myles The Grey Man of The Mountain, is I think, the best Seventh Doctor story in ages, because quite frankly, instead of random Hex abuse story number 589, it's my Seventh Doctor - it's a direct sort of season 26 era story with characterization of Ace and The Doctor that fits that era, alongside A Battlefield era Brig to round things out. It's so s26, Ace is even given a fricking girlfriend for the entire serial (who I kid you not, is explicitly a lesbian.) It's a bold episode, certainly. The production is so bold it sort of harkens back to the early classic Big Finish approach, it's an unconnected story really that takes place during a classic who season and with a heavy focus on those things you can't do on the television screen. The Grey Man of The Mountain is really refreshing in that regard, having a very simple goal of telling a slow-burn Doctor Who story focused on atmosphere and horror, that in the end, also expl...

 Episode One The Waterworld Apocalypse Episode Two War of the Rani Episode Three The Pretentious Episode Episode Four Village of the Cybermen Episode Five Survivors of The Canon Welding Episode Six The Bullshitters

  NCBBDAS: Oh Flux - The Bullshitters Starring Brenda Blethyn, Linda Hamilton and Rinko Kikuchi  Part Six of Six Previously On Doctor Who OH NO! Evil Yaz and Evil Dan are going to disintegrate the Doctor! * * *  "NOW, WE WILL DISINTEGRATE YOU, DOCTOR!" Proclaimed Evil Yaz. "HA HO" added Evil Dan.  "No." said The Doctor, walking away. Evil Yaz looked at Evil Dan. "She can just do that?"  * * * Grand Marshall Hugo Endeavor was looking at his magic doors, because he had magic doors now. Out of one magic door stepped Roman, Danieru and Sarah. "I am Grand Marshall Hugo Endeavor," he began.  "Great! Thanks. You've done all you need to do for the plot." "What?" "Yeah, you've successfully contributed."  "What? No I haven't! My purpose being the magic doors was only revealed last episode! How do I even have magic doors?" Grand Marshall Hugo Endeavor blubbered. he was really irritated. " I...

  NCBBDAS: Survivors of the Canon-Welding Starring Brenda Blethyn, Linda Hamilton and Rinko Kikuchi Part Five of Six Previously on Doctor Who Oh no! The Doctor has been turned into a Cyberman!  * * * "Wow, I'm not a Cyberman!" The Doctor proclaimed. She indeed, was not a Cyberman.  She was in a Cyber-transport ship. Hundreds of Cybermen around her. No way out. Her mind raced. First - why?  "Why!?! Why did you do that?!" She yelled. "Come on, you lot, go on then! Tell me!" [WE ARE GOING TO TRANSPORT YOU TO DIVISION IN EXCHANGE FOR OUR SAFETY FROM THE FLUX.]    "Division, the Time Lords allow pretty much everyone in. Every race in the universe, but no, they said no to you lot. They feared you, feared what the Cybermen would become if given access to time travel. And you had it - had all the power in the world, and even still the Flux tore apart your alternative timeline like that!" She snapped her fingers. "You really think that returning ...

  The Main Range got fucking murdered, so the lovingly titled "Marc Arc" came to a close not within it, but in a rare four disc boxset (it's getting depressing how few of those there are now) that essentially covers what would have been the last two releases in the "second marc trilogy" that began with Thin Time/Madquake. This is a arc with some issues, some real flaws, but it's also got some real highs next to it's low lows - both excellently portrayed within this set. Although I could have done without the lows. I'm just saying that they exist here. Today we're gonna review The Lost Resort and Other Stories!  The Lost Resort by AK Benedict Everyone will agree this is the highlight of the set, it's just a question of how much you're going to like it. The best way I can describe The Lost Resort is "Time-Flight," but better. Not the weird Anthony Ainley in a vaguely racist costume Time-Flight, but the aspect of Time-Flight where ...

Torchwood One: Machines On the one hand, I was rather excited to do this set, as it's more Torchwood One, and listening to it was good - but I still ended up feeling like it wasn't what I wanted from the range. I adore Torchwood One Before The Fall as a story. It's a three episode miniseries that doesn't overstay it's welcome, has a terrific cast and a very specific and very lovely story it wants to tell on it's own terms - there's not really a single draw to the set minus Yvonne and Ianto, it's just a story about Torchwood One, and it's done on a stylish, massive scale. I think it may be one of the best multi-part boxsets that's clearly telling one story. The parts don't have much of their own identity, but as a whole piece, it's rather striking. Torchwood One Machines does the opposite of Before The Fall - it's just three episodes with a very loose arc tied together by fucking WOTAN. I loved how Before The Fall was it's own IP, ...

  Thin Time by Dan Abnett Thin Time is a story that is pretty much perfect in terms of what I like - weird and fascinating concepts coupled with kooky atmosphere that immediately gives it an identity. It's rather complicated to describe out loud, but it makes sense as the story progresses naturally, and so it just generally works. It's placement into the Marc arc is unique, as despite it starring exclusively the Fifth Doctor, it doesn't really work without the knowledge of the past audios. I would have liked the character development in this one to have been spread throughout Time Apart as well a bit, but as it is it's organic enough and well written that's more of a nitpick. And that's what I have for this review, very minor nitpicks that keep it from an otherwise perfect score. For instance, the surprise guest star near the end of the audio, while excellently written, doesn't really feel quite right in terms of performance. It gave me some minor Uncanny Va...

  The Flying Dutchman by Gemma Arrowsmith The Flying Dutchman is worth applauding as an idea, and like Curse of the Black Spot, I think it's got a lot of potential, it just really?? doesn't do things well. They have a lot in common, where the female companion of the story kicks ass (Ace, Amy) whereas the meeker male companion (Rory, Hex) kind of just frick about and are like "aw, isn't the other companion cool" and also the main ghostly threat of the story is rather different from what you might think. Aside that, I much prefer Flying Dutchman to Curse, because at least it has a more fun and actively horror-filled atmosphere, though that's not to say this story isn't a clanker too. There's a crossdressing character in this audio where it's supposed to be a twist that they're actually a woman, but considering it's audio and not live-action, this is sort of completely obvious. Also, This is yet another story where one of the last lines is tha...