Plum Pudding Reviews

  The Diary of River Song Series Eleven: Friend of the Family Despite this being one of the longest Big Finish stories I've ever reviewed, I do believe it will result in what will come across as one of my shorter reviews, as there's only so much I want to say minus the required bit of analysis that the text requires and the very well deserved "well done."  It is my fervent opinion that Diary of River Song Volume Eleven, Friend of the Family, is one of the best things Big Finish has ever made. It is my fervent opinion that it is at the very least the best thing they've made since 2002, the release date of The Chimes of Fucking Midnight. It is my fervent opinion that Diary of River Song, Volume Eleven, Friend of the Family, may even exceed those standards and be the best thing the company has ever produced in it's entire span of releases since 1999 for that matter.  So yeah, Friend of the Family is really fucking good.  Why is the story so good?? Well, it all...

  The Ninth Doctor Adventures Shades of Fear Assumedly this set takes place in a parallel universe, as to my shock, two of the stories in Shades of Fear are actually connected to each other. The Horror! Egad! This is something I think was sorely missing from Series Two of The Ninth Doctor Adventures, as although all four sets from this season are quite consistent indeed, there's very little linking material regarding them - and as a matter of fact, the stories taking place within the season are even out of order - with Break the Ice originally intended for the first set of the season and Auld Lang Syne the second. This is probably a semi-good choice to reorder them so the sets fit more thematically speaking, but it still doesn't fix the problem that this season needed a much more concrete arc - and pretending that there was one all along in the last set doesn't necessarily work. If The Color of Terror was placed in a previous set then the finale of Red Darkness could actual...

  The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Water Worlds Boy, I took my time getting to this one, huh! Water Worlds was on my to-do list for many, many, months at a time, and it took me quite a bit to even vaguely approach it. Why?? I don't know. Sometimes you'd just rather do a bunch of other stuff. Honestly, I was quite an idiot for deigning to jump into all sorts of other Big Finish sets before this one - I need to get my priorities straight, you know that??  Water Worlds has been given all sorts of praise ever since it released, and you can certainly see why. The brilliance lies in it's simplicity. It's easy to get into for any kind of fan - and while I'm the world's number one Eighth Doctor fan, I'm the first to admit that's not been the scenario for many a range out there. And in addition to that, it's actually trying to do a proper new era with an ongoing storyline to it that's not been done anywhere else. New Companion, new start, and yeah, it really ...

  The Ninth Doctor Adventures Hidden Depths  A wildly dissonant group of stories, Hidden Depths is a triumph for the Ninth Doctor Adventures to be quite proud of, and is probably the best set the range has done yet, but not many of those things are related to each other. Every set up to this point in the range has had at least some kind of focus. Ravagers is one story, Respond to All Calls is about distress calls, Lost Warriors is about historical stories, Old Friends is about Old Friends (duh), Back To Earth is about Earthy character drama stuff, Into The Stars is pure sci-fi and this?? Nothing, I've got nothing. I know I joke about this sort of stuff from time to time, but seriously, these stories don't have much in common at all, so I'm seriously just going to move on to the first episode here.  The Seas of Titan by Lizbeth Myles There's only ever been one Silurian or Sea Devil story so far, and while The Seas of Titan goes through quite a bit of effort in order to a...

  The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Into The Stars He's been "Back to Earth," and now he's going "Into The Stars!" If there was any consistency the following set would be all historical stories, but let's not complain now, alrighty?? Into the Stars is the most Ninth Doctor set of all time. It follows all the rules. Three stories, very very awkwardly and generically themed, the middle one of which is the least good of the three. Include one episode that is weirdly phenomenal (most likely written by Tim Foley) and blows all of the other ones in the set out of the water to keep you latched onto the series. Give the Ninth Doctor no introspection related to his character and have the only character arcs in the set relegated to the guest stars. Possibly throw a random monster in there, but only for one episode, and just so people who care about that buy the thing. It's a formula, and if you don't like how that formula sounds, or are annoyed after five other...