Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

Trying to remember how the Dark Eyes series finished up - and actually can't because I listened to that at the beginning of the week and uh, no brain since Weds. But I have a vague feeling it didn't end *that* badly.

I recommend Jago & Litefoot as an antidote - esp S3 and S4 (and of course, the post-S4 "Voyage to Venus" in which Sixie takes J&L on their first TARDIS trip. They totally pwn!

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I've been saving up Jago & Litefoot - I want to listen to the last season before Voyage to Venus.

But if Dark Eyes ends up with everybody dead, I don't want to invest either my time or my money.

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J&L S4 was brilliant. It seems to get better and better every series.

Not everyone ends up dead in Dark Eyes (I've remembered that much now). To say more would entail spoilers, sweetie.

(Have you been keeping up with The Scarifyers?)

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I have been keeping up with Scarifyers! (Which reminds me; I need to find the CD with the dinosaur and pull it into iTunes; I prefer to have one long joined-up story than the separate tracks you get on download.)

I've already pre-ordered the one that comes out in December, and put a note in my calendar to download and listen. (I may want to keep it in a solid format, but I won't wait for the CD to be able to listen to it!)

As for J&L - S4 was brilliant, all the more so because I was very unimpressed with S3.

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David Warner's character is a nice complement to Terry Molloy's Dunning - and is sufficiently reminiscent of Nick Courtney's Lionheart to make their partnership work well.

Oh? I enjoyed J&L S3.

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It doesn't hurt that I think David Warner can do no wrong.

I thought J&L S3 was mostly padding and tease.

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Well that's very true - David Warner's in the new series The Secret of Crickley Hall which starts tonight on the BBC. It's not the sort of thing I'd normally watch, but I may make an exception in this case for him. (So long as I watch in daylight, I should be okay!) Tom Ellis - aka Martha's ex, Suranne Jones and Douglas Henshaw are also in it - should be interesting!

Oh... Ah well.

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penfold-x.livejournal.com

I'm going to encourage you to act that urge. Not in a nasty way, of course, but please, do tell them why you're disappointed. I'm frankly really glad I clicked on your post; I listen to the 7 series and I would really have been disappointed if I'd bought the last one without realizing what was going to happen. Now I'm not sure I'll even buy them. I really enjoy Hex (as I have other original companions), but I can't take death after death after death. I'm not into BF as some kind of self-torture.

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I can't take death after death after death. I'm not into BF as some kind of self-torture.

YES, THIS! This is my entertainment. I'm willing to accept the occasional dark story, but I do not find unrelenting darkness entertaining in the least (and why, yes, I am still mad about Torchwood Children of Earth.)

I liked the first in the trilogy with Hex, and I really enjoyed Garuendel in the second. But... Hex was a favorite from back in The Harvest, and I don't think he got a good sendoff in the least. Add to the snuff-fest that was the end of the Lucie/8 series... I had to get rid of that entire season. The whole season because of what it led up to.

I think it's not at all impossible for me to say to Nick or Jason that I hesitate strongly to get the latest Eight miniseries in light of the fact that all of Eight's previous original companions have lousy endings.

It's bad storytelling, damnit! It really is, to have only one ending.

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hildy.livejournal.com

This is depressing to read. I'm *so* behind on listening to the 8th Doctor ones and always not sure whether to want to keep going. I did just buy "Dark Eyes", so we'll see. And I have "Counter Measures" which reminds me of their "Sapphire & Steel" audios in odd ways. But I would definitely say *tell* them, especially why.

Edited Date: 2012-11-18 09:31 pm (UTC)

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I'm sorry for spoiling you!

But yes - I am going to tell them why I'm not buying Dark Eyes. I just need to find a time and a way of keeping calm about it.

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hildy.livejournal.com

No no, I willingly spoiled myself, so no worries on *that* count. But yes, I understand. I was rereading my Big Finish related blog posts and remembering while I never had had the angst over companions leaving before, I reacted badly to just the idea of Charley going. So... yeah.

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I'm midway through Dark Eyes right now, so I can keep you updated if you'd like.

That's sort of how I feel with the show itself right now. With audios, I find it easier to shove the stories I'm not interested in out of existence. Therefore, Charley's story ends with The Girl Who Never Was (which still isn't great, but mostly this is because I felt like they were overkilling Charley by not just letting the character go), and Lucie's story ends with Death in Blackpool and the drama surrounding that rather than let us refashion her into some battle-hardy person who we then kill off far from home, this girl who'd always been very attached to her family, rather than a curious and "gauche, ungainly" young lass, and meanwhile lets also shit all over the concept of the Doctor moving onto a new friend. Again.

Hex, like I told you, did actually work for me (though I was crushed, I love him), but given what the reasoning turned out to be, they should've just ended it at The Angel of Scutari (which wouldn't have been happier an end, but probably cleaner and less dragged out).

ETA: All in all, I would say, yes, totally, let him know. If I were going to be at any of these cons, I'd want to express my opinion about that, and actually also about their reluctance to let storylines end without always bringing them back for another wringing.

Edited Date: 2012-11-18 11:20 pm (UTC)

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At this point, I want full spoilers for Dark Eyes before I even consider it. And I am going to say something - if not about Hex, about the fact that I have no interest in Dark Eyes knowing the fate of 100% of the companions they've previously given Eight.

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Well, Mary Godwin had a good time and decided to go home because she couldn't emotionally handle the extremity of the life. (I was surprised how much I loved her as a companion, and I'm actually hoping that wasn't the ending, but it seems to be.) Of course, they couldn't very well kill her off.

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That's an acceptable ending, IMO.

Although, even not knowing the circumstances I can't imagine they couldn't kill her off; nothing's stopped them before.

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Well, Eight did make a big deal of making sure the future writer of Frankenstein doesn't get killed on his watch.

And yeah, I feel like that'd be my kind of reasoning for leaving were I a companion.

I just really loved her and wanted her around for more than three and a quarter audios, is what I mean.

Edited Date: 2012-11-21 07:20 am (UTC)

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usuallyhats

With the caveat that I haven't actually heard any of these stories yet, I think it's worth saying something! In general, I hate the trend towards everything being dark and grim and sad. :( My main range subscription ran out just before "Gods and Monsters" and now I'm not sure I want to renew it.

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The more I think about it, the more I'm planning on saying something. Even if I don't talk about Hex directly, I've got a golden opening for pointing out that I have no interest in Dark Eyes knowing that up until now, 100% of Big Finish's companions for Eight have bad endings.

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aralias.livejournal.com

in the most recent DWM nick briggs talks about how molly's story 'isn't over yet' so... i assume things could go ok for her. plus, if eight is already super sad and annoyed... would even big finish want to kill someone else on him?

to be fair - erimem and evelyn (if they haven't done anything to contradict thicker than water since) were relatively good companion endings. but neither of those are recent. but also - to be fair - i do really dislike charley and lucie's end (and would probably dislike hex's, but i haven't been keeping up with that line, even though i hear it's good).

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Which implies that something pretty sticky happens to her as well.

Which cements it. I don't know who Molly is, but I have every opportunity to tell Nick Briggs and Jason H-E that I would have bought Dark Eyes except for the knowledge that 100% of the original companions they give to Eight have terrible ends. Two out of three - the alternate universe companions and Lucie and all the originals associated with her - are bad.

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In A Death in the Family, Evelyn cameos and dies of old age, but after a good, happy, influential life? I don't think Thicker Than Water gets contradicted in bringing that about.

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Personally, I think a quiet death after a good life *is* a happy ending.

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Me too, but I was just wondering where it would fall for other people, just having the death be part of the story.

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ghost2.livejournal.com

I couldn't bring myself to listen to Evelyn's exit story, and I don't think I'll be listening to Gods and Monsters anytime soon. Too depressing. I guess I'll just go back and listen to the mounds of BF that I've fallen behind on.

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