u/JKT-477

So, in the late 2000s life caught up with me and I had to take a break from Big Finish Doctor Who audios. I was able to return after more than a decade, and was quickly overwhelmed by how much I had missed.

So began a slow process of getting the audios I missed on CD, and since 6 is my Doctor, I’ve been focusing on getting his old releases as well as new releases of him and a few other Doctors. (And please, there’s always someone who likes to mock me for getting physical media. Don’t bother.)

I just ordered The Hour of the Cyberman, thus completing nearly all of 6’s monthly releases. Two of them, Plight of the Pimpernel and The Blood on Santa’s Claws are either unavailable or way too expensive. ($75 for Blood on Santa’s Claws last I checked!)

Outside of the monthly releases, I have most of the others. I’m currently lacking the River Song crossover and the Jago and Litefoot stories, (though I have the two Voyage audios, New World and Venus)as well as some of the BBC audios like Flight of the Sun God, River of Death and Fortunes of War.

I’m just excited to be so close to making up for lost time with my collection of classic Doctor Who. 🤠

So I did pick up and read Lucy Foley’s Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel featuring Ms Marple.

TL;DR Not worth buying if you’re a fan of Agatha Christie. Read it from a library first before buying.

It is told from the first person perspective of four of the characters in the Book, 3 women and 1 man. My first impression was that it reads very different from how Agatha writes. If she is meat and potatoes, this is a Piece Montee, a traditional cake that looks beautiful but has no flavor.

It’s flowery, even beautiful prose at times, but nothing you can sink your teeth into, only admire from afar.

Poirot in Murder in Three Acts describes a murder as a theatre performance. The killer shows the audience what he wants them to see, and it is the job of the detective to see not just the setting of the play, but what happens behind the scenes.

Lucy’s presentation is very much a murderer’s perspective. All beautiful production with the stage management invisible.

Very different from how Agatha shows a murder, as we not only see the beautiful production, but we get glimpses of what happens behind the scenes.

There are several aspects of the mystery that feels off to a fan of Agatha Christie. The four people telling the story makes the whole thing feel less like a realistic, grounded experience being portrayed, but a fantasy with voices whispering from every direction.

What’s worse is that one of the voices couldn’t possibly have written their perspective. Their words appear out of nowhere and fade away into nothing.

It’s understandable that Lucy wanted to write multiple perspectives, but it would have worked much better as a third person novel, than the multiple and impossible first person perspective.

In addition many of the characters are crude and unlikable creatures. As Ms Marple asked her nephew Raymond in The Tuesday Night Club, do you really think people are as unpleasant as you make them out to be?

I find it common in many modern novels that people are portrayed at their worst and most dramatic, with little regard to how people really are.

Unfortunately Ms Marple has an almost cameo appearance in her own novel. While this worked well in The Moving Finger, Lucy doesn’t have the skill that Agatha had to pull off a move like that.

There is something I found quite ironic about this story. About 90% (I’m guessing, not actual number) of the problems of this novel can be solved with one single change.

Just exchange Jane Marple for Albert Campion.

The story is much closer to a Margery Allingham story than an Agatha Christie one.

Although I doubt Lucy could do Campion Justice.

In the final assessment, I wouldn’t recommend this book. If you must read it, use a library instead of wasting your money. 🤠

So I had a brainstorm at the end of last year. Instead of struggling to get Big Finish new releases (preorders because I like to have a physical CD) throughout the year, I would invest extra money I had at the end of the year into preordering upcoming 2026 releases. No stress, no struggle, order and be done!

I had been collecting 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th Doctor audios, since they are my favorite, and I’m not solvent enough to buy all the releases. 🤣

No problem for 2, nor for 3 and definitely not for 6. Yay! However no releases announced for 9. Bit of panic, is Eccelston not doing them anymore?! But don’t worry too much, put some money aside for a later announcement. $500 plus another $150 for any 9th Doctor announcements.

I foolish thought I was done.

Big Finish, somehow knowing of my plans, cackled evilly.

Finally announced 9, except it wouldn’t be in the three story for one format, oh no, 12 stories, priced individually for the next two years. So another $50 on top of what I set aside. 🥵

Then they announced the 13th Doctor in the same format. I didn’t like the writing on her era, but always said I’d check her out if Big Finish did audios for her. Me and my big mouth.

Not to worry, I’ll just pick up the first two, and done.

Crap. I liked them. So another $200 down the drain.

But surely nothing else…Rutans vs. Sontarans. We just did that but backwards. Shouldn’t be a problem…a Second Doctor one, followed by a Sixth Doctor one, and the return of Charley and C’Rizz in the finale.

Darn you Big Finish!

So finally, today, after buying more and more Big Finish throughout the year as they tempt my palate, I put in an order for a replacement to a damaged Avengers audio, and completed both the 9th and the 13th Doctors audio preorders.

Surely I am done. No more surprise audios that I absolutely need for my collection now!

Surely…<whimper>

So I had a brainstorm at the end of last year. Instead of struggling to get Big Finish new releases (preorders because I like to have a physical CD) throughout the year, I would invest extra money I had at the end of the year into preordering upcoming 2026 releases. No stress, no struggle, order and be done!

I had been collecting 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th Doctor audios, since they are my favorite, and I’m not solvent enough to buy all the releases. 🤣

No problem for 2, nor for 3 and definitely not for 6. Yay! However no releases announced for 9. Bit of panic, is Eccelston not doing them anymore?! But don’t worry too much, put some money aside for a later announcement. $500 plus another $150 for any 9th Doctor announcements.

I foolish thought I was done.

Big Finish, somehow knowing of my plans, cackled evilly.

Finally announced 9, except it wouldn’t be in the three story for one format, oh no, 12 stories, priced individually for the next two years. So another $50 on top of what I set aside. 🥵

Then they announced the 13th Doctor in the same format. I didn’t like the writing on her era, but always said I’d check her out if Big Finish did audios for her. Me and my big mouth.

Not to worry, I’ll just pick up the first two, and done.

Crap. I liked them. So another $200 down the drain.

But surely nothing else…Rutans vs. Sontarans. We just did that but backwards. Shouldn’t be a problem…a Second Doctor one, followed by a Sixth Doctor one, and the return of Charley and C’Rizz in the finale.

Darn you Big Finish!

So finally, today, after buying more and more Big Finish throughout the year as they tempt my palate, I put in an order for a replacement to a damaged Avengers audio, and completed both the 9th and the 13th Doctors audio preorders.

Surely I am done. No more surprise audios that I absolutely need for my collection now!

Surely…<whimper>

Just listened to this and I had to comment.

I previously commented on the first four. It was downvoted, I presume because I stated my displeasure at Chibnall’s writing, but who knows.

I’ll do a full review when I get the 8th audio.

However, the Hallamshire Incident has shown that the 13th Doctor can actually compete with the other Doctors in the audios.

Certainly bringing Menzies back, a 6th Doctor recurring character was a smart move, connecting 13 to the previous Big Finish audios, and referencing Charlie was fun when you know the circumstances that Charlie met Menzies.

But more than that this audio felt like a comfortable Doctor Who story, in a way that the previous audios hadn’t done, though Vampire Weekend was close.

The audios are not only superior to the Chibnall era, but they are now able to stand amongst the great and fun audio stories of the classic Doctors.

Highly recommended, great Ice Warrior story and a fun adventure.

Apologies if this is a banned topic. It’s a DC comics Batman movie.

It’s a Batman movie released to theaters first. It has a singularly unique distinction from all other Batman movies. If it’s ok with the moderators, you have to name the movie and what is singularly unique about it to win.

Good luck.

Edit Clue: it’s not an obvious, singularly unique thing that sets it apart. The way I’m phrasing that is a bit of a clue.

Second clue: it is live action.

Every year Big Finish has a writing contest, and every year I enter. Now, they don’t tell you if you lost, but they assure us they’ll let us know if we win. 🤣

I haven’t heard from them, so I assume I didn’t win, but I thought I’d publicly share my submission this year, see what people think.

This year was a First Doctor story, set during the tv series, can’t add new companions, inversely can’t bring back any monster or alien, and can’t include real historical people after 1900 I believe. This isn’t my official entry, but expanded for this post.

So here goes!

Sweet Death

The Doctor arrives, alone, on a space station in the far future. Alien Pirates have been attacking Earth stations. I hadn’t fully settled on a name for these aliens, but I was going to go with a variation of Azucar, Spanish for sugar, with apostrophes and Ks to look alien.

These aliens have a unique physiology. Sugar from earth is like an acid to them, eating away at them. But cut with safe substances, it has a euphoric effect on them. It’s become a dangerous habit, and the pirates will do anything for what they call Sweet Death.

Earth Government has responded in the most bureaucratic way. They no longer ship any sugar, even fructose or Splenda, to any colony. They’ve also limited most other essential food stuffs like salt.

The people are starving and suffering from conditions like scurvy because of this.

The Doctor is supposedly there to shop, but actually smuggling food supplies in a trans dimensional bag.

Unfortunately the pirates are sick of it. They invade the station, wearing holo disguises, and take it over with the threat to kill everyone there unless they receive enough sugar to meet their needs.

A representative of Earth, ironically the only woman on the station not suffering from malnutrition, is happy to be a martyr for her company, along with everyone else on the station.

The pirates, meanwhile are clear they believe they will have to slaughter several space stations worth of humans to get what they want.

The Doctor decides to intervene, offering them something better than sugar. He presents a small sample. A black liquid. The pirates are confused until their sugar expert gets a look at it, referring to it as a pure form of sugar. The Doctor clarifies that humans call it molasses.

He offers to lead them to a source of this molasses, but warns it’ll only lead to death. They accept regardless.

The earth representative is furious, insisting the earth policy of starving the people is the best solution. She insists that she accompany them to document the Doctor’s crimes against earth.

He agrees, and the pirates divide themselves into the Tardis and their own ship. The Tardis tows their ship and leaves. It ‘accidentally’ slip backwards in time.

The Doctor, the representatives and the pirates arrive in North Boston, January of 1919 and park on the roof of a building.

The Doctor insists they use their holo disguises to not scare the natives, and directs them towards a massive tank containing more than two million gallons of molasses. It’s so full that molasses is leaking down the side of the tank.

The pirates eagerly sample and analyze the molasses, their avarice plain. The representative lecturers the Doctor, but he calmly interrupts her to explain how the tank was built. Confused she asks what he’s talking about. The Doctor smiles. A moment later a massive groaning fills the air.

The tank bursts. The pirates are immediately engulfed in molasses, their bodies instantly destroyed because it works like acid. Their technology is crushed as millions of gallons of molasses flood into Boston.

The Doctor explains a bit of the history of the Great Molasses Flood. (Check out the book Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo for a full history)

Then he leaves the representative there, promising to pick her back up, if she works hard to save the victims of the flood. The Doctor then takes the pirate ship away from earth to dispose of it.

The End.

Notes, if anyone is interested:

I was going to mention that he left his grandchildren behind as a cheeky reference to John and Jillian, setting this story outside of the tv show, but in the comics.

What can I say, I’m a rebel. 🤣

The alien pirates were going to be child sized to humans, with a pink skin that resembled in a disturbing manner pepto bismol medicine. Most would have greenish brown streaks similar to marbling. It would be revealed that this was unnatural to them, but an effect of the addiction to sugar. Ironically, the pirate captain would have completely smooth pink skin, indicating he wasn’t addicted, but was exploiting his own kind for profit.

While the drug metaphor is obvious, I was basing it more on Nicotine, a deadly poison that is also one of the most addictive substances on earth. It can be found in tobacco products.

And that’s about all. I’m disappointed it won’t be spread far and wide, but at least a few people will read this. 🤠

Why is discussing an alternative cause for banning someone?

If someone is looking for options, or have concerns about abortions, shouldn’t you be able to discuss every possible alternative, and give the person the knowledge to choose what is best for them?

So, I just got this. You have to find and unlock 53 access panels in the hidden data storage area of Chongquin.

So, some advice, expect to be there a while. Remember it isn’t just turning something on or off, but it’s activating all the control panel switches.

Remember that includes the vents, so don’t use a screwdriver to open those. Also it’s frosted panels, tvs, and computers.

I started in the base, but it made things slightly difficult when I realized that the final panel was the emergency exit, which has to be done last, as it ends the level, and can only be activated when you’ve taken out the targets.

Good luck and have fun! I look forward to using this tool!

I’m torn with picking up this particular Big Finish audio. I am collecting most of the 6th Doctor’s audios, but I’m not that big of fan of Steve Lyon’s writing.

He is either really good, or just dark and cringy in my opinion. I did not like his 6th Doctor Virgin novels, although I did like the character of Grant, so I’m not eager to pick up another of his even for the sake of completion.

Is this actually worth listening to, or is it needlessly dark and heavy with little payoff?

Just put together a new challenge idea for contracts. This is on the Nintendo Switch.

It’s called the Single Item Challenge. This first one is set in Miami, The Finish Line with the Knox Father and Daughter once again being targets.

The twist is you can only bring in a single dose of lethal poison, but are required to fulfill all optional objectives to fully complete the challenge.

Good luck!

Single Item Challenge-1-Lethal Poison

4-11-9644202-29