After starting this I realized
that this is going to be way too long to do all at once, there are after all 50
plays to choose from here. So I’m going to split this up by Doctor, and then
maybe after I'm done that I’ll list my favourites from all four. Logically, I should probably start with the fifth Doctor, but I've decided to save him for latter so that I'll have time to brush up on some of his audio and TV adventures. Instead I have decided to start with the Sixth Doctor.
The Sixth Doctor
Easily the most widely hated
Doctor from the entire run of the show, Colin Baker was cast at a particularly tumultuous
period in the show's history. Peter Davison was leaving, and the story goes that
Colin Baker was cast without even giving him an audition, but rather because the
show runner, John Nathan Turner, saw him making a fool of himself at a wedding and thought, “That’s
my Doctor!” Baker was thrilled, as he had already been a huge fan of the series, and once said that he planned to be on it longer than the other Baker. When asked about his costume he said that he
would like to wear something simple, maybe black. Instead they got him this:
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| Colin Baker and his "Rainbow Vomit" outfit. |
It got even worse after that. The
calm, kind, gentlemanly fifth Doctor had just left the show by sacrificing
himself in an emotional scene wherein the Doctor almost doesn't regenerate due to his own self-doubt, but right before the end he sees his companions pleading for him to live, and he decides that his life does have a purpose. This kind, gentle Doctor's replacement is arrogant, mean, and slightly insane. In his first episode he
continuously insults his companion, hides behind her in the face of danger, and even attempts to strangle her. Needless
to say, people were unimpressed. Despite this characterization, and some terrible scripts, Colin Baker managed to inject a
certain charisma and charm into the character. Eventually
he was fired for playing too unlikable of a Doctor, even though he wasn't the one
writing the scripts. He asked for a full episode in order to show his Doctor’s
death, but was told that he would regenerate at the very beginning of
the episode, and so he declined to return. As a result the Sixth Doctor was
killed by hitting his head on the TARDIS console.
Needless to say, Big Finish didn't
have a lot to work with here. What they did have was a good performer
who loved the show and still wanted to play the Doctor. The Sixth Doctor is
quickly redeemed in his big finish adventures, without really changing his
personality. He’s still grouchy, arrogant, and pompous, but he’s also
caring, kind, and contains a righteous fury at those who exploit the
weak. Within a few hours Big Finish transforms him from the worst to
the best of the Doctors.
The Companions
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| Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown |
The Sixth Doctor never really had a companion that worked well with him on screen. First he had Perry, an American who was introduced to be the fifth Doctor's companion and always got along better with him. His other companion, Mel, was barely even a character. She was introduced late in his run, without even an introductory episode, and never had a chance to cement as a character.
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| Melanie Bush |
So
Big Finish introduced a new companion, Dr. Evelyn Smythe. Evelyn is one of my
favourite Doctor Who companions. She’s a history professor who specialized in
studying Tudor England. She idealizes Queen Elizabeth I, cares about her
students deeply, and loves hot cocoa. Her and the Doctor swiftly gain a mutual
respect and even a love for one another, without ever stopping bickering. She brings
out his softer side, and is also able to keep up with him on an intellectual
level.
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| Dr. Evelyn Smithe |
The Doctor also journeys with Frobisher,
a shapeshifting alien Whifferdill. Frobisher is a private eye, who prefers to take
the form of a penguin. He went to private detective school, got his private
detective diploma second class, it would have been first class but his teacher
hated avian species. I really like him, and his portrayal by Big Finish is great, but unfortunately there is this weird bias
against Frobisher in the Doctor Who fandom. He was originally introduced in the
comics, and is hated by the fans for being too silly. This makes perfect sense because Doctor Who is a super
serious show. As a result he’s only in one full audio adventure, and one short
one that was free for subscribers. Makes me sad.
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| Frobisher sometimes forgets that he can shape-shift. |
The Best
14. The Holy Terror
The Doctor and Frobisher arrive on a planet in a state of political turmoil. The god-king has died, and his son must now take his place. His illegitimate half-brother must play his role by plotting in the dungeon, and his mother must be executed for her blasphemy of having been married to a false god (he must be false; he died). On top of all that they have to deal with the customary attempted coup, and all the scheduled miracles. The play is darkly funny, frightening, disturbing, and in the end very tragic. It's possibly still the best thing Big Finish has made. It succeeds on many levels and it gets better every time I listen to it. The first time I heard it I became convinced that the conclusion would never live up to the buildup, and so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the conclusion fit perfectly and was very satisfying.
35. ...ish
The Doctor and Peri travel to a conference for experts in the English language. It's a place where words themselves have power and are traded. Peri meets a man who loves language more than the Doctor does, and the Doctor quickly gets drawn into a mystery when the most respected expert there is murdered by her own holographic assistant. Quickly it becomes clear that there is more going on here than there appears to be, especially when they discover that the expert had been seeking a mysterious word known as the omniverbum and its affix "ish". Word anarchists, sentient words, and crazed dictionaries are only some of the adversaries that the Doctor must overcome. It's weird, funny, and exciting. I suspect that to love this play one needs a special affection for the English language, but even without that I think it would still be an entertaining adventure. http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/-ish-201
40. Jubilee
The inspiration for the episode Dalek, sees the Doctor and Evelyn arriving in a London gone mad. England famously repelled a dalek invasion years earlier, and has now become a dictatorship entirely based off of fear of the daleks, and worship of the Doctor and his companion Evelyn "Hot Lips" Smythe. They have a dalek in lockup, and plan to execute him at the next Jubilee. Dalek's oddly out of place satirical element makes more sense when this play is kept in mind. It's darkly funny, and often disturbing, with sharp political satire, and a wonderful examination of the daleks. Dalek is good, but this is much better, simply because it is able to delve more deeply into all the aspects of the story. http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/jubilee-206
43. And the Pirates
Science fiction shows will often kill off characters in order to denote danger, but rarely do they deal with this death in an emotionally satisfying way. This play introduces a story line that does just this, as the constant deaths she faces start to weigh heavily on Evelyn. In And the Pirates Evelyn visits one of her students, brings her some chocolate cake and a story about pirates. She doesn't do a very good job of telling it, so the Doctor comes to help. Eventually the story becomes too emotional for Evelyn to tell so the Doctor adds songs to try to lighten the mood. It's mostly awkward and funny at first, becomes hilarious, and then heartbreaking in its exploration of grief and guilt. In many ways it's about the relationship between the three characters as bond over, and through telling a story attempt to overcome their guilt for things that are to late to change. So in that way the framing device is the point, but the story itself is fun to listen to. If that doesn't convince you maybe this will; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00T_ft5RCdc
48. Davros
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/davros-214
The Worst
Colin Baker eventually did some bad plays for Big Finish, but none of them are among the first 50 plays that Big Finish produced. That doesn't mean they were all great, but they were all good. My least favourite was:
22. Blood Tide
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/bloodtide-647
Part Two coming soon... ish.
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