Big Finish By Mood: A Guide
Guest contributor Sam Davern recommends some of the best audio stories to match a particular mood.
Note: For this article, I will not include any spin-offs or other ranges from Big Finish (although I do suggest trying out The Confessions of Dorian Gray series).
Starting out with Big Finish can seem very daunting. With literally hundreds of Who stories in there back catalogue, it can always be difficult to decide which ones to spend your hard earned cash on. Well fear not, for I have taken the liberty of compiling this list of some of my favourite stories. But not only have I done this, I have separated them into various subsets and genres. The upshot of this being that you can choose what audio you would like to get based on your current mood. For example when I’m feeling down, I listen to an audio of a more comical leaning than say a story where my favourite characters are brutally murdered before my very ears. So without further ado let us begin!
When you need a laugh
Honourable mentions also go to “The One Doctor” by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman (essentially a Doctor Who panto) and “The Holy Terror” by Robert Shearman. The Holy Terror is a particularly strange beast. I have never encountered anything before that made laugh as much as it scared the bejeezus out of me.
When you want to wear rose-tinted glasses
When I say nostalgia, I don’t mean “Oh look, that’s what it was like on telly” or “Oh look, he said that same line 30 years ago and now he’s said it again”. I consider nostalgia to be something more powerful that not only conjures memories but emotions as well. A nostalgic audio makes you feel the same emotions you felt when you saw the originals and adds to this a bittersweet feeling of regret for times gone by and that things will never be the same again.
I am particularly fond of the Pertwee era and the two audios that gave me that warm, fuzzy, nostalgic feeling were “Find and Replace” by Paul Magrs and “The Last Post” by James Goss. Find and Replace chronicles Jo Grant’s first meeting with Iris Wildthyme (a mad, drunk version of the Doctor who is also played by Katy Manning). In particular, the second episode makes you “feel” the Pertwee era and Jo’s meeting with the Doctor in it gave me goosebumps. “The Last Post” acts as a very poignant end to Liz Shaw. It was the final audio that Caroline John recorded before her untimely passing. It ties every story in Season 7 together in an incredibly satisfying way and Caroline gives a top notch performance. Let it be said however, that I have a particular soft spot for Season 7 which may cloud my judgement.
Two other audios I found that created this same effect were “Farewell, Great Macedon” by Moris Farhi and Nigel Robinson and “The Foe From The Future” by Robert Banks Stewart and John Dorney. Macedon is the pinnacle of the Hartnell historical, no question about it. It feels very similar to the televised ones but is a story they never would have been able to pull off in the sixties. Foe from the Future, in my very honest opinion, is the best Fourth Doctor story that Big Finish have ever produced. It not only captures the feel of the era but is one of the few (more on those later) 4th Doctor stories made by BF that genuinely make you feel like your in 1977 again. Excellent stuff. “Philip Hinchcliffe Presents” is also worth a look but is rather expensive, especially for new listeners.
When you want to be scared
Early on in my Big Finish voyage, I purchased “1963: The Space Race” by Jonathan Morris. As it was not marketed as an overt homage to the horror genre, I lay in bed, put on my headphones and loaded the story on my phone. I listened to it and, subsequently, had trouble sleeping for days. I don’t know if it’s just me or does the idea of pets breaking into your house and harvesting your organs give you the, shall we say, “heebeejeebees”? When it comes to horror, Big Finish know there stuff. Stories like “Ghost in the Machine” by Jonny Morris (again) and “The Crooked Man” by John Dorney are perfect to listen to on a dark and stormy night.
Now, I’m going to mention “The Holy Terror” again, along with one of Rob Shearman’s other classics, “The Chimes of Midnight” (recently voted best Monthly Range story EVER). These two stories are both creepy in their own way. While “The Holy Terror” will make your blood curdle, “Chimes” will slowly eat into your mind over the course of its duration and rattle you to your core. Did I also mention that it’s a Christmas story?
When you want to have a good time
These stories are the ones reserved for those lazy summer days (or pretty much any day you happen to be procrastinating and feeling good about it). These are the ones that will leave you with a smile on your face every time, without fail. I am of course talking about the Gareth Roberts Trilogy. “The Romance of Crime”, “The English Way of Death” and “The Well Mannered War”. Featuring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward (I know right?!), the titles alone should be enough to convince you to buy them. Not only are they hilarious, they each have a genre they pastiche, a bit like Edgar Wright’s “Cornetto Trilogy”. “Romance” is a big-epic-space-prison-break-Star-Wars-with-Ogrons, “Death” is a delightful 1930s romp and “War” is one of the greatest war satires known to man. Trust me, just buy them.
Do you remember Sergeant Benton? Of course you do. Did you think he could carry his own story? Probably not. Well “Council of War” by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris is here to prove you wrong. This release is a particular guilty pleasure of mine that I have listened to countless times. It is essentially an epic James Bond style spy story where Benton must infiltrate… Kettering Town Council. A wonderful subversion of the spy genre that has a heart and will make you want to listen to it over and over again. “1963: Fanfare for the Common Men” by Eddie Robson and “The Mahogany Murderers” by Andy Lane are also worth a look.
When you want to hear some New-Who
Get the War Doctor audios. They have John Hurt in them for God’s sake!
That man would make the iTunes Terms & Conditions sound like a work of art!
When you want meaty drama
This, in my opinion, is what Big Finish do best. Raw, pure, unadulterated drama that draws you in and stays with you long after the CD stops spinning. There are quite a few so I’m just going to list them:
- “Home Truths” by Simon Gurrier
- “The Rocket Men” by John Dorney
- “Damaged Goods” by Russell T. Davies, adapted by Jonathan Morris
- “The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance” by Moris Farhi, adapted by Nigel Robinson
- “The War to End All Wars” by Simon Gurrier
- “The Jigsaw War” by Eddie Robson
- “Solitaire” by John Dorney
- “Live 34” by James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown
- “Doctor Who and the Pirates” by Jacqueline Rayner
- “The Harvest” by Dan Abnett
- “Jubilee” by Robert Shearman
- “Second Chances” by John Dorney “Spare Parts” by Marc Platt
Phew. I would just like to say that there are many more stories that I love that should be on this list but as I am recommending stories for beginners, others such as “A Death in the Family” and “The Natural History of Fear”, have been omitted because they require some degree of foreknowledge.
When the writer wants to finish this article and go to sleep because it’s half past two in the morning
I hope that I have aided your path through the great swathes of Doctor Who audio stories. It is my sincerest wish that in writing this article, I have provided guidance to those in distress, a light at the end of the tunnel and maybe even, dare I say, changed someone’s life for the better. And with regards to this, admittedly, quite lazy conclusion I… can’t think of any more synonyms for “hope” or “wish for” so I’m just going to end it here and now. Thank you and good luck.
