"i'm just martha jones. i wander the world, telling stories."
I procrastinated writing a reaction post for the third Ninth Doctor Adventures audio so long that finally I was just like "oh well I'll just combine it with my reaction post for The Year of Martha Jones audio" and then I procrastinated that for so long that now I'm bundling it with the fourth Ninth Doctor Adventures audio ♥ it's fine it's fine life happens anyway here's the long-promised and little-awaited Big Finish post
The third 9DA gives us three very different stories and an absolutely spot-on Nine voice -- in retrospect I'm a little amazed that Ravagers was the choice for the first NDA, given the café scene that I'm even more puzzled by with the benefit of more stories between me and it. Of the three, I'd have to pick The Curse of Lady Macbeth as my favorite -- a dark and unsettling and sympathetic retelling(ish...not really) of Macbeth, but they're all great; Monsters in Metropolis is a close second, a great twist on a Cyberman story in pre-WWII Berlin, and I'm a sucker for classism getting called out, so The Hunting Season hit home.
The Year Of Martha Jones gives us three moments in Martha's year walking the Earth, telling stories about the Doctor. They're all linked fairly closely together, as Martha meets an old school friend, Holly, in the first story (The Last Diner) and is shortly thereafter joined by her mother (er, sort of), and Holly and Francine travel with her through the next two stories as well. All three stories are set in the US as well, which I found an interesting choice. The second story, Silver Medal, was my favorite of the three, both for the story Martha tells (an unsettling tale about silver mines she was stranded in with a deadly secret) and for the fact that outside of the story, the resistance camp Martha & company are staying in is compellingly portrayed; I'd like to say Jessie came off like a parody of an American but unfortunately I've met people like her! Everything's a competition. I really liked that the set balanced the various reactions to Martha and her quest, and that it balanced telling her stories with the post-Saxon world. My only complaint is that the reveal about Francine was regrettably undercut by the fact that it was pretty obvious that Francine could not possibly have escaped the Valiant; other than that, a stellar audio set.
The fourth and final set of the first season of the Ninth Doctor Adventures is a little more focused than the previous 9DA sets, themed around the Doctor encountering old friends (does what it says on the tin). The first story has the Doctor attending the funeral of a friend; thanks to SCIENCE the man is able to attend his own funeral but suspicions are raised when the Doctor realizes his friend doesn't recognize him or anyone related to the final excursion that ended in the man's death. The latter two stories are where the set shines, though, as the Doctor runs into Brigadier General Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and together they investigate ghosts and Cybermen. (The second story also sets up the backstory of Sam Bishop, which would mean more to me if I listened to more of the UNIT audios, I take it.) The third audio, The Fourth Generation, which is the Cybermen-focused one, was my favorite, but all three are great, and all the character voices are fab.
HIGHLY recommend all of these audios.
The third 9DA gives us three very different stories and an absolutely spot-on Nine voice -- in retrospect I'm a little amazed that Ravagers was the choice for the first NDA, given the café scene that I'm even more puzzled by with the benefit of more stories between me and it. Of the three, I'd have to pick The Curse of Lady Macbeth as my favorite -- a dark and unsettling and sympathetic retelling(ish...not really) of Macbeth, but they're all great; Monsters in Metropolis is a close second, a great twist on a Cyberman story in pre-WWII Berlin, and I'm a sucker for classism getting called out, so The Hunting Season hit home.
The Year Of Martha Jones gives us three moments in Martha's year walking the Earth, telling stories about the Doctor. They're all linked fairly closely together, as Martha meets an old school friend, Holly, in the first story (The Last Diner) and is shortly thereafter joined by her mother (er, sort of), and Holly and Francine travel with her through the next two stories as well. All three stories are set in the US as well, which I found an interesting choice. The second story, Silver Medal, was my favorite of the three, both for the story Martha tells (an unsettling tale about silver mines she was stranded in with a deadly secret) and for the fact that outside of the story, the resistance camp Martha & company are staying in is compellingly portrayed; I'd like to say Jessie came off like a parody of an American but unfortunately I've met people like her! Everything's a competition. I really liked that the set balanced the various reactions to Martha and her quest, and that it balanced telling her stories with the post-Saxon world. My only complaint is that the reveal about Francine was regrettably undercut by the fact that it was pretty obvious that Francine could not possibly have escaped the Valiant; other than that, a stellar audio set.
The fourth and final set of the first season of the Ninth Doctor Adventures is a little more focused than the previous 9DA sets, themed around the Doctor encountering old friends (does what it says on the tin). The first story has the Doctor attending the funeral of a friend; thanks to SCIENCE the man is able to attend his own funeral but suspicions are raised when the Doctor realizes his friend doesn't recognize him or anyone related to the final excursion that ended in the man's death. The latter two stories are where the set shines, though, as the Doctor runs into Brigadier General Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and together they investigate ghosts and Cybermen. (The second story also sets up the backstory of Sam Bishop, which would mean more to me if I listened to more of the UNIT audios, I take it.) The third audio, The Fourth Generation, which is the Cybermen-focused one, was my favorite, but all three are great, and all the character voices are fab.
HIGHLY recommend all of these audios.