Month: September 2009

So, back in the summer I excitedly posted the news that Tom Baker was going to be back as the Doctor, in a five-part series of connected tales from BBC Audio.

Well, the first CD has been released, and given the reviews I’ve been reading, if you were at all excited about this, don’t be.

Despite the fact that they mentioned multiple actors, these are NOT Big Finish-style full audio adventures. Apparently, it’s nothing more than an audiobook, with the occasional extra actor voicing some of the dialog. BOO.

Worse yet, a lot of fans are saying that Baker sounds like he phoned it in. Given the format of the thing — the Doctor essentially narrating a previous adventure to former (3rd Doctor) companion Mike Yates (they were going to use the Brigadier, who actually met the 4th Doctor, but Nick Courtney had a stroke, and had to bow out), his performance has almost none of the manic energy that is so associated with his Doctor. BOO.

Why, oh why couldn’t Big Finish have done this instead of BBC Audio? Then we would’ve gotten a true 4th Doctor adventure.

As it stands, I don’t think that I’ll bother picking it up. I love the 4th Doctor, but I’d rather not be disappointed. Plus, there’s tons of 5th through 8th Doctor audios that I’ve still yet to hear from Big Finish, so I think I’ll stick with those.

The Wayward Victorian Girl is bringing her Asylum Tour to Lawrence on November 4th, playing The Granada.

and I have our tickets. We loves us some Victoriandustrial.

So, join us! After all:

Emilie Autumn – “Misery Loves Company.”

From Salon.com’s review of the new Dan Brown potboiler, The Lost Symbol:

“Conspiracy theory, not characters, made “The Da Vinci Code” the bestselling adult novel of all time. With that novel, Brown, previously a mediocre thriller author laboring in relative obscurity, hit upon the idea of a lifetime. Latching onto a popular but moderately difficult work of pseudohistory titled “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln […], Brown streamlined the authors’ argument that Jesus fathered a dynasty of French kings with Mary Magdalene into an airport page-turner easily understood by people who can barely read.”

…and there you have my problem with Brown. Mediocre thriller writer, cribs ideas from other (better) sources, and distills them for the masses, who gobble it up thinking it’s terribly clever.

really needs to turn some of his Supressed Transmissions into novels before Dan Brown gets ahold of them and renders them down into Conspiratorial Weirdness For Dummies.