He Who Moans Reviews: Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 1 & The Diary of River Song Series 1

Look forward to more reviews of stuff almost a year late...in my defence, my to-do list is massive

[@90RavenBlack]

'The Red Lady' is one of the finest Big Finish stories of the decade. I practically punched the air when the story finished and there hadn't been any kind of explanation for the titular lady. It cannot be overstated how much more effective a monster is when they're allowed to retain their mystery, rather than being lumbered with a bog standard Sci Fi explanation.

[@alexzander4426]

Taryn Allan I’m in love of the idea of her (saying this as someone who hasn’t got to Doom Coalition 4 yet), but her episode was a bit of a disappointment. The first half hour was large amounts of exposition dumping and 8 being stupid. She she wasn’t even mentioned for most of the story and only the last 10 minutes let her show off. However I sill say that is the best structured, acted, and written 10 minutes of Big Finish to date. I loved how she was a mixture between an enemy and a process, but it was not played enough. Normally Gallifrey political dramas make me go “Yeah, that’s fine, but when is your great idea going to be acted on again,” however that was exactly how I felt with this one.

[@sidneywoolf-hoyle3102]

Just picked up the first 3 box sets £5 a piece in mint condition from a charity shop.

[@Stubagful]

fucking hell, that's a bloody good deal

[@sidneywoolf-hoyle3102]

It was, I binged the whole of Season 1 yesterday evening and found myself definitely agreeing with this review, with the first half definitely the strongest.

[@sidneywoolf-hoyle3102]

Some chap obviously didn't know their value. They still had sellophane on.

[@Stubagful]

XD lol. congrats la lucky bastard!! :)

[@thenebulasystem8251]

I love your videos! You (and Billy of 5WF) have made me really want to get into Big Finish audios! I'm working on it too, but it's so expensive! Thank goodness for the stuff BF put on Spotify!

[@carealoo744]

You can get them for just 2.99, Download, on the Big Finish Website.

[@bowtieanimation]

Brilliant review as always, Mr H.W Moans :) I'd say that the creature depicted at 3:24 is probably either an impressionist's artistic concept of a time sensitive living, sentient crystal clockwork man of pure quartz cultivated on the petri dish world of Diamondosis, and engineered to navigate starliners through the fourth dimension whilst wearing a chrononaut's standard-issue spacesuit, OR Space Kook from classic Scooby-Doo.

[@jakerockznoodles]

The comments you make about the Red Lady here also sum up why I ended up enjoying the Impossible Planet/Satan Pit so much. The Doctor doesn't really know what he's up against (and refuses to take it at its word) and in the end decides that the identity of this entity doesn't really matter anyway.

[@JayExci]

13:10 - I see that sneaky vervoid

[@creamypeanutbutterjellygir3321]

lol, me too

[@davidcook7399]

The Red Lady is one of the finest audio dramas available. I can find myself drifting off from time to time with audio dramas, but that one kept me riveted from start to finish. Writer John Dorney won a Scribe award for that. I often find if that a Big Finish drama has Dorney's name on it, I know it's going to be a cracking story.

[@alexzander4426]

River Song's series actually is where most of the BF experimental scripts go. 70% of her second series are gorgeously original audios that you'd never hear anywhere else (until the kinda disappointing final story, but I'd still highly recommend it)

[@dalekbumps]

The one about the Marvellous Party reminded me a lot of that Tenth Doctor and Martha novel The Pirate Loop, if you haven't read it then its definitely one of the best NuWho novels out there, and I could well see Big Finish doing a pseudo-sequel to it because its about as experimental and mind-boggling as Big Finish can get. As for this Doom Coalition stuff, I clearly need to take out a second mortgage and sell my sister in order to buy the four Dark Eyes box sets but I'm hoping I can pick up Doom Coalition 1 without that context, that way I only need to pawn my family silverware

[@ryanhlfc]

Its been 3 years so you've probably listened to them but you don't need DE for DC

[@Tara-gr9wo]

I look forward to ur content, it's great! ☺

[@Stubagful]

thank you :)

[@menkomonty]

The Red Lady story sort of reminded me of an old episode of Cardcaptor Sakura, where a card took the form of a painting in an art gallery and teleported people who tried to get too close to it or made loud noises.

[@PowerSpirit50]

8 years late but I wanted to add that the card was the Silent.

[@omegaaverenger112]

I really wish you would do the Two Masters trilogy :)

[@SavageBroadcast]

Ironically, how you felt about the River boxset sums up my feeling on the Charley set. Now look, I love India and she delivers like always, but this first set.... I thought was really a lot of okay and nothing more. Lamentation felt less like a story and more like a ton of tedious set up and fill in. Shadow was a decent jungle thriller but felt very routine, arguably moreso than Boundless Sea's reheating of The Mummy. House of Pollard was easily the strongest story, certainly the most emotionally resonant, and Solution was a decent wrap up with some exciting sequences and a genuinely compelling idea in the form of life as an ultimate virus, but it felt very typical ´big epic' finale when perhaps it should've been slower and more pensive. In that way, it was a little like how you felt about Satanic Mill. Also, dunno how you felt about it, but the theme tune felt really rushed, like more of a seed or germ of an idea for a musical piece and not a finished product. I feel Charley deserved something more well rounded. No disrespect towards BF, but this really felt every bit like a B project amidst all their other work.

[@TheJaviferrol]

For god sakes Stuart; BF review today??? I have to study!!! Oh what the hell...I'm weak...

[@Stubagful]

study!! video'll still be here tomorrow :p

[@DakNJaxter]

Basically agree with everything you said about both box-sets. While the Eleven is a great idea, they've yet to do anything particularly interesting with his gimmick, beyond it just being a gimmick. He just argues with himself a lot, then yells SILENCE, which was fine in the first story, but got pretty old in Satanic Mill. I hope they do something more profound/introspective in box sets 3 or 4. On Kingston's performance, I felt like in part's 1 and 2, River constantly sounds like she's shouting down a ,hall-way at someone, whereas in part 3 where she's dying and her voice is quieter, she comes across much more emotive and pensive when she speaks. It makes the intimate moments between her and the pseudo-Doctor really compelling. The only thing I didn't like about Signs was the line at the end where she says "I don't like to kill things that look human". It just seemed really mean-spirited, in a way that didn't ring true for River's character. And the comment about buying River Song because of McGann rings so painfully true for me. Up till the last second I was resolute I wasn't going to cave in, but... well... he is my favourite.

[@supremewhovian9258]

Awesome video.

[@roryahconnolly]

7:38 Aw yiss Stuart, I knew you were a fellow comrade all along!

[@Stubagful]

I honestly think everyone should be disgusted by the sports direct story regardless of their political affiliation. The fact some people aren't genuinely bewilders me

[@carealoo744]

Ah ha! I remembered which box set The Red Lady was in first try!:)

[@archive9796]

The problem is that ... Ok I don't really want a River Song Boxset But I want all of 8 so I have to get it

[@Stubagful]

If it helps: I thought I'd regret buying it, but I didn't in the end :)

[@archive9796]

+Stubagful well let's hope it stands up with the classic doctors new monsters like 4 boxsets they are probably going to do And the second river song Boxset And whatever the other boxsets 8 or 7 or 6 are put in

[@archive9796]

+Stubagful also I'm sure when all the boxsets are out they will put them in a bundle and it will be cheaper

[@thedoctorsassistant1]

brilliant review

[@WooogaTooga]

Any chance of reviewing the Charley box set?

[@carealoo744]

I Guess, Not!

[@Tara-gr9wo]

Damn it! Wait but you are you so that means I win!!

[@reiayanami7382]

Is there any chance of reviewing the War Doctor stories once you've finished with th Eighth Doctor?

[@Stubagful]

first...ha I win :p

[@Stubagful]

twitter.com/5tuarthardy/status/773797901520740352 not the real deal but...its power of the daleks, fucking ecstatic :D

[@SouthPark333Gaming]

good for you...

[@TheWAQProductions]

Great review!

[@archive9796]

Oooohhh the Charley spin off boxsets... When I have the money and I finish 8 I will get the 2 of them ...

[@Newt5996]

Three of them. A third has been confirmed

[@archive9796]

I actually typed 3 and the changed cous I wasn't 100% sure but yes they moved s2 back but confirmed s3

[@sawbonesquad4876]

Gonna get to the Classic Doctors New Monsters set soon?

[@JH-jl7cq]

Getting 'Power of the Daleks' Stuart?

[@Pcwarmachine]

Just curious but have you ever spoken about the whole modern Who issue of the "last of the Timelords" paradox? Without going into a huge explanation I am going to assume you know what I mean, but in short (to be clear) I mean the whole concept that at any point any post 8, 9, 10, 11 Doctor can get into the Tardis, travel back in time to X point far prior to the Time War, and then suddenly there are Timelords and Gallifrey again. Whew... that still takes a long to explain even being brief. :)

[@bigspongeyfan1]

He can't because of the Time Lock, surely?

[@Pcwarmachine]

bigspongeyfan1 Yeah I thought of that but the Time Lock (per canon) only effects the time period of the war itself, not events prior to it. That might have made it make sense though if they had used that argument. Besides there are already instances in the new Doctor Who period where they have gone back to far distant events (like in Runaway Bride when 10 goes back billions of years to the Earth first forming). Now the big question is obviously WHEN the Time War actually took place, but one can probably extrapilate from past info that it was more likely in the modern time period 5000AD+ rather than that far in the past. My point of raising it is simply that, for a time traveler, who in the universe is ever really dead? Not when they can potentially get in a Tardis and visit them. A perfect example of this is him visiting Rose before she ever met him. But there is a broader point as well. For those Time Lords who DID travel the universe, visiting times past and future, they exist all over the time spectrum. So even as 9, 10, 11+ are saying "I am the last of the Time Lords" there could be a time intersection where #4 is actually rumbling around in 2005 or such themselves. So then... not the last? Albeit in that example they are the same person, but let's say Romana was with him. ;)

[@bigspongeyfan1]

I think that the time lock must "lock" off gallifrey and it's history from the rest of the universe.

[@menwithven2862]

Can u listen to dark eyes and doom coalition with out having to listen to the older 8th doctor ones. Also u are a flicking fracking fucking doctor who god. With a grate taste in other TVs shows.

[@spacepenguins8939]

Men With ven 28 I think you properly could listen to dark eyes without any previous knowledge, not sure about doom coalition as it carries elements from dark eyes

[@MeBeMat]

I know you only reviewed The Diary of River Song because the Eighth Doctor was in it, but have you heard and/or have any particular opinion on the second volume?

[@archive9796]

I think lots of people kinda dropped the Boxset honestly

[@archive9796]

Yeh ...The Red Lady if it was on TV it would be hated cous the doctor doesn't know what's going on and can't defeat them Just like Sleep no More

[@pacitticlubjohnny2238]

no i don't think so. Sleep No More was Hated because Monsters had woo faces. the camera work made people puke. and far too rushed.and was written by mark gatiss. something like Flat-line where the doctor has no idea who the monsters are was hugely successful

[@archive9796]

But they would say that the red lady rips off the Angels

[@pacitticlubjohnny2238]

79.03.13 that's like saying the ood are rip offs of the axon's

[@archive9796]

New who fans don't know what axons are

[@8LiterallyJustTheNumber8]

To be fair the ood are a ripoff of sensorites

[@MrSukram777]

One question: Do you think it's worth listening to The Red Lady when you already know who she is?

[@isisstarlights]

Yes, actually. Because it’s about trying to find out how to stop her. Her identity doesn’t really matter.

[@MrSukram777]

@@isisstarlights I already listened to it by now, and I must say, even if you know who she is, it's definetely one of the scariest DW stories.

[@archive9796]

Oooohhh a two in one It's a stubagful special

[@Zocsma]

Pushing the monitor is triggering me :D

[@theyearthatdidnotcount3275]

Can u get these in the USA?

[@FINALSTANDFOLEYOFFICIAL]

Series 10 needs BIG finish ideas and less NewWu ideas.

[@carealoo744]

If they Crossover one day, it would be fantastic! DC & Marvel: 'We got the biggest crossover ever, coming up!' Us: 'Ahem.'

[@spacepenguins8939]

Don’t get why River was so upset that 10 didn’t know her since she had meet doctors 1-8 already who had 0 idea who she was

[@MrMWorks]

The magic of retcons. Honestly, it does ruin that a lot.

[@OrangeAceGaming]

Because those incarnations are too early even for her, but she’s met the tenth Doctor loads of times. So to see the actual face of her loved one say “I don’t know you” with all seriousness really hurt her. Plus, she knew something was up with the whole singing towers thing and whatnot.