By Chris Heffernan
1) The Spectre of Lanyon Moor (8/10)
I liked this story very much. It was funny, scary, well acted and set in a very workable locale for audio. I could easily picture the action and setting. It was also nice to get a proper 6th Doctor/Brigadier story for the fanboy in me. This is one I've listened to more than once (probably 4 or 5 times so far).
2) The One Doctor (8/10)
Very funny. Colin Baker has some extremely funny reactions to the fake Doctor and companion in this one. Many of the ideas are silly, and on their own wouldn't have worked. But the script has a lot of deeper humor as well which makes the whole thing work. I don't think I liked it quite as much as other people have, but it was still very good.
3) The Holy Terror (8/10)
"The lying blasphemer speaks the truth, my lord!" I liked this one quite a lot as well, and I almost want to rate it higher than the One Doctor. I'm a huge fan of humor and darkness and this mixes both quite nicely. I think the reason that this is rated just below the One Doctor however is because the ending is a little suspect; it just doesn't quite live up to the rest of the story.
4) Bloodtide (8/10)
I don't really like Sea Devils or Silurians, but they seem to work here; maybe because we don't have to see the rubber costumes. Colin Baker is at his best here and he's a joy to listen to (I can't say that about any of his TV episodes). This was very moody and atmospheric.
5) The Condemned (8/10)
What a weird one. But very atmospheric and I like the combination of Charley and the 6th Doctor.
6) The Doomwood Curse (8/10)
8) Jubilee (7/10)
This one had a lot going for it. It was an excellent Dalek story, making one Dalek a very strong character. The only downside (and the reason it didn't rate an 8 or 9) are the supporting characters. Firstly they are actors that have been used too much in BFAs, and secondly the President and his wife were incredibly annoying. Things like this make it hard to listen to a story again.
9) Medicinal Purposes (7/10)
This was quite good. Probably would have been better if I had known anything at all about the historical situation. I was a little confused what was happening at first from some of the descriptions (I thought they were in some sort of cave or something (after the tunnel) as I'm sure they said there were no stars because there was a ceiling or something). Pretty good overall.
10) Thicker Than Water (7/10)
This one was quite good, and a nice little sequel to Arrangements for War. It was a neat way to show how Evelyn eventually leaves the Doctor. I always enjoy when a future Doctor shows up to check in on one of his past adventures, so the bit with the 7th Doctor at the end was a nice surprise.
11) Excelis Rising (7/10)
Firstly, this rates just above Davros as it's nice and short and sweet. Not once did I feel bored. I wish more of the stories were this length. It's about on par with Excelis Dawns. Anthony Stewart Head is again a little boring, except when he's in pain, then he seems to act. This could have been any Doctor really.
12) The Juggernauts (7/10)
Once again Terry Malloy is excellent, and I really like the whole Mel story, but the entire thing falls apart at the end. I barely remember the mechanoids from the TV show so it's not that big a novelty to have them return. Not bad, but not great.
13) Davros (7/10)
Terry Malloy himself makes this a 7/10. The story itself took a while to get going (I mean c'mon, we all know Davros will turn out to still be evil, why take so dang long to confirm it!?), but once Davros was unleashed, his true evilness shone through. I didn't realize how much I missed Davros.
14) The Nowhere Place (7/10)
This was a little too long to rank any higher. I must say again, there's no need for a story with each episode being longer than 30 minutes. That's simply too long. Somewhat scary, and well-acted (except for the Captain of the ship), but never really hit the mark.
15) Arrangements for War (7/10)
This was a pretty good story, thought for the life of me I can't figure out why the Doctor would choose that planet and that particular time when he was looking for a place to "not be involved". It makes no sense at all. However, it was an interesting adventure and it
was nice to see the Doctor so angered by what he had done. I don't usually get choked up in Doctor Who stories, but the ending of this one was done so well I had a major lump in my throat.
16) Assassin in the Limelight (6/10)
17) The Wormery (6/10)
Interesting idea, and Colin Baker is once again excellent. But overall it was just kind of boring and never really lived up to its potential, like so many other BFAs. I'm not a fan of audios with narrators, and this one is no exception. Even the 7th Doctor at the very end couldn't make this rate higher.
18) Project : Twilight (6/10)
This one could have been something really exceptional. They could have really done a lot with the darkness of the story, but unfortunately they never really did.
19) Whispers of Terror (6/10)
I think this one had some good bits. Of all the audios I've listened to, this is the one I could easily picture the wobbly sets of the TV show. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.
20) The Apocalypse Element (6/10)
Lots of shouting and exterminating. I like that. Problem is that's pretty much all there is going on. I do like hearing Romana with the 6th Doctor though.
21) The Sandman (6/10)
Huh? I like the Doctor pretending to be this big evil entity, but other than that... huh?
22) Catch 1782 (5/10)
Pretty boring. It got a little better in parts 3 and 4 but not much. I got the feeling it was trying to be The Chimes of Midnight or Ghost Light, but failed in all aspects.
23) Pier Pressure (5/10)
Once again, very boring. Big Finish has been more boring than not the last 2 years or so. Even Doug Bradley (Pinhead from Hellraiser) as Professor Talbot couldn't save this.
24) I.D. (5/10)
Not bad, but could have been a lot better. Colin Baker was awesome as usual.
25) 100 (5/10)
4 separate 1-part stories. They stories got better as they went, but I think I would have preferred a different Doctor-companion combo for this idea.
26) The Year of the Pig (5/10)
I really don't know what to make of this. What a weird story. It had it's moments but can't rate higher than a 5/10 as it was like many of the BFAs... way too long.
27) The Marian Conspiracy (5/10)
Yawn! Historicals are nice, but not if they are historically correct. Boring!
28) ...ish (4/10)
Yikes. How did this crap-o-rama get picked from the script submissions? There had to be better ones to choose than this. Remember folks, this has to be drama, not good literature (see The Stones of Venice).
29) The Reaping (4/10)
Colin Baker is great as usual. The rest of the cast is sub, sub par. Once again we have a lot of phoney sounding American accents and/or terrible acting and/or horrific writing. Seriously, some of these scenes (most involving Peri, her mother, Kathy and/or Nate) are cringe-worthy and virtually impossible to listen to. Also every once in a while Big Finish seems to use these uber sensitive microphones to record their stories. It makes things very hard to listen to; hearing every swallow by the actors in infinite detail, hearing every breath loud and hollow. It's very distracting and disgusting in many cases. And this story was WAY too bloody long. The only reason this gets a 4 instead of a 3 is the link to Spare Parts near the end of the story.
30) The Wishing Beast/The Vanity Box (3/10)
Bore-fest! A fairly interesting idea ruined by a bunch of old ladies sitting around talking. It's probably better than this rating, but not much. Just really boring.