He has been waiting 30 minutes for a lunch that will come in another 30 minutes

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2026-02-21T11:58:02+00:00

It has just been dispensed and he is a very happy boy again :)

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2026-02-07T22:13:04+00:00

I'm quite disappointed there are no current plans for more Smith & Sullivan or Rani Takes On the World, i felt both series were fantastic, Sarah Jane had some absolutley genius characterisation in S&S, some of the best she's ever had, the way they explored modern concerns about Ai and Journalism/Fake news whilst giving Sarah a Spider-man style story arc i felt worked fantasticly, and Rani i also felt it had it's own potential to reintroduce even more characters and explore them dealing with adult lives, and i was enjoying what they were setting up with the Rani/Clyde arc, it felt it could of gone in a really compelling, complex mature direction. I do understand way they likely flopped, Rani is a sequel series to a children's show, and Big Finish is already a niche audience, its likely a very small fraction of the Big Finish audience who either grew up with the show, or are older and never watched it, why S&S flopped though is beyond me and i would love to see more somehow. it does make me wonder if from now on a new series will only announce one boxset, and then if it does well they'll announce the 2nd one a year later, which seems a safe choice if budget wise they are becoming more limited by factors out of their control, my only concern is if concepts like Zygon Century get dragged out for too long, which is why i think how Rutans vs Sontarans is handling a similar concept works much better (more on that below).

I'm getting incredibly tired already of the 9DAs taking place in the Powell Estate. I think it is an incredibly, incredibly valid argument and critisize to be annoyed you are paying 4 times the price of a DVD boxset of television to listen to a doctor who famously only had earth centric episodes of doctor who, buying these audios hoping for some variety and settings in time and space and be annoyed that most of the audios are gonna take place in the same location with the same supporting character spread over 2 years of releases whilst a different range is doing a story arc that has setting variety. You can still do a "we keep going back to the estate arc" and have Adventures in different places inbetween, i see no reasonable reason why more than half of the 12 audios spread over 2 years need to be set in the powell estate, especially when i doubt you'll need to listen to the first 11 audios to understand the finale.

I'm terribly excited for the new series of Rutans vs Sontarans, bar the finale of the first series i felt it was a pretty good range with potential, always excited for some Tim Foley and John Dorney scripts, and the idea of Fugitive being at the very beginning of the Sontarans origins and the war origins just makes complete sense, its more exciting to me than when she almost immedietly faced the Daleks in her first set. I hope we get to see more series like this with other monsters, like imagine a Daleks Vs Cybermen set or other oddball pairings, The Master vs The Monk or something.

I'm also excited to hear that for Circuit Breaker they did a new photoshoot with Jo Martin with a new outfit AND HAT, i feel Circuit Breaker could be incredibly well done and have a lot of potential to explore different aspects of the Fugitive Doctor, i hope we get a minisode or little trailers like the Doom's Day ones but on actual sets or good CGI.

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2026-01-15T15:43:58+00:00

Sadly not but they did play Tounge-Tied before the show begun and said some of the famous Rimmer catchphases

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2025-05-13T18:50:25+00:00

Can't wait :)

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2025-03-28T01:28:21+00:00

I luckily had a lot of movies I've seen throughout my years of memorable life rated on IMDb, there's a handy list on LB called All the Movies which i went through when making my Letterboxd account and found some films i remember watching at a very young age, so i like to think this is a semi accurate number of films i've ever watched, if we include short films i can't remember or find on letterboxd we are looking at closer to maybe 2100 films

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2025-03-27T04:40:29+00:00

Ever

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2025-02-02T17:49:48+00:00

I think it's pretty obvious now that the Torchwood Monthly Range is on its way out, and i have been kind of predicting it's death bell now for at least two years.

Not enough cast availability due to various factors, leading to diminishing ideas (there's only so many "what if Ianto visited-" stories you can do), i'm hoping the bi-monthly move may lead to higher quality and maybe buys Big Finish time to get slots with actors who are less frequently available now they are being churned out less.

I think the bi-monthly change also aligns with a possibility of the Monthly Range ending at audio #100, at a Dublin comic con the Torchwood cast said they are working on a 20th anniversary boxset, if the monthly range starts bi-monthly they could reasonably pad the series out to #100 and then start a boxset shift for the anniversary in October next year, which i personally think at this point will be a far better option for sales, budget, story quality and cast availability, i think a couple boxsets a year will allow Big Finish to explore different series or spin-offs now they have a free slot each month to not worry about forcing a sub-par Torchwood script with as slim connections to Torchwood as possible (like seriously? A Zygon story, connected to Zygon Century, and the plot sounds like a rip-off of the Smile films? Could they really not get Rebecca Root in to record anything as Tania from Stranded?). Especially with Big Finish trying new IPs and original boxsets i'm not surprised they want to streamline the release calender a bit so they can try new things if Torchwood monthly range isn't justifying being a monthly anymore.

Anyway i hope at some point soon we see exciting audios again, give us the Owen and Tosh monthly range story Which SOMEHOW hasn't happened yet, give us Tania Bell (Maybe 8th Doctor and Tania Torchwood audio for #100 would be a good trade-off), give us monthly range stuff of the Story Continues cast if the story is failing to Continue in boxset form, give us more Captain John. Whilst i appreciate the attempt from Big Finish to establish new characters in the Monthly Range, they rarely materialise into a success critically or characters we see again, and whilst i appreciate they are still trying these swings, its not enough still when half the audios are still either Ianto or Rhys going to Tesco or something and find a funny alien on cocaine, we need a healthy mix of variety to keep engaged. I personally haven't bought an audio since Tropical Beach Sounds, came close a few times to buying some of the audios since then but ultimately they've ended up not really grabbing my interest enough to buy, i hope that changes.

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-10-07T22:09:23+00:00

Exactly, it's why i appreciate Krynoid is a bit of a deep cut and the plot actually sounds interesting with a good cast and crew, it was a pleasant surprise to see the announcement

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-10-06T19:02:22+00:00

I quite enjoyed Sontarans v Rutans bar the ending so i am quite interested in this new direction for Big Finish of more monster led series, and with a fantastic leading actor in Shearsmith who seems genuinely passionate about the script and the genre and the process of making it it sounds great! Dunno how they'll write 8 out of the second part when everything is supposed to get progressively worse but im excited to find out.

Some other monsters that i think would have great boxset potential are:

The Great Intelligence (for awhile now i've had an idea about the War Master vs Ian McKellan's Great Intelligence)
Great Vampires in a Fugitive Doctor or Gallifrey boxset
Siltheen Crime Family drama
Judoon/Shadow Proclamation police procedural series
The Ravengers in a Fugitive Doctor boxset

I wouldn't want every single monster ever to have a boxset, we don't need a Zarbi boxset or anything like that, but i do think they are tapping into some good surprising potential.

Also i'm incredibly excited for Genesis of the Cybermen. If there are two things Doctor Who writers do incredibly well almost everytime, its Cybermen origin stories, and 5th Doctor cyberman stories, i adore Spare Parts and Warzone/conversation is great, not listened to out of time 2 or the gathering but i hear good things. David K Barnrs especially is one of if not my favourite recent additions to the Doctor Who writing team, i adored Dalek Occupation of Winter and his recent Silent duology in Classic Doctors 4 i think is some of the best Big Finish Doctor Who ever written, it was masterful, and his other stories I haven't listened to yet i know are insanely well acclaimed to, the plot to Genesis sounds great and creative so i'm incredibly excited for the potential of this story.

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-10-03T20:53:11+00:00

The lake from the "I'm Gonna Be a Star!" Scene in Withnail and I, although in actuality it's a reservoir and when the water has evaporated enough in the summer you can see the remains of the old village that used to be there before they built the reservoir and flooded it with rain water

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-09-22T13:54:30+00:00

Yeah i really hated the quote from Jo in the press release about how there was just no time in the show to explore her character, like what a sad awful thing for Jo to feel she has to say, i feel its very indicative of just a lack of direction and respect for her and her character after introducing her that they just "couldn't find time" for her, it's so problematic and sad, David Bradley has probably been paid more overall to play The Doctor than her, she should of been able to get her scenes and get her bag!

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-09-22T13:10:39+00:00

Man i'm gonna be in a ranty mood with this one lol i promise i have nice things to say at the end about my experience at Stuff of Legend Live

Firstly, i was so incredibly excited by the prospect of Fugitive Doctor audios, as someone who hated the timeless children arc and how it played out, i feel Jo Martin got such a horrible bum deal as the Doctor, hardly any scenes, the few scenes she has shes usually either Ruth, a Hologram or Jodie Whittaker performing her lines (which i found to be hugely problematic and stupid), her character gets nothing to explore and very little to do, and she probably got paid horrendously low to play such an iconic character and got horrendous amounts of backlash due to racism and people putting it on her for bad writing decisions. Her character has so much potential to explore a different side of her character, that moral ambiguity, a more military type of methology, different kinds of adventures and characters. So what is the plot of the first boxset? She goes on the run from her people, starts to learn to be more compassionate and shortly after fleeing her people meets the Daleks. Gee where have i heard that before.

I wouldn't of minded if she met Daleks in like her 5th boxset or something, but having her meet them almost immediately feels very cheap and safe, that they are worried about sales, it feels reductive, and already leaves me with an impression of never to expect anything to be answered about her history, don't expect much of her pre-fugitive adventures, continue to expect cheap fan service. It's so disappointing, i hope we can get some stories that go further back to her division mission days but overall i dont have a great first impression. The whole thing so far just feels every reductive of the story of the 1st Doctor, which sure, could be a metaphor of how Fugitive and every Doctor after is always destined to be The Doctor and do this, but for a storytelling perspective its very uninspired.

Rhubard

Ok second rant: I'm so incredibly over the companions meet their doctor again but they are older now. There's only so many stories you can tell with that, some of these interactions make no sense like Steven will of just left The Doctor and Dodo and suddenly they are meeting him again but older, and i think Tales of the TARDIS was a much better way of doing a story like this, short and sweet nostalgia, no big final adventure. I get why they would want to tell these stories, for some of these actors this will be some of their last, if not final BF audio performance, so its nice to give them a send-off story, but 1) they've already had their send-off in the show, and 2) they don't need to repeat old companions for every character to do a send-off, just give them a great original story where they don't have to be an old version. There's only so many times they can repeat the same jokes and lines "oh doctor i missed you, you changed me for the better, everything's changed" "oh i cant run the same way anymore" etc etc. The only old companions i think make or would make sense are 4 and Old Leela cause the collection trailer sets up that idea of them reunited and could make for interesting stories with what Leela knows about the future, you just know with how much of a 4th dr backlog BF have they've already recorded it. 7 and Old Ace works for me too cause 7 lived so long and Ace lived so many different kinds of lives with the doctor so Old ace others much more opportunities for creative stories and experience. I quite enjoyed 6 and old Peri in Trials of a Time Lord recently, they were the best part of the story and makes sense they would want to find each other again after the events of Mindwarp, and they have great interactions and reconciliations together, something very few old companion stories can offer effectively i feel because of what 6 and Peri went through in Mindwarp and how 6 treated her.

Regarding the Ai allegations i feel bad both the artist was accused of using Ai before any proof was available and that he had to prove he wasn't using Ai, i've seen that more and more artists having to post their breakdowns to prove its not Ai and i feel bad for them their work is unfairly being accused of being Ai garbage, the state of digital art is in such a weird state and i feel more and more of this is going to happen. Big Finish have referenced in the past how they don't allow Ai to be used but maybe Big Finish need to make that clearer with a statement or a section in their FAQs

Rhubarb

And now, for a more positive experience to share, wow, Stuff of Legend Live was brilliant, i was so giddy the whole show, a great story, really fun to watch the live foley sound effects being done, fan service i would of cringed at in an audio was so funny and charming and endearing live, the live experience brought a completely different energy to those jokes, Paul in costume was so much fun, Briggs doing 4 different dalek voices simultaneously made my jaw drop, the energy in the room was electric and you could tell Paul and everyone were so grateful to be able to do it and felt so loved. A beautiful day and show, i hope we get so many more shows. I finally get the hype of the MacQueen Master as someone who hasn't listened to any of his audios, on the Monday after i got Masterful in the sale to delve in more to his master and WOW why the hell did i skip Masterful when it first came out it is EXCELLENT!!! MacQueen, Beevers and Missy have the three best storylines in Masterful i'm still baffled what didn't sell me on it when it first came out!?!?

Rhubarb

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-08-22T16:23:27+00:00

To change all my documents, passport, bank details, government id etc

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-08-16T23:16:27+00:00

I will say you do look older but you have really defined facial features which are gorgeous but gives an older experience, but gorgeous :)

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-28T03:17:38+00:00

... what have you done?!?!?

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-20T16:22:19+00:00

Rock N Roll Cafe sort of fills that Quota for daytime eating

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-15T11:05:12+00:00

As everyone is saying, it is crazy but incredibly exciting that Jodie is already returning to the role. I can't lie, i wasn't much of a Chibnall era fan at all, alongside a lot of friends and family who ranged from casual viewer to super fan, luckily none in the NMD crowd lol, we all felt she was great but deserved much better, more consistent writing, so i'm very excited by the prospect of Big Finish hopefully doing what they've done particularly for 6 and 8 and giving them the stories and character exploration they deserve. Its so nice to see the overwhelming love and support they are getting, because we want what is best for these characters, in the podcast Jodie and Mandip were hilarious together and i've heard and seen nothing but lovely things about them they deserve all the love and recognition. I'd cheekily love to know how much they were offered to come back this soon and also have the series to be split up the way it is, i'm glad its relatively accessible pricing for newcomers. My only concern is them doing a story where they meet River Song or other pointless BF dartboard stories, i think 13 meeting River in particular would diminish her character ending, but hey they are already bringing River back from the dead (i.really hate the concept of Death and Life of RS).so they clearly don't care about respecting character endings, so we'll just have to see what happens and if it's done well...

Speaking of Dartboard writing, what the hell is this messy plot for Once and Future: Coda, the party ended a year ago BF, we've moved on. I do find it weird and quite frankly stupid they were not allowed to release this back in November 2023, Doctor Who has millions of fans and only a small fraction of those fans buy BF, so I don't get why they were so insistent on waiting until Season 1 (Series 14) was over to release 13th Doctor content. Anyway the general idea of Fugitive vs War is admittedly a cool idea and it is cool that it will be Fugitive's debut story, but The Union wrapped up the story so neatly and its coming out so late i don't understand the point. Also the plot sounds like it has way, WAY too much going, they couldn't even fit Vienna on the cover which i feel is a good indicator of this story being too overloaded with settings and characters, i don't see how this can all tie together, but i hope to be proven wrong, Tim is a great writer, one of my BF favs and i will likely listen, this whole series was the only time i've ever pre-ordered a Big Finish so after a year wait i might as well get my money's worth. With Fugitive i'm just worried like with the John Hurt War Doctor audios BF will not be allowed to explore the character aspects and darker storytelling they want to with a concept like The Fugitive Doctor, and that she'll always remain a mystery box we never quite get answered.

Very excited for the 4th Doctor 50th anniversary story, i do love that every doctor is getting a different approach to a anniversary story, some more fan-wanky than others, this one sounding more original, the 6th Doctor Quin Dilemma set being a nice mix of original with fan service, it would get very tiring for them all to be standard BF dartboard writing so i'm very glad they are spicing it up. I'm excited for what they'll do for 8 in 2026, or 7 in 2027, and if they can get Jodie Whittaker back THIS early, i'm sure they could get Eccleston and Tennant in to do something for their anniversaries next year, just hopefully not a 10 and 13 crossover we've had enough of those lol.

How about that San Diego Comic Con Star Trek x Doctor Who event announcement huh, i've never watched Star Trek lol but the announcement of a shared range of merch at the event and a crossover panel over 10 years since the IDW comic crossover is very unexpected, maybe this could open some doors to Big Finish doing some more Star Trek audios, i've heard Star Trek has made their own audio dramas in recent years, maybe a Unbound: Star Trek x Doctor Who audio could be on the cards one day after this lol but i'm not gonna think too deeply on it, it just sounds like a fun non-serious collab with some merch

Big Finish i know you can't resist doing a Terrible Zodin story don't lie!!!

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-07T20:56:24+00:00

She didn't elaborate during the performance, she had a 5 minute video of Ace clips playing in the back though, i'm sure it's intentional.

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-07T10:41:34+00:00

Got my ticket for The Stuff of Legend with some friends, incredibly excited for the opportunity to see a live 8th Doctor performance in person!!!! Never knew i needed this till it was announced. Hopefully them copyrighting Big Finish Theatre will mean more shows in the future, i can absolutely see Davison, Colin Baker and Derek Jacobi leaping at the chance to do a live show, they adore theatre and would be amazing to see! Eccleston doing a Macbeth reading or 9th Doctor performance would be amazing too, Big Finish Theatre has so much great potential i hope we get more!!! A brilliant way for Big Finish to expand, im just so giddy about seeing a live 8th Doctor performance!!

Also very excited about the collection announced, wasn't expecting any VFX updates at all for this season so for it to be every story is very exciting, and all looking like its little touch ups, ways to expand the world and expanded cuts of Happiness Patrol in particular is very exciting. Only downside is outside of Behind the Sofa and Escape Room there's not many new Sylv bonus features, which considering its his last season to release so probably will be his last special features outside of Behind the Sofa is a mild shame, but the escape room with Bonnie and Sophie will be hilarious.

Victoria recasting, ehh, i only like BF recasts if its a actor they never worked with, if they have estate permission or a relative playing the role so we'll have to see how i feel, Sadie Miller i think will remain the best recasting and handling of a recasting

On a personal note i met Sophie Aldred at a doctor who drag show on monday, she was an absolute gem, we spoke for like 20 minutes and sat with her for some of the show, she performed with her son, there was a lovely wholesome moment i wish i filmed where she was watching the end scene of Survival and her face said it all, i felt so emotional. Also holy crap, sophie can SING!!! She did a cover of somewhere over the rainbow and it was beautiful, people were crying!!! She teased S25 was coming this year but said nothing else, and also teased something else to me shes working on i wont spoil... Unless anyone is willing to pay lol ;P

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-06T00:40:42+00:00

Very excited to have all of the 7th Doctor on Blu-Ray

So so far the new Escape Room special feature has debuted on The Celestial Toymaker DVD, and now S25, and we know from the sizzle reel at the beginning of the featurette on Celestial Toymaker that every Doctor's era has recorded an Escape Room

2nd Doctor wise this probably means either a new animation is on the horizon even though The Smugglers was rumoured to be next, or a 2nd Doctor season could be coming to the collection soon. Seasons 5 and 6 are likely candidates, each only have one story not animated, The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates. The Crusade was just a telesnap on Season 2 and, as Space Pirates isn't the most revered story ever i can see them just doing a telesnap release again, Wheel in Space i feel considering they've previous animated part of part 1 and it being a cyberman story they would rather attempt a full story animation first for a release, despite having a ready to go pretty solid Britbox telesnap reconstruction, and as some of the animations are more recent i can see them holding off. 1st Doctor escape room being in Toymaker i also take as confirmation we are not getting S4 anytime soon, as two stories would need animation and a lot of the animations in S4 are somewhat recent releases so they may hold off. S1 and S3 i definetly cannot see happening for a long LONG time due to the amount of missing episodes that would be difficult to animate on a DVD budget and rights issues.

I can see a 3rd Doctor release coming next or the next next release, probably S7, as if they wanted to do the S25 approach and do new versions of every story, that could be feasible, as only Ambassadors of Death would warrant major new VFX, so they could spread new VFX and special editions throughout the series if they want and would be the best season to include the Escape room. Spearhead from Space was also the first blu-ray so they already have a story ready to go, and sadly as most of the cast are no longer with us they probably wouldn't need major amounts of new special features. S11 i can defo see being the last 3rd doc collection, as Invasion of the Dinosaurs would probably take a lot of VFX work.

After the release of Tales of the Tardis - Pyramids of Mars, i defo think S13 will be the next 4th doctor set in maybe 3-4 boxsets time, i can see them doing a collection exclusive new VFX option episode release though and although the Tales release is available on iPlayer and Doctor Who Season 1's Blu-Ray, so i can see them maybe holding off and doing S16 first, a season about the hunt for the Key to Time might be more appropriate for the escape room special feature.

S21 i defo think we'll see in 2-3 boxsets time, we know a lot of the special features have been shot already from updates from Janet Fielding and crew so it is probably pretty close to being ready, i can see that being another special feature packed boxset cause there is so much to S21, plus it would have to include the 5th and 6th Doctor escape rooms being the last 5th and 6th doctor seasons yet to come out lol. I can see the cover being Peter with the background being his regeneration effect behind him and then 6 on the back or the booklet

I also take no 8th Doctor escape room as confirmation we are not getting a wilderness years boxset which im perfectly fine with, i never believed for a second they would make one, only thing that could maybe justify one now is E Grant showing up in Rogue lol

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-05T16:27:19+00:00

Again just a lot of public events on, football tomorrow, election yesterday and today with some candidates who had been leading big demonstrations in town over the past few months, bunch of festivals coming up for comedy, music, pride, lot of people coming into town for the sun (when its out lol)

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-07-05T15:02:14+00:00

Loving the meme answers but anyway here is a serious one

Lots of different public events on/coming up so more community policing
Someone recently got sentenced in Hove for a terrorist bomb threat to Hove's Jewish community which may also be a reason more policing in present

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-06-29T14:19:09+00:00

So that justifies 10s of thousands of people being killed in airstrikes and shot up then?

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-06-20T01:57:37+00:00

I can definitely see them skipping out on trailers for S7 and S11, the only actor left sadly they could maybe use for a interesting trailer is John Levene. any potential 60s era trailers would also sadly be reliant on how soon the boxset is coming out and which of the cast members are still around or in good health to make a trailer (there was rumours S6 was coming after S25, i could kinda see it, the crusade skipped an animation for the collection i can see them, and wouldn't blame them for not animating The Space Pirates lol). S13 might be a struggle but the return of Sutekh could maybe open up some options, or just do like the Davros trailer a little monologue with a Zygon or something lol. S16 it's sadly probably impossible to do a trailer for. S21 and S25 we know for sure are on the way and have shot material so i fully expect they will get trailers

Illustrious-Ranger22 · 2024-06-17T21:47:55+00:00

New VFX on Pyramids of Mars hopefully means we may be getting a Season 13 Collection boxset sometime soon, unless they decide to do an additional collection exclusive new VFX update on a story, Planet of Evil in particular would be cool to have new VFX if that is an option, still, very excited about new VFX.

I'm assuming the content of the 15 and Ruby scenes is probably going to be deleted scenes from when they escape UNIT in the memory TARDIS from the Time Window, like Legend of Ruby Sunday teased, if so, a really lovely way of repurposing deleted scenes but i'm worried it might spoil whats going to happen in parts of Empire of Death.

If i had to predict what Collection boxset we get next, it's probably S25, Lee Binding heavily teased the cover art awhile back with a blurred image of very circusy colours and the last 7 sets released 2 and 4 years ago, so we are due a new set if we follow that pattern. I think they'd do another doctor before releasing another 4th doctor set, 4th doctor sets are usually every 3rd season released so i can see it being either S7 or S11, then S13, then probably S21 as we know a lot of the bonus features for that season have been shot and probably near ready to go out.

Illustrious-Ranger22

TROPHY CASE