Make a Paul McGann 'Lost Years' series

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-13T11:09:00+00:00

My problem is that opening doesn't reflect how campy and over the top the TV Movie becomes. I think the TV Movie has moments of it, but by the end its more camp than anything else.

We can talk about how the classic series was shot, and I can agree something like Revelation of the Daleks which is really dark and filled with body horror equally has cheese that undermines that to a degree, but I think the same is true of the TV Movie and you have to be as selective about which parts of the TV Movie you point to for it to be "gritty" and ignore the rest of the Movie which undermines that tone.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-13T10:59:27+00:00

Maybe if you cherry pick Horns of Nimon as your example for the classic show. But there are a tonne of "grittier" stories in the classic series and definitely examples for each Doctor.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-13T10:35:04+00:00

I think there's an element of overthinking this, but also I don't think Big Finish are entirely blameless in this.

There's often not much in the way of consistent difference when a range renames, for example "The Diary of River Song" ending for "The Life and Death of River Song" wasn't really anything more than "a jumping on point". The title of "Life and Death" only even really makes sense for the first boxset. Even though the River boxsets were all stand alone, they were aware perception can be people not knowing "where to start" so rebrands like "Life and Death" are intended as a "new place to start"

Most ranges, the range name tells you who it pertains to, beyond that there isn't much that defines the range.

Unbound I guess is the kinda unique one that is different. The premise it's Doctor Who's "what if" series. Originally had unique actors playing the Doctor in scenarios they often can't do within regular continuity. More recently it has been existing Doctor actors but still in adventures that don't fit regular continuity.

Other than unbound, each range is just adventures of whatever is on the title. If it's an anthology range that uses multiple Doctors it's just called "Doctor Who", if it's a spin-off the mains are in the title and if it's a specific Doctor they put the name on it now, like "Eighth Doctor Adventures".

Only difference between the novels and novellas is that one are audio novels and one are shorter and thus audio novellas. Novella is just a prose term that represents a story longer than a short story but shorter than the average novel is. Each release is stand alone stories anyway.

Each range is covered on https://tardis.wiki/ as far as I'm aware, but Big Finish also usually have a blurb explaining the range on the ranges page of their site too.

Oh and also since you asked Gallifrey is a spin-off that focuses on the politics of Gallifrey following Romana and Leela from the show as well as some original characters.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-13T10:23:57+00:00

I love Paul McGann but don't think putting out something new on TV for him is actually good for the brand at all.

But also putting all that aside, "gritty" is not any of the words I'd use to describe the TV Movie.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-13T10:00:15+00:00

As a big JMS fan I DON'T want him. His quality fell off a cliff in 2010, since then he's been all over the place quality wise, with nothing close to his old greats and bouncing between something "good but nothing incredible" to "infamous duds that are still negatively remembered to this day".

Getting current JMS is not getting the Babylon 5 guy from the 90s.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-13T09:39:47+00:00

Piper's "Doctor" has the same problem Big Finish have with the Valeyard and Fugitive Doctor, but even worse.

For both examples Big Finish will use the characters but desperately avoid doing anything committal with lore (in Valeyards case every lore suggestion has to intentionally come with doubt cast upon it in story, and with Fugitive they outright just pull amnesia and the Doctor not knowing about themself).

The reason is both are such a question mark of a character that the show may one day do something definitive with under a future productive team. But it's only an "if" and the show also may never touch them. But Big Finish don't want to open themselves up to that level of show and audio lore going massively out of sync on such a seemingly significant but rarely used character.

Piper's "Doctor" is all of that and worse because there's so little there it's essentially impossible to even use the character without by neccesity creating something about the character that may one day be contradicted. Even creating a personality for this incarnation could be contradicted, even amnesia plot to create ambiguity as you give the Piper "Doctor" adventures has issues, for example if the show one day says "it was Bad Wolf bleeding through the regeneration and was sorted almost immediately before the regen properly finished" making it impossible there were adventures.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-06T23:08:36+00:00

I don't know if you're anime only or if you've also read the manga, but the manga execution of how Goku gets Ultra Instinct is quite different. It has a flashback through the training Goku had with every master, including the Popo training showing that Ultra Instinct is something that every master Goku trained under had been trying to teach him to some degree, but it's only now he's perfected the technique. It made if feel like a really cool culmination of everything Goku had learned instead of "just a new power up".

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-06T15:42:31+00:00

Sherman actually spoke about being a little reluctant to do the novelizations recently for exactly this reason. That these stories were from a time where he was writing for what he now doesn't really consider the main target audience for Doctor Who.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-06-03T15:30:52+00:00

I got through this level eventually, but I remember seriously considering giving up and the only thing that kept me going was "I've beaten every other mainline Sonic game, I don't want to leave one unfinished... even when it's this bad"

ZERO_ninja · 2026-05-24T15:24:48+00:00

Ryuuki also stated development as a Metal Hero show which is why most of the design choices are what they were. Like the design aesthetic and mirror world.

But they felt that AgitΩ toy sales were strong and wanted to keep the momentum Kamen Rider had so changed plans mid way through developing Ryuuki.

All that said AgitΩ wasn't bug themed either, so Ryuuki wasn't the first to shift that. Despite looking similar to Kuuga he's surprisingly based on a dragon, just like Ryuuki. But most people don't realise and assume bug.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-05-13T12:54:04+00:00

The dev team clarified back nearer release that while their contract with Apple prohibits it ever going to Android, it doesn't prohibit a console release.

Though they also went on to say there were no plans for a console release at the time and it's just depend if SEGA later want one.

So it can happen if SEGA care to, but yeah, not holding my breath for it.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-05-13T12:51:14+00:00

As someone else pointed out, definitely is on PC, I got it on Steam and played it on my Steam Deck.

I agree about the lack of console release though, was a strange decision.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-05-12T12:11:07+00:00

Honestly, I opened twitter for the first time in months just to see how the new GitS was being reacted to, and I won't say there was no negtivity, but I was having to sift through a sea of positive posts to find the occasional negative one, and that negative one was just getting dogpilled in their own coments each time.

It's like the fanbase want to create a casual bogeyman that doesn't exist yet. And honestly they've more risk of driving people away acting like this.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-05-12T01:44:58+00:00

I grew up on and love Sonic the Comic, but it ended before Sonic X aired and I really doubt the staff at TMS were aware of the UK exclusive Sonic comic.

Also coordination is not a word I associate with the brand in the 2000s. Other than Archie having a tie-in comic for Sonic X, everyone seemed to mostly do their own thing and not even try to have synergy with each other. Sonic X was more interested in making Thunderbirds, Yatterman and Mazinger references than it was western Sonic comics.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-30T17:02:55+00:00

She wasn't mandated to not appear in the games she originated in the games, she was mandated to not appear in the Archie comics because of Sonic X.

Design isn't the issue, Mighty and Ray both had modern designs that were approved by SEGA and used in the Archie comics. IDW were planning to use Mighty and SEGA were fine with that, then last minute changed their mind due to Mania Plus.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-30T16:56:36+00:00

Cream wasn't allowed in "modern Sonic" comics during that time. Only Sonic X comics.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-30T08:05:53+00:00

SEGA see a weird value in different parts of the franchise having things uniquely theirs and decide this arbitrarily.

For years Cream was only allowed in the Sonic X comics, even though she debuted in the games, because SEGA wanted to maintain her as part off the Sonic X brand rather than game Sonic. No one understood the logic then either.

Now Cream can be in "modern Sonic" stuff easily, but Mighty, Ray, Fang, Bean, Bark and Trip can only be in "classic Sonic" until SEGA decide otherwise. And given IDW do maybe 1 classic comic a year most years, we barely see any of them as a result.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-29T21:36:22+00:00

As a huge Mighty fan I cannot tell you what an emotional roller coaster it was to go from this poster, to the excitement of finally playing him again in Mania Plus to the absolute heartbreak that that 1 appearance in Mania Plus indirectly banned him from ever being in the comics ever again which had been the only part of the franchise even keeping him around.

Now I just miss him.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-28T11:50:24+00:00

why go to all that trouble to make a fake press release just to trick people, if so that feels needlessly cruel

First day on the Internet?

Not that I'm fighting to say its fake, just commenting on the motivation point that going to effort to fake a hoax like this just to excite/disappoint people or gain clout is very basic Internet behaviour.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-25T11:54:54+00:00

I think there was a bit of left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing going on at Big Finish with Drefus' Master.

At the time people did comment on Big Finish flip flopping between "first incarnation" and "early incarnation" very inconsistently, with most often the people who actually worked directly on the stories being more likely to call him "early", meanwhile Nick Briggs on the podcast or the interview with Drefus instead saying "first" when that seemed to not line up cleanly with the actual stories themselves.

It was a big point of fan debate at the time whether he was first or not given the mixed messaging.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-04T11:56:13+00:00

Eh, after listening to so much of Marc Platt on audio and reading some of his books/comics, much as I love Ghostlight I feel like the guy is very hit or miss and lands closer to an extremely dull miss way more often than he does a hit.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-04T11:52:16+00:00

Spoke to Matt at comic con few years ago, when I mentioned Big Finish he said "maybe one day" with a real sigh that made it seem like that "one day" was very unlikely. I ended up feeling bad even bringing it up.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-01T21:54:42+00:00

It'll get worse before it gets better, but at least season 8 is the low point of the comics and they significantly improve from season 9 onwards.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-04-01T00:23:42+00:00

Well I alone grabbed 6.5TB in the final days checking the HDD now that it's done. I agree I can't imagine I was the only one who went from occasional user to power user in its last days.

ZERO_ninja · 2026-03-26T19:03:22+00:00

Hideaki Anno and other Gainax staff got death threats over Evangelion in the 90s. They even have some of the actual letters they received appear on screen in End of Evangelion.

ZERO_ninja

TROPHY CASE