The Avengers 16 – The Complete Emma Peel Megaset – The Positive Negative Man, Murdersville, Mission…Highly Improbable, The Forget-Me Knot

The Avengers, before they were Marvel superheroes, were light-hearted spies on British TV.  Dapper agent John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee, had numerous partners over the show’s run, but the most famous of these was scientific genius and martial arts expert Mrs. Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg.

Doctor Who Convention Encounters: Blake’s 7 Actors

I’ve had a couple of posts lately about the connections between Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 (here and here).

I’ve also had some posts about some actors I’ve met at conventions (here and here and elsewhere).

Now it’s time to bring these two worlds together! (Kind of like watching Alien vs. Predator, or something).

(Daily Doctor Who #120)

Dalek Empire II: Dalek War [Big Finish – Dalek Empire]

Dalek Empire II:  Dalek War is the four part follow-up to Dalek Empire, an original Doctor Who universe story featuring no established characters from the TV series, aside from the Daleks themselves.  Some spoilers ahead. 

2016 in Review: Some of the Sad Stuff

It has been well documented that 2016 has been a terrible year.

By that, I mean that many people have documented that they haven’t liked the year.  Many of them have documented this right on my Facebook feed, in fact.

Dalek Empire: The Human Factor, Death to the Daleks!, Project Infinity (and farewell Gareth Thomas) [Big Finish]

A while ago, I mentioned having listened to the first volume of Big Finish’s Dalek Empire series, in spite of not being a fan of the Daleks (normally) and having limited funds with which to purchase Big Finish’s audio wares.  However, a cool deal that I came across a while ago allowed me to get ahold of both of the first two Volumes of Dalek Empire (four episodes each) and I recently, finally was able to finish off Volume I with three episodes entitled The Human Factor, Death to the Daleks!, and Project Infinity. 

Doctor Who: Invasion of the Daleks [Big Finish]

Daleks & Doctor Who – the two go together like bread and butter. And I have always (read: since I was about 15, so quite a while ago now) been a Doctor Who fan. But I’ve never been a particular fan of the Daleks. Sure, they have some good stories (I’ve just rewatched and enjoyed the original The Daleks featuring William Hartnell), but the Daleks as characters with their screechy voices and their overall indomitability have never been very appealing as either characters or an alien species. They’re just annoying, with their one-note heartlessness, and I’m always wondering with all the times the Doctor has defeated them, how come people haven’t figured out how their impenetrable armor or unstoppable weapons work and just adapted them? Oh well, there’s probably some expanded universe story out there that justifies that

Anyway, my general disinterest in the Daleks explains why I wasn’t very confident or hopeful going into Invasion of the Daleks, the first part of the first season of audio adventures from Big Finish about the Daleks, and not featuring the Doctor or any other familiar characters from the TV show. But listen to it I did, thanks to the same Humble Bumble deal that got me started on Big Finish’s “Lost Stories” line of Doctor Who adventures.

But boy, was I pleasantly surprised!

Doctor Who: Storm Warning [Big Finish]

Storm Warning, which was produced back in 2000, is notable because it was the first Doctor Who Big Finish production to feature Paul McGann in the lead role, and thus basically the first “latest adventure” of the Doctor that the audio production company released.  It was the start of a four-part “season” of 8th Doctor adventures, and introduced his first Big Finish companion, Charlotte Pollard, played by India Fisher.