As soon as I saw this in a bookstore, I knew I’d need to read it, and I was happy to find an audiobook through hoopla (even if ew, hoopla). The details of the trial itself weren’t always easy to follow, but it was fascinating to learn more about a historical figure I was only loosely familiar with—and the final part of the book tracing Pétain’s continued significance was especially interesting.

“Classic Doctors, new monsters” is such a fun concept for an audio play series, and hearing Tom Baker face off against the Vashta Nerada was a delight. Don’t know if I’ll enjoy the upcoming stories as much, but this was fun.

Après avoir fini les quatres tomes « Bergères guerrières », on revient maintenant à Brume, relisant le troisième tome avant de commencer le quatrième qu’on vient de recevoir.

On aime bien cette série dans notre famille ! Elle est mignonne, bien dessinée, et marrante.

Sylvester McCoy is delightful, and I’m glad I got to experience a story with his Doctor and Sophie Aldred’s Ace. It’s goofy in the way that most expanded universe material is, but there’s enough there to be interesting, and I enjoyed the listen.

Ça fait des années que j’ai envie de regarder cette série, et apprendre qu’elle a inspiré Andor ne fait que renforcer cette intention.

Je la trouve intéressante, et j’en apprends beaucoup. En fait, je dois avouer que c’est grâce à un livre que j’écoute au sujet du Maréchal Pétain que j’ai enfin décider de commencer la série. Je risque de ne pas finir le livre, mais pour la série, je crois que je vais continuer jusqu’à la fin.

Lots to love in this book, and I am tempted to give it full marks. It’s just clunky enough in its plot to dock it a few points, but the ideas in the book are powerful, and its message of hope is great. It also rewards the reader for knowing a bit about geopolitics, which I’m a sucker for.

It’s real neat that the Eighth Doctor has had such a presence in Big Finish and other ancillary media, but this is another story that entirely dissuades me from trying to get into any of that, because I cannot follow what’s going on. Hard to say whether it’s continuity lockout, poor writing, or both.

This story is the hardest to follow radio drama I’ve ever experienced. It did turn out that I’d accidentally skipped over the first few tracks, but even going back to listen to them didn’t help much. I couldn’t tell characters apart, I wasn’t sure what was a flashback and what was the main story, there was some serious continuity lockout, and I found the whole thing confusing. There were some fun ideas in there, but they were buried under a persistent feeling of being lost.

Je me souvenais de ne pas aimer cette saison aussi bien que la première. Si ça reste vrai (je n’aime pas trop ce qu’on fait avec André, ce qui me semble trop compliqué), il y a des moments marrants qui ont lieu dans cette saison, et je suis triste de savoir que même la plus compliquée des histoires ne trouveront pas de résolution dans une troisième saison.

There was some passing around of the idiot ball in this story, and it felt surprisingly dark for a Doctor Who story, but I appreciated the layers of disaster piling up, and the villain was compelling in a pathetic way (in multiple senses of the word). I don’t know the Eighth Doctor well, so it’s interesting to get to know him here.

Battle of Britain Doctor Who would really have appealed to me at some point, but it’s the sort of thing now where I find myself wondering if the story is uncritically pedestalizing an important moment of history that is actually much more complicated.

I liked this, but I’m predisposed to like it. It makes a compelling argument that may not convince those who really need to be convinced but that will further open the minds of the already open minded. It made me angry in a good way, but I still don’t know what the right next steps are for me to help make a difference.

Comment dire que j’ai tant aimé une bd qui a fait pleurer ma fille ? C’est vrai qu’il y a des moments tristes à la fin de cette série impressionnante, mais je suis content qu’il y ait des œuvres pour enfants qui osent ne pas tout résoudre. En plus, l’histoire continue à être intéressante et l’art jolie.

Enjoying this series less and less the more that it goes on. I think I’d still watch a Season 4, but what began as a smart series with interesting drama has felt with each season that it’s leaning more into the drama and willing to set aside the smarts. Some fun moments in this series but also some headscratchers.

Some silly stuff in here, but enough of a compelling story (and enough John Hurt and core Doctor Who vibes) that I’m willing to forgive it.

More “fun but not life changing” exploration of the War Doctor.

Expanded universe material can get very dumb very quickly, but sometimes, it’s a great way to explore stuff that the main canon didn’t have time for. Just like it was a delight to have Christopher Eccleston back as the Ninth Doctor, getting more from John Hurt as the War Doctor is a treat. The story is interesting enough, but it’s really just fun to play with these action figures for a bit,

Loved this book as much as I did the first time around. It reads like Walkaway mixed with Braiding Sweetgrass, with a bit of The Disposessed for good measure. It’s bonkers but delightful, and I’m glad that I own a copy now.

Clever genre blending is one of my favorite things, so setting a Doctor Who story in what I presume is the style of a P. G. Wodehouse story is delightful (even if I clearly don’t know the genre it’s being blended into!).

Doctor Who is not often high art, and neither are radio plays, but this was good enough. Besides, I didn’t realize how damn much I missed Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, and I would have struggled through a much worse story just to hear his “lots of planets have a north” voice.

Cette série continue à être jolie et intéressante. J’ai déjà dit combien je trouve l’histoire innovante (alors que des contes d’aventure pour enfant, il y en a des milliers qui se ressemblent), mais je le répète ici.

Maybe I shouldn’t have listened to this while trying to find parking on campus at a very inconvenient time, but even though there’s an interesting time travel bit at the center of the story, it just didn’t pay off for me.

This was a fun example of a lot of worldbuilding crammed into the background of a short Doctor Who story, and it gets a lot of points for that.

This story is maybe the most heartwarming and beautiful that I’ve heard in the entire collection! The Sixth Doctor visits a stroke patient in the hospital and takes him into his own future to see a few important events that he’ll miss because he never recovers from the stroke. It really emphasizes that you don’t have to be important to matter and encourages the listener to be kind in small ways. I really liked it.

This particular story is just so very British that it didn’t really connect with me. I normally appreciate Doctor Who’s very Britishness, but this one just didn’t work for this American.