Today I noticed Tom Baker Trending on Twitter and after confirming he was not dead went over to take a look and found this among the tweets there:
It speaks volumes that on the day this is announced Tom Baker is trending on twitter and not her.
I had a horrible feeling this was coming because I had purchased a Bundle for the 60’s anniversary called Once and Future which was a series of stories featuring full stories for all the doctors who do big finish: Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Christopher Eccleston, (the late David Warner who has played an alternative universe doctor for decades) David Tennant and Paul McGann along with smaller parts for actors who are playing the 1st – 3rd doctors & 11 & 12).
The series was all released last year except for one which was held out even though the continuing plot was completed with absolutely no details about the episode or cast released. I had a nasty suspicion that the reason why was Whitaker and they that there were plenty of folks like me who would have given the bundle a miss if they knew that was the case.
I was close they’ve just announced today the final part will feature Jo Martin as the fugitive doctor.
I don’t have a problem with Big Finish doing Jo Martin stories or even Jodie Whitaker Stories, if there is a market that will support those produces there is no reason why Big Finish should not take advantage of that market.
They had already announced one Joe Martin set and recently announced a 2nd which means the pre-orders justified such a move so there is definitely a customer base that wants it. I suspect that drove the decision to sign Whitaker and if they can make a profit with them more power to them that’s how business works.
And if the Jodie Whitaker episodes prove profitable and sell well then Big Finish would be foolish to not take advantage of it. That’s Business
What’s not business however was the decision to play the bait and switch.
The reason why Doctor Who’s TV ratings are tanking worse that in the Colin Baker Sylvester McCoy years is the BBC chased a lot of customers away who had not only been fans but passed that fandom to another generation. Big finish was a refuge for such fans who would enjoy the old series and didn’t want William Hartnell as the first doctor thrown under the bus.
Even with Whitaker and Martin signed it wouldn’t be a problem for us old timers. We would have had the choice not to support these changes. Those who wanted to could buy them and any cross over produces while those of us who didn’t could avoid them. All the customers are served & happy.
By not telling their loyal customers that buying the Once and Future Bundle meant supporting the re-write of Doctor Who’s origin they conned me and I suspect others into buying a product we would have passed on otherwise. The worst part is every single time I go to my account’s download page that will be on top awaiting the download that will never come and reminding me that I’ve been played.
It’s odd how priorities can change. This weekend I’ve been bouncing back and forth between buying the latest 9th doctor bundle (12 hours $120 or so) or just the River Song episodes (3 hours $30). Was going to decide on Sunday but as of today I think we’ll go with none of the above.
Oddly enough I also find that Crossover DeathWorld featuring the the no longer1st, no longer 2nd and no longer 3rd Doctor which came out this month along with the sequel to Susan’s War just doesn’t seem as attractive a purchase to me as it did a day ago.
I think I’ll confine the remainder of the my big finish purchases to the few Tom Baker episodes I still don’t have and when Tom finally goes off into the sunset so will my big finish days.
Penny wise pound foolish.
Whatever my feelings on the bait and switch none of that reflects on the quality of their productions. Big finish has a 25 year record of producing high quality stories with excellent writing and solid post production that has only improved with age and that brings up a very intriguing aspect to Whitaker signing on.
While I religiously avoided the Whitaker era my oldest son watched it and pronounced it the absolute worst era of the show saying that only about three episodes were recognizably Doctor Who. Ironically he thought that the Jo Martin Character was more recognizable as the Doctor than Whitaker was. He blamed the writing which he thought was the most abysmal in the history of the series bar none.
He has told me the stories were so bad that Whitaker didn’t really get a fair shot and has wondered aloud to me if the Whitaker era might have been different with better writing and plots.
The BBC could get away with shit writing and woke scripts because they are state sponsored and even the tanking ratings for Ncuti Gatwa (actually most of them decent stories with a gem or two there) don’t matter because they’re paid for by Disney money.
But Big Finish is not the BBC. They are an actual business that has to attract actual paying customers on the merit of the quality of cast, writing and production values. If they don’t produce a quality product there is no license fee or big corporation to make up the difference. In fact they have to pay the BBC to license Doctor Who so there is an extra base cost right up front.
This has really driven the quality of the writing at big finish which is in my opinion some of the best writing you will fine anywhere. Good writing tends to bring out the best in the cast. In the 16 or so years since I discovered them I can count the number of really bad stories I’d heard on the fingers of one hand with fingers left over.
If the BBC produced episodes with the script and production values of Big Finish during either the Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy years I submit and suggest that the entire history of the series would be have been re-written. To give you an idea Colin Baker is my youngest son’s favorite Doctor based solely on Big Finish audios which he heard as a teen before he ever saw a single one of his TV episodes.
Jodie Whitaker will now be playing The Doctor supported by a set of quality writers producing quality stories for her with the goal of getting paying customers to buy them. I would be a liar if I didn’t say I’m very curious if given that environment she can pull it off. In fact given the quality of Big Finish I’d actually be surprised if she didn’t.
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