2014-04-08 20:55:02

Hi.
I don't know if any of  you have heard ace on the doctor who tv shows and ace on big finish. I've realized she sounds quite different.
What do you guys think.
Does she sound different or the same to you?

I'm gone for real :)

2014-04-08 21:19:49

Hi,
She sounds different because sofy aldrid is 25 years older...LOL

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2014-04-08 22:50:37

Well Brad, it is certainly always the same Actress, Sophie Aldred. I imagine the differences are mostly due to her being about 25 years older when recording the Bf stories :d.   It's also worth remembering that  Ace wasn't a companion for that long on Tv, and often she didn't get the best writing as a character. Some stories she had such as curse of fenric and ghostlight were awsome, however others where the  producers were trying to be  experimental and muck about with Doctor who she doesn't come across half as well.

Even in Happyness patroll, which is imho one of Mccoy's better outings Ace doesn't  really do much, and basically comes across as just one line and angry, not the complex character we saw in fenric.

Another interesting thing though, that unlike the other companions who travel with the Doctor,  Ace is with the 7th doctor for a considderable  time, indeed in one of the bf stories she remarks that she  doesn't know how old she is anymore. While some of the Bf stories such as The Rapture or the Countermeasures story are specifically set with   the younger ace being about 20 or so (only slightly older than she was on Tv), most happen with an older ace. I always imagine  for example that   at the point Hex  joins the Tardis crew in Harvest, Ace is around 28 or so, sinse not only does she sound older but she doesn't quite come across as the same angry teenaged thug she was on Tv.

Apparently in the  novels you actually get told her age and she eventually becomes some sort of hard as  nails space marine, but as I've said before I am not sure to what extent the novels are particularly  canon sinse Bf has now been acknolidged by the tv series as official, still it seems sensible to think that would be where Ace ends up.

Actually  it'd be  great if Bf  did do the story where Ace and the 7th doctor part ways. We know he travels alone for some time as in stories like Return of the Daleks and Valhalla he's definitely alone and even references the fact that his companions have  left him and certainly in the 1996 tv movie (which I suppose is canon much as it's quite depressing), so it'd be interesting to see where Ace does end up, sinse again that is a loose end not  accounted for on Tv.

Hay, maybe Hex gets his wish and the two of them actually end up together big_smile.

)beware, hex related spoilage below!).

It might even be possible for Ace and Hex to get together now that Hex is back, even with amnesia, though i actually didn't personally like Hex returning in  AFter life,  much as I am a hex fan I do think it was better when his end was quite shocking. I was also quite amused at the way the 7th doctor seemed to be manipulating hex a girlfriend in Sally Morgan, quite a differen sort of game for   tricky old Number 7 to be playing, and fairly unique as I don't think I've ever seen the Doctor play match maker before big_smile.

Again, a nice plotthat I would've liked to see developed.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-04-09 02:22:26 (edited by daniel 2014-04-09 02:26:14)

Hi,
Its to do with the fact as dark said that she didn't have very many appearances and terrible writing(some good eps though) and the fact that this has been 25 years as well...
@dark: I'll have to check afterlife out--sounds interesting!
Thanks,

Daniel

2014-04-09 04:55:53

Hi.
Erm... I might have kind of forgotten humans do that thing called aging... Oops.
I really like Ace as a doctor who companion. especially in the BF stuff audio dramas.
She's funny smart and very caring when she wants to be.

I'm gone for real :)

2014-04-09 13:48:17

Well Brad  it is the very fact you get caring ace that seems to indicate that the character has grown up a bit, indeed in the bf stories it's often quite easy to tell when she is the younger ace from Tv and when the slightly older  Ace.

One of my   favourite Ace moments is still Enemy of the Daleks, where you get Ace leading a group of space marines in a base undersiege by the Daleks, but it is the fact that when the Sergeant (who was once a   Dalek prisoner and was horribly tortured),  completely breaks down and Ace is the one to stick up for her that really showed me this is a long way from the   pyromaniac angry teen we saw on Tv, for all she's still awsome at blowing up Daleks when occasion needs big_smile.

One thing we probably should thank the Davies for is that  the assistants get a lot more character in Doctor who these days, and that's very much translated to Bf. We have older  Nissa getting wrapped up in time  shenanigans and curing viruses, and even some back home plot for Peri, and  that's not counting the awsome stuff that happens with Charley or Evelyn.

Actually this is another area where the Bf audios are so much superior to the Mophs travesty, though admittedly that isn't saying much big_smile.

@Daniel about Ace on Tv, I actually never really liked the 7th Doctor and ace as a team. It  seemed much of the time that they were pushing the"Dark and manipulative 7th doctor" and "young angry street thug" angles a bit too much, even in the better stories like ghostlight or Fenric, admitedly this was probably an antidote to Colin baker's  pompus professor with ever too breezy mell, but still it did rather jar with me, particularly because I found a lot of the Mccoy stories rather too convoluted and confusing, especially following the rather more streight forward C baker (who I've always been a fan of).

Much like the 5th Doctor, I find my opinion of Mccoy has vastly improved through hearing the audios, although when I was hearing through the  first 50 of the monthly series such as Colditz Rapture and Fear Monger I found Mccoy my least favourite doctor, and only started to warm to him around when I heard audios like Master that gave Mccoy some real chance to act, indeed a lot of audio reviews state that Mccoy's acting was the one that suffered most when first on Audio, though he has more than sorted things now, and  especially his stuff with Elizabeth cline has been awsome.

Beware! spoilage for  Afterlife follows.

I'm a little worried with this current arc though about the light, some conspiracy of shape shifting aliens.

In the black tardis trilogy ending with Gods and Monsters we literally saw 7th doctor vs the elder gods, in a massive manipulation game that brought in so many elements of the Bf storyline and Tv, Fenric, the Forge, hex's mum etc, I'm not sure where they go from there, and  it seems the 7th doctor's story is running out of steam a little.

Then again we'll see. I did wonder where they  would take the 8th doctor after the big ending with Charley and the big ending with Lucy, both of which were pretty major climaxes, so I'm willing to give bf the bennifit of the doubt.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-04-09 15:10:36

Yes, Big Finish Ace is so much better.  These days, as someone who didn't grow up with Doctor Who, I've given up on going back and watching the older stuff. I always find it so disappointing compared to the quality of writing, characterization, and dialogue that BF has spoiled me into expecting.

2014-04-09 16:46:47

Well Fastfinge, remember  the original doctor who series spanned 26 years of tv, and like any tv series went through good and bad writers and  good and bad moments.

While I was never a fan of Mccoy and  ace on tv as I said, Fenric and Ghostlight are just down right awsome, and if your looking for a character arc and development you'll find it  there.

While it is generally true the  classic series was more episodic, at the same time  there  were some awsome episodes, and ones that involved the Doctor in fairly major conflicts with long standing characters. Doctor who and the silurians for example has the  3rd Doctor and  Brigadier directly at odds over whether the newly awakening silurians are a threat or not.

Then you get to stories like Genesis of the Daleks which are simply awsome, indeed   genesis is one of the occasions when I actually agree with people about Tom baker.


Of course there are some real clunkers, and sadly several of them involve my favourite Doctor Mr. C baker, for example there is no sense in which time and the Rani could be considdered a decent story, although I personally enjoyed the Two doctor which is so often bashed by reviewers.

Then of course go right back to the 60's, and you have what is essentially more a  tellevised stage play than a series as we would understand it now, indeed the third story, Edge of destruction just! involves the Doctor, Ian Barbara and Susan in the tardis together with things going gradually  wrong.

While  it is true that I do miss a little of the extra characterization and backstory given to some of the doctor's assistants by Bf, at the same time  there are classic tv stories I really! like and would recommend to  anyone just as absolutely well put together stories if nothing else, for all there are the opposite.


Indeed I do sometimes find myself that Doctor who fandom can be waaaaaay too negative sometimes, especially about certain people or episodes. For example, Trial of a timelord is a personal favourite of mine, though it seems to be disliked by lots  of people universally.

this is why though I dislike The Moph intensively, I would never  say the entire Mat smith era has been a waste, sinse I still believe  there are some good episodes in there too, albeit unfortunately not enough of them and not enough that set the stage for the over all story or characters to pull things out of the post Davies slump.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)