2008 in Big Finish Audio: The Rankings

As is tradition, whenever we finish a year of Big Finish stories some of our reviewers rank the stories in order of preference, as well as seeing whose opinions most closely matched the group’s as a whole. We’ve got rankings of stories 104-116 of the Main Range first, followed by the second series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures.

The Main Range

First, it’s time for the Main Range! If you’d like to see our individual rankings, please scroll further down the page!

The Rankings

As a reminder, 13 indicates our favourite story, while 1 is our least!

This year, it was a battle for the bottom spot as The Dark Husband and The Boy That Time Forgot vied for dead last. Both generally received either a last or second last vote, making it a close race. In the end, it was Adam who settled the tie by placing The Dark Husband in 10th, allowing Paul Magrs’ Adric story to languish in last. It wasn’t as tight at the other end of the rankings, with The Doomwood Curse securing three first place votes to secure the top spot. It was closely followed by The Condemned in second place, with The Raincloud Man and Brotherhood of the Daleks tied for third.

While 2008 doesn’t seem to have a particular pattern to the average rankings, with a lot of fluctuation, it does show one thing – this was the year of Colin. All of the Sixth Doctor’s stories sit together at the top of the leaderboard, with Evelyn’s only outing for this year, Assassin in the Limelight, edged out by Charley’s stories. The Fifth and Seventh Doctors, meanwhile, tussled it out for the remainder of the year, with story quality varying wildly.

Another interesting thing to look at is Spearman’s Rank. This statistical test is a way of assessing the strength of a relationship between two rankings. In this case, between our individual reviewers and the overall average. The results are displayed below:

The numbers above the bars are the Spearman’s Rank coefficients. The closer to one they are, the stronger the correlation between the reviewer’s rank and the average. 

Just like last year, John was once again the undisputed master of the average. While his thoughts on The Bride of Peladon, The Dark Husband and The Boy That Time Forgot were slightly off from the group average, they were close enough to secure his top spot. Sam came in second, driven off the average by a high score for Brotherhood of the Daleks, while James came third thanks to a certain liking for Assassin in the Limelight, and a particular dislike for The Bride of Peladon. Giles’ relative dislike of The Doomwood Curse, compared to the group, saw him drop down the rankings, while Adam rounded out the pack after a significant difference of opinion on Assassin in the Limelight and The Bride of Peladon compared to the rest of the group.

As always, while these results may suggest that you should always read John’s reviews, it’s worth noting that 13 is not a large sample size, and so it only takes a couple of reviews out of step with everyone else to change your ranking dramatically.

If you would like to see our individual rankings, they are displayed below by reviewer, or in this handy table, sorted by broadcast order:

Remember, 13 would be the favourite, while 1 is least!

John Ashway

1. The Doomwood Curse
2. The Condemned
3. Brotherhood of the Daleks
4. The Raincloud Man
5. Assassin in the Limelight
6. The Bride of Peladon
7. Forty-Five
8. The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
9. Time Reef/A Perfect World
10. Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake
11. The Death Collectors/Spider’s Shadow
12. The Boy That Time Forgot
13. The Dark Husband

Adam Kendrick

1. The Doomwood Curse
2. The Bride of Peladon
3. The Raincloud Man
4. The Condemned
5. The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
6. Forty-Five
7. Brotherhood of the Daleks
8. Time Reef/A Perfect World
9. Assassin in the Limelight
10. The Dark Husband
11. Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake
12. The Death Collectors/Spider’s Shadow
13. The Boy That Time Forgot

Giles Allen-Bowden

1. Brotherhood of the Daleks
2. The Raincloud Man
3. The Condemned
4. Assassin in the Limelight
5. The Doomwood Curse
6. Forty-Five
7. The Bride of Peladon
8. The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
9. Time Reef/A Perfect World
10. Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake
11. The Death Collectors/Spider’s Shadow
12. The Boy That Time Forgot
13. The Dark Husband

James Ashway

1. The Doomwood Curse
2. The Condemned
3. Assassin in the Limelight
4. The Raincloud Man
5. Brotherhood of the Daleks
6. Forty-Five
7. The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
8. Time Reef/A Perfect World
9. Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake
10. The Bride of Peladon
11. The Death Collectors/Spider’s Shadow
12. The Dark Husband
13. The Boy That Time Forgot

Sam Sheppard

1. Brotherhood of the Daleks
2. The Doomwood Curse
3. The Condemned
4. The Raincloud Man
5. Assassin in the Limelight
6. Forty-Five
7. The Bride of Peladon
8. The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
9. Time Reef/A Perfect World
10. The Death Collectors/Spider’s Shadow
11. Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake
12. The Boy That Time Forgot
13. The Dark Husband

The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series Two

Now we’ve considered the Main Range, it’s time to see how the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller got on! If you’d like to see our individual rankings, please scroll further down the page!

The Rankings

As a reminder, 8 indicates our favourite story, while 1 is our least!

Grand Theft Cosmos was the winner this time around, receiving three out of a possible four first places. Max Warp comes in second, followed by The Zygon Who Fell to Earth. Meanwhile, the double bill of Sisters of the Flame and Vengeance of Morbius were not looked on kindly by our reviewers, coming second last and last respectively.

Taking the individual scores and turning them into a group average, we can see some distinct trends. Following the peak of Max Warp, the following stories gave gradually diminishing returns. There was a leap up from The Skull of Sobek to Grand Theft Cosmos, before the pattern repeated itself.

It’s now time for the Spearman’s rank, and you can see the results below:

Once again, John leads the pack in terms of Spearman’s Rank. In fact, he achieved a perfect score – his views precisely matched the overall verdict of our reviewers. James and Giles tied in second place, while Adam was fourth despite only being slightly out of step with the group. In the end, it was the number of stories for which he was out of step that led to his lower ranking rather than having particularly different views.

As 8 is an even smaller sample size than normal, these results should be taken with a pinch of salt.

If you would like to see our individual rankings, they are displayed below by reviewer, or in this handy table, sorted by broadcast order:

Remember, 8 would be the favourite, while 1 is least!

John Ashway

1. Grand Theft Cosmos
2. Max Warp
3. The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
4. Brave New Town
5. Dead London
6. The Skull of Sobek
7. Sisters of the Flame
8. Vengeance of Morbius

Adam Kendrick

1. Grand Theft Cosmos
2. Max Warp
3. The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
4. Brave New Town
5. Sisters of the Flame
6. Vengeance of Morbius
7. Dead London
8. The Skull of Sobek

Giles Allen-Bowden

1. Grand Theft Cosmos
2. The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
3. Brave New Town
4. Dead London
5. Max Warp
6. The Skull of Sobek
7. Sisters of the Flame
8. Vengeance of Morbius

James Ashway

1. Max Warp
2. Grand Theft Cosmos
3. Brave New Town
4. The Skull of Sobek
5. The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
6. Dead London
7. Sisters of the Flame
8. Vengeance of Morbius

Our Previous Rankings

Year One – The Sirens of Time to The Fires of Vulcan

Year Two – The Shadow of the Scourge to The Eye of the Scorpion

Year Three – Colditz to The Rapture

Year Four – The Sandman to Zagreus

Year Five – The Wormery to The Next Life

Year Six – The Juggernauts to Other Lives

Year Seven – Pier Pressure to Year of the Pig

Year Eight – Circular Time to The Girl Who Never Was and Blood of the Daleks Part One to Human Resources Part Two