Big Finish: Where, When And How?

Gustaff Behr shares more handy tips on getting into Big Finish audio dramas.

Here’s another article designed to help ease you into Big Finish. In this section, I’ll provide tips for when it’s best to listen to Big Finish audio dramas, where the optimal locations are and how you can game the system and get the maximum content for the lowest prices. Let’s start!

When is the correct time to listen to audio dramas?

A common misconception is ‘when you’re alone’. Most people listen to Big Finish in their rooms or on the couch at home, closing their eyes and letting the story shape their imagination.

There is an up-and-downside to this technique. Firstly, if you’re like me, and you are easily bored by things, lying down for 2 hours without going to sleep can easily become grating. It’s harder than people realize and unless you are completely focused on the audio drama, you’ll feel like an eternity has past before the first episode ends. The upside is if you don’t become distracted, then spending a Sunday afternoon relaxing with an audio drama can be tranquil.

The most recognizable ‘when’ I hear people discuss and the one I have used the most is while driving. I used to have a weekly commute to university and the trip lasted about an hour and a half. This means that for four years, I listened to two audios a week (one going and one coming back). Big Finish is great for long commutes. Again, it’s like listening to the radio, but without hearing the same song playing over and over again twenty times a journey. Short commutes work also, but there is a pause in your listen every x number of minutes as the distance between point A and B isn’t quite as long. Using short commutes, a 2 hour audio drama lasted me about five to six days.

This might sound ridiculous, but I use the duller Big Finish stories to help me get to sleep. This isn’t a joke. Don’t laugh. I am serious. It’s not a disorder, but I do have trouble getting to sleep so I pop in a dud and literally choose sleep as opposed to listening to the story. This tactic works surprisingly well and an hour long story takes me about 7-10 days to get through.

I rarely listen to audios when I’m in my room since as I mentioned, I get bored easily. People also seem to listen to them whilst doing homework or writing. I have trouble with this as the audio tends to take over my concentration.

When I’m not training with other people, listening to Big Finish while at the gym really helps to pass the time, especially when you’re on the machines. This is a great way to enjoy Big Finish because the halved focus actually helps avoid the problem in the above paragraph.

As mentioned above, on the road is great ventilation for Big Finish; from long vacation trips to the beach to flying. Flying I find is really easy to do with Big Finish as a lot of people will tell you, travelling by plane, from check-in to boarding to the actual trip can be extremely boring. Getting through two or three audios is stealing candy from a baby easy…provided your phone or MP3 player has enough charge; though these days we use iPads to give us that extra technological boost!

However, my favourite place to listen to audios is in the middle of the pool at home. Yes, it’s not inside, but outside relaxing on an inflatable lie-low drifting aimlessly in the pool. This is my best outlet. Usually during summer and usually when I feel like doing as little as possible for as long as possible.

Buying tips

I promised to share some tips on how to game the system and help you get maximum quality for your budget. If anything, start there. Have a budget for the year and STAY inside it. Make sure there is enough money in the piggy bank however for those extra surprise release announcements like the New Who Big Finish thing. While it came out of left field and people were jumping up and down, a lot of people also regretted some of their earlier purchases as their budgets were essentially dead in the water by that point.

Next up, while I’ve advocated picking a title at random out of the hat in the past, I will say that before you click ‘buy’, do research. Check out reviews on the product. Even leaving a post on Big Finish’s website asking for a spoiler-free ‘thoughts on’ can help.

I urge you not to use well-known websites that always give stunning reviews for everything Big Finish does. That is no help. I can guarantee you that Big Finish doesn’t produce 100% amazing titles. Like the TV series, there are quite a few duds in there as well that you will not see reviewer’s bringing up. For that reason, locate external reviewers who bother to score some titles with 1/10 or 5/10s because their reviews are usually not advertised by Big Finish, but they are more critical of the elements that might put you off listening. Even if you don’t agree with it, scoring something a 1/10 or a 5/10 shows that they aren’t afraid to tackle issues. Just make sure they don’t score every title below 5/10 because I can assure you that is not true either.

Also, buying the digital downloads as opposed to the physical CD is usually much cheaper. I know Doctor Who fans have this strange obsession with collecting physical memorabilia, but if you want to save money, going digital is the way. Also, the special editions and extra stuff; might cut those out. It’s just one or two posters or extra interviews. We’re interested in the story remember.

One of the best tricks to use is taking advantage of Big Finish sales. These occur from time to time and you can get the 411 on them by subscribing to Big Finish or just following them on Twitter. Granted these sales tend to only feature older stories so you might feel like they are taking pity on you and you’re only getting the leftovers while other fans enjoy the pizza. I do not have much advice for this, but I will say that Big Finish doesn’t have to lower their prices on any of their titles, but they do and it’s not for their financial welfare.

Adding to the above, what some clever fans do is ‘Group-Buy’. For instance, ten Doctor Who fans decide that they will each help buy a single release and divide the cost. A release that costs $40 suddenly becomes $4. People usually buy the digital copy and then just share the audio drama to each other. Kind of how people used to buy one bicycle together and take turns riding it. The more fans you are, the less the drama costs and the more potential you have to buy.

People have actually gone ahead and combined the above techniques. They Group-Buy dozens and dozens of audios when they are on those bargain bin sales to further minimize the cost. However, there are a lot of people who are also opposed to this idea as they consider it no better than stealing whilst the law on this sort of thing falls into a grey area depending on which country you live in.

The simplest way: Ask us! Seriously, it’s that simple. Just ask us what is worth listening to. Ask your question and decide from there. You may not end up agreeing with us, but I like to be vain enough and think that the Big Finish fans on DWTV have good taste when it comes to these things. Our opinions may differ, but that is simply a chance you’ll have to take. Also, we don’t write these articles to show off how cool we are. We do it because then you can judge if this person shares the same sort of taste that you do. We don’t want you to sit through and waste money on subpar releases like we had to. We want point you to El Dorado, not trick you into vacationing in Death Valley.