Another day, another reason why I never trust DW fans, especially when something rated very negatively.

Now this isn't a story without flaws but I really enjoy what it's going for. Very dark & serious in places but also just so goofy. The American voice acting is definitely not that good but I was just laughing everytime that demon character spoke. They knew what they were going for.

The Brigadier is sadly wasted. Even tho he's as cool as always he doesn't feel like a large person in the story. While the amnesia plot is repeated here the movie, I really enjoyed the twist here.

Spoilers:

I don't really get the complaints that Charley was sexualized at all. We know the type of men we're gonna be seeing here so I expected those of type & Charley did decently against them.

Also are witches & spells just normal in DW now?

The 25 mins after the Doctor regains his memories is just pure "hype moments and aura farming" and I love it.

For me this is the first bad Eighth Doctor Big Finish story. I wouldn't call the performances outright bad, but it feels to me McGann and Fisher don't really know what to make of the material, and I can't say I blame them. It's also a shame to have the Brigadier's first meeting with the Eighth Doctor be one featuring dialogue and elements that feel like they were written by a horny teenager. The story also meanders quite a bit, and the Brigadiers occasional narrating of the messages he is typing saps whatever pacing there might have been. As for Brigham, he could have been a really memorable larger-than-live villain but ends up being pretty tedious.

One aspect I almost liked, despite amnesia being an overused trope, was the idea of the Doctor as an amnesiac in an asylum with a cellmate claiming to be the Doctor and having all his memories. This could have made a pretty good regeneration story, but here its stretched to breaking point in an already overlong story.

i dont think ive ever heard more annoying accents in my life

also dear god are we really calling the state "malebolgia"??? talk about unsubtlety

i feel like this story gets a slightly bad rep. just bc this story has sex slaves in it, doesn't mean the writer or writers are creepy. the hellfire club was a real club and this was the s**t that was happening. the pacing was as good as it could have been, being vka long it was. could have been shorter. but there was enough going on preventing me from going to sleep. i didn't care much for the zebidia doe subplot, made the writing feel a bit unfocused bc it had not much to do with the rest of the story, although it was nice having it converge at the end. the American accents are a bit naff except from rober jezek but that's just bc hes acc American. the brigadear's involvement served the story quite well. overall, theres not too much to praise, but you could tell there had been work put into it.