Richard Penna

I agree with all of that regarding why it was a bad tenure, but it would remain true even with another male actor. Whittaker is witty and fun when given good scripts. Nope, its death knell was Chib.

Huh? What's it got to do with Whittaker?

Interesting... you have to wonder where rumours like that come from. Several I've heard revolve around Williams being unhappy about material produced by someone else - they have the whiff of a fan trying to manufacture sympathy for their idol.

Fully original and completed COS > CMIYC

I have no idea whatsoever what the plot of Flux was.

DoD and CMIYC The former is such a lack of fresh ideas and reuse. The latter prevented him completing CoS properly.

Fair enough - the original statement goes under 'popular opinions'. I'd counter with the 'unpopular opinion' that the statement is just fan validation.

Very unbalanced assessment there. Gia had to score R1 in a last minute replacement rush with obviously clear directives and limitations from Williams, and Powell's score has been overwhelmingly positively received across the board, apart perhaps from some who don't like his use of synth percussion. From a film perspective no one else has had the opportunity to write for SW, so in fact that's an extremely limited indication that nobody can outwrite Williams for SW.

I wouldn't mind so much if they were encapsulated in interesting stories but they just weren't. Oddly, the one where Chib shouted at the audience for buying plastic DW merch and destroying the planet has what I thought was one of the more interesting stories/monsters. Whatever the story was with the mental health one, I can't remember which means it wasn't strong. Of Whittaker's last episodes I really liked the one in the storage place, and guess what, no messages. But Flux also had no messages that I can remember and that was one of the dullest sections of DW I've ever seen.

The messages became problematic in Chib's era when they started to completely dictate the stories, i.e. that one about mental health, where I can't even begin to remember what happened in the episode. He forgot Who is meant to be fun and exciting. If they're ingredients in an otherwise interesting and fun story, go for it.

I think your last point is key. IMO the only thing a label like them has to do is high quality audio. Attractive packaging is nice to have and highly subjective in its quality and expectations.

It's certainly different perspectives and I respect that you and others put significant stock in the quality of the liners and artwork. I'd prefer effort were put into the highest quality mastering of the music and not needing to overly worry about designing and approving an elaborate booklet.

Comments on lack of cleaning up an archival marketing image are one thing, but complaining that they are lazy for keeping the same booklet design for a reissue? Knowing that approvals are one of the most problematic and time consuming elements, and that a reissue like this can be a good revenue stream for something more costly coming up? (imagine the last few releases have helped fund The Patriot....) Some major perspective needed here.

The ripping begins.... I'm #349

Oh that definitely happens sometimes, yes. I'd suggest that it's a bit of a minority of cases though that a full, intended score works great for listening, right out of the box, context-free.