Rochester Public Library has HUGE "Who Shrine"

Just wandering through the Rochester, MN Public Library last week. I was shocked to see that the library has invested a TON of money in Doctor Who. In fact, I have never seen such an impressive collection of "Big Finish" audio dramas in my life.

For those of you that aren't big "Who" fans, Big Finish came in (in my mind at least) as the savior of Doctor Who during the 15 odd years of its absence on British TV. These fine crafted audio dramas usually started the voices of the original Doctors and their companions. The stories were usually spot on (probably because they had to get clearance from the BBC) and were a great substitute for the lack of "Who" on TV. One could even say that they were better in a way because there was no visual component that required extensive sets to be built, just good old fashioned storytelling.

This was also the medium on which the eight Doctor, Paul McGann flourished. His adventures were the best in my mind. As stated on a great "Who" podcast "Doctor Who: Podshock", if you count his various audio adventures, he played the Doctor longer than anyone. It's ironic that he only appeared in one failed TV movie. His adventures are worth a look however.

The problem with Big Finish was that they were primarily a UK company. The audio adventures trickle out to the US slowly. I have only managed to ever hear a few in the last 10 years.

Then I got lucky and went to the library. I asked the librarian how many "Who" titles they had, and she really didn't know. It's safe to say that the Big Finish audio adventures alone take up 2 full library bookshelves.

I think I'm going to have a great time rediscovering some great audio.