vivdunstan

Clearing more secondhand books to go to charity. We don't have enough bookcases in this house and there are lots of piles. Positive: digging into a pile that hasn't seen the light of day for years reveals a large number of books to donate to charity. Negative: it can undermine another pile!

Also there's a limit to how many books Martin can take at a time to our local Oxfam's (the best place locally to donate them to find good homes). He may need several trips with over 30 books looked out today! Plus a backlog of other ones plus Big Finish Doctor Who audios.

There are many more piles and areas still to be attacked ...

Replying to a Doctor Who subreddit post about first Big Finish story heard. For me it was Chimes of Midnight in 2004. Also the first time I encountered the 8th Doctor. Somehow - and I'm still not sure how this happened! - I missed knowing about or seeing the TV movie in 1996. Despite being a fan since 1978.

Sharing this for other fans of sometime Doctor Who companion Bernice “Benny” Summerfield, whether in novel, comic or audio form. I’m not sure why Big Finish are posting this on YouTube now, 2 years after Benny’s Big Finish 25th anniversary. But it is a nice documentary regardless.

I will be resuming my listen through of the Big Finish Benny audios in the New Year.

Onto the last story in the 8th season of Benny audios from Big Finish. Going to discuss this with big spoilers for this story and the previous but one story as well.

( spoilers )

Finally got to this major story, and going to discuss with full spoilers. So beware if you go in. ( spoilers )

Continuing my listen, and another enjoyable instalment in this Big Finish series.

This was a tightly written drama, set in the middle of a war, across multiple locations. Though on the downside I was a little puzzled at times in the audio format determining which side of the fighting I was listening to.

There are some nice narrative experiments here, some really nice touches that let Lisa Bowerman shine as ever as Benny. And a storyline that kept me gripped. Though I was a bit confused later on re what had just happened. And also frankly rather surprised when the story finished inside an hour. I'm used to overly loose Benny audios.

And bonus points from me for the "I couldn't possibly comment!" from Miles Richardson.

Onto another in this pivotal season of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield audios spun out from 1990s Doctor Who novels, and it's definitely into spoiler space for this one.

( spoilers )

This is a bit of filler, as the arc plot approaches a critical point. Benny, Brax and another person are on their way back to the Braxiatel Collection, and the whole story is set during their journey on a mysterious space ship.

On plus there are some superb scenes between Benny and Brax, who understandably have major issues.

Also the story is extremely imaginative, which will either work for the listener, or be too wacky. I liked it.

Yet at the same time much of it is very confusing, especially very early on. And it feels like it would have been better trimmed more.

In today's modern era of sometimes more sympathetic views of various gender identities there's also a rather clumsy and prolonged "Is it he or she?" section. This would ideally have been handled with more nuance today.

But an interesting experiment, and I'm glad that I listened to it.

Best quote: "You might very well think that." From Irving Braxiatel, played by Miles Richardson, son of Ian Richardson, who memorably said exactly the same thing in his most famous role in the BBC's 1990s House of Cards. Father and son have incredibly similar voices.

Onto another one, and this time one that's set in Ancient Greece, that sees Benny and Jason meet Socrates.

This feels like such a novel setting for the range, after a long run of futuristic (for us) scifi adventures. Benny and Jason used to have time rings that the Doctor gave them as wedding presents, though in this case I think they're using one or more time rings from the Braxiatel Collection. It's a shame these are not used more often. It's not even clear listening to this story why they've decided to use them this time, except it's on orders from Bev. And there's a strange cliffhanger at the end, which is also muddled. Though that's something that can happen a lot with this range, with confusing/under-written arc elements. Not least with the awkward split between the books/short stories and the audio adventures.

But that aside it's a refreshing and light-hearted adventure. Albeit with the threat of a devastating plague hanging over Athens ... Socrates is a superb quasi-companion for Benny, and there are lots of clever insights into Athenian society and democracy. It's particularly amusing when Benny dresses up as a man to go into the Assembly. And then Socrates dresses up as a woman ...

Jason's side plot works well, and it's just all round fun. I think this was maybe the first Benny audio that Scott Handcock wrote for Big Finish? If so it's a great start.

Another one featuring Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson's Leela. I laughed a lot at one early bit. Leela: "What is the name of this wet world Doctor?" The Doctor: "Well it's called Britain. Great Britain actually. But I think wet world is rather more apt."