Some Big Finish thoughts
Apr. 14th, 2014 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regndoftI've listened to some Companion Chronicles and felt inclined to share Opinions.
(The draft of this post has been lying around for... two weeks? maybe more. I felt it was time to post this entry so I could actually make an update about something else. >___>)
Major spoilers!
There are a number of things that, regardless of circumstances, brings me a lot of comfort in life. One of those things is that Simon Guerrier, who has written some of Big Finish's most memorable audios, started his writing career with a Three & Delgado!Master bodyswap story. Ficwriting will never make me feel inadequate knowing this.
I am mentioning this, of course, because I'm going to be gushing a lot about his audios in this post.
First off: I love Big Finish. If you know me in real life, you know I also complain a lot about Big Finish, but that's because I really love them (and the Big Finish crowd on Tumblr strikes me as being strangely uncritical a lot of the time). Case in point, someone at Big Finish sat down, proposed giving the first Doctor a new companion about forty years after his run ended, and everyone recognised this for the awesome idea it was.
I was initially a bit wary of the Oliver Harper trilogy-- not because I thought it would be bad, or because I thought it was a bad idea, but for the simple fact that I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out I didn't really have anything to worry about; The Perpetual Bond was really good (the Doctor missing Ian and Barbara! Steven being From The Future! All You Need Is Love!) but it's The Cold Equations where the character dynamic really gels.
Besides the plot itself being suspenseful and generally well-crafted - gotta love a story that explores Steven's background as a pilot - the character arc in this audio is really lovely. I already knew about Oliver's sexuality, so that reveal was lost on me, but the importance of the dialogue that follows, the theme of being ostracised and finding a place to be happy, hit me harder than I thought it would. This is a TARDIS Team that consists of pariahs, whether by choice or not; the Doctor by being in exile from his own people, Steven by unwillingly becoming a deserter and living in isolation for two years, and Oliver because of his sexuality. Having three characters with so much in common talking about where in life there could be a place for them just made me unexpectedly emotional and I really wanted to get to know these characters' better as a unit.
(Oliver is also Big Finish's first queer companion - not character, but companion - and that is good. Also kind of terrible since he's so far also the only one. A certain audio company needs to step up their game. *Squints at*)
... which brings us to The First Wave, where, of course, Oliver dies. I think even if I hadn't also known that before getting started on these audios I would have anticipated it, because introducing a character for such a limited run does seem to assume everything isn't going to turn up roses.
That being said, despite being totally prepared for a character death, I... once again did not expect how emotional it would be. What really stands out to me though, is how meaningful Oliver's death is: Oliver doesn't just sacrifice himself heroically for the other characters. That might very well have annoyed me. What Oliver does is breaking free from what the Doctor assumes to be a determined set of events and proving him wrong.
Introducing new characters in a very long-running series and ascribing them a fundamental role can easily become contrived, but in Oliver's case I think it actually works. For one, it provides a very concrete beginning of a shift in the Doctor's attitude to the Web of Time - from "you can't re-write history" to incorrigible meddler -, something the show was somewhat lacking in. I wouldn't call it a hole that needed to be filled, but it does mean Oliver's story slots nicely into canon without fundamentally affecting the televised material; it's the kind of retcon that adds to what there already is, rather than muddling it. Also, it plays into the story to great emotional effect.
Secondly, Oliver dies in a way that feels respectful to the character. He dies an active agent of his own death rather than a victim, and his death has important impact on the narrative that doesn't just amount to saving the "real" characters or providing main characters with angst fuel *Squints at To The Death*. With a character who had such a brief run, as well as being a minority character, that felt really important.
Overall, I really enjoyed the Oliver Harper trilogy, and it's one of the best examples of Big Finish's creativity, especially in the Companion Chronicles range.
.... Together with the Sara Kingdom trilogy, ofc. I don't really know what to say about Guardian of the Solar System except
1. I love Sara Kingdom
2. This audio hurt me deeply (in the best ways). I usually hate audios that rely heavily on predestination paradoxes, but I honestly didn't mind this one; probably because so much of Sara's emotional arc coming to an end, the feeling of always being trapped, is strongly expressed through this plot point. It propels the character arc more than the actual plot and as such I was, well, willing to accept it. I suppose it's proof that even the most contrived or annoying of plot devices can be used to enrich rather than take away from a narrative.
3. I love the ending. So much. It's open and hopeful and wonderful. Also, in retrospect, I have to laugh at the fact that Sara Kingdom, who dies in canon arguably has one of the most positive character send-offs in all of Big Finish.
(I'm not sure which Doctor arrives at the end-- according to the internet Simon Guerrier thinks it was Five, and in retrospect I do think a slightly older Doctor makes sense, but tbh my first thought was Three. Probably because out of all the Doctors, he knows best what it's like to feel trapped.)
TL;DR where is my Sara Kingdom spin-off, Big Finish?
In other Big Finish-related news, I've started listening to the Iris Wildthyme and Bernice Summerfield ranges. I have not listened to Simon Guerrier's latest (The War To End All Wars, about Steven post-canon) because a part of my heart might just actually shrivel up and die.
(The draft of this post has been lying around for... two weeks? maybe more. I felt it was time to post this entry so I could actually make an update about something else. >___>)
Major spoilers!
There are a number of things that, regardless of circumstances, brings me a lot of comfort in life. One of those things is that Simon Guerrier, who has written some of Big Finish's most memorable audios, started his writing career with a Three & Delgado!Master bodyswap story. Ficwriting will never make me feel inadequate knowing this.
I am mentioning this, of course, because I'm going to be gushing a lot about his audios in this post.
First off: I love Big Finish. If you know me in real life, you know I also complain a lot about Big Finish, but that's because I really love them (and the Big Finish crowd on Tumblr strikes me as being strangely uncritical a lot of the time). Case in point, someone at Big Finish sat down, proposed giving the first Doctor a new companion about forty years after his run ended, and everyone recognised this for the awesome idea it was.
I was initially a bit wary of the Oliver Harper trilogy-- not because I thought it would be bad, or because I thought it was a bad idea, but for the simple fact that I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out I didn't really have anything to worry about; The Perpetual Bond was really good (the Doctor missing Ian and Barbara! Steven being From The Future! All You Need Is Love!) but it's The Cold Equations where the character dynamic really gels.
Besides the plot itself being suspenseful and generally well-crafted - gotta love a story that explores Steven's background as a pilot - the character arc in this audio is really lovely. I already knew about Oliver's sexuality, so that reveal was lost on me, but the importance of the dialogue that follows, the theme of being ostracised and finding a place to be happy, hit me harder than I thought it would. This is a TARDIS Team that consists of pariahs, whether by choice or not; the Doctor by being in exile from his own people, Steven by unwillingly becoming a deserter and living in isolation for two years, and Oliver because of his sexuality. Having three characters with so much in common talking about where in life there could be a place for them just made me unexpectedly emotional and I really wanted to get to know these characters' better as a unit.
(Oliver is also Big Finish's first queer companion - not character, but companion - and that is good. Also kind of terrible since he's so far also the only one. A certain audio company needs to step up their game. *Squints at*)
... which brings us to The First Wave, where, of course, Oliver dies. I think even if I hadn't also known that before getting started on these audios I would have anticipated it, because introducing a character for such a limited run does seem to assume everything isn't going to turn up roses.
That being said, despite being totally prepared for a character death, I... once again did not expect how emotional it would be. What really stands out to me though, is how meaningful Oliver's death is: Oliver doesn't just sacrifice himself heroically for the other characters. That might very well have annoyed me. What Oliver does is breaking free from what the Doctor assumes to be a determined set of events and proving him wrong.
Introducing new characters in a very long-running series and ascribing them a fundamental role can easily become contrived, but in Oliver's case I think it actually works. For one, it provides a very concrete beginning of a shift in the Doctor's attitude to the Web of Time - from "you can't re-write history" to incorrigible meddler -, something the show was somewhat lacking in. I wouldn't call it a hole that needed to be filled, but it does mean Oliver's story slots nicely into canon without fundamentally affecting the televised material; it's the kind of retcon that adds to what there already is, rather than muddling it. Also, it plays into the story to great emotional effect.
Secondly, Oliver dies in a way that feels respectful to the character. He dies an active agent of his own death rather than a victim, and his death has important impact on the narrative that doesn't just amount to saving the "real" characters or providing main characters with angst fuel *Squints at To The Death*. With a character who had such a brief run, as well as being a minority character, that felt really important.
Overall, I really enjoyed the Oliver Harper trilogy, and it's one of the best examples of Big Finish's creativity, especially in the Companion Chronicles range.
.... Together with the Sara Kingdom trilogy, ofc. I don't really know what to say about Guardian of the Solar System except
1. I love Sara Kingdom
2. This audio hurt me deeply (in the best ways). I usually hate audios that rely heavily on predestination paradoxes, but I honestly didn't mind this one; probably because so much of Sara's emotional arc coming to an end, the feeling of always being trapped, is strongly expressed through this plot point. It propels the character arc more than the actual plot and as such I was, well, willing to accept it. I suppose it's proof that even the most contrived or annoying of plot devices can be used to enrich rather than take away from a narrative.
3. I love the ending. So much. It's open and hopeful and wonderful. Also, in retrospect, I have to laugh at the fact that Sara Kingdom, who dies in canon arguably has one of the most positive character send-offs in all of Big Finish.
(I'm not sure which Doctor arrives at the end-- according to the internet Simon Guerrier thinks it was Five, and in retrospect I do think a slightly older Doctor makes sense, but tbh my first thought was Three. Probably because out of all the Doctors, he knows best what it's like to feel trapped.)
TL;DR where is my Sara Kingdom spin-off, Big Finish?
In other Big Finish-related news, I've started listening to the Iris Wildthyme and Bernice Summerfield ranges. I have not listened to Simon Guerrier's latest (The War To End All Wars, about Steven post-canon) because a part of my heart might just actually shrivel up and die.
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Date: 2014-04-14 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 08:31 pm (UTC)