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SFF: Big Finish 'The Eighth of March'
This is a collection of radio plays featuring several female characters from Doctor Who - both original and current, and some of BF's OCs.
The set was created in honor of International Women's Day, and has a lot of women in both writing and directing, producing, and starring.
Episode 1 is River meeting Leela.
Episode 2 is NADW-era Ace & Benny without the Doctor (think Birthright, but shorter and with less Jack the Ripper).
Episode 3 is Paternoster Gang - Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax
Episode 4 is UNIT - Kate Stewart, Osgood, and Jackie the reporter who was last heard (for me) in the Lady Christina set (which was smashing, btw, if I haven't said).
There are some minor spoilers in the cut section.
First two episodes were really good - cracking adventures, with just the right amount of angsty pathos at times. The first one has River flirting with Leela and a great dynamic with the two. The second is NADW-era Ace & Benny, and just smashing, and included both of them getting in their own bits of kick-ass-ness.
1. River & Leela.
River's alias basically had me writing a quick bit from Eleven being insulted, or surprised/confused/unimpressed. But aside from that, I love her brazenness in taking that as an alias, and managing to a) pull it off and b) keep from getting denounced as a fake by Leela.
Hearing Leela work with River was a delight--it was such a different dynamic than Leela & Romana, or Leela & the Doctor. There were trust issues and flirting (on River's side), and Leela discovering that River doesn't have the same idealism, while at the same time being just as pragmatic (something the Doctor never was), and just... it was really lovely.
The plot itself was ridiculous, but worked, and the end was gut-wrenching.
2. Ace & Benny. It was a pleasure to discover who was in this one, so I was set from the get-go to enjoy the hell out of it, and I mostly wasn't disappointed (if BF want to do a whole series of Seven-less Ace & Benny adventures, I would buy the shit out of them).
I was a little annoyed that Benny was taken out early on, but since she still managed to have a decent presence later on, it ended up working for me.
Ace's friend Harvey also ended up being all right, even if I was a little annoyed that there was a dude along for the ride (also, I've begun to notice that Ace has a bit of a thing for sad geekboys -- the dude from Death in the Family was cut from the same cloth; Ace's girlfriends of the week are more entertaining, though). Ace herself was excellent, and I loved all of her bits and pieces, and that she was a cleaner (I felt a bit of that was a swipe at Who fandom's obsession with upper-class companion roles, ie, that time Rose served chips in the canteen; but it probably wasn't).
The turnaround of the villain didn't surprise me, but it worked well. It also--I could see why Ace felt some sympathy with her.
Second two were... not as good.
3. Paternoster Gang - I felt that too much focus was on the dude character, and that the investigation was... facile and not particularly well-done. I also felt zero sympathy for the villian, despite assuming they were the villain (and unlike with Ace & Benny, she wasn't interesting or compelling enough to offset the predictability). Too much felt short-changed, so that the emotional pay-offs weren't worth the dullness that came before. This could have been solved with a) less dudes and b) a longer, more thorough script, I think. Not enough running down corridors.
I appreciated that Strax got taken out early on and was a damsel, but.
I felt frustrated with this one, waiting and waiting for it to be... what it wasn't.
It probably doesn't help that this one boiled down to the bog-standard Secret Underground Fight Ring plot. Dressing it up with aliens and people juicing themselves doesn't really make it any less dull.
Cutting out the dude character and shifting the plot to something less predictable while still keeping the pathos and aim for the down-trodden fighting back might have worked better.
4. UNIT - I... so, I really enjoy the UNIT kids during actual TV canon, but I found them less interesting on their own. Probably doesn't help that I don't give a crap about the OCs (except Jackie, I think I've met her before, and I liked her). And Osgood really needs someone else to play off of, otherwise, she's a bit... irritating and boring. In addition, I felt I'd listened to this Torchwood episode before, but Toshiko Sato was good enough to bring the thing off all on her own. This crew... wasn't.
I was also disappointed that something conceived in honor of international women's day was focused on... dating and appearances. :/ Having listened to the BTS stuff, I'm aware they were aiming for that "women are beautiful on the inside, which is what counts!" sort of message, but I feel like that's such a constant message all over that it didn't need to be done AGAIN. Or at least not something in this set.
However, all of that aside, I really did love the first two, and I would recommend this as even if I didn't like them, the second two are worth a listen.
The set was created in honor of International Women's Day, and has a lot of women in both writing and directing, producing, and starring.
Episode 1 is River meeting Leela.
Episode 2 is NADW-era Ace & Benny without the Doctor (think Birthright, but shorter and with less Jack the Ripper).
Episode 3 is Paternoster Gang - Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax
Episode 4 is UNIT - Kate Stewart, Osgood, and Jackie the reporter who was last heard (for me) in the Lady Christina set (which was smashing, btw, if I haven't said).
There are some minor spoilers in the cut section.
First two episodes were really good - cracking adventures, with just the right amount of angsty pathos at times. The first one has River flirting with Leela and a great dynamic with the two. The second is NADW-era Ace & Benny, and just smashing, and included both of them getting in their own bits of kick-ass-ness.
1. River & Leela.
River's alias basically had me writing a quick bit from Eleven being insulted, or surprised/confused/unimpressed. But aside from that, I love her brazenness in taking that as an alias, and managing to a) pull it off and b) keep from getting denounced as a fake by Leela.
Hearing Leela work with River was a delight--it was such a different dynamic than Leela & Romana, or Leela & the Doctor. There were trust issues and flirting (on River's side), and Leela discovering that River doesn't have the same idealism, while at the same time being just as pragmatic (something the Doctor never was), and just... it was really lovely.
The plot itself was ridiculous, but worked, and the end was gut-wrenching.
2. Ace & Benny. It was a pleasure to discover who was in this one, so I was set from the get-go to enjoy the hell out of it, and I mostly wasn't disappointed (if BF want to do a whole series of Seven-less Ace & Benny adventures, I would buy the shit out of them).
I was a little annoyed that Benny was taken out early on, but since she still managed to have a decent presence later on, it ended up working for me.
Ace's friend Harvey also ended up being all right, even if I was a little annoyed that there was a dude along for the ride (also, I've begun to notice that Ace has a bit of a thing for sad geekboys -- the dude from Death in the Family was cut from the same cloth; Ace's girlfriends of the week are more entertaining, though). Ace herself was excellent, and I loved all of her bits and pieces, and that she was a cleaner (I felt a bit of that was a swipe at Who fandom's obsession with upper-class companion roles, ie, that time Rose served chips in the canteen; but it probably wasn't).
The turnaround of the villain didn't surprise me, but it worked well. It also--I could see why Ace felt some sympathy with her.
Second two were... not as good.
3. Paternoster Gang - I felt that too much focus was on the dude character, and that the investigation was... facile and not particularly well-done. I also felt zero sympathy for the villian, despite assuming they were the villain (and unlike with Ace & Benny, she wasn't interesting or compelling enough to offset the predictability). Too much felt short-changed, so that the emotional pay-offs weren't worth the dullness that came before. This could have been solved with a) less dudes and b) a longer, more thorough script, I think. Not enough running down corridors.
I appreciated that Strax got taken out early on and was a damsel, but.
I felt frustrated with this one, waiting and waiting for it to be... what it wasn't.
It probably doesn't help that this one boiled down to the bog-standard Secret Underground Fight Ring plot. Dressing it up with aliens and people juicing themselves doesn't really make it any less dull.
Cutting out the dude character and shifting the plot to something less predictable while still keeping the pathos and aim for the down-trodden fighting back might have worked better.
4. UNIT - I... so, I really enjoy the UNIT kids during actual TV canon, but I found them less interesting on their own. Probably doesn't help that I don't give a crap about the OCs (except Jackie, I think I've met her before, and I liked her). And Osgood really needs someone else to play off of, otherwise, she's a bit... irritating and boring. In addition, I felt I'd listened to this Torchwood episode before, but Toshiko Sato was good enough to bring the thing off all on her own. This crew... wasn't.
I was also disappointed that something conceived in honor of international women's day was focused on... dating and appearances. :/ Having listened to the BTS stuff, I'm aware they were aiming for that "women are beautiful on the inside, which is what counts!" sort of message, but I feel like that's such a constant message all over that it didn't need to be done AGAIN. Or at least not something in this set.
However, all of that aside, I really did love the first two, and I would recommend this as even if I didn't like them, the second two are worth a listen.