 |
| Image (c) Big Finish Productions. |
Memory expert Kym - the same woman who gave her name as Ali in Echoes of Grey - has been sent to try to properly restore Zoe's memories so that she can be of use to the Company. Pain and guilt over the death of a space station called Artemis - a space station currently run by the Company - present a way in and a chance at redemption for a past mistake, but Kym has her own agenda and her determination to skip to the good parts may conceal vital truths.
Melding past and present plots, Second Chances finishes the series with a bravura exercise in unreliable narrative. The War to End All Wars still feels like it would have been a better capstone, but this is a decent way to finish, with Zoe's memory shutting up again in her moment of triumph... unless it hasn't. Emily Pithon's Kym is much more nuanced than 'Ali', bringing a rare poignancy to a largely villainous role.
So, there we have it; The Companion Chronicles from start to finish. Eighty-four tales, some good, others... indifferent. I don't think there are any real failures, but even leaving quality aside the style and tone of the plays vary sufficiently that very few people are going to get on with all of them, although conversely there should be something for most Whovians in the mix. With narrators of varying reliability, and a wide, wide range of framing narratives, including one Companion apparently transforming into a pan-temporal energy being to comfort her younger self before being reincarnated as the imaginary friend of a Victorian child, the series tests the limits of 2-or-3 hander audio to breaking point, and comes up with some interesting - and some very weird - stuff as a result.
It's taken me two and a half years to actually get these reviews out, so I'm in no hurry to leap on to the main range or anything, but I might have a bash at reviewing some of the other limited collections; perhaps the stageshow adaptations...
No comments:
Post a Comment