Start to Finish: 6.09 - Binary

Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd

We now come to a rarity; a Chronicle that is presented as a small-cast play rather than an enhanced audio book with a framing narrative, and which is also a three-hander. Eddie Robson's Binary features Caroline John as Liz Shaw, aided and abetted by Joe Coen and Kyle Redmond-Jones as UNIT soldiers Childs and James Foster.

UNIT have captured an alien computer. Liz has disabled such a device before, but that was with the Doctor's help. This time, the Doctor isn't around, and Liz will have to solve the problem on her own, and from an unfamiliar perspective.

Binary takes the old 'inside the computer' trope and applies it with an interesting mechanical twist, with Liz shrunk and placed in a manual repair network, rather than digitised, which feels far more apt for the era of the story. It also allows the Doctor to appear, when he does, as a remote voice rather than an overriding presence, and gives Liz a chance to spread her wings a little.

Liz's supporting players have similar voices, but present quite distinct characters, both offering hints that neither of them is quite what they seem. Liz herself is able to shine without the Doctor's direct presence, even in a field which - as is made clear - she is not uncommonly knowledgeable.

If it suffers, Binary suffers from the fact that it is not significantly distinct from a regular Big Finish pay, save in the size of its cast, such that it feels more like a limited play than an expanded Chronicle.

Next up, we're back in Russia with the First Doctor for The Wanderer.

Start to Finish: 6.08 - The Selachian Gambit

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It's giant sharks and bank jobs for the Second Doctor, in Steve Lyons' The Selachian Gambit.

The Doctor needs a loan to pay a parking fine. Unfortunately, the day he visits the Galactibank is the same day a team of Selachian soldiers decided to stage an audacious armed robbery.

The Selachian Gambit is a heist story, with plenty of action, daring ploys and desperate procrastinations, with just enough menace from the brutal, aqua-supremacist Selachians - adversaries from one of the novel lines, making their second appearance in audio after the main range sharks-vs-Nazis play The Architects of History - to maintain the stakes.

Oddly, this title is listed as 'Frazer Hines performs... with Anneke Wills', and yet this is one of Polly's more proactive roles to date. If Hines takes the meat of the play, it is because he is called on to do double duty as the Doctor, with his celebrated Patrick Troughton. The interplay between the three companions - Poly, Jamie, and Ben - is a highlight of this play, with their somewhat blundering attempts at heroics working at odds to the Doctor's subtle plans and caution.

Next up, UNIT secret squirrelry with Liz Shaw in Binary.

Start to Finish: 6.07 - The Anachronauts

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It's a two-disc, two companion extravaganza this time out, with Jean Marsh and Peter Purves in Simon Guerrier's The Anachronauts.

It isn't possible for one time ship to crash into another in the vortex, so when it happens you can bet that it will be serious. With the TARDIS malfunctioning, Steven and Sara are thrown through time, from a desert island to Berlin in the 1960s. The Doctor knew what was going on, but the Doctor isn't with them any more, and there may be no way back.

The Anachronauts lacks a framing narrative, per se. Marsh and Purves alternate narrating duties in the four episodes, but there is no additional layer of text, just the two characters telling their story. The story itself falls broadly into two sections, the desert island and Cold War Berlin, with the transition at the end of part 2.

The story once more plays on the idea of a romance between two Companions, although in the end it comes down on the side of friendship, at least where Steven and Sara are concerned and primarily uses the romance element as a hint to the story's main twist. Overall, as with much of the Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom material, it's a bit of a downer, set shortly after the death of Bret Vyon, so don't expect wacky hijinks.

The Anachronauts has a lot to like, but it's not one of my personal favourites. Ultimately, I think I find it too bleak, especially coming on top of The First Wave.

Next up, squamous heist shenanigans in The Selachian Gambit.

Fargo

"There’s a fellow once, running for a train, and he’s carrying a pair of gloves, this man. He drops a glove on the platform, but he doesn’t notice. And then later on, inside the train, he’s sitting by the window and he realizes that he’s just got this one glove left. But the train’s already started pulling out of the station, right? So what does he do? He opens the window; he drops the other glove onto the platform. That way, whoever finds the first glove can just have the pair."

Fargo is not based on the Cohen Brothers film of the same name, so much as it is inspired by it. This TV series makes the same (spurious) claim to be based on real life events, and is set in Minnesota, in this case in the small town of Bemidji. It also matches some of the original's beats, but with a shift of emphasis and an entirely different cast of characters.

The core drama revolves around four individuals: Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) is a weak, put-upon man whose inability to take action or responsibility catalyses a cascade of death and destruction through his chance interaction with Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), a whimsically malevolent hit man who is basically the Devil. On the side of the angels are Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) and Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks).

The series blends dark humour with a disjointed, almost Zen-like sensibility. At least half of the questions that are asked by characters in the series are answered with a riddle in the manner of a Zen koan, most of which are never really explained. As much as it takes its beats from the film Fargo, it is also highly reminiscent of Twin Peaks, but with a tighter and more coherent plot.

The characters are the real strength of the series. Lester's transformation from cringing weaking to reptilian killer is impressively realised, and mirrored in Gus, who spends most of the series seeking to atone for letting fear dictate his actions. Molly is a sheer joy, a strong, principled and courageous character, and one of the most real looking women on television. And then there is Malvo, the star power of the series, a gleeful and apparently indestructible monster who slides away from detection with a combination of luck, brutal efficiency and ruthless intimidation.

Now, here's the thing that I think I love most about Fargo. Twenty years ago, you couldn't have made it. Eighteen years ago when the film was new (feel fear, dear readers), you probably couldn't have made it. Ten years ago, not a chance. I like Fargo not just because it was very good television, but because it is part of a wave of shows which take risks and do something a bit new. We live in an age where for every quirky cop procedural there's a Breaking Bad or a sumptuous HBO historical or fantasy epic, and while that produces its fair share of expensive codswallop, it means that shows like Fargo or True Detective are getting made.

So, Fargo; put it on your rental lists if you missed it.

Maleficent

There's a lot of mileage in retelling old stories from a new perspective these days, and Disney has not been slow to jump on the bandwagon. From Once Upon A Time to the massively successful Frozen, this process has perhaps peaked with Maleficent, a sumptuous live-action Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the iconic villain of Disney's 1959 adaptation.

As far as first impressions go, this can not be denied: Maleficent is a gorgeous piece of film-making, if a little heavy on the CGI for my own tastes. Maleficent is most impressive in her free-spirited, flying woman phase, although her black-capped, ultra-goth mode is certainly striking. The enchanted Moors are spectacularly realised, and the human kingdom, even with its classical Disney castle, is rather bland by comparison.

The story is a little less sound, and in its attempts to turn Maleficent into the hero without losing her villainy she becomes a little too vacillating. There are some nice touches, and a splendid sidekick in the form of the raven Diaval (Sam Riley). In terms of performances, Angelina Jolie revels in the quieter moments, but falls down a little when belting out challenges to invading armies; her voice doesn't quite have the force. Her interaction with Diaval is delightful, and I'm shipping those two so hard it isn't funny. Elle Fanning as Aurora isn't utterly grating, which is in itself an achievement, and while we don't have much of Prince Philip to work with, I did like that they gave him at least some qualms about kissing the coma girl.

My problems with the film are mostly in the details, and thus require a few spoilers.

As has been noted, it is a crying shame that Maleficent herself doesn't get to turn into a dragon, but more or less inevitable given how the rest of the film is shaped. The betrayal that acts as her start of darkness has her drugged and her wings cut off by the young man she loves, a Wagnerian act of figurative rape-as-female disempowerment which is frankly a little strong for a film with a family focus. Her power can only be restored with the return of her wings, and if she could turn into a dragon herself, she would have wings.

My only other major issue is that the farcical incompetence of the pixies charged with raising Aurora is such that it is impossible to see why anyone would trust them to do it. It's not as if they're just a little bumbling, the baby is literally safer in the care of an untamed carrion bird.

I was disappointed that they didn't go a musical route, as a character with the stalking menace and superior incidental music cues that Maleficent displays throughout the film deserves a really kick-ass villain song.

Overall, I enjoyed the film a lot - I think it definitely helped that I wasn't expecting something sublime - although I was left with the feeling that I'd just watched a propaganda piece commissioned by Sleeping Beauty to explain that historically, the enchanted Moors had always been part of generic Britland.

Start to Finish: 6.06 - Beyond the Ultimate Adventure

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One of Big Finish's more off the wall projects was the production of audio versions of three Doctor Who stage plays of times past. Curse of the Daleks was a Doctorless outing, loaded with unthinking chauvinism even as it tried to be progressive and Seven Keys to Doomsday was a pretty standard planet-crawl with Daleks and rebels and ancient super weapons. And then there was The Ultimate Adventure, a rollercoaster musical extravaganza featuring Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor.

And yes, I said musical. Some years later, the characters from the play return in Terrence 'The War Games' Dicks' Beyond the Ultimate Adventure.

Barely recovered from saving the world, the Doctor and his companions, Jason and Crystal, are plunged into a nightmare realm where fear is given form. Accompanying mercenary Karl on a good will search for hidden treasure and the peril of the universe, they find themselves in an otherworldly dimension, faced by an ancient and monstrous foe.

The framing device for this Chronicle is pretty straightforward, as Jason and Crystal (Noel Sullivan and Claire Huckle) record an account of the adventure for submission to a non-specific Time Lord oversight committee. The main narrative has shades of The Five Doctors, as the Doctor and his companions negotiate a parade of old enemies to reach a castle which holds a false reward, although this time it is explicitly a realm of the mind. It is also notable for transitioning between the two episodes of the play, not on a cliffhanger, but on a theatrical act break.

Sadly, or perhaps thankfully, there are no songs, despite the return of Sullivan (from Hear'Say) and his incredible French accent as Jason.

Beyond the Ultimate Adventure is a lighthearted romp, even when faced with deadly, ancient evil, and serves as a good palate cleanser between The First Wave and our next installment, The Anachronauts.

Start to Finish: 6.05 - The First Wave

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Note: This review contains major spoilers for the Oliver Harper arc

Yet more First Doctor, as The Companion Chronicles closes out one of its occasional linked trilogies with the third and final appearance of Tom Allen as 60s city gent Oliver Harper, in Simon Guerrier's The First Wave.

The Doctor, Steven Taylor and Oliver Harper will go to the planetoid Grace Alone. They know; they've seen the records. But what is it that will happen there, and can that fate be averted once revealed?

So, elephant in the room (and by the way, spoilers), The Eternal Bond and The Cold Equations introduced Big Finish's first officially gay companion, and The First Wave kills him off. It's a thing, but it isn't all that much of a thing. Harper's run was limited by the need to fit in between the death of Sara Kingdom and the introduction of Dodo Chaplet, which is barely a story break, and a heroic end is more fitting to the character than wandering off somewhere.

Allen portrays Harper as a bright, determined man, unwilling to give up without a fight, as a counterpoint to Steven's depression in the wake of the loss of Katarina, Brett Vyon and Sara Kingdom, and if the trilogy has a significant flaw it is that Harper's death seems almost enough to push Steven over the edge. The two companions have a good chemistry, however, vital in the absence of a separate Doctor, and their story has been involving. It's sad to see Harper go, but interesting to see his death worked into the Doctor's transformation from disinterested wanderer to benevolent interferer.

In a lighter mode, the next story follows from the plot of a certain stage production, with Dr Who uber-scribe Terrence Dicks' Beyond the Ultimate Adventure.