Luke Cage - 'Step in the Arena' and 'Just to Get a Rep'

"I'm concerned about the beard."

We open in the wreck of Genghis Connie's, with firefighters trying to clear the rubble from above and Luke doing the same from below. As he explains to Connie, he's kinda strong. Still, these things take time, so let's have a flashback while we're about it.

As a new intake enters Seagate Penitentiary - later to be the home of Justin Hammer and Trevor Slattery - and HOLY SHIT! BEARD!

Yeah, just to get this out of the way, Mike Colter turns in a storming performance as framed ex-cop Carl Lucas, but the real star is his amazing prison beard. It comes in huge and gets huger, its wildness signifying his isolation, self-imposed or otherwise, finally being scraped away... But we'll get to that.

At first refusing to get involved with anyone, to associate with fellow prisoners or open up to psychologist Dr Reva Connors, he is slowly drawn out. He makes a friend in fellow inmate Squabbles, and lets his guard down with Connors after he pushes a little too hard in trying to make her back off. He's in full on surly mode, but we still see his mind at work, sharp and insightful, and somewhere behind that beard a good heart that regrets hurting good people, even in self-defence. We also hear rumours of experiments at the prison, although Connors denies them, which of course convinces us that she is some sort of dupe.

Unfortunately, connections allow head guard Rackham to exploit him, threatening Squabbles and Reva to force Lucas into a prisoner fight club run by and for the guards. Lucas determines to bring down the corruption, but Rackham's prisoner goons - including Shades - get word out of Squabbles with a fatal beating and deliver same to Lucas. As he is dying, however, Reva appeals to shady physician Noah Burstein to save him by putting him into a mysterious immersion tank. When Rackham tries to stop the procedure by sabotaging the tank it explodes, and Lucas emerges with his now-familiar powers. He escapes from Seagate and finds Reva, who admits to being more than just a psychologist.

"You look like a damned fool."

Triumphs of this episode include the beard, but also Colter's performances as Lucas, an introverted ball of rage almost unrecognisable as the same man as the more mature and confident Luke (although we saw snatches of him back in Jessica Jones.) The reveal that Reva Connors was no dupe, but in on the experiments was also a smooth move, and explained just where that so-important flash drive came from. I still strongly suspect that the Seagate experiments are related to the source of Kilgrave and Jessica's powers. Oh, and in his escape, a combination of snatched clothes and the restraints from the tank gave us a brief moment of Luke's classic Power Man garb for pure fan service.

In addition, 'Step in the Arena' provides a critical piece of punctuation in the series. One of the issues - bug or feature, YMMV - of the new-style of all-at-once bingeable TV streaming is that arc plots dominate and individual episodes become less distinctive. By shaking the formula, the flashback episode is a clear bookmark between the first three episodes and Luke's increasingly visible heroics to come, as well as an excellent story in its own right.

It's that woman again!

What follows this full stop is escalation. In its quieter moments, 'Just to Get a Rep' reintroduces us to Claire Temple, newly returned home to Harlem after being fired for not going along with the great hospital ninja coverup and pondering a future in super medicine, but the action of the piece involves Cottonmouth's declaration of open war against Luke Cage, who made a bit of a splash when he crashed out of the rubble with Connie.

We begin with Stokes sending his soldiers to shake down Harlem and refill the coffers that Luke emptied. And if the people ask why? "Tell them it's the Luke Cage stupidity tax." One of his underbosses does suggest, based on his reading about the politics of early hip hop, that it might be better to let Luke have his side of the street, and gets shot for his troubles. Shades notes that Stokes is losing control, his reaction to Cage not one of strength, but of fear.

Another triumph of the series is that we can see the common soldiery of
Cottonmouth's mob starting to fear Luke, instead of all running in convinced
that it's going to go differently this time.

As the shakedown begins, people start coming to Luke. It's the day of Pop's funeral and he's dressed to impress, thanks to Bobby Fish splashing a little cash to call in the services of hustle-chic legend Dapper Dan, but he sets out to 'do right by Pop' and make sure that Cottonmouth spells his name right. Unfortunately there's a lot to do, and for some people he's just too slow, leading one of the robbed citizens, Alicia, literally gunning for her own justice.

Luke busts several shakedown crews, then heads to beard the lion in his own den. He makes it very clear to Cottonmouth that he can't be broken, although he also reveals his identity to Shades. Shades offers two solutions to Stokes: Liquidate his assets and move on, or purchase a special bullet from Diamondback, made from Chitaurii metal and designed to take down powers. Stokes won't give up his club - "It's my rep, my blood, my legacy." - and he won't ask Diamondback to deal with Cage because that would mean giving up Harlem, so instead he promises to recover the Puerto Rican's guns and make good. To do this he calls on Detective Dirty, although swiping military hardware from lock-up is clearly more than he signed up for.

"Stop me if you've heard this one..."

We wrap up at Pop's funeral, where we learn that Pop had a son, who barely spoke to him, and Stokes gives a speech about how Pop was his mentor and he believes in protecting Harlem from outside invaders and 'interlopers with arcane powers'. Points for the use of the word 'arcane', but then Luke gets up and blows him out of the water with his own eulogy, in which he explains what Pop inspired him to become. "I don't believe in Harlem," he says. "I believe in the people who make Harlem what it is." His message is one of community, and a cry to stand up to bullies, especially ones who call themselves friends. It's a timely reminder that Luke is not a one trick pony or a blunt instrument, but the entire package; body, mind and heart of a hero.

Still, Misty warns him that he's playing a dangerous game. "Your ass may be bulletproof, but Harlem ain't."

Luke Cage continues to play on its themes of family and legacy. Pop turns out to have been a lousy father, before he became a great father figure whose family transcended blood. Stokes meanwhile is still obsessed with blood, and with his own legacy, while Luke believes in respecting the legacies of those who came before. Reva, Pop, Crispus Attucks and others. Cottonmouth wants to rise above, Luke to stand together. Stokes talks about Harlem as an entity that belongs to him, while Luke sees it as a setting for the community that he is part of. If it is true that the king and the land are one, then Luke is more of a king than Cottonmouth, not least because, regardless of Stokes' assertion that everyone does, Luke doesn't want to be the king. 

Start to Finish: 7.12 - Council of War

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

Action! Adventure! Romance! The oft-overlooked quiet man of UNIT is back, as John Levine performs Council of War in the character of sturdy, dependable bringer of tea, Sergeant John Benton. Sinead Keenan provides backup as Kettering Councillor, Margery Phipps.

A series of ghost sightings and a mystery disappearance attract the attention of the Doctor, and with Mike Yates laid up it's down to Sergeant Benton to go undercover at Kettering Town Council's Christmas Dinner and Dance. Here he meets militant enviromentalist councilwoman Margery Phipps, who turns out to be the target of the abduction attempts, as the inhabitants of the planet Kettering want to put her on trial for laying out the principals of pacifist, environmentally sensitive government which created their civilisation and then left it vulnerable to the depredations of ravening star groaties. It's up to Benton to form a ragtag band of pacifists into a convincing fake militia, and Margery to inspire them to put off the coat of non-violence and stand up for what is right.

With only a brief appearance by the Doctor in the final act, this is another two-hander with no particular audience, although I find I mind less. Perhaps that's because so much about it is new: New old companion, and a wonderful mix of James Bond espionage and civic bureaucracy. There are some awkward spots as Benton clumsily negotiates the unfamiliar waters of 1970s feminism, but all in all the leads complement well, and the story is a delight. It's almost a shame that the Doctor has to show up and hog the glory in the end, but I guess it is his series.

Another short break now, before I come back and take a swing at the eighty and final season of the original run of The Companion Chronicles, beginning with Captain Ruth Matheson and WO Charlie Sato of UNIT, as they face off against the totally and one-hundred-percent surprise antagonist of Mastermind.

Start to Finish: 7.11 - The Apocalypse Mirror

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

The second half of season 7 of The Companion Chronicles has an odd cyclical quality. Seven and Ten are broadly historical First Doctor stories, each followed by a full-on scifi two-hander for Jamie and another Second Doctor companion, and a virtually solo mission for one of the Third Doctor's mob. This is the middle part of that cycle, with Jamie and Zoe recounting the tale of The Apocalypse Mirror.

The TARDIS makes an emergency landing in the last city on Earth, after an accident with a football (that damages the TARDIS, rather than destroying the other cities.) The population is dwindling and lives in fear as the city stagnates around them and their neighbours are periodically swept away by robot birds with built-in teleporters. Zoe discovers that there is a meteorite on a collision course with Earth, and then vanishes herself, and the race is on to find her, and solve the riddle of the visions of another, better city which periodically appear, before the city is destroyed for good.

The Apocalypse Mirror, like many two-handers (including The Flames of Cadiz and House of Cards,) lacks a true framing narrative. The two Companions are just telling a story, and it's not clear to whom, if anyone. The story itself has an intriguing conceit, but for my money the best Companion Chronicles manage to be more than just short-handed audio plays and make active use of their format.

It's arguable whether the last entry in season 7 does that, but on the plus side it's an entirely new voice for the Chronicles and for Big Finish, as John Levine returns to the role of Sergeant Benton, for Council of War.

Start to Finish: 7.10 - The Library of Alexandria

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

William Russell bolsters the old retirement fund again this time out, with stealth pseudo-historical holiday story, The Library of Alexandria. Susan Franklyn adds everyone's favourite science martyr of the ancient world to the mix.

The TARDIS crew opt to take a break at the famed Library of Alexandria, with Ian joining the Library Guard to pay for the others' keep. Barbara gets pissy when Ian starts hanging out with rock star Alexandrine academic Hypatia and the crew get ready to leave before the historically vague destruction of the Library, but things go a little awry when a stock of smuggled books is found to include a modern-style bound volume in an alien language, and its owners decide to avoid messing with history by stepping on the city of Alexandria.

The revelation that this is a pseudohistorical comes a bit out of left field, with the set-up being a standard historical holiday story and leaning heavily on a Big Finish favourite, the relationship between 'good friends' Ian and Barbara. Slightly clunky writing - unexpected from an old pro like Simon Guerrier - and perhaps a slightly off-base delivery makes Ian come off as a bit clueless and Barbara as a little too catty. I suspect that she is genuinely supposed to be upset because Hypatia presages the fall of the Library, rather than because the head of the Neoplatonist School is getting her claws into Barbara's man. Honestly the Mim are a relief from this brief digression into soap opera, although a twist more apt to the modern series than the First Doctor.

Up next, yet another double act, as Jamie and Zoe relate the events of The Apocalypse Mirror.

Start to Finish: 7.09 - The Scorchies

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

What price quality television? It's a question that Jo Grant must ponder when she finds herself on air. Live from Television Centre, it's The Scorchies Show!

There's a new show storming the ratings, an addictive blend of puppets, music, slapstick and alien mind control that's taking over the world, and that's just to begin with. The Scorchies are a race reduced to mental patterns and trapped in the bodies of puppets, but that hasn't stopped them leaving a swathe of destruction across civilised, television-watching space. Now the Doctor is missing and only Jo stands between these malevolent Muppets and the destruction they crave. She'll have to dig deep if she's to stop them, as well as singing a song, telling a story and making a thing.

One of the things that The Scorchies reminds us is how difficult it is to get a parody of the Muppets spot on. It's not a bad effort, but probably better in itself than as specific parody, and the Magic Mice in particular feel far more like anarchist rebels against the Mouse Organ of the state than anything Henson. Of course, it is also reminiscent of Angel's classic 'Smile Time' episode, which aired almost a decade before this audio play was I AM SO OLD.

Ahem.

Yes, there's definitely something of 'Smile Time', just with aliens instead of demons, but by focusing on the show itself instead of behind the scenes the presentation is entirely different. It's a fun and slightly sinister entry in the series, and old hand Melvin Hayes turns in a range of creepy puppet voices, with a few more from Katy Manning.

Back into history next week, as The Companion Chronicles salutes the show's very first ship as it calls at The Library of Alexandria.

Start to Finish: 7.08 - House of Cards

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

The eighth installment of 'season 7' of The Companion Chronicles takes us to a space casino in the distant future, with ophidian gangsters and deadly games in House of Cards. It's another two-hander, with Anneke Wills' Polly and Frazer Hines' Jamie splitting narration duty and no additional voices.

Visiting a high-tech casino in space, the TARDIS crew become separated among the bright lights. Surrounded by slot machines and snake-headed, 20s-style gangsters with laser Tommy guns, Ben is lured into gambling beyond his means and Jamie is distracted by a pretty face. Polly, meanwhile, stumbles into a time-travel swindle, and finds herself with no more than half an hour in which to keep Ben from being forced to play the deadly Game of Life, prevent the Doctor being arrested for one bit of time travel he didn't do, and elude the clutches of the sinister casino boss Fortune.

House of Cards is a decent time twister let down by its run time, which forces slightly too rapid a resolution and leaves Fortune altogether too mysterious for her own good. She is apparently some sort of psychic vampire, but we never see anything to indicate that this is harmful to her patrons, except via the very direct means of the Sidewinder Syndicate and the Game of Life. For an example of a similar concept done exceptionally well, I would point to Big Finish's own The Veiled Leopard, a fun crime caper set in the 1960s Monte Carlo, with two sets of Companions instead of active mid-story time travel.

Start to Finish: 7.07 - The Flames of Cadiz

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

Back to the First Doctor, and back to the purely historical. We're in 16th Century Spain, a bad time to be as unrepentantly British as a TARDIS crew, for The Flames of Cadiz. Once more, William Russell and Carole Ann Ford share the narrating duties, and British-Moroccan actor Nabil Elouahabi voices Esteban, a Christian Moor.

The TARDIS lands in Spain, and even as Ian is musing on his own rather parochial understanding of the world, the crew learn that they are in Cadiz in 1587. The country is in ferment, the fires of the Inquisition are everywhere, and a grand military undertaking is prepared against the arch-heretic Elizabeth in England. Still, it will all be fine if they keep their heads down and don't go getting all righteous at anyone.

The core of The Flames of Cadiz comes down to a clash between the Doctor and his human companions, as the First Doctor's incomplete knowledge leads to a misguided attempt to 'correct' the history that Ian and Barbara are trying to see kept on course. There is also a slightly weird subplot featuring Miguel de Cervantes and the inspiration for Don Quixote, which despite its oddity is entirely appropriate to the First Doctor's era, and probably to most of the others. It suffers a little from an apparent lack of stakes, even in its most dramatic scenes, as the TARDIS crew are obviously never in danger, and in particular when Esteban stabs a monk (in an act of public defence,) they basically just help him to hide the body and move on.

From a flawed historical we go back to outer space with our next story, as the Second Doctor and his companions visit the House of Cards.