My tone might well be influenced by days of darkness, marking Higher prelim papers. It really has been drudgery. I manage to fit in some leisure reading of my own- I'm working my way through Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series. I finally read the 70s DC version of this Sword and Sorcery buddy movie in Sandhead a couple of summers ago. I read the first book in the series about forty years ago and have next to no memory of it. I'd read another one previously, when I was a pupil at Strathaven Academy but I'm not sure if it was Swords of Lankhmar.
Our school is shadowing the Blue Excelsior Award and I've read two of the nominees, : manga-flavoured Heavy Vinyl, a sweet gay romance set in a record shop and The King of Birds, a gorgeous Slav fable. I also borrowed Young Avengers vol. 2 from the library: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space. I like this series very much, especially its racially- and -sexually diverse cast, including Loki, America Chavez, Hulkling, Noh-Varr and Kate Bishop. The storytelling is clean and clear and the authorial voice is passionate.
Kate's mentor Clint Barton stars in Occupy Avengers, another buddy book. This one features Marvel d-lister Red Wolf, reformed Blaxploitation villain Deadly Nightshade and a version of Nighthawk reminiscent of Image's Shadowhawk. I really like the blue-collar feel of this series. It was probably killed because its openly anti-fascist SJW leanings would infuriate the kind of people who have voted for Trump and Farage's shower of bigoted nitwits. It also reprints the two-part Avengers debut of Red Wolf by Roy Thomas and the peerless John Buscema.
I'm also reading our school book group selection, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It reminds me a little of the gimmick of Arnold Drake's Deadman and a mysterious plague doctor-figure appears in the narrative. This is also true of this week's Big Finish listen, The Fourth Doctor Adventures Season 8: The Syndicate Master Plan.
It's amazing that we've already had seven seasons of audio adventures for Tom Baker, who remains the definitive Doctor. They were launched with the stated intention of faithfully recreating the tone of 1977's Season 14 but this year's box set takes the form of a more radical continuity implant.
Actor and novelist Jane Slavin joins the Tardis as new companion WPC Ann Kelso. She's a great foil to Tom Baker and her rather down-to-earth pragmatic Northern police officer reminds of TV's Juliet Bravo.
In her debut, by real copper (and teen fan scripter prodigy) Andrew Smith, Ann becomes involved in an alien plot wiv Laahndaan villains, The Sinestran Kill. It's a little like Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure With The Sweeney! Frank Skinner is no John Thaw but I could stand to hear more of his DI Nielsen. Sinestrans is such a Terry Nation name. It's not yet clear why a new race of bodysnatching aliens have been introduced when Zygons have the same M.O.
Ann joins the Doctor to track down the Sinsestrans and they have adventures on the Planet of the Drashigs and in Nottinghamshire with the daughter of Lord Byron, The Enchantress of Numbers.
The former is a straighforward Safari-Park-Under-Siege story, featuring Gotham City's favourite son of Swingin' London, Jeremy Clyde. The latter is a more Moffat-esque story of Byron's ghost, Block Transfer Computations and time-displaced plague doctors. It's more of a departure from the Seventies style of the other discs.
In The False Guardian, the Doctor and Ann follow the Sinestran trail to an institution on the planet Kembel. They meet a patient who believes he's Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System. This box set ends on a cliffhanger as Jon Culshaw gives us his version of the Master of Zephon and it becomes clear that the series title is more than just a shout out to 1965's Dalek Master Plan.
I've been disappointed by many entries in this BF strand since its debut in 2012. It's often coasted on Tom's charm and dynamism. There have, however, been a number of standouts: The Wrath of the Icenii, Last of the Colophon, Wave of Destruction, the Trouble with Drax, and The Skin of the Sleek. This first boxset represents another high point and is far more entertaining than either of last year's pair.
I always hoped Anna Hope's DCI Menzies might become a Companion for Big Finish- ideally for the Fifth Doctor ( although that would cause continuity problems). Ann Kelso is an very suitable alternative and she might become my favourite new audio companion of the decade, supplanting Mrs. Constance Clarke
Coming attractions this month: Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Scratchman and Starslayer
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