Sheltering in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens on Monday, I decided it was just too cold for a vacation by the sea; it even snowed in Perthshire and the Cairngorms on the way back to Moray.
This morning I finally read the very last Savage Sword of Conan b/w reprint volume from Dark Horse. There's some grittily austere John Buscema art and a number of stories that revive various supporting characters from the 70s colour comic. But I think I might post about these stories when I finish the aforementioned Betrayal in Zamora: my friend John has suggested we walk part of the Mull of Galloway trail in the summer. The sword and sorcery could wait until then.
In Giffnock, I did get to see my nephew, who's growing up fast and then on Monday, Morna Young's Aye Elvis at Oran Mor. In fact, later that day, an elderly man told me he and his son had seen David McGowan and I in the Slab Boys trilogy in Paisley in the 90s. That was totally unexpected but very welcome.
Of course, the sound track for my train journeys were Big Finish cds. The first was the third collection of comic strip adaptations of the Avengers- this time, four exploits of John Steed and Miss Tara King.
Julian Wadham returns as Steed ( capturing the essence of Patrick McNee, if not an outright imitation) and from Too Many Targets, Emily Woodward, the daughter of the Equalizer, David Callan (and sister to Galen from Babylon 5: Crusade) plays Tara.
From cowboys committing robberies in the New Forest, a weather -controlling mad scientist ( shades of the 90s movie with Shir Sean) to a criminal conspiracy involving stage magic and trick or treaters and a kingmaking African general, undone by a clever trick involving diplomatic immunity,
this box set was as slight and airy as a bottle of cheap fizz. The African due of Miles and Ruby were refreshing allies but, bafflingly, the concluding story ...Now You Don't is a sequel to a story that hasn't been recorded and is the most lacklustre.
Big Finish successfully evokes much of the flavour of the tv series- the African adventure Spycraft in particular felt very authentic to the less fanciful Tara era-but often the writing breaks the spell of verisimilitude. John Dorney has Tara saying "Back in the day" and "good to go"- expressions which seem completely out of place. Of course, Dorney also had the Fourth Doctor sonorously confess "This isn't my first rodeo". I'm surprised that his stock is still so high. However, I'll doubtlessly come back for more of Steed and Mrs.Peel next year. (3/5 Talmars)
Big Finish has, of course provided a platform for the audio adventures of many heroines, from its initial releases adapting novels starring Bernice Summerfield to recent box sets for Lady Christina de Souza and Jenny, the Doctor's Daughter. International Women's Day release The Eight of March is a box set of four more adventures in the Doctor Who-niverse.
Emancipation (4/5) teams up River Song and Leela as they try to rescue a princess from being sacrificed by her adoptive mother. This pairing of the flirty and the flinty would be worth a second outing. Bernice herself and Ace have a bibliophilic adventure in 90s Liverpool in the more obscure Big Blue Book (3/5), Things are a little off-message in Narcissus where an alien who feeds on self-esteem preys on UNIT's Kate Stewart, Osgood and reporter Jacqui McGee. (2/5)
The fourth story Inside Every Warrior is a taster for a boxset starring those Victorian allies of Moffat's Doctor, the Paternoster Gang. It tasted my patience a bit since I'd thought Jago and Litefoot had surely exhausted the audience's appetite for Steampunk. I shouldn't be surprised, however, that Vastra and her household have their own series when even Rose Tyler is getting one.
As a box set, it's frustratingly inessential, other than as fan service. Nonetheless, there are plenty of other Who-niverse women who could feature in next year's release- the aforementioned Jenny and Christina; Charley Pollard; Flip Jackson and Constance Clarke; even the recast Susan and Barbara.
While it was rather safe and insipid at times, Chris Chibnall's season 11 of Doctor Who was groundbreaking for featuring more women and people of colour as writers. Although those stories were sometimes too linear and inconsequential, I'm more bothered by the current lack of visibility for the Thirteenth Doctor herself. In her absence from tv, where are the books and the audio adventures? I appreciate that Big Finish don't have the license but surely BBC Audio could offer us something?
The most recent offering, The Elysian Blade while performed with great charm by Frazer Hines, was still a loveletter to mid-Sixties Who. Lachrymose Victoria is victimised by the artificial intelligence of a hospital spaceship in a plot very similar to TV's Curse of the Black Spot. I hate to dismiss David Bishop, since he was very pleasant when I met him at the East Kilbride comic con a couple of years ago. But this was utterly forgettable and actually put me to sleep on the bus back from Inverness two weeks ago.
In the next post, I thinking of writing about the Inhumans series, which ended its run on Pick this week. On the other hand, I might discuss the Black Lightning box set, which I finished last weekend. On the subject of heroines, however, last night I enjoyed watching the pilot of the Supergirl series a second time. The perkiness of the performance and the pick'n'mix of DCU characters create a sugar-rush effect that's quite different to the violence and dourness of the Marvel Netflix series.
I realise that I've been slacking off on posts about graphic novels and trade paperbacks. I'm also thinking of the Super Sons, Mera:Tidebreaker and maybe Final Crisis. But Shazam! is probably going take precedence!
Tamam Shud!
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