Gallifrey One

Tickets are on sale for Gallifrey One's Nineteenth Symphony: Opus 2008

Current guests listed to appear include Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Steven Moffat, and Paul Cornell.

We're going. Are you?

Cornell Interview

For you fans of Paul Cornell I'd like to point you in the direction of DWO WhoCast.

http://www.thewhocast.com/DWOWhocast/default.asp

Lovely interview with Paul mainly about "Human Nature" and some other bits as well.

More Benny Goodness

For the Benny lover in all of us I'd like to point you to Shooty Dog Thing fanzine #3. 25 pages of all things Benny, including interviews with outgoing producer Simon Guerrier and voice actor Lisa Bowerman.

You'll also find links to the first two issues of the fanzine which are also worth reading.

TARDIS Guy

Quick cross plug. Our Audio Time Team member Tim has decided to embark upon the task of watching the TV series in broadcast order starting with "An Unearthly Child". Start following his adventures tomorrow. I've slipped a link off to the side under the "Stuff We Like to Look At" heading.

Personally I think he's a glutton for punishment. Then again I went back to Bolivar seven times to get the same footage and only had one breakdown so I can't really comment.

All Things Lisa

We decide to give thanks for today's Lisa Bowerman double feature by eating turkey and then going on an excursion for TCBY yogurt. Our turkey cravings had not been satisfied since the annual Nitro-9 all day Thanksgiving marathon last November.

Before we get to the actual ATT installment I must point you to Big Finish's website where they've posted the cover for the next Benny, wait scratch that, Jason Kane play "The End of the World". Actually, the latest post at Simon Guerrier's blog has a bigger photo of it. Either way, awesome cover by Adrian Salmon that just adds to the growing anticipation regarding this audio that should be out the early part of September.

Now with this month's blatant Benny plug out of the way we can move on to this month's ATT installment.

We start with "Whispers of Terror" starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. Not even two minutes in we have to pause the audio so I can tell the time I was drunk at the first bitter singles party and found myself on the floor with people dancing around me to Come on Eileen.

Tim: The music sounds like it could be right out of the John Nathan Turner era. It's (at least initially) kind of Malcolm Clarke-y.

It doesn't take long for the Doctor to start shouting, something Tim notes that he's really good at. And then it doesn't take long for the Doctor to get into the thick of things as far as the plot is concerned. As in getting blamed for the death of some random guy whose body they stumble upon. Tim and I both pick up on the noises in the background towards the end of the first episode at about the same time. It's nice to see someone, in this case Justin Richards, realize that they're writing for the audio medium and take advantage of what can be done aurally.

Tim: The first time I heard aural antiquities I thought dentures. Not sure what that's all about.

A few minutes into the second episode we get to hear Lisa Bowerman as Beth Pernell for the first time. It's an interestingly subdued performance compared to her Benny work. It's still the same voice but she manages to take it down a notch of two tone wise to differentiate it from her Benny voice.

I'm not sure how Peri falls for the creature mimicking the Doctor's voice towards the end of the second episode. Tim thinks she could've figured it out eventually on her own if the Doctor hadn't shown up

Tim: Peri has enormously bad dialogue in this story. More so than normal.

It's not the greatest, but she does get some zingers at Baker's Doc, something I don't think really happened in the TV show.

Tim: It's almost as if Nicola Bryant is pissed about being there and choosing the most awful choice possible. I know she's better than that, but it's like she took a look at the script and asked if she was really gonna to be saying those lines. Then the director tells her yes and she just gets the attitude that pervades the entire story.

Before the weird interplay between her and Colin during the third episode I was gonna say that overall the interaction between the two of them was way better than it ever was in the show. This gets into a conversation regarding her ability as an actress and how most people probably underestimated her acting skills. Which in then turns to conversation regarding her American accent slipping possibly less than her top on the TV show.

We get to the point where Beth is torturing the Krane audio creature and we all agree that that's pretty cool. Kind of like dipping the toons into turpentine in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And we finally have a cool villain. Lisa Bowerman rocks as the baddie for this audio. While she doesn't get many scenes with Colin she is able to hold her own.

Justin poses interesting ideas regarding the notion of democracy and politicians. But the ending initially leaves a little to be desired.

Angelie: Lame?

Yeah, but then we get an epilogue of sorts and I get the ending I was looking for.

Tim: So far out of the three it's the best we've heard. It goes out of its way to use the audio medium to its full extent.

We switch from Evil Lisa to Good Lisa as we slip in "Beyond the Sun".

Angelie: And this is where I come alive. We all have our niches.

Yes, yes we do. And I'm slowly converting the world to the wonder of Benny, one person at a time.

This is the second audio adapted from the book of the same name, this time by the author of the book, Matthew Jones. This is also the first time we hear Stephen Fewell as Jason Kane. And I should freely admit here and now that I'm a big Stephen Fewell and Jason Kane fan. I shan't bore you with my theory of how Captain Jack is just a poor man's Jason Kane. I run through that each month at the Nitro-9 meetings. I will also freely admit that judging by the reaction on the 'net I might be the only person besides Dave Stone and Stephen Fewell that actually likes the character of Jason Kane.

The Valley girl accent that Jane Burke affects for Tameka wears on me very fast.

Tim: Is Benny's theme disco on purpose? I envision some 70s French sci-fi show. I'm also convinced that I've heard about the Chelonians before.

Bowerman and Fewell fall into an easy relationship as Benny and Jason. Even though it's the first audio for these two you get the feeling that they've been doing this for a long time. And a nice job by Bowerman in conveying the ambiguity Benny feels towards Jason.

Tim does a goggle search for the Chelonians and proves that he was right.

Tim: I wouldn't have recognized Anneke Wills on my own. She was so young when she was on Doctor Who.

Angelie: Can we just kill Tameka now? Wait, Jason did it with Bernice, while he's got a girlfriend? Bastard.

Fortunately we hit the end of the first disk so I take the break to explain a bit about Jason.

Nice incorporation of Benny's journal into the audio format. It works in moving the plot along and giving much needed exposition.

When the hell did Tameka develop the ability to hotwire a car? She gets it to work even though she goes on about it being voice activated. Tameka has spent many minutes telling us how she detests hard labor, but she can hotwire a car? WTF?

Sophie Aldred is back on the scene as Miranda and she very quickly descends into the typical villain voicewise. Benny asks Miranda about Jason and we choose this moment for a coffee and popcorn break. The coffee is the Post Alley blend from Seattle's Best. An awesome alternative to Starbucks. Even though they're now owned by Starbucks. I cried when I learned that.

Tim: When I hear Sophie I picture the portrait of her that you see briefly in Silver Nemesis, a bit aristocratic. I think it's great that I get to hear her as someone other than Ace.

Now Tameka can kick ass two seconds after she's whining about her hair just as she's about to be blown out into space? Again, WTF?

And over an hour after we first hear Jason we finally get to hear him again. Nice bit with the reunion between Benny and Jason. It's almost a shame that this book was picked as the way to introduce Jason into the audio range. He features so little in the book that it's almost as waste of Fewell's talent. I could see Gary Russell ringing Fewell up and going "Good news, we're gonna cast you as Jason without making you audition. Bad news, we're doing Beyond the Sun. If it makes you feel any better I'm also gonna also cast you as Jones."

Tim: Does Tameka die? Because you know, if she doesn't, that would be a great first scene for a Benny tv show pilot. This music kind of sounds like the theme from Dune slowed down and played on a synth. If Miranda's soliloquy had been written by Joss Whedon, she'd suddenly find herself impaled in the middle of it. Thus is the beauty of Joss Whedon, he takes your expectations and totally destroys them.

And now it's like they're doing that scene from Flash Gordon as they toss the figurine around. We have to rewind back to the beginning of the figurine toss around to catch the bit where they capture Jason and then threaten his life.

Tim: I love the bit where Benny goes about how Jason knows she is far less likely to leave him behind if he tells her to.

We sadly realize that Tameka is a bit like Buffy with the valley girl attitude and weird latent ability to kick ass.

Tim: Benny's moral code is a lot to fit on a grain of rice. I was imagining something a little more succinct.

Angelie: I still like the Benny adventures better. I still haven't found a Doctor audio that I like yet.

Tim: Benny comes from a different time. Doctor Who wouldn't be what it is now if it didn't come from the sixties.

Next month we should be listening to "The Land of the Dead" and "Walking to Babylon".

Steam and Changes

We're slowly picking up steam as I see we're starting to get some comments. Thanks to those who have taken the time to let us know what they think and to those who have been spreading the word about us.

You might've noticed that we've made some cosmetic changes in the hopes of making this a tad easier on the eyes. Did we succeed?

We've locked down Sunday for our next gathering with Whispers of Terror and Beyond the Sun being on the bill for listening.

Or as I've come to call it: The Lisa Bowerman Double Feature.

Phantasmagoria and Oh No It Isn't!

We got together today for another ATT installment. Lunch was rustled up at a local Honey Baked Ham store, home of the world's best ham. (Their tag line, not ours.)

After gorging on all things hamlicious we settled down for Phantasmagoria, with Peter Davison and Mark Strickson. It still takes way too long to develop the plot and get to any thing resembling action.

Tim: They were trying to do in the style of a Classic Who story with four episodes. Not sure it works for the audio medium though.

Personally I think that once again this could've been condensed down to one disk with maybe two stories if you wanted to keep the cliffhanger aspect going. Either way, by the time we get to the end of the first disk, Tim and Angelie are playing with their new cell phones, photographing my cat in various poses and backgrounds.

The usage of Turlough seems wasted. Nothing actually happens that was engineered solely by him. But I guess you couldn't have him stuck in the TARDIS ala Sirens.

Tim: At least at in the audio medium, Strickson has some dialogue, and no time to do his famous "look around acting." I am kind of surprised that Turlough finally seems happy to be in the TARDIS. Maybe Strickson's just excited about having an acting gig again, and it's translating to his character.

No real vocal standouts this time around. The villian is voiced in such a way that you can almost see him twirl his moustache while tying some poor helpless blonde woman to some train tracks.

We make it to the end with our will to live intact this time out.

Tim: I did like how the villian had his plan used against him.

Not as bad as Sirens, but there's still a long way to go.

A change of venue along with some errands occur. We dine on burgers, which Tim has managed to dry out, due to being distracted by a YouTube video with 1,500+ Filipino prisoners dancing to Michael Jackson's Thiriller. Tim points out that the Philippines and Iceland become major world powers in the Who continuity sometime around the fiftieth century. And, "Oh no, I've killed dinner." We decide to start the other part of our ATT mission and pop in the first audio Big Finish did, Oh No It Isn't! Tim and I give Angelie a quick tutorial on Benny and how we get to Big Finish doing this audio.

More laughs and more willingness to pay attention ensue. Lisa Bowerman slips into Benny rather easily and makes a rather complicated story work. Doran pops onto the scene and I quick explain how that's not Jason and by this time in the Benny continuity she's divorced. Nick Courtney appears in the role he was born to play, a giant cat spouting dick and dwarf jokes.

Tim: This is a bit like Sartre, referencing ("Hell is little people.") the first bit where Benny is trying to figure out what kind of an afterlife she's in.

Angelie: I'm enjoying this a lot. They're getting to the plot a lot faster and it keeps you involved in the story along with the humor. Also I grew up with fairy tales so I like how they're making fun of them.

It kind of slows up a bit on the second disk as we hit some exposition but even at its slowest it still moves faster than Sirens of Time or Phantasmagoria. And nothing like a bit of angst as Wolsley worries about what happens to him when they return to normal. Also the 2 minute end theme where I imagine a visual montage ala' a Bond opening sequence with smoking guns coming out of inappropriate places.

Next month will Whispers of Terror and maybe Beyond the Sun.