The Ark
The Kingdom of the Blind
A Benny Audio Adventure
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The Ark |
Big Finish The Kingdom of the Blind A Benny Audio Adventure |
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| Author | Jacqueline Rayner |  |
| Released | 2005 | |
| Cover | Adrian Salmon |
| Synopsis: Jason Kane thought things had been going so well with ex-wife Bernice Summerfield, until she went sleepwalking, stole Brax's shuttle (causing Jason grievous bodily harm in the process), and then abandoned her on-off lover to the mercy of a horde of mute and unfriendly aliens. Although Benny - waking to find herself marooned on a strange planet dressed only in her nightie, with strange voices in her head and a bunch of one-eyed monsters threatening to cut out her tongue - would probably argue that her day was even worse, thank you very much. |
The Monoid Menace! by Joe Ford 1/9/05
This would have made a far superior opening story for season six. Starting with a dramatic scream which grabs your attention and finishing with an unpredictable climax, this is the sort of story that has seen the Bernice series last so long. Jac Rayner is fast becoming the voice of the Bernice Summerfield range, the one voice, which recognises perfectly the exquisite mix of comedy and drama the series can exhibit. And for what could have been a hideous mess the end result of The Kingdom of the Blind is extremely enjoyable, a good example of good writing and good direction taking an idea that is a little shoddy and making something entertaining out of it.
I am not averse to old monsters turning up in the Benny universe because I feel there a good number of creatures that cropped up in Doctor Who stories that were not exploited to the full. But I feel the series has now developed to a point now why it doesn't have to rely on Doctor Who links to ensure the merchandise is sold. Plus there have been some truly bizarre choices (The Giant Robot?) when there are some blatantly obvious ones that would rock on audio, I'm talking the Zygons, the Sontarans and the Mara but instead Big Finish choose the Monoids. Yes that's right, I said the Monoids! Those mop-topped, one-eyed flat footers who menaced the human race in that Hartnell SF spectacular The Ark (please note the sarcasm). There were hardly the most credible or convincing monsters back in the sixties (but then let's face it, who were?) and their appearance on the (admittedly fabulous) cover of this story left me gagging with the sheer incomprehensibility of their inclusion.
What Jac Rayner has done is construct an audio around Benny's unconscious rescue of a lost colony and put the Monoids (mostly) in the background. This is a wise move as I could imagine a story full of their macho nonsense would be unbearable. This doesn't mean she doesn't explore their unusual one eyed status though and there is a great, horrific idea at the core of the story, involving the cutting out of tongues or the removal of eyes, because the Monoids (deep down) feel inferior to humanoids and thus remove their senses to ensure their superiority. This connects to a secondary plot of Benny dealing with the last remains of the Hanelin colony, the famous archaeologist brought in to authenticate claims by many colonies to be the descendants of the paradise planet of the colonists. The story unfolds at a sedate pace to begin with, the listener completely unaware of the links (or that there is a secondary plot) until at least a third into the tale, Benny not even revealing her investigations into the colony until then. The story continues to throw surprises at you with Benny predictably helping to overthrow the Monoids and suddenly confronted with the awful realisation that the enslaved humanoids are just as vicious as their one-eyed captors. The revelation that these are the missing colonists and that they fled their planet because they themselves spoilt it is a great turn of events and their turnabout in character from victims to tyrants is brilliantly unexpected.
One thing that does frustrate me about the Benny range is its denial of its fabulous cast of regular (I use the term loosely) characters that it rarely (these days) uses in favour of Benny-gets-into-trouble-on-an-alien-world plots. Rayner seems fond of including Jason in her stories which is a relief otherwise we might forget he exists! Not since Death and the Daleks have we seen all the cast together and it worked a treat then so why not repeat the experience?
This is a much better use of Benny and Jason than Rayner's fifth season opener The Grel Escape because much of the (horrid sitcom-ish) tension between them has vanished and they are clearly shown to be living a normal, domestic life together at the beginning. The story wisely splits them up so we have two consecutive plots running together and Jason gets to enjoy his own (hilarious) narrative (especially when he keeps hoping the mute humanoids that kidnap him are doing so in order to worship him as their God!). Benny expresses her indecisive feelings towards Jason in a well-written scene with 26, discussing her marriage and their relationship since. It is these moments that raise the Bernice series above the Doctor Who one, scenes that a serialised range with regular characters can enjoy. There is a wonderfully relaxed chemistry between Lisa Bowerman and Stephen Fewell that comes with having done so many of these audios together and I would much like to see more of them together, there is a wonderfully feeling of coming home to this series when they work together so effectively.
How Gary Russell can make so many horrific decision in The Heart's Desire and then produce something this fun directly afterwards is beyond me! Here you get the sense that the director knows exactly what he is doing, hammering some strong performances from his cast and making sure this unusual, nonlinear tale makes perfect sense. I don't know who's idea it was to include such an weird, alien musical score but it works a treat, especially the score for the Monoids which adds much tension to these (naturally) less than frightening creatures. Certainly there are enough laughs (Benny's brilliant pretence of deafness, winding up the Monoids with her sing-song about peeling spuds), frights (Jason being shown why 44 has speech, because his eyes have been removed) and surprises (Benny suddenly waking up from her hypno-state to realise she is standing on an alien planet in her nightie) to keep anyone happy.
Performances are very good and the decision to steal Caroline Morris from the Doctor Who range to play the part of 26 was a great move. She is on a roll with her performances this year and although her voice is distinctly Erimem, she imbues 26 with lots of character, certainly enough to easily distinguish her from the Egyptian Pharaoh. The telepathic scenes between her and Benny are a delight and they form a quick friendship very convincingly, good enough to provide a great shock when 26 suddenly gets a case of megalomania once she is free.
The only real disappointment is (considering Rayner's thoughtful script) the unsatisfying open ending that deserved a bit more clarification. After the colonists leave the planet and head home we are not told what the fate of the Monoids are, the story abruptly closes with a "Oh well, maybe they killed them all and maybe they didn't" which is very sloppy. Just one line could have rectified this inconsistency.
But that's a small problem considering how enjoyable the rest of this production is. Somehow the Bernice range keeps churning out these standalone stories and making them work. Let's have some more Braxiatel Collection-based stories in the future as I can imagine there will come a time when the audience forgets all the wonderful characters which are there.
Whilst I couldn't heartily recommend this as a Bernice Summerfield and the Monoid Menace (and I can imagine many in Doctor Who fandom who would not be able to get past the initial horror and embarrassment of their inclusion) I would recommend this as a decent audio and another thumbs up for the Benny range.