The Plague Herds of Excelis
A Benny Audio Adventure
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Big Finish The Plague Herds of Excelis A Benny Audio Adventure |
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| Author | Stephen Cole |  |
| Released | 2002 | |
| Cover | Adrian Salmon |
| Synopsis: Pitted against a sinister prophet, the machinations of the Imperial court, and hordes of animal undead, Benny finds herself embroiled in the final stages of an aeons-old plan to commit genocide twice over with no way out. |
A life of surprises! (no, not the book!) by Joe Ford 15/10/02
Bernice and I have been having a rather turbulent relationship of late. When I first starting seeing her I was obsessed to know everything about her, everywhere she had been and everything she had done. She wasn't like the other girls I had spent time with, they were all such bimbos, they screamed and flapped their arms and tripped over twigs. But not Benny... oh no. We laughed together, got drunk and generally explored the universe in wildly unexpected ways. But... like all these things the novelty started to wear off, her adventures became a little bland and eventually I betrayed her altogether and returned to the bimbos of old. Oh what a fool I am.
Does the fool have a point I hear you ask. Yes, what I'm trying to say is this. The Bernice audios had an excellent first season, verging from the brilliantly hysterical (Oh No It Isn't!) to the painfully dramatic (Just War). The dialogue was top notch (and it should be with Jac Rayner, Benny specialist at the helm), the productions were just as good as those on the Doctor Who range (often better) and they were all based on quite excellent books themselves. I was hooked.
Then came the second season. Oh dear. What happened? Where was the excitement? The thrills? The joy of wandering around space with such a hopeless drunk? Instead we are introduced to the terribly voiced Adrian Wall, forced to endure horrifically uninteresting plots (at half the length... you'd think that would be a BAD thing, wouldn't you?) and worst of all Benny was sorely lacking any of the wit, charm and spirit that makes her such a delight. I could have cried. Instead I stopped buying the things. Like I said, what a fool.
The Plague Herds of Excelis is my favourite Bernice audio so far, it is excellent and I would reccommned it to anybody who, like me, was disapointed with her range of late. There are so many things to love about this audio so let me tell you about them.
The combination of Bernice Summerfield and Iris Wildthyme is enough to get me salivating. I knew it would be good but I never realised it would be THIS good. Their chemistry sparkles, they bounce of each other superbly. What was so impressive was how Iris could veer from OTT comedy to a shocking intensity with such ease. Katy Manning can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned, she embues Iris with such pluck and cheek it is impossible not to love her. Lisa Bowerman is typically excellent, particularly when it comes to her child. Her quiet monologue at the begining is very sweet. But her embarassed reactions to everything is just as good ("Zombie horses... now I've seen everything!"). They make such an endearing team it made me YEARN for them to get a series together... it would just rock!
Even better though is how this rounds of the Excelis story with superb style after the, frankly, disapointing Excelis Decays. It takes on board all of the best ingridients of the first two installments, the excitement and humour of Excelis Dawns and the spookiness and character work of Excelis Rising and rolls them up into seventy minutes of pure joy. The absence of Grayvorn was hardly noticable when this story ratches up several gears towards the climax and provides the best ending of any of the Excelis range.
And the writing? Wow, Stephen Cole where have you been hiding? Are you really the same guy who wrote the dull and boring Land of the Dead and the pompous and overblown Apocalypse Element? If so, double triple wow! The script is way-cool and bursting to the seams with marvellous, witty dialogue and a real sense of excitement. I was going to listen to this in two lumps but quite honestly I couldn't turn it off. I couldn't wait to see what bizarre and strange things were going to happen next! Mr Cole earns a million extra points for capturing Benny and Iris so well and providing the pair of them with some of their best scenes in either media. Please write another.
David Darlington is an underatted talent, his soundscapes and music are often quite beautiful and he certainly comes up trumps with Plague Herds of Excelis. You get a real sense of scope to the proceedings with the cheering crowds and snarling animals... there was one point where Iris stops her bus and it squeaks to a halt just as a bus should... I actually thought a bus had stopped outside my apartment block!!! Honestly, the work really is that good. The musical stings tie this in with the Excelis range and I for one will certainly be buying the Excelis music CD when it comes out because all of the scores David has provided for the range have been very good indeed.
Blimey haven't I gone on... it's only seventy minutes long as well!
It's a return to form for Benny, a highly entertaining adventure in it's own right and a superb climax to the Excelis series. Go and have a listen, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I think I'll be seeing a lot more of Bernice now, if she'll have me back. I was such an idiot to think she could ever be boring. Sorry sweetheart.
This is the Plague Herding of the age of Excelis by Jamas Enright 29/10/02
Dear Diary, you meet the strangest people in my profession. Which is unusual considering that my job consists of sitting on planets where people died long ago and trying to reconstruct their lives. Still if I've learnt anything in this universe it's that one never turns down a free drink, no matter who's offering.
"Come on, Benny Summerfield, get this down ya, chuck. Hey hey, you'll have a good time with Auntie Iris Wildthyme. Never mind that Artarus has been ruined by nuclear war, we'll just nip in and steal the Relic. It's about time I got that back, I've got a lovely dress to go with it."
The Relic. A handbag. Now, I have seen some rather bizarre objects in my time... even in times other than my time... but I don't see how a handbag could wield such power. But before I leave, I'll get the answers. And usually that'll involve a lot of death and ruin. Speaking of the answers, they do take some getting used to. That the Relic was placed here to... but it's just too overwhelming to discuss right now, I'm too sober by half.
"Cheer up, dearee. Oh, I dare say people will be captured and death will rain down from above... and here it comes now, out of the way there, that animal's full of disease!... but it's still a cracking good time. Right up there with your other adventures, I'd say. Although I've had a fair few myself."
Yes, Iris Wildthyme. I'm not sure what her story is, but what exactly does one do when they find someone driving a No. 22 to Putney Common double-decker bus on a planet that's fallen back into the stone age? Fortunately, her character isn't as annoying as it is in Excelis Dawns, or so I've heard, and Katy Manning is just as perfect in the role now as she was then.
"Poor Bernice, weary with your life, trying to get away from it all, but underneath it all a true adventuress. I can understand that, but you'll just be thrust into more adventures here. It's where you belong, love, and Lisa Bowerman does a wonderful job in playing you so well."
But it's not just the two of us here. There's Empress Vitutia, trying to keep the city together as it's besieged from outside, and Representative Aragon, trying to help, but both rapidly losing ground to Snyper, the mad prophet who knows more than he should. Vitutia and Aragon are played by Kate Brown and Stewart Alexander, and there is just such a wonderful chemistry between the two that comes across so well.
"Snyper's played by Trevor Littledale, you know. Oh, I could tell he was trouble from the moment I clapped my eyes on him, but Trevor Littledale brings him to life so well. Right proper, he is. The whole show wouldn't have been the same without him, Kate and Stewart."
This is it then. All the answers concerning the Relic revealed, with danger, death and ruin for all concerned. Just another day in my profession. Still, there is one bright side to all this.
"Way hey, let's get another drink! And raise a toast to the story called The Plague Herds of Excelis!"