Digital
media is a horrible, horrible thing. Physical media takes up space,
it sits accusingly on your desk in a pile demanding your attention.
Digital media you pay for and it sits silent and invisible on your
hard drive five folders deep and it gets even worse when you
pre-order things because then by the time it reaches you you've
basically forgotten the pain of paying for it and any sense of real
urgency goes right out the window.
So as I
knuckle down to some intense hobbying in this the most dreary and
dull of months I've decided to address the backlog somewhat. Be
aware, this is me so these aren't reviews, they're just me jotting
down anything interesting that occurs during the listening.
Doctor Who:
The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield volume 4
Ruler of the
Universe: The City and the Clock
written by
Guy Adams
First of all
let me get the moan out of the way: I miss the days when Bernice
Summerfield was her own act without having to have a Doctor or a
Doctor Who logo on the front
cover to sell her adventures. That being said, if we must live with
this compromise then David Warner's “Unbound” Doctor is
definitely the best option. For one thing he's incredibly fun,
especially here as he tackles paperwork and moans about in-flight
entertainment and how he hates forms of transport that obey the laws
of physics. There's also the fact that, from the fan point of view,
he's not as important a character as Benny who has decades more
history and dozens more stories behind her. For once, the Doctor is a
not only sidekick to a more established character but in a way that
works.
As
to plot, we return to the setting of the last New
Adventures of Bernice Summerfield
box: an alternate universe that is dying and the Doctor has been
elected President of the (remaining) Universe in order to fix it.
He's dealing with the day-to-day, soul-grinding bureaucracy and he's
sent Benny to an archaeological dig to investigate an artifact called
the Apocalypse Clock that might be able to save them all if it
exists.
Its
nice to see Benny in her element again, digging things up and having
trouble with the locals and the hidden truth behind the myths.
Both
characters are clearly at the end of their rope. Benny misses her son
and her friends and her universe perhaps more than she fears the
destruction of the universe she's in. The Doctor, a character not
built for the day-to-day, sounds gleeful when he thinks he's been
summoned to the dig to deal with a mysterious death or doomsday
weapon only to find out everything's going according to plan.
One
day we'll find out who Peter married, I hope.
What
else? The subplot with the locals who object to the dig is both a bit
bare and a bit horribly stereotypical. It could have stood to come
off a bit more sympathetically in light of recent events such as the
DAPL pipeline. Instead we get a rather spare tribe in (to quote the
Doctor) loincloths and carrying spears as they dance and chant in
toothless protest at the edge of the dig. A lot of time is spent
talking about the past of this world, describing the ruins of the
city Benny has uncovered and some local legends, but the tribe are
described as “traditionalists” with one more progressive local
character acting as Benny's guide and no real exploration of the
difference between the two. There's limited time on a single disc
story, I know, but its a pity the idea goes largely unaddressed.
The
meta-plot of the box set seems to be settling on a theme of how far
from the standard template of the Doctor (i.e. Benny's Doctor) Warner
has deviated and whether he really is the Doctor anymore. Its not
even just a question Benny is asking but something that seems to be
bothering the Doctor himself.
Next
Episode: Ruler of the Universe: Asking For A Friend
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