Tuesday 21 November 2017

I'm going to miss Jason Kane


[SPOILERS for the later seasons of Bernice Summerfield and the eventual fate of Jason Kane.]

Listening to these old Bernice Summerfield audios the last few days I've remembered how much I adore the audio version of Jason Kane. Back in the day when he was a character in the novels I never really cared for him. He was introduced rather quickly a whole book before marrying Bernice in what was meant to be her departure from the series. The publisher then lost the Doctor Who license and decided Benny needed to get divorced or risk being an uninteresting protagonist because...

Well, because the misogynist belief that marriage is somehow the death of all fun in a person's life, that's fucking why. Seriously, how is this a mainstream attitude to marriage and yet so many straight people want to keep the institution all to themselves?

Anyway, Jason and why I adore him.

I love his relationship with Bernice, the on-again off-again thing they have going for them that even when its on isn't 100% exclusive. That, Virgin Publishing, is how you allow yourselves to have the interesting character relationship of marriage (and it is interesting if you allow it to be) and still have on-off and temporary love interests when it'll serve the story.

I love that he is an absolute chancer always out to make a buck but with a heart of gold. During the occupation storyline and the brilliant short story collection Life During Wartime which was about the only Bernice Big Finish novel I ever read, he appears to have sided with Axis and become a collaborator. Eventually, though, it turns out he's been using his position to smuggle food out to an underground railroad for the Collection's children.

One thing I will say that actually encompasses the novel version of Jason is that I appreciate the attempt to portray a male survivor of child abuse. It rarely landed with any author besides Paul Cornell and Kate Orman but the effort was there to portray the character with sensitivity and reference to how he still deals with the memories as an adult.

That said, I don't think anyone ever addressed the fate of his sister.

Anyway, the reason for this post is I know that Jason is going to die. I know vaguely how it happens, even, since I picked up the box set series of Bernice Summerfield. I know this character I like is on borrowed time as I barrel through his remaining appearances.

That said, if they ever actually address the bloody cliffhanger from Missing Persons we might yet hear from him again.

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