Birthright

12.10.2022

Yeah, passable. The series converges on its main elements more or less, creating a sort of formula for itself. It gets stale.
I don't know why, I just can't stand bugs as villains. I hate the concept. Can't do anything with myself. I wouldn't let it affect the score, but it has to be said. Not that they do anything interesting with it anyway.

Procedural and more of the same. 2.5/5

Birthright is the second part of the Time Ring Trilogy released by Big Finish during their very early days before they were granted the Doctor Who licence.  It, like the previous three releases, is an adaptation of a New Adventure.  Birthright, though, is unusual in that the original novel was released as part of the Virgin range when it still featured the Doctor.  Birthright, though, was unusual in that it was an example of a Doctor-lite story and was released alongside the novel, Iceberg.  This novel featured the Doctor solo, whilst Birthright featured only Bernice and Ace.  Adapting this as a Doctor-less audio then was not too difficult and I assume it was relatively easy to replace Ace’s role with Jason.

In this audio trilogy Birthright has been adapted to follow on directly from Walking to Babylon, which I reviewed here.  The original novel has Bernice and Ace deposited in their disparate time zones by a disintegrating TARDIS.  In this audio, it is an exploding time corridor which sends Bernice and Jason their separate ways after leaving Babylon.  Bernice ends up in London 1909 and Jason on the planet Antykhon.  As Bernice is the main character (and Jason travels to this time zone at the end of the adventure) I have decided to place this story here in the early 20th Century part of my marathon.

When I listened to Walking to Babylon, the first part of this trilogy, I was impressed by how professional the audio sounded and commented on how it is clear, on the strength of that product, why Big Finish was granted the Doctor Who licence.  It’s odd then, that I found Birthright to be a little disappointing in terms of production.  There was something about the sound design, in particular, which seemed a little rough around the edges.  The music too seemed sparser and there were sections where it sounded very much like two people in booths talking into microphones.  The script is falls foul a little of the main pitfall of audio drama – having characters describe what they can see.  I suppose in an adaptation of a novel this is going to be more difficult to avoid as the story was originally written for a different medium.  Big Finish, nowadays, manage to avoid this problem through having huge experience in what works on audio and what doesn’t but it’s a little more obvious here that lessons are still being used.

That’s not to say it isn’t an entertaining ride.  Front and centre are Lisa Bowerman and Stephen Fewell as Bernice and Jason.  Both are, as usual, superb and carry the two plotlines well.  What’s particularly good is that Jason’s plotline doesn’t seem secondary to Bernice’s.  Both have interesting things happening and whilst the ‘mystery’ of what links the two time zones is fairly obvious (although this may be due to already having read the book and heard this audio a couple of times previously) the slow drawing together of the two stories works well.

The leads are ably supported by a good guest cast which features John Wadmore, a BBV stalwart who actually appeared in a surprisingly low number of Big Finish audios, and one Colin Baker.  A canny piece of marketing from Big Finish in those early days was to include Doctor Who alumni in their casts as an obvious selling point.  The first Bernice Summerfield releases featured Nicholas Courtney, Anneke Wills, Sophie Aldred and Elisabeth Sladen.   I was particularly impressed by Colin in this story.  He plays Mikhail Popov, a Russian police detective in London on the trail of a serial killer.  He gives a performance very different from the 6th Doctor and he manages to maintain a pretty good Russian accent throughout meaning he doesn’t even sound like the Doctor for the majority of the play.  Mikhail makes a good ‘companion’ for Bernice and it would be huge fun if Bernice was to revisit this time zone in a future Bernice release.  I mean, it’s not like Colin is averse to working for Big Finish.

The story involving the Charrl and the truth of Antykhon is a good one although it is solved a little through technobabble and I’m not sure how much Jared Khan, their human agent, adds to the story (although his role was much larger in the original novel).

Historically, this story is a bit of an oddfish.  Having left the Victorian era behind and focussing my marathon on the global exploits of Indiana Jones, it’s quite strange being back in London and have characters discussing Jack the Ripper and Spring Heeled Jack.  This story feels incredibly ‘Victorian London’, despite being set in the Edwardian era, with pubs and prostitutes, cockney scallywags and strange foreigners.  The plot wouldn’t look out of place in a Jago and Litefoot audio.  Birthright is a story set in the literary London of dark alleyways, monstrous hooded creatures and secret organisations.

The Time Ring trilogy was a strong set of audios for so early in Big Finish’s work and whilst I think Birthright is possibly the weaker of the three, it doesn’t feel like it is treading water before the final section.

This episode is basically fine. It's kind of boring and the Charrl did little to nothing for me. Easily the highlight is Benny and the Russian detective Popov - these two have such a fun chemistry and they elevate a pretty generic and dull episode into a better one. That said, it's been a few days since I relistened, and I have little to no memory of what actually happened, so I fear this is another of those mediocre in one ear, out the other episodes. Fine, but nothing terrribly memorable.

Bernice Summerfield

#1.04. Birthright ~ 7/10

◆ An Introduction

BigFinish were only allowed to make original Doctor Who adventures because high-ups at the BBC were impressed with this series, so it’s a little strange that two of the stories here are based on some of the Seventh Doctor novels (though I’ve heard that there is an in-universe reason for this whole first run being adaptations, and how they tie into events, but that wont be revealed to us for quite some time).

Luckily for us that ‘Birthright’ was a Doctor-lite adventure, so all that needs to be changed is switch out Ace for Jason. Now, have you heard of Springheel Jack?

◆ Publisher’s Summary

"If the human race were to die tomorrow, insect life would carry on regardless. Insects might even become the dominant species!"

Thrown off the Time Path, Professor Bernice Summerfield is trapped in early 20th Century London, with only one of the pair of time rings she needs to get home. At the other end of time, her ex-husband Jason Kane finds himself stranded on a dead world, where the queen of the Charrl demands his help to save her dying race. But all he wants to do is find Benny, and return to the 26th Century.

In the East End a series of grisly murders has been committed – is this the work of the legendary Springheel Jack or, as Benny suspects, something even more sinister? Allied with a Russian detective, she determines to find out. But the master of a grand order of sorcerers has other plans for her…

◆ Prof. Bernice Summerfield

‘Birthright’ featured a pretty good performance from Lisa Bowerman.

When asked if she’s a demon or something, Benny claims that she’s definitely “or something”. She may be trapped in completely the wrong time and place, but at least she managed to save Babylon. Of course, she would get mortal drunk after saving the Earth – this is why I adore Prof. Summerfield! The only person who may have ever been entitled to call her “love” got lost somewhere between here and Ancient Babylon. Benny isn’t some timid Edwardian female, and she’s proficient in six forms of unarmed combat. Khan describes the people he murdered as being “low lives and whores” – whether or not that’s true, Benny knows that they didn’t deserve to be killed.

◆ Jason Kane

Stephen Fewell delivered a good performance in this episode, but he sadly gets lumbered with the least interesting material.

Jason hurtles out of the temporal path, and straight into a race of mammal eating insectoids: clearly, he’s not having a very good day! He originally came from Earth in the 20th century, but has been living in the 26th for quite some time now. He doesn’t believe in fate – or rather he prefers not to – as he doesn’t want to think the universe could be so cruel. He gets quite the shock when he realises that Antýkhon is a far future version of Earth. Jason finally finds his ex-wife… and accidentally sucker punches her in the face (again, I can see why you two are totally and utterly divorced).

◆ Story Recap

After escaping from Ancient Babylon along the temporal path, our pair of star-crossed ex-lovers are hoping to be sent back to the 26th century… but nothing is ever that simple.

Benny finds herself in Edwardian London, assisting a Russian detective who’s investigating a strange murderer that he’s been tracking since his daughter became one of the victims.

Meanwhile, Jason finds himself on the strange and barren world of Antýkhon… and it’s here he meets a race of mammal eating insectoids, but the Charrl believe he could be their salvation. With his time ring, the entire species could be transported through the time vortex, through the Great Divide… to freedom and a hospitable new world.

More than two-hundred centuries apart, the situations our heroes deal with are linked in more ways than one.

◆ An Adventure of Two Parts

‘Birthright’ is an adventure that can be split into two distinct parts, and one of them is rather uninspired. The revelation that Antýkhon is actually a future version of Earth just didn’t really excite me, simply because it’s been done elsewhere on several occasions.

The whole plot surrounding Jason attempting to aid the Charrl also didn’t leave me particularly enamoured either, and it was almost expected that they were actually villains.

Luckily, the other half of this adventure – the one focusing on Benny and the Russian investigator, Popov – is absolutely magnificent. Their chemistry together is electric, making you genuinely wish that they could’ve been the whole adventure.

◆ Sound Design

Harvey Summers is once more taking the wheel, delivering a relatively gruesome soundscape. Though this adventure does seem to be inspired by Jack the Ripper, so that’s not surprising.

The clicking and scuttling of the Charrl as it tears the guts out of a prostitute. Benny comes crashing out of the temporal path, and onto a pile of rubbish in 1909. Contaminated water runs through the grounds of Antýkhon. The voice of the Charrl honestly reminds me of Sil’s, including the fact they keep stopping to suck drool back into their gobs!

◆ Conclusion

“Would you like to save another world, mammal?”

Prof. Summerfield finds herself assisting a Russian detective solving murders in Edwardian London, whilst also dealing with a total head-case who has a strong belief in the occult. Meanwhile, Jason finds himself trapped on a future version of Earth… and he’s forced to deal with a race of mammal eating giant insects!

‘Birthright’ spends the majority of its runtime bouncing between two separate plots. I’m genuinely interested in the scenes that focus on Benny and Popov’s investigations – and I would absolutely love Colin Baker to reprise his role as the Russian detective, because his chemistry with Bowerman is clear as day!

But the segments focused squarely on Jason are boring beyond belief. The minute the story expects you to care about Antýkhon, the pacing just comes to a grinding halt and all my interest drains away.

I would still recommend giving this story a listen, but the scenes focusing on the Springheel Jack plot are easily what saves it.

While not as good as Walking to Babylon, Birthright is another good instalment of Bernice Summerfield. The plot really sets you up in London and brings the world to life. While not being the quickest, and some added scenes to pad out the story, the plot is easy to follow and moves along at a decent pace. The acting is top-notch, and the audio work is the best it has been so far in Season 1.