What's it about: “Welcome to the White Rabbit. What’ll it be?" “You can start by locking and bolting the doors. Then everyone in here can keep real calm…” Bernice and Irving were expecting another quiet night at the White Rabbit saloon – their only customers a veteran prospector named Toothless Bob and timid schoolteacher Miss Hannigan. But the evening takes a sinister turn with the arrival of the Brimstone Kid, a wanted outlaw, and the terrifying bounty hunter Cazador hot on his trail… Soon, Bernice and Irving find themselves caught up in an adventure involving giant, flightless crows, buried treasure and the galaxy’s most ruthless detective agency.
Archaeological Adventuress: Benny to her friends, that
infernal Summerfield woman to her enemies. There isn't a university on Legion
but if there were she would be a Professor. Irving likes to label Bernice as
competent rather than good because the latter suggests moral fortitude.
Super Villain: One thing that this Brax has in common with
his predecessor is his love of money. He can be counted on to do practically
anything so long as the price is high enough. It turns out this has all been a
heist to entrap a very different kind of treasure Braxiatel himself.
Unfortunately they have got the wrong Braxiatel and when the crimes are laid
bare (larceny, theft, vandalising a religious icon, assault, fraud, corrupting
the clergy, arson, criminal damage) that becomes increasingly more obvious. The
other Brax is one of the most wanted men in the galaxy.
Standout Performance: I thought we were entering The
Gunfighters territory of hideous faux American accents when I was confronted
with the character of crazy Hank but fortunately my pal Peter Sheward seemed to
be the only actor who struggled. Toothless Bob might be a terrible old stereotype
but he is charmingly played and I was happy to see that his presence propping
up the bar of the White Rabbit was referred to before the story that he was
clearly designed to be a part of. His drunken singing halfway through the story
had me in tears, particularly Irving's dramatic method of getting him to stop.
The interaction between Miles Richardson and Lisa Bowerman is so instinctive
and natural at this point I was having great fun with the pairing, as much fun
as they seemed to be having with the story.
Great Ideas: I can't decide whether the format of the
Missing Persons box set is a good one or not. Basically every story features
Bernice having an adventure with one of her colleagues on Legion (The Big Dig
features Ruth & Jack, The Reverent's Carnival is fronted by Benny and Peter
and this story gives Irving Braxiatel another chance to step into the
limelight) and at the end of each one they are spirited away into the ether
never to be heard of again. Bernice's (and everybody else's) memories have been
altered so that it is like they have never existed in the first place. An
intriguing notion and one which picks up steam until Benny is all on her own in
the fourth instalment of the set, The Winning Side. On the one hand it is great
to see each of these characters getting a lot of attention in one story and
showing how well they interact with Bernice (in every case the chemistry
between the actors is fantastic) but it is sad that in their last run of
stories together that they should be excluded from all the other stories and
that there should only be one story in the entire run where they are all
together. The missing persons idea is a marvellous hook for the season to be
hung but it has both positives and negatives. There is no reason why the main street
of Legion cannot be depicted as that of a western town in space given we have
spent very little time there since landing on the planet. Given that this is
supposed to be a hive of criminals and cut throats, this is just about the
perfect place to pull off a western in the Bennyverse. I would question why
everybody has started talking in an American drawl but that just comes with the
territory. Are the children on Legion so ill bred that a school teacher looking
for work on the planet is so deeply amusing? A school ma'am coming to town is
another delightful cliché that is ticked off the list. A Cyber-saw is part
lizard, part machine and this one is a particularly nasty bounty hunter (what
else?). Miss Hannigan is the Brimstone Kid, Billie Ford. The ending is
fabulous, Braxiatel stolen away from Bernice and her memory wiped as we
witness. What the hell is going on?
Audio Landscape: Club music, party atmosphere, hover cars,
hydraulics, footsteps on the boards, growling, computer voice, alarm, flying on
the land crow, smashing a bottle, walking into a cave, an explosion that brings
the 'diamond mine' down.
Musical Cues: A delightful soundtrack that lives up to the
genre by providing some catchy ambient music for the White Rabbit (the
Harmonica and piano are staples of a good western) but also some deliciously
upbeat plucking on the guitar as Bernice and her fellow conspirators take
flight on the land crow.
Isn't it Odd: The second that Miss Hannigan came into the
bar I had feeling that she wasn't everything that she claimed to be. It's the
nature of these Bernice Summerfield CDs that with their economic number of cast
members the characters have to come packaged with surprises to justify their
inclusion. Throughout I wondered if she was the real villain of the piece. It
doesn't affect your enjoyment of the piece one iota to be proven right on this
occasion. Cheekily, Llewellyn has Bernice point out the twist halfway through
the story by mocking Cazador's wish to take a genetic swab from her to prove
that she is not the Brimstone Kid because she's a woman.
Standout Scene: How bizarre to take out Legion is such a
frothy story. It was location for the range to establish itself in (indeed
Everybody Loves Irving spend an inordinate amount of time setting up a new base
of operations for them to work from) and yet most of the stories seem to have
taken place away from Legion City itself. I don't know if it is because the
production team want to move on or that Big Finish want try the series in fresh
hands but it feels as though the series is keen to hurry along into another
format just as it was starting to establish itself nicely. A shame, I could see
real potential for another couple of series set on Legion featuring Bernice,
Brax, Peter, Ruth and Jack. Gary Russell and Scott Handcock have successfully
rebooted the series and promoted an engaging new cast of regulars. What a pity
to lose all of that so quickly.
Result: 'That was Legion...' Inconsequential,
and yet hugely entertaining regardless. I have never been a huge fan of western
movies (which is mostly down to them being forced down my throat on Sunday
afternoons as a kid) and yet every time a SF show has attempted a spin on the
genre I seem to find it a lot of fun (The Gunfighters and A Town Called Mercy are
both favourites of mine, I love DS9 which incorporates many aspect of your
typical western into it's setting...and how much fun is Back to the Future Part
III?). The Brimstone Kid rattles along pleasantly enough, paying homage to many
western stereotypes and indulging in the atmosphere of the genre. There isn't
any reason for the regulars to be involved beyond the potential riches they
could earn so it doesn't stretch beyond a fun stab at a western in space.
Braxiatel vanishing at the climax aside, there is no personal stake in the
action. Some of the twists surprise (listen to what Toothless Bob is saying)
and some don't (Miss Hannigan is too innocent to not be involved) and I came
away from the story having had a good time but wondering if it was well placed
given how little time the current administration has to settle up the range and
pass it on to new hands. The score is a massive plus. Like all of the Bernice
Summerfield releases since the Epoch box set, the music is excellent. You're
flirtin' with disaster if you go lookin' for the Brimstone Kid but David
Llewellyn avoids that by providing the most entertaining story in the Missing
Persons set:
7/10
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