What's it about: London, 1964, and
the repercussions of Jago and Litefoot’s adventure are dealt with by Sir Toby
Kinsella and his crack team of specialists at Counter-Measures. What is the
Reesinger Process – and who is behind it?
Great Ideas: The budget of the Ministry of Defence pays for
the Countermeasures team to continue their investigations but there are
questions being asked in very high places as to whether it is necessary
expenditure. Sir Toby Kinsella is directly responsible for the team, a conduit
between them and the government. Rees is up to his old tricks, convincing high
ranking civil servants or those in the military in the 1960s to commit
despicable acts: pushing people off trains, firing blind in a post office,
grinding up sleeping pills and adding them to a night time tipple. Colonel Swinton
attacked three officers and attempted to commit suicide, a gun to the head. The
Reesinger Course is specifically designed to promote contingency character
building. The clever use of Rees' name and his raison detre from the previous
story tells you everything you need to know about just how he is enhancing
their character on this course. It's just a matter of a waiting game to see how
long it takes the Countermeasures team to figure out what his behavioural
manipulation entails. It's unusual to be this far ahead of the heroes but it
works in this respect especially when it is a race against time to prevent the
loss of any more unnecessary deaths. When the victims of the Reesinger
conditioning succumb and vacant their position (a polite way of saying kill themselves)
there always seems to be somebody ready to take their place. And since they are
all in vertiginous positions that puts whoever is controlling these
replacements in a position of power. Rees has been inside Miss Wilton's mind,
whispering in her ear, setting this whole operation up. His body is still lying
at the bottom of the well, just bones. After he has been driven out of her
mind, the music box still lingers and Ding Dong Bell is hummed in the final
scene...Rees' presence still lingers on.
Audio Landscape: Big Ben chiming, cars chugging past in
London, a scream, a gunshot, a train screaming along the tracks towards a
screaming passenger, gunshots in a post office, the chinkling of china,
throwing punches, marching soldiers, waters flowing, Ian smashing equipment,
alarms sounding, walls crumbling.
Isn't it Odd: About two thirds into the story we start
entering into Star Trek Voyager territory, where technobabble starts to
overwhelm the story. Unfortunately having Rachel spouting off a lot of
scientific babble about brain waves isn't the best use of her character. She's
smart but as an audience all we need to know is that Rees can brainwash people
without going in to all of the specifics. The technical jargon does rather
stall the story.
Standout Scene: Another strong climax where loyalties are
tested. This time Rachel has to decide whether to use the machine to wipe out
Rees' influence over Miss Wilton and potentially destroy the minds of her two
friends in the process.
Result: 'If I can't have her...neither can you!' Now
here is a series that I am relatively new to and I certainly haven't written
any reviews of the range as of yet. Both Countermeasures and Survivors have
been filed under 'Must Listen to when Big Finish's Doctor Who output becomes
less prolific and I have the time.' I'm not a huge fan of the 60s Spy genre so
it didn't draw me in like Jago & Litefoot did (I'm a sucker for Victorian
chillers) but after exposure to Countermeasures in The Assassin Games and now
The Reesinger Process it is clear that there is much more to this series than a
rehash of shows like Adam Adamant, The Saint and The Man From UNCLE. For a
start you have a superb ensemble cast who have gelled together very nicely,
which helps the stories progress smoothly but there is also the added element
that the Countermeasures team is constantly trying to prove themselves and that
their funding could be cut at any minute. It's a team desperate to make an
impression, break the rules and get results that satisfies themselves and those
big wigs in the government who make the important decisions. There's a real
world grit to this series that is absent in the heightened reality of Jago
& Litefoot (I couldn't imagine an encounter between the Countermeasures
team and the Scorchies for example) and it produces quite dour stories as a
result. However if you are up for something moody and granular than you needn't
look anywhere else. The Reesinger Process is a smart little story for the most
part, one that takes the elements set up in the opening story and utilises them
in an ingenious way. Rees is quite the machiavellian plotter and has had time
to bed his plans, smuggling away in the mind of an innocent, manipulating
certain parties and murdering his way into power. It falls apart a little in
the last third when what appears to be a much more epic story has quite an
intimate climax, concentrating far more on Rees' desire for to find his remains
rather than the grand scheme for overthrowing the government which was where I
thought this was heading. Still it is skips by effortlessly for the most part
and certainly does its job - Countermeasures has bumped up the list of series
that I must listen to soon. I can't see how this is a series that lends itself
to particularly diverse storytelling (but then that is a criticism I levelled
at Jago & Litefoot when series one was announced and it has been able to
push the boundaries of expectation in so many ways) but I look forward to
finding out how it might achieve that. Onwards to the UNIT Vault, I think The
Worlds of Doctor Who series has been a very smart move on Big Finish's part and
has already proven more worthwhile than the multi Doctor arcs (Excelis,
Drashani). Beyond the running storyline (which is gathering momentum) it offers
exposure to these wonderful worlds that Big Finish has created: 7/10
3 comments:
I'd love to read your review of Assassination Game. A great story that balances the roles of the Doctor, Ace and the Counter-Measures team.
Joe, as someone who regularly reads and (mostly) agrees with your reviews, I would thoroughly recommend CM. I think all 3 series are very good indeed.
I too was impressed by Counter Measures. After listening to this, I picked up the first two sets in BF's most recent sale
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