Theatrical Fellow: His mother always told him that drinking led to death but he’s not sure that she meant in such a violent way as the woman who ended up on Litefoot’s slab. He finds the idea that people die of unsuspicious deaths curiously reassuring, especially in the wake of their many outlandish adventures. When he goes however, he expects it to be in a manner that confounds law enforcement and goes unexplained for generations in years to come! When the constabulary contact him and Litefoot he immediately leaps to the conclusion that it must be something supernatural like vampires or werewolves…or vampire werewolves! He listens to the patter of another impresario and is far from impressed. He would never deliver such a textbook performance. True rabble rousing requires an apposite apportment of alliteration! He thinks Litefoot is rubbing off on him because he refuses to behave in a distasteful and immoral way. Had he known he would be running away from a gang of mesmerised maniacs with bricks and poles he might have done more physical training at school. The New Regency is at the peak of popularity right now. Why does Jago do anything really stupid? Because Litefoot isn’t there to talk him out of it. He understands when people are trying to deceive themselves because he does it to himself all the time.
Polite Professor: Litefoot is incredibly respectful and polite, even with the dead that he has to cut up to discover how they died. There’s always a place for manners in this man’s life. Sweetly, Jago asks Litefoot that should he pass if he would do him the honour of being the one who performs his post-mortem. To which he responds positively. He hasn’t had a night out for a good while now. He has spent his career rummaging through the innards of corpses and there is nothing that he hasn’t touched. There’s a lot that can be told from the feel of a body alone, its texture, its organic composition, the speed of decay. When he hears voices in his head he thinks he has finally cracked up. Lesser men would have by now. He has what is described as a fine, ordered mind. He’s been at this malarkey long enough now to recognise a potential ruse. Damn him for being so much of a good Samaritan – he can’t just wash away an alien visitor because even though he is a lone he would know what he had done and he couldn’t live with that. As Litefoot has a conversation with an alien it appears to the rest of the world that he is talking to himself. He’s been told he has a pleasant baritone.
Ellie: It’s not often that she gets to go out and it’s not part of one of their investigations…poor cow.
Standout Performance: Listen to Trevor Baxter whilst examining his corpse – there was a space for CSI: Victoriana, I swear. He’s the consummate professional, Litefoot, incisively detailed, and Baxter captures that intelligence beautifully.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I always assumed that when you go that I would be a few seconds ahead, or a few seconds behind you.’
‘One day London will be invaded by killer unicorns…and who’ll be laughing then?’
‘I’m getting too old for this. Who am I kidding…I was always too old for this.’
‘Tell him that I’ve been ejected from better planets than this.’
‘On with the motley! Whatever that means.’
Great Ideas: Reports are leaking in or perfectly respectable people leaving their families and congregating at crossroads and public paths. Milling around and staring at other people, but making no actions. The police who have tried to take them home now have broken bones and concussion. On their home world this race of aliens live in symbiosis with another race. A race of lizards who let them share their minds and in return they give them a longer and better life. The Kine were philosophers who had vast stores of narratives that they passed on verbally from generation to generation. A race with no concept of murder or theft. How refreshing. Their natural defences were so good that all their predators just starved and died out. The planet they lived on was discovered and opened out to hunting parties. It took no time at all to wipe them all out. The only place you can see the heads of those magnificent philosophers is on the walls of the hunters. He has spent the rest of his life trying to overturn the devastating mistake that he once made. Eight worlds so far have had their dominant species transformed into the Kine, and Earth is next on the list. The shocking thing is that the people on those planets are paying for the privilege to be transformed.
Standout Scene: Litefoot and his alien host saying goodbye to each other is far more touching than it has any right to be given they have only shared a few scenes together.
Result: Hugely enjoyable, and this is far from Jago & Litefoot at its best which proves just how high the bar was raised for this series. I haven’t reviewed a story from this series for quite some time (it’s been at least a year) and it was wonderful to see that you can slip back into things with effortless comfort. Some part of me has been wanting to keep back some J&L material because the series is so good and I don’t want it to end and the other part is still upset at the loss of Trevor Baxter and much like in the wake of Elisabeth Sladen’s death it feels weird to be heading back into their catalogue of work as though nothing has happened. Which is a bizarre reaction when you think about it – what better way to celebrate their lives than to enjoy the work they did in their twilight years. Having listened to The Backwards Men it has gotten me excited that there are still almost 6 series for me to devour. The first half plays out like a traditional tale from this range, a body that winds up on Litefoot’s slab leading to an investigation that sees him, Jago and & Ellie enjoying a night out together. So far, so comforting. But Andy Lane does something cofounding in the second half of this story, taking a massively post-modern approach to storytelling and parodying B Movies of the 1950s. In the 1890s. It’s rather jolly that Litefoot gets to have a natter with an alien visitor to the planet and discuss intergalactic affairs and life on Earth, rather than merely combating them. Lane characterises both regulars so well you would swear he was the showrunner for this series. After eight season you might imagine that the writers would be cruising on the charisma of the actors but both characters are still being written with great integrity and warmth. It’s a fun plot with a nice central idea and lots of lovely moments, without ever threatening to be overly thoughtful or great drama. For once Earth isn’t being invaded, it’s being borrowed to put an endangered species back on the map. The fact that individuality in the human race needs to be brushed aside in order to achieve that is unfortunate. It’s a story where Litefoot organises the solution simply by being charming and I can’t imagine a more fitting tribute to Trevor Baxter than that: 7/10
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