Vienna Series Two

Tabula Rasa by James Goss: What is going on with these spin off series'? You've got the creative dregs of Big Finish bringing Christopher Eccleston and Tom Baker in their first box sets with the audience scratching their heads as to how such prestige release can be so bereft of imagination. Conversely you have the best minds that Big Finish have to offer bringing to life niche ranges like Vienna and giving them an insane amount of merit. It's just bizarre, and rather wonderful. James Goss opens this set on it's best instalment and easily the best story in this range to date. It starts with the clichéd premise of everybody having lost their memory and so we learn WITH Vienna precisely what the new set up of series two seems to be - complete with a new job for the space assassin, a potential new partner and a boss. The opening scenes could have been agonising as everybody wanders around asking who they are and what is going on but Goss is smarter than that and puts them down in the middle of a crime and has Vienna and Doran go at each other like cat and dog. It is their sparky relationship that makes this so much fun. Chase Masterson is having an absolute riot with this role now, and has really embodied the character. As usual there are twists and turns but Goss keeps the plotting clean with only one major surprise and ultimately everything is tied up satisfactorily, with a brand new role for our lead and a new direction for the series. I laughed along with this a great deal and had a wonderful time listening. This has been the spin off that has really surprised me because I was expecting so little after The Shadow Heart but what has transpired is a fully realised world with some perky, surprising stories: 9/10

Underworld by Cavan Scott: Spoke too soon. This isn't terrible but it is exactly what I was expecting from Vienna when I started listening to the first set. The Mean Streets of Space City with Buxom Babe Vienna Salvatori on the case. What we have had from the first six releases has been much smarter and more labyrinthine than that. This is a very linear plot (which should be refreshing after all the over plotting elsewhere) and it focuses on the relationship between Vienna and her new partner Jexie. It's baffling then that Samantha Beart should be saddled with the most ridiculous accent I have ever experienced from a Big Finish character that makes every line of dialogue she says quite laughable. She's certainly impossible to take seriously. Add to that the sudden drop in quality of the sound design and music, and this was a bit of a chore to get through. It's an action packed story that is playing out like an Eric Saward Doctor Who; lots of tunnels and monsters and weapons. It's disposable fluff, and in no way offensive but the production choices on this one really hold it back: 5/10

The Vienna Experience by Jonathan Morris: Here we go again, I thought, as this story started out and there were familiar beats from Morris' Vienna script from the previous season. Playing about with the nature of reality and using technology to add layers of plot within that premise. The first fifteen minutes played out as you might expect from a story that is about using Vienna's life as a thrill ride for a corporate business to exploit and market. What impressed me was just how layered the deception went in this series. There is an assumption that you have heard the first series of Vienna and so you know how these stories go with their Shyamalan style twist endings and so now you are programmed to look out for them. Imagine then that they went to the lengths of hiding the twist for the the last story in the first one with an audacious move of wasting the entire middle adventure to lull you into a false sense of security? Colour me astounded. That is some serious plotting there, and it works too. Even better it takes hold of the new format of the show, shows its ugly underbelly, and gives Vienna something tangible to defeat. So when the climax hits it feels not only satisfying to have been duped in such a smart way but that this has all been for a reason, rather than just a fun audio experience. It turns Vienna into a bit of a hero, albeit one who is willing to expose corruption but also leave the society indulging in it to pick up the pieces. Coming out of this set I felt that the universe that Vienna inhabits had been coloured in in a lot more detail and that she had emerged as a pretty awesome character. It made me want to go back and listen to The Shadow Heart with that in mind. They played a long game with this season and it paid off: 8/10