The Paternoster Gang Heritage One

 

The Paternoster Gang Heritage One 

The Paternoster Gang, in terms of opportunities for Big Finish in the new series, are quite frankly, obvious. Jago and Litefoot has since come to a conclusion and the Victorian era of Big Finish still needs to be explored. But there is a hesitancy about Heritage One, that of a spinoff desperately trying to carve out it's own identity. It has three excellent leads that have all transferred immensely well to audio, but Jago and Litefoot's loss leaves a hole in Big Finish's discography. Clearly it's trying to fill that gap, but I'm uncertain as to whether it can do it well without appearing as a secondhand redux. In terms of differences, Our leads are more technologically minded, but I'm fairly certain that almost serves as a disadvantage to atmosphere. And The Paternoster Gang does not immediately feel concerned with atmosphere, but rather wishes to be a boisterous outing. Not quite a mindless action series like UNIT, but a fun series. Perhaps that fits, but there's more depth to be had to these characters. Dave Rudden has served them immensely well in both of his short story collections. But fun's the focus. And these characters do feel fun to me. I can't help but feel though, to the many who don't care for them, there's not much more character behind them than there was on television. I can't help but love them, and I never felt myself longing for the Doctor like I did when Kate and Osgood, two otherwise lovely characters were without them in the UNIT series. But still, The Paternoster Gang, as a first impression, seems like a series with room for improvement. 

The Cars That Ate London! by Jonathan Morris

A very confident opening, The Cars That Ate London! is magnificently fun. There's not much logic to be had here, as Vastra, Jenny and Strax investigate a factory devising automobiles that are anachronistically ahead of their time, and soon find it to be a front for an invasion force. It's a good pitch, made all the more fun by the wonderful flourishes Morris puts into the script. The Cars turn into Transformers Robots and Vastra fights one with a Katana! Jenny is drafted into undercover work among the mysterious company's ... "think tank," and Strax has decided to try and blend in and be Cockney (to predictable hysteric results.) The Cars That Ate London! is much less trying to be a character piece of any depth and more a showcase for what we might expect this series to try and do, and from that perspective, it's rather wonderful, it's exciting, and it's funny, and it has a surprisingly good conclusion with an (gasp) environmental message that doesn't feel shoe-horned? It really knows what it's doing, letting us appreciate Vastra as an scientifically intellectual Doctor Figure, fierce and always in control, Jenny as a more street-smart and resourceful character, who doesn't feel trodden on by the two more attention grabbing leads, and Strax is just... magnificently funny here, especially when he's encouraging the workers to seize the means of production (I kid you not, this is a thing that happened in a real audio) There's very little of substance here, but an enormous amount of fun, and I'll be fair, it's an excellent opening. 8/10

A Photograph To Remember by Roy Gill 

Forever to be remembered as the story that went out of it's way to inform us that Capitalist Sontarans can have gay sex, A Photograph To Remember stutters a bit on it's trip to tell another good tale. The hook for this one is that Jenny and Strax on a day out visit what they think is a tourist trap but actually turns out to be a camera that traps spirits onto film, being run completely coincidentally by a Sontaran, a Gay Man, and a Silurian. Whilst perhaps on the nose, (Oh, who am I kidding, it's REALLY on the nose) this leads to some admittedly interesting work between the characters, the aforementioned Sontaran and his lover are surprisingly the emotional core of the story, and the finale of it is built around their connection. Which is a bold move to make, for a story to think that we can be attached to an overly capitalist horny potato man as it's emotional center. The story pauses for a really dirty joke about them by the way, which is almost more fitting in something like Torchwood. Then again, even in Torchwood, I don't want to hear about a Capitalism Obsessed Sontaran banging a Victorian Twink. It's just too squicky. These characters, and well, the story is better when it's used to contrast to Vastra and Jenny (Strax is slightly annoying in this one.) as opposed to us taking these characters seriously on their own. Vastra is served especially well, and she continues to actually be badass as all hell. The story is at it's best when it focuses on Vastra, and her relationship with Vella, and their relationship as the two last Silurians alive. Their relationship is much more believable and compelling than yet another comedy Sontaran. Roy Gill is an excellent writer, and he does wring all the drama from it that it's worth, but the cool concepts here are overshadowed by the frankly ridiculous fact that there's another Sontaran, Human, Silurian trio in London. Which does demand suspension of disbelief that an ordinary person simply cannot be capable of. A Photograph To Remember, while it does have a lot of good passages in it, really does struggle on it's way to it's goal. The way the story plays on the spiritualist way of the times is excellent, and all the actors do have good chemistry, but ...something falls apart about this one for me, ever so slightly. I don't know what it is, it's simultaneously too alien and too Victorian. There are a lot of flaws to be found here. It's not bad, but it is, well, somewhat vexing. 7/10 

The Ghosts of Greenwich by Paul Morris

One of Jago and Litefoot's most acclaimed writers gives his take on the Paternoster Gang, and while The Cars That Ate London! Is no doubt the set highlight, The Ghosts of Greenwich is far from being bad in any way. While I do feel it is overlong (An hour and seven minutes when fifty might have done) it's still a damn fine episode. The chief problem with it (if not one of the few problems, for it is such a good concept) is that the story doesn't lean as hard into the dark and macabre aspects of the concept as Jago and Litefoot might have done. I miss that series' gothic energy, especially since the Ghosts of Greenwich spends valuable time in comedy bits with Strax that aren't as funny as the other two episodes. Vastra and Jenny and their relationship is very well treated however - it's easy to see why they deserve this spinoff. I'm just slightly disappointed that the second (sort of) episode about Ghosts and neither of them have done anything macabre with that. The Ghosts of Greenwich is surprisingly, a mystery story, and it had a villain reveal that genuinely surprised me (if only because I'm dumb as a brick about these things). And the concept of a man in a black cloak in Victorian London stealing people's lives and turning them into "ghosts" is fascinating and attention grabbing, even if it's not used to the evocative potential it might ordinarily have. Heritage One to me very much feels like a set up boxset, as there's hardly an arc whatsoever within it and it's based around "here's three stories with The Paternoster Gang." But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Christopher Eccleston these days thrives on lack of continuity and arc. It does make me question the need for the subtitle however. These three stories, while none of them exquisite, do give me hope for a better three sets of follow ups, the series is brimming with potential that can easily be expanded - hell, I'd already put the series above UNIT. But I have to be honest when it comes to Big Finish. So I'll try not to be mean when I say the whole thing's still probably not worth it - at least at this stage. While this set is incredibly enjoyable, it's quite average, and there's not much to make it stand out among similar sets - I know I keep saying it, but you're probably better off with a volume of Jago and Litefoot. 6/10