Lease of Life

 

"I'd say it's a fixer-upper."

Lease of Life by Aaron Lamont

Sometimes simplistic is better. Sometimes all you need for a story is just a simple threat, a simple idea, and then it all comes pouring out. On paper, Lease of Life has one of the simplest premises' that you could possibly imagine. Owen Harper fights hostile mold. It's because of the brilliant writing behind this that this story becomes a classic. 

Lease of Life is also yet another Owen story that is unquestionably horrible. It's tradition at this point, but it also just plain works for the character. Owen, a cynical medic who's trying to do his best in a shitty world. Lease of Life is different from the usual horrible though, as all good Owen stories are different from the prior horrible. It's like his thing. 

There's very little I want to say about Lease of Life - it's good drama, and it's especially good because of how real and incredible the guest star characters. Some off the most believable I've ever seen in an audio drama - I feel like I have straight up met these people. This is both good and bad. Good because it's incredible writing. Bad because they basically all die horribly.

This is smart writing with a killer finale and resolution with a miserable end. You can't do something like this every single audio, but goddamn am I glad that it pops up once in a while. This is also Aaron Lamont's first script for anything Big Finish that's not Dark Shadows. I'm immensely excited to see what he does with Bernice Summerfield. Masochism be praised - this is a good one. 9/10