Monday, November 28, 2016

The Very Dark Thing by: Una McCormack directed by: Scott Handcock: We're Not Keeping the Universe Summerfield!

The Very Dark Thing stars Lisa Bowerman as Professor Bernice Summrfield, David Warner as the Doctor, Dierdre Mullins as Fleet Admiral Effenish, and George Blagden as Colonel Neave.  It was written by Una McCormack, directed by Scott Handcock, and released in August 2016 by Big Finish Productions in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: Volume Three: The Unbound Universe Box Set.

 

It might just be an affinity I have with surrealist stories, be it The Mind Robber and its land of fiction or The Deadly Assassin and its trippy Matrix like third episode.  Doing surrealism on audio can also be a more personal experience as you make your own visuals to the story unhampered by subpar special effects.  The Very Dark Thing does a spin on the surrealist story by taking the non-traditional universe and spins an anti-war story where the not so subtle metaphor has a good, if extremely ham fisted message.  That’s the story’s real fault in the audio is that it thinks that an apology and acknowledgement of problems can just make them go away.  The audio was really good, but the ending really let the story down because of this awful ending making everything really just come across as dumb.  The rest of the story is really good on the whole however.

 

Time has passed between Planet X and The Very Dark Thing and the Doctor is now on the planet Trematz which is this fantastical world with unicorns that murder people, babbling brooks, a humming in the air, and a very dark thing that is just there with its presence.  It’s a setting that feels like a happier version of Night Vale from the podcast Welcome to Night Vale.  McCormack does a great job at writing this setting and slipping in hints into just how horrible this planet has been in the war.  The playing with expectations as some characters see and hear some things while others see and hear different things is just done perfectly.  You as a listener go into the idea of an unreliable narrator as you don’t quite know what is going to be real outside that someone, somewhere is threating a planet, probably Trematz, with a doomsday weapon.  It’s a great way to get the audio going and to raise the tension of the story as you know that the world could end.  The titular dark thing is also terrifying as it really is just there, and when what it is reveals itself is actually pretty scary overall in the entire story revolves around it.

 


The character arc of the Doctor, who has been called the King of the Universe, and the man who ran away from the war.  Warner plays this Doctor in a unique way and makes such an impact throughout the box set because of how he isn’t trying to be familiar.  He is meant to be unfamiliar and his character just grows on you considering the Doctor doesn’t have a plan to deal with the villains of this story.  The villain is the Admiral who only wants an apology which just ruins her character in the end, but the comradery between her and her troops is portrayed really well in the story as they follow her out once they get their goal of an apology reached.  Lisa Bowerman and David Warner have this chemistry throughout the audio as they bicker and try to figure things out.  The humor between them is just the highlight of the story proving just how good Bowerman is as Benny and how good the story is just through the simple acting.

 

To summarize, The Very Dark Thing while poorly dealing with a ham fisted message through thinly veiled metaphors that symbolize that war is evil, which we already know.  It does this heavy message but the story itself is actually a comedy romp which actually helps cushion the blow of a very lackluster ending, but the rest of the production can of course compensate well.  I cannot say enough how good this one is and just how the quality of The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield has stayed consistent and hasn’t really had a story below very good in quality.  90/100

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