MR 259: Blood on Santa's Claw & Other Stories (Spoilers!)

{Spoilers and Rants Within}This is the first Main Range I've listened to since Ghost Walk. I haven't even really been on the forums in months, and I feel more and more that I've drifted away from my love of BF's audios. I can't stand the Master-based stories they've done, and the last time I enjoyed the Main Range was You Are the Doctor (with the exception of Time in Office). I spent years absolutely stuck on BF's output, but lately it just seems nothing grabs me. So I've just kind of stopped listening.

But with the long-overdue return of Nichola Bryant in an anthology release (I've tended to enjoy those in the past) capped off with a story by favorite writer Nev Fountain? Oh, I just had to give it a chance. It's Christmas, after all!

And, hey, a new male companion? Oh, this seems like a warning sign. I remember Adam back in the Russel Davies era... And we're not properly introducing him, just throwing in mid-travel? Oh, I wonder if we'll see him again after this release. DW has a long history of avoiding male companions, so I could already guess this was a one-off character who would probably die by the end of the release. And hey, guess what?! He's an annoying twit who serves no purpose and gets killed off pointlessly. Nice waste of an idea, there.

Of the four stories, the titular Blood on Santa's Claw did the best for me. It's a proudly silly tale involving fiction being taken far too literally, but it made for a fun little listen. A light snack of a story, but that attitude suits the 30-minute runtime well enough. If anything, my only real issue is the sidelining of Peri's boy toy being sidelined for the majority of the story; it feels weird having a character literally just off in a corner while the 'grown ups' do their thing.

The Baby Awakes gets credit for having a solid foundation. I always like the idea of stories where a companion gets a chance to look at what a 'normal' life could have been. And the idea of Peri getting addicted to that taste of idealized normalcy is a good basis for a story. Regrettably, the story dovetails into a base siege story with a few too many twists to follow through on that emotional core. Plus, the reason for the siege doesn't make any sense until you finish the full set; since there's been no hint of an overarching narrative at this point, it unfortunately works against the story as a whole. A good try, but regrettably it doesn't pan out like it could have.

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day is where my real issues with the set come into play. This is kind of a trope with BF sets; the third story that only exists to set up the finale. Most often these are set at some sort of dinner party or gala event. Characters stumble around the setting until the end when we get the big reveal. Writer Andrew Lias does his best to set the scene, but it feels less his own idea and more an editorial mandate he's trying to flesh out. Everyone seems a bit daft, too; but even that seems in service of moving the plot along. And oh yeah, Peri's boyfriend is a jerk again. Woo, he was totally worth this set of stories.

Which leads around to Brightly Shone The Moon That Night... Now, I make no bones about my love of Nev Fountain's stories. From the superb The Kingmaker to The Widow's Assassin to Peri and the Piscon Paradox... Very rarely have I been led astray by their stories, and they have a particular knack for writing stories involving a certain Miss Brown.

This only makes it more painful as Brightly... proved to be the absolute worst of this whole set. I cringed my way through this last story with the determination to get it out of the way and move on to something else. On a narrative level it lacks the pull that draws me to Fountain's stories; instead of a real adventure it's everyone standing around giving exposition on the 'hidden plot' of the set (please tell me we weren't meant to guess that out-of-left-field twist at the end of the third story; I honestly busted out laughing when I heard it). The villains show up, the heroes show little concern, they beat the bad guys, and go off to have a party as if nothing really happened. This finale lacked everything I love about Fountain's work, lacking any sense of narrative pull or surprise (especially shocking as he's usually a master of pulling the rug out from under his audience!). It was... well, generic. Which I feel terrible about saying about one of my favorite writers. I feel like I need to give one of his other stories a spin just to make up for this one.

I find myself cringing as I consider this may be the last straw for the Main Range with me. I've tried for so long to hold on, but it just has nothing to offer me anymore. Like Teagan Jovanka once said, it's stopped being fun. I fear I may be getting sick of it.

"writer Andrew Lias" doesn't exist. Nev Fountain wrote the whole set. The names of the "other writers" are puns on Alias, Pseudonym, and Alter Ego.

{Spoiler}
Agree, he was obviously a 'goner' as soon as we knew it was pre-Trial. But I thought Joe was being made so irritating & patronising so he could then die heroically saving Peri and we'd all say what a good guy he was after all. In that 'sad but feel-good Christmas movie' sort of way. I wasn't expecting more were-wolves this year and certainly not another were-wolf companion, not even a temporary & evil one. Maybe I am easily fooled, but I enjoyed it!

{Spoiler}
Is anyone else getting really annoyed with the "false companion" trope BF has been using in recent years? It started as a cool idea poorly executed with Mathew Sharpe, settled (for me at least) as a solid meh with Ann Kelso, was absolutely amazingly done with Ria, and I called it halfway through episode 2 here. Honestly, if BF is going to add new companions, at this point just bite the bullet and add them. Don't get wishy-washy.