Bernice Summerfield 2.1: The Secret of Cassandra (spoilers)

With the recent sale, I've finally found an opportunity (read: excuse) to dive into the early Bernice Summerfield audios in earnest! I've decided to start with season 2, as I'm especially fond of Irving Braxiatel, and he doesn't make any appearances in season 1.

So... in lieu of any coherently articulated response, here's my usual collection of mismatched thoughts on the story:

• Is this... is this music the theme for the Benny range? It's, uh... it's certainly a choice.
• All that static and cutting in/out in the beginning of the story made me worry my audio file was corrupted or something (using the app). I'm maybe overly paranoid about this happening, but look, exactly 100% of the .mp3s I've downloaded from the Big Finish website for my archives have been corrupted. 100%. I've only ever been able to get th e .mp4s to work properly.
• Gotta say, I loved how this story opened up with Benny getting into an argument--a shouting match, really--with some shorebirds. "Oh, look at me, I can catch fish!" Such a perfect way to introduce Benny.
• Oh, man. The dialog in this story is spot-on, especially the humor. I had to rewind a bit and listen to the dinner scene twice, it was so much fun. "You'll be dead in two minutes: I've poisoned your wine." Aahahahahahaha.
• So, erm... is this technically Big Finish's first trans character? It's not... terrible... but it ain't great, either, how the narrative casts gender reassignment as awful, terrible thing to be endured "for the mission." Insofar as problematic BS goes, it's not bad, but it is certainly eyebrow-raising.
• Really loved the pacing in this one--nice and fast, with no time wasted, as the dynamic and stakes constantly changing. Really appreciated how Benny's relationship with the general transformed so many different times.
• Also, can I just say: we needed more of Robot Cassandra.
• Actually, more robot characters in general, please.