Post by Kestrel on Feb 3, 2021 10:01:56 GMT
My trek through the early Benny audio continues... and, huh, it really didn't take very long for me to hit a stinker. The Stone's Lament may not be the worst Big Finish story I've listened to... but if so, it's only because I'm not really keeping track (there are too few misses for that). Look, y'all... this one is pretty bad.
As per usual, some disorganized thoughts:
This one was... one I kinda regret taking the time to listen to. Ah well. I guess they can't all be winners? At least Lisa Bowerman was their to provide this script with some energy--without her there, giving this godawful script her all, this story would've been intolerable.
....
And, I guess, this story also makes it clear that I ought to abandon all hope of ever mucking out a coherent sense of Benny's continuity. This story establishes that she already knows several other characters, has a past with them, has a reputation in general (for being a woman, because of course that's the direction this story goes in), and everything is well and truly established. At one point I'd nurtured hopes of seeing Benny grow as a person, meet new people and so on and so forth, but I think I have to accept now that she's kind of a static character: she's the adventurer, who's already very well-established in the universe.
Ah well, here's hoping the next story--or several stories--are better. As for this one... I dunno. Were any of y'all able to find anything worthwhile in this stinker of a script?
As per usual, some disorganized thoughts:
- Okay, okay. I gotta comment on the theme music. The actual music? It's not bad. Kinda catchy. But the lyrics? Hoo boy. Look, I don't like criticizing music. I don't really have the vocabulary for it. And I know that writing lyrics is really, really hard. But, look, when a songwriter just repeats the same line over and over again (even if it's a good line) it just reeks of low-effort. And when the line in question is nothing but cringe, like "I wanna play with you," it's clear that absolutely zero effort went into the lyrics.
- Benny, Benny, Benny: all the men wanna sleep with her, and all the women wanna murder her... because all the men wanna sleep with her. Yeesh. Even the female-coded computer is driven to a murderous rage out of jealousy.
- If you're going to write a story around an evil AI trying to kill everyone... first, I don't appreciate anti-robot bigotry... and second, at least try to come up with an interesting/compelling/engaging justification for why the AI would want to do that. It's a very radical course of action. Because the AI was modeled on Benny, who is an irrational woman prone to anger, is a pretty rubbish justification. And by "pretty" I mean "completely." Yeesh.
This one was... one I kinda regret taking the time to listen to. Ah well. I guess they can't all be winners? At least Lisa Bowerman was their to provide this script with some energy--without her there, giving this godawful script her all, this story would've been intolerable.
....
And, I guess, this story also makes it clear that I ought to abandon all hope of ever mucking out a coherent sense of Benny's continuity. This story establishes that she already knows several other characters, has a past with them, has a reputation in general (for being a woman, because of course that's the direction this story goes in), and everything is well and truly established. At one point I'd nurtured hopes of seeing Benny grow as a person, meet new people and so on and so forth, but I think I have to accept now that she's kind of a static character: she's the adventurer, who's already very well-established in the universe.
Ah well, here's hoping the next story--or several stories--are better. As for this one... I dunno. Were any of y'all able to find anything worthwhile in this stinker of a script?
