Post by miles601 on Dec 20, 2022 23:52:25 GMT
In Clone Masters - The Rule of Death I believe the character of The Headsman is Soolin, disguised in a way to avoid a copyright problem for Big Finish.
I based this claim on asking myself the question: Why have a character with such an ambiguous identity throughout the novel and then chose to leave the audience without resolution? I propose it was to allow Big Finish to sneak Soolin into the story. And to stealthy have Gynis Barber portray Soolin in a Big Finish production in an unofficial way.
My evidence:
The Headsman is always referred to with the pronouns They and Them throughout the book, meaning they could be either gender. This seems a purposeful distinction to let the audience know that despite being titled The Headsman they are not necessarily male.
The Headsman never encounters Vila or Avon (for much of the novel they remain up on the Liberator while Cally, Blake, and Jenna are down on the planet). Vila and Avon are the only two of the Liberator crew Soolin would meet in Series D. This keeps continuity intact so that Soolin would have no prior experiences meeting either of the characters before "Rescue".
Soolin has alway been described as a gunslinger/mercenary. See below examples:
In the final chapter of The Rule of Death Carnell describes The Headsman thus: "Ah, the Headsman, a code name. Some of these hired gunslingers are notoriously shy about their real identity for all sorts of reasons...". (emphasis mine).
The final scene of the book is from the Headsman perspective (why include this unless the Headsman is someone important to the author and someone whose identity is a question left for the audience to ponder). The Headman describes their world of origin as "where the Headsman came from life was cheap and easily lost. You had to fight to survive. You had to kill to live." This is an apt description for Gauda Prime (Consider how Soolin reflects on GP in "Blake").
It also explains how/why Soolin would have adopted and then abandoned the Headsman disguise after Rule of Death and Prior to "Rescue": "The identity could be retired if necessary, but the work would continue. There was no credit in the account, but there was a gun for hire" (emphasis mine).
Final note/theory/fan service: The ending also has Carnell telling the Liberator crew he was going "someplace well away from you, Servalan and anything remotely connected with the Federation". This, in my opinion, is a reference to Carnell heading off to Kaldor City to appear in Boucher's Doctor Who novel Corpse Marker and/or the fan produced audio Kaldor City series (also featuring Paul Darrow playing a role very similar to Avon).
I based this claim on asking myself the question: Why have a character with such an ambiguous identity throughout the novel and then chose to leave the audience without resolution? I propose it was to allow Big Finish to sneak Soolin into the story. And to stealthy have Gynis Barber portray Soolin in a Big Finish production in an unofficial way.
My evidence:
The Headsman is always referred to with the pronouns They and Them throughout the book, meaning they could be either gender. This seems a purposeful distinction to let the audience know that despite being titled The Headsman they are not necessarily male.
The Headsman never encounters Vila or Avon (for much of the novel they remain up on the Liberator while Cally, Blake, and Jenna are down on the planet). Vila and Avon are the only two of the Liberator crew Soolin would meet in Series D. This keeps continuity intact so that Soolin would have no prior experiences meeting either of the characters before "Rescue".
Soolin has alway been described as a gunslinger/mercenary. See below examples:
In the final chapter of The Rule of Death Carnell describes The Headsman thus: "Ah, the Headsman, a code name. Some of these hired gunslingers are notoriously shy about their real identity for all sorts of reasons...". (emphasis mine).
The final scene of the book is from the Headsman perspective (why include this unless the Headsman is someone important to the author and someone whose identity is a question left for the audience to ponder). The Headman describes their world of origin as "where the Headsman came from life was cheap and easily lost. You had to fight to survive. You had to kill to live." This is an apt description for Gauda Prime (Consider how Soolin reflects on GP in "Blake").
It also explains how/why Soolin would have adopted and then abandoned the Headsman disguise after Rule of Death and Prior to "Rescue": "The identity could be retired if necessary, but the work would continue. There was no credit in the account, but there was a gun for hire" (emphasis mine).
Final note/theory/fan service: The ending also has Carnell telling the Liberator crew he was going "someplace well away from you, Servalan and anything remotely connected with the Federation". This, in my opinion, is a reference to Carnell heading off to Kaldor City to appear in Boucher's Doctor Who novel Corpse Marker and/or the fan produced audio Kaldor City series (also featuring Paul Darrow playing a role very similar to Avon).
