Big Finish The Lost Museum A Benny Audio Adventure

Author	Simon Guerrier
Released	2005
Cover	Adrian Salmon

Starring: Lisa Bowerman as Professor Bernice Summerfield

Synopsis: January 2606. Trib City is at war with itself. The old dictatorship has been crushed, but the population have turned on each other. The army cannot stop the fighting, nor the ever-mounting casualties. They can merely clean up the mess. In the midst of all this, Professor Bernice Summerfield and her ex-husband Jason Kane try to assess the damage done to the Trib Museum. The building has been used as a bulwark, and one of the most important collections in the galaxy lies strewn about the floor. Prized relics are missing, and even the kids on the street seem to know more about who took them than the museum's director.

• A series that needs direction... by Joe Ford

A series that needs direction... by Joe Ford 5/2/06

Excellent, with only one fault that must be addressed.

I am full of hope for Simon Guerrier's upcoming first Doctor novel; after listening to this story I expect it will be a real winner. Three things leapt out at me here: his excellent grasp of established characters, the ability to tell a satisfying self contained story and the inclusion of some unique ideas. Most regular Doctor Who audio would be lucky to get one of those right, here Guerrier achieves a remarkable feat of squeezing it all into fifty-five minutes.

Fifty-five minutes guys! At first I was appalled, 10.99 for less than an hour's entertainment but after I heard the tale I was completely won over. If the Doctor Who releases could be as sharply plotted and as mesmerising as this tale I would like them all to be fifty-five minutes long... hang the cost! The storyline has no padding and it doesn't feel rushed; instead of trying to stretch the tale into the regular seventy-minute Bernice format, Guerrier allows the story to take its natural course and it is much better for it. I was never bored, hanging on each revelation and pleased at how the tale managed to wrap itself up without cheating its audience.

Hurrah for Benny and Jason who continue to make a highly engaging team. After their fun and frolics in The Kingdom of the Blind it is a delight to see them spotlighted again so soon. For once Jason is the more important character and Benny acts as the supporting character and it pleases me to see that the series can shuffle its regulars around and give each of them a chance in the spotlight. I love to see a cliche turned on its head and it makes a lovely change to see one of Jason's manipulative schemes be exposed and turn out to benefit the situation. The conclusion wouldn't be half as good as it is without everybody gasping in amazement at Jason screaming, "You've stopped the fighting!" Jason gets to be a real hero, whether he intended it or not, and his reply to their shock, "Well what have been telling you? I'm bloody brilliant me!" is fantastic. Not to say Benny doesn't get enough to do; in the midst of all the action she has to face a crowd of ogling onlookers wearing only a towel and, somewhat more shockingly, she loses her arm. Her startled, angry reaction is classic Benny and even better comes when she gets into a war of words with Curator Enil whilst she is in the middle of a fight for her life against the indigenous population.

I enjoyed the secondary characters too, all two of them. Whilst I would like these Benny audios to have a slightly bigger cast having only two major secondary characters (all the others in this story say either "Ungunagun!" or "AngangAng!") has its advantages: you can get into their heads all the more. The way the story swings back and forth, making you unsure who to trust is enjoyable; for a while I thought Markwood was the bad guy, then I was convinced it was Anil... turns out it's neither of them! Markwood gets his own little story, fighting with his family, desperate to stop the fighting and afraid of the complications when it is over, that marks him out as more than your usual throwaway Topsy Turve. And despite the fact it was obvious in retrospect I was completely taken in by Enil's deceptions.

How many more stories can this series produce that concern lost, stolen or broken artefacts? I realise Benny is an archaeologist and it does provide an opening into an off-Collection story but these Trojan Horse plot devices are getting a little stale now. Why can't we have a story set on the Collection? It's the interaction between the regulars that makes this series so much fun. Whilst we have script writers like Simon Guerrier making something interesting out the artefact cliche it's fine, but continuing use of it will see this series crash and burn. There is a fascinating back-story to The Lost Museum, one that saw the museum itself used as an icon, a place that can unite the people and give them something to agree on. Its artefacts have been stolen and destroyed because of what the place represents but the optimistic climax sees the museum being rebuilt.

So what is wrong with The Lost Museum? I am not only starting to sound like a broken record, I am a broken record, but it is the direction which is at fault here. Gary Russell has broken the promise; his regular good script/good direction... bad script/bad direction is out the window. There are few sequences that live up to the quality of the script (the scene where Benny experiences the records of the torture in the museum is cold and frightening and the action-packed climax is punctuated with lots of long percussion weapons and screams) but the whole doesn't flow half as well as it should. The lack of music was astonishing, an invigorating score would have helped set the scene much easier, but as it is the actors have try all the harder. Stephen Chance plays Markwood so lazily it is hard to think that the man has any emotions whatsoever. You might think that is an effective way of getting his war-weary character across but the actor sounds as though he is too worthy for this series. The chase through the streets that end up in a bird porn shop (don't ask) sounds horribly amateurish with comical gunshots and some horrid comic timing. A shame because on paper it must have read great. There isn't the energy that the other, fresher, directors bring to the Bernice series and that is a real shame. This could have been one of the better Benny audios but as such it is merely okay.

I refuse to blame the regulars and the scriptwriter for the director's lack of vision because they are putting one hundred percent into the story. The end result is that The Lost Museum is a well written, mostly well-performed (Stephen Fewell gives his best performance yet) story which doesn't translate onto audio as well as it should and could have done.