Beyond Bannerman Road
Rani Takes on the World #1
Released: 20 April 2023
Listened: 5/13/23
Here Today
The Rani Chandra series, entitled “Rani Takes on the World,” released in 2023, with this first box, “Beyond Bannerman Road.” Rani is now 30 and running a successful blog after a series of high-profile journalistic exposes. (One assumes that running a blog is lucrative in the same way Sarah Jane’s freelance journalism was.) She’s living with new character Samira, who runs a non-alcoholic, vegan pub (fantasy economics strikes again). Clyde Langer drops by with his new girlfriend Phoenix, and announces that she’s pregnant. The new characters are both perfectly up-to-date on alien happenings, and are also entirely comfortable with Rani and Clyde taking off for a bit, first to reminisce, and then to investigate an alien ship, because of course there’s one. The plot isn’t actually too complex, as it’s a time-loop story that runs through several times. Fortunately, it’s one of those loops where people with Artron energy can retain their memories from one pass to the next, so Rani and Clyde are OK. It’s a very Sarah-Jane-ish solution, where the priority is figuring out what’s wrong, and then talking about it. It’s written by Joseph Lidster, who got his start with Big Finish, and was one of the original writers on the Sarah Jane Adventures, so the characters feel honest and consistent, even though Clyde and Rani are now 30 (which is going to hit some watchers/listeners pretty hard). It’s full of references, which assume that “Farewell, Sarah Jane” is canon – Luke is working for UNIT, Rani has the sonic lipstick, and Clyde the scanner watch. Rani apparently exposed the prime minister as an Auton, which kick-started her career. They’re still connected with other members of the gang, including Maria and Skye, and they know about other ex-companions, including Jo, Ace, Tegan, and even Dodo. I wonder how this is going to gel post “Power of the Doctor.” On top of all that, it’s humanizing. Clyde worries about being a good father, because his own is “a bit rubbish.” Rani’s worried about living up to Sarah Jane’s legacy, and isn’t comfortable setting foot in the Bannerman Road house, which she currently owns. It’s a good start to the series, establishing the new rules, with just enough nostalgia.
Destination: Wedding
For the second story, Rani goes to a friend’s wedding! And she’s marrying a movie star, so it’s a destination wedding with all the beautiful people. And Rani gets to attend with…her mother? Mostly, this is because Mina Anwar, who played Gita Chandra on TV, is a friend to Big Finish and has appeared several times, so why not? Also, James Goss is really good at writing families, even if he’s tough on them. So there’s plenty of Rani & Gita banter about weddings, and food, and celebrities…Gita’s a florist, so she can even justify some of her cattiness. An absurd amount of celebrities get name-dropped, which adds to the fun. It takes Rani quite a while to figure out what’s going on, but in fairness, that’s pretty much the whole story. Once the truth is uncovered, we’re looking at another “talk it out” resolution, because that’s the kind of story this is. It feels a bit like filler, but it’s pretty good filler, and I have to give props just for the title.
The Witching Tree
After two lighter stories, this one turns distinctly dark, perhaps revealing an ultimate direction for the series. Since we’ve heard about Rani’s world-famous podcast, it stands to reason that we’d actually hear the thing itself, eventually. Unfortunately, to my untrained ear, it doesn’t sound like much. Rani’s determined that it not become a sensationalist ghost-hunter pod, but that’s kinda how it sounds. She’s going to investigate a restaurant with a tree growing through the middle of it, which is, of course, haunted, because both of those are things that happen regularly in England. Except she starts encountering missing time, and leaving herself cryptic messages that sound like a numbers station. The podcast format, although mostly behind-the-scenes, makes it easy to build a mysterious aura, as we only know what Rani does, which isn’t a lot. Clyde is a bit too busy preparing for impending fatherhood, until he’s pulled in by Rani’s mysterious contact. That turns out to be one Tyler Steele, a character from the Torchwood audios, who seems to be mad, bad, and dangerous to know, but that describes a lot of Torchies. Once Clyde gets involved, the story accelerates, and becomes fairly scary, with some heartbreaking aspects. Lizzie Hopley is fond of a horror story, and carries it off well here. It’s a nice cap to the box, setting up a new normal, and putting Rani and Clyde nicely in place within the audio universe. I wonder how interconnected they’re going to be going forward.