"We need a raging egomaniac with a god complex. Where's Braxiatel?"

[lizbee]

"The Tub Full of Cats", or, Deadbeat Time Lord Dads And The Clone Daughters Who Love them.  (For the very first time, I wish I had a Jenny icon.)

Okay, so, catching up.  After the events of "The Crystal of Cantus", Braxiatel's evil moral ambiguity was revealed, and he vanished from the Collection.  Then we had a season without him, which I skipped, as I am a mere mortal, and don't want to spend hours of my life listening to audioplays without Brax.  Which is to say, I like Benny, but not that much.

Anyway, in the previous audio, which I couldn't get my hands on, but I read a summary, Benny and a young woman named Maggie Matsumoto were seeking out a Mysterious and Valuable Stone.  Which turned out to be Braxiatel, who had been chillin' in silicon form ('scuse me, crystallised form of pure consciousness, because if there's one thing he needed, it was some time out for proper scheming) for the last three thousand years.  Oh, and he's Maggie's father, which is to say -- hold on, I'll just quote from the summary:  Maggie now reveals that she's not human; she was designed by a man whom she calls her father because she's based in part on his genetic material, but she's basically just a home-made temporal physics experiment poured into a genetic engineering kit bought off the shelf in Tokyo. Her 'father' put a little of himself into the mix to stabilise it, but not enough that she looks like him. She was made a few years ago just to clear up after her father's messes, but she's operating on her own these days...

Anyway, as "The Tub Full of Cats" opens, Benny, Maggie and Brax are boarding an ancient ship, making their way back to the Braxiatel Collection, where an interstellar war is about to break out.  There's some business about a crazy American astronaut, which I skipped, and cats -- for the ship is full of them -- and anyway, I really only gave my full attention to the bits with Brax.  Who was unfortunately absent for most of the procedings, but we did get to see that his attitude to Maggie is very much like the Doctor's to Jenny.  Hands up, everyone who chooses to believe that Gallifrey has a strong cloning taboo? 

"She calls herself Matsumoto," Benny says at one point.

"That was just the label on the packaging," is Brax's answer.  Although, in conversation with Maggie, he addresses her as "Marguerita", which is slightly paternal.

The bit which made me laugh out loud: a flashback to Maggie's unwrapping, and her first memory of Braxiatel's voice.  Saying, "Oh.  It's a female."  I lolled, as family legend has it that Dad greeted my birth with, "Oh.  It's a girl".  Maybe you had to be there.



Anyway, I don't think this series is ever going to top "The Crystal of Cantus" for sheer awesome, but it's still a good way to spend an hour or so.  Although, I'm going to have to ration them for a while, until I get around to buying a new sketchbook.  I draw as I listen, y'see, and I've somehow managed to fill most of a book with chibi sketches of the Gallifrey characters.  Yes, just what the universe needed.

Comments

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

I love Maggie too much for words. He relationship with Brax was SOOOO delightfully fucked up. And now, I am getting super crazy excited because there are about 10 minutes coming up later in the series that I think actually DO top Crystal of Cantus and I can't wait for you to enjoy the shit out of them.

Hands up, everyone who chooses to believe that Gallifrey has a strong cloning taboo?

Right? It seems they have quite a LOT of taboos. I was thinking about that when listening to The Boy That Time Forgot for the 800 time in the last two days. When the Doctor calls Adric "an abomination". For someone who loves to fancy himself a rebel and free-thinker, he can really be a major bigot. I can't decide if I love that someone so amazing can still have moments of close-minded grossness, or hate it because...well, he's being gross.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I love Maggie too much for words. He relationship with Brax was SOOOO delightfully fucked up.

I KNOW. And I do love a good, messed up father/daughter relationship. Is it worth digging up "Empire State"?

And now, I am getting super crazy excited because there are about 10 minutes coming up later in the series that I think actually DO top Crystal of Cantus and I can't wait for you to enjoy the shit out of them.

REALLY? I am so very excited, now.

It seems they have quite a LOT of taboos.

I guess, having been an all-powerful technocracy for so many millennia, the taboos and laws become the best means of preventing universal anarchy.

When the Doctor calls Adric "an abomination". For someone who loves to fancy himself a rebel and free-thinker, he can really be a major bigot.

Well, it is Adric. But he does that to Jack, too, in "Utopia".

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

Is it worth digging up "Empire State"?

Hmmmmm. It's mostly just Benny and Maggie. No Brax until the last 5 minutes or so. Maggie is absolutely delightful, but I don't know how much you'd enjoy it because it's pretty much just a straight-up Benny adventure.

Well, it is Adric. But he does that to Jack, too, in "Utopia".

HAHAHAHA. Yeah. I can understand the Adric bit, but he seems to use that word more often than I'd like. I could swear I just read something recently about the Doctor's attitudes toward mixed-species people being rather horrible too. I wish I could remember where I saw that...

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I can't remember any mixed-species people in canon. Of course, there's Brax's-hallucination-of-Benny where she accuses him of putting her hybrid spawn in his collection.

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

If I find the comments I was talking about, I'll definitely share. It made sense at the time, but now I'm exhausted and slightly brainfried.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

His attitude toward mixed-species in the show has been rather evolutionarily pragmatic, really.

[fyrdrakken]

"Delta and the Bannermen," though to be fair Seven was being explicitly worried about funky genetic consequences in subsequent generations or some such, IIRC. And merely fretful, rather than being a dick about it.

[audio-time-team.livejournal.com]

I'm a huge Benny fan and I thought Empire State was cack for the most part so I'd say skip it.

I will say though that you definitely should go back and listen to season 7. It helps leads up to the events of 8 and why Brax comes/forced to return home.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

The abomination bit made me think about Utopia. Personally, I love seeing his innate Time Lord ways show themselves. Plus, he's capable of learning; he gets over himself in relation to both Adric and Jack's situations. 'Course, he has to learn over and over again, but that's true of me too and he's kind of a stubborn ass.

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

'Course, he has to learn over and over again, but that's true of me too and he's kind of a stubborn ass.

And that, right there, is the very definition of the Doctor. But I love him being a stubborn ass. If he was perfect, he'd be boring.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

But Nyssa's perfect I often say the thing I love about the Doctor is that he's made up entirely of character flaws. XD

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I'd say he's also bigoted against AIs, and Androgums, as Three's attitude to BOSS as "just a machine" is transparently in denial about its level of sentience, and Six's and Two's attitude to the Androgums in Two Doctors smacks of swallowing propaganda about the innate inferiority of a subjugated species rather than what we actually see.

[kitttherug.livejournal.com]

my dad wasn't even there when I was born; i was a premature birth, and there were so many med students in the room he got pushed out the door lol