BIG FINISH’s THE TOMORROW PEOPLE audio 3: THE GHOSTS OF MENDEZ

 

BIG FINISH’s THE TOMORROW PEOPLE audio 3:

THE GHOSTS OF MENDEZ

1-Building Rites

2-Truth or Dare

3-Promethian Fire

 

Austen Atkinson writes this after having to revise it because it was about an ultra tech bank, the largest in the world, which kept the world financially secure, come crashing down on thousands of innocent people. 9/11 just happened so he changed it to this.

 

The start jolts listeners into an adult world, again, very un-TP like. Two men talk of being nude, marriage, smoking, and “adult” things. Then, we come upon John on a lunch date with Georgina Franklin. They drink prosecco, which John says is cheaper than champagne. The two men seem to die (but one does not but there is talk of MEN dying so others die) by being sucked into the Freedom Contemporary Art Building, despite John trying to save one of them. He does seem to get one injured man away.

 

Earlier, during the lunch date, John talks about a boy in Durham that the TP lost because he jaunted uncontrolled into the path of a moving train and died. Georgina has stayed away from John due to the TP.  John wants dinner with her some time. I don’t know about you but that’s quite a lot of “adult” things for someone who just wants adventure and fun out of the Tp with some social commentary.

 

Mendez’s first name is Cordelia—she is the architect. Newsman Phillips is named Peter Phillips for the WNC. He knows about “higher evolutionaries.”  He’s read secret files. He’s been divorced and knows the terms, “Home superior,” and “the next step.”  Georgina is a “very old friend” of TIM and John. She is the building CEO. Paul calls her one of John’s hippy love chicks when talking to TIM.  

 

John uses a power to “fill the hole in the roof” and that power will take a space decade to teach that to Paul. Someone is watching Elena, Paul and John when they appear on the roof. Elena and Paul sneak into the room where the injured man, Mr. Bassett (girl he wants to marry is named Alison?) is to try to help him. They find him covered in something. TIM believes Elena can stimulate endorphins in someone’s brain by focusing on the mind and ignore and push past the pain. But…Bassett seems to die?

 

Georgina seems to be a TP or at least telepathic and can communicate with John. She goes to the museum/gallery to find Mendez in trouble.

 

When Mendez attempted to override the security system computer (male) and the camera surveillance system (female), a fire started and she was incapacitated. I’m unclear as to how or why…did the system she created do this? In a blooper, the computer calls her, “Men-E-Dez” and then rights itself. Both women are attacked by a force…end of episode.

 

The Lab, in a rather unclear “attack” sequence, is on fire with John in the Lab, also having been attacked mentally. Elena and Paul rescue him while TIM drains the lab of air. TIM had feedback from the gallery computer system, a telepathic one, which blew some of TIM and made John have a telepathic attack. Georgie is also involved, involuntarily, as she cried out for help, channeled through the gallery’s computer.

 

I like Georgina’s rapport with TIM, “You’re so male!”  “Thank you.”

 

Peter reveals to John and Paul, who basically abduct him and scare him into revealing more, that there are possibly thousands of Tomorrow People around. He starts out by being very definite about 100s of them already in existence. “You’re the Today People.”

 

Okay, what? Did the great breakout happen? Why aren’t there more TP helping out?

 

Mendez didn’t exist four years ago, showed up, used advanced technology, and fused materials at a molecular level. Peter wonders if she is from Mars. TIM finds out Mendez worked in San Francisco, is American, and had her buildings taken down due to safety concerns.

 

John and Paul jaunt to a Weapons base in search for info about one gov’t Dr. Caine, bonding, construction tech, and Mendez.

 

Originally Dr. Caine was to be Austen’s previous character –a male named Thompson who was in his book, IMPACT EARTH. Dr. Caine is played by the wonderful Maggie Stables, who also played the Sixth Doctor’s companion on audio…Evelyn Smythe—who’s killed in the past, claiming self-defense. She tests them and finds they can deflect bullets. She wants to study them with tissue and blood samples. If she gets that, she will help them with the present situation. She admits she has little room for morals in scientific study. She reveals that the bonding is unstable and is probably going to absorb people and things. TIM and Dr. Caine have come to some similar conclusions about the process and the building and a coming chain reaction.

 

Despite knowing from TIM that the building is extremely dangerous, Elena jaunts there, not wanting TIM to contact John and Paul, which I do not buy. Since when does TIM follow others’ orders to this extent when individual TP act rashly and stupidly as Elena is here.

 

Elena gets taken into the building walls in the cliffhanger to episode 2.

 

The entire imagery of the faces in the building’s structure comes from NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and also the DOLLHOUSE episode of FRIDAY THE 13^TH: THE SERIES where children are sucked into a dollhouse. This is hardly an original story or premise and frankly, it’s okay but not very interesting. As Elena encounters Bassett and Georgie inside the building’s mass…things become rather mundane, sci fi-horror wise.   

 

There is a slight reprise, I think, and then more, new material and action and then the theme song starts for the third episode.

 

Paul has lost most of his right. TIM scans and creates a bio-mechanical (bionic) arm for Paul while TIM also starts growing a new arm via the Trig’s cloning process. While this makes the TP world dangerous, it’s sort of feels wrong and uncomfortable. This takes several days.

 

TIM argues with John about collaborating with Caine. John tells TIM he’s no longer a 15 year old. TIM’s answer, “I am all too aware of that.”  John, unlike himself, doesn’t listen to TIM’s fuller explanation or belief about the construct. Elena vs John about him having her stay and watch over Paul is…unlike his past confrontations with Liz, annoying and frustrating. Elena comes off as a jealous, unstable, and insecure character. I don’t like it. I’m not sure I like her as a character. Making her this unlikable this early in the series is NOT a great idea, however realistic it may be. TIM believes John considers Georgie dead, even though they saw a shadow of her in the building wall.

 

A lot of the news report stuff sounds a lot like the news reports in CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO (THE DAEMONS, THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH) and which in turn also feature in some of NEW DOCTOR WHO (ALIENS OF LONDON for one).

 

The building “melts” and starts to take on a life of its own, moving across the land and cities. Lytton is Caine’s aide and he takes John’s blood sample. Johnson, Peters, and Jackson are her men. She has them shoot at him at the same time. He deflects the bullets. This development is interesting and exciting, especially as Elena comes to help John. She uses a stun gun close to Caine’s neck, telling Caine this close it might cripple her forever.

 

John tells Elena about Caine, “She’s irredeemable.”  Caine says, “Oh, I do hope so.”  She does give them the location of fusion devices.  It is in the Secure Weapon’s Store in warehouse W14 marked decommission tools. This allows John and Elena to recover the fusion welding devices.

 

 

During their heist, there is some incredible dialog.

 

“We’re not married, you know.”

“No, we’re more than that.”

 

“I think you’ve been alone too long.”

“I’ve never been alone, Elena. Not since I was a boy.”

“Some of us manage to share our minds.”

“Well, lucky you.”

 

TIM uses watchdog two to locate the growing, creeping mass of building which is going over Europe. It is in search of Mendez—its parent. TIM is using a fusion tech made by the Sorson’s construction process to produce a contra wave from their torches. First, the TP must bond it with something else to stabilize it. The personalities inside it will remain part of it forever. John wonders if there is another way. TIM finds Mendez might be in Austrian Alps in ancient Ice Caves. She was going to develop the area.

 

We learn through Elena that the thing absorbed a cable car with people inside. Mendez helps them stop the creature by approaching it and trying to bond with it. It reaches critical mass. They use the Alps to stabilize the creature. It uses Georgie to try to stop John, telling him they can have a future.

 

The Tp accomplish their goal. The Alps are part of the creature and the Earth now. Everyone inside is still alive. We hear them calling.

 

Elena and Paul have a nice rapport.

 

TIM and John discuss events. “We did the best we could.”  “You always do.”

 

“Georgie was right, you know. The price of admission into my life is too high.”

 

REVIEW: Well, a mixed bag. It was certainly better than the first two and more a traditional adventure. I felt some of the “drama” was forced---for one thing, John’s life didn’t take Georgie’s…it was HER job and her life that caused her to get messed up into the creature. The Tp had nothing to do with it. Mendez’s past is a bit…hard to believe and swallow. Some of the events feel rushed. Did Bassett die? How did he get absorbed if he was in the hospital? Did his body form a blob that went there? Some things feel a bit clunky.

 

On the other hand, it is a more straight forward adventure but being traditional, it’s hardly original. Melded monsters, living structures, blobs, and people absorbed into the walls have ALL been done before and probably better (see…well, a lot from X THE UNKNOWN to FRIDAY THE 13^TH: THE SERIES). Also: while there’s lot of action, it’s not very clear some of the time. And then there’s Elena. She goes from being sort of annoying to being self-confident to being almost useless (she seems to heal Bassett but…then he dies anyway) to being realistic. Not sure I like her at all.

 

Paul seems a bit more sympathetic and likable this story but he’s partially a victim and partially comic relief. He seems to be filling the role Mike used to.

 

How did Mendez get away from the gallery? What’s her real name?

 

One major aspect I did like was Dr. Caine. Maggie’s great in everything she does and here, she makes a good adversary character from the government, wanting what she wants, immoral, and quite a strong personality and character. Wish she was in more of these. There are some references here but not an overload as in THE DEADLIEST SPECIES.

 

On the whole this was an improvement but again, the story telling is a bit sketchy. For one thing: why does John blame “his life” for what happened to his former girlfriend (?) or former TP (maybe?). It was entirely due to NOT him but her own job and co-worker.

 

I might have to re-think the Paul’s arm bit. It seemed okay in the end and did make this TP stuff risky. Still, Paul seems, by story’s end, to have accepted it all, for a date with Elena.

 

So I’d give this a 7 out of 10 or even an 8 out of 10. It’s entertaining enough. There were times, while listening, I felt I wanted to be doing something else!

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Caine would have returned in Austen’s THE OMEGA THEORUM, a lost story. She does return in A LIVING HELL. Paul mentions Enid Blyton and a book he might have made up, THREE GO MAD IN AUSTRIA.