BIG FINISH’s THE TOMORROW PEOPLE audios 12 TRIGONOMETRY

 

BIG FINISH’s THE TOMORROW PEOPLE audios 12

TRIGONOMETRY

3 episodes   March 2005

 

On the Trig, John, Stephen, and Robert are getting rehab from a Dr. Taz, who seems to be trying to make them all worse. There is the same TP type theme, original for this audio, in a slower variation. Taz, CMO aboard the Trig, can heal. Robert can heal. He calls Robert the “first part of our weapon” when talking to the Nurse. The theme song kicks in. This kind of thing reoccurs throughout this audio.

 

Taz calls John by his last name, “Mr. Dixon.”  Don’t like it. John’s started to respond to aural stimulation. He seems to come too for the first time here but it’s vague.

 

John knows Taz is a Grantian and they cannot lie. Skin color, eyes, and web fingers make them noticeable. Lying is alien to them. John was part of the delegation that brought the Grantians into the Federation 18 years ago.

 

Apparently, the Trig is now in synchronous orbit around the dark side of the Moon now. Huh?

 

Taz had a patient a few months ago from the planet Laskar. Taz brings up Georgie. John calls him a bastard. John is a workaholic by his own means. Five days ago Taz says that John had a breakdown and tried to erase all records from the last 20 years or so, from the TP.

 

Liz is part of the diplomatic corp for the Federation. The nurse if from Tarrol—a group that joined a few months back, a group from a special envoy agreement are here on the Trig. She claims there is herself, a couple in administration, and her friend Hallie who works in transport. This is the current chairman’s second term in office but not concurrently. He took office about six years ago and then went back home. A week back is when he took his second office. His species is a Callous. The nurse seems to be avoiding Liz’s questions about which planet and which patient is on suicide watch but it’s it IS noticeable to Liz. Liz wants to visit her family and friends on Earth. It’s not apparent why Liz is in the med unit. She saw a doctor on Tuesday morning, (Trig date one eight six four).

 

Paul and Elena seem to have been told John is on R and R and they argue about it. Who told them this? Timus? TIM? Paul mentions it might be DOA. Paul’s being an ass again, complaining he had to clean the lab.

 

TIM seems to say to them that Andrew and Carol are not in this arm of the galaxy. IF TIM is not being controlled then Andrew, last heard as a prisoner of the Sorsons, must have escaped or been let go.

 

TIM also mentions Adam and Ami but when questioned by Paul and Elena about it, both wondering if he means Adam from the dead hyperspace ghost group, TIM reveals nothing. SO…now TIM is keeping secrets and it is most out of characters. If TIM does know about Adam, Megabyte, Ami, Lisa, Jade, and Kevin he’s not telling. Another point to dislike this. AND why would TIM think of Adam and Ami in response to a question about which John’s friends might know about him. Does John know about the 1991-1995 TP group?

 

Taz and the nurse blatantly tell John he’s insane and mad. Taz seems to be plotting something with the chairman and the nurse.

 

Solid light mufflers are the gags on the Trig patients. Stephen wonders where Dr. Taz is so he knows there is something different about his looks. Taz seems to hypnotize him into thinking he was always Dr. Taz. Taz mentions Kenneth Green, so Green is Kenny’s last name. Marnine (?) Hsui Tai is named. They were killed by Stephen. Less said, the better. Taz thinks Stephen is paranoiac, suicidal and depressed.

 

Taz says, “It’s a kill or be killed universe, in the 21^st century, Stephen.  We’re all predators or prey. Which will you end up as, I wonder. Good day.” Which could be a motto for the Audio Series.

 

Taz tries to make John believe he has some problem figuring out time. He also brings up John’s brother burning to death after mentioning TIM being built and discovering Carol. SO when did the fire happen and Timothy die? John saw Timothy burn to death. John grew up alongside him. Taz also asks if his parents held him responsible. Most worlds the Federation helps, they send mainframes: guidance machines, simple teaching and learning devices. John modified it into TIM and gave it a personality and a voice.

 

This Taz took care of the real Taz a couple of days ago.

 

Liz in her practice speech makes mention of an Ambassador Damon. Liz had an infection. She went to six different worlds in a week. The cliffhanger has Taz give her a shot, supposedly for immunity. Taz says, “My guess is you’re dying.” The wrong drug. He used one for Sorson physiology. When he leaves, he says, “One down, two to go.”

 

End of ep1. That was not a bad first episode, to be honest. It was engaging, different and based on the set up from the previous episodes, not bad at all. It has mystery and strong villains. And the return of Stephen and Liz, not a bad thing really.

 

Ep 2 starts after the theme with only the cliffhanger repeated and no new material before the theme.

 

The nurse tells Robert Mitchell, in a welcome return in this episode, that each room has a proctor (?) shield to stop stray sounds and telepathic resonances from entering or leaving. Robert claims to be a doctor like bits of info are growing in his brain, bits from biology classes, new powers are bringing it all back in his subconscious.

 

Paul calls Sharon and gets her name wrong, Shatter?

 

Paul’s being a jerk again and is annoying and irritating.

 

TIM cannot raise the chairmen, Tykno or Timus on the Trig so he contacts “an old friend”…Mike. Bell. Who returns to the Trig. Mike had to jaunt from his shuttle because no one could answer his request. Holoway is great in this and Mike’s voice and voice patterns as well as his general attitude hasn’t changed. He’s just great! And his lines are written well for Mike. “Can’t say I missed the place,” and “noddy land” when he finds a gas has knocked a lot of staff out. He says a lot of insults in only Mike’s way. Mike didn’t want to be a Fed foot soldier. He guesses the gas is XK65 is from the planet Tarsurus or one of the Granta colonies. Four minutes later it dissipates. Any longer and the victims will go into cardiac arrest and suffocate. Mike’s now a mercenary. Different races that occupy the botanical area and his office, and the medical area have different air filtration systems. They are on a separate source but it’s not clear if that means three different sources or one other source.

 

Mike stays well away from John if he can. “Who’s the poor sod looking after him?” Mike felt he wasn’t needed on Earth and didn’t want to be  Fed ambassador. When Mike first hears John is on the Trig in the Medical Wing, I think he says, “Ewl.”

 

Robert can wake up the staff before the gas effects pass. Robert detects the gas. He finds himself strapped down but Liz contacts him after Stephen. He mentions Noxians but that might just be sarcasm.

 

Liz was given a neural inhibition drug and her body is immobile. She contacts Stephen, who is not sure she’s real. Stephen’s been in the med center for nearly a year. As for Taz, Taz is a Phastron but there are two, the other is a Grantian. Stephen refuses to help Liz and goes back to sleep.

 

This was originally pitched as three dualogues. The cover art was based on the novel THE VISITOR. Gary Russel mentioned they wanted to get Tyso in this as well but a misprint or mistake in THE BIG FINISH COMPANION volume 2 called him Tyson.  Mike doesn’t consider himself a mercenary. He confusedly blames something on poor Stephen being the way he is and the mess he’s in. Mike claims to be helping the people on planets that aren’t helped by the Federation: starving children and squalid planets, the ones held by the Cartel (a group of businessmen and corporations crushing the little people).

 

Mike does the help on planets ignored by the Federation. Mike needs John as a leader of people. He wants John to challenge the chairman and tells the chairman so.

 

All of this is annoying. After WAR OF THE EMPIRES, things should not have taken THIS long to get set right. WAR ended with the hope of a better tomorrow but Mike believes it has not happened but has worsened for the little people in the galaxy.  

 

Liz telepathically finds Robert and gets the straps off him with her mind! He, in turn, goes to find her and he saves her.

 

TIM, John claims, helped him build…TIM. He guided him, filled in the blanks, made it seem logical, and John calls it a collaborative effort. John is not a religious man, particularly but he calls the voices spirits of those lost in hyperspace and dissipated. John claims there are other TIM like computers on Earth but TIM is the only one that talks. THIS MIGHT BE ANOTHER REFERENCE TO THE 1990s series and the non-talking alien spaceship (IF it was alien) in that. John seems to make a vague reference to others that are alive on Earth and scattered around the galaxy. Taz asks John about making a TIM mark 2. John thinks they are all individual. The real Taz’s first name must be Hugh. He claims they have an embryonic computers, not awake or programmed yet. He wants John to program it. Taz is from the Cartel and admits that Benson was one of them. Taz reveals John is NOT on the Trig, it’s all been a fake.

 

The Cartel has restricted its business outside of the Trig worlds but seems to start expanding. Non aligned worlds, worlds outside of the Fed purview. One or two of the smaller worlds that sent requests to the Trig but were what Mike calls seemingly too unimportant to the Trig to deal with…then these worlds turned to the Cartel.

 

Mike mentions Bellast, Necron 4, and Callisto. Bellas wanted some help with their business deal, expanding their factories, but the Feds are not a bank. Nakcron 4 asked for help from an invasion but when the Federation went there, there was no invasion…twice. They asked a third time.

 

Mike says, “The cartel are cleverer than you think…which to be frank ain’t difficult.”

 

The chairman is a Callist, who’s home planet is Callisto.

 

Despite knowing there might be a bomb on the Trig, Mike and the chairman have this conversation until a bomb goes off. Taz tells John if he does not help him with his plans, he will blow up another part of the Trig…and then his friends. In the cliffhanger, he has the Nurse bring Stephen in to them, to threaten Stephen.

 

Taz mentioned a Bartholomew’s Gazetteer. The cargo bay was destroyed and depressurizing…with Mike in it! Taz wants a new TIM built, a war computer, give economic and material control over the Fed, aligned worlds and a few 1000 of unaligned ones. The engineering section of the Trig is blown up, with some sleeping people in it.

 

Ep2 was as gripping as Ep1 and this is far better than A LIVING HELL was.

 

Onto Ep3…

 

Robert finally finds Liz and saves her. His healing seems to be different from the other Tps? Why does Liz find that quite a talent when the TP have exhibited healing powers in the classic series? Maybe the writers didn’t realize that?

 

Trig: two down, four to go. That means it originally had six areas only?

 

Mike tells Robert no one calls Liz Liz. Since when? It’s the same nonsense that happened with the new DW series in which they claimed no calls Sarah Jane Sarah but always called her Sarah Jane. Did anyone actually watch the original shows? John constantly called Liz Liz from what I recall. Maybe they also used Elizabeth but she never seemed upset about it when they called her Liz. Ditto the Doctor in DOCTOR WHO, the classic series, calling Sarah Jane, Sarah. She never minded. Suddenly in the new series, Sarah Jane must be called Sarah Jane. It’s annoying, all round.

 

Next, we have another annoying thing in part 3…the chairman claims he can kill. I guess I imagined that EVERY BEING as part of the Federation and certainly those on the Trig COULD NOT KILL. What is this now?

 

Mike stops the chairman’s gun from working, rigging up tiny bits of metal and machinery around so it won’t work. Elena and John saw Stephen two months ago and Stephen was almost well…just being kept for last minute check-ups. Taz or the fake one, was giving Stephen shock treatment! Mike calls Robert a TP soldier in waiting, which is unfair. Taz’s real name is Race and the nurse is Narina, who wants to kill someone. John refuses to do what Taz wants and the nurse destroys the Medical Wing on the Trig. Liz is there and stuns the nurse. John tells Race the Tp, even him, are expendable.

 

Even worse than some of the stuff above, Robert takes on the pain of those he heals like THE EMPATH in STAR TREK. Which none of the Tp have before. Mike vs John is annoying, too. Mike wants to shoot Race again with a stun gun but John won’t allow it? I’m not sure which one is more wrong in what they’re saying or doing.

 

The last ten minutes become an argument between Liz, Mike, and John about the way he ran things. “So there was a problem?” John asked. Liz tells him that he rarely cared what the others thought. This is not true if you watch the series, much. Stephen becomes a peace maker but Mike says he preferred him half dead. John tells them they make him sick. This entire thing falls apart with this argument.

 

Then the villain wakes up and says, “They say you can’t go home again. Looks like they’re right.” He calls them the originals in what seems to be a kind of breaking the fourth wall. John tells Robert he took away their childhood…Mike and Stephen? They seemed to have their childhood just fine (especially Mike) in the old series. Then, John says, boys mature slower than the girls. THEN, he says Liz is the same age he is. John thinks not much frightens Robert but he tells John pretty much everything does. John tells him that they have to use that. Robert will help the security teams find the rest of the bombs.

 

Again, all the darkness that might have come from the original series, is squeezed out from it with every dark corner that can be seen.

 

Liz, Mike and Stephen menace Race. 

 

When John returns, he tells Race they will leave him in his shuttle and it will be some time for the Cartel to find and punish him. John gives him this speech, “Earth is under our protection.” Sounds like RTD stuff or maybe RTD used this stuff.

 

Liz will help repair the Trig. Mike finally agrees with John but his life is out there. Stephen will tag along with Mike. “The old team. Together one last time,” Mike said. Mike’s not good at farewells.

 

John does have a nice house of his own: that’s home to him. John needs a boost to jaunt straight home to the Lab. I’m guessing Robert will eventually go to Earth, too?

 

Okay, so the first two parts are excellent really. Good mystery, good set up, good acting, and even some action. The returns of Liz, Stephen, Robert, and Mike are all well-handled. Despite misgivings about the Trig being still as stuffy as it was in WAR OF THE EMPIRES and that the chairman could kill or that no one noticed Dr. Taz being a different species, it was quite okay.

 

Then we get to ep 3, which almost makes it. I didn’t really enjoy all the angst and fighting and in fighting, accusations, and differences of opinions that were thrown about by the main four characters. I guess it’s realistic but not sure that is what I want out of a TP story. It leaves a bad feeling. Yet it’s not as bad as A LIVING HELL was. I’m not even sure the conflicts were defendable. John doesn’t want Mike to stun Race—just why not? And then later he comes back and lets Race get stunned. John calls the other kids but then admits to Robert Liz is his age (?). John claims after they left him, they managed to get into trouble (?).