‘Benny’s Story’
[one of four stories on The Company of Friends, 2009, Big Finish, ISBN 978-1-84435-411-5]
The first time Big Finish have teamed up the eighth Doctor and Benny Summerfield, played by Paul McGann and Lisa Bowerman. I went through a number of ideas before I came up with one the powers-that-be at Big Finish liked, including a meta George Lucas-style Star Wars meets Indiana Jones action-adventure called Episode IV, and a story involving Braxiatel as the villain. I called the story that got made Tempting Fate, but the title was changed to fit the house style of the release as a whole. The fun of the episode was seeing the Doctor and Benny banter, and the big challenge was to come up with a story that kept them together and in jeopardy, without collapsing under the weight of continuity references about where they were in their respective timelines. And tell a story from start to finish in twenty five minutes.
REVIEWS
Lance Parkin 