AUDIO REVIEW: FORTUITAS (BLAKE’S 7) / AUTHOR: TREVOR GEORGE MANN / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / STARRING: PAUL DARROW, MICHAEL KEATING, JAN CHAPPELL, JO HOWARTH, HYWEL MORGAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Big Finish continue their new series of full cast Blake’s 7 adventures with a George Mann story, Fortuitas. Avon is leading the Liberator in a continuing quest for Dayna and the ship arrives at Solace – once a galactic tourist trap but now fallen on hard times.
On Solace, the Liberator crew makes contact with Karl Ranking (Morgan), who lives just on the wrong side of the law. He has his own problems – his wife, Eva (Howarth), has gone missing. He wants help finding her if he is to share what he knows about Dayna having been on Solace.
With a large crew and extra characters, it can be a challenge to give everyone a legitimate part. George Mann tackles this be segmenting the story and giving most crewmembers the spotlight for their own segment. If this wasn’t enough, he goes out of his way to work Orac into the story as a more active character than normal, something that gives this story a character of its own.
This individual character continues into the threat and dénouement, the writer moves away from a standard ‘evil Federation’ story into something more parochial and echoing some of the mood music in current British politics. This is all done in an accessible manner and never gets in the way of storytelling. Fortuitas is a great piece of Blake’s 7 and not every story needs to pivot around the major elements of the regular Blake’s 7 milieu.
The second series of full cast Blake’s 7 keeps up the pace, roll on next month!
SHARE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW OR ON TWITTER @STARBURST_MAG
Find your local STARBURST stockist HERE, or buy direct from us HERE. For our digital edition (available to read on your iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows 8, Samsung and/or Huawei device – all for just £1.99), visit MAGZTER DIGITAL NEWSSTAND.
CLICK TO BUY!
MORE FROM AROUND THE WEB:
