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selenakdavetheanalyzer wanted to know: If Big Finish picks up Class, which elements do I expect, and which do I want to see expanded and explored?Let’s assume the ideal case: all the actors are available all the time. Ditto for any guest star I name below.
The immediate cliffhanger to be resolved is April stuck in a Shadow Kin body. Now, the audio format would actually permit the character to remain that way for longer than an episode without stretching the budget, but I can’t think of a way in which April could live in a Shadow Kin body while still going to school, and I don’t want throw over the entire format by letting the gang go on a road trip. So let’s assume April is back in her own body by the end of the first episode. Incidentally, what little fanfiction I’ve read that tries to explain this instead of handwave it as having already happened when the story starts usually lets the Doctor solve the problem via a trip to a galactic clinic. (Same with Quill’s pregnancy coming to a non-lethal-for-Quill conclusion.) But here’s an idea: why not let Clara and Me become involved instead? Speaking of fanfiction, I enjoyed the stories that used the fact Clara taught at Coal Hill and thus probably had been April’s teacher. (And that of Ram, Matteusz and Tanya.) So let’s say Clara wants to visit Coal Hill one more time in secret and that just happens to be right after season 1 of Class. If April’s body switch needs to be resolved via a quick TARDIS trip, Clara and Me can do the honors as well, and the potential dynamics could be fascinating – Clara and Quill, Me and Quill, Clara and any of the kids who knew her and whom she knew as a teacher and who now have done the apocalypse preventing gig that used to be hers. She could talk with April about dying and coming back; so could Me/Ashildr, with a very different pov. And of course Me has played every role in her long, long life, rebel and ruler both, and she can’t even remember her original people who held so much meaning for her when she was Ashildr, so her perspective on the Quill and Charlie situation should be interesting.
The Quill and Charlie relationship was to me the most intriguing of the show, and I’d hope a Big Finish continuation of Class would give us more development there, now that Quill is free of the Arn and Charlie has committed genocide. I’d also want flashbacks which delve into their past on Rhodia and show us more of the Quill and Rhodians respectively, since the audio format doesn’t have to pay any money for expensive special effects. The season finale also had Quill start a new mentor-type of relationship with Tanya; given that Tanya just got orphaned, I’d expect that to continue, but I would also want more of Tanya’s friendship with Ram which was very present in the early part of the show but later not so much.
Ram lost his father, so any Big Finish season 2 of Class should allow him to process that and finally introduce his mother as a character. (Who, please, does not die.) I should hope Ram won’t even try to lie to her about how his father died, not least because „keeping this whole thing secret from one parent or both“ annoyed me already when SJA did it. So, Ram’s mother: should become an important character in the audio season.
Charlie and Matteusz: here I really want to see consequences. They were both simultanously afraid and pretty sure of the fact that if Charlie uses the cabinet, he’ll lose Matteusz. And while I’m profoundly grateful Matteusz didn’t die and want the show itself NOT to lose him, I’m against the fanfic scenario where Matteusz just seems to handwave that in favour of comforting Charlie post s1 finale. Basically: I want a break-up. A temporary one, I hasten to addd, I’m all for them getting together again eventually. But first, consequences. It could offer us the chance to see, or rather hear, Matteusz interact with the other characters more often, too, not just when Ram is taunting him about sex with aliens.
The Weeping Angels reveal: argh. My least favourite element oft he s1 finale. Here I’m hoping that since the impact of the Angels is extremely visual in nature, Big Finish wouldn’t want to use them, and would quickly declare the ones we saw in the tag scene were rogue agents who get dispensed with by the end of the first episode, while the true Board of Governors are far more audio-friendly people.
Big Bads and little Bads: the Governors in the long term, but I expect a few menaces of the week to show up, and also at least one recurring antagonist who can be defeated in an audio season finale. If said antagonist has a name which in any way sounds like Bre’Xit, my already great love for Big Finish will have no bounds. As I am a citizen of the world, and thus, according to Theresa May, a citizen of nowhere.
The other days
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Date: 2018-01-03 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-03 10:36 pm (UTC)So let’s assume April is back in her own body by the end of the first episode.
Oh goodness, I could already see the Big Finish cover for her episode now, with her in her human body at school but her eyes either red or smoking out black. Bringing Clara and Me in would be interesting, cause I could see some understandable resentment to the Doctor and his ilk for bringing them into this scary life. Though I could see BF being leery of doing crossovers too quickly, wanting the cast to stand on their own ground and not have main Who characters bail them out too much. Still, what you say brings in some interesting character dynamics. Though speaking of crossovers, ooh, what if Courtney Woods got involved in the mix? She traveled a bit with the Doctor but is she still going to Coal Hill and how does she cope with this alien stuff screwing around at home? How would she and the gang interact and rely on each other?
solve the problem via a trip to a galactic clinic. (Same with Quill’s pregnancy coming to a non-lethal-for-Quill conclusion.)
Funny you should mention Quill’s pregnancy. When announcing he wouldn’t do a Class series 2, Patrick Ness gave a tidbit of what it’d have been in a now deleted tweet (Link: https://blogtorwho.com/class-patrick-ness-announces-will-not-write-class/): “(weeping angel civil war & PLANET, Quill has a dangerous son, Charlie & Matteusz shirtless wood chopping…” Beginning with the son bit, having a son antagonist sounded interesting. I’d might involve Ballon’s daughter into the mix, see what click and clash might happen when she encounters her father’s killer and her supposedly dangerous half-brother.
Basically: I want a break-up. A temporary one, I hasten to addd, I’m all for them getting together again eventually.
Yeah, that sounds the good way to go for conflict. Maybe that “shirtless wood chopping” would come after they get back together again. ;)
I’m hoping that since the impact of the Angels is extremely visual in nature, Big Finish wouldn’t want to use them
Well…Big Finish had already did two or three well-reviewed audios where the Weeping Angels played a part. I listened to them and they did a good job. It mostly involved the sound of their movement and the characters vocally reacting to them. But I do agree with not using them too much in a hypothetical BF series. Ness’s tweet would give too much about them away and ruin their mystique (though “Weeping Angel civil war” gives me the amusing image of statues duking it out in the middle of the city and passersby being bewildered on why some were snarling and flipping the bird at each other).
Maybe have them at most have a background influence on the Governors and their goals before flouncing off when everyone gets what they want, leaving the Governors to go in and do their evil thing. That way, they could leave with dignity and mystery and not look like chumps since they’d be likely defeated. Speaking of that…maybe Dorothea Ames could be sneaked in back by having her having a backup plan in case she gets Outlived-Your-Usefulness’d and some hand-wavvy alien device brings back to life to do…things (Get back with the Governers? Be a third enemy? Take your pick). I agree with the last commentator, keep Cyril Nri as a sort of Big Bad.
For enemies, yeah some menaces of the week, maybe with them being themed around education, teenage, and teacher struggles in some way (Would students and teachers still be killed, was that ever an issue with the show’s perception? At worst, maybe the Governors could decide that this body count is just Too Much and is starting to get unwanted attention, so they do something with the rift or whatever so that whatever comes is least likely to leave behind a body count).
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Date: 2018-01-04 05:18 pm (UTC)Well, yes, but April in the wrong body is a bit beyond what the gang with their own means could fix.
Courtney Woods: I had been hoping we'd see her on the show, and yes, a return would be most welcome.
Re: school-themed menaces, well, there's the obvious Buffy precedent. And speaking of precedents, Quill having a dangerous son (presumably super fast growing due to his conception?) brings irresitably Connor (as in Angel's son Connor) to mind.
Shirtless in the woods: methinks Patrick Ness has read Maurice. :)
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Date: 2018-05-28 05:59 pm (UTC)I've been seeing some very suspicious rumors for some time, but didn't want to message you until it was solidly confirmed (Mind you, you're probably already being bombarded with messages about this).
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Date: 2018-05-28 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-28 07:18 pm (UTC)