Birthright (1999)

The fourth Benny play is the second in the Time Ring trilogy and usually the middle part of a trilogy is designed purely to be a holding pattern until we get to the payoff of the final installement. This marks another appearance from the Doctor Who world where the Doctor himself makes an appearance. Mr Colin Baker plays Mikhail Vladamir Popov and this story is set in the early 20^th century. I must say that despite this being made at the end of the last century, my mind cant help but feel that this story has a Jago and Litefoot feel to it. The story sees Jason and Bernice finding themselves in two different places. Benny is in 1909 London where is in the same time as John Lafayette and Jason is in the future on Antykhon.

The story spends a long time keeping Benny and Jason apart but the story spend a large portion of the story flipping the action between the two but what was quite good was how despite being in two different scenarios they did have something in common, both wanted the second time ring which was in the possession of Lafayette. I really couldn’t be interested less in Lafayette. I thought he worked well in Walking to Babylon but didn’t work as well in this. I found the Benny stuff to be slightly more enjoyable than Jason’s. The spring heeled Jack plot was quite fun and it helped move the story along until the Jason plot strand got more interesting. It was like a Jack the Ripper murder spree and wouldn’t have been out of place in a Jago and Litefoot story. There was a nice moment which would have worked well on TV but because of how grim it would have looked. The idea of a larder full of humans is not a nice thing.

Colin Baker’s accent struggles at times to not go into pantomime mode. It’s always good to hear Colin Baker and putting his accent to one side I thought that Baker’s performance was perfectly fine. The plot revelation that Popov’s daughter had been murdered helped me believe in his character and made his importance in the story that much more important though it was slightly odd when he seemed to disappear from the story for a while. It was good that Stephen Fewell got a nice slice of the action even if it wasn’t in the part of the story that came out better on audio. I am starting to like the character of Kane more and more.

There is another story where there is no definitive ending for Benny and Jason though we know that there will be a resolution to this trilogy so it’s not so much of an issue for me. Birthright did what it needed to do and did it well. Birthright is an enjoyable adventure that continues the journey of this opening series well. As a middle story it serves its purpose rather well and for me it was Baker’s inclusion that helped elevate this above mediocre. It still seems odd put a 26^th Century character in a early 20^th Century setting but its to Lisa Bowerman’s credit that she makes it work and it helps provide a nice feel to these stories.

Rating – 7/10