the company of friends
I finally managed to download The Company of Friends from Big Finish and listen to the Fitz section (the audio includes four 25-minute stories with the Eighth Doctor and different companions).
It was very enjoyable and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Fitz. Stephen Cole, who wrote the story, also wrote some of my favorite EDAs for the Eight-Fitz relationship, and his audioplay captures their teasing, bantering, deeply affectionate rapport. Eight/Fitz shippers won't be disappointed, either (I'm convinced that Cole himself ships them). There's nothing overtly romantic between them, but Cole makes it obvious how much they mean to each other.
The story itself is light on plot but has a lot of funny moments, and that's fine with me since I tend not to care about plot anyway.
I do have some reservations about the performance of Matt Di Angelo, who plays Fitz. He overdoes the cockney and Fitz comes off sounding like a heavy from EastEnders (and I thought that before I looked up Di Angelo on Wikipedia and found out he's in EastEnders). Fitz is canonically from Archway, and I have no idea if an Archway accent is noticeably different from an East End accent, but given that Fitz's fantasy-self is a suave, sophisticated playboy, it wouldn't surprise me if he'd trained himself to speak in a more posh accent than his natural one. Anyway, it's not just a matter of accent; something about Di Angelo's line reading makes Fitz sound more like a wannabe Reggie Kray than a wannabe James Bond.
This didn't hamper my enjoyment much, though, and if Big Finish makes more Eight-and-Fitz audios, I'll buy them. Providing, of course, that I can successfully navigate their awful website.
I also listened to the first story, with Benny Summerfield, and liked it a lot. Dunno about the other two stories yet, but I'm looking forward to the one with Mary Shelley.
*****
It was very enjoyable and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Fitz. Stephen Cole, who wrote the story, also wrote some of my favorite EDAs for the Eight-Fitz relationship, and his audioplay captures their teasing, bantering, deeply affectionate rapport. Eight/Fitz shippers won't be disappointed, either (I'm convinced that Cole himself ships them). There's nothing overtly romantic between them, but Cole makes it obvious how much they mean to each other.
The story itself is light on plot but has a lot of funny moments, and that's fine with me since I tend not to care about plot anyway.
I do have some reservations about the performance of Matt Di Angelo, who plays Fitz. He overdoes the cockney and Fitz comes off sounding like a heavy from EastEnders (and I thought that before I looked up Di Angelo on Wikipedia and found out he's in EastEnders). Fitz is canonically from Archway, and I have no idea if an Archway accent is noticeably different from an East End accent, but given that Fitz's fantasy-self is a suave, sophisticated playboy, it wouldn't surprise me if he'd trained himself to speak in a more posh accent than his natural one. Anyway, it's not just a matter of accent; something about Di Angelo's line reading makes Fitz sound more like a wannabe Reggie Kray than a wannabe James Bond.
This didn't hamper my enjoyment much, though, and if Big Finish makes more Eight-and-Fitz audios, I'll buy them. Providing, of course, that I can successfully navigate their awful website.
I also listened to the first story, with Benny Summerfield, and liked it a lot. Dunno about the other two stories yet, but I'm looking forward to the one with Mary Shelley.
*****