THE WRATH OF THE ICENI

I started listening to the third instalment from the 4th Doctor’s first season of Big Finish adventures last night.

It starts of with a pretty good premise – the Doctor and Leela land, who knows where, as the Doctor continues educating the savage.  They hear the sound of battle, and Leela rushes off to aid a woman fighting two Roman soldiers.

The woman turns out to be Boudica, who callously beheads the surviving, and surrendering, Roman soldier despite the Doctor’s protests.  They then return to her camp, meeting her people who have just won a victory over the Romans.

It goes along reasonably well until the gradually building anti-man sentiment layers on too thickly.  Boudica’s constant dismissal of the Doctor, because he’s a man, makes you wonder how she can possible command so many men in her tribe.  You don’t lead people into war on an attitude no matter how many chips you have on your shoulders.

The Doctor behaves most curiously, almost cowardly, apparently giving Boudica plenty of opportunity to see him as someone of no relevance.  He spouts gibberish about not wanting to be involved (a very nooWHO-esque “established fact in time” speech to Leela) to explain his apparent cowardice.

In Boudica’s camp, the only other woman we meet is the young cook, who has just the same “anti-man” attitude as her leader.  For some reason, the men who have fought and died in the battle just take her attitude and crawl away suitable subdued by her words.  It makes you wonder if these men would win a battle against a teddy bears picnic, never mind a Roman legion.

Perhaps the story will improve once the writer’s got this “anti-man” chip off his shoulder.  Women can be written as strong, independent characters and leaders without having to wave an “anti-man” flag about all over the place.  Defining women based on their relationship with men is still sexist, regardless of whether they’re putting the men down or building them up.