Catching Up, and ATA Girl

Welcome back! This week, I want to talk about a recent audio drama from Big Finish Productions that I think is worthy of some attention: ATA Girl. But first, some follow-ups to previous entries.

I can’t believe when I blogged about Gizmo a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to mention one of his greatest qualities: his intelligence. Among other things, he has even learned how to open doors.

This video shows him opening our pantry door. Once we saw he could do it, we put a childproof lock on it. At the time of this video, we were having problems with the lock, so we put a chair in front of the door most of the time. This features a rare instance where we had the lock unlocked and the chair out of place, and you can see what happened.

Also, some time ago, I wrote about the early comic book stories about Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger. A couple of weeks ago, a TV series based on the comic premiered on Freeform, and my wife and I love it. While the show makes a lot of changes to the comic, it keeps the gritty sense of reality that I loved so much at the core of the comic. We really recommend it.

While probably best-known for their audio adaptations of classic TV series, Big Finish recently launched a line of original audio dramas with ATA Girl, a four-part series about the women of the Air Transport Auxiliary. During World War II, this civilian organization employed women pilots to ferry planes from the factories to active service airfields, often without the use of radio or instruments. The women were as much in danger of being shot down by their own forces as by the enemy. Created and directed by writer/actress Louise Jameson, produced by Helen Goldwyn, and written entirely by female writers, I found this to be an excellent historical drama.

Told as a series of flashbacks by one of the pilots as her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter spark those memories, the stories aren’t told in chronological order. A character who takes a minor role in one episode may take center stage in another. While I have only listened to the series once, I feel like it will make for a great second listen, knowing more about the characters when I meet them.

My quick elevator pitch line for the series would be “Call the Midwife in wartime with planes.” While the series is set during the war, and we do get lots of flying action, there aren’t really dogfights or aerial battles, because that’s not what these women did. Instead the episodes are full of human drama, and it’s quite gripping.

The series covers issues ranging from the treatment of women versus men, homosexuality, single parenting, pregnancy out of wedlock, abortion, love, and death. And it doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the harder topics. I listen to these while walking on the treadmill, and one episode in particular had me in tears as I walked. And the thing about audio: it’s impossible to look away when things get tough.

While the series views everything through the lens of history, I found it equally frustrating just how many of the issues depicted remain relevant today. Whether it’s the way the male soldiers and pilots treat the women, the attitudes towards pregnancy outside of marriage or the attitudes towards abortion, so little has changed, it’s pretty shameful.

Of course, compelling writing for audio is nothing without great acting and direction and sound design. Big Finish has never disappointed in any of these areas, and this is no exception. Because of the nature of audio drama, it’s a much more dialogue-based story than you might get if it were on television, but the sound perfectly creates images in the listeners’ minds. It’s great seeing the talented team at Big Finish turning their hand to something more based in reality than their usual fare. 

I didn’t know anything about the ATA before this series was announced, so I found this to be very enlightening and powerful. I absolutely recommend it to fans of dramatic fiction, particularly historical drama , women’s history, and military history. You can listen to a free excerpt here to check it out, but I bet once you do, you’ll be hooked.

This week, I’m trying to get back in the habit of the Pop! of the Week, although this week’s Funko toy isn’t actually a Pop. I wanted to stick with the theme of women in wartime, so here is the Dorbz of the DC Bombshell version of Black Canary.

The DC Bombshell series tells the stories of versions of the DC Comics female superheroes during World War II. It’s a great series written by Marguerite Bennett and drawn by a number of fantastic artists. It’s one of the few superhero comics that my wife and I both read, and I recommend it pretty highly as well.

Here is the trailer for ATA Girl, and I’ll see you next week!