Why I Hate Jason Kane

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I find Jason Kane and his relationship with Benny one of the more irritating aspects of the New Adventures (hate is probably too strong a word, but "why I find Jason Kane mildly irritating" isn't such a snappy title). This is for a variety of reasons which I will endeavour to explain below.

My dislike of Jason started way back in Dave Stone's Death and Diplomacy. A large part of my dislike of that book was a result of false expectations, but I think the difference between what I expected of Jason and Benny's relationship and it's actuality goes a long way to explaining my basic dislike of the story. The factors that built up my expectation of the story were threefold: First, the oft mentioned fact that Paul Cornell visualised Benny as played by Emma Thompson and a remark (on radw I think) that Jason was to be "her Kenneth Branagh"; a mention of Jane Austen in the book's preface and its title, which is obviously Austenesque; lastly the love-hate relationship immediately displayed by Benny and Jason. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I was expecting something along the lines of Beatrice and Benedict in Much Ado about Nothing (in fact Shakespeare's comedies are also mentioned in the preface) and Elizabeth and Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. This meant that in general I was expecting the book to be a comedy of manners with much of the tension arising out of social expectations and attitudes (this wasn't really what Death and Diplomacy was for me although it may have been what Dave Stone was attempting with the diplomatic maneuverings that occur in the book.) One of the problems with a comedy of manners is that a lot depends on the readers familiarity with the social conventions of the setting - I didn't find Pride and Prejudice all that funny the first time I read it - so obviously it is hard to pull off in an invented society. Secondly, and more importantly from the point of view of my reaction to Jason I expected the romantic plot to centre around the initial dislike of the two protagonists and show them gradually coming to an understanding and exceptance of each other. This did not happen, at the end of the book, Benny and Jason seem as incapable of having a discussion without argument as they did at the beginning of the book (and as they still are come Beige Planet Mars 8 or 9 books later). It's just that along the way they've discovered they have great sex. Nowhere are we given any insight into what it is that they find attractive about each other (apart from great sex which does not, in my opinion, a relationship make, and which is certainly not the only component required for a romantic comedy). Perhaps I missed something somewhere but I'm still largely mystified about the reasons for their sudden decision to get married.

To do him credit, Paul Cornell makes an attempt to rectify this in Happy Endings by discussing their continual arguing and flagging it as a problem they were both aware of. He also introduces the fact that Jason clings to Benny in his sleep, an image that has echoed through the books. One of the few instances where we are shown their relationship outside bickering. It is the only incident that I can easily bring to mind that illustrates that aspect of their relationship and I think it is a telling damnation of the rest of Jason's books that there are no others I can point to off-hand. It's a shame, in many ways, that the rest of the book is juggling so much continuity that it can never afford to examine their relationship in great detail, giving them some space just to interact. Paul Cornell is definitely one of the better writers and he he does a lot to explore and expand their relationship, but there is only so much you can do in a book also featuring the Master, the Brigadier, UNIT, Ice Warriors, the Time Wyrm, Pakhars, Sherlock Holmes, the Travelers, Saul the sentient church, Ace and her relationships, plus a cameo from each of the previous books in the series. I'd have loved the book to have had more to do with Jason and Benny and less to do with continuity dreams.

Kate Orman's Return of the Living Dad starts by showing us Jason and Benny living together, happily married, getting on and not arguing. She suggests that the relationship has mellowed to a point where they have a reasonable understanding of each other and where they actually like each other. In short she depicts a believable long-term relationship. Sadly this was the last time we got to see this.

Well documented circumstances beyond the editor's control forced a change of direction and the decision was taken to split up the marriage. This left Jim Mortimore and the authors who have used Jason since with the awkward task of exploring and explaining what went wrong. Moreover, since many clearly would like Jason and Benny to get back together they are stuck in a world where the divorce was some kind of hiccup in an otherwise fruitful relationship. This is a hiccup which has effectively suspended the relationship right back where it started - they love each other but they hate each other. This is a believable and amusing way to begin a relationship and, despite my reservations about Death and Diplomacy and Happy Endings, Stone, Cornell and Orman had done a creditable job of depicting the growth of a relationship from this starting point.

Given that his book had to end in divorce, Jim Mortimore, probably correctly, depicts a relationship that has ceased to function. In Eternity Weeps Benny and Jason do not divorce because of any one particular reason but for a tangled web of reasons that they themselves do not really understand. But Mortimore returns to, or sets up, the destructive relationship that has persisted ever since. Jason is variously useless, wrong or underhand (sometimes all three at once) and Benny seems to delight in wilfully misunderstanding him and failing to give him the benefit of the doubt. While this is reasonable in a book that's supposed to handle the end of a relationship is begins to wear a bit thin 4 or 5 books later.

We come now to the heart of the problem. I don't see much point in covering the next four books individually: Beyond the Sun by Matthew Jones, Deadfall by Gary Russell, Oblivion by Dave Stone and Beige Planet Mars by Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham. The plot (at least in terms of Benny and Jason) is much the same in all of them. Benny and Jason meet up, they argue, they get into trouble, they row some more, they get out of trouble and they go their separate ways. In some of the books there is a suggestion that they are working towards a reconciliation, re-evaluations of their relationship are made in both Beige Planet Mars and Oblivion. My basic complaint about the four books is not about any one of them in particular but about the fact that there are four of them, each of which starts largely as though Eternity Weeps was the last book where we saw Jason. Even worse, perhaps, Jason is very inconsistent from book to book (which of course, could mean he's a deeply complicated person, but reads more like inconsistent writing). In some it is hinted that he is part of some wider organisation with shadowy motives. In Beige Planet Mars he's a (currently penniless) porn writer and is, in fact, so thoroughly wet throughout the book that I had trouble identifying him with the man in previous books who, while often useless, incompetent and underhand at least appeared to have a core of ability to draw upon when he so chose. In Deadfall he acquires a wife! who is never mentioned again except for a passing sentence in Oblivion. This is a problem with a series of books which are produced largely independant of each other, a problem that was exacerbated in this case, I think, by the desire on the part of the authors to get them back together, despite the editorial desire to keep them apart.

My basic objection to Jason was the sitcom nature of the relationship as it appeared in these books. It seemed Benny and her ex were stuck on a treadmill and I was badly afraid that this had become set in stone.

Last month I read The Mary Sue Extrusion, also by Dave Stone. Suddenly the relationship has progressed to something, hopefully, more sustainable. They are not about to get back together again, but they can work together and converse in a relatively civilised manner, something we'd seen precious little of since Return of the Living Dad. In fact I thought Mary Sue was a storming book. I must confess to "not getting" Dave Stone's books on the whole (perhaps my sense of humour is reducing as I approach middle age) but I thought Mary Sue was well-written, amusing and one of the best books Jason has been in.

I actually find myself looking forward to the next book. I hope it is more along the lines of the Mary Sue Extrusion and not more of the rather tired formula that had gone before.