Everybody Loves Regan

"You make me feel strange. I don't like you."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: August 2018

Series: Class Vol 2.01

Featuring: April, Ram, Tanya

Synopsis

When Reagan Harper joins Coal Hill Academy, everybody instantly loves her – everybody except for April. Is there really more to Reagan than meets the eye? Or are there other forces at work in Coal Hill?

Verdict

Everybody Loves Reagan was an excellent start to the second volume of Class audios from Big Finish! I thought this was probably the best story yet from the spinoff range in this format and I liked that we had three of the cast together for the first time on audio. It gave it a feeling of completeness which was good and I also enjoyed that Charlie and Mattheusz were mentioned which rounded out the entire main cast of the teenagers. April is a lovely character and I liked how she was trying to set up a buddy scheme after school. She's always trying to engage and interact by extracurricular activity and I admire her for that. Her efforts to help her get to Switzerland on an exchange programme for three months didn't go down well with Ram who was clearly unhappy despite the fact the pair had only recently got together. April's scheme was saved from disaster by the titular character of Reagan who joined up, but after interacting with her April ended up still at school three hours later with no sign of her new buddy. She'd spaced out and Reagan had disappeared which really set the scene for an enigmatic feel to the story. Tanya knowing Reagan was intriguing and I was fascinated to find that she'd been attending Coal Hill since the start of term as April hadn't known her. That was coupled with the fact Ram knew her as well and was the one who sent her to April's scheme after some fan girling at the football. Mrs Garrett being unconscious added to the uneasy feeling the audio had given she was a councillor. I really loved that April was bothered by Reagan and didn't hide her feelings. She felt there was something wrong with Reagan, but before she knew she found herself zoned out again after interacting with her. So she did a deep dive which I loved and shocked Ram, finding that no other previous schools in the area of Manchester, where she claimed to be from, had a Reagan on file. The way Reagan took over the buddy scheme was quite spiteful and harsh on April who I felt sorry for throughout. Ram thinking he took Reagan to the prom instead of Rachel was the final straw and April recalled the events of For Tonight We Might Die really strongly. Tam also claimed to have known her since primary school despite Coal Hill being nowhere near Manchester, and she was dismissive of the obvious falsehood. Reagan holding a rally was good and her threat of hoping that everyone survived was fantastic. Ram starting to remember the memories was great and I loved the concept of Reagan slipping into bad memories and making them better. That purpose was excellent. She fed ons trees so a school was the perfect setting for that, but she was annoyed that Reagan was different and just got more stressed after each spacing out instead of being refreshed. The idea of Reagan being from the planet Manchester amused me and was a bit of a stretch for me, but April's moment at the end in forcing Ram to remember Rachel and ensure that all of the bad memories weren't made better was brilliant. She sent Reagan packing her bags in a terrific way. Overall, a very strong opener! 

Rating: 9/10