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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 15:42:57 GMT
I'd be very interested to hear opinions from people completely new to the franchise. I honestly thought The Prisoner was one of the shows that most fans of cult tv would have seen early on - seminal stuff. I had heard of 'The Prisoner' but have never watched it. No reason really, it just never grabbed me (same is true of 'Dark Shadows', which I wasn't familiar with unitl BF came along - now I can't imagine life without it!). So I came into this completely new. It took a while for me to decide to get it - really, it was the enthusiasm from the promotion that tipped me over the edge. I absolutely, absolutely love it. It is a huge, strange, oppressive story, bleak in the hopelessness of its larger-than-life premise. I'll be honest and admit I've found Nick Briggs' writing unengaging a lot of the time, but here it is terrific. I find certain similarities between this and his acclaimed 'Creatures of Beauty' from way back, such is the realistic unreality of it all (if that makes sense). The cast are uniformly excellent. I have no knowledge of Patrick MaGoohan's performance, but Mark Elstob is intense and sardonic, constantly 'on the edge' but powerfully restrained throughout. His co-stars, particularly No. 2 in all guises and Helen Goldwyn's various characters, are excellent also. The music is very 1960's, evoking memories of that psychedelic, hallucigenic time, but the dialogue is laced with modern-isms, making this very much a 21st century product. So in short - I quite liked it!! Does it make you want to watch the show? Seeing it for the first time on videos in the 90s blew me away. It was hypnotic, strange, beautiful, terrifying and McGoohan is one of the most unusual yet facinating leading men ever. Like Nicol Williamson there's a fury barely contained in him. BF dispatched mine today (only took a working week...) but I'm having to really fight the temptation just to listen to the DLs.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 15:57:04 GMT
I had heard of 'The Prisoner' but have never watched it. No reason really, it just never grabbed me (same is true of 'Dark Shadows', which I wasn't familiar with unitl BF came along - now I can't imagine life without it!). So I came into this completely new. It took a while for me to decide to get it - really, it was the enthusiasm from the promotion that tipped me over the edge. I absolutely, absolutely love it. It is a huge, strange, oppressive story, bleak in the hopelessness of its larger-than-life premise. I'll be honest and admit I've found Nick Briggs' writing unengaging a lot of the time, but here it is terrific. I find certain similarities between this and his acclaimed 'Creatures of Beauty' from way back, such is the realistic unreality of it all (if that makes sense). The cast are uniformly excellent. I have no knowledge of Patrick MaGoohan's performance, but Mark Elstob is intense and sardonic, constantly 'on the edge' but powerfully restrained throughout. His co-stars, particularly No. 2 in all guises and Helen Goldwyn's various characters, are excellent also. The music is very 1960's, evoking memories of that psychedelic, hallucigenic time, but the dialogue is laced with modern-isms, making this very much a 21st century product. So in short - I quite liked it!! Does it make you want to watch the show? Seeing it for the first time on videos in the 90s blew me away. It was hypnotic, strange, beautiful, terrifying and McGoohan is one of the most unusual yet facinating leading men ever. Like Nicol Williamson there's a fury barely contained in him. BF dispatched mine today (only took a working week...) but I'm having to really fight the temptation just to listen to the DLs. It actually doesn't make me any more eager to watch the show, to be honest. I can't really explain why, other than I've been so blown away by the audios, I want my experience of 'The Prisoner' to be entirely audio. Perhaps I'm missing out! Of the 1960's shows, I've never really been keen on The Avengers (I'm used to the colour episodes, with two of the smug-est leads ever) but I've become hooked on Big Finish's version of the earlier stuff. My favourite from that era would be 'Man in a Suitcase', which I love.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 16:04:57 GMT
I adore Man With A Suitcase too. I have the Network DVD set I really think you should give the show a bash. There's nothing to worry about. There's no element to apologise for (no giant rats or silly effects). It's nothing like The Avengers (or The Saint, Jason King, Adam Adamant and so on..) in scope or execution. For one it had a budget that was huge for it's time thanks to McGoohan's pulling power post-Danger Man and Lew Grade's desire to keep Pat on staff and not lose him to films. It looks - especially on bluray - like a pristine film. It's gorgeous. McGoohan wanted to make, I think, 7 eps originally and considered the rest filler but he was persuaded to make more for US sales. Honestly, there's very little out of the eps I don't think is top class. There's a reason Nick didn't want to change it up, I guess. It was done so right the first time .
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 18:48:10 GMT
I adore Man With A Suitcase too. I have the Network DVD set I really think you should give the show a bash. There's nothing to worry about. There's no element to apologise for (no giant rats or silly effects). It's nothing like The Avengers (or The Saint, Jason King, Adam Adamant and so on..) in scope or execution. For one it had a budget that was huge for it's time thanks to McGoohan's pulling power post-Danger Man and Lew Grade's desire to keep Pat on staff and not lose him to films. It looks - especially on bluray - like a pristine film. It's gorgeous. McGoohan wanted to make, I think, 7 eps originally and considered the rest filler but he was persuaded to make more for US sales. Honestly, there's very little out of the eps I don't think is top class. There's a reason Nick didn't want to change it up, I guess. It was done so right the first time . Re: 'Man in a Suitcase' - I found McGill hilarious when I first saw the show. Winning fistfights whilst smoking a cigarette had me howling. But pretty quickly Richard Bradford won me around with a really good performance as this flawed, complex, headstrong man. I've got his interview DVD where he talks about striving to 'make it real' - and he really did. Very underrated actor. I will give 'The Prisoner' a go, following your recommendation. I was never tempted to watch the recent remake either - mind you, it seems not a lot of other people were either.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 22, 2016 23:21:14 GMT
I adore Man With A Suitcase too. I have the Network DVD set I really think you should give the show a bash. There's nothing to worry about. There's no element to apologise for (no giant rats or silly effects). It's nothing like The Avengers (or The Saint, Jason King, Adam Adamant and so on..) in scope or execution. For one it had a budget that was huge for it's time thanks to McGoohan's pulling power post-Danger Man and Lew Grade's desire to keep Pat on staff and not lose him to films. It looks - especially on bluray - like a pristine film. It's gorgeous. McGoohan wanted to make, I think, 7 eps originally and considered the rest filler but he was persuaded to make more for US sales. Honestly, there's very little out of the eps I don't think is top class. There's a reason Nick didn't want to change it up, I guess. It was done so right the first time . The Prisoner on Blu-ray was a revelation. I've watched it start to finish at least a dozen times over the past 40 years but on Blu-ray, it was like seeing it with a fresh pair of eyes. I'm not kidding when I say I feel like The Prisoner is one of the four or five best things the medium of television has ever produced. I can't imagine my life without The Prisoner in it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 23:24:56 GMT
I adore Man With A Suitcase too. I have the Network DVD set I really think you should give the show a bash. There's nothing to worry about. There's no element to apologise for (no giant rats or silly effects). It's nothing like The Avengers (or The Saint, Jason King, Adam Adamant and so on..) in scope or execution. For one it had a budget that was huge for it's time thanks to McGoohan's pulling power post-Danger Man and Lew Grade's desire to keep Pat on staff and not lose him to films. It looks - especially on bluray - like a pristine film. It's gorgeous. McGoohan wanted to make, I think, 7 eps originally and considered the rest filler but he was persuaded to make more for US sales. Honestly, there's very little out of the eps I don't think is top class. There's a reason Nick didn't want to change it up, I guess. It was done so right the first time . The Prisoner on Blu-ray was a revelation. I've watched it start to finish at least a dozen times over the past 40 years but on Blu-ray, it was like seeing it with a fresh pair of eyes. I'm not kidding when I say I feel like The Prisoner is one of the four or five best things the medium of television has ever produced. I can't imagine my life without The Prisoner in it. You're winning me over with that and I've loved it for nearly 2 decades and owned it on 3 formats! Great post!
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 22, 2016 23:40:22 GMT
The Prisoner on Blu-ray was a revelation. I've watched it start to finish at least a dozen times over the past 40 years but on Blu-ray, it was like seeing it with a fresh pair of eyes. I'm not kidding when I say I feel like The Prisoner is one of the four or five best things the medium of television has ever produced. I can't imagine my life without The Prisoner in it. You're winning me over with that and I've loved it for nearly 2 decades and owned it on 3 formats! Great post! Me as well. VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray. Which is why the Blu-rays were so stunning. Things that I didn't know were there before just popped on the screen.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 23:50:05 GMT
You're winning me over with that and I've loved it for nearly 2 decades and owned it on 3 formats! Great post! Me as well. VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray. Which is why the Blu-rays were so stunning. Things that I didn't know were there before just popped on the screen. I've got the same, or had, I sold the videos years ago - kept the DVD because it has a 300 page making of book by Andrew Pixley that is just amazing.
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Post by Digi on Jan 23, 2016 0:03:08 GMT
I was chatting with Nick Briggs on Twitter the other day, and he confirmed that the lower price point for Volume 2 is based on feedback to Volume 1's pricing:
Such a nice man.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 0:05:46 GMT
Thanks very much for that Digi - we hoped it was BF listening, glad to hear it for sure.
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Post by seeley on Jan 23, 2016 1:30:26 GMT
I'm ten minutes into the preview. And I'm more tempted than ever to get this... Big Finish will get you in the end! By hook or by crook, they will!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 7:07:18 GMT
Big Finish will get you in the end! By hook or by crook, they will! Not me they won't. My Doctor Who baklog comes to more than 10% of my annual income which puts this so far down the luxury list it doesn't even make it onto the spreadsheet. They will do a sale at some point in the next two years. If that brings it down to a fiver per disc I may buy.
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Post by anothermanicmondas on Jan 23, 2016 17:04:21 GMT
I notice that the limited edition is limited to 3000 copies, which is significantly less than the 10,000 for the Doctor Who limited editions This could be an indication that they expect fewer sales - and fewer sales mean they have to charge more per unit to break even.
The license cost may also be relevant
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 17:27:50 GMT
I notice that the limited edition is limited to 3000 copies, which is significantly less than the 10,000 for the Doctor Who limited editions This could be an indication that they expect fewer sales - and fewer sales mean they have to charge more per unit to break even. The license cost may also be relevant No-ones quibbled with the limited edition price - that's the price point all the deluxe books have been at. It's the fact that the downloaders are suddenly asked to pay a lot more - when there's nothing limited or deluxe about what they get - that irked. That and launching a new range without a standard price, a sure way to put off many non-Prisoner fans, as we've seen on the board already. I think your second point about licence cost is potentially close to the reason Vol 1 didn't have a standard release or a cheaper download option but BF aren't going to comment on that kind of thing, understandably. I'm just glad we can close the chapter and move on to the range being affordable.
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Post by anothermanicmondas on Jan 23, 2016 17:50:25 GMT
my point was that the cost of making a digital production is pretty much a one-off and virtually identical no matter how many copies. so the cost of the license, the acting, recording, lunches, etc is a single big amount. if 5,000 people buy copies then (to break even) each person has to pay 1/5000 of the cost if 10,000 people buy copies, each person has to pay 1/10,000 of the cost to break even
so the more copies sold, the cheaper Big Finish can afford to sell it. So if they estimate lower sales they need to charge a higher amount to make the same profit
the smaller print-run of the limited edition suggest they anticipate fewer sales and are compensating for Adam Smith's principle of Supply and Demand. It could be, that they are also expecting fewer downloads
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Post by kfbate on Jan 23, 2016 21:43:32 GMT
I notice that the limited edition is limited to 3000 copies, which is significantly less than the 10,000 for the Doctor Who limited editions This could be an indication that they expect fewer sales - and fewer sales mean they have to charge more per unit to break even. The license cost may also be relevant No-ones quibbled with the limited edition price - that's the price point all the deluxe books have been at. It's the fact that the downloaders are suddenly asked to pay a lot more - when there's nothing limited or deluxe about what they get - that irked. That and launching a new range without a standard price, a sure way to put off many non-Prisoner fans, as we've seen on the board already. I think your second point about licence cost is potentially close to the reason Vol 1 didn't have a standard release or a cheaper download option but BF aren't going to comment on that kind of thing, understandably. I'm just glad we can close the chapter and move on to the range being affordable. Davygallagher I think you have a raised a really good point, which in my blind love of all things BF I have probably never really voiced, but if I am honest, it does get me that I am predominately a digital customer and this is just down to me working and being in IT I prefer to keep my stuff in the main digital. But it does sometimes nark me that I loose out, and I think the time has come that Big Finish actually address this, after all, there is a different pricing structure for books and music, then their representative formats from other suppliers, and this is becoming more and more obvious. I know and don't kid myself that the scales of economy for Big Finish are not the same as Amazon, or Waterstones or Apple, but, it does make me ponder and I am glad I am not alone in thinking this. Even if Big Finish made more effort in making their digitally only content, have a slight quirk, or differences exclusive to the end user. I know as I type this I am going to incur the cost of downloading etc, server space, I have heard it before, but if you are in the game that they are you have to at least attempt to run with the pack. Or am I being an old cynic....I also am aware that you could argue, shut up Karl and just buy the traditional format, but as a IT Geek of 30 years standing I have embraced far too many formats that have come and gone, and I feel that digital download until they work how to integrate a USB or other some such into a human being along with some form of storage linked to my brain, is probably going to be around a lot longer than say the cassette, MD, DAT, CD and DVD and the like, and I suppose it take up less space digitally, which will always please the wife.
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Post by elkawho on Jan 23, 2016 22:43:26 GMT
I'd be very interested to hear opinions from people completely new to the franchise. I honestly thought The Prisoner was one of the shows that most fans of cult tv would have seen early on - seminal stuff. I had heard of 'The Prisoner' but have never watched it. No reason really, it just never grabbed me (same is true of 'Dark Shadows', which I wasn't familiar with unitl BF came along - now I can't imagine life without it!). So I came into this completely new. It took a while for me to decide to get it - really, it was the enthusiasm from the promotion that tipped me over the edge. I absolutely, absolutely love it. It is a huge, strange, oppressive story, bleak in the hopelessness of its larger-than-life premise. I'll be honest and admit I've found Nick Briggs' writing unengaging a lot of the time, but here it is terrific. I find certain similarities between this and his acclaimed 'Creatures of Beauty' from way back, such is the realistic unreality of it all (if that makes sense). The cast are uniformly excellent. I have no knowledge of Patrick MaGoohan's performance, but Mark Elstob is intense and sardonic, constantly 'on the edge' but powerfully restrained throughout. His co-stars, particularly No. 2 in all guises and Helen Goldwyn's various characters, are excellent also. The music is very 1960's, evoking memories of that psychedelic, hallucigenic time, but the dialogue is laced with modern-isms, making this very much a 21st century product. So in short - I quite liked it!! I agree. I have been aware of The Prisoner for most of my adult life and I'm seen clips, but I have never seen a whole episode. I was on the fence but it had such great listener reviews that I decided to splurge. I think it's amazing. I also don't know McGoohan, but Elstob is fantastic. I think I may want to watch this now, but I don't want to mess up the experience of what I just listened to.
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Post by acousticwolf on Jan 23, 2016 22:46:28 GMT
I had heard of 'The Prisoner' but have never watched it. No reason really, it just never grabbed me (same is true of 'Dark Shadows', which I wasn't familiar with unitl BF came along - now I can't imagine life without it!). So I came into this completely new. It took a while for me to decide to get it - really, it was the enthusiasm from the promotion that tipped me over the edge. I absolutely, absolutely love it. It is a huge, strange, oppressive story, bleak in the hopelessness of its larger-than-life premise. I'll be honest and admit I've found Nick Briggs' writing unengaging a lot of the time, but here it is terrific. I find certain similarities between this and his acclaimed 'Creatures of Beauty' from way back, such is the realistic unreality of it all (if that makes sense). The cast are uniformly excellent. I have no knowledge of Patrick MaGoohan's performance, but Mark Elstob is intense and sardonic, constantly 'on the edge' but powerfully restrained throughout. His co-stars, particularly No. 2 in all guises and Helen Goldwyn's various characters, are excellent also. The music is very 1960's, evoking memories of that psychedelic, hallucigenic time, but the dialogue is laced with modern-isms, making this very much a 21st century product. So in short - I quite liked it!! I agree. I have been aware of The Prisoner for most of my adult life and I'm seen clips, but I have never seen a whole episode. I was on the fence but it had such great listener reviews that I decided to splurge. I think it's amazing. I also don't know McGoohan, but Elstob is fantastic. I think I may want to watch this now, because I don't want to mess up the experience of what I just listened to. Welcome to the club, I'm really glad you enjoyed it Cheers Tony
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 23:02:46 GMT
Elka, I really don't think the show would disappoint - it's a stone cold classic. There's a reason Nick kept so much of it for this instead of rebooting it - the show abides. It's not even like Classic Doctor Who where you have to prep new-people for low production values, flubs in lines and cheap sets - it looks glorious even today. The acting is fantastic and the writing is peerless. There's never been anything like it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 23:58:03 GMT
I had heard of 'The Prisoner' but have never watched it. No reason really, it just never grabbed me (same is true of 'Dark Shadows', which I wasn't familiar with unitl BF came along - now I can't imagine life without it!). So I came into this completely new. It took a while for me to decide to get it - really, it was the enthusiasm from the promotion that tipped me over the edge. I absolutely, absolutely love it. It is a huge, strange, oppressive story, bleak in the hopelessness of its larger-than-life premise. I'll be honest and admit I've found Nick Briggs' writing unengaging a lot of the time, but here it is terrific. I find certain similarities between this and his acclaimed 'Creatures of Beauty' from way back, such is the realistic unreality of it all (if that makes sense). The cast are uniformly excellent. I have no knowledge of Patrick MaGoohan's performance, but Mark Elstob is intense and sardonic, constantly 'on the edge' but powerfully restrained throughout. His co-stars, particularly No. 2 in all guises and Helen Goldwyn's various characters, are excellent also. The music is very 1960's, evoking memories of that psychedelic, hallucigenic time, but the dialogue is laced with modern-isms, making this very much a 21st century product. So in short - I quite liked it!! I agree. I have been aware of The Prisoner for most of my adult life and I'm seen clips, but I have never seen a whole episode. I was on the fence but it had such great listener reviews that I decided to splurge. I think it's amazing. I also don't know McGoohan, but Elstob is fantastic. I think I may want to watch this now, but I don't want to mess up the experience of what I just listened to. This is my thinking too. If I watch the DVDs of the show, I'll know what happens and future audios won't contain any element of surprise, and I'm not sure I want that! The other option is wait until the audios have run their course and then watch the DVDs - but that may (hopefully) be a long time in the future. It's a conundrum!
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