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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2017 0:08:06 GMT
Doctor Who and outright comedy have always been very strange bedfellows. The Pirates is a jolly old musical, but the framing story is about a girl who wants to commit suicide. Sky Pirates! for all its flummery is about an irreversible and horrific genocide. The Myth Makers ends with an outright (and rather jarring) massacre. I think the closest that it's gotten where it worked might be The One Doctor. Maybe The Power of Three. It's one of those genres where the show can do it, but it can't just be a comedy. Couple that with comedy not doing so well in science fiction in general and any successful laugh-out-loud story manages to beat incredible odds. I've seen Rob Shearman claim each of his works are comedies, so perhaps we can add Scherzo and Jubilee to the list. Which raises a very important distinction. They're successful stories sure, but are they successful outright comedies? I dunno... I don't find a man having his hand sliced off and a mad Doctor's legs sawn off when he tried to run away particularly funny. Nor do I find Eight bullying and hating Charley while he despairs alone particularly hilarious. If they're comedies, they're very, very dark ones. Bleak, almost. More Vengeance on Varos humour than anything else. The Holy Terror though, that's an exceedingly good (and largely unambiguous) tragicomedy.
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bobod
Chancellery Guard
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Post by bobod on Jul 11, 2017 12:38:00 GMT
Doctor Who and outright comedy have always been very strange bedfellows. The Pirates is a jolly old musical, but the framing story is about a girl who wants to commit suicide. Sky Pirates! for all its flummery is about an irreversible and horrific genocide. The Myth Makers ends with an outright (and rather jarring) massacre. I think the closest that it's gotten where it worked might be The One Doctor. Maybe The Power of Three. The Unicorn and the Wasp surely?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2017 21:43:28 GMT
Doctor Who and outright comedy have always been very strange bedfellows. The Pirates is a jolly old musical, but the framing story is about a girl who wants to commit suicide. Sky Pirates! for all its flummery is about an irreversible and horrific genocide. The Myth Makers ends with an outright (and rather jarring) massacre. I think the closest that it's gotten where it worked might be The One Doctor. Maybe The Power of Three. The Unicorn and the Wasp surely? That does seem a rather good candidate. Actually, a much better example than Power and also written by Gareth Roberts.
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Post by Ela on Jun 12, 2018 17:22:15 GMT
The only way I could get through this was to take off the headphones and listen via a speaker, so the detailed sounds of extreme drunkenness were not happening right in my ears. Gross! The story could have been good, but the humor was so juvenile. Even having David Tennant as one of the two Time Lords couldn't save it for me.
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Post by Hieronymus on Jun 12, 2018 18:03:15 GMT
Even having David Tennant as one of the two Time Lords couldn't save it for me. Agreed. This is the only one of the series that missed the mark for me. I wasn't as enchanted by Auld Mortality and Masters of War as some other listeners, but there were still a good story and great acting in those. But Exile was a farce and badly done. It also irked me that a story exploring the question of "What if the Doctor were a woman?" would play the whole thing off as a farce.
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Post by Ela on Jun 12, 2018 18:11:35 GMT
Even having David Tennant as one of the two Time Lords couldn't save it for me. Agreed. This is the only one of the series that missed the mark for me. I wasn't as enchanted by Auld Mortality and Masters of War as some other listeners, but there were still a good story and great acting in those. But Exile was a farce and badly done. It also irked me that a story exploring the question of "What if the Doctor were a woman?" would play the whole thing off as a farce. Yup, the way they played the "what if the Doctor was a woman" issue really irked me.
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Post by fantasticalice on Jun 15, 2018 0:07:55 GMT
I've seen Rob Shearman claim each of his works are comedies, so perhaps we can add Scherzo and Jubilee to the list. Which raises a very important distinction. They're successful stories sure, but are they successful outright comedies? I dunno... I don't find a man having his hand sliced off and a mad Doctor's legs sawn off when he tried to run away particularly funny. Nor do I find Eight bullying and hating Charley while he despairs alone particularly hilarious. If they're comedies, they're very, very dark ones. Bleak, almost. More Vengeance on Varos humour than anything else. The Holy Terror though, that's an exceedingly good (and largely unambiguous) tragicomedy. A man having his hand sliced off can be very funny! Read Missy Chronicles or listen to The War Master. EDIT: Actually, even though II thought Exile was ok... Missy Chronicles is a great example of gender changed Time Lords working well. I mean her character works pretty darn well on screen but she holds up exceptionally well in prose too. Especially considering the Delgado parallels are even more obvious in prose.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jun 15, 2018 0:12:37 GMT
I would definitely hunt down Shearman’s plays and short fiction. Dark and disturbing comedies is pretty much what he does.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2018 3:58:06 GMT
Which raises a very important distinction. They're successful stories sure, but are they successful outright comedies? I dunno... I don't find a man having his hand sliced off and a mad Doctor's legs sawn off when he tried to run away particularly funny. Nor do I find Eight bullying and hating Charley while he despairs alone particularly hilarious. If they're comedies, they're very, very dark ones. Bleak, almost. More Vengeance on Varos humour than anything else. The Holy Terror though, that's an exceedingly good (and largely unambiguous) tragicomedy. A man having his hand sliced off can be very funny! Read Missy Chronicles or listen to The War Master. EDIT: Actually, even though II thought Exile was ok... Missy Chronicles is a great example of gender changed Time Lords working well. I mean her character works pretty darn well on screen but she holds up exceptionally well in prose too. Especially considering the Delgado parallels are even more obvious in prose. Oh, that opinion's definitely reversed since last year. Pretty weird opinion to have as well, knowing me. I've a soft spot for dark comedies and comedic sociopaths in fiction (Steven Moffat's own Jekyll is rather fun). I grew up with HK-47 who has such lines as: A large part of what appealed to me about Missy was that wonderful balance between mania and reason. The Vincent Price-like glee of Ainley on the surface with the calm, self-assured rationality of Delgado sitting as the bedrock underneath. Besides, what's not to like about an actress who brings War of the Worlds to read on set while she plays the character? I would definitely hunt down Shearman’s plays and short fiction. Dark and disturbing comedies is pretty much what he does. That's a really good reminder for Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical actually. I'm always meaning to get it, but it keeps slipping from the wishlist. Need to fix that.
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Post by mark687 on Sept 28, 2022 9:32:03 GMT
Thread Bump in light of DL Only Collection Release
Regards
mark687
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Post by tuigirl on Sept 28, 2022 18:36:06 GMT
There is a reason Tennant is not using his real name in this, although he gets to play a Timelord for the first time....
I dislike this release with some passion. The only redeeming factor were the two Timelords, who are a riff on the gods from a play by Brecht (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, the good woman of Sezuan (?) ). But if you do another play by Brecht (and I hope BF does) please please please do a better job than this? It will not be that hard..... considering how bad this here is.
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Post by Ela on Oct 24, 2022 1:54:38 GMT
What do you mean David Tennant is not using his real name in this? I'm confused.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 24, 2022 7:40:29 GMT
What do you mean David Tennant is not using his real name in this? I'm confused. When I bought it ( has it changed now with the special Edition release? Indeed it has! Look at that) the actors apart from the lead used fake names in the billing/ credits. Of course it is obvious who one of them is.... so I think this audio is now considered more of a weird curio instead of an embarrassment.
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Post by Ela on Oct 24, 2022 12:35:21 GMT
I don't have any recollection of that and no recollection of it changing.
Then again, after I heard it once, I never wanted to hear it again.
Also, when was the special edition release? I listened to it a number of years ago, and David Tennant was definitely credited as himself.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 24, 2022 12:42:25 GMT
I don't have any recollection of that and no recollection of it changing. Then again, after I heard it once, I never wanted to hear it again. Also, when was the special edition release? I listened to it a number of years ago, and David Tennant was definitely credited as himself. I completely agree with you on the "listened to it once, and that was enough". For me, this is basically the Nadir (lowest point) of BF output- just think that this was written by Nick Briggs, who also did the amazing Dark Eyes.
The mind boggles.
I have not been around that long (I assume everyone was credited on the disk?), I only know I bought it as download a few years back and Tennant was not credited as himself, and I saw some internet people making jokes about this.
But recently they have re-released all the unbound stories as a bundle and at a guess, they have changed it back, at least it is now correct on the BF app.
To be totally honest- I would also have been more than embarrassed to be associated with this story!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2022 21:05:53 GMT
FWIW, I have had the CD of Exile since it's release in 2003 and David Tennant is credited on the back of the CD... as "Time Lord 2". So I don't know where the assertion David Tennant is not using his real name comes from. At a guess. something might have happened when David Tennant became 'The Doctor' on TV (possibly at the behest of the BBC and/or RTD) so as to not associate the two different Time Lords played by David Tennant. But as released, David Tennant most certainly was credited on the Exile CD.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 24, 2022 21:42:14 GMT
FWIW, I have had the CD of Exile since it's release in 2003 and David Tennant is credited on the back of the CD... as "Time Lord 2". So I don't know where the assertion David Tennant is not using his real name comes from. At a guess. something might have happened when David Tennant became 'The Doctor' on TV (possibly at the behest of the BBC and/or RTD) so as to not associate the two different Time Lords played by David Tennant. But as released, David Tennant most certainly was credited on the Exile CD. I believe you. But there certainly was something in between then and now.
Ah, and I found it!!!!!!! It is still to be found on wikipedia
"David Tennant, who features in a supporting role as "Time Lord 2", was formerly Arabella Weir's lodger and is godfather to one of her children. He later went on to star as the Tenth Doctor in the television series. He is also erroneously listed in the Big Finish site for Exile as David Manning."
I knew I wasn't hallucinating.
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