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Post by omega on Dec 14, 2017 7:54:30 GMT
 Released March 2006 (with Doctor Who Magazine)/December 2012 (Soundcloud)SynopsisMonte Carlo, 1966. Four time travellers. Two missions. One costumed ball. the Doctor has sent Peri and Erimem to prevent the fabulous Veiled Leopard diamond from being stolen. Which is odd, seeing as the Doctor has sent Ace and Hex to steal the diamond. How will the two teams cope with this contradictory task? Will Peri's asp slip? Why does Ace have to pretend to be a French maid? How will Erimem cope with Pharaoh Rammalamadingdong? And can Hex really 'do posh'? Written By: Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett Directed By: Gary Russell CASTNicola Bryant (Peri), Caroline Morris (Erimem), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Lizzie Hopley (Lady Lillian Hawthorne), Alan Ruscoe (Peter Mathis), Steven Wickham (Gavin Walker), Stephen Mansfield (Jean the Commissionaire) |
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Post by omega on Dec 14, 2017 7:55:32 GMT
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Post by mark687 on Dec 14, 2017 10:29:36 GMT
There's a gem of a very good story here (no pun intended), more hints of Erimen's Father having dealings with or frustrating the Great Old Ones (The Great Intelligence, Fenric and others). Only drawbacks a bit short so lack of character depth and I would've liked a Doctor Actor actually there for the end, but that's just me.
Regards
mark687
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Post by fingersmash on Dec 14, 2017 14:34:10 GMT
I really do enjoy this one. A nice showcase for the two teams and to see how they operate without the Doctor.
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Post by iainmclaughlin on Dec 15, 2017 19:56:01 GMT
The brief for what became The Veiled Leopard was simple - two episodes, no Doctors, Peri and Erimem in one, Ace and Hex in the other, link the episodes without them meeting. Claire and I retreated to the coffee shop in Dundee's Waterstones for a mull.
We had some idea of having the two partnerships doing exactly the same thing - or at least starting at exactly the same spot with the same goal and watching how their different persoanlities would take them about it in different ways. It was quite a nice idea but really needed more space to work so we flipped it on its head. What if they were there on opposite sides? Yeah, we liked that. So why would they bo on opposite sides? Obviously the Seventh Doctor is scheming and the Fifth is more straightforward... so Seven is the one bringing the twist to the story which means his team are in the second episode. Should we go hard sci-fi or should we look for a fun location? A while prior to this we had worked out a pitch for a TV series about a post war burglar named Janus... I think it was Claire who suggested we could use a society event as we'd had in Janus and I eventually suggested we just throw Janus into the whole thing. That told us we were doing a heist. It had to be something to personally interest either Peri or Erimem - a heist might mean a jewel, Erimem had jewels as a Pharaoh, so one of her jewels, maybe or one of her Dad's jewels. That would annoy her more. Obviously with this being Doctor Who the jewel had to be something else, some kind of McGuffin... that would be explained in episode 2. So if somebody was going to nick the jewel, Erimem would want to stop that... but if Ace and Hex are in opposition to them, them they would have to trying to pinch it. That was where having another set of thieves came in handy. A bit of a runaround... it was starting to feel like a 60s caper... we talked about To Catch A Thief, The Avengers, Mission Impossible and various other things, including the original Pink Panther, which did all that lovely business with David Niven and Robert Wagner both trying to do a heist as 'Sir Charles Phantom, the Notorious Lytton' (wrong movie, I know - but it's a great line) and then getting chased around. That confusion was good. That was worth homaging (homage - French for 'rip off'). We initially planned episode one to be a bit ITC/Avengers and episode 2 a bit more Mission Impossible but in the end we were drawn to The Pink Panther with a touch of To Catch A Thief. After that it was just working out the timings and how the two episodes intersected without the characters meeting. Add a slimy villain, give all of the companions something to do, keep the dialogue zingy... we discussed setting it in an English country house in the 50s or over on the Riviera... Gary preferred setting it in France, so... wallop. It was in France, which definitely tied in with its influences. It was a quick write and came back for a few amends but nothing major. Though we had never really mentioned the influences in the pitch or the script, they were obvious. Gary and I wound up calling it 'The Pink Panther'. When Davy Darlington got hold of it for sound and music, his opening sting was a real evocation of the music for the second Pink Panther film, A Shot in the Dark... so we all knew what territory we were in.
I'm pleased with how it worked out. Gary was always great to work with, really professional and happy to let a writer write, and Davy Darlington is a hugely talented bloke as well as a very nice one. He did great work on this story. I'm really pretty pleased with how it came out in the end.
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Post by mark687 on Dec 15, 2017 20:07:52 GMT
The brief for what became The Veiled Leopard was simple - two episodes, no Doctors, Peri and Erimem in one, Ace and Hex in the other, link the episodes without them meeting. Claire and I retreated to the coffee shop in Dundee's Waterstones for a mull. We had some idea of having the two partnerships doing exactly the same thing - or at least starting at exactly the same spot with the same goal and watching how their different persoanlities would take them about it in different ways. It was quite a nice idea but really needed more space to work so we flipped it on its head. What if they were there on opposite sides? Yeah, we liked that. So why would they bo on opposite sides? Obviously the Seventh Doctor is scheming and the Fifth is more straightforward... so Seven is the one bringing the twist to the story which means his team are in the second episode. Should we go hard sci-fi or should we look for a fun location? A while prior to this we had worked out a pitch for a TV series about a post war burglar named Janus... I think it was Claire who suggested we could use a society event as we'd had in Janus and I eventually suggested we just throw Janus into the whole thing. That told us we were doing a heist. It had to be something to personally interest either Peri or Erimem - a heist might mean a jewel, Erimem had jewels as a Pharaoh, so one of her jewels, maybe or one of her Dad's jewels. That would annoy her more. Obviously with this being Doctor Who the jewel had to be something else, some kind of McGuffin... that would be explained in episode 2. So if somebody was going to nick the jewel, Erimem would want to stop that... but if Ace and Hex are in opposition to them, them they would have to trying to pinch it. That was where having another set of thieves came in handy. A bit of a runaround... it was starting to feel like a 60s caper... we talked about To Catch A Thief, The Avengers, Mission Impossible and various other things, including the original Pink Panther, which did all that lovely business with David Niven and Robert Wagner both trying to do a heist as 'Sir Charles Phantom, the Notorious Lytton' (wrong movie, I know - but it's a great line) and then getting chased around. That confusion was good. That was worth homaging (homage - French for 'rip off'). We initially planned episode one to be a bit ITC/Avengers and episode 2 a bit more Mission Impossible but in the end we were drawn to The Pink Panther with a touch of To Catch A Thief. After that it was just working out the timings and how the two episodes intersected without the characters meeting. Add a slimy villain, give all of the companions something to do, keep the dialogue zingy... we discussed setting it in an English country house in the 50s or over on the Riviera... Gary preferred setting it in France, so... wallop. It was in France, which definitely tied in with its influences. It was a quick write and came back for a few amends but nothing major. Though we had never really mentioned the influences in the pitch or the script, they were obvious. Gary and I wound up calling it 'The Pink Panther'. When Davy Darlington got hold of it for sound and music, his opening sting was a real evocation of the music for the second Pink Panther film, A Shot in the Dark... so we all knew what territory we were in. I'm pleased with how it worked out. Gary was always great to work with, really professional and happy to let a writer write, and Davy Darlington is a hugely talented bloke as well as a very nice one. He did great work on this story. I'm really pretty pleased with how it came out in the end. Thanks as always for the insight Ian
Regards
mark687
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mbt66
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 2,988 
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Post by mbt66 on Dec 15, 2017 20:37:35 GMT
I really do enjoy this one. A nice showcase for the two teams and to see how they operate without the Doctor. A great audio. I would love to have more like this where the Doctor has to send his companions in because he cannot. |
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Post by number13 on Dec 18, 2017 1:48:08 GMT
I liked part of this story a lot - the part with Peri/Erimem and Ace/Hex. I thought both 'teams' were written and played perfectly and I thoroughly enjoyed the double-double-act comedy and plentiful one-liners. Highlights: the extra insights into Erimem's family history, the multi-Leopard swapping of the ending, Hex 'doing posh' (and rather well, don't you know!  ) and best of the lot, Ace staying 'in character' (as a maid) and holding back with great self-restraint from showing a Sixties sexist the response he'd normally get from 80s Ace! We know he was that close - but he didn't! I'd have liked more cross-over and near-misses between the two teams, because I couldn't warm to the guest characters, well played though they were. One of course was a 'moustache-twirling' dodgy property developer there to be booed and hissed!, but I didn't take to Lady 'Robin Hood' Lillian either. She claimed to be robbing the undeserving (as judged by her) nouveau-riche to give to the poor, but if she had all the inherited wealth she claimed, why not simply do good works with her own family money instead? (Whatever source that was from originally...) I thought she came across as a snooty rich girl playing Raffles for the heck of it and adding a Robin Hood twist to keep her conscience clear and her honest boyfriend onside. But the TARDIS teams were a delight and their Riviera exploits made the story fun. |
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Post by Ela on Dec 20, 2017 5:46:35 GMT
All I can add to what's already been said is that this was a really fun story to listen to.
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Post by omega on Dec 20, 2017 5:54:48 GMT
This has got to be the best story Hex has been through. No death, no trauma, just a straightforward heist. One does wonder what the Seventh Doctor is up to while Ace and Hex are in Monte Carlo.
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Post by Ela on Dec 20, 2017 18:31:06 GMT
Yes, indeed.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2021 13:29:41 GMT
Even their free gifts ,nothing is skimped upon great story and a lot of fun with four of the Doctors companions.
two heist type stories and also Time Heist on TV all work briliantly
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) and best of the lot, Ace staying 'in character' (as a maid) and holding back with great self-restraint from showing a Sixties sexist the response he'd normally get from 80s Ace! We know he was that close - but he didn't!
