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Post by axelotl38 on Aug 6, 2019 15:11:38 GMT
The Last Confession Spoilers {The Last Confession Spoilers (BIG BIG BIG SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE STORY)} So I started the boxset by listening to The Last Confession first because honestly, I just couldn't wait. And unlike the first two stories in which I can take them and appreciate them in their own right, unfortunately this story will have to be compared to Ever After. So, well firstly how does it stack up compared to Ever After? It's hard to say. I won't deny I wasn't the hugest fan of Ever After, less due to any issues with the writing or direction by Handcock (which was superb) but more just because the type of story it was telling is one that's never really appealed to me. But I can admire that it wasn't taking the easy way out, and tried to do something different as a finale rather than perhaps something that's taking the easy approach, the safe approach. This finale....well frankly, it's the safe approach. It tells a more traditional ending for Dorian Gray. One that's perhaps more heightened in emotions at times, and more of a "Let's take a trip down the series' timeline, oh look at these moments, how sad how lovely" etc. And certainly there's some parts that do work brilliantly and do make for an emotional finale (and the one scene that I do definitively works far better is the final scene itself which works so damn well, thanks to a surprise secret return of Hugh Skinner, you amazing bastards!) but then otherwise...I mean it's just very safe. And so take this where it's a walk down memory lane versus Ever After where it's a more twisted take on Dorian, abstract and odd and bizarre and does the memory lane of returning characters but something different, then I'd rather that. Even if the experiment isn't to my taste, I still appreciate the experimental more than the safe. So whilst some people certainly will prefer The Last Confession as a finale because it's more straightforward (and again, the last scene was superb), I still think Ever After is the superior finale, and Handcock made the write choice in picking that story path. How does The Last Confession work as a standard story though? Well...it's a bit muddled. The story very much feels like a first draft (perhaps because it literally is!) and the pacing itself is odd. The first hour or so is kinda slow buildup, Dorian being confused and vague, and then some stuff happens and the end. Again, it may work for some people (and certainly being in audioplay format rather than audiobook could perhaps make a difference in the original writing of it) but for me it just made the story just a bit too pedestrian. So again, I think Ever After is the better constructed story. Now it sounds like I'm being scathing (and I'm long-winded, going on tangents, and I may be a glass of red wine deep. Or two and just paranoid that I'm insulting because I do enjoy the story and think Mr. Handcock is brilliant at what he does and should never stop!). But I certainly enjoyed the ride, and the story was decent. It's just that I'm giving it extra scrutiny both because it has to be compared to the other finale, and because it is a finale itself I feel it deserves that extra bit of scrutiny. Trust me, the story was good, and I think Handcock did a great job. Had this been the finale, it would've been satisfactory, and a good story to boot. But it feels it does need some tightening, something that I think was done anyway with Ever After! And of course, I can't fault the direction of Handcock, Vlahos' reading (which is superb, both capturing Dorian but being able to fluently distinguish his Dorian from the narrator and other characters) and Rob Harvey's piano music which is S T U N N I N G. I recall that for Blade Runner, Vangelis simply played a synthesiser whilst watching an edit of the movie and that was the music was done, playing what he feels and sees. And listening to Harvey's music gives me that vibe. It just...it works so well, and its so constant that I can't help but imagine that's how he did it. (I mean, I assume it isn't, but it's so ridiculously well done). So yes: A brilliant effort and an ending that'll be sure to please some (even if it didn't quite please me). I think I've gone on long enough: Tomorrow comes the other two stories!
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 6, 2019 15:21:14 GMT
Ahhhhhh! Once again, a wonderful thing to wake up to
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 6, 2019 21:43:43 GMT
Have listened to Last Man Standing and There Are Such Things. I think these would have made quite good episodes, had they been produced. It's interesting knowing these two were written as spec scripts years before the series proper. I personally think they slot in quite nicely. I'll possibly write up something in more depth later, but for now I'll just say they're both fantastic
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Post by Trace on Aug 6, 2019 23:58:21 GMT
Good God! I just went to the BF site to download this one, and it wasn't there in my downloads! I finally (after much sputtering!) realized that I had never ordered it! That is so unlike me! But I think at the time, I must have been waiting to see if a CD was going to be issued. Well, I quickly remedied that, ordered, and downloaded!
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 7, 2019 2:36:29 GMT
Well I'm finished, onto the extras now. Hmm. I can see what axelotl38 is getting at. It's very much a "safe" story, and I can easily see how Scott would have finished writing this and gone "wait this is Confessions, why am I playing it so safe?" That being said, I don't think it's a bad story at all. Revelations that Hyde and Holmes (or was it Moriarty?) and Carnacki(!) all made deals of their own of some sort, and indications that Dorian and Carnacki had some unseen adventure at some point...
Mina Harker coming back with some exposition on what happened after Frostbite...
The victory lap of locales and characters from the series... It's interesting to think about how things would have played out had The Last Confession aired as planned, and now a couple years later we were getting Ever After. Speaking of, I actually do think you can squint and say both happen. Listening to the extras as I type this, Scott is talking about a massive but half-finished script, set on a train at Christmas. Now I'm curious about that one... perhaps a volume two will be forthcoming?
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Post by pawntake on Aug 7, 2019 12:22:07 GMT
Just heard the 1st story,(Last Man standing)the biggest compliment i can pay it is to say i only intended to catch a snippet just to get the feel of it,but once it started it just drew me in,and i listened to the whole thing. It was the combination of Alexander Vlahos and his dulcut tones,plus the incredible haunting melody of the background piano,coupled with the vision of a fog-shrouded No-Mans-Land.This was as good a Dorian Gray as any of the previous.More please!! Oh!I did pause once in No-Mans-Land for a cup of tea and a Ginger Biscuit,i needed it!! Praise also for the writer Scott Harrison!!The journal entries were a nice touch!!Shades of Johnathan Harker.
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 7, 2019 18:03:04 GMT
Last Man Standing(April, 1915, Behind German Lines)A stupendous start to the set. We are treated to a psychological tale as young Jonathan Roberts follows his captain, one "Christopher Gray" into No Man's Land and beyond. We start out with an entry from his journal, and are treated to excerpts throughout, going back and forth from the third person narration. This sort of outside viewpoint works well in giving us yet another new perspective on Dorian's adventures, but is still close in nature to last series' narrated stories from others' perspectives, letting us know what they think of our favorite eternally pretty boy along the way. This originally being a spec script from around 2010, meant to be an example of the type of story one could expect in "The Adventures of Dorian Gray" shows through in some parts. It's easy to see where parts of the story got cannibalized in later works: the gas attack during a push from the trenches was re-purposed for The Prime of Deacon Brodie, while the mysterious presence singing "The Houses In Between" winds up in, appropriately, The Houses In Between, for example. The main thrust of the story is that Roberts and Gray have been hand-picked for a secret mission behind enemy lines to recover some eldritch "weapon" of some sort, Dorian because, well, he bragged about himself a bit too much during recruitment, and Roberts ostensibly because he's got a strong attachment to his captain and will keep an eye on him. But as early as the first chapter (this is audio prose, remember?) we start getting inklings that there may be more to Roberts than there first appeared to be. Or rather, more to the strange good luck charm he carries. Dorian is presented as being a bit more "good" here than the moral ambiguous immortal he would be presented as in later stories, more shades of Series 2 Dorian, fighting the good fight because he can, rather than sort of doing the right thing as long as it gels with his own interests in Series 1. Speaking of Series 2... the story takes place across the month of April in 1915 and to my shame it's been an age since I last listened to Angel of War so I can't remember off-hand how well that date dovetails with the events of that story. Scott Harrison has done a superb job adapting this to prose, and Vlahos in turn does amazing work reading it. He gives distinct voice to all the characters involved, and his narrating voice is distinct enough from the life he breathes into Dorian when reading his bits that I was never had any issues there. And equally important is Robert Harvey's hauntingly beautiful score for the whole thing. Seriously, the music is spot on for this whole set, it's great. There Are Such Things...(1930, A Church in England)While Last Man Standing would be right at home in Series 2, this next tale could snuggle up comfortably in Series 1, tonally. Dorian has locked himself in a church with the elderly Father Victor Merriman. He's not locked them in he says, but rather locked something else out, and is going to take the opportunity to confess some of his sins... Father Merriman is then a rather captive audience as Dorian begins relating the story of an engagement party a year prior, that of Milly Lloyd, the woman he couldn't woo... but of course it wouldn't be a Dorian story without death, drugs, and something supernatural trying to intrude upon the land of the living. We alternate between "present" with third person narration largely giving us the scene from over Father Merriman's shoulder, and "past" with an over the shoulder view of Dorian as he attends the fateful party the year prior. It works quite well and again I can easily imagine how this would have played out in an actual cast production. We explore a bit how Dorian deals with his immortality and the lack of any real risk in his life by in turn living on the edge of self-destruction, and there's some nice twinning with the previous tale as Father Merriman recounts giving a sermon during the Christmas Truce, though since this was in a set of spec scripts with Last Man Standing I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was intentional, now that I think about it. Scott mentions in the extras that back when he was shopping the series around as "The Adventures of Dorian Gray", this story was titled "The Confession of Dorian Gray", but they decided that name was just too good and ended up using it for the whole series. The right call, I think Again, Harrison's prose conversion is spot on, and we get some nice insight in the extras about some differences between the story as presented in script versus how it's been adapted in prose, talking of how some things work less well when read than performed, and vice versa. Vlahos again does an amazing job reading the whole piece, again giving spectacular voice to all characters. Robert Harvey's score is again superb, my only complaint being one scene in particular where the music somewhat overshadowed a rather breathy reading of a poem making it a little difficult for me to make out. The Last Confession(The (near?) Future, various locales)As I said before, I can very easily see how Scott would finish writing this, send it out, think on it for a bit, and decide that it's way too safe and conventional. Vlahos uses the term "fanjodrell" in the extras when talking about it (in an endearing way), and yeah that might be a pretty good term for it. It's got a victory lap of locals and characters from throughout the series, even going so far as to spend time letting us know what happened after Frostbite, a heartfelt if cliched confrontation with not-Toby, and even opens with an epic "Dorian in Star Trek" sequence lol. I don't want to really get into it so much as to avoid spoiling things for people, and I've already talked a bit about it upthread, so instead I'll talk about how I think it's still perfectly possible to have this in-continuity. Throughout the tale, Dorian is having Lucifer-induced nightmares of dying in various psychological horror-filled ways, and the "I want this to be the last face you see before you die" line is said several times throughout. It's very easy to reconcile Ever After as one of these hallucinations-but-are-they-really sequences that Dorian has been experiencing for some years since Lucifer walked out the door in Toby's body at the end of All Through the House
Additionally, his portrait has been spirited elsewhere, and it ends with Dorian resolving to be a force in opposition to Lucifer's plans, very neatly leading into the status quo we see in Shades of Gray all the way back in the pilot episode. Overall I liked this set greatly, and it serves very well as a second (third? fourth?) finale to the series (until the next time, anyway (fingers crossed!))
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Post by cyrano on Aug 8, 2019 9:27:29 GMT
Spoilery thoughts on the Last Confession. {Spoiler} I am, ultimately, glad that we got Ever After as our finale rather than the Last Confession. Not that it's not good: of course it is. But to end on Dorian embracing a heroic role, nailing his colours to the mast and making himself the immortal nemesis of Satan really doesn't feel right.
Even in the monster of the week inflected series 2, the role of the hero sat awkwardly with Dorian. He's a selfish character, in a very human way, even with his supernatural blessing/curse. He frequently has to be manoeuvred into taking a heroic role: look at series 3, where Victoria Lowell has to threaten, lie and manipulate Dorian into one single supernatural investigation.
Ending on an evolution of the character is a good idea: it gives us a sense of the journey we've been on since our earliest sighting of Dorian Gray in This World Our Hell. This evolution just didn't ring true for me. I think perhaps it needed more of a note of Dorian seeing himself as a part of humanity - he's always been separate, beautiful, unnatural, immortal. Growing up enough to see himself as one of us might have sold me on this ending more, but if anything, it reflected more the distance between Dorian and an ordinary person.
On top of that, revealing that Dorian, Hyde, Moriarty and Mina Harker all had deals with the Devil to turn them into his weapons (for...what purpose exactly?) is a bit pulpy, I found, in a way Confessions isn't, normally. Having Lucifer be a character that goes around talking to people seems to diminish his presence a bit. I liked him as a figure that appeared rarely, never named (Good old Harry, the Man in Room 18), at the edges of a story, than as a central villain.
On a first listen I didn't enjoy Ever After's ambiguity, but with time (and Eiphel's illuminating commentary), and the contrast of the Last Confession, I appreciate it more as a final reflection on the key themes of the Confessions: the relationship between man and soul. {Absolutely vast spoiler, ruiner} That final scene with Hugh actual Skinner was such a treat. Those two actors have such chemistry, and those two voices, together, have taken on such significance for me. For all of us, I imagine.
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Post by barnabaslives on Aug 8, 2019 10:16:34 GMT
I somehow managed to overlook the fact that this is out until just now, in spite of being a faithful follower of the Big Finish Updates thread. This is quite a wonderful event! Really looking forward to hearing this.
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 10, 2019 17:44:53 GMT
Looking forward to the weekend and hearing everyone's thoughts
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Post by barnabaslives on Aug 10, 2019 19:43:23 GMT
I'm debating about saving the last two stories but I couldn't wait to listen to the first one. I was captivated - Alex is an amazing narrator.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2019 11:19:53 GMT
Wow! This was a great set to listen to. The reading of Dorian Gray stories worked really well, Alexander Vlahos is great narrator. A brilliant set.... and it was great to hear the what might have been ending to The Confessions of Dorian Gray, (I thought this was the better story myself). Either way these were really enjoyable Dorian Gray tales... I want more 'Lost Confessions' !!! 9/10
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 11, 2019 18:30:42 GMT
I want more 'Lost Confessions' !!! 9/10 Yeah! They mention in the extras that there was one other spec script, set on a train at Christmas, that was only about half finished an already enormous, and I would totally be down with that being finished up and released as a standalone Lost Confessions release that's just, like, four hours long.
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Post by BHTvsTFC on Aug 16, 2019 15:21:03 GMT
What moved me the most about the release was how involved Alexander Vlahos is with it all. It's not an essential for any actor to be devoted to the part they play as long the performance but it's always nice when they can talk about the plays themselves rather than the standard 'the lunch was wonderful, it was a great script,' answers that usually feature in the extras. Long may he be involved with Big Finish.
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Post by Ela on Aug 16, 2019 17:42:23 GMT
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 17, 2019 6:59:27 GMT
So, anyone else had a chance to sit down with it yet?
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Post by Trace on Aug 18, 2019 5:24:20 GMT
So, anyone else had a chance to sit down with it yet? I just started it yesterday. So far I’ve only done the first story and if it’s any indication of the quality of the other two, this is going to be considered a stellar release. Alex is a really wonderful reader, and his familiarity with the character really comes through. It’s so atmospheric and moody....great story from Scott Handcock and Scott Harrison and music/sound by Robert Harvey! It’s so nice to be back in Dorian’s world! Feels like he never left. I hope there’s more to come.
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Post by Zagreus on Aug 22, 2019 23:14:27 GMT
Think I'm going to have to sit down and listen to this all again. Ahhhh.
Contemplating doing a big chronological listen-through with these stories inserted and seeing how it all flows
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Post by Trace on Aug 23, 2019 0:01:01 GMT
Listening to ‘There Are Such Things’ now....I love it so far, and I’m only into it enough to wonder how it’s going to come together! I love anything about London’s Bright Young Things and including them here makes for a very interesting story!
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Post by BHTvsTFC on Aug 23, 2019 6:21:22 GMT
Think I'm going to have to sit down and listen to this all again. Ahhhh. Beat me to it!!
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