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Post by mark687 on Aug 17, 2021 9:28:02 GMT
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
Likes: 5,062
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Post by ljwilson on Aug 17, 2021 9:41:13 GMT
Really interested to read what people think about this one.
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Post by grinch on Aug 17, 2021 9:59:00 GMT
Glad to see these have finally been released. Hope this doesn’t mark the end of the Early Adventures as a range though. It’s practically been consistently excellent all the way through.
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Post by mark687 on Aug 17, 2021 14:04:46 GMT
Possibly one of the the best 1st Doctor stories ever!
Fantastic character studies of our leads combined with rip roaring adventure
Lauren Cornelis is brilliant as Dodo (combined with the Script) producing a much more fleshed out version of the character
Some expected elements appear in unexpected ways
Well AFA and JD for the Script in general
If Full Cast stories with Dodo is a direction 1DAs are going I eagerly await more
Regards
mark687
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Post by grinch on Aug 17, 2021 14:13:43 GMT
Possibly one of the the best 1st Doctor stories ever! Fantastic character studies of our leads combined with rip roaring adventure Lauren Cornelis is brilliant as Dodo (combined with the Script) producing a much more fleshed out version of the character Some expected elements appear in unexpected ways Well AFA and JD for the Script in general If Full Cast stories with Dodo is a direction 1DAs are going I eagerly await more Regards mark687 Does a certain Intelligence make a cameo in this?
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Post by mark687 on Aug 17, 2021 14:22:45 GMT
Possibly one of the the best 1st Doctor stories ever! Fantastic character studies of our leads combined with rip roaring adventure Lauren Cornelis is brilliant as Dodo (combined with the Script) producing a much more fleshed out version of the character Some expected elements appear in unexpected ways Well AFA and JD for the Script in general If Full Cast stories with Dodo is a direction 1DAs are going I eagerly await more Regards mark687 Does a certain Intelligence make a cameo in this? Not Exactly as I said elements used in unexpected ways Regards mark687
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Post by newt5996 on Aug 17, 2021 17:16:52 GMT
Glad to see these have finally been released. Hope this doesn’t mark the end of the Early Adventures as a range though. It’s practically been consistently excellent all the way through. Considering After the Daleks was recorded in 2019, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve got another series ready.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2021 17:55:01 GMT
Probably just me, but the Doctor sounds more like Peter Purves in this one, I kept thinking it was Stephen speaking.
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Post by mark687 on Aug 19, 2021 9:47:20 GMT
There's an Extend Interviews DL available as Bonus Content in the Bonus Content Box in Accounts
Regards
mark687
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2021 14:52:19 GMT
(Nice to open with a dedication to Jackie Lane. I don't know whether that is available on the CD, but it's on the download.)
I enjoyed this a huge amount.
The Doctor warns Dodo about the lessons learned in ‘The Ark’, as if that was the team’s latest adventure, but later tells her she doesn’t really know him ‘after all their time together’. This gives the impression they’d been travelling together a long time, but ‘The Ark’ was their first adventure together (I’m ashamed by my own pedantry). Lauren Cornelius makes a delightful Dodo, although sounds more like a ‘generic’ Yorkshire lass rather more than she does anything specific to Jackie Lane’s way of talking. A nice balance, though, between the regional accent and the received PR Lane had forced upon her back in the day. The character has also lots of stuff to get her teeth into and it’s good to hear Dodo as such an integral part of the story. The Doctor comes over all philosophical after his meeting with the monks in a story that really is a slow burn. Reminded me a bit of ‘The Time Meddler’ opener – the story takes time to show the regulars sitting round a crackling fire, having a good natter. It’s long since been a given that Peter Purves is excellent in the dual role of Steven and The Doctor. I’ve even given up mourning the lack of his televised stories, he’s become so established. Much as I love David Bradley’s take on the First Doctor, Purves evokes more the mannerisms of the wonderful Mr. Hartnell. The story faithfully recreates the pace and style of the era, as well as placing the First Doctor in situations that foreshadow a certain pair of Second Doctor stories. It’s a bit ‘talky’, but there are some really nice character moments for the regulars and supports, especially Pima (Kerry Gooderson). I especially liked the use of the Yeti creatures.
Superb incidental music too!
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Post by IndieMacUser on Aug 21, 2021 9:42:48 GMT
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Post by shallacatop on Aug 23, 2021 10:46:06 GMT
I’ll be honest, I thought this one was beyond dull. Part one was good, with our TARDIS team adjusting to their new environment and having some lovely interactions around the fire, but after that it’s just a hell of a lot of dialogue and little substance. I understood what it was striving for, and it’s faithful to the era in the pacing and style, but the material just wasn’t compelling.
It’s not helped by every episode overrunning, to the point where it’s well beyond a five parter and could easily pass as a slightly short six parter. Part four being nearly 42 minutes made me wonder if any editing had been done at all. It’s a blessing and a curse really; if you’re loving the story then you’re grateful for that extra time. If not, then you notice every additional minute.
It’s difficult to know what to think of Lauren Cornelius as Dodo. She plays it Yorkshire, but given there’s such little Dodo material, and she’s so variable in every story, that you can hardly say it’s right or wrong! For an introductory story Dodo doesn’t get an awful lot to do, though, which is unfortunate.
For me, this batch is comfortably the weakest Early Adventures we’ve had.
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Post by masterdoctor on Aug 23, 2021 18:46:53 GMT
Very mixed bag.
Performance wise, Peter Purves is excellent and I adored Lauren Cornelius as Dodo, even if Dodo is given very little. The guest cast is solid, but with the script they were given(more on that soon), the performances are pretty run of the mill.
But the script is just a horror show. Like Shallactop said, each episode is overlong, with Episode 4 being over 40 minutes. It’s a short six parter for sure. But not a good one. Most of Andy Frankham-Allen’s Big Finish credits are on stories featuring characters the Haisman estate owns(which he helps run), but this literally is the first one where no character had to be licensed from the estate. The only similarity is The Yetis but last time I checked, they don’t have a trademark for that.
AFA has always been a writer I don’t enjoy, but this story brought my issues to full front. The regulars are very general in characterization, and guest cast are just caricatures/1 dimensional. Overly long but not enough actually happening, and way too many referential nods.
My biggest issue though is that a story that tries(unsuccessfully) to examine eastern faith has been written by a cis white man. For all the strides Big Finish have made in being diverse and opening up their writing pool/storytelling possibilities, this is a marked step back.
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dorney
Big Finish Creative Team
Likes: 3,067
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Post by dorney on Aug 24, 2021 9:46:04 GMT
It’s not helped by every episode overrunning, to the point where it’s well beyond a five parter and could easily pass as a slightly short six parter. This just goes to show the difficulty of timing things - the most accurate way of estimating length is via word count, but there can be oddities if everyone is a fast talker or a slow talker. And the script for this one was short! A four parter is usually 20,000 words and this was closer to 19,000.
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Post by shallacatop on Aug 24, 2021 10:25:02 GMT
It’s not helped by every episode overrunning, to the point where it’s well beyond a five parter and could easily pass as a slightly short six parter. This just goes to show the difficulty of timing things - the most accurate way of estimating length is via word count, but there can be oddities if everyone is a fast talker or a slow talker. And the script for this one was short! A four parter is usually 20,000 words and this was closer to 19,000. Without being an expert on these things, purely looking at word count seems a flawed way to determine timings. Det Sen has little to it other than a lot of talking, often some long passages of speech from one character. Whilst that does mean the word count comes under, with the way it’s being used on dialogue suggests there’s more than enough content for the running time. Similarly a lot of word count spent on descriptions of action will be much quicker conveyed. I’d have thought reading the script would present the opportunity for nips and tucks, rather than seeing it’s 1,000 words under and worrying it might not hit 100 minutes. In the end it far exceeds that, and for me, is worse off for it. I appreciate that’s a basic way of looking at things, but I guess so is looking at word count. Ultimately it doesn’t seem like there’s a clear solution, which to me means not letting word count dictate the quality of the story.
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dorney
Big Finish Creative Team
Likes: 3,067
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Post by dorney on Aug 24, 2021 11:11:17 GMT
This just goes to show the difficulty of timing things - the most accurate way of estimating length is via word count, but there can be oddities if everyone is a fast talker or a slow talker. And the script for this one was short! A four parter is usually 20,000 words and this was closer to 19,000. Without being an expert on these things, purely looking at word count seems a flawed way to determine timings. Det Sen has little to it other than a lot of talking, often some long passages of speech from one character. Whilst that does mean the word count comes under, with the way it’s being used on dialogue suggests there’s more than enough content for the running time. Similarly a lot of word count spent on descriptions of action will be much quicker conveyed. I’d have thought reading the script would present the opportunity for nips and tucks, rather than seeing it’s 1,000 words under and worrying it might not hit 100 minutes. In the end it far exceeds that, and for me, is worse off for it. I appreciate that’s a basic way of looking at things, but I guess so is looking at word count. Ultimately it doesn’t seem like there’s a clear solution, which to me means not letting word count dictate the quality of the story. Well that’s the point - there is no system that isn’t flawed. Page count is vastly misleading. And reading out loud doesn’t help because we all have different rhythms. And you’re misunderstanding me if you think we let word count dictate the quality - part of the reason this one is short on word count is because we did exactly what you said and cut it back as I’m sure Andy would attest. It was originally well over 20.
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Post by shallacatop on Aug 24, 2021 11:32:57 GMT
Without being an expert on these things, purely looking at word count seems a flawed way to determine timings. Det Sen has little to it other than a lot of talking, often some long passages of speech from one character. Whilst that does mean the word count comes under, with the way it’s being used on dialogue suggests there’s more than enough content for the running time. Similarly a lot of word count spent on descriptions of action will be much quicker conveyed. I’d have thought reading the script would present the opportunity for nips and tucks, rather than seeing it’s 1,000 words under and worrying it might not hit 100 minutes. In the end it far exceeds that, and for me, is worse off for it. I appreciate that’s a basic way of looking at things, but I guess so is looking at word count. Ultimately it doesn’t seem like there’s a clear solution, which to me means not letting word count dictate the quality of the story. Well that’s the point - there is no system that isn’t flawed. Page count is vastly misleading. And reading out loud doesn’t help because we all have different rhythms. And you’re misunderstanding me if you think we let word count dictate the quality - part of the reason this one is short on word count is because we did exactly what you said and cut it back as I’m sure Andy would attest. It was originally well over 20. I didn’t misunderstand, you just didn’t say, so all I had was your post to infer from! Thanks for clarifying, though; I dread to think how talky the original version was, given what the end product is like. And that’s irrespective of my personal opinion of the story!
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Post by mark687 on Aug 24, 2021 11:42:24 GMT
Just goes to show people have different takes on stuff, one of the reasons I like it is that i consider one of the more pacier 1st Doc stories.
Regards
mark687
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2021 17:02:30 GMT
Very mixed bag. Performance wise, Peter Purves is excellent and I adored Lauren Cornelius as Dodo, even if Dodo is given very little. The guest cast is solid, but with the script they were given(more on that soon), the performances are pretty run of the mill. But the script is just a horror show. Like Shallactop said, each episode is overlong, with Episode 4 being over 40 minutes. It’s a short six parter for sure. But not a good one. Most of Andy Frankham-Allen’s Big Finish credits are on stories featuring characters the Haisman estate owns(which he helps run), but this literally is the first one where no character had to be licensed from the estate. The only similarity is The Yetis but last time I checked, they don’t have a trademark for that. AFA has always been a writer I don’t enjoy, but this story brought my issues to full front. The regulars are very general in characterization, and guest cast are just caricatures/1 dimensional. Overly long but not enough actually happening, and way too many referential nods. My biggest issue though is that a story that tries(unsuccessfully) to examine eastern faith has been written by a cis white man. For all the strides Big Finish have made in being diverse and opening up their writing pool/storytelling possibilities, this is a marked step back. I thought the Yeti were copyright Haisman estate. Most (intended to be) one-off monsters do belong to the relevant creators rather than the BBC and there were rumours Moffat wanted them in the Snowmen, but couldn't get clearances.
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dorney
Big Finish Creative Team
Likes: 3,067
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Post by dorney on Aug 24, 2021 20:09:39 GMT
Very mixed bag. Performance wise, Peter Purves is excellent and I adored Lauren Cornelius as Dodo, even if Dodo is given very little. The guest cast is solid, but with the script they were given(more on that soon), the performances are pretty run of the mill. But the script is just a horror show. Like Shallactop said, each episode is overlong, with Episode 4 being over 40 minutes. It’s a short six parter for sure. But not a good one. Most of Andy Frankham-Allen’s Big Finish credits are on stories featuring characters the Haisman estate owns(which he helps run), but this literally is the first one where no character had to be licensed from the estate. The only similarity is The Yetis but last time I checked, they don’t have a trademark for that. AFA has always been a writer I don’t enjoy, but this story brought my issues to full front. The regulars are very general in characterization, and guest cast are just caricatures/1 dimensional. Overly long but not enough actually happening, and way too many referential nods. My biggest issue though is that a story that tries(unsuccessfully) to examine eastern faith has been written by a cis white man. For all the strides Big Finish have made in being diverse and opening up their writing pool/storytelling possibilities, this is a marked step back. I thought the Yeti were copyright Haisman estate. Most (intended to be) one-off monsters do belong to the relevant creators rather than the BBC and there were rumours Moffat wanted them in the Snowmen, but couldn't get clearances. He’s meaning the non-robot yetis.
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