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Post by Zagreus on Apr 25, 2022 23:50:03 GMT
Doing a leisurely relisten of the series in anticipation of new stuff six months from now and have started today with Shades of Gray from Bernice Summerfield: Legion.
This came out in September of 2012, a month before Confessions started up proper, and it really is a nice teaser to the series.
We get a present day haunted house with Benny & Co, and three little vignettes giving us windows into snapshots of Dorian's past, from the "present day" of the 2600s, to a few hundred years before that give or take, and then even further back to the 1880s.
These four different periods give a nice idea of what to expect: Dorian encountering strange things, sometimes for altruistic reasons and sometimes just because he's bored. Sometimes he solves the case, sometimes he decides this is above his paygrade and leaves. And all the while there's someone in the background, waiting for that price to be paid...
A wonderful backdoor pilot, and one that sees him running into Bernice, as well as having a cheeky Dark Shadows crossover (a sign of things to come haha).
When's it Go: It's somewhat easy to place these vertical slices of Dorian's life, as they don't really overlap with any of the other releases in the Confessions range.
The framing sequence takes place in the contemporary time period of the setting, ie; the 2600s, and sees Benny, Ruth, and Jack investigating a mysterious mansion that shouldn't be there on the behest of a mysterious client who has sent them to pick up his portrait... While they wait for the client to arrive, Jack suggests a séance to look into the past of the creepily living painting, leading us to...
Vignette #1 takes place in the "present day", as Benny puts it, so still the 2600s, but sometime before the framing sequence. One "Mister Gray" visits an asylum at the behest of the staff, who are having a problem with a strange little girl who appears in one of the cells regularly but never speaks or interacts with anyone before vanishing again...
Vignette #2 is said by Jack to be in the "22nd, or 23rd" century, and details the same Gray attempting to buy a storied tapestry from a rather shady gallery owner, who invites him to have a view of her private collection of even more supernatural artifacts...
Vignette #3 takes place during the timeskip in the events of the novel, so somewhere in the mid to late 1880s, and details Dorian's dalliances in Victorian night life with his lover Spencer, the people who care about him looking on and weighing how good or bad this is for him.
And through all of these, the mysterious "Collector" is keeping an eye on Dorian's movements, waiting...
Continuity watch: When talking to Kaitlyn (sp?), Gray mentions that he's run into something like her before. Which of course he has, as he had his own imaginary friend made manifest to deal with.
Also, later on in... Fallen King, I think, Spencer is among the names of loved ones passed that Dorian rattles off.
In Review: Overall, a solid start for the character, I remember listening to it and being left wanting more, which fortunately I got in short order haha.
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Post by Zagreus on Apr 27, 2022 16:59:45 GMT
Next up is This World Our Hell, the first episode of Series One, released at the end of October in 2012.
Our first glimpse at the series proper. Vlahos' wonderfully conversational tone works well for the format, and the supporting cast also perform splendidly. Ditto the soundscape, Dunlop did a bangup job of setting the ambiance filling in the surroundings.
When's it Go: Set in late November of 1900 in the last few days of Oscar Wilde's life as he rests out his exile in Paris. His "fever" is meningitis, not fun. I should know, I've survived it. My fever was off the charts and I was in so much pain I couldn't see with my eyes open. Wilde's circumstances here, devoid of the medical care that kept me alive and diluted the pain to tolerable levels... Well, I try not to dwell on it.
Dorian is visiting his dear friend, the author of his fiction, as he "convalesces", and deals with more sinister dealings while he's there...
It surprised and delighted me to find after the fact that many of Wilde's quips in the script are actual historical quotes, such as the line about the wallpaper, which brings to mind another particularly cerebral story...
Continuity Watch: Not a whole lot going on here I don't think. We will of course revisit Oscar in Series 5.
Made mention is that Dorian has been travelling under the name "John Gray", who is the historical poet that Dorian is rumored to be based upon in real life. It's somewhat interesting that John isn't mentioned more in the series, nor his lover Marc-André Raffalovich. Food for future thought perhaps. BBC Radio did a wonderful little hour long production called The Shadow of Dorian Gray about John and events succeeding Wilde's passing that I will perhaps slot into this slow marathon.
In Review: While Shades of Gray was enough of a hook to get me interested in giving Confessions a try, This World Our Hell was what made me fall in love. I listened to it at least three times before the next episode came out, and I've come back to it countless times since. Truly a classic, and still what I point friends at when recommending the series to others.
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Post by Zagreus on Apr 29, 2022 18:44:19 GMT
Today's listen is The Houses In Between, the second episode of Series One, release in November of 2012.
Dorian's past comes back to haunt him in this second episode of the saga, and continues what will prove to be a theme in the first series, that of the fates that befell Dorian's friends and family as he remains unchanging through the eons. Last time it was one of Dorian's close friends, and this time would prove to be the mother of Dorian's child.
The supporting cast and soundscape are once again excellent. Applause all 'round. While we're on that, I believe this is the first episode to feature the leitmotif that will become a recurring refrain in the series, conveying a sense of epic poignancy as a backdrop for Dorian's reminiscences.
When's it Go: We've jumped ahead from last episode, from 1900 to 1940. Set during The Blitz, Dorian is fire watching a keeps seeing faces in the flames... After seeing them multiple times, and feeling a bit intrigued he stars having strange dreams about what he was up to ("who" he was up to?) back in 1911, involving a singer by the stage name of Rosina Sawyer, and her shall we say "acquaintance" with Dorian back in the day. Eventually, Dorian learns how the faces and the dreams are connected, and that he really needs to do something about it.
Not quite as cerebral as This World Our Hell, this one is more of a well told ghost story, and hints at further details of Dorian's life beyond the confines of the play, setting this as a window into his life rather than just an episodic adventure.
Continuity Watch: We're introduced to a medium, Miss Haylock, who knows Dorian and has had dealings with him in the past. I don't think that's ever expanded upon for the rest of the series haha. She mentions a "Cyril", which sounds familiar, but that might just be a name reused elsewhere in the series and be unrelated.
Dorian is referred to as "The Mayfair Monster" at one point, which gets cheekily referenced again a few times throughout the series, chiefly in the episode of the same name, natch.
There's one later play actually set in 1911, will need to keep an ear out for a back reference to Rosina in there somewhere.
Speaking of, Rosina (or rather her child) strikes me as a character with potential, and it could be interesting to return to them in future, though we haven't as of yet. Perhaps in one of these "oh fine then just one more story" releases from Scott and Alex we'll finally do so haha.
In Review: While This World Our Hell was indeed a strong first installment out of the gate, it's still very much tied to the events of the novel and serves as a nice starting point for those familiar with it even in passing. Houses, in contrast, shows that we're not going to be confined to just that setting, jumping forward half a decade, and is a wildly different story that still manages to pack a punch and leave an impression.
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Post by BHTvsTFC on Apr 30, 2022 21:07:28 GMT
Some nice reviews there. Shades of Gray improves with every listen and isn't just a nice backdoor pilot for Dorian, it's up there with the best Benny stories too - even Richard Franklin is good in it and downright sinister. Dorian was a slow burner for me really and I can't remember which story finally swung it for me. The Houses in Between is one I need to relisten to sometime. It's one of the few I don't seem to recollect much, which is not to say it's not a good story but one that doesn't seem to stay in my memory. This relisten might inspire a few relistens of my own.
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Post by BHTvsTFC on Apr 30, 2022 22:06:11 GMT
Just relistened to The Houses in Between - yes, I was that inspired!
It is an interesting mix of past and present that isn't felt so much in the rest of the series. The mention of the child is really moving and tragic as ghost stories often are and Alex conveys this superbly. I believe we don't hear from Miss Haylock, or Rosina again and it strikes me just how many more lost Dorian stories could still be out there - A Dorian Gray - For the Love of Stories box set could be feasible one day... maybe... perhaps...
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Post by Zagreus on May 1, 2022 5:10:26 GMT
I think she does actually come back for the group scene in Fallen King, iirc, but yeah, not in any tangible sense.
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Post by Zagreus on May 3, 2022 16:24:37 GMT
This time is The Twittering of Sparrows, released in November of 2012 and the third episode of Series One.
Manning does a wonderful job here though some of the other actors are a bit stiff for my ear, at least in the beginning of the play. The story itself is quite interesting and is the first of many adventures that see Dorian falling into the middle of troubles with mythology from outside of The West.
When's it Go: Again, we're jumping forward, as the first series does, and this time we're in Singapore, 1956. Dorian is checking in on his little baby sister, well into her twilight years, and she's got her own curse in tow, as one does.
Normally I'd have a bit of a problem with plays set in Asian countries that feature nothing but Western characters but that's actually kind of the point of this one, them coming in and I need to stop swearing it up so I think it works well.
As far as the soundscape goes, this one's a bit different than those that have preceded it. It's a bit more... brash, perhaps? There's more voice encoder and a bit more "trying to sound foreign" to the background hustle and bustle that fills in the cityscape. Not that that's bad, mind you, it's just a bit of a change.
Continuity Watch: I believe this is the first mention made of Dorian's extended family, marking a shift from the source material (a first of many). Isadora will be making more appearances in the series but this is certainly quite the intro (and outro) for the character.
In Review: It is a testament to just how much of a stellar set of episodes that this debut series presents us that this episode is no less of a stunner than the rest as of yet. Once again we get a strong emotional connection to Dorian, his sister this time, meeting a messy end. Only this time it's a little different for us, the audience, and always leaves me feeling a bit like I've been kicked in the gut.
In short, go listen to it if you haven't already haha!
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Post by Zagreus on May 3, 2022 20:36:19 GMT
Because it's a slow day at work and I'm in the mood for it, I'm listening to The Skin Walkers as part of my slow Confessions marathon. It is the 5th of the Dark Shadows Dramatic Readings and the third of the first set of the at the range, newly established at the time in the wake of the two-part reading of Lara Parker's novel. It came out in November of 2008. This is a bit of a dry run for the entire Confessions range, and its interesting how much of a template it serves and how plot elements within come back directly later on in Dorian's adventures some years later. The basic conceit of Quentin Collin's portrait, squirreled away in the attic at some point of in annals of time, recounting tales of Quentin's long and storied life, narrating the bit with additional actors supplying some parts here and there for color directly mirrors the format of the later Confessions series. When's it Go: The framing sequence notwithstanding, the story within takes place in New York in the Autumn of 1899. Quentin has begun to come to grips with not aging and has wound up in New York during his random travels. Quentin is noticed by a funeral procession one night and is urged to tag along, noticing a strange pentagram mark on the hands of all the mourners... He ends up involved with one Caitlin Mathews and her children, werewolves like himself, as well as the cultish order of the "Skin Walkers", headed up by one Jackson Lowell, an order of pentagram-marked hunters bent on stamping out the curse of the moon once and for all, believing that Quentin is the key to their salvation. What follows is an unwinding tale of Quentin, Lowell, and Caitlin all using one another for both altruistic and sinister purposes, as well as one of Quentin daring to dream of maybe settling down again with a woman an family who can understand him, only for it all to come crashing down in the end. Continuity Watch: Quentin himself will of course cross paths with Dorian himself later on in the Dramatic Readings, an old friend apparently (naturally), and Dorian had that brush with the Crimson Pearl sometime in the 24th or 25th Century (I wonder who owned it at that point?), but much more importantly to the Confessions series are the Skin Walkers themselves and Jackson Lowell. But we'll expand on that more when we actually get to it  Also need to make a note to myself to keep an ear out for any references when I get to Inner Darkness later on during this marathon. In Review: I remember thinking this was quite dry the first time I tried listening to it over a decade ago, not as familiar with the Dark Shadows series as I am now. Relistening to it today I have no idea why I felt that way about it because it's quite good honestly! Perhaps a bit rough around the edges as its range was new, and with a runtime clocking in at around one and a quarter hour it could possibly have been tightened up a bit, but the story itself is quite engaging and I never felt that they needed to just get on with it already. If you've listened to all of Confessions but haven't yet dipped your toes in other ranges, I'd say this is a good one to sit down with, as it forms the first episode of the defacto "Series Zero" for Dorian's range. |
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Post by Zagreus on May 10, 2022 17:33:48 GMT
And we're back. Released in November of 2012 as the fourth episode of Series One, we have arrived at The Heart The Lives Alone.
This one's quite important moving forward, though we didn't quite known that at the time.
Hugh Skinner really knocks it out of the park as the co-main lead of the show, and the future co-main lead of the series, really.
This one actually a bit of an oddity. It's set up like an episode of Behind the Music, with Dorian and Tobias co-narrating conversationally like they're reminiscing in an interview. I quite like it haha.
When's it Go: The 80s! More specifically, 1986. At least at first. We now know that this takes place over the course of at least a couple years? I guess?
Dorian's finally met a man who isn't putty in his hands and instead Dorian is just down bad for him haha. Tobias is a wonderful character. A Dorian for Dorian. It's quite a turn.
Starts out very lighthearted, as far as Confessions episodes go, and then takes a turn about a dozen minutes in. Which brings us to the other oddity of the play. It's about vampires.
The prior episodes have all so far featured Babylonian demons, abstract spirits in the flames of war wreckage, ancient Chinese dragon gods... and this one is about vampires.
If you told me before I'd gotten into the series that the one set in the 80s mod scene about Dorian hooking up with a vampire would be not only the possible standout of Series One and a tentpole that much of the rest of the entire franchise was hung on I'd think you were mad haha.
Continuity Watch: Toby of course becomes a mainstay of the series, present or not, serving as Dorian's soul mate and companion, such as it is. I'm... not sure there's anything else, really? This is a remarkably standalone episode for how important it is haha.
In Review: It's good! Beautiful, even! Yeah, go listen to it! It's the first episode to feature Dorian interacting with another immortal, though it won't be the last, and it left such an impact on the series that it drove the conversation for the next ten years, and the upcoming Anniversary special is even its companion piece.
A must listen, really.
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Post by Zagreus on May 20, 2022 22:49:45 GMT
Ai'ght, here we go. The finale of the inaugural Series One, released in November of 2011, it's time for... The Fallen King of Britain. Dorian's a banker. Among other things. A figurative "king", if you will, rather than a literal one. He's slinging coke and doing business and he's just stupendously bored with it all.
And Dorian's demon-possessed cocaine is killing his friends and coworkers.
Yes you read that correctly.
When's it Go: January, 2007. Dorian's made it to "present day", though this wasn't even contemporaneous to the release, instead being about five years earlier. We won't get to proper proper "set at time of release" until the next season or so. Does a good job of painting a picture of high-rise flat London in the mid-aughts from the point of view of the people at the top of the class hierarchy.
Continuity Watch: The White Rabbit makes a showing, a staple of Big Finish releases. It's been the watering hole of choice for Doctors, archaeologists, aliens, etc.
There's also a series of scenes where Dorian's having some episodes and various people from Dorian's past (coincidentally those from the episodes in this season, natch) start showing up, including Toby, Madam Moreau, Dora, Rosina (and the baby), Basil Hallward, and even Big Finish's version of Sherlock Holmes played by Briggs himself in a cheeky call-forward to the Christmas Special that would follow this. Surprisingly, only two of those characters wouldn't be making further appearances in the series. Some more recurring than others.
Dorian also mentions Spencer, from the Shades of Gray episode of Bernice Summerfield, when rattling off names of loved ones he's responsible for the deaths of!
In Review: I mean this in the most complimentary way but I'd probably rank this lowest out of all the season one releases. It's still quite good, of course, it's just that one of them has to be the bottom of the pile, and hey it's this one. It starts out describing Dorian's nightlife that he does more out of habit than anything else and how he's kinda over everything and just not excited anymore and the narrative does perhaps just a tad too good of a job of making it all seem mundane because I do find my attention wandering for the first ten minutes or so, which is bad because this one is extra long. After the first death though things start picking up.
Simon's a brilliantly crafted foil to Dorian. A sweet, wholesome fellow caught up in the high flying business world Dorian currently occupies and Dorian is absolutely convinced there's something supernatural about him because there's always something supernatural about them but there's not, for once. And Dorian might just be out of his mind on the blow. Or it could be possessed by the spirits of the damned, who's to say.
They never actually resolve the haunted coke thing, actually. Though I suppose ultimately it doesn't actually matter, as Dorian is ultimately unconcerned with it so why should we be? It's not the point of the play, really. Rather, it's more about Dorian going through a change of character. And that part of it, is handled wonderfully. By the end, Dorian's resolved to be a better person, and surprisingly he keeps it up in the following season.
It's a good cap-off to the season. And honestly, if the series had ended right there, I don't think we could have too many complaints. It's a nice, rounded off season comprised of a tour de force of powerful episodes and everyone did such an amazing job and it wasn't even over! They surprised us all with a Christmas episode! And then a second season! And a third! And a fourth! What started out as a little experiment to see if a low-budget digital-only series aimed at a different audience than their usual Doctor Who fare would go over well is now ten years old and the ride never ends, though it sometimes tricks us into thinking it has haha.
I've gotten a bit away from the review of this particular episode but yeah, it's good, go listen to it, it's worth it.
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Post by Zagreus on May 27, 2022 21:55:19 GMT
Next up, we're going to return to Quentin Collins for a minute with Blood Dance, the 11th release of the Dark Shadows Dramatic Readings, which came out in April of 2010.
To quote the blurb, Quentin Collins finds himself in Chicago, captivated by the city’s energy and the prospect of a new love. Drawn into the twilight world of speakeasies and organized crime at the Arcadia Club, he becomes embroiled with owner Chandres Tessier – an enigmatic woman to whom he is inexorably drawn, but who hides a dark secret...
When's it Go: It's some time in 1929, Quentin has travelled to Chicago to get away from Collinwood for a while.
Getting caught up with Chandres and the mobsters and worse that keep trying to make a move on her. It turns out that she used to be part of a mysterious Cult of the Blue Rose, and when she left, she was cursed, and is now something of a vampire. She takes in Quentin in an effort to bring him under her influence to get back at the cult and her uncle who leads it. Quentin, on the other hand, isn't having any of it and sells her out the moment he finds out that the orphan girls working as dancers at her club are in fact her lifeless animated corpses of her victims.
Continuity Watch: Side reference to The Skin Walkers right at the beginning with a brief mention of "New York City at the turn of the century". Less explicit references to anything relevant at the moment, this is more a release that will be referenced in turn later on. But in general, this is the second in a string of stories of Quentin running into supernatural cults that will pop up again later on.
In Review: It's a few years into the Dramatic Readings range, though these were coming out sporadically, but its production values and pacing are a step up from The Skin Walkers some year and a half prior. The winding yarn moves along with twists and turns and reveals and conclusions with a vibrant soundscape and appropriate noir tracks to further the mood.
A good listen, go give it a shot.
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Post by constonks on May 27, 2022 22:15:51 GMT
Doing a leisurely relisten of the series in anticipation of new stuff six months from now and have started today with Shades of Gray from Bernice Summerfield: Legion. This came out in September of 2012, a month before Confessions started up proper, and it really is a nice teaser to the series. Relistened to this the other day - now that I've heard all of Dorian as well, I was struck by how well they showed off what the series would be! There are three complete Dorian stories here, with a beginning, middle and end to each, not just snapshots as they might have been. It's a boxset within a boxset and I love it. Plus, this story adds to the "up and down the timeline" thing that the early Dorian series did - we start the first vignette in Benny's time, back through the 22nd/23rd century, and land in a time before Dorian series 1. Then series 1 will go from 1900 to Present Day, and series 2 will take us back from Present Day to the 1880s. Breathe in, breathe out. (Also I'd love to see more of Future Dorian one day - maybe a Worlds of Big Finish sequel where he recruits Benny and/or Vienna or something like that...) |
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Post by Zagreus on May 27, 2022 22:24:56 GMT
And then die Well Dorian has that line in the first vignette, something like "I've lived so many lives, been so many people" that I'm choosing to interpret as free reign to The Diary of River Song Series 1 in my Confessions timeline haha. With the Vlahos-played "Bertie Potts" playing a mysterious gentleman who is part of the "Secret Rulers of the Universe" in the indeterminate future who has intimate knowledge of the past with big plans on bringing time under his control and hosts extravagant parties on a private space station that could be likened to what Jordan Belfort might get up to in that day and age. But yes, a box set that's the actual Confessions Dorian but in various points in the future, maybe even running into some other of Big Finish's space age faces. Could do a whole nother Worlds of Big Finish set with just Dorian in different periods of the future showing up in other peoples' stories haha |
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Post by BHTvsTFC on May 28, 2022 2:53:06 GMT
I was very fond of Simon as well.
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