Monday 30 November 2015

Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 16

They gave us all a break last week but here's Murgala back again in Show #16.

With thanks as always to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and all the boys and girls at Cranked Anvil Productions for letting me post these shows here on my Blog. For more information check them out at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 16.  Featuring some of the best sketches featured so far as well as a brand new Murgala. Sketches by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell and Tim Perry. Performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Vanessa Karon, Dolores Poretta, Stephen Sullivan and Jay Sykes. Script editor was Paul Dunn. First broadcast 25.11.15.

You can follow the show's presenters on Twitter via @PNHappyHour, resident performer (and Murgala himself) David Foster on @DG_Foster, Cranked Anvil Productions on @CrankedAnvil, radio station Spark Sunderland on @SparkSunderland, or even my good self (if you don't get enough of me here) on @Mr_Brell

Thursday 26 November 2015

Big Finish Novel Adaptations - Damaged Goods by Russell T Davies / Jonathan Morris

When I saw that Big Finish were issuing a second special edition box set of old Virgin Doctor Who novel adaptations I thought it was an odd choice to pair up Russell T Davies’ late Seventh Doctor ‘New Adventures’ story Damaged Goods with Gareth Roberts’ The Well Mannered War, the finale to both his Fourth Doctor Season 17 trilogy and to the ‘Missing Adventures’ range as a whole. Surely if they weren’t going to use Jonathan Morris’ BBC Books ‘Past Doctors Adventure’ Festival of Death and complete the set of Season 17-style era story adaptations, Big Finish were much better off sticking with Roberts’ work and putting The Highest Science (also announced as a stand-alone release) in the box set instead, to make a Roberts / Chelonian double-header?

I was, of course, almost entirely wrong.

Damaged Goods is simply awesome. Yes it doesn’t have any connections with The Well Mannered War at all, but both stories share something in common: they are superb adaptations and brilliant productions.

That is what makes this box set feel special.


I’ve read the Damaged Goods novel a couple of times over the past five years, first as a one-off (I never even realised Davies had written an NA until I saw it on a friend’s shelf and was allowed to borrow it) and then again a few years later when I was reading all the NAs in order. I disliked it intensely the first time around and I really had to convince myself to read it a second time (I couldn’t renege on my plan to read them all in order). I coped with it better the second time, probably because I knew what I was getting and I had more background having read the books preceding it, but I still found it a highly uncomfortable read in places. Doctor Who was being shoved into a kitchen sink drama world into which I didn’t want to be taken. With hindsight one can spot a lot of standard Davies tropes in the book; that’s not to say Russell is predictable or repetitive in any way, but there are clearly aspects of life and society that he chooses to highlight in his works. The use of the name Tyler for example is a personal preference – he likes the name and has used it often, so Winnie Tyler here isn’t, say, a precursor of Rose’s mum Jackie from the later TV series. But there are bold statements about homosexuality, relationships, class – and particularly assumptions based on social perception. It’s grittier, earthier than what he chose to do on TV – either in Doctor Who or Torchwood (which gets a namecheck in the adaptation).

Davies says in his highly engaging interview within the bonus material that he threw everything he could at the novel at the time – including, I’d argue, the kitchen sink. He didn’t want to become a Doctor Who novelist so he gave it his one shot, satisfied himself that he’d written for Doctor Who (the novels being the only legitimate form of new Who at the time) and that he’d written a novel and went back to his TV work. I think that’s one of the underlying problems I have with the original novel – there’s a bit too much in there - of everything; nothing has time to breathe and it all becomes a bit relentless after a while.

Jonathan Morris’ adaptation streamlines the story wonderfully without losing any of the story narrative threads or the overall sense of ‘real life’. This gives the story a clarity and pace that the book lacks. There are deviations and changes, naturally, but nothing really stands out as being forced or inappropriate and in doing so Morris avoids some of the more unpleasant extremes and excesses of the book – particularly the relentless death and devastation at the end. But he skilfully makes these changes and deals with the book’s challenges in ways reminiscent of Davies’ TV work, giving the production a sense of affinity with its TV counterparts. We’re left with everything that was great about the book, in my view, but without the bitter aftertaste and discomfort in the pit of the stomach.

The cast deliver ‘undamaged’ goods, with spot-on performances. McCoy relishes his late, dark Doctor, a bit tired with all the scheming. Newby companions Roz and Chris play well against McCoy, even though this is nearer the end of their ‘story’ and it would be good to hear more from the team. Chris was, unfortunately, very unevenly written in the novels - often becoming whatever the writer needed him to be that month. If Big Finish continue with these adaptations I’m hoping this previous inconsistency will be ironed out.

Michelle Collins does what she does very well, there’s no denying. Much of her TV output has not been to my taste, but there’s no denying her ability and as soon as she starts speaking in that very distinctive voice of hers the listener paints in a lot of character background – i.e. makes shorthand social assumptions and waits to be corrected. Denise Black is also excellent as Eva Jericho, but a huge shout has to go out for Georgie Fuller as Bev Tyler who is just incredible and gives the part such depth and range. It’s no wonder Russell T Davies asked Morris to change his storyline and have her survive at the end; she didn’t need to die – or rather the story didn’t need her to die especially, so it’s fitting to have her live on with her brother at the end.

It’s not perfect, but any criticisms are really only niggles at best, not actual faults. We know that Torchwood has always considered the Doctor to be the main enemy, so when McCoy introduces himself to Doctor Greco you’d expect an alarm bell to ring somewhere. I’m sure the scene would have played just as well without the Doctor introducing himself – Greco is already on the back foot from the start. Because of the size of the cast in the novel there is some necessary doubling up here amongst the actors. Occasionally on both listens so far I’ve struggled to know precisely which of the thug characters was speaking – which isn’t necessarily important to the overall narrative but is frustrating nevertheless. Robert Duncan gives fine performances as Thomas, Dr Greco and Mr Jericho, but there are times when all three speak consecutively and no amount of vocal dexterity from Duncan can hide the basic timbre of his voice when none of his characters require treated voices. But like I said, these are really just niggles.

It’s the only Big Finish story I’ve listened to of late that I’ve felt compelled to play over again immediately after, and I think that says a lot.

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Anthony Read - not an obituary


Anthony Read, 1935-2015.

This isn’t an obituary; if it was it would become a data-dump of dates, names, TV programmes and suchlike because I would have had to look up Anthony Read’s life and achievements beyond Doctor Who and as this is a personal Blog I don’t see the point in me doing that particularly – there’ll be enough obituaries out there anyway on fan websites no doubt.

This isn’t even really an appreciation of the man, because I am familiar with so little of his output. I didn’t watch Chocky back in the 1980s and I don’t even know Sapphire and Steel – which for a British sci-fi fan probably relegates me to the second division, alas.

But Anthony Read was the script editor on Doctor Who between 1977-1979 and also contributed a story, The Horns of Nimon, to the following season. As such he was responsible for guiding and creating some of the most memorable Saturday tea time television for little me. If I’d been utterly terrified by the later stories script edited by Robert Holmes, I was terrified and enchanted by those under Anthony Read through the end of Season 15 and throughout Season 16 ‘The Key to Time’. I clearly recall the excitement and anticipation that the Season 17 trailers created in me in 1979 in the run up to Destiny of The Daleks, which shows how hooked this little five year old was by what had gone before.

Read very knowingly took a demotion to work on Doctor Who. He’d been a script editor, producer and then a senior producer at the BBC before, and had moved on to freelance work at ITV. Doctor Who clearly held a certain kudos and appeal to some even though it was a fourteen year old programme. Graeme MacDonald, Head of Series, headhunted Read as a suitably competent successor to Robert Holmes who was eager to relinquish the role after three and a half very successful but very busy years. Holmes had written or re-written from scratch an unprecedented number of scripts himself during his tenure as script editor and unsurprisingly he was keen to take a break. With the exception of The Invasion of Time as a last-minute replacement six-parter to complete Season 15, Read tended to get off a little lighter than Holmes, it seems, in terms of enforced contributions (although his successor Douglas Adams arguably had a worse time that Holmes during his season!)

Read was happy, then, to step in as script editor on an established fourteen-year old programme which offered him the chance to flex some inventive and outlandish muscles. Graham Williams, the recently appointed producer, had worked as a script editor under Read previously when he’d been a producer so there was probably something of a collaborative work ethic between them both, having experienced both roles each.

The programme had been heavily criticised the year before for horrific violence – particularly during The Deadly Assassin where the Doctor is apparently drowned at the end of episode three. Mary Whitehouse dug her claws in and the BBC relented. To be honest I think she had a point, even if I don’t necessarily agree with the way she went about it. But I also think that it wasn’t so much that the show was being too violent, it’s that it was being performed and made with a level of realism at times that naturally raised the horror stakes and made it a bit too ‘on the nose’ so to speak.

Cliff hangers tend to be the moments that stick strongest in the mind, as a dramatic highpoint that one had to wait a week to see resolved. Most of my memories of Doctor Who up to the age of 5 or so tend to be cliff hanger moments. I was, I’m sure, too young to understand what was happening if I watched The Deadly Assassin episode three at the time but I certainly watched the week before because the last few minutes of episode two is possibly my earliest memory, as the Doctor enters the nightmare world of the Matrix. Should I have been watching as a toddler? Probably not in fairness, and my boy, who is about the age now that I was then, doesn’t watch the new series unless we know it’s suitable. But times were different back then, you couldn’t re-watch programmes, they were on and then gone. So I was left with fabulous graphic images of horses in gas masks, clowns under the sand, trains trundling towards the Doctor driven by faceless drivers, Laserson probes being thrust into the heads of robots, and a major discomfort around rodents thanks to the huge rat pursuing Leela through the sewers and eventually chewing on her leg. This last moment was too much for me and, scared half to death and screaming, my mother decided that I shouldn’t watch it any more. Thanks mum. This didn’t last all that long though, as I was back for the following season.

The series clearly wasn’t going to change very much while Robert Holmes stayed as script editor. The first three stories of Season 15, overseen by him, are largely in a similar vein to what had gone before with horror and possession aplenty. He left with an excellent script of his own, The Sun Makers, to fill the immediate need and handed the reins to Anthony Read who’d been shadowing him through Image of The Fendahl, the last truly dark and horrific Tom Baker story in the old style.

Read is notable, then, for coming in and planting a clear stamp on the stories with pretty much immediate effect. Possession goes out the window. Gothic and old Hollywood horror take a hike. Instead we enter a universe more literary, more garrulous, more witty – which suits the increasingly dominant Tom Baker. It’s difficult to decide whether these scripts encouraged Baker’s confident verbosity or whether the production team sensed this is where he was taking his Doctor and responded to that accordingly. There is more ‘light’ comedy, although there are still dark moments to compensate. Underworld and The Invasion of Time were both troubled productions to close Season 15 and Read clearly had a baptism of fire. But having tested the waters and not drowned he really flies the following year.

Read himself (writing with Graham Williams as ‘David Agnew’) was the only new writer to the programme in Season 15 – and then only through a certain desperation at the eleventh hour. He brings two new names to the show the following year, one of which is often sorely overlooked and the other is hyped up massively – certainly to the detriment of the former and possibly to the detriment of Read himself. I’m talking about David Fisher and Douglas Adams. Fisher fits into the show perfectly, delivering two cracking scripts The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara – between them eight weeks of highly entertaining and thrilling TV in the middle of the season. It’s like he’s been writing for the show for years. Read and Fisher had a long history of collaboration, which I believe continued after both had left Doctor Who. Douglas Adams was a slightly different (Babel) fish. He’d been encouraged by Robert Holmes previously, and Read also saw something worth nurturing in him. As a consequence he had to work very hard with Adams to turn The Pirate Planet commission into a script that could realistically be made – to the initial horror of Graeme MacDonald, it seems. It’s possible that this was only because the other slots were being filled by writers who needed less guidance. Holmes delivered two stories also, and the final six-parter came to Bob Baker and Dave Martin who’d been writing for the show since 1971 offering reliability but somewhat uneven quality.

I have an on-off relationship with The Ribos Operation: sometimes I love it sometimes I find it hard to enjoy and I don’t really know why. But I adore The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara and Holmes second story The Power of Kroll and I have fond, fleeting, memories of all of these at the time. I struggle to find a run of stories that I enjoy more, outside of the Robert Holmes era, than these four. Such variety; such a lot to thrill, entertain, engage and divert the audience.

The six-part season closer, The Armageddon Factor, suffers in a similar way to The Invasion of Time the year before. It lacks punch and focus, it loses its way and then struggles to claw anything back for the end. Nowadays, of course, the opening and closing instalments of a story arc like this would be written by the series head writer – effectively the role the old-style script editor took.

Read had decided to move on again at the end of this full season. You can’t blame him, he wasn’t in for the long haul and he’d made his mark. Unfortunately for many the ‘mark’ he’d made was in commissioning Douglas Adams, who was then offered the chance to step into Read’s shoes for the following season. Adams accepted the role, shadowing Read on The Armageddon Factor. Then things started to pick up with The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy and the rest is history.

Anthony Read kind of came in and left as script editor on a whimper: both Underworld and The Armageddon Factor are among the least enjoyable and least visually impressive of Tom Baker’s stories, which is a shame.
 
However, Douglas Adams struggled to get new writers involved with the programme the following year and although Read had broken recent tradition in not commissioning himself for a script before he left as script editor, Read found himself commissioned to write for the series anyway, along with old hands Terry Nation, Bob Baker (solo this time) and recent successful newby David Fisher. His story The Horns of Nimon inadvertently closed Season 17 early when the six-part Adams-penned climax Shada was cancelled due to industrial action. Read’s is the final story of the 1970s, the last story to feature the blue time tunnel title sequence, the last to feature Dudley Simpson’s incidental music, the last to feature Delia Derbyshire’s original theme arrangement, the last to feature Tom Baker’s multi-coloured scarf outfit. It was the last time Graham Williams, Douglas Adams or Anthony Read were credited on the show. It was the end of an era. For many of us the show would never be the same again, never be as good again. For many it would suddenly get a whole lot better though. Que sera sera.

Certainly for me The Horns of Nimon sticks in my head as a story I loved at the time (it took me a long while to warm to all the changes the following season) and I continue to love it now. It’s light-hearted in many ways but like the rest of the season it has a consistency of tone throughout with a serious underlying drama and a great premise; overall I find it immensely enjoyable. It’s often said that the main reason Douglas Adams struggled as a script editor was that he found it impossible not to tinker with other people’s work, thus increasing his workload. He may well have heavily edited Read’s script, but his tinkerings are likely to have been tonal, maintaining the uniformity the whole season exhibited. I don’t think we can or should take anything away from Read for being script edited by Adams.

In another almost mirror image, Read’s first full commission as script editor was Underworld, a tale basically ripping off Classic legends of Jason and the Argonauts, and his final work on the series, the Horns of Nimon, was a re-packaging of the Minotaur myth. No wonder they were boxed up together by BBCDVD as ‘Myths and Legends’ (with the Pertwee yarn The Time Monster).

 
Read was clearly proud of his year and a half on Doctor Who - but sensibly, with a knowing appreciation of the difficulties under which they were working at the time and the limitations of what could be achieved. He was a lively contributor to the DVD range as, sadly, one of the few from the production side in the late 1970s to make it through to retirement age. I for one am glad that we at least have those contributions on record for posterity. Just hear the glee with which he mentions going to see Star Wars on its first release with Tom Baker and Graham Williams. Hearing his Whosround interview with Toby Hadoke, recorded at the 50th Anniversary Event at Excel London in November 2013, he mentions he's there with his grandson - and again he sounds so proud to have been part of something that has now been passed down to new generations, and is being cherished and enjoyed and developed further by them.

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/toby-hadoke-s-who-s-round-139---anthony-read-and-mark-ayres-part-1-1398

I’d like to thank Anthony Read for all the stories he oversaw or wrote when I was very young and which entertained, enchanted and thrilled little me, and although I never met him my appreciation of a brief chapter of his working life makes me saddened by his death.

I hope that posterity records Anthony Read as more than just a Doctor Who script editor, and I hope that Doctor Who records him with more justice than simply the guy who filled the gap between Robert Holmes and Douglas Adams.

Monday 23 November 2015

Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 14 - featuring some colourful language!

With thanks as always to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and all the boys and girls at Cranked Anvil Productions for letting me post these shows here on my Blog. For more information check them out at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 14. Warning: this show features sketches with some very colourful language! Seriously – this is the non-broadcast version of the show, in which actual swear words appear! Also featuring a walk down children’s TV memory lane, and a Freudian slip by Paul which just goes to show that men really do only think about one thing!
Sketches written by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, Tom Smith, Matt Watson, and David Metcalf, Jamie McLeish & Andrew Kirkwood as MKM Comedy.
Performed by Sarah Boulter, Carole Cooke, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Harriet Ghost, Vanessa Karon, Wayne Miller, Hazel Pude and Jordan Todd.
First broadcast (with swearing beeped out!) on 11.11.15.


You can follow the show's presenters on Twitter via @PNHappyHour, resident performer (and Murgala himself) David Foster on @DG_Foster, Cranked Anvil Productions on @CrankedAnvil, radio station Spark Sunderland on @SparkSunderland, producer Jay Sykes on @JaySykesMedia or even me (if you don't get enough of me here) on @Mr_Brell

Thursday 19 November 2015

You and Who Else - Quatermass II essay supplemental

I know everyone out there who has read my Quatermass II piece in You And Who Else will be desperate for this nugget...

The family moved house relatively recently. When sorting through some of the boxes of 'homeless' books we still have the other week I came across this. Yes, this is the very L750 Betamax video cassette containing the 1986 BBC TV50 celebratory clip show that I talk about in that essay. It's not even re-wound to the beginning and my guess is that it's probably been left at the right place for the Quatermass II and Doctor Who clips section. And it'll stay that way unless I come across a Betamax player and decide to check it out...

29 years old.

Yeah baby, verisimilitude in spades!

http://watchingbooks.weebly.com/you-and-who-else.html

Wednesday 18 November 2015

You and Who Else: A History of British Telefantasy, from Watching Books - NOW AVAILABLE!

You and Who Else: A History of British Telefantasy as written by the people who watched it.

That's what this book is in a nutshell: it's a collection of essays about television programmes by fans and casual viewers (I have written about Bod, for example, but I'd hardly call myself a Bod fan!) It covers all things from Doctor Who to Ivor the Engine, Life on Mars to Blue Peter...

There are 175 essays covering 150 programmes over 62 years in 790 pages. Wow! That's a meaty tome and a welcome addition to anyone's telefantasy book collection - and indeed should appeal to anyone who has really enjoyed the sheer variety of British television down the years.

And those of us who have contributed pieces aren't doing so for fame or fortune - all royalties go to the Terrence Higgins Trust.

But then there are plenty of contributors who don't need to seek fame or fortune because they are already known and respected within the world of telefantasy; Richard Marson, Paul Vanezis, Gary Russell, John Dorney, Steve Roberts, Keith Topping, Ian Farrington, Kevin Davies, Phil Ford amongst others. And then there are plenty of 'unknowns' like myself. So not only does this book encompass a massive swathe of British television since the 1950s it also gives voice to a wide variety of people from all walks of life, with varying experiences, who all have a particular story to tell involving a particular TV programme.

I'd like to thank Watching Books and particularly the editor JR Southall (Twitter @JR_Southall) for giving me the opportunity to reminisce about how I discovered Quatermass II (I'm not old enough to have seen it on TV before anyone asks) and to work over some theories about childhood memories and Bod.

I'd urge everyone to buy it, not because I've contributed to it (I'm not vain like that) but because so much love and hard work has gone into it from so many people, and it's a truly worthy piece for a truly worthy cause.

Available as a hard copy and also a kindle e-book
http://watchingbooks.weebly.com/you-and-who-else.html

Blake's Heaven, also from Watching Books, to which I contributed as well, is still available either as a hard copy or as a Kindle e-book (royalties donated to Children In Need)
http://watchingbooks.weebly.com/blakes-heaven.html

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) 2000 - some thoughts

My wife loves this programme - largely due to its links with The League of Gentlemen. Marriage has given me exposure to a series that I'd pretty much consigned to the TV history vaults. Here are some thoughts on it...

 I hadn’t paid much attention to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) when it was first shown in 2000. The cynic in me didn’t trust the Reeves & Mortimer / Fast Show crowd to create something meaningful, and I recall not being massively wowed by what I saw. As a cult TV fan I was aware of an underground hubbub – would the remake work? Would they change it very much? Would a new audience accept it? If it’s a success would the BBC or anyone risk bringing back other classic telefantasy series, such as Doctor Who? More importantly if it fails will it scupper the chance for other telefantasy series to be rebooted – i.e. Doctor Who? To be honest it passed out of the TV schedules and out of my awareness without any great fuss, and in retrospect the answer to the latter question was clearly ‘no’.

Years later when my to-be-wife and I moved in together she brought the DVDs of both series with her. I hadn't realised at the time of the original broadcast that such a collection of cult names were connected with it: David Tennant, The League of Gentlemen, Simon Pegg, to name but a few. But then I wasn't an avid television viewer at that time anyway. A quick scan through the credits cements Randall and Hopkirk's position as an extraordinary lodestone of contemporary and older TV talent, whose fingers spread far and wide. I’d had no idea of this at the time, but it really was a nexus point for excellent actors and production crew, great comedians and writers, and upcoming talent. I’d clearly overlooked a major TV event. But they only made two series.

Mind you, a short run is no reflection of quality – look at the superb BBC4 Dirk Gently series from 2012, and everyone always lauds Fawlty Towers for only doing twelve episodes.

I want to like Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) a lot, but I can't. For me the series doesn’t quite work. Maybe I’m not alone in this, and maybe that’s why only two series were made – I don’t know.

Bob Mortimer tries his best but he’s not a good actor, bless him, and the kind of talent on display from others – guest cast and regulars - only serves to highlight the fact. This is a series that had clearly grabbed the television industry by the scruff of the neck, judging by the who’s who list of participants. But it needed to grab the viewer by the kahunas and hold them for fifty minutes, occasionally slapping them with a surprise or a twist to keep them engaged. As a viewer then, as I am now, I’m constantly reminded by Mortimer that I’m watching a TV drama, and not being absorbed into its world.

Similarly Tom Baker’s Wyvern character in limbo is an interesting original development and gives Marty someone else to engage with but their scenes always leave me feeling distracted; they break up the flow of the episodes and often lack narrative thrust and purpose. Occasionally – just occasionally – I can’t help thinking that some characters were miscast, or possibly guest actors were allowed too much creative freedom and leads me to think of nepotism, jobs for the boys, casting friends as a favour regardless of suitability for the role. It all serves to keep dragging me out of the ‘zone’ as a viewer.

The key difference between this and the original Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) series, of course, is that (as happened with Doctor Who when it was eventually brought back) there has to be a continuing personal storyline underneath the particular mystery of the week. Viewers by the space year 2000, it was felt, wouldn’t accept a basic situation of an investigator and his ghost partner righting wrongs. It’s too simple, too superficial, so there has to be undercurrents and a stronger emotional element; Marty’s ex-fiancée Jeannie thus becomes a more prominent character and the series develops towards a kind of love triangle situation, while Wyvern teaches Marty how to cope with life in limbo. Personally I’m not sold on this assumption of the audience’s sophistication; I think it presupposes that there’s no longer a market for purely escapist TV and that the audience needs to be challenged at all times. I may be wrong in that, and not representative of much of the audience for 21st Century escapist fantasy TV, but I can pin many of the faults I see in the series on this necessity to be more sophisticated. I find I have to watch the episodes very closely to follow exactly what’s going on, and the closer I watch it the more I notice the aspects that jar.

The individual episode storylines themselves are a fascinating mash-up of genres and homages – which is a predictable no-brainer when you look at the creative bodies involved, and their influences and subsequent achievements. But the series falls between two stools for me: the comedy bits aren’t quite funny enough and the dramatic bits aren’t quite dramatic enough, so it gets mired in some swampy middle ground. Visually and aurally it’s very impressive, made with flair and style, and on paper it looks like a whole world of wonderful - but I just feel the final product fails to live up to the sum of its parts.

But despite this I find that I have a great affection for the series: I admire many of the creative people involved and thus I have a goodwill towards it which makes me really want to like it a lot more than I do! And although I’m critical of it, and some people might fail to understand why I would put myself through watching it, it’s an appreciative criticism that weirdly doesn’t prevent me from enjoying it at the same time. I guess the bottom line is that I don’t love it.

Monday 9 November 2015

Ray Bradbury: S is for Space


When Ray Bradbury passed away in 2012 I suffered a minor pang of guilt that I had never read any of his works, despite being aware of him as a major contributor to science fiction of the latter Twentieth Century. I rectified that pretty quickly with Fahrenheit 451 and also purchased The Martian Chronicles which I have yet to read. I enjoyed Farhenheit 451 although I wasn’t totally wowed by it (thank you over-hype!) I found Bradbury’s prose to be somewhat economic and enigmatic (similar to my feelings on Hemingway, actually) and it took me a while to get used to it. But I felt on reflection that this was a book and an author I’d enjoy revisiting at some point. Time has slipped by and I’d not been back for more until recently I was loaned the 1966 short story collection S is for Space. Cue me re-engaging with Ray Bradbury at last.
 

I have an on-off relationship with short stories. I usually find them somewhat unsatisfactory, giving me a glimpse of a world that I happily buy into only to find myself thrown out again far too quickly, usually abruptly and without a firm conclusion. S is for Space is no exception to that, and I tended to enjoy most the tales set on Mars, which felt like they had a more thematic cohesion and a greater sense of place and being.

The stories are very much of their time, that’s for sure. Mid-1960s, little America, fear of / preoccupation with atomic war, protecting and nurturing the family, hidden alien (foreign, Russian) threats, invasion or assimilation to a new philosophy or outlook through infiltration – it’s almost a tick list of national obsessions of the time. It’s also a very progressive collection; compiled at a time when efforts were being made to put the first man on the moon, it records a future where rocket travel to the Moon, Mars or beyond is as quotidian as loading up the car and moving to a new US State. There’s little sense of it being a multi-cultural or multi-racial future, though: it’s good ol’ American boys with their good ol’ families out there in the universe doing their best to make a good ol’ happy life. Hard work and baseball, mom’s apple pie… Again this just seems to confirm its sense of place in US culture.

One could perhaps argue that this isn’t a collection of stories as such, but more a collection of ‘situations’ and how people deal with them. The characters are very much grounded in real life, even if that life is set in the future or on Mars. There is a grittiness to the players, an uncompromising sense of struggle as they deal with whatever life throws at them. This isn’t high concept science fiction set in a universe created solely in the mind of the author; this is contemporary life (as Bradbury saw it at the time) tweaked a little. This allows the reader to buy-in to Bradbury’s situations much more quickly; he can concentrate on telling his story, not on trying to sell you his new world, his new universe. Even Mars is like the old Wild West.


Yes I found some of the stories mildly frustrating in the way they enigmatically just end without closure, but I did enjoy the collection overall and I found some of the situations and the concepts highly engaging. If I had a criticism it would be that the collection is a little too long, contains a few too many stories, and towards the end I felt the freshness was waning.


I’m hoping that what I enjoyed most in this collection I will find more of in The Martian Chronicles when I get round to reading that.

Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 13 (I hope you're not superstitious...)

With thanks as always to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and all the boys and girls at Cranked Anvil Productions for letting me post these shows here on my Blog. For more information check them out at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 13. The Guy Fawkes show. Sketches written by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, Michael Monkhouse, Matt Watson, and David Metcalf, Jamie McLeish & Andrew Kirkwood as MKM Comedy. Performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Harriet Ghost, Michael Grist, Vanessa Karon, Hazel Pude, Craig Richardson, Stephen Sullivan, Jay Sykes and Jordan Todd. First broadcast 04.11.15.



You can follow the show's presenters on Twitter via @PNHappyHour, resident performer (and Murgala himself) David Foster on @DG_Foster, Cranked Anvil Productions on @CrankedAnvil, radio station Spark Sunderland on @SparkSunderland, producer Jay Sykes on @JaySykesMedia or even me (if you don't get enough of me here) on @Mr_Brell


Saturday 31 October 2015

Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 12 - Hallowe'en Live Special!

Since it's still (just) Hallowe'en as I post this...

With thanks as always to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and all the smashing guys at Cranked Anvil Productions. For more information check them out at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

If you're that way inclined you can follow the show's presenters on Twitter via @PNHappyHour, resident performer (and Murgala himself) David Foster on @DG_Foster, Cranked Anvil Productions on @CrankedAnvil, radio station Spark Sunderland on @SparkSunderland, producer Jay Sykes on @JaySykesMedia or even me (if you've not had enough of me here) on @Mr_Brell

Anyway, Show 12 this has got a seasonal domestic Murgala sketch and some Blind Date attrocities courtesy of yours truly. Enjoy!


Show 12. Our LIVE Halloween special. EVERYTHING in this show was performed live in the studio – including all the sketches. Listen as the team just about hold it together to bring thrills and chills to the Happy Hour studio. Sketches specially written by Tim Gambrell, Michael Hughes, Neil Tolfree and John Wardle. They were performed by Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and special studio guest David Foster. First broadcast 28.10.15.

Friday 23 October 2015

Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 11

With thanks as always to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and all the lovely cuddly people at Cranked Anvil Productions. For more information check them out at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

If you're that way inclined you can follow the show's presenters on Twitter via @PNHappyHour, Cranked Anvil Productions on @CrankedAnvil, radio station Spark Sunderland on @SparkSunderland, producer Jay Sykes on @JaySykesMedia or even me for that matter on @Mr_Brell

Phew...

Anyway, after a week off for Show 10 this has got a two-parter Murgala sketch in it, which I'm rather fond of (although I am biased). Enjoy!

Show 11.  Sketches by Tim Gambrell, Michael Monkhouse and Dan Sweryt. Performed by James Barton, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Vanessa Karon, Micky McGregor, Wayne Miller, Hazel Pude, Jordan Todd, and Jack Young. Jokes told by Simon Balcon. First broadcast 21.10.15.


Thursday 15 October 2015

Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 9

With thanks to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions. Find out more at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 9.  Sketches by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, David Foster, David Keenan, Jamie McLeish, David Metcalf, Andrew Kirkwood. Performed by James Barton, Carole Cooke, David Foster, Harriet Ghost, Michael Grist, Wayne Miller, Craig Richardson, Steven Sullivan, Jordan Todd and Jack Young. First broadcast 07.10.15


Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 8

With thanks to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions. Find out more at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 8.  Sketches by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, Sam Smith, Chris Tindall, MKM Comedy; performed by James Barton, Carole Cooke, David Foster, Harriet Ghost, Micky McGregor, Wayne Miller, Steven Sullivan, Jordan Todd and Jack Young. First broadcast 30.09.15


Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 7

With thanks to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions. Find out more at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 7. Our first show from our new ‘late night’ slot. Sketches by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, Tim Perry; performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Vanessa Karon, Dolores Poretta, Craig Richardson, Steven Sullivan and Jay Sykes. First broadcast 23.09.15


Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 6

With thanks to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions. Find out more at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 6. Our final ‘daytime’ show. Sketches written by Brigit Foster, Tim Gambrell, and David Metcalf Andrew Kirkwood & Jamie McLeish as MKM Comedy. Performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Vanessa Karon and Craig Richardson. First broadcast 01.09.15.


Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 5

With thanks to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions. Find out more at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 5. Sketches written by Alex Harwood, David Blair & Richard Duffy as Planet Caramel; Tim Gambrell; and Matt Watson. Performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, Jay Sykes, and Planet Caramel. First broadcast 25.08.15.


Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 3

With thanks to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions. Find out more at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 3. Sketches written by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, Matt Watson, Stephen Philip Druce. Performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, David Foster, vanessa Karon, Craig Richardson, Jay Sykes. First broadcast 11.08.15.


Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 2

With thanks to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions. Find out more at http://crankedanvil.co.uk/

Show 2. Sketches by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, Andrew Stephenson. Performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Vanessa Karon, Dolores Poretta, Craig Richardson, Jay Sykes. First broadcast 04.08.15.


Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour Show 1

The lovely people at Cranked Anvil Productions http://crankedanvil.co.uk/ have very kindly given me permission to share here the Mixcloud versions of their Paul & Nessa's Happy Hour shows which contain my material - huzzah!

So without further pomp and ceremony I'll let these shows speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Show 1. The first ever happy hour. Sketches by Paul Dunn, Tim Gambrell, Matt Watson. Performed by Sarah Boulter, Paul Dunn, David Foster, Vanessa Karon, Craig Richardson, Jay Sykes. First broadcast 28.07.15.


 
With thanks again to Paul Dunn, Vanessa Karon and Cranked Anvil Productions.

Friday 9 October 2015

Big Finish - Doctor Who the Lost Stories: The Fourth Doctor Box Set

Rarely have I been fully transported back in time in pure nostalgia by the Big Finish Classic Doctor Who audio releases. That sounds like a criticism, but it’s not. It’s because challenging narratives, creative storytelling and true character development are firm areas in which Big Finish have excelled, and which their TV counterparts back in the day couldn’t always achieve.

Even Gareth Roberts’ Season 17 ‘Missing Adventures’, recently reviewed and enjoyed on these pages, were to a large extent merely summarising the essences of that period in the programme’s history – almost as a commentary on, or celebration of, the stories from that time.

That is really not the case when it comes to The Foe From The Future in Doctor Who The Lost Stories: The Fourth Doctor Box Set. This really did feel at times like 1977 with toddler me being enraptured by monsters and jeopardy and all sort of strange and wonderful things on the television: pure, unadulterated nostalgia.

Perhaps this is to be expected – it is after all based on a disused storyline from Season 14. Disused and not fully developed either. Robert Banks Stewart was unable to fulfil his commitment to the script to close the 1976-77 season so script editor Robert Holmes found himself writing at very short notice the fan favourite The Talons of Weng-Chiang to fill its place. Weng-Chiang borrows a few motifs from Foe From The Future, but it’s certainly not a re-writing of the story and they can exist side by side without any trouble.

John Dorney has adapted the original story breakdown into audio script form. He says himself he had hardly anything to do for episode one as it was virtually all there in Stewart’s notes, but by episode five there was little more than rough notes and episode six hadn’t been plotted at all! There are a few modern concessions which in fairness started with Veet and Marn in The Sun Makers the following season anyway: he transposes the sex of some characters to avoid Leela being the only speaking female character in the story. Charlotte from the village, Dorney’s own original addition to the storyline, works very well as she grows across the story and finds her feet in her pseudo-companion role whilst the Doctor and Leela are separated.

Episodes one and two race through with almost unseemly pace and action. Episode three has a lot of new scene-setting to do and the story calms down considerably for the middle third. Episodes five and six return to the almost break-neck speed and relentless action. I don’t think that makes the story unevenly plotted, I think it’s just the natural flow of the narrative with its ups and downs. Six fast-paced episodes would have left the listener shattered at the end, and there are few TV six-parters that don’t have lulls or instances of padding to give everyone a breather. I really wanted to punch the air with joy as I walked along the road listening to episode six, when Leela rides out the Pantophagen from the time tunnel as I hoped she would after the previous cliff hanger.

I had two niggles: the first was that we got no pay-off or closure to the spooky voice in Jalnik’s head, and secondly that the Doctor doesn’t comment on Leela’s broken leg at the end. Otherwise I think that this was pretty much a perfect story with some really solid performances all round and a great soundscape.


The other story in the box set was The Valley of Death, written by Jonathan Morris from a story breakdown by Philip Hinchcliffe. I can only assume Hinchcliffe enjoyed the experience and was pleased with the results as he came back a couple of years later for the box set Philip Hinchliffe Presents…, to which I have yet to listen.
 

I had a vague idea about The Foe From The Future because it’s been in the fan domain for a while now, but I had no idea what The Valley of Death would involve at all. If this had been a serious proposal at the time it’s clear it would have needed a lot of scaling back, but budget being no consequence on audio the story really goes to town. What I find most curious about the story, though, is that it feels very much like a Graham Williams / Anthony Read era story rather than a Hinchcliffe / Holmes era one. Again this isn’t a criticism in any way, it’s just a curious observation because it’s refreshing to find one producer adopting a style of character realisation and storytelling more in line with his successor after the violence was pared back and wit and comedy pushed forward. It feels at times like a Williams-produced version of The Hand of Fear, a story very much like this one that borrows UNIT to get somewhere, starts off as one narrative in one location and ends up somewhere completely different, telling a very different story. And The Hand of Fear unfortunately struggled with production demands that couldn’t be met satisfactorily in the way you’d expect this story to have done if it had been made at the time.

Morris is aware of this, and possibly the sense of displacement between production ‘eras’ is played up as a result. He sets it in early Season 15 (The Horror of Fang Rock is referenced in passing, but K-9 is not) the first half of which was admittedly a phase of transition from horror to wit. Valley of Death is not a comedy by any means, and it very consciously exhibits certain motifs from across the whole of Tom Baker’s varied time as the Doctor. Not least among these is the Bob Baker / Dave Martin habit of giving a story a catchphrase: ‘Eldrad must live!’ ‘Contact has been made!’ ‘The Quest is the Quest!’ Here it’s ‘By the light of the Luron sun.’

I liked where the story was going at first, but I was less keen on where it ended up. I didn’t dislike the story as a whole, I just felt unmoved by it and at times disappointed that it had wasted some good ideas which could have been developed further. It felt like too much of an homage to old classic B-movies; like it was a story that wanted to do too much. It was more focussed on location and spectacle than about good story progression and fully thought-out concepts. Like the eager explorer that started the whole story off it was always looking to where it wanted to go next, rather than appreciating where it was at that moment, I felt. I was also ever so slightly irritated by Jane Slavin’s character Valerie Carlton, photo journalist, which I appreciate is slightly unfair but with audio it’s all you’ve got to go on and it can really make or break a production.

I’m aware also that my expectations may have been higher because I’d enjoyed The Foe From The Future so much, giving The Valley of Death too much to live up to. I’ll certainly give it another listen after I’ve caught up with a few other releases.

One noteworthy aspect that is consistently good across all ten episodes is the performances by Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. The relationship between The Doctor and Leela is clearly defined and works very well on an aural level, unlike the rather poor treatment they’ve received in print from BBC Books over the years. Tom relishes the words and seems to have ‘bought in’ to what Big Finish are trying to do. Louise Jameson gives an acting masterclass with every scene, her energy and intensity of performance, her understanding of precisely who Leela is and what she’s thinking at every moment and with every line is simply breath-taking. Hers are the most measured, intense and capable performances across the whole range of Big Finish audios in my view.

I look at this release and it strikes me that if you’ve got a box set of two good length stories and one is absolutely brilliant and the other is average, with solid performances across the board (my irritation with Jane Slavin excepted, of course) that’s still a pretty good box set overall. Cheers Big Finish.

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Big Finish: Doctor Who – The Fifth Doctor Box Set

The more observant among you may have started to think ‘hang on, all he’s Blogging about these days is them Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventures’ (because, naturally, that’s how you all speak, I’m sure!)

I walk to work and back these days. Downside: I read a lot less. Upside: it’s cheaper and it gives me an opportunity to catch up with a lot of Big Finish material that’s slipped me by over the past few years. No doubt after a while I’ll fancy a change and start listening to some old albums as well, but in the meantime here are my thoughts on ‘The Fifth Doctor Box Set’.
It won the 2014 Audio Drama award in Doctor Who Magazine’s 2014 annual poll. I can’t comment on that because I don’t know what it was up against. But what I can say is that it was another impressive set – not perfect but well-conceived and ably realised.

The set features the return of Matthew Waterhouse as gold star Adric. This was clearly something that Matthew himself instigated. Matthew is the most overtly ‘actor-y’ of the returning regulars contributing to the Big Finish range. When interviewed the others just seem to be having fun, slipping back into old shoes and enjoying the material. Matthew has an agenda, he feels he is now ready; it’s a conscious performance, trying to re-ignite the spark from thirty years previously and channel ‘the boy within’. This may or may not be a personal response to the persistent criticism his performances have received over the years. There is a sense that he is constantly on the defensive, reminding fans that he has continually worked as an actor ever since he left Doctor Who, to counter these criticisms. As Matthew attempts to recreate his juvenile Adric, the voice he adopts is almost how he sounded in 1982, but because he’s concentrating on the tone so much his delivery sounds rather forced (like he’s impersonating Derek Nimmo at times!) Therefore despite being a more experienced and accomplished performer these days he still doesn’t sound very natural and he still stands out against the other regulars.

However, it’s still great to hear this transitional Fourth / Fifth Doctor team in action once again, and to hear them served by material that very much plays to their individual strengths in ways that the TV series couldn’t always manage. The ‘crowded TARDIS’ seemed to be an obstruction for writers at the time, as they tried to find something for each of the companions to do. Fortunately that doesn’t seem to be a condition that afflicts Jonathan Morris or John Dorney.
 

First up is Psychodrome, a four-part story by Jonathan Morris. Watching the latter Tom Baker and early Peter Davison TV stories we tend to get carried along by the action and it never occurs to us to think about certain missing conversations between the regulars. That is what Morris rather brilliantly taps into, setting this story between Castrovalva and Four To Doomsday. So we get the companions discussing what has just happened to the Doctor, how the change affects them, what their thoughts are on this ‘new model’; we get Tegan and Adric clashing, Nyssa commenting on her father’s death, Tegan thinking about her aunt’s death that was literally only a few days ago (who’s doing the funeral?) It’s only when you hear such domestic and character-building moments that you realise they were missing from the TV stories - but you also realise how much it all adds to the reality of their situations. It’s like getting a new job and then finding that the manager has changed after only a day or so (this happened to me years ago and I didn’t like my new manager AT ALL!) Would you stay or would you want to leave?

The actual storyline of Psychodrome is, I think, an episode longer than it needs to be, as the embodiments of everyone’s opinions of each other clash and become self-aware. It can only go so far and I started to feel it was becoming repetitive and frustrating in places just to fill out the time. But it’s more of a character piece and the strength lies in the way it pulls the crew together to work as a team.

Iterations of I, on the other hand, is simply wonderful in all respects. It’s another four-part story, this time by John Dorney. It reminded me a lot of the Sixth Doctor Big Finish story …Ish by Phil Pascoe – but that’s not to say it’s derivative in any way. What …Ish did for lexicography Iterations of I does for mathematics. And they’re both disturbing and scary.

Iterations of I comes between the TV stories Black Orchid and Earthshock, near the end of Adric’s time with the team. Tegan now claims that she’s not fussed about getting home after all – presumably to pave the way for her surprise and disappointment at the end of Time Flight when she gets left behind at Heathrow. Again I’m not sure if this was ever stated on TV, so that’s another loose end tied up.

Iterations of I is pretty much perfect Doctor Who. It’s an engaging concept with a seemingly unbeatable foe, and the story has twists and turns and interesting characters to grow to like or hate along the way. The dialogue is very easy and naturalistic – the first scene banter in particular is effortlessly good. Again all the regulars feel like they have something meaningful to offer to the story and the situation, even through chance (such as Tegan suggesting they could hem the creature in). And although on paper this seems to be a specifically visual story the soundscape created adds so much to the tension and the moments of terror.

The extras included with the box set are music suites at the end of each story – which are very much in keeping with the era they represent, plus a whole CD of interviews and behind the scenes material. The music I will listen to many times. The interviews probably less so – but they are still interesting to revisit from time to time. The real gold is in the stories themselves and particularly in Iterations of I. I can only be thankful I wasn’t walking home on my own in the dark across the moors whilst listening to it...