Doctor Who - Christmas Spirits

[Paul Monk]

Its superb Pip. My favourite yet. Probably helped by not having me on it for the first time since last Christmas

[Wayne]

From all the comments, this sounds like it's gonna be a good one!
I'll be listening to it on the train in about an hours time.

[Rob McCow]

It's dark and quite serious. Rather different from our usual campery and it couldn't be further removed from The Christmas Gnomes!

Paul Monk gets some nice Doctor-y things to do, paticular when he's antagonising Alex's character.

If anything it's more of a literal ghost story, there doesn't seem to be much of a scientific explanation for everything that goes on apart from a few mentions of psychic energy. I think that's fine in itself, it works for the context of the story.

The flashback story is very well handled, with the various sound effects and voice-overs indicating what's going on in the background.

On the downside, there's this violin noise that keeps cropping up in the background ambience... it's the only part of it that makes it obviously a loop, but apart from that it sounds great and very atmospheric.

Ezra's Knock is very, very strange though. I can kind of see what the story is getting at, but it's so weird for Rob and Nick's characters. Rob comes across as a right b**tard, while Nick is as soppy as Jo Grant! Although the story is an every day tale of tramp-washing (!), I don't know if it quite works for the regular characters. P-Bal does a very good job of giving a 'straight' reading. His performances in previous PS Audios have been somewhat er... exuberant, but he's well restrained here and it comes across well.

[WhiteCrow]

Just listening to it now ...

Special mention has to be made to the opening scene. Full of atmosphere, sets the scene wonderfully. I think it's probably the best opening of PS audio so far ...

Oh ... as I've written this, how very "credit crunch"!

[WhiteCrow]

Wow - one of the best so far. I've said this a few times, but another production which raised the bar.

It worked really well sidelining the companions for most of it, and concentrating on the Doctor. Their final story of what they got up to added some much needed lightness to the end of the story.

From the outset both Andrew Clancy as Arthur Cottonwood and I believe it was Jason Thompson as "Lead Spirit" were really superb performances. Ironically Jasons performance was so familiar, the surprise wasn't really a surprise!

As always you know my praise gets mixed with a little bit of stuff to think about. And to me some problem I had with this is best described as "visual aspects" - things which if this had been a television show, there wouldn't have been a problem, but it being audio only it didn't work too well ...

1) Arthur Cottonwood comes out and goes "Help me ... somebody help me", and there's dramatic music. But it's not really easy to tell what's happened to him. There perhaps shouldn't have been that music, but instead the sound of someone hitting the ground, or someone going "he's collapsed". It wasn't easy to follow.

2) The Psychic Battle relied heavily on descriptions from bystanders. Again really hard to do on audio. It did drag a bit. I think perhaps it needed to just be a little slicker, but it's a tough order. The scene was really crucial to the story though.

3) The Master dissappears in a TARDIS. One minute he's talking about not wanting to be stranded in Victorian London, about stealing the Doctors TARDIS. The next he's in a TARDIS and away.

But it's not the Doctor's TARDIS is it? It's not obvious at all, it just seems to come from no-where, and is never mentioned before. I'll admit the TARDIS engine doesn't sound quite the same, but there's not enough audio signposts given to the listener.

In the final exchange with the Doctor/Nick/Rob I was expecting the Doctor to tell them they're stranded, but next moment there's the creak of the TARDIS door. I'm sometimes a bit annoyed when there's gaps like that in story which mean I rely on reading a thread about the audio to fill in the gaps.

Take some of those points onboard, but don't let them detract from what I thought was probably still one of the best stories of this season.

[Si Hunt]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your comments! Well spotted on your 'points for improvement', interestingly they were things I had spotted too, but that it was too late/too tricky to correct:

1) Arthur Cottonwood comes out and goes "Help me ... somebody help me", and there's dramatic music. But it's not really easy to tell what's happened to him. There perhaps shouldn't have been that music, but instead the sound of someone hitting the ground, or someone going "he's collapsed". It wasn't easy to follow.

I think there is a 'hitting the ground' sound in there, the trouble with that bit is it sort of over-lapped two recording sessions in a kind of too-boring-to-explain behind-the-scenes-bobbins kind of way (or maybe I just felt like we needed a scene break there). Lots of the early scenes were recorded 6 months before the rest of it (when we had Dave as Nick). Similarly (and something you didn't spot!) there is one really low quality line left (of Rob's, in the chestnut scene). It just slipped through the net and never got re-recorded.

(3) I realised too late to correct. My fault, I was script editor so I should have picked up on it. A blatant continuity error! But to my credit I did give the other TARDIS the 'speeded up sound' which should be familiar to fans of the Pertwee era...

I hope this didn't ruin anyone's enjoyment of the climax too much though.

Si.

[WhiteCrow]

But to my credit I did give the other TARDIS the 'speeded up sound' which should be familiar to fans of the Pertwee era...

Bleedin' Pertwee fans!

No accepted, it still was a good story. And I accept it was a very troubled production, so it was lucky to have been made at all.

I make these points having enjoyed about 50 mins of audio, and to put it into context I usually find of that, there's perhaps sometimes 15-30 seconds of "extra stuff" needed to just smooth the edges. So we're talking about stories being essentially 99% good!

I forgot to mention my favourite line of ... "Some sort of madness ... not uncommon amongst the gentry". And Robs "Gucci" jacket gets another mention.

The story was good. It all felt a little unoriginal, and overly familiar to start with, being very much a Christmas Carol take. But slowly it built up and defied expectations, introducing a rationality for the idea of three spirits. I just hope to God the whole "three is a magic number" bit didn't come because the writer is a fan of Charmed. And it did slowly introduce a bit of a surprise. I thought I might know who the Lead Spirit was, then dismissed it (I was right though).

The music and sound effects again mainly worked - there were a few which seemed not quite right. But they really helped bring the period setting to life. And as mentioned the opener not only set the scene nicely, but probably the most polished, professional and natural intro to a story yet. Well done indeed.

[Paul Clement]

I just hope to God the whole "three is a magic number" bit didn't come because the writer is a fan of Charmed.

It actually came from the song, 'Three, That's the Magic Number'.

[Paul Clement]

I thought I might know who the Lead Spirit was, then dismissed it (I was right though).

I thought people might guess because of a certain line the Doctor says. I had a friend when I was younger...

[WhiteCrow]

I thought people might guess because of a certain line the Doctor says. I had a friend when I was younger...

Indeed - I noticed that, and there is a bit where the lead spirit mutters to himself (and calls himself by his true name) which adds that this isn't just a bolt from the blue, so kudos on that.

[WhiteCrow]

It actually came from the song, 'Three, That's the Magic Number'.

There is a ring of something mystical about the number 3,

* Charles Dickins used 3 ghosts
* 3 kinds of time; past, present, future
* Christianity father, son, holy ghost
* also 3 wise men/magi/kings
* in Paganism there are three phases which equate to "virgin", "lover/mother", "crone"
* 3 Daleks in almost every Jon Pertwee story, no more, no less

[Dirk Gently]

A,B,C it's easy as 1,2,3...
3 = Triad.
The unholy trinity:- sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll.
Etc, etc.

[Alex]

I'm really looking forward to hearing this, alas things have just been so hectic over the last few days I haven't had the chance yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.

[MinaHarker]

There is a ring of something mystical about the number 3,

* Charles Dickins used 3 ghosts
* 3 kinds of time; past, present, future
* Christianity father, son, holy ghost
* also 3 wise men/magi/kings
* in Paganism there are three phases which equate to "virgin", "lover/mother", "crone"
* 3 Daleks in almost every Jon Pertwee story, no more, no less

As a pagan, I can point out that 3 is indeed a very magickal number, and very important in many rituals.

Our copy of the CD arrived today, thank you!!!

[Antony Cox]

Thanks to Si for sending me the CD.

I've listened to it and I thought it was excellent. Very atmospheric, and the production was absolutely spot on, save for a couple of quiet lines of dialogue here and there.

I have to admit that I already new the Master was going to be in it even though I had nothing to do with this story, though I won't name my source! Jason was right on the money, though, and it was a refreshingly different way to introduce the character once again.

I also liked the way that Nick and Rob were given their own mini story tro make up for the mosly absense from the main story.

Loved the reference to It's A Wonderful Life at the end!

[WhiteCrow]

As a pagan, I can point out that 3 is indeed a very magickal number, and very important in many rituals.

Well I was thinking about that myself when I was writing this. But every number has some significance to Pagans ...

* 2 for the gender aspects of life; male and female/God and Goddess
* 4 for the compass points
* 5 for the Elements

Also - and it is a long time ago but in AI theory, 3 neural networks tend to operate better than 1.

[cyberchris35]

I just got my cd today, thanks Si. The cover is brilliant very scary, well done Pip. The extra story Ezra's Knock is fantastic and well read by P-Bal.

[MinaHarker]

The cover is brilliant very scary, well done Pip.

Well it does have a picture of Jason on it.....

[Alex]

I've finally had the chance to listen to this and really loved it. It kept me gripped from start to finish, and I liked the feature length format a lot - even though cliffhangers are normally one of my favourite things about the PS Audio's, it didn't feel they were needed here.

It had such a superb atmosphere to it, I know I always say this, but the production side of things really blew me away here, I kept on noticing in each scene just how good it was and how the background sounds or music made everything even more effective - the flashback to Emma's first death especially - and personally I didn't notice the violin loop that Steve mentioned earlier.

Even though I knew the twist at the end, the storyline kept me gripped, and I thought Paul turned in an excellent script. I know PS Audio's excel in mixing comedy and drama well, but I thought it made a nice change for once for this to be a straighter story, and whilst I wouldn't like to see it all the time, I think it'd be quite a good idea to throw in a more serious story like this from time to time.

Performance wise, I thought Paul turned in his best yet, Jason made for an excellent villain, Emma's role was extremely touching (though to make her die twice just seemed cruel!), and Andrew was brilliant too, making a sympathetic character out of someone who at first might be difficult to like. And whilst I know Si's voice was modulated somehow, it was a brilliant effect, and made for an extremely chilling enemy of the Doctor.

If I had any minor complaint, it was the aforementioned fact that the Master had his own Tardis, but that's already been explained and these things of course happen, and it didn't diminish my enjoyment at all.

Oh, and you made Paul sing, which is a great Christmas present for all!

[Rob McCow]

"You got to pick a pocket or twooo..."

Do you think we could have that as a ring-tone?

[Alex]

I forgot to mention earlier, but I really liked the mini preview of PS Audio's for 2009 - especially as it seems that Tor Garane is back - I just hope it wasn't too much of a strain on poor Martin's vocal chords!

[Pip Madeley]

Tor Garane is for my money the best character in the PS Audios. Ever.

So I'm delighted he's returning.

[Rob McCow]

Well, you'll obviously agree that he's not as good as Jason's character in Christmas Spirits though!

The best character in PS Audios ever is Beryl.

[Wayne]

Really enjoyed listening to this. Special congrats to Jason, who was superb. Like a cross between Beevers & Jacobi!

[WhiteCrow]

Tor Garane, the evil banker returns. How apt in the current climate!