PS Audios Season 2: Rate and Review!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I hope so. Just to say if you're now reading it in abject horror I have a number of other ideas in reserve!

[Si Hunt]

Oh my!

Si.

[SiHart]

That's my line!

Oh my!

[Si Hunt]

I just say it for you, Si. He didn't suggest a PS Topless Mud Wrestling contest or anything. Mind you, I don't know what'll be in the NEXT message.

Si.

[SiHart]

That would have saved me the effort if I hadn't followed the post up with an Oh My!

[SiHart]

Another one that's hard to score as it's not intended as a serious adventure

Oh it was serious all right, just fun! Sometimes you need to kick back and have some fun, and I think after all the doom and gloom of the adventures they've been having it's nice to hear them all relaxing and enjoying themselves.

[Rob McCow]

To be honest, I find it more surprising that there have been any serious adventures. This isn't Jimmy McGovern's 'Cracker' you know.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I would've thought the one thing that shows through most of my reviews is that I love the fact that the Planet Skaro audios have usually got their tongue ever so slightly in their cheek as far as being serious stories is concerned.

[Si Hunt]

I agree, you'd think us being us that they'd all be silly. Yet one of the surprising things is how easy it is to be too earnest and too serious. We always make serious stories in a jocular manner, but we've never actually done a jokey story. Yet anything goes, for me. If the Baron suddenly quotes from the songbook of Steps or the Doctor points out Nick's weird speech mannerisms, it's all forgotton a moment later.

That's partly what inspired the "no Nick" moment in "Asylum". You're writing it and you think, hang on, these are OUR rules. We don't KNOW everything. Who are we to say that, for some reason, Nick isn't here at this point. It's new information! That's exciting, certainly more so than "come and meet Nick".

That said, I think you are striving to maintain a tone and a mood and a false world, and that can be disrupted. There was a scene in "Asylum" at one point where Rallik is talking and he's interupted by a train going by. So he pauses, then goes on - it's a nod to the famous trains that have interupted our Sawbridgeworth recordings for the past six years! I still think it's a hilarious idea. However, the scene in question was a very serious one, and it just didn't work, so out it went. Elsewhere though, I'd have used it.

We're also remarkably sparing with our use of old foes and the like. It's amazing we've only used the Daleks once. Why is that? They're huge fun! The next story addresses that need to push away from the obvious. It's basically all the things we've always wanted to do deep down, but somehow didn't through the need to be creative, original or not to fannish (fanny?). We're getting fanny for the end of the season! And swallowing our own myth as well.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

And now back to discussing Season 2

[Rob McCow]

I still think it's a hilarious idea.

Me too!

If there was a remit for the PS Audios, for me it would be 'Stories too Ludicrous and Extreme for the small screen!' That's what makes it so much fun and why we can have characters like Vera, Gene Bradley, Fnub and Professors Endleman, Thrace and Bonham running around*

Whereas 'The Crystal Eye' is a great Doctor Who story, I'd say that 'The Kalrexi Mutation' is slightly more in the vein of PS Audios. Both are enjoyable, but Kalrexi is that little bit more extreme! Although of course, when PS Audios do their first Dalek story, they have to be up against The Krotons at the same time. Why? I think it's because the Krotons have good voices!


*(I think they were all professors?!)

[Paul Monk]

The interesting thing is that although some of the stories might be absurd and there might be a lot of mucking around during recordings the acting is taken seriously which makes ridiculous characters like Vera or The Baron absolutely believable. Also we've built up quite a consistant universe over the years, certainly in tone and style and that helps as well.

[SiHart]

And so many fan films and audios fall into the trap of being terribly serious and po-faced, like that makes them better. I'm really glad we've never done that. I like the daft nature of so much of what we do, and it makes it all the better when things are terribly serious, because it has more impact- you know that the stakes are high then.

[Si Hunt]

Perhaps also the funny bits are genuinely funny because the rest is taken seriously. Steve's Yoko Ono, for example, just suddenly comes out of a very serious scene and is all the funnier for it. It wouldn't have been if everyone in that scene had been doing silly voices.

Si.

[Paul Monk]

Exactly!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

If there was a remit for the PS Audios, for me it would be 'Stories too Ludicrous and Extreme for the small screen!' That's what makes it so much fun and why we can have characters like Vera, Gene Bradley, Fnub and Professors Endleman, Thrace and Bonham running around*

Whereas 'The Crystal Eye' is a great Doctor Who story, I'd say that 'The Kalrexi Mutation' is slightly more in the vein of PS Audios. Both are enjoyable, but Kalrexi is that little bit more extreme! Although of course, when PS Audios do their first Dalek story, they have to be up against The Krotons at the same time. Why? I think it's because the Krotons have good voices!


*(I think they were all professors?!)

I'm pretty sure they were but don't think I hadn't noticed you slipping a season 3 story in there. I'll be starting a rate and review thread for season 3 tomorrow (although I realise I've already done 2 out of the 5 main stories, I think there may have been another short story I haven't heard yet though!) hopefully if I actually get around to listening to Christmas Spirits this afternoon!

[Si Hunt]

Now "Christmas Spirits" worked in exactly the way "Ratanapura" SHOULD have done!

Mind you, it should have done, we recorded it enough times.

Si.

[SiHart]

That's true! It was a good thing I really liked playing Daniel Everett. In fact that part is one of my favourites other than the mighty Vera of course.

[Si Hunt]

I loves Vera best you knows.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Oh, Christmas Spirits is terribly atmospheric, isn't it? Good production on that one. And a good story too!

[Si Hunt]

And an unspeakably funny CD extra.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

I still don't quite get 'Ezra's Knock'. I can't make out whether it's trying to be heartwarming or hilarious, or a bizarre combination of the two.

It's also the most 'Fanny' story that's been done.

[Si Hunt]

Us neither! I think (THINK!) that Paul intended it to be a bit cheeky, but it was unexpected as you wouldn't figure him as the sort to write that kind of comedy item. It was just hilarious recording it, a very happy memory as we simply could not stop laughing. P-Bal kept throwing down the pages and saying "This is just filth! It's old man porn!"

Si.

[SiHart]

I gave Eye of the Daleks a good listen last night. Really enjoyed it. I was there listening to pt 2 wondering if I really wrote it- there was a nice lightness to it and lots of little bits that I'd quite forgotten. I liked the scenes with the Doctor and Nick- they were good fun and well played. It all sounded EPIC!

[Paul Monk]

I have a new idea for a dalek story thats nicely taking shape.

Anyway I guess thats for the future.