PS Audios Season 2: Rate and Review!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

How interesting! I've been working on a something rather special today so not posted very much but you'll all get the benefit in the fullness of time

Reviews will continue soon!

[SiHart]

Oh my! How exciting!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

There may finally be some new additions to this thread soon! Apologies for the delay everyone!

[Rob McCow]

Yay! Looking forward to it Richard

[Si Hunt]

Yay!

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

"Many Happy Returns" is canonical but we do seem to be cursed with bringing Ben back. First of all there was the infamous lost story with him in, then I'm sure I wrote another one with him in (something involving a conspiracy around a music store which for some reason never got made. I wonder what happened to that!) but he just dooms any script to never be made. Maybe there's still time for him to come back though.

Si.

I'm going to send you a PM on this subject Si.

Just going back over my last few reviews to get me in the right frame of mind and I discovered the above... the moment I had an idea and history was made (and Rob finally got to meet Ben and Emma again!)

[Si Hunt]

You succeeded where we failed all those years! I wonder if we'll ever meet Ben again?

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Quick, someone play the triumph cue...

2.7 Christmas Spirits

After the hijinx of Many Happy Returns comes a slightly more serious but still very festive offering as The Doctor, Nick and Rob find themselves in Victorian London. However this time what appears to be a reworking of Dickens' Christmas Carol ends far from happily...

The atmosphere of Victorian London is superbly evoked by the combination of well chosen incidental music and sound effects. You really feel you're in a street filled with horse drawn carriages and carol singers (good choice of "A Merry Christmas" which dates back to the 16th century), and just a hint of spookiness before we dissolve into the opening scene proper.

We then have introduction of the central characters to this story of Arthur Cottonwood (Andrew Clancy) and his wonderfully Dickensian factotum Daniel Everett (Simon Hart) is very well written and superbly acted. It instantly sets the scene for the story that is to come.

The arrival of Si Hunt as the Spirit of Retribution (in whom Si seems to be channelling his inner Valentine Dyall, now there's an idea!) adds to this with a delightfully intimidating performance reminiscent of the best versions of Marley's ghost. Love how his threat segues into the wonderfully creepy steampunk version of the theme tune.

Lovely scene setting sounds in the background of the Doctor, Rob and Nick's arrival. Some great period mentions including confirming that there was no snow on Christmas Day 1849. And love the pay off from the Faraday reference:"An electro-magnetism flare I see!"
Winter Wonderland is a slightly anachronistic inclusion but it fits in well with the lightness in tone of the scene.

This is nicely continued with a great little cameo from an almost unrecognisable Si Hunt as Mordecai the chestnut seller.

Like Rob's "gucci" line (and quietly cursing myself for not putting a reference to that in my own Christmas play).

Dr Stapleton eh? Is that a Sherlock Holmes reference creeping in there.

The Doctor's Fagin impersonation is fun but the inclusion of the music cue from Oliver is over playing it a little.

Good idea to basically get rid of Nick and Rob for the rest of the story and give the Doctor more of a chance to interact with the other characters.

Like the atmospheric introduction of the other two spirits - especially love the arrival of the From Out of The Rain music coinciding with the first time we hear the voice of the aptly named Spirit of Shadows. Jason Thompson is deliciously sinister in this role and yet his cool, controlling manner is a perfect contrast to the violent anger of the Spirit of Retribution and Emma Thompson's sympathetic portrayal of the Spirit of Love.
Like the initial suggestion that the Spirit of Shadows somehow knows of the Doctor.

Alex Finch is delightfully self-righteous as Jenkins.

Nice little flute cue at the end of the next couple of scenes.

Like the Doctor being able to hear the Spirit of Retribution.
Samuel Goodwin’s naming having no effect is an interesting contrast to The Turn of the Screw where Peter Quint is defeated by being named.

Like the Spirit of Shadows seeming to be playing the two other spirits off against each other.

“He is no mere mortal” – again the Spirit of Shadows knows a lot more than he’s letting on. Love the hints of what’s to come, especially the mention of the pawns being sacrificed.

Lovely scene between Daniel and the Doctor in the carriage. Love the revelations concerning Cottonwood’s relationships with Goodwin and his sister. Nice oboe cue at the end.

Great reveal that the Spirit of Love is of course Amanda Goodwin the sister of Samuel who we’ve just learned died after being spurned by Arthur. Lovely acting by Andrew and Emma, especially the discussion of redemption. Also love the added mystery surrounding the identity of the Spirit of Shadows.

Love the Doctor’s mention of his once close friend whose path separated from his. The clues are starting to fall into place
Lovely bit of background dialogue during Arthur’s story of how Amanda died.
Great music choices throughout the scene as well especially during the mention of “the other”.
The ghost sounds when Samuel appears are super as is the great performance from Si. Genuinely unsettling threats during the ensuing psychic battle with the Doctor.
Interesting that the Spirit of Shadows seems to be able to summon the other spirits at will.

Lovely sound effects during the psychic battle between Amanda and Samuel.

Like “I’m not as old as I used to be.”

The Doctor’s instruction to Daniel to call out to the third spirit is slightly chilling. When the Doctor gets it wrong, he really gets it wrong!

Love the inclusion of the carol (which I’m struggling to remember the name of although I’m sure I’ve sung it before) as the Doctor is about rejoin the psychic battle.

Hearing the Spirit of Shadows speak to the Doctor for the first time is very unnerving.
Love the revelation that the whole haunting of Cottonwood was just a trap to get the Doctor’s attention.

Not sure if the old music cue when the Doctor finally says “The Master” isn’t over selling the moment just a little but still a great moment.

Love the effect of the two overlapping voices as the Master takes over Cottonwood’s body. Have to say I’m sorry to see Cottonwood get killed off after Andrew Clancy being superb throughout.

There seems to be a scene missing between the Cottonwood’s death and the Doctor being reunited with Daniel. Would the Doctor have allowed the Master to leave or did the Master escape before the Doctor had the strength back to stop him?
Anyway nice final scene between these two- perhaps Daniel can come back one day?

That said, love the final confrontation in the street and the Master’s story of his death and hating the Doctor for his pity. Really well played by Jason but love how by contrast Paul’s Doctor seems totally unafraid even in the face of death.

It’s a shame that after the great dialogue about wanting to escape by killing the Doctor and taking his TARDIS, apropos of nothing, the Master escapes into his own TARDIS (which sounds like he nicked it off Irving Braxiatel or is that just me).

Like the Fitzroy Tavern mention
Interesting that Rob and Nick mention the theft of the money but nothing about Ezra

Like the slightly cheesy reference to Bedford Falls at the end although it seems slightly surprising the Doctor’s recovered from his encounter with the Master so quickly especially after he failed to save Cottonwood.
Again, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is anachronistic but in the context of the It’s A Wonderful Life reference it works very well (and it’s a personal favourite even though I’ve never seen Meet Me in St Louis!)

Overall, a very clever and at times very dark story with some exceptionally well realised soundscapes and great performances which raise the bar even for previous PSA standards. I really want a ghost story for Christmas like this for TV Who sometime!

Having looked at my previous scores for season 2 I’m going to stick my neck out and show some partiality as this is another personal favourite story of mine…

9/10

[Si Hunt]

The perfect thing to read with my lunchtime cup of tea...

Si.

[SiHart]

Mordecai was played by Pip Madeley I believe, unless I'm very much mistaken...

Lovely review Richard!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The cast list here: http://www.planetskaro.org.uk/audios...n2-spirits.htm credits it to Si but I blush to confess I thought it was Steve when I first relistened the other day. I'm pretty sure it's not Pip although he does do an excellent coachman and man in the street during other scenes.

[SiHart]

I am mistaken- just ignore me!!

[Si Hunt]

I'm glad you appreciated the background sounds. I think there was a comment at the time that the horses were too loud, but I thought very hard about this. It's not some track I found somewhere, the "background to London" track was developed from a number of different sounds played together, each researched individually. I did some research via a documentary about the period and discovered that, apparently, the one thing about that era was that it would have been very, very loud. There would have been sound everywhere. So that's what I tried to evoke.

I always assumed songs like "Winter Wonderland" would have dated to these times, or before, but I'm no expert. I can't remember but I'd lay money that the version of "Have Yourself A Merry Merry Christmas" I used would have been the slow, Tori Amos version, which was also the version used in "Merry Christmas Rob McCow".

The problems with the conclusion are well documented. I can't remember the details but if we got it wrong then... we got it wrong!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

I like to think of the conclusion as an homage to part 6 of Frontier In Space - the Master is always doing this sort of thing!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I'm glad you appreciated the background sounds. I think there was a comment at the time that the horses were too loud, but I thought very hard about this. It's not some track I found somewhere, the "background to London" track was developed from a number of different sounds played together, each researched individually. I did some research via a documentary about the period and discovered that, apparently, the one thing about that era was that it would have been very, very loud. There would have been sound everywhere. So that's what I tried to evoke.

I always assumed songs like "Winter Wonderland" would have dated to these times, or before, but I'm no expert. I can't remember but I'd lay money that the version of "Have Yourself A Merry Merry Christmas" I used would have been the slow, Tori Amos version, which was also the version used in "Merry Christmas Rob McCow".

The problems with the conclusion are well documented. I can't remember the details but if we got it wrong then... we got it wrong!

I thought the loud coach and horse noises and everything else was spot on for the period.
I think you got away with the songs because they were all brass instrumental versions including "Have yourself..." which as I say worked perfectly alongside the Bedford Falls mention at the end. There's no way I'd have given this 9/10 if Tori Amos had been included as much as that was perfect for the Christmas 2011 setting of MCRM

I tried to be as tactful as I could about the conclusion which ought to have been picked up at script edit stage really although I imagine the other production difficulties leading to large parts of the story being recorded twice over may have contributed as well. I think the final score indicates that despite this one acknowledged flaw I hold the story as whole in very high regard.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

2.7A Ezra's Knock

Just a few notes on this charming little story of Rob and Nick’s own adventure in Victorian London:

Nice piece of music at the start and end.

Rather controversially I liked the evocation of Nick and Rob in this story although perhaps they are slightly more caricatured than usual and obviously having P-Bal do all the voices isn’t the same as this might have been had Steve or Dave been narrating.

The Fanny gag is quite amusing. I love how Ezra sounds like Pip Madeley might be playing him.

Rob cleaning Ezra’s feet. Perhaps not the best choice for a lunchtime listen!

“Oh this is better than Fanny!” Oo-er! I gather this was an ad-lib.

Love how carefree Nick is. Although by contrast Rob does seem overly harsh at times.

Overall a very heart-warming little vignette which works well as a narrated tale and ties in well with Christmas Spirits whilst having a happy ending as a nice counterpoint to the Doctor’s ill-fated adventure.

7/10

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

At long last it's time for...

Season 2 - Final Scores!

2.1 Heart of the Haniad - 7.5/10
2.2 Heist! - 9/10
2.3 The Paradise Machine - 8/10
2.4 The Curse of Ratanapura - 7.5/10
2.4A Tea With The Trods - 7/10
2.5 Eye of the Daleks - 8.5/10
2.5A Enjoy Your Shoes - 8/10
2.6 Many Happy Returns - 7.5/10
2.7 Christmas Spirits - 9/10
2.7A Ezra's Knock - 7/10

Which leaves us with a tie in first place so using my adjudicator powers I am going to award the top 3 for the season as follows:

3rd Place - Eye of the Daleks
2nd Place - Christmas Spirits
1st Place - Heist!

[SiHart]

1st Place - Heist!

I'm honoured! Thanks Richard. I'm still, even now, quite gobsmacked by everyone's reaction to Heist!

[Rob McCow]

Huzzah for Heist!

No real stinkers there either, depending on how Richard actually scores these things. I feel fearful that one day a PS Audio will scrape a 2 or a 3!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

No there weren't any stinkers although I can't help wondering if I was harsher at the start of the season on Heart of the Haniad (it did introduce Ed after all!) as opposed to being quite generous with my scoring of Christmas Spirits.

[Si Hunt]

The most amazing about Ezra's Knock was that "better than Fanny" was absolutely NOT an ad-lib.

Si.