|
Post by helrunar on Apr 24, 2017 16:23:11 GMT
"Sadly side-lined"... I think NOT.
I was just re-reading More ghost stories of an antiquary and for me, he is still the Master... granted, I read hardly anything at all from the present era. Thanks to these boards, I've learned that there is some quality stuff being published.
H.
|
|
|
Post by ropardoe on Apr 24, 2017 18:17:50 GMT
I think this sounds like it could be a lot more fun; www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-haunting-of-malkin-place-1237Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures - THE HAUNTING OF MALKIN PLACEWhilst on the way to visit the birthplace of MR James, a chance encounter with a spiritualist on a train sends the Doctor and Romana on the trail of a ghost. It's the most convincing case of haunting he's ever heard of, he tells them. And so, on their arrival, does it appear to be.
Things go bump in the night at Malkin Place. The voice of a crying child. Birds bursting into flight. Strange movements in a seance.
The Doctor is determined there must be a rational explanation. But is science always the answer to everything?Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Simon (Arthur Dent) Jones, and traces of MRJ? It could have been made just for me, I reckon. That sounds amazing. Definitely something for the news section of the next G&S. I see there's a ghost-ish story coming up in the new season of Dr Who too.
|
|
|
Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Apr 25, 2017 12:16:16 GMT
That sounds amazing. Definitely something for the news section of the next G&S. I see there's a ghost-ish story coming up in the new season of Dr Who too. I have it on pre-order, so will be sure to keep you posted on how Jamesian the finished product is. I'm slowly but steadily picking up on all their Tom Baker Doctor Who releases - unfortunately I don't have the time or the money to catch up on all their other Doctor Who releases, or, indeed, many of their other ranges, though I'm a big fan of their Dark Shadows, Sapphire & Steel, and Omega Factor releases, and their Doctor Who spin-off, Jago and Litefoot, featuring the supporting characters of the sublime Talons of Weng Chiang investigating all manner of devilishness and trans-temporal chicanery in Victorian London.
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 26, 2017 12:27:16 GMT
I can't disagree. I'll be giving it a miss. Oh, and "now sadly side-lined early 20th-century ghost story master MR James" ? "Sadly side-lined"? That's a load of nonsense. Whenever new ghost stories are discussed on the radio, for example, if older writers are mentioned, 99% of the time M.R. James is the first if not the only writer named. He's also frequently cited when gothic stories are discussed. He's number one, even if it is by default.
|
|
|
Post by rawlinson on Apr 26, 2017 12:55:29 GMT
If we're talking James and Big Finish I'd recommend The Red Lady. An Eighth Doctor story that plays out like a rewrite of The Mezzotint.
|
|
|
Post by rawlinson on May 17, 2017 11:52:28 GMT
I think this sounds like it could be a lot more fun; www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-haunting-of-malkin-place-1237Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures - THE HAUNTING OF MALKIN PLACEWhilst on the way to visit the birthplace of MR James, a chance encounter with a spiritualist on a train sends the Doctor and Romana on the trail of a ghost. It's the most convincing case of haunting he's ever heard of, he tells them. And so, on their arrival, does it appear to be.
Things go bump in the night at Malkin Place. The voice of a crying child. Birds bursting into flight. Strange movements in a seance.
The Doctor is determined there must be a rational explanation. But is science always the answer to everything?Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Simon (Arthur Dent) Jones, and traces of MRJ? It could have been made just for me, I reckon. Someone at Big Finish does not know the difference between Henry and M.R. James. Some of the reviews I've seen are eye-opening, taking their information from the incorrect synopsis on the site rather than what actually happens in the story.
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on May 17, 2017 14:43:57 GMT
Oh dear.
Thanks for letting us know.
H.
|
|
|
Post by rawlinson on May 17, 2017 14:52:51 GMT
It doesn't affect the story in the slightest as the Henry James discussion all happens within the first five minutes and is just a way to get The Doctor and Romana onto a train. But there's never even a mention of M.R. James, so I have no idea why the synopsis makes it about him, there's certainly no mention of any of the James' birthplace either. It's the reviews that have surprised me though, one even insisting that M.R. James wrote Turn of the Screw and the story is about going to visit his birthplace, which it really really isn't. It's a fun little story, but the lack of fact-checking on the website has surprised me.
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on May 17, 2017 15:30:11 GMT
I played a short "podcast" review which was mainly more like a rah-rah session for the release. The big excitement in some quarters is that the guy who was in the original Hitch-hiker guide to the galaxy radio series is in this. The "review" included the trailer. Tom Baker is charming as ever but otherwise, it didn't do all that much for me.
The reviewer said something odd about Lalla Ward being "Mrs Dawkins" and made a comment which was indecipherable to me about her "religious set-up at home"--I have no idea what this was about, but apparently it's yet another angle they're playing up for this one.
The old 1970s Who serial "Image of the Fendahl," though largely an adaptation of an earlier Quatermass story by Nigel Kneale, did have a couple of moments in a haunted wood that were vaguely evocative of something James might have written. Or that was my thought when I watched the story again a few months ago.
cheers, H.
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on May 17, 2017 15:36:43 GMT
The reviewer said something odd about Lalla Ward being "Mrs Dawkins" and made a comment which was indecipherable to me about her "religious set-up at home"--I have no idea what this was about, but apparently it's yet another angle they're playing up for this one. Lalla Ward was/is married to Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, The Selfish Gene, etc.
|
|
|
Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on May 17, 2017 17:09:22 GMT
Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Simon (Arthur Dent) Jones, and traces of MRJ? It could have been made just for me, I reckon. Someone at Big Finish does not know the difference between Henry and M.R. James. Some of the reviews I've seen are eye-opening, taking their information from the incorrect synopsis on the site rather than what actually happens in the story. [/quote] Ah, how disappointing. I note they've changed the synopsis on the site, now, but not the synopsis in their news section. Though they've changed it to 'the birthplace of Henry James', which would actually be New York, not in the English countryside, so they're really not having much luck with it. I was holding off listening till tonight - no point in listening to ghost stories on a sunny day - but I think I'll be waiting till the CD turns up instead, now.
|
|
|
Post by rawlinson on May 17, 2017 17:16:00 GMT
Yeah, they're going to Rye, where James lived at the end of his life. It's a very fun story, but if you want BF doing a variation of Monty I'd say again to go to The Red Lady.
|
|
|
Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on May 17, 2017 17:42:20 GMT
Yeah, they're going to Rye, where James lived at the end of his life. It's a very fun story, but if you want BF doing a variation of Monty I'd say again to go to The Red Lady. I'll get round to The Red Lady eventually, I'm sure, some dark night. Ah, but it was the combination of Tom's Doctor and Jamesian horrors that had me particularly enticed with Malkin Place. Still, I'm sure I'll enjoy it, as Tom and Lalla both sounded on fine form in the little bit I listened to.
|
|
|
Post by ropardoe on May 18, 2017 9:46:48 GMT
Yeah, they're going to Rye, where James lived at the end of his life. It's a very fun story, but if you want BF doing a variation of Monty I'd say again to go to The Red Lady. Disappointing - just as well I hadn't mentioned in in G&S yet!
|
|
|
Post by rawlinson on May 18, 2017 20:43:29 GMT
Have you looked at The Red Lady in the past? It's basically a riff on The Mezzotint, with the M.R. James influence clearly acknowledged with a certain line of dialogue.
|
|