Thought I’d set up a thread to track my little holiday to the medieval theme park of Peladon (and hopefully convince @shauny to make a badge for it…).
I’ve watched The Curse of Peladon and I might be mad (quiet at the back) but I’m going to listen to the narrated soundtrack version too with the lovely Katy Manning and the novelisation audiobook which is read by David Troughton. I’m working my way through the DVD VAM and will do the episode commentaries too, as well as Toby Hadoke’s Happy Times & Places podcast about the episodes.
Phew. And after all that I’ll crack on with the Companion Chronicle, The Prisoner of Peladon.
So I listened to Episode One as a narrated soundtrack and Katy’s narration is lovely although the cliffhanger ends up being a bit rushed as the narration needs to explain the mild comedy around Jo saying ‘See you later’ to King Peladon before rushing through to the statue falling towards the delegates!
Listening to Toby Hadoke’s commentary for this episode now (and I may have to purchase the WhoTalk commentary for this one too - they’re always very good).
Pretty sure I also have this somewhere, so might add that into my mad little project (why am I doing this - I’m already doing lots of Doctor Who ‘projects’! There’s not even a badge yet. I really hope @shauny takes pity on me…)
Finished Hadoke’s first episode commentary and thought I’d have a listen to Jon Pertwee reading the abridged novelisation (I remembered it was part of this release, which is free on Spotify Premium):
I’m so glad I did. It is so wonderful listening to Pertwee telling the story. His voices for Alpha Centauri and Arcturus are glorious and I can’t wait to hear what he does with the Ice Warriors.
But there is a music sting used in the first 15 minutes or so which is lifted from an 80s story and I can’t place it yet and it’s bugging me. I’ll have to see if it is used again or rewind and make sure I identify it.
Also, the novelisation describes Centauri as turquoise and a ‘shimmering hexapod’. It also describes Centauri as changing colour, like a cuttlefish, depending on its mood/emotions adding to the cephalapod vibes already riffed on with the tentacles and octopoidal eye.
I listened to the second volume of Tales from the Tardis (Mainly for some McGann-narrated short stories) and I too think Pertwee would’ve been a great audiobook narrator.
Continued listening to Pertwee’s abridged audiobook reading on the way to work this morning and was surprised when the story jumped from the throne room scene where all the characters first meet to the attack on Arcturus where his servo-unit is removed.
Also, the scene where Jo first takes on the role of Princess Josephine of TARDIS doesn’t play as well on the page and is clearly lifted in the performance of Manning. We also lose the great gag about her inefficient pilot.
And Pertwee gives good Ice Lord too. (Apparently, according to Toby Hadoke, via Howe, Stammers and Walker, the Ice Lords have never actually been referred to as such in the show - it’s a fan made creation).
The novelisation also makes more out of the Doctor and Jo escaping the TARDIS before it topples down the mountain with Jo getting down on her hands and knees and crawling out of the doors. And the climb up is described a bit differently too.
I always dismiss reading/listening to the novelisations because I forget how fascinating the little changes here and there are. I should do this more often.
Listening to the narrated soundtrack version of episode 2 really focuses you on the dialogue and the performances. Ysanne Churchman’s Centauri is actually a really good performance which at such a high pitch is quite the achievement.
It also highlights how hugely racist the Doctor is towards the Ice Warriors! It really isn’t a good look for him.
Going to listen to some Whotalk commentaries for the first two episodes of Curse before listening to the next part of the audiobooks. Guests include Ysanne Churchman and Nick Hobbs who aren’t on the official DVD commentaries so that should be interesting.
Bless Toby Hadoke trying gamely to get answers from Ysanne Churchman in the Whotalk commentary for The Curse of Peladon Episode 1. She seemed a lovely woman (and was quite enthusiastic when talking about her fame as Grace Archer) but did seem a little bemused about Doctor Who and the love it garners. It still amuses me that she was told to make Centauri sound like a cross between a little boy and a ‘homosexual civil servant’.
Listened to a short chunk of Jon Perwee’s version of the audiobook this morning. Episode 2 is basically covered by Arcturus being attacked and the Doctor being lead into the tunnels by Grun to be tricked into desecrating the Temple of Aggedor.
Just after Ssorg goes to see if Jo really has seen Aggedor in the corridor, the theme music crashed in. Odd place for a cliffhanger I thought to myself, why is it here?
And then I remembered. This was originally on a single cassette - that would have been where you would take it out and turn the tape round to play the other side. I miss those days!
I’ve totally lost anyone under the age of 40 haven’t I…?
I don’t! I used to have a Sony Walkman which I’d take to school and listen to it on my half-hour walk, but the size and bulk of the tapes meant I only really listened to the same 1 or 2 tapes every day, it could get pretty repetitive. My main go-to was an album by Steps
