Well, after all the Ampcast errors and to-ing and fro-ing, I finally got my hands on a copy of volume 1 of Beyond Traditional Recognition today. As with BTR's Doctor Who debut, Invasion of the Daleks, this is a flawed story, yet immensely enjoyable.
SPOILERS FOLLOW...
Firstly, the theme tune - it's nicely evocative and spooky, but is perhaps a bit too quiet and low-key, seeming a bit too much like an extended piece of incidental music. Getting into the story itself, the first thing that struck me was the sound quality. The lines are generally crystal clear (except for one scene with Rhett and Dev towards the end of the play, which suffered from some pops and clicks), the post-production is excellent, and the music, though occasionally drowing out the dialogue, is too of a very high quality.
As Stoker, Jacob Aldridge is good, though a few of his line deliveries are still a little OTT (i.e. raising his voice when the line doesn't appear to require it). Witold Tietze delivers a similarly good performance as Greene, though he does occasionally rush through his dialogue (particularly during one scene in Part 1, where he discusses his theory about the implant in Stoker's brain), to such an extent that I occasionally had to rewind to work out what was being said. Both Jana Kildey & Wendy Musgrove, as Rhett & Dev respectively, sound a little wooden and stilted at times, but generally give satisfactory performances.
The first part of this story is let down only by a somewhat limp cliffhanger - the gradually slowing chime of the clock is a very nice touch, but the actual event - Rhett suddenly appears, Stoker & Greene are a bit shocked - isn't particularly surprising or exciting. Although obviously impossible because of format limitations, I think this story would work better as one 60 minute play. Another solution would have been to move the cliffhanger till after Greene's line "Just the fact that we no longer appear to be in your house!", which is rather more dramatic and also indicates what's actually happened to the characters.
The story's second part isn't quite as engaging as the first, but is still good fun. The scene in which Trent & Greene are thrown into their cell does over-use bad language a little I feel - I've got nothing against it's use for dramatic effect, but after only a couple of 'bloody's so far, it seems a bit drastic to suddenly have the characters crying 'shit' 'bastard' 'bloody' and 'bitch' all in one scene, regardless of circumstance. Not to be condescending, but it seems a little bit like "This isn't Doctor Who anymore, so we're allowed to swear".
The story's conclusion confused me somewhat - is Rhett really an alien, or did she just want to get her hands on Trent and Greene's technology? Is Rhett going to give Greene what she promised him (she says something along the lines of "perhaps I gave away too much") or not (but she also says "Don't cut Greene into the business").
Overall though, this is a solid first step into the semi-pro world for BTR. Generally, the story is engaging, the acting convincing, and the post-production and music excellent.
Score - *** (Good)
Morgan
SPOILERS FOLLOW...
Firstly, the theme tune - it's nicely evocative and spooky, but is perhaps a bit too quiet and low-key, seeming a bit too much like an extended piece of incidental music. Getting into the story itself, the first thing that struck me was the sound quality. The lines are generally crystal clear (except for one scene with Rhett and Dev towards the end of the play, which suffered from some pops and clicks), the post-production is excellent, and the music, though occasionally drowing out the dialogue, is too of a very high quality.
As Stoker, Jacob Aldridge is good, though a few of his line deliveries are still a little OTT (i.e. raising his voice when the line doesn't appear to require it). Witold Tietze delivers a similarly good performance as Greene, though he does occasionally rush through his dialogue (particularly during one scene in Part 1, where he discusses his theory about the implant in Stoker's brain), to such an extent that I occasionally had to rewind to work out what was being said. Both Jana Kildey & Wendy Musgrove, as Rhett & Dev respectively, sound a little wooden and stilted at times, but generally give satisfactory performances.
The first part of this story is let down only by a somewhat limp cliffhanger - the gradually slowing chime of the clock is a very nice touch, but the actual event - Rhett suddenly appears, Stoker & Greene are a bit shocked - isn't particularly surprising or exciting. Although obviously impossible because of format limitations, I think this story would work better as one 60 minute play. Another solution would have been to move the cliffhanger till after Greene's line "Just the fact that we no longer appear to be in your house!", which is rather more dramatic and also indicates what's actually happened to the characters.
The story's second part isn't quite as engaging as the first, but is still good fun. The scene in which Trent & Greene are thrown into their cell does over-use bad language a little I feel - I've got nothing against it's use for dramatic effect, but after only a couple of 'bloody's so far, it seems a bit drastic to suddenly have the characters crying 'shit' 'bastard' 'bloody' and 'bitch' all in one scene, regardless of circumstance. Not to be condescending, but it seems a little bit like "This isn't Doctor Who anymore, so we're allowed to swear".
The story's conclusion confused me somewhat - is Rhett really an alien, or did she just want to get her hands on Trent and Greene's technology? Is Rhett going to give Greene what she promised him (she says something along the lines of "perhaps I gave away too much") or not (but she also says "Don't cut Greene into the business").
Overall though, this is a solid first step into the semi-pro world for BTR. Generally, the story is engaging, the acting convincing, and the post-production and music excellent.
Score - *** (Good)
Morgan
or not (but she also says "Don't cut Greene into the business"
