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Pat Mills Doctor Who Strips To Be Adapted For Audio

Started by Taryn Tailz, 14 August, 2018, 07:48:00 PM

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Taryn Tailz

As reported on the Big Finish website at the following link: https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/more-fourth-and-seventh-doctor


Doctor Who: The Comic Strip Adaptations will be released in March 2019 comprising of:
1. Doctor Who and the Iron Legion adapted by Alan Barnes
2. Doctor Who and the Star Beast adapted by Alan Barnes
In these two adventures, we find the Fourth Doctor travelling with his famed elongated technicolour scarf for company. He'll encounter the Iron Legion, an army of robotic Roman legionnaires, and in Doctor Who and the Star Beast, the Fourth Doctor encounters one of the deadliest and most adorable villains ever – Beep the Meep!
Nicholas Briggs, director of the Fourth Doctor audio adventures, explains: "These Fourth Doctor comic strip adaptations have a whole different feel to them. It's like they're from a parallel universe vision of Doctor Who. Tom Baker spotted it straight away, emailing me the moment he'd read The Iron Legion, commenting that this was 'a bit DIFFERENT' – actually typing 'different' in capitals! But he rose manfully to the challenge and entered into the spirit of it all wonderfully. And that spirit is that they are, essentially, wackier.
"There's a feeling of 'we could do anything because there are no budget restrictions' in the original comic strips, and our adaptor, Alan Barnes, has captured this perfectly. Crazy characters, extravagant action sequences. And Alistair Lock has done a superb job with his sound design and music.
"The Star Beast has a slightly different feel. The alien monster craziness is contrasted sharply with a dash of kitchen sink drama and a touch of Grange Hill, which predated the TV series exploring more domestic settings. It's interesting how the brilliant comics writer of these strips, Pat Mills, kind of anticipated this. Alan has a great love for Pat's work, and he was absolutely the right fit to adapt these beautiful, bonkers adventures of an extra-eccentric Fourth Doctor."
These two epic stories will be released in March 2019 as a 5-disc CD box set for £23 or on download at £20 from www.bigfinish.com.

Jim_Campbell

There seems to be a name missing from that press release...



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Colin YNWA

Does seem a curious omission.

Anyway those sure as heck make damned fine COMICS.Not at all sure what an audio adaptation would being to the party. But then if folks enjoy um (correctly credited that is) then all good I guess.

Greg M.

I gather that although Mills and Wagner were jointly credited, they actually alternated on the stories, so these are Mills yarns and City of the Damned (sounds familiar...) and Dogs of Doom are Wagner tales.

GordonR

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 14 August, 2018, 08:47:25 PM
There seems to be a name missing from that press release...





Is it Martin Emond's, again?

rogue69

Pat Mills had recently responded to a tweet about this saying that the first time he heard about the audio versions was when he read about this on a tweet from a fan and that he thinks that neither Big Finish & Panini will be paying them any royalties from these.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Greg M. on 14 August, 2018, 09:40:06 PM
I gather that although Mills and Wagner were jointly credited, they actually alternated on the stories, so these are Mills yarns and City of the Damned (sounds familiar...) and Dogs of Doom are Wagner tales.

I hadn't heard that and will defer to m'learned friend.
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JOE SOAP

#7
Quote from: rogue69 on 14 August, 2018, 10:04:16 PM
Pat Mills had recently responded to a tweet about this saying that the first time he heard about the audio versions was when he read about this on a tweet from a fan and that he thinks that neither Big Finish & Panini will be paying them any royalties from these.

Don't know about Panini but I don't think Big Finish –or BBC Radio– would be paying Pat any royalties since none of his stories were adapted as audio dramas.

Taryn Tailz

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 14 August, 2018, 09:25:21 PM
Anyway those sure as heck make damned fine COMICS.Not at all sure what an audio adaptation would being to the party.

I imagine the main draw would be having Tom Baker actually playing the part.

Andy Lambert

How is that acceptable to not give royalties - or even consult the writers - in adapting their stories??
Presumably, like the artists, once they've handed over their work it ceases to be their own. Makes me wonder why people still want to provide work like that... the love for your craft only stretches so far.

Andy Lambert

Those strips were brilliant, and I loved reading them as an 8/9 year old. No audio adaption will ever top the art of Dave Gibbons, in my humble opinion.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Andy Lambert on 15 August, 2018, 10:47:20 AM
Presumably, like the artists, once they've handed over their work it ceases to be their own. Makes me wonder why people still want to provide work like that... the love for your craft only stretches so far.

Simple answer: everyone has bills to pay. For all that people tout creator-owned books as the be-all and end-all, it's highly unlikely that you'll lose money on a work-for-hire gig for a publisher of any size. There are plenty of people who barely see a penny from their creator-owned books, up to and including Image.
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sheridan

So that's what Alan Barnes has been doing in the decade-plus since he left the Megazine...

sheridan

Quote from: sheridan on 15 August, 2018, 12:52:02 PM
So that's what Alan Barnes has been doing in the decade-plus since he left the Megazine...


Also from the wikia page, regarding Doctor Who:
QuoteBarnes created, or more precisely, "fleshed out" the character of Charley Pollard, who was introduced in Storm Warning. He was given the brief for Storm Warning and in it was the instruction that he had to introduce a companion called "Charley".
Storm?  Charlie - should have been a giant robot!

paddykafka

"In these two adventures, we find the Fourth Doctor travelling with his famed elongated technicolour scarf for company."

Given that this is an AUDIO production, how do we know for sure that the Doctor WILL HAVE an elongated technicolour scarf? For all we know, he could be donning some manky old head-scarf bought for a Quid in the local charity shop. Or - gasp! horror! - no scarf at all! Will there be pictorial evidence made available to prove that, yes, the Doctor is indeed in his full uniform?

Just saying, like.  :)