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Author Topic: BBC 1 Dracula  (Read 2901 times)

Offline majorsmith

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BBC 1 Dracula
« on: January 04, 2020, 05:58:53 PM »
Anyone watched it yet? I must admit I liked the first episode, although it was a tad cheesy, the 2nd episode was better,  and the 3rd a tad disappointing, but not too bad 7/10 for me, and a more unusual take on Dracula

Offline Blackwolf

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2020, 08:56:14 PM »
Interesting,it probably won’t come to Australian free to air for awhile ( though it is on the aethernet thingy,which I’m not),hopefully it will improve.
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Offline Captain Blood

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2020, 09:12:06 PM »
About the same for me to start with.
Thought episode 1 was, well, a bit different - but well done.
Thought episode 2 was almost like a standalone film - the story Stoker referred to but never wrote: ‘The nightmare voyage of the Demeter’.
So far, so good, just about. Then...   :o :( >:(

Thought they were taking the piss with where they then took it off to.
Won’t give spoilers, but I felt like that massive shift was really abusing the trust of an audience that’s already invested three hours in what they thought was one thing, only for it to turn out to be something else entirely.
The pantomime Dracula really didn’t work for me either. A great performance, but just too silly.

Classic Gatiss I’m afraid. Trying to be too clever for his own good and ours, resulting in a triumph of ‘the concept’ over actual substance.
I literally couldn’t finish watching part three, I was that pissed off with it.
Ultimately disappointing and self-indulgent. Just IMHO ;)
Got rave reviews in the papers though, so what do I know?  lol

Offline Blackwolf

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2020, 09:39:59 PM »
Ah,if they had kept to the novel,I would be a happy man. Think I’ll be giving a miss. I’m actually a fan of the Coppola film,which as far as I could tell kept to the book,word for word in some instances.

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2020, 09:44:25 PM »
I read a really fun prequel somewhere - a short story describing the experience of Renfield during his visit to Transylvania. I don't recall if it was Bram Stoker's work that wasn't released until much later, or if it was a later writer.

I also remember playing Fury of Dracula with my brother as a kid. It has to be one of my favourite board games of all time, just so innovative and original a concept.   
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Offline swiftnick

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2020, 10:17:06 PM »
Loved it! Very enjoyable, that chap Claes Bang made a great Dracula.

Offline has.been

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2020, 10:36:57 PM »
Liked some bits, hated other bits.
Way better than the recent 'War of the Worlds'

Offline Malamute

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2020, 10:39:28 PM »
Ah,if they had kept to the novel,I would be a happy man. Think I’ll be giving a miss. I’m actually a fan of the Coppola film,which as far as I could tell kept to the book,word for word in some instances.

I completely agree although the Coppola film is still not perfect ( the love story and demise of Dracula at the hand of Mina for example) but it goes a long way to being accurate to the book.

I am afraid I hated the BBC production. I was hyped up about it knowing Gatiss was a fan of the novel and the Hammer films so trusted him with the task. The trailer looked promising, the first ten minutes were great, Jonathan being  given the cross by the peasant, the journey to the castle . What a great castle it was, the meeting with the Old Count and their initial conversations.

After that it just went south for me. I didn’t enjoy the way  it developed. The humour didn’t work and I felt the gore was unnecessarily over the top.

Episode two I don’t  understand why they felt the need to turn the Demeter into a passenger ship and introduce a cast of characters worthy of an Agatha Christie novel and modern PC  stereotypes. The climax on the ship was laughable followed by the bombshell ending. The Voyage of the Demeter should have been a superb episode with crew being silently picked off one by one with a mounting sense of dread and paranoia .

Part three I’m not even sure what it wAs about. It almost felt like a totally different production with a new cast whom we did not know or get to know. It was just totally bizarre.

The various nods to all the films before did not go unnoticed. Baeg resembling Chris Lee st one point when he was in his age transformation When he rose from his coffin. Wearing a Bela Lugosi costume on the ship with white tie and medal and in the last part where the Dr runs along thee table and jumping on the curtains from the Horror of Dracula.

Somehow I feel they were trying to hard to make everyone happy and I think they took the wrong direction. A big disappointment for me as I feAr we are unlikely to see a new version in the future that will have the courage to do the book justice.

This is of course just my humble view and if you enjoyed it as it seems from social media that LP s are saying they did then fair play to you. My secretary for example is now going to read the book so that’s something positive to come from it.  :)
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Offline levied troop

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2020, 07:50:27 AM »
Funnily enough I liked the drift away from the book, after all,I’ve read it and seen most of the movies, it’s a bit of a waste just following that slavishly.  There were very nice touches along the way and I especially liked Dracula’s reaction to the world in episode 3.  That said, Ep 3 felt rushed, frankly I thought the programme would have stood 6 episodes, not 3.
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Offline Elk101

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2020, 07:53:29 AM »
My personal summary is:
Episode 1 - rapidly developed into a violent version of Carry on Screaming
Episode 2 - was more like an episode of Doctor Who and would have been quite a good standalone programme had it not been sold as Dracula.
Episode 3 - Ive no idea really, it was like Torchwood crossed with Black Mirror, but without any of the things I enjoyed about those.

Totally just my opinion and it's great if people enjoyed them as a re-imagining, though unfortunately for me I wanted to see a well done version of the book. If it gets people to read the book, that's fan(g)tastic!
« Last Edit: January 05, 2020, 07:56:16 AM by Elk101 »

Offline Silent Invader

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2020, 08:09:19 AM »
I enjoyed the new take in episode 1 but got a bit bored during episode 2 and was then turned off by its surprise ending (It’s not that I don’t like modern vampire stories - I love’m! - but I’d settled down to watch what I was expecting to be some highly polished Victorian Gothic Horror.  :(). Nevertheless I persisted and watched episode 3 but was bored - so much talking. I regard the series as a great opportunity wasted. The best part for me was the performance by Jack the young doctor but I’d recently seen him in Vienna Blood (where he also played a young doctor) which was brilliant.
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Offline Panama

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2020, 08:16:56 AM »
It felt like a real mixed bag with some high points a long the way, but more gore then horror which is something I'm not a fan of, while I can understand the creators wanting to put their own stamp on a tale that has been told many a time, for my it just didn't hit the spot.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2020, 09:07:16 AM »
I read a really fun prequel somewhere - a short story describing the experience of Renfield during his visit to Transylvania. I don't recall if it was Bram Stoker's work that wasn't released until much later, or if it was a later writer.

Dracula's Guest, maybe? The narrator is usually assumed to be Harker, but he isn't named in the story. Certainly, some subsequent media portrayals have had Renfield as the first solicitor to visit Dracula.

I also remember playing Fury of Dracula with my brother as a kid. It has to be one of my favourite board games of all time, just so innovative and original a concept.   

A friend of mine had the game, and a few of us played it begrudgingly (because it wasn't Warhammer), but then really enjoyed it. I don't remember that much about it, except that we were surprised by how good it was. I see it's still in print - generally a very good indication of the quality of a 'niche' boardgame.

I haven't seen the series yet, but my wife commandeered the TV (and exiled the children from the room) to finish watching it yesterday. She reports good things, though she thought the destination wasn't as good as the journey.

Offline Dags

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2020, 11:18:11 AM »
Can understand why peeps didn't like it - especially ep 3 - but I loved it all. IMO best thing on - admittedly a low bar - over Crimbo

What a great castle it was,

The same castle as used in Nosferatu  8)

Offline Muzfish4

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Re: BBC 1 Dracula
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2020, 11:01:02 PM »
This is on Netflicks. We watched most of episode one the other night. I quite enjoyed it but Mrs Fish wasn't sold, too much talking/exposition for her liking.  I imagine I'll be watching the other two episodes on my own.