Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s Day 17 of ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendar 2022.
Do things turn out well at the fancy dress ball at Cranleigh Hall in ‘Black Orchid’?
The fancy dress ball scenes are some of my favourites in the ‘Black Orchid’ story. This is especially when Nyssa, Tegan and Adric get to enjoy themselves as characters compared to facing danger all the time when travelling in the TARDIS. It’s also nice to see Ann Talbot being a cheerful soul at the party. 🙂
I admit, the story does limit the Fifth Doctor somewhat in terms of developing his character when he’s exploring the secret passages of the annexe where George Cranleigh is being kept hidden. The Target novelization/audiobook by Terence Dudley does it better in handling the Fifth Doctor’s journey.
This is especially when he’s unravelling the mystery of Cranleigh Hall and why Lady Cranleigh is protecting her elder son from the outside world. It’s weird when the mysterious Harlequin dancing with Ann Talbot takes her inside the house and she doesn’t question why he’s doing it in the story. 😐
In the novelization/audiobook, it’s better, as it seems the Harlequin is taking Ann Talbot into the house by force and she’s struggling to escape. I like Ann as a character in ‘Black Orchid’. She does come across as squeamish, but again, the novelization/audiobook does handle her character better.
I’ve written my own sequel to ‘Black Orchid’ called ‘The Mirror of Memory’, which is part of the ‘Zorbius’ series. In that, I’ve been able to explore more of ‘Black Orchid’ in terms of its worlds and characters, including Ann and Charles Cranleigh, from both the TV story and the novelization/audiobook.
Thanks for watching and reading!
Check out what Day 17 of my ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendars for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 were about!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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