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The first fleeting into a "sort of" SiF Adventure came
from Stuart7, who wrote members of the forum into stories which took place on the Island of Sodor. After that, things
went rather quiet on that front, until sparked up again through parodies such as "SiF and the Important Visitor",
which can be read in our Parody Pack section.
Written, Produced and Directed by
Alaric
Starring:
Alaric, Chris, Chris the Xelent, Christopher,
Ciremi, Jim522, Jimbobdunnie Kate669, Ryan, Skarloey and The Old Bean
But the first real SiF Audio Adventure, featuring
selected members of Sodor Island Forums playing themselves, was "The Quest For The Missing Xmas Presents", which
was the brainchild of Alaric. When a good idea comes along, it's clear to see, and Missing Christmas Presents was
released on Christmas Eve 2005 to a very good response. The main key was that Alaric wrote about people he knew well
enough on the forum to bring it to life.
With the dastardly Alaric and Jimbob having stolen all their
Xmas stuff, Ryan and Christopher need to go and get it back. But on their way to Jinty Castle, they find that a lot
of their friends have befallen the same fate! With the help of Kate669, Skarloey, Chris, The Old Bean and an old battered
ice cream van, they make their way to Jinty Castle to retreive their pressies, and end up coming off worse against Alaric,
Jimbob and Jim522! However, the world's greatest superhero, Ciremi is on hand to save the day and help bring the story
to a happy end!
Written, Produced and Directed by
Ryan
With Contributions by
Alaric, TheHalford, Ciremi, The Old Bean, Jim522
and Jarrah White
Starring
Alaric, ChrisTheXelent, Chris, Christopher,
Ciremi, Gonzorelli, JarrahWhite, Jim522, Jimbobdunnie, Kate669, OldSquareWheels, Ryan, Skarloey, TheHalford, The Old
Bean and Truro
With Special Guest Appearances and Performances
by
Son of Dork, Billy Connolly, Sillyevan, Captain
Punjab and John Cleese
I was inspired by the idea, and thought it merited a Summer
Special follow up to carry on the wave of success. Originally, the plan for THAT was to accomplish
a second one hour production, and namely, another one-off. Sadly however, there were too many good ideas floating around
at the time of writing it, and so, instead of having a 3 hour long audio, it was deemed a better idea to cut it all down to
segmented episodes instead. The new plan suits a lot better, with one episode to be released every week for five weeks
until the culmination of the audio.
Originally, the main plan was to only include two new additions
to the cast. The main ones I was set on using were TheHalford and JarrahWhite, who would be cast as subordinate villains
to Jim522's megalomaniac leadership. TheHalford in turn, became a great contributor to the writing of the production,
and brought in Gonzorelli as another subordinate. And as writing progressed, Old Square Wheels, Sillyevan, Truro and
even John Cleese found themselves making inroads to the audio's fold as well...
Personally, any time I've been involved in anything like
this, the editing/production side has always fallen to another person, namely Christopher, Kate669, Sillyevan, The Old Bean
etc., this time, I knew I was going to have to do this on my own. The production wouldn't be perfect, in my eyes, unless
it was done by me. But the inevitable questions always circle - "What if it doesn't sound realistic?" or "What
if it just falls flat on it's face?" In actual fact, production has gone quite well, with work being done through
Pinnacle Studio 9 and Audacity programmes respectively. I'm very happy with the SFX I've gathered from various sources,
and thankful for the encouragement I've been receiving from my friends on SiF.
The basic storyline revolves around a UK seaside holiday in the fictional
town of Beachingtown-on-Sea, where Ryan and Christopher have gone for a break, and where Chris has setup a chip shop, Kate669
and Skarloey a boarding house and The Old Bean brought his Ice Cream van.
The two are subsequently robbed early on, and resort to getting jobs
in order to make enough money to leave. In the course of a tourist scam, Ryan discovers there's a monster in the waters
of the town, but little does anyone know, Jim522 is controlling it from his submarine base in order to scare people away from
Beachingtown on Sea to build Aussie World UK - a shoddy Australian theme park.
In order to do this, Jim later kidnaps Skarloey and The Old Bean,
turning him evil to become the evil Bean Ranger. It's only then that Ciremi summons Ryan, Kate669, Christopher and Chris
to form the Sodor Island Power Rangers to try and stop Jim and his minions once and for all. Following a botched
rescue attempt, they enter into a gameshow duel with Jim and his cronies, which Halford wins at the last minute and secures
their demise on the submarine of doom
It's only when Jimbot and Alaric come with the Tardis that they're able
to escape, and head through time on a boozy bender, and return to fend off the rampaging monster of Beachingtown on Sea.
Following that, there's a nice little singalong to round things off nicely!
Adapted, Developed, Produced, Directed and
Edited by
Alaric and Ryan
Based on the original story by
Charles Dickens
CAST:
Narrator - Chris
Eb-Bean-ezer
Scrooge - The Old Bean
Jimbob Cratchit - Jimbobdunnie
Ryan Acrosstherode - Ryan
Eliot Pernicketysod
- Eliot
Christopher Scrooge - Christopher
Chris Mastree - ChrisTheXelent
Kate Ida Betters-Cratchit
- Kate669
Jacob Malaric - Alaric
Mr Fezziwig - Ciremi
Tiny Jim - Jim522
Tramp –
Truro
Charity Worker – Loey Machan
Driver – Jarrah White
Headmaster – Evan
Granny
- Halford
Mrs Fezziwig/Woman – GotSTEAM?
Urchin – Old Square Wheels
Passerby 1 -
ChrisBurrell
Passerby 2 - Proteus
School Boy - Stuart
Poor
Kid - Jake
The decision was taken in mid 2006 to do a Christmas Adventure
again. It had always been on the cards, but there was some apathy from The Old Bean who was uncomfortable with his own
bland characterisation in both of the previous audios. And so, instead of another original concept, the decision was
taken by both Alaric and Ryan to create an adaptation of the classic Dickens tale - "A Christmas Carol", where The
Old Bean agreed to play the part of Eb-Bean-ezer Scrooge!
Throughout the course of the writing, new characters were
placed into the storyline both to create opportunities for members to play them and for to develop the storyline for
some comic moments and original scenarios. These new additions included a business rival and his assistant, an
obsessive neighbour, a developed part for Mrs Cratchit who had become Scrooge's abuser in defence of her husband; and
also included The Old Bean's own character Deidre from The Twin Engines audio, who played Scrooge's love interest.
The SiF in the Willows was initially
intended to be very much it's own beast, however, that's not the way it turned out. In the early writing stages, it
seemed difficult to find material for engaging new characters to arise from, and that there was a lot to be said for including
the Christmas Carol characters in there as well. And so, while faith to the text was a paramount concern, it didn't
stop the return of Scrooge, Acrosstherode, Chris Mastree, the Cratchits and Jacob Malaric from landing in to add to the fun.
However, it may be back in with the old, but new characters
based on the original Wind in the Willows, such as Toad the Xelent, Alarat, Christomole and Badgeryan also
made their mark on the SiF Christmas Audios, with brand new characters created especially for the audio such as Davey
the Butler and Louie Madman, and the return of some memorable voices from throughout 2007 - such as Violet -
The Station Master's wife (Ryhalis Productions - Branch Line Engines) and Len and Craig,
the Driver and Fireman (Xelent Studios - The Three Railway Engines), along with some brand
new songs and cover-versions thrown in for good measure.
This production came later than previous expected and was
due to return us to the "SiF Adventure every six months" means of doing things - however, problems hindered production
and left us hanging on until October, two months shy of the originally intended release dates within August and September.
A Very SiF Crossover Adventure charts the adventures of both modern day SiF'ers and the ye olde SiF from 1903, as
they come together to take on a formidable force of darkness - The Evil, and try to prevent the timeline of history being
altered dramatically in the process...
STARRING:
Professor Vengeance: Storyteller / PC Deadbeat
Alaric: Alarat / Alaric / Jacob Malaric
Chris: Chris
Christopher: Christopher / Christomole
Chris The Xelent: Chris The Xelent / Toad The Xelent
Ciremi: Ciremi
Clay: Clay / Big Ethel Betters
Davey: Davey the Butler
Dmman33: The Evil
DoctorTTTEFan: Sales Person / Commentator (Episode 2)
Eliot: Eliot
Fox: Master Fox / KATT
Gonzorelli: Gonzorelli
Jarrah White: Jarrah White
Jim522: Jim522
Jimbobdunnie: Jimbot / Jimbob Cratchit
Kate669: Kate669 / Mrs Ida Betters Cratchit
Knuckles: Igor
Loey Machan: Dr Louie Madman / The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
The Old Bean: The Old Bean / Scrooge / Dierdre
Old Square Wheels: Old Square Wheels
Ryan: Ryan / Acrosstherode / Badgeryan / Various Extras
Sillyevan: Evan
Stuart7: The Waiter (Episode 5)
The series seems set to continue with new audios coming
out every six months to preserve the quality and specialness of the concept, as Alaric and I have both agreed; it shouldn't
be done regularly to preserve the dignity and excitement that surrounds them. If it were to go down the road of
other multimedia projects, particularly redubbing (where to keep things fresh you need to keep updating things to provide
an edge that never lasts...) then it would ultimately just wither and die quickly. These are special, and hopefully,
they'll remain that way!
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