Forums
New posts
What's new
New posts
Latest activity
Awards
Log in
Register
What's new
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Poison your name this Hallowe'en
There's plenty of time to choose your spooky October username
Click here for more details
Forums
Telly Talk Soaps
Australian & New Zealand Soaps
“Welcome to Summer Bay”: Rewatching the early years.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 209688" data-attributes="member: 23"><p><u><span style="font-size: 22px">Episodes 356-358</span></u> <em>(...continued)</em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Steven is a busy character at the moment. In light of his hefty fine, Pippa has talked him out of dipping into his trust fund and hinted that Tom would appreciate seeing Steven earn the money, an idea which he sees to fruition, and which Tom welcomes:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There's also Steven’s involvement in the business with Viv.</p><p></p><p>In his one full episode to date, Reverend John Newton has actually made Viv if not interesting then at least a little less deathly dull. And the odds were heavily stacked against that when Steven roped in Andrew to mediate (though in good news, Donald was also present). As any good counsellor would, Andrew proceeded to physically push Viv back down to her seat while telling Steven that hysteria wasn’t helpful. He then forced Viv to sit in a room with her father while questioning her.</p><p></p><p>Finally, there’s been a Viv scene in which she gained my empathy as a viewer. When her father - enabled by Andrew and Donald - emotionally blackmailed her by making her tell her little sister via telephone that she wouldn’t be returning home, Mouche Phillips did a nice job of having a one-sided difficult conversation while crying on cue. This is possibly something I could have done in my teens and early twenties when I was full of angst and hormones. All the same, I do admire actors who are able to do this under what I assume are fairly mechanical conditions.</p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/0GvKHm.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/YeNWx5.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Naturally, this convinces Viv to return home in order to protect her little sister, and there follows an enjoyably theatrical piece of intimidation in which her father goes all Joshua Rush on her before locking her in the cupboard under the stairs:</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/eiJJLx.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/XcYeSc.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/wCbaox.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/ussmVf.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>John Gregg is great fun as the villain of the piece. He has the perfect lean, angular, authoritative, clinical quality that makes me think of <em>Hunchback’s</em> Judge Claude Frollo, and this is helped greatly by the environment he’s given - presumably a rectory - which feels established and masculine. That hall looks like it could be a warm, welcoming environment to most, but something about it also gets across Viv’s trepidation.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Steven’s concern - dismissed by most - gives Pippa a fleeting reference to similar events that took place over a year earlier:</p><p></p><p></p><p>Dodge’s apathy towards Viv’s disappearance has brought him into conflict with Steven, and after a couple of small fallouts, Dodge has to do some fast talking to repair the damage.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/33xFPi.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/M3zkqz.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>What’s great about these scenes is the ambiguity. Even with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge that Steven doesn’t have, it’s really hard to tell how much of this is Dodge keeping Steven on side for his own benefit, and how much of it is truth.</p><p></p><p>This ambiguity goes off the chart after Dodge rescues his arch enemy Sally from drowning - an incident in which young Kate Ritchie evidently did all her own stunts!!</p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/YZz8I0.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/awxksG.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>As he tells Steven afterwards:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In the afterglow of warmth and relief that comes from it, Dodge is apparently moved to make a significant confession:</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/2BTin9.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>And he opens up about his past:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.vgy.me/GpUJDB.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>Given Dodge’s history and self-confessed tendency to change his own history whenever he’s asked, it’s hard to know where he’s coming from here. Steven also has doubts and verifies the story with Pippa who confirms it to be what she was told by Miss Molloy (she’s indulged his fictitious accounts because she thought he needed them to feel better about himself).</p><p></p><p>Between the confession and Dodge’s sharing his past truthfully (if selectively) Steven feels compelled to do all he can to ensure Tom and Pippa don’t tell the authorities about Dodge’s part in the car accident (which they were on the verge of doing). Is the truth setting Dodge free? Or is he very cleverly still playing a game in which he will be the only winner?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Spells & Karma, post: 209688, member: 23"] [U][SIZE=6]Episodes 356-358[/SIZE][/U] [I](...continued)[/I] Steven is a busy character at the moment. In light of his hefty fine, Pippa has talked him out of dipping into his trust fund and hinted that Tom would appreciate seeing Steven earn the money, an idea which he sees to fruition, and which Tom welcomes: There's also Steven’s involvement in the business with Viv. In his one full episode to date, Reverend John Newton has actually made Viv if not interesting then at least a little less deathly dull. And the odds were heavily stacked against that when Steven roped in Andrew to mediate (though in good news, Donald was also present). As any good counsellor would, Andrew proceeded to physically push Viv back down to her seat while telling Steven that hysteria wasn’t helpful. He then forced Viv to sit in a room with her father while questioning her. Finally, there’s been a Viv scene in which she gained my empathy as a viewer. When her father - enabled by Andrew and Donald - emotionally blackmailed her by making her tell her little sister via telephone that she wouldn’t be returning home, Mouche Phillips did a nice job of having a one-sided difficult conversation while crying on cue. This is possibly something I could have done in my teens and early twenties when I was full of angst and hormones. All the same, I do admire actors who are able to do this under what I assume are fairly mechanical conditions. [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/0GvKHm.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/YeNWx5.jpg[/IMG] Naturally, this convinces Viv to return home in order to protect her little sister, and there follows an enjoyably theatrical piece of intimidation in which her father goes all Joshua Rush on her before locking her in the cupboard under the stairs: [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/eiJJLx.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/XcYeSc.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/wCbaox.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/ussmVf.jpg[/IMG] John Gregg is great fun as the villain of the piece. He has the perfect lean, angular, authoritative, clinical quality that makes me think of [I]Hunchback’s[/I] Judge Claude Frollo, and this is helped greatly by the environment he’s given - presumably a rectory - which feels established and masculine. That hall looks like it could be a warm, welcoming environment to most, but something about it also gets across Viv’s trepidation. Meanwhile, Steven’s concern - dismissed by most - gives Pippa a fleeting reference to similar events that took place over a year earlier: Dodge’s apathy towards Viv’s disappearance has brought him into conflict with Steven, and after a couple of small fallouts, Dodge has to do some fast talking to repair the damage. [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/33xFPi.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/M3zkqz.jpg[/IMG] What’s great about these scenes is the ambiguity. Even with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge that Steven doesn’t have, it’s really hard to tell how much of this is Dodge keeping Steven on side for his own benefit, and how much of it is truth. This ambiguity goes off the chart after Dodge rescues his arch enemy Sally from drowning - an incident in which young Kate Ritchie evidently did all her own stunts!! [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/YZz8I0.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://i.vgy.me/awxksG.jpg[/IMG] As he tells Steven afterwards: In the afterglow of warmth and relief that comes from it, Dodge is apparently moved to make a significant confession: [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/2BTin9.jpg[/IMG] And he opens up about his past: [IMG]https://i.vgy.me/GpUJDB.jpg[/IMG] Given Dodge’s history and self-confessed tendency to change his own history whenever he’s asked, it’s hard to know where he’s coming from here. Steven also has doubts and verifies the story with Pippa who confirms it to be what she was told by Miss Molloy (she’s indulged his fictitious accounts because she thought he needed them to feel better about himself). Between the confession and Dodge’s sharing his past truthfully (if selectively) Steven feels compelled to do all he can to ensure Tom and Pippa don’t tell the authorities about Dodge’s part in the car accident (which they were on the verge of doing). Is the truth setting Dodge free? Or is he very cleverly still playing a game in which he will be the only winner? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Who played JR Ewing?
Post reply
Forums
Telly Talk Soaps
Australian & New Zealand Soaps
“Welcome to Summer Bay”: Rewatching the early years.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top
