MovieChat Forums > Sea of Souls (2004) Discussion > A Request To The BBC

A Request To The BBC

posted 16 years ago by denomar
6 replies | jump to latest

Dear any chance visitors working for the BBC, however unlikely it is that you might just come down to the level of the people who keep so many of your shows afloat, I sincerely hope that there might just be one person reading this.

I like many others in the hundreds of Sea Of Souls fans have been significantly disappointed by the lack of explanation for the disappearance of four main characters in just 3 series. It left us initially confused after the first season, but we were given two great characters in the place of those who had left in the form of Justine and Craig (the main reason many of us watched the show was for the human balance that these two brought).

We were delighted when series 4 was announced and then greatly disappointed when Iain and Dawn did not return and no effort was made when the series aired to even reference where these two marvellous characters had disappeared to.

As further insult to the fans of this show, there is still no sign of the series 3 DVD or series 4 (don't bother with 4, quite possibly not worth it).

Also, something that is further doing damage to my opinion and certainly other Sea Of Souls fan's opinion of the BBC is that the official website has now disappeared. Could it not have been kept up for archive purposes? After all Sci-Fi's miniseries TAKEN (which was aired in early 2003 on BBC2), it's BBC website is still up, far longer ago than Sea Of Souls, and quite confusingly, Taken is not a BBC production in any way shape or form and ran only for one series. Sea Of Souls was one of the shining stars of Saturday night tv, ran for 4 series and was a BBC production.

Even if we don't get a further series, an explanation as to where Justine and Craig disappeared to or a series 3 DVD release, in the very least as fan of Sea Of Souls I would be delighted to see the restoration of the official BBC website.

Regards to whoever reads this, and if they could pass it on to someone higher up it would be even better.

[–] treebeardman 15 years ago

Ive been watching it on the sci fi channel, they show it very late at night during the week. Whats confusing is the order, theyve shown episodes 6, then 8, then 7 so far. So is it going forwards or backwards.

I have been enjoying Justine and Craig as above, I doubt the show could continue with just Dr Douglas.

Hmmm Haroom "Well there are Ents, and there are Ents."

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] lostlilly 15 years ago

I don't think it was the characters of Justine and Craig that led to the show teetering on Scooby Doo territory, but rather the plots that series 3 had.

For me, one of the most unbelievable series 3 plots was in the last episode 'Rebound', which had Paul McGann teleporting and black magic and demons - that storyline was almost entirely Douglas'.

Of course, due to Bill Paterson's absence most of the plots (which were mostly paranormal to the absolute extreme) tended to centre around the other two characters, but then, is that really their fault? I'd say it was down to who ever plotted the episodes and wrote the scripts!

Also.... did the ratings actually drop? Does anyone know this for sure? I never know how to find out about ratings, so perhaps they did, but again, I'm not so sure that can be addressed solely with the lack of Bill Paterson. I definitely feel his lack of presence in series 3 took away something integral from the show, but I don't think it's fair to say failed without him.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] lostlilly 15 years ago

Yes, that was Sleeper - I found that episode the most frightening, probably because it was one of the more realistic episodes (though, using that term loosely, after all... those moths ended up in the bathrooom, and a stool went flying through a glass window without breaking it!). For me, I thought Oracle was the most believable (and also, my favourite) episode (within the set up of it being a not entirely believable series, of course. But since series 1 it's asked the viewers to stretch their imagination.), though there was a terrible lack of Bill Paterson, I thought the episode proved that Dawn Steele and Iain Robertson could hold the show together on their own, when given a decent plot. It was also one of the only episodes where we got some real character development, particularly for Justine regarding her abilities.

Anyway, I see what you mean and I do agree to an extent, but I still don't quite understand how the characterisation and writing for Justine and Craig seemed Scooby Doo'ish, was it too light hearted/jokey?

I suppose I feel that almost all shows with a more centric character (Douglas) tend to have other main characters/supporting characters to interact with, and because the centric character tends to carry the most emotional baggage (his wife and child's deaths), the others tend to, as a result, be more light hearted, and often a way for the centric character to realise something about themselves.

With the series 4 two parter, I felt that although Douglas' character was explored, and he did have the supporting cast to bounce off against, the disappearance of his colleagues left a sort of gap in the show. I felt he should have been confiding in Justine, I suppose!

[–] 15 years ago

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