Mystery Lady
As someone who has now listened (and read) the Mystery Lady series I can firmly say that these are ten individual stories which make up a larger arc rather than one massive ten hour story. On the Mofibo website they are clearly listed as "Series One Episode One", "Series One Episode Two", etc. RadMatter ☎ 13:49, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- What I would compare this series to is Series 3 of Torchwood. All of those episodes are given generic names; Children of Earth: Day One, Children of Earth: Day Two, and all tell one long story but are clearly intended to be viewed as individual parts with their own narrative beginning, middle and end. RadMatter ☎ 13:59, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- I mean, the author refers to the story as a novel.[1] And while most of the episodes have distinct dramatic beats and settings, so too do the chapters of a book. With Torchwood, that's five hours of television, a lot of content, and it wouldn't make sense to cover it on one page. But here, I think covering this in 10 different pages would be a real hindrance for the wiki, especially since they're all just titled "Episode 1" and so on. These would be pretty slim to stand by themselves, because they're all just chapters rather than individual stories. A novel is a different medium than TV, and I don't think this story was too massive or complicated for its medium. It's normal for audiobooks to be more than just 10 hours. Definitely though, of course, this should be an (audio story). CoT ? 14:08, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- This story may have been intended to be a novel, but no physical novel has ever been released. What has been released is a series of episodes - framed rather like a television series - and the production company that has released it, Storytel Original, repeatedly refers to it as such. These individual releases are the same length as each of Paul's other works; Baker's End, Brenda and Effie, etc. RadMatter ☎ 14:14, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- Right, but I perceive this as being a serial situation. We wouldn't separate The War Games into separate pages, or most of the audio stories we cover. I think the interpretation of these needing separate pages would be stronger if they had individual titles. I'd say these are different than Magrs' other audio stories, because while this one does have a cast of two actors, it very much is in the format of an audio book, so it takes longer to get through plot for a variety of reasons. And also, at the end of the day, I just don't think it makes sense to make ten different story pages when one will do. It's largely the same characters across these episodes, and I think it'd be very cumbersome to cover this story on character pages if it were divided into ten tiny parts which would each get a couple sentences most. CoT ? 14:25, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- This is not simply narrated like an audiobook.
- This series is performed by two actresses - one playing Dodie and one playing Cassandra, and it is certainly similar to the other audio stories from Magrs (albeit with a smaller cast). There is a theme tune after the first few paragraphs or so (similar to New Who running the titles after setting up the story) and music is performed throughout. The actresses also do individual voices for all the characters.
- I can relieve your concerns about "ten tiny parts" as I have already completed three in word and they have plenty of plot information, references and continuity notes. There's also the individual synopsises created by Storytel for each release, which isn't done for individual chapters. RadMatter ☎ 14:33, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
The reason anyone on this wiki knows about this story in the first place was my discovery of it, and as it happens I also have a running draft of Mystery Lady (audio story) that I was planning on finalizing in the near future. In a sense, this has been, as I informed you when I told you about it... my turf. But that doesn't matter completely, I don't wanna be a jerk about that. I'm aware of all those things you describe, and they're all common to audio books. And, for serialized storytelling, it's not uncommon for episodes to have individual descriptions. It just doesn't make sense, from a readership or an informational standpoint to cover this in ten parts. This is a relatively obscure piece, and covering it as if it's some massive thing just gives it an incredibly different vibe than covering it as a single ten-part story. CoT ? 14:44, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- Of course, though, it's very neat to see you taking such an interest in this story! :) CoT ? 14:48, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- This story being covered in ten parts would be the same as if The Brenda and Effie Mysteries was commissioned for television and they did one book per series therefore stretching Never the Bride out for so many parts. There is no "series" (which Mystery Lady is described as repeatedly) if it was a single story.
- My point of view was always that this is a ten part audio story, which is important to note because of all the audio accoutrements we've discussed. And, as far as I'm concerned, there is no series -- that's just a quirk of the context. The fact that this was written as a novel points to this being a single story.
- For what it's worth, I think if they did make Brenda and Effie into a TV series there'd be a fair chance that the first series would only cover the first book. I also think they'd give episodes individual names. Never the Bride, while we're mentioning it, is a whole other story, because I think there's a real possibility that it could be covered as a short story anthology... but that's not here or there. I understand you've already put lots of work into making drafts for individual episodes, but I really do think that this is best covered in a single page, and that page could be great if we worked together. I literally was on the verge of creating the page this week. CoT ? 15:11, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- The view I have is that it is an audio series (which it is called in all its available places on Storytel) adapting Magrs' written "novel" that hasn't been published elsewhere. Each individual part is scheduled like an hour-long television episode - with an individual synopsis and a theme tune, and these are called episodes too. Not all television episodes are given individual names; take BBC's recent It's A Sin which was in five parts and (like here) only called "Episode 1", "Episode 2", etc. RadMatter ☎ 15:22, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- If this story is ever released as a physical novel I think that it should absolutely be covered on a single page, but the audio adaptation should be covered as individual parts as intended. RadMatter ☎ 15:24, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
In a way, this story is also simultaneously published as a novel, through the script which one may read instead of listening. The copyright section in it doesn't seem to place it as a novel or short story.
Looking around the Storytel website (which is, I think, not the best designed), I see that there's a variety in what the various parts of Mystery Lady are called. Looking at the actual titles of the episodes, they're not "Mystery Lady - Episode 1", they're "Mystery Lady S01E01". On browser, when you open up the section for individual episodes, there're a series of labels at the bottom (Genre, language, runtime), and the final one seems to be series, which says "Storytel Original: Mystery Lady: 1" (with the number at the end signifying which episode it is). When I go in the app, this same series label says "Part 1 of Storytel Original: Mystery Lady". I think the official and interchangeable use of the word "part" is telling. CoT ? 15:37, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- I'm glad you have brought that up as the individual parts of Baker's End and The Brenda and Effie Mysteries are listed in a similar fashion at the bottom of their pages; The King of Cats being Baker's End 1, The Woman in a Black Beehive being The Brenda and Effie Mysteries: 1, etc. RadMatter ☎ 15:48, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- Sorry, I didn't think to check. And besides, that's a different situation because those were made by Bafflegab (those are full cast stories, with lots of intent obvious at all angles that they are distinct stories; if you're saying that's evidence of the protocols of this streaming service, I'd imagine I could find a counter-example). It's funny, there's also lots of Big Finish Dr Who stories on Storytel, and speaking of those... I believe there are a fair few examples there that we can treat multi-part audio stories as a single story, even if they have opening credits (things like Blood of the Daleks even have separate physical releases between parts). CoT ? 15:57, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- I don't think that it is a different situation at all. Regardless of who produced the stories they are all listed on Storytel as individual releases with the exact same credentials. The only think that fails in the favour of Mystery Lady is the lack of individual names for each story (but who is to say Episode One, Episode Two, etc. can't be the titles?). RadMatter ☎ 16:03, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- Well for one, those 'titles' don't seem to be used anywhere, and if they are they it's only interchangeably. Storytel bought the rights to those Bafflegab audios, but they produced Mystery Lady themselves, so that's a whole world of difference in Storytel's authority over one or the other. Also, I think a lot more 'fails' for Mystery Lady because we have intention for it to be a single story. I get what you're gesturing at, but it might make sense to take a break from this discussion and come back with fresh brains and time to ponder a longer response, if its needed. I won't do anything on the wiki about this until the discussion's over. CoT ? 16:13, 16 February 2021 (UTC)