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I have to admit that I've
quite seen the point of scripts book. What are you supposed to do with
them - read along while watching the actual episodes? Get your mates
round and act them out?
Whatever you plan to do
with it, Pocket Books have released the twelve scripts to season one in two
volumes, but despite containing some quality scripts, I found the overall
package to be a bit of disappointment.
The "historian's
note" at the start informs us that these scripts are the original
shooting scripts, complete with typos. Some
of these are hilarious - such as the revelation about Buffy parrying Darla
with "marital acts precision". (Good job they opted for martial
arts precision for the final edit or the BBC would've had kittens!)
This also means that any
scenes or lines that were edited out of the final broadcast are included but
that anything that was added at the last minute isn't. Personally, I
would have liked to have had both, and for these additions and omissions to
have been highlighted. As it stands, some changes are obvious (such as
Jenny Calendar originally being called "Nicki"), but more minor
channels require either a good memory or for you to be watching the episodes
whilst reading the scripts.
Despite the overall quality
of the scripts and some of the directions, ultimately there's a feeling of
pointlessness about the whole thing. There's none of the sort of
background information that made Faber & Faber's Edge of Darkness
such a great companion to the TV series, and unlike, say, Titan's
(admittedly flawed) Doctor Who script books, it's not as though we
can't watch the episodes themselves. And when you consider that anyone
planning to collect the whole series in script format is looking at shelling
out over two hundred quid, that's an awful lot of cash just to be able to
read something that is much better watched on TV anyway.
Fox were well within their
rights to shut down websites offering transcriptions of Buffy
episodes, but it's just a shame that they didn't make sure that their
official releases offered greater value for money.
Some great scripts, but a
pair of below average script books.
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