thisbluespirit | Fake TV Show Meme

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Fake TV Show Meme

I'm taking part in this meme:

1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (Science fiction show, medical drama, criminal procedure, etc...)
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post to your own journal.

(If you haven't already surrendered, feel free to do so.)

In response to

jjpor's prompt: Our protagonist wakes up in a swanky hotel room with no recollection of who s/he is or how s/he got there. Oh, and there's a dead body they don't recognise in the en suite bathroom as well...

Well, this was either going to a one-off cliched thriller... or a too-weird-for-its-own-good ongoing series. Guess which I chose? I can totally see why people are now writing their own fan fic on

isurrendered... This entry proves my insanity beyond question.

***

ENIGMA HOUSE
8 hr long eps per series; BBC (probably by Kudos!) Quirky sf/supernatural drama; 2 seasons. A young woman wakes up in the Royal Clarence Hotel with no memory and a dead man in the bathroom, who seems to be the sanest person around. Centres around the quest for her identity - and the mystery behind some of the hotel's stranger guests and the location of the supposedly non-existent Room 151.

(I tried for realistic casting, I really did, but just ended up completely unrealistic and with a lot of former spooks...)

***

The Cast

Mary X/Jane Smith/Chloe Larcombe (Talulah Riley)

Wakes up in The Royal Clarence Hotel (somewhere on the SE coast) with no memory of anything that happened before. She finds she was signed in as 'Jane Smith' and says she might as well have used 'Mary X', which is how she's generally referred to, although some people call her Miss Smith. There's a possibility she's Mrs Larcombe's missing daughter, Chloe. She's got a briliant mind - for everything but long-term memory. She also finds her stay is being paid for by the elusive hotel proprietor, but more informative answers are hard to come by. Other people also see some of the weird events she witnesses in the hotel, but she's the only one who can actually talk to the dead man who keeps appearing in the bathroom ('Deadman'). She can't leave the hotel for too long without having some sort of relapse of her condition.

Mia Robinson (Sheridan Smith)

Mia's new to the hotel and though Bob (the porter) tries to wind her up with tales of hauntings, she doesn't believe any of it till she finds Mary and the dead body that vanishes. She's the one who calls in the police. Despite everything, she still hopes for a rational explanation and believes her social life and problems are the most important things around here. Nevertheless, as time goes on, she becomes Mary's closest friend - and likes to flirt with DS Jordan, though no one ever knows if she's serious.

DI Michael Harrison (Matthew Mcfadyen)

He turns up to investigate a murder that doesn't seem to have happened yet. He's suspicious of the set-up at the hotel, but while he doesn't believe in ghosts and vanishing bodies, he knows when something doesn't add up. He has an interest in the hotel owner McAllister. He thinks Mary looks familiar and is the one who points out her resemblance to missing person Chloe Larcombe, a case he investigated two years ago. He's gradually forced to accept the reality of some of the incidents, and is particularly concerned about Mary's connection to 'Deadman'.

'Deadman' (Raza Jaffrey)

One of the central mysteries around the show. 'Deadman' appears as a bloody corpse in several of the rooms at random, and seems to be able to communicate with Mary. He's tells her that Room 151 has the key. He's seen in the town on occasion, in the crowd, apparently alive, but can never be tracked down. The culmination of the two seasons centres around his actual murder.

DS Robert Jordan (Wil Johnson)

Works for Harrison. He's heard rumours about the hotel and once saw a ghost when he sneaked in for a dare as a teenager (so he claims), and is readier to believe some of the stories than his DI. However, he says the scariest thing by far at the Royal Clarence is definitely Mia.

Bob (Sanjeev Bhaskar)

The genial porter who teases Mia and helps Mary out where he can. Nevertheless, he seems to know much more than anything else about what's going on and Mary finds there are times when he can seem to be a sinister figure.

Mrs Margaret Howell (Gemma Jones)

One of the more regular guests. On the face of it, an elderly lady who seems oblivious to any oddness, but the revelation of her backstory provides one of the more striking episodes. She becomes an unofficial ally of DI Harrison - eyes and ears in the hotel for him.

Mrs Adele Larcombe (Addy) (Sophie Thompson)

The mother of missing person, Chloe Larcombe, she is insistent that Mary is her daughter. Harrison is inclined to agree with her to begin with, but as time goes on, he feels that too many things about Addy Larcombe don't add up and that she is fact has her own reasons for making the claim - and a connection to McAllister.

McAllister (Robert Glenister)

The wealthy owner of the Royal Clarence. He appears only briefly and apparantly regards any tales of hauntings as nonsense, but he's paid for Mary's stay, Harrison is sure he has high-level criminal connections and he also knows Addy Larcombe, but he never slips up - until the end.

With various guest stars (as both regular and supernatural hotel guests) and other supporting characters, particularly other staff and members of the police force.

***

Pilot Episode: The Morning After

Mia (on meeting Mary): It's going to be one of those mornings, isn't it?

Other guest: Excuse me, but I'd like to complain about the lack of soap in my bathroom!
Mary (to Mia): Can I swap with him, please?

Mary (to Deadman): Are you talking to me?
Deadman: 'Course not. I'm dead. It's one of those things you can't do when you're a corpse, like - well - pretty much everything when you come down to it.
Mary: But I'm hearing you. Or going mad. That's definitely a possibility today.
Deadman: Oh, I can communicate with you. Which means you must be one messed up person. Not a good day for either of us, then.
Mary: No. I suppose it could have been worse.
Deadman: Really?
Mary: Well... I... we both have our clothes?
Deadman: No, I'm not finding that much of a comfort.
Mary: I am.

Mia (to Mary): Room 151? Don't you get how the numbers work? It's 1 for the first floor, then the room numbers, like 07, 21 and all that. You've been wandering around here all day and you haven't worked out we don't have more than 25 rooms to a floor?"

(In reference to the pilot, the final episode was titled 'The Day Before').

***

Reviews were generally scathing, but it proved popular enough to return for a second series. Not all of the show's mysteries were explained. (There was a rumour on the internet that S3 would have revealed everything to be down to aliens and Mary a cloned replacement of Chloe Larcombe, but that was a hoax by fans.)

***

I'm not sure why I ended up having Raza murdered horribly again (sorry), but the corpse took on a life of its own, as it were...

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*is giggling but TOTALLY in awe*

Although I'm pretty unhappy with you for killing off Raza! I thought you LIKED him!?! *pouts*

Well, whether or not the murder that they've been seeing throughout actually finally happens and how is another question. I'm not totally sure about that. That it's Raza raises the possibility in the hypothetical viewer's mind that it might somehow not. Or something like that.

And I do like Raza Jaffrey! It's just that Deadman sort of turned into him and given that it was fantasy casting, I had to have him. :lol:

He is glimpsed alive at various points throughout... (it's better than Spooks S6!)

Hmm, okay. I'll let you off - I guess! :D

I would totally watch this, though! In the meantime, feel free to start writing fic! :D

Heh, good! :-)

But first I have to do yours, which sounds even more fun. It's a good thing I wasn't sane to start with is all I can say...

*giggles* Sanity is WAY over-rated!! :D

Sorry, what was that? I'm working on an episode guide... :lol:

*cackles*

WAIT, wait. Raza Jaffrey is going to be dead in this as well. Awww. OTOH, nice pic of him btw.

Too weird for its own good sounds shiny. I want to watch this!

I don't know what happened there! At least he's in it... Yes, Google images came up trumps!

Thanks. I'm a little sad it doesn't really exist now. :-D

I love this, although I think the lack of answers would annoy me :) I love your dialogue and your Spook casting.

Heh, thanks! I think the main mysteries were answered, but I liked the idea of a lot of irate fans writing fic to make up for the loose ends... Am I evil? :lol:

I commented on the other post, on the comm, but I'd just add that I hope they got wind well in advance that the second series would be the last and managed to bring it to a semi-satisfying conclusion, because never knowing what it all meant...that'd be a bit hard to take after you'd stuck with it through all the bad reviews etc. :D

Heh, yes. Actually, it came to a circular ending, but perhaps not all the loose ends were tied up as they hoped to continue slightly differently with a third series. But it all came full circle to Mary's amnesia and the murder of Deadman.

(Beyond that I'm still trying to decide on the answers myself...) :lol:

*runs off to look at other post*

Heheh - one of the ones I'm working on is a bit like that...it's a strange US mystery show along the lines of Lost or something (not that I've ever watched Lost), but US telly being what it is, it got cancelled part-way through the first season, so fans still debate to this day what it all meant, and whether or not the creators were just making up the big "mystery" arc as they went along... ;D

And is the creator just making it up as he goes along, then? (And erm... how many have you collected?!)

I have two. I think I may end up liking these characters the best, but the premise of the other is just great. :-D

here from

isurrendered This is such a great premise for a show. I totally ship Bob/Mia and Margaret seems really cool.

I surrender!

Heh, thanks! (Um, is that you shipping Robert/Mia and my fault for calling two characters in a small cast Bob and Robert, or did you feel drawn to give me my first weird fandom ship of Bob the Porter/Mia? Either way is very cool! :lol:)

Okay, here's your prompt: There's an alien invasion/crash landing in Regency England. Take it any way you want - comedy ensues, forbidden alien/human romance, gritty resitance drama, or just plain scary. The aliens may look almost exactly like humans, or may be big and ugly enough to mess up the timeline, whichever you prefer!

(Yes, I did just sneak over to your LJ peek at what your interests were... Yay, another DW fan!) :lol:

Oh I totally meant Bob the Porter. Though I can see how that would cause a bunch of confusion.

That's such a great prompt. Want to be friends?

That's just brilliantly weird.

And, yes, I think we should be! :-D

ZAAAAAAAAAAF!

This is fabulous amazing wonderful. I want fic immediately. Matthew McFadyen would make such a good DSI, and I don't know Talulah Riley or Wil Johnson (at least not by name; faces are familiar) but I very much want to meet their characters!

And Gemma Jones! And Sanjeev Bhaskar! *flails* I can totally see why this is such an attractive/addictive meme.

No really. Fic, immediately. Or I will be tempted to build on your pilot dialogue.

I know. (And when I extended my icon no, I got to use one of your lovely Zaf ones I snaffled an age ago! Yay.)

I don't actually know Wil Jordan, but I did a casting directorly hunt on Google and he seemed the right sort of actor for the job! Talulah Riley was in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice film as Mary, also as Megan in ITV's latest version of Miss Marple The Moving Finger. And she was Miss Evangelista in DW. I think she would be both quirky, young, and pretty enough to pull it off. (I'm rather impressed by my casting abilities now, because I thought I didn't have any. I fail totally at those 'cast your favourite book' type things...). :lol:

Matthew was an Inspector in a recent Miss Marple. He did do it rather well, and got pretty much eaten alive by the new, scary Miss Marple.

Heh, well, I KNOW Gemma could pull off everything I want her character to be. I thought people might think it was weird to have Sanjeev Bhaskar, but I reckon he could do the comic relief and yet sometimes come across as sinister. *nods* Yes, this is addictive - and I have another show to do yet. I'd better try and not surrender when everyone else does their prompts, but it will be tempting!

Are you saying if I don't write fic, you'll be the first (and likely only) to write some sort of fan fic for my non-existent show,because, frankly, that's an incentive not to write?!!! :-D

On the other hand, I am working on an episode guide... (Farewell sanity, but who cares?)

Edited 2010-02-16 07:20 (UTC)

Oh Miss Evangelista, of course! Knew she was familiar.

Um, yes I think I am saying that? Oops. Of course I would much, much prefer for you to write the fic, but I am still tempted. Whoever came up with this meme is a genius, actually. It's original fic but in the form of fandom, without having to worry about integrating scene, backstory, character descriptions etc into the prose. Genius!

(And true story, I grin like a crazy person whenever I see someone using an icon I made, so yay.)

Heh. I think the genius isn't so much whoever came up with the meme as who realised the potential it had and formed the

isurrendered comm to give everyone the excuse to go into this detail, write fan fic and - can you believe this? - reaction posts to the latest episodes of said non-existent meme-born TV shows. I'm definitely in awe.

:-D

I think I'd watch this. And then write crossover fanfic. With The Prisoner, for some reason.

Okay... Thanks. :-)

I'm afraid so. I'll try to resist the plotbunnies, but from your summary I think the mindscrews might slot together quite well.

Well, I've now posted the supporting cast and episode guide, so you can confirm or refute your theory. :-D (I can't comment because I've never seen any of the Prisoner).

I think it could be made to work. I shall try not to do so.

Well, it's not like I'm going to mind if you did. I would be very, very amused. :lol:

Well, here's a fragment. It should require no more Prisoner knowledge than what you see in the opening titles.

Mia didn't feel up to moving yet, but she could, at least, look around. Nothing seemed out of place: the chest of drawers, the dressing table, the bedside lamp, the door to the bathroom, the pictures on the walls. The room she'd woken up in was one of the first-floor bedrooms at the Royal Clarence Hotel.

As the pounding in her head and the fuzziness in front of her eyes slowly diminished, a nightmarish thought jumped into her head. She forced herself off the bed. Her legs buckled under her, but she managed to crawl to the dressing table and drag herself up in front of the mirror. At the sight of her face, she sighed with relief.

All right, she'd woken up in a hotel room with no memory of how she'd got there. But she was still herself. She might be living Mary's life, but she hadn't actually turned into Mary.

She let herself slide to the floor, stared across the room at the bathroom door, and wondered if there'd be dead body in the bath for her as well.

"You haven't seen Mia, have you?" Mary asked.

Bob shook his head. "I was wondering if I should ask you the same question, miss. No-one seems to know where she is."

"You don't think she's just feeling a bit under the weather?"

"If she couldn't get here, she'd call in. The sort of things that happen round here, you learn not to leave anything to chance."

"No." Mary shivered. She resolved to see if any of the hotel's supernatural residents were visible, and if they had anything useful to say. If not, it would have to be DI Harrison.

On the plus side, Mia could now walk. That meant she'd been able to check the bathroom, and found that the bath was completely free of dead bodies. On the minus side, the moment she'd looked out of the window she'd realised that she was a long way from home. She'd never seen brightly-coloured Italianate buildings like these before, and she was positive there were no cobbled streets anywhere near where she lived. Through a gap between two of the buildings, she glimpsed a flat area of grass, by the look of it a bowling green.

As far as she could see, there were three possibilities. Either the window had suddenly become a portal to somewhere else, or the whole hotel had been transported to somewhere else, or somebody had gone to a lot of time and trouble to build an elaborate replica of this room, and kidnapped her to go with it. Somehow, despite that last one not involving any supernatural elements, it seemed to be the least likely of the three.

The telephone rang. As she turned to pick it up, she realised that it didn't match. Rather than the dull, beige plastic things she was used to, this was black, somehow managing to look futuristic and outdated at the same time. A simple white label with red digits gave the number: "51".

She picked up the receiver.

:-D

I love it - very funny! (And those opening credits may be the longest I've seen in anything.) Mia's matter-of-fact acceptance of the weirdness (and checking for dead bodies etc.) is great.

It's so odd (in a good way) to have someone else write the characters - make it feel as though it could actually be real. :-)

I thought Mia would probably have worked out roughly the sorts of things you could and couldn't expect in the Royal Clarence Hotel. But once she's convinced she isn't in the hotel any more, well...

Trying to write the characters without having seen them in action was a strange experience. It felt rather like walking on ice and hoping I didn't fall through :-)

I can imagine! I realised, reading it, I hadn't even properly worked out how Bob speaks... (I decided you had him about right. I debated over the 'miss', but since I hadn't bothered to write him any dialogue yet, I was at a loss. *cough*) And my summaries don't give an awful lot away, either.

So, do I need to write actual Enigma House episodes in order for you to continue your crossover, then? :lol:

You know my views on making promises I can't keep. You might end up writing episodes and getting nothing in return :-)

Well, as I currently owe you an X-Files crossover anyway... I'm sure it would all even out along the line.

I mean, I have fic. Some of it will get typed up. I hate wasting scribbled scraps of paper. :-D

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Fake TV Show Meme

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