The Reign of Terror also got the same treatment (just released in the US yesterday!).
Oh, that's right! I will definitely check that out. Thanks for the reminder.
BBC Worldwide says that if The Reign of Terror sells well enough, they will complete the other stories that have only 1 or 2 missing episodes:The Crusade (William Hartnell historical)
The Tenth Planet (William Hartnell's last episode, debut of the Cybermen)
The Underwater Menace (Patrick Troughton)
The Moonbase (Patrick Troughton)
The Ice Warriors* (Patrick Troughton)
I REALLY hope they put out the Crusade and the Tenth Planet. The former's got some great stuff for Ian and Barbara, the latter... is just historic in so many ways.
The 1996 TV movie was almost an American remake of DOCTOR WHO, and from that you can see why it was a bad idea.
Given the show periodically reboots itself with whole new casts and production teams, most of the impetus for a reboot/remake is missing in the first place. You can just keep going, with only tangential continuity references outside the current Doctor's era (for example, how most of the Davies/Ecclestone/Tennant cast of supporting characters promptly vanished at the end of that era and has not reappeared in the Moffat/Smith era, which has its own supporting cast and ongoing storylines).
If there was a big-budget DOCTOR WHO movie, there might be a more convincing reason for a revamp/relaunch then, and even then you could still set it in the same continuity (I've often thought a DOCTOR WHO: YEAR ONE could be an interesting idea).
Frankly, of all of the one- or two-episode candidates for animation they had, The Reign of Terror is the least interesting. Though you do get to see the Doctor beat a French guy into unconsciousness with a shovel.
The BBC have now announced that "The Tenth Planet" will be released on DVD later this year with its missing last episode animated.
Frankly, of all of the one- or two-episode candidates for animation they had, The Reign of Terror is the least interesting. Though you do get to see the Doctor beat a French guy into unconsciousness with a shovel.
The Dalek's Masterplan needs restoration. I read the synopsis and it sounded like it was awesome.
No Reboot!!!
Really the fact that it's been the same continuity (more or less) for Fifty years is one of the things that make it so incredibly AWESOME!!!
How many... things can actually say that?? Just to ditch it all and start all over... major pass.
I could go that. Animated Doctor Who Remake of all the Story Arcs as Films.
They have two animated Who movies out.... They both suck.
Dreamland is actually a pretty awesome story, and the dialoge is fun. The animation however on both were terrible. If THAT'S the kind of stuff they are producing... I'd rather no animated Who ever again!!!
My favorite DW joke from a con-panel discussion on how companions interact with each other:
Q: "What's your favorite pair of companions?"
A: "Peri."
Peter Davison likes to recount the story of how he rehearsed his Doctor's final speech before he regenerated in great depth, in more detail than anything else he'd done in the show. He poured his all into the scene, only to later realise that the director had blocked Nicola Bryant (who played Peri) in such a way and in a costume that meant no-one at all was paying Davison's acting any attention whatsoever.
Joking aside, that story - THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI - for me was the last truly great, hands-down classic DOCTOR WHO story. Some of the new stuff has come close - 'Blink', 'The Doctor's Wife' and the final moments of 'Utopia' most notably - but nothing's really matched it so far. It was pretty dark and bleak, but well worth a look.
My sister and one of our friends are currently working our way through all the original episodes. And when I say all, I mean ALL. Every episode—as Vic said—was recorded, and although some of the recordings are so-so most are very good. The episodes with recordings only have been pasted together with photos and surving film bits from the episodes. Some—like Marco Polo—are extremely well done. Others...let's just say that the Yeti and the Great Intelligence episodes of the Troughton years are the worst of the lot (What is the white blob on the screen? Is that a yeti, or someone's elbow?). Which is a real shame since they've just brought the Great Intelligence back as a villain! Animating these would be amazing. I can say that the Dalek Master Plan is impressive, both in it's size and scope. It also has the first companion deaths of the series!
I've been doing that, slowly, for years now. Though I skipped over the reconstructed episodes or audio only episodes.
There have been times (like the initial Yeti story) where I wished we had done that. But we pushed through and persevered, and I am glad we did as the stories for many of them were really quite good. You can see the change in Hartnell's Doctor from curmudgeonly old bastard to caring champion. In many ways the companions are the ones who shape him, something that you don't really get in the later years but the series seems to be returning to in the modern era.
Chief Technical Officer
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Peter Davison likes to recount the story of how he rehearsed his Doctor's final speech before he regenerated in great depth, in more detail than anything else he'd done in the show. He poured his all into the scene, only to later realise that the director had blocked Nicola Bryant (who played Peri) in such a way and in a costume that meant no-one at all was paying Davison's acting any attention whatsoever.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Frankly, of all of the one- or two-episode candidates for animation they had, The Reign of Terror is the least interesting. Though you do get to see the Doctor beat a French guy into unconsciousness with a shovel.The Dalek's Masterplan needs restoration. I read the synopsis and it sounded like it was awesome.
At this time, they're only considering stories with no more than 2 missing episodes; The Daleks' Master Plan is missing 9 of its 12 episodes, which makes it the single most costly reconstruction project there is to tackle.
(Also, judging it by the soundtrack and the surviving stills, Episode 7 was, in my opinion, probably the single worst Doctor Who episode ever made. Episode 12 seems like it would be a classic, though.)
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My sister and one of our friends are currently working our way through all the original episodes. And when I say all, I mean ALL.
Would this site be worth a laugh?
See if you agree with the reviews.
Do they have the scripts for all of the lost episodes (and possibly some still shots, etc.) in addition to the audio recordings?
I'd like to see a series of one-shot Doctor Who stories done as short animated shows (similar to Clone Wars) that where possible feature voice acting by the original Doctor actors and companions. They could fill in gaps between existing episodes or be animated versions of comics or novels that already exist. For me, stories featuring the 8th Doctor would be most rewarding given how little screen time he had.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Do they have the scripts for all of the lost episodes (and possibly some still shots, etc.) in addition to the audio recordings?
I believe that scripts exist for all of them, and many of them also have telesnaps—essentially, regular photographs of the screen taken with a special setup during the original broadcast. The BBC have used many of the telesnaps to create Photonovels of many missing episodes for bbc.com. There are also surviving publicity photos taken during the filming of many episodes that show sets, costumes, props, and such.
I'd like to see a series of one-shot Doctor Who stories done as short animated shows (similar to Clone Wars) that where possible feature voice acting by the original Doctor actors and companions. They could fill in gaps between existing episodes or be animated versions of comics or novels that already exist. For me, stories featuring the 8th Doctor would be most rewarding given how little screen time he had.
Before the show returned in 2005, the BBC did commission a few animated webcasts, including a remake of Shada as a Paul McGann story and a new Colin Baker cyberman story called Real Time. They were also contemplating a run of webcasts with a new Doctor played by Richard E. Grant, and completed one story—Scream of the Shalka—but the return of the new series pretty much killed the concept. (Shalka is coming out on DVD later this year.)
If you want more McGann, and voice acting from the other doctors, you should check out the Big Finish audio dramas!
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Chief Technical Officer
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I thought I heard somewhere that they had all the audio tracks from the lost episodes, too. Between that and the telesnaps and animation-reconstruction, it shouldn't be impossible to rebuild a lot of the missing stuff.
Yes, there are soundtrack recordings of every missing episode. The BBC has released them all on CD with narrators describing what's happening on screen. (They're also in circulation without that narration.)
The fan community has already made multiple reconstructions of every missing episode. Not surprisingly, quality varies wildly (the three dozen or so episodes that don't have telesnaps are particularly challenging).
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Chief Technical Officer
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Would this site be worth a laugh?
See if you agree with the reviews.
I can't believe that had escaped my notice! I often don't agree with her conclusions, but it's hilarious.
I can't believe that had escaped my notice! I often don't agree with her conclusions, but it's hilarious.Would this site be worth a laugh?
See if you agree with the reviews.
I tried to give it a go, but the way the writer is so condescending about his wife's (lack of) knowledge about Doctor Who (and is just so condescending to his wife in general) and generally how everything at the start is so negative, there's no joy or interest in keeping going.
(Mind, she's obviously not a very intelligent person, given how she doesn't ever seem to understand what's happening in episodes that go on at a glacial pace and were designed for children, so I can understand the urge to be condescending to her, but it's still an attitude unpleasant to observe in a spouse's depiction of his (or hypothetically her) partner.)
Contributor
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I can't believe that had escaped my notice! I often don't agree with her conclusions, but it's hilarious.Would this site be worth a laugh?
See if you agree with the reviews.
I tried to give it a go, but the way the writer is so condescending about his wife's (lack of) knowledge about Doctor Who (and is just so condescending to his wife in general) and generally how everything at the start is so negative, there's no joy or interest in keeping going.
(Mind, she's obviously not a very intelligent person, given how she doesn't ever seem to understand what's happening in episodes that go on at a glacial pace and were designed for children, so I can understand the urge to be condescending to her, but it's still an attitude unpleasant to observe in a spouse's depiction of his (or hypothetically her) partner.)
Well, she takes a stronger role later on, and definitely catches up on the "lore." But the early episodes are pretty hard to watch and I remember getting confused myself a few times (or falling asleep), and I'm moderately intelligent. I think the condescension is mostly from a fan to non-fan, not a gender thing per se. Certainly she makes good points about the dogma of Who fandom re certain episodes. Also, I think they are drunk when they watch a few of the shows...
But maybe I'm too much of a Whovian to see this. I've certainly Whosplained a few times to casual watchers.|
Chief Technical Officer
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...Mind, she's obviously not a very intelligent person...
I think she lacks the context for what she's seeing that most modern viewers have, especially early on, but I don't think it's safe to equate that with lack of intelligence.
Actually, one of the comments that amused me the most so far was an observation in the second story which shows how quickly she caught on to how things worked back in the day:
"We’re going to watch every single person jump across this bloody thing, aren’t we? And each one will take forever. Am I right? I’m right, aren’t I?"
I'm also really impressed that she's usually able to spot which episodes were directed by Douglas Camfield without seeing the credits.
Fair point about her ability to observe the tropes, Vic. I think I get impatient with anyone who wants everything explained to them. Why is the clock melting? Why are people acting funny? Then wait and see what happens, and you'll probably find out. I watch a lot of shows with someone who always wants to know why things are happening and what is GOING to happen before giving the show a chance to reveal everything properly in its own time, and it drives me absolutely crazy, so I admit I might be coming at this from a too-personal perspective. Now that I've taken some distance from reading these, I've realized some of what irks me is related to personal experiences where similar viewers drove me crazy, and in fairness it's to do more with viewing style and preferences than intelligence.
Otherwise I just don't take well to the tone the recaps are written in.
I think the condescension is mostly from a fan to non-fan, not a gender thing per se.
Where did I say it was a gender thing? As I said
it's still an attitude unpleasant to observe in a spouse's depiction of his (or hypothetically her) partner.)
Note the intentional use of non-gendered language. If it was a Whovian wife writing about her non-sci-fi fan husband (or a male writing about a male partner or a female writing about a female partner), I would feel the same. It makes me sad to see partners speak of each other with disrespect, and I'm not going to read something that makes me sad when that isn't the intent/point of the piece.
As a MASSIVE, ridiculously massive Whovian with more knowledge of Dr Who tucked into my little brain than any brain should hold, I try to remember a lot of people are experiencing the series for the first time, and being impatient for them not having taken the 25 years it's taken me to learn what I've learned generally does not help anything, let alone earn me a fellow fan.
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Doctor Who article at LA Review of Books
I loved Doctor Who as a kid, watching Tom Baker in particular, because stuffy bullies got their come uppance from the strange, smart guy. And the humanism.
DQ, sorry for misreading your post. Fan condescension is not nice, whatever the genders/relationships involved. There is a certain gendering in that website, if only because the narrator is male and posits DW culture as a male-dominated fan activity (like RPGs, I think, today). This doesn't seem as true anymore, since Doctor 9 and 10 and 11. That's a good thing. The New Who isn't owned by the fans so much. Less set in stone, and it can't be claimed that this or that is true and the right explanation, because we don't know know what's going to happen.
My fan response to the blog is: I wish she was the one writing, and - I miss watching things for the first time, in order, without spoilers.
What's interesting is that it wasn't so much gender imbalanced among the kids, if this blog and other evidence is true. I was introduced to it by my Auntie, and I watched it with her daughter along with her sons.
She's intelligent enough (snip)
See my post right above yours. After getting some distance, I realize it's not a matter of intelligence but viewing styles/preferences/point of view/interpretation.
She's also observant enough to pick up that Hartnell ISN"T the lead character in those early stories, Ian Chesterson is.
You're wrong. The protagonist is so very Barbara. The show is all about Barbara, she is the best, most amazing, and she is the only one who is important. This is fact, I know because of my learnings, and I am a better Doctor Who fan than you. Also, she ran over a Dalek with a f*$#ing truck! ()
However, yes, the Doctor was not originally the hero of the story--he was the catalyst for things happening, but he was not the protagonist. In more rational terms, the heroes, the leads are Ian and Barbara, they are ordinary human beings and we, ordinary human beings, are traveling with them as they discover how to deal with this alien man who has kidnapped them (in a way, he's actually the series' original antagonist), and his granddaughter, who is an object the humans wish to protect.
What is in a way delightful about the early stories is seeing the journey of the Doctor where he goes from giggling anti-heroic plot device to an actual character who eventually actually does become the protagonist (but only because his original human companions make him realize what a jerk he's being. See also: Barbara). This also became necessary because when other actors left, they wanted to keep making the show, so the Doctor became the only consistent regular character on the show, so he kind of HAD to become the main character.
One thing I've admired about the new series is they have done a much more consistent job about making the role of the companion important, as important as the Doctor--even if he is now and forever the hero, the character who travels with him is still essential to the series and, just like Ian and Barbara, helps in turn shape the Doctor's heroics and show him how to be a better person. It's not to say the companions hit a point where they weren't important, but they were written/treated with varying degrees of respect (sometimes inconsistently even within a same season). I feel like the companions' role is properly re-elevated in the new series, and I like that.
My fan response to the blog is: I wish she was the one writing, and - I miss watching things for the first time, in order, without spoilers.
That I can definitely agree with!
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Chief Technical Officer
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I think I get impatient with anyone who wants everything explained to them. Why is the clock melting? Why are people acting funny? Then wait and see what happens, and you'll probably find out.
I have noticed that when she's engrossed in a story, she does that a lot less. She may just doing it because it's kind of the whole point of the "experiment"—if she kept those thoughts to herself, the blog wouldn't have nearly as much value to me as a reader.
I think I get impatient with anyone who wants everything explained to them. Why is the clock melting? Why are people acting funny? Then wait and see what happens, and you'll probably find out.I have noticed that when she's engrossed in a story, she does that a lot less. She may just doing it because it's kind of the whole point of the "experiment"—if she kept those thoughts to herself, the blog wouldn't have nearly as much value to me as a reader.
I think it has to do with how the thoughts are expressed--obviously you have to react. And her thoughts are also being filtered through her husband's presentation.
As Jeff says above, it would be nice if she was blogging it herself.