Dr Who: the return!

Queer As Who?

Contrary to recent reports, I have little time for Dr Who. However I am possibly slightly too excited about receiving my Prisoner Cell Block H dvd from Amazon this morning.

Alf, when he was on PCBH, was my favourite TV character evah. I loved the way he wore his shades indoors and we could see his cigarette smoke reflected in them. Along with the camera crew.

BUT

i think my black friend psyche shd play the new doctor cz
i. she is funny and sexy and it wd be a brilliant, and
ii !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WD BE BRILLIANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ilx write-in campaign NOW!!

I was wondering about this as well, the Tardis quite categorically never flew.

Best Prisoner inmates were of course the token Pommie tart Chrissie Latham, gorgeous Noeline Burke, devious "Dr. Death" Kate Peterson and Wentworth's very own serial murderess Bev "Relax, I'm a trained nurse" Baker.

I believe that there's been two DVD boxed sets (12 episodes on each) released in Australia with a third on the way. I'd like to see the whole lot released, with the DVD boxes perhaps forming one (wobbly) brick wall.

Let's not forget Joan "The Freak" Ferguson and her black gloves, every bit as iconic as Tom Baker and his floppy hat and long scarf. "This prison is my domain!"

The DW ref on teachers the other day didn't go deep enough. Simon said that Matt was like him regenerated, at which Matt bridled "Are you saying I'm like Sylvester McCoy?" -- this of course is not such an insult when you realise that the flip to this is that Simon is likening himself to Colin Baker. ew.

It should be called The Second Coming Of Dr Who. I'll be quite excited to see it, just because it's being written by Davies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/tardiscam/images/street.jpg
http://www.ashleighhotel.co.uk/drwho/tombaker.JPG
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/SciFi/DrWho/tardis.gif
http://www.timelash.com/tardis/images/bbc10-med.jpg
http://www.scificollector.stamp-centre.co.uk/scifishop/doctorwho/images/infopics/C_leela.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~qstnmark/seedsdth/seedmess.jpg

I am actually scared this will happen now. God help us. The overwhelming presence of fandom in the current stock of BBC people-who-can and in current telly writers is unnerving. Maybe the choice is recommission DW or do more Randall and Hopkirk.

Quick, a list of British-made telefantasy made in the last 10 years.

Matt on one occasion I hid upstairs at the start of an episode because the previous cliffhanger was so frightening.

xpost: didn't the writers set a limit, at one point, on the number of regenerations a Time Lord can have? How long before The Doctor runs out?

The only British fantasy series I can think of from the 90s was Neverwhere. This is just me having a crap memory, though.

I, like many people, had a sofa which was pushed against the wall as a child. To hide behind would have meant being wafer thin.

Let the Joanna Lumley rumour start HERE.

"Remembrance Of The Daleks", 7th/Ace, I think episode 2 cliffhanger.

Ice Warriors is also meant to be out this year with episodes animated, but not by Australian teenagers

also Web is planned for Feb release, not six weeks away

Ice Warriors is out already.

Is that Web release date confirmed anywhere? Omnirumour had it available at the Nov 50 years expo, and in retail the Monday after.

(These might be R1/R2/R4 issues, obv)

Next big question, and reveal, would be MMM.

Apologies, now I am pre-ordering I see that Enemy is next month and Web is indeed Feb. No worries.

I've got no justification for finding this exciting when there are so many other 1st/2nd stories I already own and haven't got around to watching yet, but I've bought these anyway.

Anyone else going to be at the 50th expo btw? I'm there on the Sunday.

BBC Worldwide has re-mastered these episodes to restore them to the fantastic quality that audiences expect from Doctor Who.

dying here

I parsed that as them having gone through the full RT process - VidFIRE etc.

Are they going to reconstruct any more stories animated in Flash again? How many lost stories do we have decent audio for?

― Your Own Personal El Guapo (kingfish), Friday, October 11, 2013 1:21 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I watched pretty much all of Dr Who through in around 2009, 2010 and as far as I can remember pretty much everything did survive in audio. This lead to the video files I'd downloaded consisting of surviving stills from the relevant episodes being shown over soundtrack. So I had been thinking at the time that that would be a good way to go. Animation over sound. So glad to see it was done, not sure if it had already been done in some cases at the time.
I think the resource I was looking at for information on the series at the time is gone which is a shame since it was very useful. Had reviews by readers/watchers of the individual stories etc etc.
Think it was called something Gallifrey.

The BBC have officially released the lost episode audio recordings on a series of CD box sets:

http://www.bbcshop.com/doctor-who-the-lost-tv-episodes-collection-1-1964-1965/invt/9781408467510

Seems a major coincidence that one of the 2 stories was brought up recently when Clara was introduced in Victorian London battling the same enemy.
Not sure how many stories are missing but pretty handy that one appears.

I guess it's my own fault listening to rumours, but not having the patience to google 'Dr Who Forum' - because there must be a ton -

I can't help feeling a little ticked by the idea that there still might be a bunch of EPs that may or may not be in the possession of the Beeb, and they are holding back for the Anniv, just TELL ME IF YOU HAVE THEM OR NOT

Is there any reason to think that beyond hearsay though?

The main reason is that it's acknowledged by all parties, even the Episode Hunter, that he brought back four tons of film - the shipping notes have been semi-public. Accordingly if ANY of it was true (as it turned out to be) then it may well all be true.

The most speculated version of events is that he is selling what BBCWW are prepared to pay for. Crucially, this is not the BBC buying them, it's a commercial For Profit arm. Accordingly they don't have the budget to just spend, they need to get a return on what they shell out - I would guess they need iTunes and DVD sales to fund the next batch.

The Episode Hunter wants to sell them, as he can't produce the DVDs or downloads himself because of licensing. The BBC are prepared to let BBCWW/2E have the licence for free though.

Ah ok, thanks. Interesting.

So if that's true, the BBCWW are essentially testing the waters with these to see how well they can expect the others to sell (I imagine they'll do extremely well).

Though they'll have to admit they've been deceptive at some point, which seems a little odd.

I guess this means that none of the missing dalek or cybermen stories have been found, as I'm guessing they'd be more lucrative releases with which to begin this series.

I dunno, I think they're thinking -- rightly -- that the main selling point is the Doctor himself.

Is there any reason to think that beyond hearsay though?

No you're quite right, but dammit, I wanna see Fury From The Deep real bad.

I dunno, I think they're thinking -- rightly -- that the main selling point is the Doctor himself.

If there are others found, you don't think that releasing Web in the same year as Snowmen and Name is a deliberate, considerate, and sensible move?

chap - less "being deceptive", more "not announcing confidential business negotiations to the public at every step," I'd say.

Also from a sales perspective it must be better to release less anticipated stuff up front, to capitalise on the initial excitement, then bring out the big guns later because they're more likely to sell under their own steam. I'm sure Enemy of the World is selling much better now than it would've if it had been the 5th or 6th story to pop up, after a bunch of dalek eps or whatever.

Morris must know these are worth more this year than they will be next though, purely because of the anniversary. And the BBCWW must know that too. So maybe it's in their interests to draw things out and just take a couple off him until after November.

for a brief moment time travel IS possible

I'd guess from pretty much any of the haul these might be the two most obvious fan favourites. Web has always been very highly regarded and Enemy is well thought of as an acting highlight with Troughton playing against himself fully (unlike the Hartnells where he's just mistaken for people that we see separately - although if the Massacre turns up as speculated then we'll get to see that too).

Evil of the Daleks is a bit of a clunker imo, but Power is good and has the first regeneration scene so you'"do think might have been one of the first announced. For a variety of reasons it's 99.9999% likely Daleks Masterplan will never be recovered, not least as Feast of Steven was never knowingly shown outside of theUK.

There is only one Cybermen candidate - Wheel In Space and it's really not much cop. Of the partially complete, Invasion has been released with animation, Tenth Planet comes out this weekend with animation and Moonbase comes out in January (supposedly with animation but nobody has seen any of it and there's speculation we might all get a surprise when it comes out).

Quality and fan reputation notwithstanding though, if there are stories with a bigger mainstream appeal still to come I can imagine this might be why those aren't first out of the gate.

The other story I've fantasized about seeing since I was young is The Celestial Toymaker

Oh me too!

So I bought Web Of Fear, imma watch it tonight, excited

Web follows directly on from Enemy if you don't know (and haven't watched ep 1 in the past)

"The other story I've fantasized about seeing since I was young is The Celestial Toymaker"

yeah I've always wanted to see that.

XP - Sic, I did not know that but found out pretty fast of course. Still it didn't diminish my enjoyment of WOF, lots of fun. Fantastic overacting from the Welsh soldier in particular, eyes bulging out of his head Frank Spencer style every second of screen time.

Even the tiresome 'everybody gets separated and spends acres of time trying to locate each other' format failed to spoil the sense of occasion.

trailer is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hRy2N2CMhQ

http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/article/11-things-we-loved-in-the-doctor-who-50-year-trailer

rong thread

Bought The Moonbase today and it has a coming soon trailer for The Underwater Menace, no mention of any fill-in animation though, did I miss something?

No, the animation is currently not going ahead as (allegedly) 2|E pay less than going commercial rates and the company doing it have put it on the back burner in favour of paying work. The company have confirmed it has been put back in their queue.

It will still probably come out this year, and the rumoured Feb lost episodes announcement might have a bearing on it.

Ah well thanks for the info, meanwhile.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DR-DOCTOR-WHO-VERY-RARE-ORIGINAL-KATY-MANNING-GIRL-ILLUSTRATED-MAGAZINE-1977-/231100913959?pt=UK_Magazines&hash=item35ceb01927

also seems Dan Hall has been boned from the DVD range, so might be the end of animation and super-excellent VFM extras overall

Well UWM is the last planned release, and the implication from Enemy and Web was that any discoveries would be released with little more than the episodes. From previous statements that nothing with more than 2 missing eps would ever be considered that only leaves the Crusades as a lost opportunity.

dude at least had wish-plans for repackaging once the range was done though. Enemy and Web are unusual circs, obv, but if WW were interested in not being cunty they could have contracted Pup for Web, if not EoW. However.

Crusade would have had animation models for Billy and Ian and Barbara but not Vicki - I'd guess that Planet 55 becoming a "real" studio stepped on Crusade being commissioned. A mild tragedy in the light of Enemy's recovery IMO, as every newly viewable Whitaker episode better reveals him as one of the most (if not the) important figures in the history of the show

(though from what I've seen of RoT they ought to have rebuilt their Chesterton and Babs sprites anyway)

Can't disagree at all other than to say that RoT is maybe my favourite animation - I know a lot of people rate the faux- rotoscoping on Moonbase etc but something feels more, I don't know... real about RoT.

With you on Whitaker, and everything new cements my belief in the Billy era really being the golden age.

recovery of Web suggests further that a theoretical Crusade animation ought to have leant way harder on camera scripts and telesnaps than the fairly free adaption of RoT did - Camfield obv not underrated previously, but he carries p much all of Web that the actors aren't, after halfway through ep 2

it's great that animations don't HAVE to be bound by sparse single images, of course.

(Enemy's recovery also bumping Letts hugely up the rankings of directors - if he hadn't been splitting duties in the 70s he might be even better remembered. EoW >>>>>> Web in every way.)

thought: Whitaker, Holmes and Moffatt as the three most notable TV writers - Whitaker the only one who (probably) ends on a high note, having gotten better and better as he's gone along. [Holmes having ended on his two worst stories ever, even allowing for him dying literally one episode into the final one; even if Moffat has a resurgence with Capaldi/S8, no "showrunner" will ever have endured as much vocal criticism of his latter years, in the history of the series. {Saward started about as badly as he ended up, JNT was more engaged and useful than he'd ever been in S25 and 26}]. also the only one who started as story-"runner", and moved to ~best writer~ role later. and that after ghostwriting most of the most popular material ever!

Terry Nation: increasingly disappointing Dalek retreads (I enjoy Genesis, but think it's over-rated) , a fetch quest and a secret invasion/hypnotised spaceman boilerplate script. There's an argument that his work on other shows is better than his who work, which feels wrong given how much he's associated with the show.

Tewwance Dicks: more highly thought of probably as script editor and Target author, but he wrote some of the real 'comfort food' Tom era stories. Better than he gets credit for, just don't include the Five Doctors.

Mac Hulke: I'm going to hold him up as the forgotten man here, his Wurzel material is uniformly great if mired slightly in some of the UK politics of the time.

Bristol Boys: superb up to Hand of Fear, pretty dreadful afterwards. That's one hell of a tail-off.

Nation is one of the most consistently terrible Who writers ever. Genesis is indeed overrated (though good), plus the only case where a script editor was able to get him to rework something, plus v v probably still rewritten by Holmes almost as much as other script editors had to finish off other Nation scripts.

His subsequent insistence on the use of Davros makes every Dalek story between '74 and '88 a tedious waste of time, too.

I'll Stan for all the Susan era material, but apart from that... Death is kind of fun, even if it's just OMG DALEKS INVENT MACHINE GUNZ (although you have to love their little wooden TARDIS they have in their spaceship for just that eventuality) and the Belial stuff in the city is clearly where Tewwance stole the Tower stuff in Five Docs from. Android Invasion borrows liberally from Ambassadors imo and is inferior in pretty much every way.

It's telling he didn't write Day of the Daleks, which is the best Dalek story in colour, and the most obvious precursor to the current era and the obsession with timey wimey.

Day would be better without the Daleks, as it was originally written. Their addition isn't a massive problem, but the fact they only had three shitty Daleks that couldn't move properly undermined their role in the story, and their insertion does detract from the interesting political / moral / wimey things that the story is trying to do.

(Remembrance >>>>> Day, but yes re colour otherwise)

I do enjoy Remembrance (in fact I had it on the other day) but the AHA WHO IS THE REAL NAZI DYS!!1!1?? is a bit too heavy-handed for me. I think maybe even I prefer Revelation to it.

Watching "The Invasion" recently without being plugged into the reconstruction talk -- do they use Flash animation? I also assume that they don't have storyboards to go off of, since the editing rhythm seems to be anachronistic.

Every time this thread gets bumped I get excited that maybe the BBC have announced more recovered episodes.

Yes, CH used Flash, as with Scream Of The Shalka. I don't think storyboarding has ever been a regular aspect of Who production, and there were no telesnaps for the two missing episodes either. Presumably the incredibly stupid error with Zoe's clothes would have been avoided if there were.