Sounds cool.
I know I have asked in this thread before but I forget the answer, does anyone know when DWM releases in the US? Specifically, when Barnes and Noble gets new issues?
Edit:
Found the cover on GB
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Sounds cool.
I know I have asked in this thread before but I forget the answer, does anyone know when DWM releases in the US? Specifically, when Barnes and Noble gets new issues?
Edit:
Found the cover on GB
Completely shot on film, yes. Many other classic era stories had film location work done.
what they mean is that they have the original film sequences for these stories and they have been rescanned in HD (so they went nowhere near 1980s PAL 625 two-inch tape). Often the film inserts looked bad due to the way they were recorded to tape in the TV studio (in the 60s and early 70-s at least, each individual scene was added in live during studio recording) going from progressive to interlaced often added artefacts).
True, but videotape and DVD releases were much the same. It took nearly 20 years to get out every classic story on videotape and close to 15 for the DVDs. Hopefully it will be something like 4 seasons a year.
Such a pity the Restoration Team stopped updating their website
OP
OP
Just when you thought you were safe... the Talons of Weng-Chiang debate starts up again.
In this month's DWM, the Time Team (a group mainly made up of millennials that don't have that much connection with the classic series) watch Talons, and call it racist (which, given the yellowface and the Orientalism, isn't an unfair assessment). The editor then gave a feeble defence of the serial as not being racist because it's a product of its time, which served as the starter gun for a full-on cultural war in the fandom, with people demanding sackings, laying into the Time Team, laying into the editor, everything.
In this month's DWM, the Time Team (a group mainly made up of millennials that don't have that much connection with the classic series) watch Talons, and call it racist (which, given the yellowface and the Orientalism, isn't an unfair assessment). The editor then gave a feeble defence of the serial as not being racist because it's a product of its time, which served as the starter gun for a full-on cultural war in the fandom, with people demanding sackings, laying into the Time Team, laying into the editor, everything.
I mean, things can be both racist and otherwise brilliant. Talons is certainly both. It isn't either/or.
OP
OP
Yeah, precisely. Talons is one of the great serials, as well as containing things which, from a modern perspectively, are damningly racist.
The Time Team, the point of which is to bring new perspectives as well to challenge established fan orthodoxy, recognised both, which promptly caused large chunks of the fandom to absolutely lose their shit.
Having recently seen Talons for the first time, it is definitely very racist. You can't even handwave it as well, the people of Victorian England were just that racist against Chinese people, because the Doctor also exhibits similarly racist language. So it's not really a commentary on Victorian England racism, it's just racist in and of itself, which is very disappointing because the serial is otherwise very very good! But you can't overlook the problematic side of it either, particularly as it is so in your face from the start.
edit: also, unrelated to this, but looks like the Tennant/Davison short Time Crash will also be included on the S19 set. Aren't those guys related now too? They should do a sequel.
edit: also, unrelated to this, but looks like the Tennant/Davison short Time Crash will also be included on the S19 set. Aren't those guys related now too? They should do a sequel.
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You are totally right and that might be why I was more comfortable with the exaggerated First in TUAT than the Ten in the anniversary. Tying in Thirteen being a bit embarrassed about his younger self but still admiring him serves as a pretty good meta way of addressing good stuff can have problematic elements and vice versa. (This may be me projecting a bit, but I also think it was Moffat acknowledging his own blind spots as a writer and hoping that he'd grown as well as hoping future writers won't have those same issues.)
I'm waiting for the s19 pre-order links on Amazon US to go live
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GJ397JH
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GJ397JH
So the difference between the first print of the new blu-ray releases and the later/US one is just the packaging? If so, I'll rather wait for the reprint incase the BBC messes up again with the print and messes up the supposed fixed reprint.
So a friend issued a challenge to write a limerick and uh I wrote this:
Revered actor Peter Capaldi/
'Malcolm Tucker's The Doctor? Well I'll be!'/
No more would he swear/
As he grew perfectl hair/
Within which I'll be should you call me.
Revered actor Peter Capaldi/
'Malcolm Tucker's The Doctor? Well I'll be!'/
No more would he swear/
As he grew perfectl hair/
Within which I'll be should you call me.
I feel like it's been so long since Doctor Who was on the air that it must have gotten cancelled years ago.
Only 9 months? Really?
Feels like two years already.
Only 9 months? Really?
Feels like two years already.
It's kind of weird that we still don't know if it'll be Sunday rather than Saturday. I'm still leaning towards Sunday, if only because of the recent shift towards putting 'big dramas' on Sundays, and having the slightly longer episodes. I feel like 5.30 on a Saturday before Strictly is even more of a dead zone than it was a couple of years ago.
Sunday stuff tends to be heavier going, and not particularly family-oriented, whereas Doctor Who is generally lighter. It makes more sense for a saturday slot but who knows what the BBC have up their sleeve.
OP
OP
I feel like changing the day would be an immediate admission that Doctor Who's not doing the job it was meant to in the schedules, and will be putting it in a bad position right from the off.
The BBC has plenty of Sunday dramas- Doctor Who's more valuable as an anchor for Saturday nights, and if it can't do that I worry that questions are going to be raised about the show's viability.
The BBC has plenty of Sunday dramas- Doctor Who's more valuable as an anchor for Saturday nights, and if it can't do that I worry that questions are going to be raised about the show's viability.
I hope its not Sunday, that would make it Monday morning Australia time and I'd have to then wait all through out work just to watch it.
I'd miss my Sunday morning watching Doctor Whos with Tea and in my PJs
I'd miss my Sunday morning watching Doctor Whos with Tea and in my PJs
I expect the reason we haven't heard is because the rumors are true and there has been a drive to bump it to Sunday within the BBC but the production team are resisting.
I just don't think the show can successfully co-exist with Strictly on Saturdays. They should have split the season or left it until next year in its entirety if they wanted it on Saturday.
It's about the popularity of the show, really. The RTD era and the first two years of Moffat's era happily coexisted with Strictly, and from the BBC's perspective it was actually the perfect Saturday show to lead into it. It's just the status of the show changed a lot in the latter Smith years and especially the Capaldi years. Moffat's era was in general a pivot to be more of a 'hard sci-fi' show that kids can also enjoy... rather than a kids/family show that sci-fi fans can also enjoy. That distinction sounds small but is actually enormous, imo.
I suppose one factor is whether they think they'll start attracting a new audience to Who given Jodie's presence, and if they do, does that mean they can plan to leverage it in different ways? I think it's perhaps presumptive to do that based on the first series with her, though.
IIRC Doctor Who wasn't scheduled at the same time as Strictly until later in the Moffat era, which ended up causing problems as Doctor Who was forced to air so late it was slipping into the watershed. Strictly occupies the timeslot Doctor Who ideally needs to go in - hence why it would make more sense to air on Sunday if they insist on airing it at the same time of year.
I mean, it would be very easy to sell it as a move to 'recognise Doctor Who as a quality drama' and shift Sunday into the family-oriented night, with stuff like Countryfile, the Strictly results, and probably Dynasties (the new Attenborough doc). I'm sure the BBC would rather do it now, before the new era starts, rather than do it a couple of series in to Whittaker which would potentially look bad.
Outside of Strictly and Britain's Got Talent, Saturday nights have mostly died a slow death over the last couple of years, and having a sci-fi drama, no matter how much more accessible it may be under Chibnall, still sticks out as a weird choice, at least in todays TV climate. Back when stuff like Merlin and Atlantis and Primeval (ha) was on it didn't seem quite as odd. But Strictly is always going to get prime billing on a Saturday, and is usually what, like, two hours long? Meaning, as we learned during the Moffat era, the show either gets put on super early at 5 or super late at half 8.
Being sandwiched between the Strictly results show and potentially an Attenborough doc, at like 7pm is a pretty good deal, regardless of any optics about a change of days.
Chris Chibnall thinks Sunday drama is appointment viewing in a way Saturday once was but is no longer. If it does move there, he will have made / supported that decision strongly.
City of Death
They were really firing on all cylinders with this one, weren't they? It looks great, sounds great, adds two new strong characters in Duggan and the Count, is pretty damn funny but not overly so, and boasts absolutely electric chemistry between Baker and Lalla Ward's Romana. Not much else to say about this one, really. It's pretty widely beloved and rightly so. I will say, since I first saw it a year ago, I'd probably knock it down a bit in my overall rankings -- I don't think it's my favorite classic story or even my favorite Baker story anymore -- but this is easily still top 5 material.
They were really firing on all cylinders with this one, weren't they? It looks great, sounds great, adds two new strong characters in Duggan and the Count, is pretty damn funny but not overly so, and boasts absolutely electric chemistry between Baker and Lalla Ward's Romana. Not much else to say about this one, really. It's pretty widely beloved and rightly so. I will say, since I first saw it a year ago, I'd probably knock it down a bit in my overall rankings -- I don't think it's my favorite classic story or even my favorite Baker story anymore -- but this is easily still top 5 material.
'You're a beautiful woman, probably.' is Tom Baker's best line imo.
Some places reporting that Michael Pickwoad has passed away.
He was the set designer from A Christmas Carol onwards and, perhaps most prominently, designed the Series 7B/12th Doctor TARDIS.
I'll always maintain that the last TARDIS set was incredible from a sheer practicality+aesthetic+versatility perspective. Up to and including Twice Upon a Time I was consistently surprised with how good they could make that one set look, and I think it ultimately tied so well into the 12th Doctor's personality. Really sad to hear.
He was the set designer from A Christmas Carol onwards and, perhaps most prominently, designed the Series 7B/12th Doctor TARDIS.
I'll always maintain that the last TARDIS set was incredible from a sheer practicality+aesthetic+versatility perspective. Up to and including Twice Upon a Time I was consistently surprised with how good they could make that one set look, and I think it ultimately tied so well into the 12th Doctor's personality. Really sad to hear.
That's another aspect of Strictly that makes scheduling a bit awkward: its length fluctuates depending on how many dancers remain, and how many dances each does; in recent years (don't know if it's going to happen this year) the first episode is split over Friday and Saturday to be more manageable, which means the second episode is usually the two-plus-hour behemoth. The shortest episodes come three or four before the end, where they have the fewest dancers remaining but still only do one dance each; in the last few episodes the lengths increase again as the remaining participants perform multiple dances.
In short: If Who does accompany Strictly, I'd expect that it won't be able to keep a consistent start time.
Awful news :(
His work on the show was consistently fantastic, and like you said, that TARDIS set was so brilliant and amazingly designed and well-thought out.
RIP.
Shada
Can't help but feel that this story's reputation among fans is built entirely on the fact that it was never finished. Because judged on its own merits...it's kinda bad? There really isn't much of a plot; Skagra is not an intimidating villain (he looks ripped straight out of Space Mutiny!); Professor Chronotis is an incredibly annoying character; and the pace is so slow. The Doctor and co. probably spend upwards of an hour -- an hour! -- hanging out in the professor's room, looking for books and drinking many, many cups of tea. They even stop for tea during the climax! This is the most tea-heavy episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen.
This episode has some cool ideas in it, like a Time Lord prison, but they're just not executed very interestingly. The twist around
is a great example of this: sounds interesting on paper, but then nothing really happens with it in the actual episode. It may as well not have happened at all, it was so meaningless. I'm also annoyed with how fairly useless Romana was in this episode...she practically spent the whole time as Skagra's captive. Overall, Shada is really just pretty boring.
On the bright side: all the location shooting looks really good, and Baker has some great, hilarious lines, particularly the whole "I am very stupid" exchange. Even at 84, while he sounds notably older than he did 40 years ago of course, he still really nails being the Doctor and puts in a much stronger, more energetic voice performance for the animated sections than everyone else in the cast. And while I did not really like Shada as a whole, Baker's cameo at the end -- in what will most likely be his final on-screen performance as the Doctor -- is a sweet note to end this whole marathon on.
Can't help but feel that this story's reputation among fans is built entirely on the fact that it was never finished. Because judged on its own merits...it's kinda bad? There really isn't much of a plot; Skagra is not an intimidating villain (he looks ripped straight out of Space Mutiny!); Professor Chronotis is an incredibly annoying character; and the pace is so slow. The Doctor and co. probably spend upwards of an hour -- an hour! -- hanging out in the professor's room, looking for books and drinking many, many cups of tea. They even stop for tea during the climax! This is the most tea-heavy episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen.
This episode has some cool ideas in it, like a Time Lord prison, but they're just not executed very interestingly. The twist around
Chronotis being Salyavin
On the bright side: all the location shooting looks really good, and Baker has some great, hilarious lines, particularly the whole "I am very stupid" exchange. Even at 84, while he sounds notably older than he did 40 years ago of course, he still really nails being the Doctor and puts in a much stronger, more energetic voice performance for the animated sections than everyone else in the cast. And while I did not really like Shada as a whole, Baker's cameo at the end -- in what will most likely be his final on-screen performance as the Doctor -- is a sweet note to end this whole marathon on.
The thing I find incredibly interesting about Shada is how obviously it was cut apart and cobbled together to produce Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It almost feels vaguely like a Wonder Boy / Adventure Island sort of situation
I agree that its a let down and would have always been a decent rather than great show if it had been finished back in 1980. But as I live in Cambridge these days, it's kind of fun whenever I head off to Byron Burger for a lunch with workmates and walk down the same street that Tom Baker rode down when being chased by the sphere.
six episodes is definitely too long for the amount of story. But there's "Oh look- that guy from the Bill. Oh look- that guy from Waiting for God. Oh Look- The Keeper of Traken. Oh Look, that guy from Colditz, etc." And of course, it would have been Douglas Adam's last contribution to the show and Graham Williams last show as producer. It would have been the last 70's-style show before JNT's relaunch for the Autumn 1980 season.
This was my main interest in both wanting to see it and also end my marathon with it, that it was end of an era on a lot of different fronts. But I guess the showrunner teams on classic Who didn't really do big last hurrahs for themselves and their eras the way RTD and Moffat did, so it didn't quite have that impact, heh.
I'd also been thinking about maybe dabbling a bit into Baker's final season, because I know it's very different from what came before, but I've got to draw a line to stop somewhere! Maybe next year...
And now for the inevitable post-marathon list:
(My) Top 10 Fourth Doctor Stories
*sans season 18, which I didn't get to this time
1. Horror of Fang Rock
Pretty much perfect. The pacing is just right. The production team nails this grim, claustrophobic atmosphere. The side characters are well drawn. Baker is on point as the Doctor. And Leela is exceptionally great, with some clutch lines and scene-stealing moments. The only flaw in the whole thing is the green jellyfish model/effect, which does not exactly inspire fear or dread. You could air this today as a Capaldi episode without changing anything else and it'd work just as well.
2. City of Death
Fun, funny, and Baker and Ward are just delightful to watch together. A little twee at times, but otherwise an extremely charming and witty batch of episodes that often feel way ahead of their time -- or really expose how much RTD and Moffat have cribbed from this story for their own writing.
3. Pyramids of Mars
The Doctor and Sarah Jane were never better together than they are here, I think. Sutekh is a compelling villain and the Doctor's palpable fear over Sutekh, and frustration over everything he throws at him failing one after the other, make this one of the darker Who stories I've seen, classic or modern.
4. Genesis of the Daleks
I think this could have probably worked fine as four episodes, but it doesn't feel noticeably padded at six. The politics and goals of the different factions involved are interesting to watch, Harry isn't a total knob in this one, and Michael Wisher delivers a legit GOAT performance as Davros. This story is bleak as hell and earns its reputation.
5. The Deadly Assassin
I really did not like the first episode; the Time Lords are so lame and a 25-minute tour of their culture and lexicon is tedious. The second and third episodes, which focus on the cat-and-mouse game hunting the Doctor through the Matrix, are pretty gripping. This is one of my favorite Master performances too, and certainly my favorite classic Master of the bunch.
6. The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The rare six-parter that really merits being that long. Really well-paced, Jaco and Lightfoot are hilarious additions to the cast, and Leela again kills it here. Minus a couple points though for some serious racism and my personal dislike for OTT shouty villains like Weng-Chiang, who is unfortunately the main focus of the last two eps.
7. The Seeds of Doom
The Fourth Doctor at his most action hero-y. Sarah Jane at her most proactive and biting. All the living plant and body horror effects are really well done (except for the big plant monster which just looks shitty) and Chase is a great villain. He reminds me a lot of Vaughn from The Invasion, who I also liked.
8. The Brain of Morbius
Even though this is probably the most Gothic-looking of the Hinchcliffe run of Gothic horror stories, that aesthetic belies how funny these episodes are. Like Weng-Chiang, Morbius strikes me as a lame villain, and the Sisterhood of Karn are also dull to listen to. But Solon is a great antagonist, and I love how much of this story has the Doctor clowning on his adversaries -- yet not so much that it undermines the threats he faces. It's a perfectly calibrated balance that the post-Hinchcliffe episodes largely lacked.
9. The Robots of Death
An interesting murder mystery story, largely made that interesting by engaging side characters and a sympathetic performance by the 'dumb' robot D84. But come on, "robophobia"?
10. The Pirate Planet
A sort of messy but mostly entertaining mash up of a lot of cool ideas. I especially love the central premise of a planet that jumps around and effectively eats other planets. The actual storyline, and the roles of both protagonists and antagonists, are pretty muddled, but Baker is as amusing as ever and Mary Tamm's Romana gets a better outing here -- despite not much material to work with -- than she did in her debut.
And for good measure, the other Baker stories I watched, roughly in the order I'd rank them in:
(My) Top 10 Fourth Doctor Stories
*sans season 18, which I didn't get to this time
1. Horror of Fang Rock
Pretty much perfect. The pacing is just right. The production team nails this grim, claustrophobic atmosphere. The side characters are well drawn. Baker is on point as the Doctor. And Leela is exceptionally great, with some clutch lines and scene-stealing moments. The only flaw in the whole thing is the green jellyfish model/effect, which does not exactly inspire fear or dread. You could air this today as a Capaldi episode without changing anything else and it'd work just as well.
2. City of Death
Fun, funny, and Baker and Ward are just delightful to watch together. A little twee at times, but otherwise an extremely charming and witty batch of episodes that often feel way ahead of their time -- or really expose how much RTD and Moffat have cribbed from this story for their own writing.
3. Pyramids of Mars
The Doctor and Sarah Jane were never better together than they are here, I think. Sutekh is a compelling villain and the Doctor's palpable fear over Sutekh, and frustration over everything he throws at him failing one after the other, make this one of the darker Who stories I've seen, classic or modern.
4. Genesis of the Daleks
I think this could have probably worked fine as four episodes, but it doesn't feel noticeably padded at six. The politics and goals of the different factions involved are interesting to watch, Harry isn't a total knob in this one, and Michael Wisher delivers a legit GOAT performance as Davros. This story is bleak as hell and earns its reputation.
5. The Deadly Assassin
I really did not like the first episode; the Time Lords are so lame and a 25-minute tour of their culture and lexicon is tedious. The second and third episodes, which focus on the cat-and-mouse game hunting the Doctor through the Matrix, are pretty gripping. This is one of my favorite Master performances too, and certainly my favorite classic Master of the bunch.
6. The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The rare six-parter that really merits being that long. Really well-paced, Jaco and Lightfoot are hilarious additions to the cast, and Leela again kills it here. Minus a couple points though for some serious racism and my personal dislike for OTT shouty villains like Weng-Chiang, who is unfortunately the main focus of the last two eps.
7. The Seeds of Doom
The Fourth Doctor at his most action hero-y. Sarah Jane at her most proactive and biting. All the living plant and body horror effects are really well done (except for the big plant monster which just looks shitty) and Chase is a great villain. He reminds me a lot of Vaughn from The Invasion, who I also liked.
8. The Brain of Morbius
Even though this is probably the most Gothic-looking of the Hinchcliffe run of Gothic horror stories, that aesthetic belies how funny these episodes are. Like Weng-Chiang, Morbius strikes me as a lame villain, and the Sisterhood of Karn are also dull to listen to. But Solon is a great antagonist, and I love how much of this story has the Doctor clowning on his adversaries -- yet not so much that it undermines the threats he faces. It's a perfectly calibrated balance that the post-Hinchcliffe episodes largely lacked.
9. The Robots of Death
An interesting murder mystery story, largely made that interesting by engaging side characters and a sympathetic performance by the 'dumb' robot D84. But come on, "robophobia"?
10. The Pirate Planet
A sort of messy but mostly entertaining mash up of a lot of cool ideas. I especially love the central premise of a planet that jumps around and effectively eats other planets. The actual storyline, and the roles of both protagonists and antagonists, are pretty muddled, but Baker is as amusing as ever and Mary Tamm's Romana gets a better outing here -- despite not much material to work with -- than she did in her debut.
And for good measure, the other Baker stories I watched, roughly in the order I'd rank them in:
- Terror of the Zygons
- Robot
- The Ark in Space
- The Sun Makers
- The Face of Evil
- Shada
- The Ribos Operation
Something of a megaton from Big Finish - Lucie Miller is coming back in a boxset set between The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 1 and 2.
Full details: https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/lucie-miller-returns
Full details: https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/lucie-miller-returns
Deadly Assassin has a lot to answer for when it comes to Time Lords. They were so impressive coming out of the war games, and this made them look pathetic. Unless the idea is that a lot more time has passed between the two serials then we know and they've fallen into a massive decline.
Surprised you rank Ribos so low btw. Thought that was of the best serials.
Briggs was teasing it a day or two ago, but exactly what we were getting wasn't quite clear. Getting Sheridan back is quite a coup.
Edit: Series 1 is on sale; £2 per episode, or £14 for the (8 episode) season. That has appeared in a Humble Bundle a while back, so people who pick those up may already have it, although - oddly - Human Resources, the two-part finale to that series, wasn't in the bundle.
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This is legitimately the best piece of DW related news I've heard for some time.
In the same way people have an unbreakable reverence for the dynamic between 10 and Rose or 4 and Sarah-Jane, 8 and Lucie are just my ideal realisation of the show.
I actually rather like the idea that a civilisation possessed of near godlike powers and facing no realistic threats to their existence would become stuffy and bureaucratic.
The remote, mysterious beings of The War Games and Terror of the Autons are much closer to the conventional science fiction narrative of a super-advanced civilisation - having them turn out pompous and dull seems much more subversive to me, and I was sorry to see the modern series revert to mythologising them.
I think it became harder and harder to look at beings like the Timelords as they were first presented with a straight face the more society evolved, with people being less deferential to politicians and less religious dogma in mainstream society.
But Timelords as infallible gods is also very boring from a story point of view. While having one or two as greedy traitors rather than the entire society being corrupt worked well, I wasn't as keen on Rassilon's transformation from benevolent founder of Timelords to maniacal dictator as a story point in End of Time (though the show has often demonstrated how absolute power corrupts absolutely- as we eventually saw with
One story Blader skipped was Underworld (trust me, you didn't miss much apart from an abusive amount of bluescreened actors against model caves). This is where the show explained why the Timelords had been big on non-interference in the affairs of others and be content with observing other species.
The other effect of humanising the Timelords was that we then had to get the Guardians as entities even more powerful than Timelords.
Looking back, I'm surprised Moffat didn't try to do something with them.
But Timelords as infallible gods is also very boring from a story point of view. While having one or two as greedy traitors rather than the entire society being corrupt worked well, I wasn't as keen on Rassilon's transformation from benevolent founder of Timelords to maniacal dictator as a story point in End of Time (though the show has often demonstrated how absolute power corrupts absolutely- as we eventually saw with
Borusa)
One story Blader skipped was Underworld (trust me, you didn't miss much apart from an abusive amount of bluescreened actors against model caves). This is where the show explained why the Timelords had been big on non-interference in the affairs of others and be content with observing other species.
basically, early Timelords tried to accelerate the development of a civilisation called the Minyans but they ended up destroying themselves because they weren't developed enough to handle the technology
The other effect of humanising the Timelords was that we then had to get the Guardians as entities even more powerful than Timelords.
Looking back, I'm surprised Moffat didn't try to do something with them.
A lot of people seem to like that one, but nothing about it worked for me at all. Prob the only Baker serial that I just flat out disliked.