Last Who You Watched

I think someone at 2Entertain has a grudge against Ian. That's the only reason I can see for not using his stuff. As you said, the quality is certainly good enough.

Indeed. There clearly is some major pettiness at work. I love the 92 Shada, but if the animation was of that quality and we were denied it, its quite appalling. These people are supposed to be running a professional outfit to give the best to their customers, not indulging private feuds at their expense.

I'm currently reaing the novelisation of Shada, and reading the entire story rather than viewing the unfinished version or listening to the McGann remake makes me all the more sorry I'll never see it completed as a fourth Doctor story. Not that I dislike the McGann version, but that isn't what was originally intended...

Never bothered with the McGann thing. Shada is a Tom story, and between Tom and McGann... well, that's an easy choice to make.

I disagree that it's "easy". McGann is one of my favourite Doctors, mostly due to the audios (though admittedly, Tom is still at the top of my list and probably always will be). I just think that it's fairly pointless to remake a story intended to feature one Doctor with a completely different Doctor. Particularly a Douglas Adams story, since Adams wrote dialogue very definitely for Tom's Doctor.

I rewatched Night Terrors and The Girl Who Waited last night. Night Terrors... well, it's not very good is it? I enjoyed it the first time, probably because anything would have looked good after the mess that was Lets Kill Hitler, but aside from a few creepy moments with the dolls, its pretty subpar, a weak atory with weak acting. Girl Who Waited is excellent though - easily the best single-story episode outside of 2010. A high concept SF tale that hits the regulars where it hurts, if they were all this good I'd be a lot happier with this era right now!

I'm going to have to rewatch that entire series again soon, see if my initial evaluation of the various stories still stands up. I'm going to miss Karen Gillan...

I really like Girl and the opening 2parter but beyond that I'm not overly keen. There's little that's truly BAD (save maybe Closing Time and the crap pirate one) but it just lacks something somehow. I far prefer Series 5 (which is one of my favourites actually).

I liked both series', but I think I actually prefer the 2011 one because I just like interlinked stories-the lack of two parters in series seven and the lack of an overall story arc has been a step back, in my opinion. I also think The Doctor's Wife is one of the best single episodes ever, but then, I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman's writing style.

ABC in oz is putting the new series on just one day after the UK airing. Very pleased - no more waiting a week or arsing about with downloading and disc burning. About time!

Saw the Galaxy 4 thing last night. The recon was tolerable enough (though I couldn't hack a full length one) and Air Lock was great, really enjoyable. Great to see a Classic Who ep I've never seen before!

I know-a rare treat. I can't wait for The Underwater Menace, now!

Me neither (even more so if, as rumor persists, the other 2 will be animated to complete it).

Twas lovely to have a 'new' Vicki ep too!

The Key to Time

Meh. Very meh. Mary Tamm was rather better than I remembered but most of the stories are rubbish. The Ribos Job (as it surely should have been called) is about the best of them if only because of Iain Cuthbertson's rather fine performance. Most of the others are distinctly average except for the utterly laughable Stones of Blood which does a very poor job of attempting to re-visit the heyday of Hinchcliffe/Holmes' Hammer homages and failing badly.

I was watching Iain Cuthbertson the other day in Children of the Stones. I'd forgotten what a fine actor he was.

Have to admit though, my favourite of those six stories is The Androids of Tara, just because it's quite fun and as a kid I really liked all the swordfighting.

I just watched The Twin Dilemma. It was my first experience with the Sixth Doctor and I was very pleasantly surprised. I kept hearing he was awful (except from you, I think, Tony), but he was just prickly like the Doctor ought to be. Peri was really the only thing that annoyed me; if that girl's American then I'm a girl.

Sam_Vimes wrote:I just watched The Twin Dilemma. It was my first experience with the Sixth Doctor and I was very pleasantly surprised. I kept hearing he was awful (except from you, I think, Tony), but he was just prickly like the Doctor ought to be. Peri was really the only thing that annoyed me; if that girl's American then I'm a girl.

Nicola Bryant is definitely not American-but her accent fooled producer John Nathan Turner! Then again, I can never quite believe Americans are fooled by Hugh Laurie as House...

tony ingram wrote:Then again, I can never quite believe Americans are fooled by Hugh Laurie as House...

Prince George. I really had a hard time getting past that watching House.

He'll always be Bertie Wooster to me. I wonder, though, why do Brits have to change their pitch when they fake American? Hugh went deeper, Apollo from the new Battlestar Galactica went higher. . .what's up with that? Does it help?

Sam_Vimes wrote:He'll always be Bertie Wooster to me. I wonder, though, why do Brits have to change their pitch when they fake American? Hugh went deeper, Apollo from the new Battlestar Galactica went higher. . .what's up with that? Does it help?

Well, the higher pitch which Laurie used as Wooster and Prince George wasn't his 'real' voice-in interviews, he's closer to House but without the American accent.

I think Hugh Laurie was helped enormously by the fact that US audiences had no pre-conceptions about him, because neither Blackadder or Jeeves and Wooster had been big over there. They were similarly much more prepared to accept his turn as a serious musician than UK audiences.

I still think he's make a brilliant Who, particulalrly if they are still looking at a big screen version with a known name for world wide audiences.

I suspect the BBC would consider him too old for the part, now. The Doctor has to be young and sexy thes days, apparently...

Oh, meant to say that I'd agree about Androids of Tara being fun, and after The Ribos Operation it's the story that stands up the best, but then as a story it's a couple of centuries old so it ought to stand up well!

I have Children of the Stones on my Amazon wish list, as well as Pat Troughton in Feathered Serpent. How well does it hold up?

BluesShark wrote:Oh, meant to say that I'd agree about Androids of Tara being fun, and after The Ribos Operation it's the story that stands up the best, but then as a story it's a couple of centuries old so it ought to stand up well!

I have Children of the Stones on my Amazon wish list, as well as Pat Troughton in Feathered Serpent. How well does it hold up?

I love Children of the Stones, though it's a little baffling at times. British TV was very inventive with its kids programming back in the 70s.

tony ingram wrote:I suspect the BBC would consider him too old for the part, now. The Doctor has to be young and sexy thes days, apparently...

Not sure about that. Worth bearing in mind that when they cast Smith they'd set out to find someone between 40 - 50.

Smith was just too good to turn down in the event. Granted I don't ever see them casting a Hartnell/Pertwee in the role again but I could see a Baker/McCoy easily enough.

A lot wil depend on who the new showrunner is. I joked a couple of weeks ago that a fiver on a Whithouse/Moloney pairing would be a good investment but I understand Whithouse is definitely out of the running now, so who knows.

I still want to see Bill Bailey as the Master!

Does the term stunt casting mean anything to you?

Actually, Damien Moloney would make a good Master...

British TV was very inventive with its kids programming back in the 70s.

True that. Can you imagine stuff like Sky or Ace of Wands being shown now? I think even The Tomorrow People is beyond the courage of kids Tv these days.

Which led me to look up The Changes, based on peter Dickinson's brilliant books. Not even on DVD. For shame.

Sadly, Hugh Laurie is now too famous (and expensive) to play the Doctor. They tend to cast either promising unknowns or rising stars, not full-on international celebrities.

I, for one, am glad that children's TV nowadays would not broadcast a programme about an enigmatic androgynous mystical starchild who's come from the future to tell us all how utterly primitive and worthless we are. But à chacun son goût.

Lucy McGough wrote:Sadly, Hugh Laurie is now too famous (and expensive) to play the Doctor. They tend to cast either promising unknowns or rising stars, not full-on international celebrities.

I, for one, am glad that children's TV nowadays would not broadcast a programme about an enigmatic androgynous mystical starchild who's come from the future to tell us all how utterly primitive and worthless we are. But à chacun son goût.

Poor old Sky. He wasn't so bad-he's just misunderstood!

I bet TV dramas like that raised a generation of ghastly little misanthropes who think the human race deserves to die because we're, like, totally killing the planet, man. You know, the type who seriously believes that humans are a cancer but never starts the chemotherapy with themselves.

(My job has taught me that 'chemotherapy' just means any medical treatment involving drugs. A course of antibiotics counts as chemotherapy. And so would cyanide.)

Lucy McGough wrote:I bet TV dramas like that raised a generation of ghastly little misanthropes who think the human race deserves to die

Well, it raised me, so you could be right!

I guess I can't talk. I grew up with Rose Tyler as the Doctor's companion, so I guess that makes me a whiney, spoilt, clingy brat

Lucy McGough wrote:I bet TV dramas like that raised a generation of ghastly little misanthropes who think the human race deserves to die

You say that like it's a bad thing!

I think it is. But then, I'm biased - I'm human.

Lucy McGough wrote:I think it is. But then, I'm biased - I'm human.

Are you sure? Do you have a makers' certificate?

Both my parents are human. What else could I be - a turtle?

Lucy McGough wrote:Both my parents are human. What else could I be - a turtle?

You could be an adopted turtle...

Or, indeed, an adopted dwarf.

BluesShark wrote:I think even The Tomorrow People is beyond the courage of kids Tv these days.

\

From what I've seen it's being remade right now. I think an American version. Which, in itself and as an American, doesn't bother me, IF they keep to what made the first series work. It's one of my all-time favorite shows.

I loved The Tomorrow People. Especially John. He was the living embodiment of the stiff upper lip!

The E-Space Trilogy.

Despite introducing possibly my least favourite comapnion of all time and featuring some of thw worst effects in the history of Who (could they not have changed the ending to State of Decay to avoid all that really dodgy model/blue-screen work at the end?) these stories hold up very well, I think.

Warriors Gate in particular is a rare example of Who doing 'high concept SF' and getting it right.

Warrior's Gate is one of my favourite classic Who stories, easily in my top ten. I love the whole E-Space trilogy really (in fact, once Meglos is out of the way that entire season can do little wrong in my eyes) but Warrior's Gate is head and shoulders above the rest. High concept SF, as you said, and incredibly atmospheric, but still with humour (mostly provided by the two workshy crewmen). Great stuff.

Makes you wonder why they didn't ask Stephen Gallagher to do more, really.

I guess he may never have fancied it.

I thought the effects at the end of 'State of Decay' were quite convincing.

Considering the budget, they weren't that bad. Or perhaps lack of budget is more to the point.

Given the budget it's a miracle that we ever got anything better than South Park style spaceship.

I just don't find that ending at all convincing, either visually or from a writing point of view.

How would you have ended it? (serious question)

I think I might have gone for something a bit more vampire killed in eruption of flame from take off jets kind of thing.

BUT I'm not Terrance Dicks, and he had kind of based the finale round the idea of the bow-ships.

Because bow-ships are cool. And Van Helsing never used a flame-thrower.