Dr. Who To Come Back To The BBC 158
-douggy writes: "According to the BBC news site, the world's best-loved time traveller, Doctor Who, is returning to the BBC -- this time to battle evil aliens in cyberspace. This is along with an audio stream of a special 30 min. ep later in the year. It looks like there will be an air of interactivity in the show as well."
Re:No No No (Score:1)
Davison, McCoy, and Troughton all three brought much more to the role than a wide-eyed stare and an infectious grin. (For that matter, so did Hartnell, the Other Baker, and McGann...)
Although Mr. Tom was certainly a reasonable follow-on to the just-as-dreadful Pertwee...
Re:Audio-only: the answer to cheesy special effect (Score:2)
"Howard Gordon, the producer of the American version, is reported as saying that he's after a more 'emotional' content, and wants to give the show a more 'soap opera' feel. This gives the
impression that the series will not be as moody or dark as the original UK version."
Oh dear. Now maybe I'm just partial to angst-ridden vampire movies (liked "The Addiction", hated "John Carpenter's Vampires"), but I find this quote distressing to say the least.
Next up from FOX: "The Frost Files", "Thomas the Tank Engine: World's Worst Derailments VI", and
ObDrWho: bring back Lalla Ward!
Audio-only: the answer to cheesy special effects? (Score:3)
An audio-only version has the great advantage that the cheese-ball special effects no longer get in the way of the story. Of course, this is *only* an advantage if the writing is good, but I think the Beeb's radio version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" demonstrates that quality sci-fi-like material can be presented well in this medium.
OTOH, perhaps the BBC could just subcontract the production design for any "Dr. Who" TV revival to World Productions. I thought they did a nifty job on "Ultraviolet" using only minimal special effects and a few sets reminiscent of USA's "La Femme Nikita" series.
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
Unfortunately, given the way the BBC DW novels have been written, the BBC is concidering the TV movie as canon; the TARDIS has been whacked up like that, and McGann's Doctor is officially #8 (The whole human thing, however, has been cleverly skirted by the multitude of writers). Even the DW novel series that was done by Virgin (the BBC taken the license back to them in 96) was subtly tied into the series, with a novel that took place 'right' before the movie events and explaining why the TARDIS looks as it did now), as well as one novel after the movie.
So *if* we ever get another DW show or movie, remember that the events of the FOX one already are in the BBC stone.
This audio drama most likely takes place at some point after "Survival" (the last TV episode), and before the movie itself; doubtful that the effects of that movie will be noticed here.
Nonsense (Score:1)
--
I noticed
BBC America at 8am EST (Score:1)
> scantily clad women
I think Leela had to take the prize for scantily-clad, but I can't remember name of the very statuesque girl that played (with Tom Baker?) Pippin or something?
cheesiness == a good thing! (Score:1)
This is actually an old rejected radio pilot (Score:4)
There have been many Dr Who audio adventures made by Big Finish Audio Productions [gallifreyone.com] since 1999, sold on cassette and CD. "Death Comes to Time" was comissioned by the BBC speach network Radio 4 from Big Finish as a pilot episode for a proposed new radio series.
This pilot episode was rejected and never broadcast.
This pilot episode is now being webcast. There are still no plans to broadcast the episode on radio.
There are no official plans for a new Dr Who series on TV nor radio, nor another film, although as always with Dr Who there is plenty of speculation.
If you have digital terrestrial TV (OnDigital), cable or satellite you can catch old episodes of Doctor Who on UK Gold at 8am on Sundays (last Sunday's episode was Invisible Enemy which featured Tom Baker, leather-clad Leela and the first appearance from K9).
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Thank you, thank you (Score:1)
Re:Blake's 7 (Score:1)
(I would take this to email, but I see that you do not have an email address handy)
The best place to get information on the new Blake's Seven TV movie is by subscribing to the list over at http://www.blakes7.com
it's B7 that I've obsessively collected on video. 25 tapes at $25 a pop... worth every penny.
There has been talk about making region 2 DVDs of Blake's Seven. If those DVDs ever get made, I will purchase them.
On the subject of your username, I don't need Google to know that imipak was the delayed-kill weapon from the episode Weapon. Personally, my favorite episode was always Gambit (I used to call my music recording studio Freedon City as a homage), with Shadow (with its excellent music) and Star One being close seconds. I always felt the second season was the best season of Blake's Seven.
- Sam
Some problems with bringing back Dr.Who (Score:4)
First of all, there is the matter of special effects. When I was a kid, the low-cos special effects of Doctor Who did not bother me, because I had rnough imagination to pretend that the special effects were not so cheesy. Also, the level of expectation people had for quality special effects in the 1970s and 1980s were not the level of expectations people have today.
While computer graphics can do much to minimize the cost of special effects, it is still more expensive to do the level of special effects today's TV viewers expect than it was when Doctor Who was made in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.
The other is that Doctor Who ran for nearly 30 years, with a wide variety of different actors playing the lead role, and a variety of producors producing the show. Needless to say, the "flavor" of Doctor Who has changed greatly over those years.
Doctor Who has many different fans: Some expect the Doctor Who of the Pertwee years, others expect the Doctor of the early Tom Baker years, and others yet expect the doctor of the late Tom Baker years.
When the TV movie came out, many were shocked that it included a car chase scene, saying that this was not a part of Doctor Who. Of course, the John Pertwee and early Tom Baker eras had plenty of car chases (the one from Planet of the Spiders comes to mind), but there is a large group of fans who were not aware of this.
No matter what the BBC does, it will be impossible for them to make a Doctor Who that meets the expectations of what all their fans want. Even if they make an excellent TV show, and I believe they could if they threw the money at it to give it decent special effects, a lot of fans will complain, no matter how excellent it is. Look at the number of fans of Dune who complained about the excellent recent TV miniseries for an example of this.
Do I want to see Doctor Who come back? Yes. The BBC can not expect to make many long-standing fans of Doctor Who happy.
As an aside, anyone know what is happeneing with the new TV episode of Blakes' Seven that they have been talking about?
- Sam
Fighting in Cyberspace (Score:1)
I'd settle for buying the old stuff on DVD. (Score:2)
And still the Beeb drags its feet on American releases.
Come on, BBC, get with the program and make yourself some money!
Jon Acheson
Re:Some problems with bringing back Dr.Who (Score:2)
I may be alone in this, but the cheesiness of the special effects was a large part of the charm of the original Doctor Who. But then, I thought Babylon 5 was poorly written, unoriginal soap-opera schlock and that its CGI special effects were especially annoying, which is apparently also not a very common opinion.
My complaint with most CGI graphics is this: they're so close to being real that the failure to be indistinguishable from reality is really jarring. With old-style special effects, it's obviously fake, so you just engage in the willing suspension of disbelief and ignore the fakeness. CGI effects, by contrast, carry with them an expectation of reality that they fail to live up to.
I'll stick with my old videos of the original series. That being said, I hope the new Doctor Who lives up to the expectations of the people who do want to see it.
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Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
sure, it was tongue-in-cheek, but i could see rowan atkinson pulling off the role of the doctor amazingly well if they ever bring back the tv series...
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Re:Semantics (Score:3)
Re:Orbital's cover of the Dr. Who Theme (Score:1)
Re:Honk if you love Douglas Adams (Score:1)
Bring back a Tom Baker Doctor Who! (Score:1)
I actually like the next two Doctor Whos after Tom Baker left the show.
But I was really blown off by the latest Doctor Who. I liked the "serious" Doctor Who character not some sort of clown.
It just feels like the latest series was appealing to kids. Sure, I was a young kid watching Doctor Who but I was hooked by the good story telling. The cybermen were my favorite.
Doctor Who was serious science fiction, people got killed, the episodes were continuous stories not silly 45 min-15 min wrap-up star trek episodes.
That TV movie was so sad. Just because of he's called Doctor Who doesn't mean has a "who" from Dr Seuss books. You can't have a Time Lord clown!
john
This will be fun (Score:1)
I think that it will be fun to have a radio drama of the show. It's great listening to the old radio shows that you can get on tape and CD's.
I love just sitting back, listening to the story, and picturing what is going on. It's so much more relaxing to hear a good story that you can see in your mind rather than having to watch on tv. TV stories seem to get lost in the visuals and forgets to put a good story in at times.
Re:This will be fun (Score:1)
Fan writing is a plus not a negitive (Score:1)
The made for TV movie was NOT a fan job...
As I understand it the movie was addapted from the last book in a searies that took off from the TV searies.
The books were profesion and it was a profesional addaption.
That is the problem. Writing isn't a job of cold profesionalism but of passionet fan-ish stuff.
The 1980s saw a whole bunch of movies that relied on FX.. You can turn out FX in mass production.. great writing however isn't so easy.
On-line comics tend to have indepth storylines etc. The writer/artists are really into what they are doing. The artist for one comic however noticed the fan art is higher quality than the original strip. A lot of the best artists are self trainned anime fans not profesional writers.
Re:NOT the real Dr. Who! (Score:3)
One is this is in-line with the Dr Who linage. Pick up where it left off. Tom Baker left Dr Who.
The doctors that came after Tom Baker were made into clones of Tom Baker. Preveously each Dr had his own unqiue personality tallored to the actor. Tom Baker himself was a dramatic shift from the preveous whos.
On that note. I'd like to point out that Dr. Who is for you the first Dr. Who you see.
Someone in DC comics pointed out this was the case for Superman artists. The Superman you grow up with is the one you expect. But there have been many artists each with a slightly diffrent take on his apperence.
But Dr Who transends it's actors. With a new generation of producers is Sylvester McCoy dosn't work out we'll see someone new.
I personally liked all the Doctors. Even the post Tom Bakers. It did appear they reduced the carricter to Tom Bakers take and that was a bit sad.
Also I'd like to quickly note while a lot of people keep bringing up the cheap specal effects Doctor Who uses what was available at the time. Near the end they were using some pritty spiff computer graphics.
What Doctor Who didn't do was push the edge. The BBC was just using equipment they had on hand. Dr. Who was never about flashy effects but about great story telling. But the effects were not always cheap.
It could be becouse Dr Who near the end was entering a time when FX was a big deal. Every movie or SiFi had to have advanced FX. If it was a SiFi movie they had to blast your eyeballs out with it.
The Tartus going through time image.. an old anolog FX machine.. probably cerca 1960s. While Dr Who dates back earlyer so I expect there is an older version of that.
Then there is the newer version using digital graphics.. 1980s...
A Dr Who today could use advanced make up and CGI. But the story will never rely on it.
Now I did say there were two good reasons for this.. The second?
The FOX Dr Who made for TV movie is removed from the conical Dr Who history.. much the same way the Star Trek cartoon series was removed from the Star Trek history when Rodenbury took control again.
That means the Master lives again...
As for "FanBoy writing"...
A lot of Dr Who was "FanBoy writing" So was Star Trek. The TV movie was a profesional hack job.
Writers do better when they are familure with the show and are themselfs fans of it.
The ultimate fan of any given SiFi is it's crator.
if its still around and your isp carries it (Score:1)
Re:Semantics (Score:1)
My doctor is known as Doctor Miller, yet he can often be referred to as Dr Miller. He doesn't get uptight about it. He just accepts that "Dr" is a common abbreviation of the word "Doctor". This extends to Doctor Who. It is a commonly accepted abbreviation. Get over it.
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:1)
I more or less agree, although there are some damn good Amerian actors. Philip Seymour Hoffman could make an excellent Doctor, for example.
The BBC should resurrect Who, and spend their money on finding a great script editor, a strong writing staff and a perfectly cast Doctor and sidekick(s). I could even embrace the concept of a female Doctor, since sexuality doesn't seem to be much more than window dressing to Gallifrians. The painful TV movie whould be completely forgotten.
Battling Aliens in Cyberspace? (Score:3)
Dr Who opens a nasty shell script, which references all the servers he secretly incorporated into his DDOs attack. Flinging an barrage of syns, acks, and errant ICMP messages at the evil aliens, slowing their terrible invasion.
After scanning their ports, and gaining anonymous ftp access, he finds their unprotected password file and runs john the ripper on it. Hours later, he finds the worlds worst password... invasion
DrWho@:~$ telnet aliensupercomputer.invasion.org
Connected to aliensupercomputer.invasion.org
Debian GNU/Linux testing/unstable aliensupercomputer
aliensupercomputer login: alienoverlord
password: *******
Don't forget to insult the intelligence of humans before you destory them!
alienoverlord@aliensupercomputer:~$ su
password: ********
aliensupercomputer:/# rm -rf /
...and thus, in the season finale, Dr Who deletes the aliens from cyberspace...
The following season, it's found that the aliens were stored in off site backups, and reloaded by script kiddies, who wanted to use them to take down their friends 1337 b0x0r!!
Re:Orbital's cover of the Dr. Who Theme (Score:2)
Check out the KLF FAQ (link above) which includes lots of interesting trivia, like the fact that Jimmy Cauty of the KLF painted that Lord of the Rings poster from the seventies (for those of you old enough to remember it) and the reason why they burned a million pounds. Strange people.
Quick to the Tardis to make this Post! (Score:2)
Re:Licensing issues (Score:1)
*cough* sonic screwdriver *cough*
Well, the reason K-9 malfunctioned so often was that he always knew the answer to any bloody question
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:1)
Actually, both of them have proved that they can play it straight - I'd love to see Ade Edmonson as the Doctor. Or even Rik Mayall. The only thing they have to do is play it straight - which goes with the territory (apart from the terrible Tom Baker days)
Simon
Re:But it's not really the same... (Score:2)
The Sci-Fi channel will be showing the Doctor Who TV-movie (1996 - Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann as the Doctor) on July 15th.
Just thought I'd let you know
Si
Re:But it's not really the same... (Score:2)
Actually, the BBC explicitly wanted the love interest - believe it or not.
Check amazon.co.uk for the book "Regeneration" by Segal & Russell.
Simon
Re:Some problems with bringing back Dr.Who (Score:2)
When the series was originally broadcast these were cutting edge/state of the art special effects.
You need to consider how today's special effects will look in 20-30 years time...
"But Doctor, where are we going now?" (Score:2)
The only Doctor Who I know, and ever want to know, is the Tom Baker one with the long scarf and curly hair.
And the books I read as a child.
Good stuff.
Not the only Dr Who Audio online... (Score:1)
Just thought I'd mention us!
Howard, floorten.com
Re:Be a Dalek at the NFT! (Score:1)
Cyberspace? (Score:2)
Interactive Access? (Score:2)
Or one of the TeleTubbies, if the remotes aren't kept out of toddlers' hands.
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:1)
Trivia:
1) Lalla Ward is married to Richard Dawkins
2) Paul McGann lives just around the corner from me, although I've never seen him around.
3) But I did see Trude Mostue, the Norwegian bird from "Vets in Practice", in Sainsbury's
No brainer (Score:4)
Wrong. This isn't along with anything: the entire episode is 30 minutes long, broadcast as six real audio files. There is only one episode, singular, and the audio stream you mention above doesn't accompany it, as the words along with imply. The audio stream (although in six parts) _is_ the episode.
It looks like there will be an air of interactivity in the show as well."
Sort of. The listeners will be able to vote on whether they want the Doctor to return. There isn't any interactivity in the show, no outcomes to be decided pertaining to the episode, but a simple vote by listeners as to the Doctor's return.
You would think that this one would be a no-brainer: do we resurrect one of the most popular SF franchises in the world?
Re: (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re:NOT the real Dr. Who! (Score:1)
I actually know people 10 years older than me who say 'Doctor who was ok till that twat Tom Baker ruined it'.
Re:Nonsense (Score:1)
They've been waging a quiet battle to get them carried at Barnes & Noble and Borders Booksellers, and have been asking people to request them. The request won't go through, of course, but will help them open up a BIG potential revenue source. After you request it, go back to Big Finish's site and order it for real.
Anyone remember The Tomorrow People? Big Finish has just started doing audio versions of that show, too (and you thought Doctor Who had a small budget?). You might like Linux, but TIM rocks.
Re:But it's not really the same... (Score:1)
I guess they have too much taste to actually watch it over there. I personally found it horrible, and I am an American.
Re:Ugh (Score:1)
Too much commercialisation (Score:1)
Suggestions for plots (Score:2)
Plot #2: The universe keeps looping back and repeating itself. The Doctor attempts to put this right by adding a search of old stories to the
Plot #3: A new and more wonderful Doctor replaces the old one. However, many fans are heard to say, "I'm waiting until Doctor 2.5.0
Plot #4: The TARDIS crashes, and the Doctor must wait 200 years for it to fsck itself. "I really must move the old girl over to XFS...."
Re:Blake's 7 (Score:2)
Of course, they were also even worse than Dr Who about every planet looking an awful lot like a certain Welsh rock quarry.
[TMB]
EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE (Score:2)
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
I'd like to voice a complaint... (Score:1)
Re:Blake's 7 (Score:1)
---- Sigs are bad for your health ----
Doctor Who returned to the BBC a few years ago. (Score:4)
As far as audio adventures go, this is nothing new, either; the BBC has licensed a company named Big Finish to produce a series of audio adventures available on CD (website here [doctorwho.co.uk]) featuring the fifth through eighth Doctors, accompanied by most of their companions. They're also in talks to bring in Tom Baker, as well as Anthony Ainley (the Master), but nothing concrete has come out of them yet.
This is news, but it implies Doctor Who has been dead. It's not; it's still alive and kicking...
More info Links (Score:1)
"Death Comes To Time is a half hour Doctor Who radio episode. It was made as a pilot programme for Radio Four by producer Dan Freedman."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/radio/index.s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/news/01060606
Re:Where can I download it in DivX? (Score:1)
You can't download a video of something release special for audio... On the other hand, there are places where one can find DW divx...
I shall say no more
Re:Where can I download it in DivX? (Score:1)
and efnet #dwarchive
No No No (Score:2)
The other Doctors had their charms, it's true, but Tom Baker WAS The Doctor. And Douglas Adams wrote a couple of his eposides (The Pirate Planet being the one I can recall off the top of my head.) Proof enough, if you ask me.
You go get a sample of his DNA and I'll break out the Jr. Scientist's Cloning Kit.
Doctor? (Score:2)
Lets bring back other shows (Score:2)
Doctor Who and the KrikkitMen (Score:1)
why is this one little thing considered news? (Score:1)
Re:I'd settle for buying the old stuff on DVD. (Score:1)
"Money? What's that?"
Come on, the Beeb couldn't smell a profit if it bit it in the ass.
Catcha' later,
Paul.
First episode... (Score:2)
Zaphod B
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
Just to add to the argument, Tom Baker, Lalla Ward and Douglas Adams were the best Dr Who team IMAO.
Be a Dalek at the NFT! (Score:2)
There is an original Dalek in the museum at the British Film Institute [bfi.org.uk] in London (under the south end of Waterloo Bridge).
The best part is you can get inside it, and it has a synthesizer/microphone so you can say, "exterminate, Exterminate, EXTERMINATE!!!" and you sound like the real thing.
Check it out, it only costs 10 quid to get in.
Off topic but interesting...? (Score:2)
It's called 'The Book of the Still' and is to be released next year.
He told me that in the book, the characters are fighting for control of a book called 'The Book of the Still', which is the one unchangeble thing in time. The 'Book of the Still' in the story is also about characters fighting for control of the 'Book of the Still', and so on...
There are also a few more surprises in the book; it sounded pretty fascinating.
Re:Fighting in Cyberspace (Score:3)
Other Doctors (Score:2)
There seems to be a really strong Tom Baker emphasis here... (Which I completely agree with!)
But the 1st and 2nd doctor are also good. I don't think many Who fans have really watched the earlier episodes though... It's kinda like 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th are not as good as Tom Baker.. so the 1st and 2nd are probably not as good too..
Which is a shame, since IMHO the 1st and 2nd are quite close to Tom Baker's doctor, and a really good watch too.
It's a shame you posted that as an Anonymous Coward. I hope no one minds, but I quoted all of your comment above. Otherwise it wouldn't get archived. You should really get an account. The ACs have really fallen into disrepute in the last year... Everyone expects ACs to just post crap...
I've been watching Doctor Who on and off since I was a kid. Usually what happens is, I watch and tape it like mad while it's on, before it goes off the air. Which it invariably does, and it's always the same story...ratings...
The First and Second Doctors had some stories that looked really good, but they were lost. A very significant portion of the First Doctor's stories and most of the Second Doctor's stories were thrown in the trash by the BBC because they felt the episodes weren't profitable. After they had their turn on the air in the U.K., the episodes were licensed abroad for broadcast in other countries. The episodes were made in the '60s and were black-and-white, but by the '70s, with the rise of colour TV, the Beeb felt that no one wanted to watch black-and-white stuff anymore. A number of them have been recovered in whole or part, but a lot of good stuff is still missing. I'd really love to see The Daleks' Master Plan, Evil of the Daleks, and the last episode of The Tenth Planet (in which the First Doctor regenerates into the Second). Also, that Katarina girl in The Daleks' Master Plan looks hot...!
Anyway, I like the Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee. He's a "man of action" who always gets the job done. Apparently, when asked about it, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he liked the Third Doctor. Anyway, it would be wrong to say he's my favourite...I kind of like all the Doctors.
I've noticed that a lot of Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) fans tend to be rather insecure. They take great offence if you diss their Doctor. Further up this discussion, someone called McCoy an "annoying twat" [slashdot.org] and got summarily slapped down to "0, Troll". If I had moderator points, I'd lift that comment to 1 so it would at least get archived, so the responses to it would make sense...
The Seventh Doctor was OK, I suppose. I think it was really stupid when he looked shocked and said "You killed it," when Ace blew up a Dalek early in Remembrance of the Daleks. Otherwise, he got some really good and sophisticated stories in his last two seasons. He also got some really crappy ones in his first season. It's a shame good stuff from the '60s was trashed but crappy stuff like Delta and the Bannermen is still preserved...!
I thought a lot of the Seventh Doctor's stories weren't filmed well. They were recorded directly onto videotape, giving them a really artifical look, almost like American sitcoms.
Anyway, this Slashdot article is about to drop off the bottom of the front page, which will surely kill off most of the activity here...
About a year ago, there was a Slashdot poll: "Most Powerful Doctor" with the choices "Dr. Evil", "Dr. Dre", "Dr. No", etc., but "Dr. Who" was conspicuously absent, and there were many comments to that effect. So, with this article, I'm glad the good Doctor finally got a mention on this website.
Re:Audio-only: the answer to cheesy special effect (Score:2)
Oh god yes. I HATED it when they installed a BBC Micro in the Tardis console. It was the time when EVERY FUCKING TV SERIES the BBC did just HAD to have a BBC Micro. Oi! BBC! No! Even worse was "Bird of Prey" with Richard Griffiths hacking into a secret computer system from his Acorn Electron...!
Hacker: A criminal who breaks into computer systems
Re:Doctor Who returned to the BBC a few years ago. (Score:3)
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
Well, it could be worse... FISHY SNACKS!!! [fedvideo.net]
I hope this isn't the Doctor's (Score:2)
Evil Aliens in Cyberspace??!?! (Score:2)
There are only two typical aliens:
1. People in a country that are from a foreign country (doesn't apply to cyberspace).
2. People born/bred in outerspace (e.g. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect).
I guess that since Ford Prefect tapped into the phone network from a star near Beetulgues, it's feasible that one might tap into the WWW from there.
Re:No No No (Score:2)
You'd have to clone Phillip Hinchcliffe and the various writers from that era, go and hunt down every single living relative of John Nathan-Turner and eliminate his genes from this planet...
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
RE: and McGann's Doctor is officially #8 (The
No problems there. I did, however see the BBC thing where they asked who should play the next doctor, and some people actually voted for Rik Mayall and/or Adrian Edmonson. Dear God. Imagine Rik fucking Mayall as the Doctor.
"Oh! Oh! Ow! Vat Dalek shot me wight up my bottom! Wight! Hands up, who likes me. Damn! Oh! Wight! I'm gonna kill myself! Oh, damn. I'd have to do that fouw mowe times. Oh well. Eddie, whewe awe we off to then? (rubs hands)... No we awe NOT going to planet MALIBU!" Christ.
Re:Where can I download it in DivX? (Score:2)
Licensing issues (Score:2)
WANTED: Scripts for 30+ year old Sci-Fi franchise. Pluses: engaging drama, relevant issues being discussed in the episodes, a flair for reducing scientific principles to comprehensible statements, excellent characterisation. No reliance on deus-ex-machina technology, complex sets and/or expensive special effects or the use of violence/gunplay to solve problems (apart from defensive strategies). If you are potato-shaped and balding and can and do sing "The Lumberjack song" at great volumes at inappropriate times, please disregard this notice. Folks wearing Hawaiian shirts to the interview will be shot.
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
Richard Briers' wasn't. "Oh, look at me, haw haw, I'm the baddie. Look at my hitler moustache oh haw haw, just doing it for the grandkids you know, oh haw haw... wouldn't Felicity Kendall have made a good companion..."
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:3)
Fish called Wanda? That was American money without the interference... besides, you can hold up the ratings and the finished product of Fox's first attempt... and then talk about the ratings of the series.
RE: BTW You're right about Brain of Morbius - that's the best Dr Who ever. All those Gothic ones are pretty good, but Brain of Morbius is by far and away the best.
Genesis of the Daleks was by far the best... creepy as hell, with allusions to warnings about fascism, blindly trusting scientists with an agenda, eugenics etc. but the Goth ones have the most special place in my heart. When I saw Gallifrey for the first time in the Deadly Assassin, a cross between a church, university convocation and a parliament, I was blown away - they'd come up with exactly the kind of environment gung-ho academics hate and try to leave.
Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:5)
- Decent writing
- Engaging characters
- Mixture of Baroque/High Victorian charm and high-tech
- Some clever sci-fi/horror hybrids
What they need to get rid of is:
- "fanboy" writing (dear God - let us forget the TV movie! The horror! The horror!)
- Overacting (RADA's finest, at their worst.)
- Reducing people to set pieces
- low budgets (they should remake it with Fox money)
- cameos where the people are demonstrating it's a cameo (e.g. that Richard Briers twit in a Hitler Moustache doing his usual set piece)
Let's face it - there was nothing engaging about the final series nor the TV movie. It was an attempt to do a more action oriented piece without the money. I'd take Tom Baker in a pirate shirt taking someone on in a dimly lit fencing duel in the Phillip Hinchcliffe era, than someone taking out a Dalek with a magic softball bat.
The show had atmosphere and tension and a curious interplay with high tech themed High Victorian Gothic/60s modernist and a main character who was Old World in style but McGyver and the Lone Gunmen when it came down to it. When they started dressing up the doctor in bright tartans and playing the same old "kill the menacing alien" routine, it was over. Where was the Green Death of the 90s? The Brain of Morbius of the 80s?
I think the USA and the BEEB should reconsider a merger, cause Who in its heyday was a GREAT show. They should do the Fish Called Wanda and do it American Money, British writing and acting, not American acting and writing, British money.
vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote (Score:2)
Well, your fingers weave quick minarets; Speak in secret alphabets;
But it's not really the same... (Score:3)
Reversing the Polarity of the Neutron Flow, yours truly, vistas.
There's life in the ol' Doctor yet! (Score:2)
The one quibble I had was with the following statement:
> Doctor Who is the longest running science-
> fiction series in the world.
Sorry, Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction *TV* series in the world. Godzilla probably holds the movies series record, beating out Doctor Who by nine years. His first movie was in 1954. His most recent movie in American theaters was August 2000. His most recent movie in Japan was December 2000. His next movie in Japan (alongside Mothra, King Ghidora, and Baragon) is this December. Heck, even Mothra first appeared in 1961, two years before Doctor Who. The old girl is celebrating her 40th birthday this July. Actually, Mothra and the Doctor would get along fine. Both are big on protecting the Earth from evil space monsters.
Mothra 1961-2001: Her heart can reach!
Nostalgia... (Score:4)
I really would love to see how the pull off more of their fine tradition of cheesy special effects.
I don't know about anyone else, but I watched Dr. Who as a small kid, and was really scared by lots of it. Mostly I think it was scary because the props and special effects were so bad. You'd see some monster that was just a guy dressed in green garbage bags, but you KNEW that it was just a guy in green garbage bags. I used to sit in front of the TV at my grandmother's eating french fries going: "oh geez! that's a guy shambling around in cut up green garbage bags trying to take over the universe! That's really freaking me out!"
Ahh - the memories...
Honk if you love Douglas Adams (Score:2)
http://www.bw.edu/~jcurtis/Scripts/Shada/intro.
Go have a look if you want to see some early Adams stuff - much funnier than your average episode of "Dr Who".
Re:Doctor Who should play on its strengths (Score:2)
BTW You're right about Brain of Morbius - that's the best Dr Who ever. All those Gothic ones are pretty good, but Brain of Morbius is by far and away the best. And it knows it is too - I can't think of any other good reason for the TARDIS disappearing in a big fireworks explosion at the end of it, instead of its usual make-lots-of-noise-and-fade-out bit.
Blake's 7 (Score:4)
>As an aside, anyone know what is happeneing with the new TV episode
>of Blakes' Seven that they have been talking about?
I don't know about a new TV episode; AFAIK the movie is about curently in pre?) production, starring Paul Darrow as Avon... set five years PGP (p[ost Gauda Prime.) Dr WHo I can take or leave (although I gre up withit); it's B7 that I've obsessively collected on video. 25 tapes at $25 a pop... worth every penny. I'm a fan, does it show? ;) (google for my username for further evidence...)
Some random B7 resources from my bookmarks:
http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~sclerc/Blakes7.html [bgsu.edu]
http://www.horizon.org.uk/ [horizon.org.uk]
http://lcw.simplenet.com/b7lib.html [simplenet.com]
For the benefit of anyone unfortunate enough to miss out on on B7, it absolutely rocks, being a cheesy low-budget BBC take on Star Trek - except the Federation are an evil repressive authoritarian state and the good guys are outlaws on the run - and they all argue/distrust/betray each other. A refreshingly cynical worldview...
--
"I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"
Re:Some problems with bringing back Dr.Who (Score:2)
I agree with you. It's going to be tough to please everyone, but I think that all the good episodes had one thing in common: excellent writing. Styles changed, the level of special effects changed from almost nonexistent to horribly cheesy, but the writing was always intelligent and witty. I watched the show up until the very end (at least as much as was possible by scrounging it off of whatever PBS station I could get at the time), and I think the thing that killed it was a shift in the focus in the writing to cater to kids and/or a less sophisticated audience. I also saw the 1996 TV movie, and I think it got too caught up in trying to carry the show along with special effects, and that just won't work for Dr. Who. The fact of the matter is that we Americans...well, at least American television studios...have no business getting involved in a show like this. Some independent film/video people could probably pull it off, but the big studios are too fixated on laser beams, explosions, and whatever other special effects they can cram into a production. This may work for Star Trek, but it won't work here.
And now to veer off on a tangent. One thing that I've always wondered about is the play on words in The Doctor and The Master. Was this a subtle joke? I mean, in academics, at least in the United States, the highest degree you can attain is a doctorate, and the second highest is a master's degree. So, does this imply that The Master may be good at what he does (evil, that is), but The Doctor will always prevail?
Re:Audio-only: the answer to cheesy special effect (Score:2)
Nice comparison. Ultraviolet [imdb.com] was flawed, but mature, proficiently made and extremely courageous, more so than anything the BBC has done in recent years. I'd be delighted to see a Who revival done to those standards (only with a little less angst and ennui please).
Coincidentally, 1998 brought us both Ultraviolet and the BBC's "Invasion: Earth" [imdb.com], which ranks as one of my biggest disappointments ever. The cliched script and one dimensional characters were bad enough, but add to that miserable locations, a shoestring budget and shoddy effects, and a "To be continued" ending that never was, and you have a truly horrid piece of SF. The worst part was that the BBC were inordinately proud of the effects: "Look! We've discovered computers!". It was all very embarrasing. IIRC, 1998 was also the year of Red Dwarf 8. The less said about that, the better.
Franky, the best thing that the BBC could do with Who is to sell the IP, lock stock and barrel, to a production outfit that will actually use it. The Ultraviolet lot would be an interesting choice.
Re:Licensing issues (Score:2)
*cough* sonic screwdriver *cough* ;)
Re:Licensing issues (Score:2)
Ho ho. I'm picture Rick Berman and Brannon Braga watching that, and going (Beavis and Butthead voices)
- Berman: That thucks! Sonic screwdriverth rock.
- Braga: Shut up, Berman.
- Berman: No, dude, sonic screwdriverth are cool. Let's make a show where all they do is use sonic screwdrivers.
- Braga: And we'll have a hot chick in a lycra unitard. That would be cool.
- Berman: Uh huh, uh huhuhuh. Uh huhuuhuh.
- Braga: Shut up, Berman.
Uhhh, that's a nasty image.Re:Audio-only: the answer to cheesy special effect (Score:2)
This Howard Gordon [imdb.com], the sometime producer of Angel, Buffy and X Files?
Let's hope he aims closer to X Files than the other two, hey? Thanks for the tip.
Re:Audio-only: the answer to cheesy special effect (Score:2)
BTW, Jack Davenport, who starred in "Ultraviolet", was just in "Coupling", a BBC sitcom that's airing on BBC America. Funniest thing I've seen in years.
"What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
Re:Licensing issues (Score:3)
At least they didn't take it seriously. There's a bit in "The Invasion of Time" where Tom Baker stops, looks directly at the camera, and says, "Even the sonic screwdriver won't get me out of this one."
"What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
Re:No brainer (Score:2)
Ugh (Score:3)
I guess the audio only will save us from realizing how old the Doctor and Ace have become as of lately.
Daleks DID climb stairs... (Score:3)
'Remembrance of the Daleks' [bbc.co.uk]
... in a 7th Doctor episode. It looked so stupid, I think it helped get the show off the air in the first place!
Semantics (Score:2)
The title of the television programme is Doctor Who. Not Dr. Who. Not Dr Who. Not Doctor Who? Not Dr Who?
The name of the lead character, played by a number of very fine actors, is The Doctor. Not Doctor Who, Dr. Who, Dr Who, Dr Who?, or any other choice of abbreviations you wish you use.
Call me silly. Call me stupid. It's just another example of the decline of linguistic accuracy, both in everyday society and on the Internet.
And I reserve the right to hate it.