Woochifer - re; Dr.Who

[RGA]

I posted this down below

Woochifer

Don;t know if you had the chance to see the first episode but I saw it tonight. Though I wasn't overly thrilled with it - it could take stride as the series goes on. Having about 45 minutes as a pilot is not so great so it felt rushed. It's getting some poundings in the press which I suppose part of which I agree. The new Doctor seems like a James Bond take in black leather (to be honest not too Doctorly) and i understand he has said he will quit after this season. There will be a Dalek epiode -- maybe the 5th or 6th show.

The Companion is solid surprisingly and the effects are much superior than they were but still seem to lag behind popular U.S. sci-fi shows...I was also not impressed by the interior of the Tardis but they can write alot of that out as the Tardis seems to have a number of engine rooms.

I think the main problem was the pacing which seems to go very fast with little time for plot or character develepment -- accents are stronger here as well and that alone probably killed it for the US market.

This show will need to greatly improve howver because it's on par with the 1996 McGann film -- the Doctor needs that charisma that Tom Baker had or the dignified elegance that John Pertwee posessed. For a show like this to work it is so critically actor dependant. Billie Piper held her part so Eccleston is going to need the lighter touch.

If the show is going to have to tell it's whole story arc over 45 minutes then the show is dead...all the shows in past were four to six 25 minute segments and heck some of those felt a bit rushed.

I bought the 6 key to time boxed set recently and so maybe I'm being too hard on it because I've just seen the master (Who Pun) in Tom Baker. Then again maybe I'm not...would like to hear your thoughts on it if you get a chance to see it.

You're more into the statistical stuff of popular support and this is how the first episode Rose worked out "The Viewing figures for the first episode of the New Doctor Who series have been better then expected. Rose got an average viewing figure of 9.9 million with a peak of 10.6 million viewers and 43.2% audience share."

For what it's worth the second episode was a lot better than the pilot - the effects are on probably similar to the show Andromeda or Babylon 5 and FINALLy they explain why everyone speaks English -- the Tardis alters the brain pattern to allow communication LOL -- I love sci-fi. It's bright and colorful -- and a much darker Doctor --- Ralph Fiennes would also have been a good choice for a darker Intense Doctor.

Still the replacement is likely to be an actor by the name of David Tennant http://members.aol.com/actorsite3/add00/dtindex.htm He's a Scot with quite the strong accent.

[Woochifer]

Thanx for the heads up. Sounds like a promising start, and anything that adds to the sci-fi universe is a welcome development.

I remember reading that they were trying to return the Doctor to his roots as more of a mysterious alien figure. Looks like they've accomplished that.

I also heard that Doctor Who trounced the royal wedding in the ratings (3x more Brits tuned into Doctor Who than the wedding), so I guess that's testament to the Doctor's popularity (or Chucky and Camilla's current status amongst the populace). Unfortunately, it looks like this kind of popularity will just delay the Doctor's return to the U.S. because now the BBC might be emboldened to up the ante on whatever they're asking for the broadcast rights.

And BTW, some of the older Doctor Who adventures were two parters, so it's not unprecedented for them to go with a 45 minute story arc (that length is much friendlier to American television, so that might be a reason). The majority were four-parters, but if you look at the older Troughton and Hartnell adventures, a bunch of them were any number of different odd lengths.

Also, keep in mind that for overseas broadcasts, most of the classic Doctor Who adventures were made available as 45 minute edited versions (basically they would gloss over one of the cliffhangers, and add or delete footage to fit a one-hour commercial broadcast block). These are the ones that BBC America televised, and several PBS stations also aired these versions. Not my favorite, but some stations preferred to run a episode edited to run one hour each week, rather than airing consecutive half-hour episodes. My local PBS affiliate used to televise an entire story at a time during their broadcasts, usually four or six parts consecutively with all of the cliffhangers intact. This is definitely preferred because sometimes the cliffhanger setup would differ in the next episode.

I read that some of this season's stories will be two parters, so that would be the equivalent of the old four part episodes. I also read that the Daleks would be back, looks like you can hang onto that avatar for a while longer. I originally thought that the Daleks were in a rights dispute and would not enter the picture this season, but that might have been the Cybermen.

Oh, and BTW, what did they do with the theme music? I saw an interview with the composer who's charged with reinterpreting the theme music, and he wanted to bring the theme more in line with the original version. I would hope so because those reinterpretations from the 80s now sound painfully dated, and the original version had a certain organic sound that digital synthesizers can't readily emulate.

[RGA]

My favorite music sequence and visual opening is still the Tom Baker years - the new one is pretty good (not the visuals which have the names come up like Superman -- which is cool if you live in 1982 LOL. But hey the guy flies in a 50's Police Box so what the heck. The music seems to take the original and layer it -- it's a bit busy for me.

I added the last three paragraphs to my last post without mentioning the secodn episode -- i felt it was MUCH better than first - Piper is very good -- if they keep her up she'll be one of the best companions in the series...he's darker -- he has a goofy smile and seems a bit Bi-Polar. It's tough to get used to a Doctor like this. Though i do like that he is a bit of mystery like Hartnell who you didn;t always know if he was going to do the RIGHT thing...this Doctor can be a little cold. I don't want to give things away plot wise -- suffice it to say some of it is kind of sad especially if you're a fan of the original and know it in depth.

The key to time set was a hoot, and this was not really the best of Baker's years, but I like K-9 (even though this was to appeal to kids) -- I liked Baker's chemestry with the tin dog -- It was actually fun because I only vaguely remembered parts of two episodes from youth and 3 of the episodes I had not seen.

It's strange I can't seem to find Tom Baker with the Daleks on DVD??? And to be honest I can;t remember ever seeing him going up against the Daleks -- And I also want the very first show with Hartnell -- I saw it on TV a few years ago but no DVD??? I think it was called the Unearthly Child or something..Damn DVD releases.

The DVD's are very well done considering and you can watch it consecutively or by episode as they originally aired -- the tapes just had it all the way through which doesn't work as well because the lines are sometimes highly repetitive. Robots of Death for example the tape has the bad guy telling the robots to "Kill the Doctor" -- of course with a week in between it doesn;t seem repetitive.

I also bought The Green Death with Pertwee -- I really quite enjoyed it - a little warning about trusting big business and our reliance on computers.

I think I have something to collect now...LOL. And you know I've never seen Troughton -- apparently the idiots at the BBC lost something like 100 episodes due to mishandling or chucking them in the fire.

[Woochifer]

Good to hear that the theme at least used some of the original elements.

Keep in mind that the Doctor Who DVDs are coming out at a rate of only about six every year, with a boxed set mixed in for good measure. (To give you perspective, even now there are still adventures that have yet to get released on VHS) For a while, it was uncertain whether Doctor Who would even make it to DVD in North America. But, the first releases apparently sold well enough to keep it going. The Key of Time was the first boxed set because fans picked it during an online poll. I voted for it as well.

The latest boxed set was that Lost in Time set that featured a bunch of the rare Troughton and Hartnell episodes. Those are some of the storylines that have missing episodes. Apparently, the boxed set came out because one of the early Dalek episodes was recently recovered, and they wanted to promote it.

My local PBS station used to show some of these "recovered" episodes, including a few of the Pertwee episodes that until recently were only available in black & white. BBC colorized those episodes by borrowing a Betamax tape that some California fan recorded from off the air in the mid-70s, and overlaying that Betamax color track onto the higher resolution black & white master. Apparently some of the missing episodes were lost because the BBC routinely bulk erased their video tape libraries to reuse the tapes. Video tape back then was expensive, and the concept of rebroadcast and syndication hadn't registered yet. And I read that there was indeed a fire at the BBC archive. Now, BBC has a restoration team that tracks down and restores lost episodes from whatever sources are available. I read that most of the Troughton Dalek adventures are still missing. When my local PBS station went through a Troughton cycle a few years ago, it did not take long to cycle through all of the adventures that they could air in their entirety.

The classic Tom Baker Dalek adventure is Genesis of the Daleks. (Actually, I think he only encountered the Daleks twice) BBC America used to show it all the time, and it's probably the most intense of the Tom Baker adventures, or any Doctor Who storyline for that matter. Nothing lighthearted about it, it's a pretty apocalyptic storyline and it introduces Davros, the evil Dalek creator who would later pop up in a Davidson adventure. Given the rate of DVD releases (you're looking at 1-2 Tom Baker DVD releases a year, unless something steps up the pace), you might be well served getting this on VHS, since a lot of the Doctor Who VHS releases are now heavily discounted.

[RGA]

Man i'm going to write that down - Genesis of the Daleks -- I remember now seeing Davros - he was cool and ugly looking. I'm going to buy one or two every few months - my VCR broke down when i tried to play the Deadly Assassin -- I hat to rip the entire VCR apart to get the tape out. I've decided not to replace it -- I understand that VHS will no longer be made for any new films?? Don't know if has happened or will soon happen.

There is a davidson one called Rememberence of the Daleks with Davidson which i have not seen either or I don;t remember. I lived in Wales when i was a kid 1983 and I would tune in each week -- but it was Tom Baker I knew best (strange because this was Peter Davidson time I think). Do you know if they lost any of the Baker episodes?

I remember Colin Baker vaguely - and I liked Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor but not the actual episodes I saw.

I heard rumours that Spielberg wanted to make a film of this series --- but that was years ago.

Also, I hope they have a 5 doctors episode again -- Tom Baker, McCoy, Davidson, Colin Baker heck add McGann.

Lastly - I bought the Black Adder series on DVD for $10.00 Cdn. traded a few DVD's as well. I saw the episode "Potato" and I was looking at this guy playing the ship captain with no legs -- and what do you know it was Tom Baker -- he was hilarious -- he should have had more of a career after Doctor Who IMO.

[Woochifer]

Man i'm going to write that down - Genesis of the Daleks -- I remember now seeing Davros - he was cool and ugly looking. I'm going to buy one or two every few months - my VCR broke down when i tried to play the Deadly Assassin -- I hat to rip the entire VCR apart to get the tape out. I've decided not to replace it -- I understand that VHS will no longer be made for any new films?? Don't know if has happened or will soon happen.

I've seen Davros on two adventures, one of which is Resurrection of the Daleks. That's the one with Davidson, and it is available on DVD. (Remembrance was a McCoy episode, also available on DVD) Davros is evil enough in that one, but he was even more sinister in the Baker adventure because that story showed Davros' evolution from a scientist obsessed with creating a "super weapon" into a megalomaniac. (Genesis takes place in the past before the Daleks went on their intergalactic rampage -- Davros doesn't care that they'll slaughter millions, and in fact was overjoyed at hearing about that because it proved the superiority of his creations.)

My understanding is that the BBC is keeping some of the VHS versions in print, so long as they continue to sell enough units. Keep in mind that it might be years before some of the best Doctor Who adventures make it to DVD. BBC continually issued VHS versions of Doctor Who for over 15 years, and even then not all of the adventures got issued on VHS. At the rate they're going, it will take at least that long to get all of the complete Doctor Who adventures out on video.

I read that the DVDs of the new adventures will start coming out next month -- pretty much a matter of weeks after they air. Their plan is to sell single DVDs that contain about 3 episodes each and release them on a monthly basis through the end of the season. They've already announced the boxed set for the current season, which will go on sale not long after the season ends. Of course, this is all Region 2, which cannot be played on the DVD players sold in the U.S. and Canada.

There is a davidson one called Rememberence of the Daleks with Davidson which i have not seen either or I don;t remember. I lived in Wales when i was a kid 1983 and I would tune in each week -- but it was Tom Baker I knew best (strange because this was Peter Davidson time I think). Do you know if they lost any of the Baker episodes?

I believe that all of the Baker adventures are intact. The only truncated adventure was Shada, which had footage shot but never completed because of a BBC strike. The video release for that storyline edited together the completed footage, and then overlaid a voiceover narration by Tom Baker along with illustrations to bridge the gaps. I never saw it, but it seemed strange when I read the box cover. Only a few of the early Pertwee stories still had episodes missing. Here's a link to the site that documents the BBC's restoration efforts.

http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/

[RGA]

Thanks for the link -- sooner or later -- with any luck the new show will spark interest and get them to speed up bringing the old ones out.

I'd like to see the regeneration episodes brought out -- The Robot was Baker's First one and the Spyder(??) was the last of the Pertwee. The Lagopolis was the last Baker episode.

It's strange they don;t bring those out but instead the key to time year. Maybe they're thinking to do another boxed set??? I hope.

[RGA]

here are some reviews on the forums at Outpost Gallifrey -- man fans really get into it.. This page is a review of the second episode where the Doctor takes Rose to the year 5 billion to watch the earth explode as aliens gather for the entertainment. The effects of watching the earth bow is top notch indeed.

http://www.gallifreyone.com/review.php?id=2005-02

Also if you go to to this site http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/confidential/index.shtml on the left side there is a link that says confidential -- click that and then a new window opens to episodes -- episode # 2 has a bout a half hour documentary of the show -- but on the show's past and they intervvview Davidson, and both Baker's, and Elizabeth Sladen and effects crews etc. quite good. But they may give a touch of episode two away.

it also has part of the new music opening so you can get a bit of an idea.