Doctor Who

[Space Gibbon]

Watching An Adventure in Space and Time made me want to see An Unearthly Child, so I did, and I quite enjoyed it. Then I watched The Cave of Skulls and it made me want to kill myself.

[Davros sock drawer]

I've got a soft spot for the cavemen stuff, as I saw it when they broadcast The Five Faces of Doctor Who in the 80's. I found it quite spooky for some reason.

The first episode is great though. It's funny how many common elements it shares with the show today, despite being so different in so many other ways.

[Sprite Machine]

After watching An Adventure in Space and Time, I do have a greater appreciation for what they achieved with those early episodes, even though I still don't like many of them. Those tiny sets they had to work with are crazy, assuming the scale as shown in the drama are reasonably accurate.

Is it really true that they couldn't do more than four cuts/edits in one episode? That's mental.

David Bradley was far better than I expected him to be. Those sequences where they recreate the show on the monitor were freakishly accurate.

[Davros sock drawer]

Well, I always understood that it was filmed as live, so it doesn't surprise me.

[SqueakyG]

In the 1950s most scripted drama on TV was performed and broadcast completely live. It was just the way things were -- radio and TV plays really were peformed like plays. By the 60s they had mostly stopped broadcasting scripted drama live, but it took them another decade to slowly change their taping methods. So Doctor Who was taped "as live". Actors and crew had to be able to perform at least half an episode in one continuous take, while the gallery mixed all the camera angles live.

I think they mostly tried to tape episodes in two halves with a break inbetween. If there were significant technical problems during a take, everyone would have to perform that entire half again. If there were only one or two line fluffs, they let it pass.

[Graham S]

Via Stiff_One

[zxcvbnm]

The frequency of new episodes in comparison with the RTD era is pretty rubbish. Somehow he always got them done, despite the utter chaos he outlined in The Writer's Tale book (scripts written very late, etc.). I don't know why Moffat seems incapable of giving us 13 episodes a year these days. He managed it in Season 5. I have no doubt that it's a complicated show to make, but big US shows manage it easily.

Quality, not quantity

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Quality, not quantity

Or neither, as Moffat has delivered.

[squirtle]

Via Stiff_One

Wow, that's actually brought a lump to my throat because in my head I'm hearing Tom Baker say that. Amazing.

[Hideous Kojima]

Or neither, as Moffat has delivered.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScapegoatCreator

[Rudi von Starnberg]

lol tv tropes

[Eighthours]

Quality, not quantity

13 episodes a year is not an unreasonable ask, considering that so many quality shows are perfectly capable of delivering this.

[Fireproofradiator]

I think it's a great show, which, based on the chart I've just made, has more magic and incredible moments nowadays than at any point in its history apart from some of Tom's. And bits of Pat's. The rabbit bit in the 50th, the TARDIS epiphany/skip forward 50 years in Adventure in Time and Space, "I'm a Doctor! But not perhaps the one you were expecting...", the Curator - THE CURATOR!!!

It's very far from perfect. In fact it can be pretty rubbish and I could probably list just as many things I don't like as things I do. But the fact the whole enterprise seems constantly on the verge of collapse - labouring under the weight of lore, duelling audience hopes and budget cuts - is part of its ramshakle charm.

[Mogster]

After planning to skip the reconstructions, I thought I'd give Marco Polo a try and have been pleasantly surprised. The serial itself is a bit on a slow side, but I don't think the reconstruction hurts it much and it's quite refreshing to see Hartnell era stuff in colour, albeit in still slides. I imagine more action heavy episodes would suffer more mind.

[Davros sock drawer]

Marco Polo has just been re-discovered, so that's one you could watch in full soon.

The Aztecs is the best historical Hartnell, it's really good.

[Meh]

I cannot believe how terrible that whole special 50th thing was. Jesus fuck, come back, RTD, all is forgiven.

IT MADE NO SEEEEEENSE. I KNOW IT NEVER DOES BUT IT MADE EVEN LESSSSS.

There were some funny bits, and bits with action in them, and bits with sucker-ridden monsters that look like me on my best day - but it was SHIT!

Fuck off, Clara. FUCK OFF.

[davidcotton]

Marco Polo has just been re-discovered, so that's one you could watch in full soon.

The Aztecs is the best historical Hartnell, it's really good.

Has there been an announcement about that?

[Kyouma]

Are you joking? The 50th was the best episode since The Doctor's Wife. The solution used in the climax was set up earlier on in the episode, instead of a random deus ex machina/power of love ending. The interplay between the three doctors was fantastic and funny.

Why are you even watching the show?

[Jack]

He is kind of right, it was good Doctor Who but not very good normal telly. The Queen Elizabeth/lobster thing bits were really dull with a few good lines, then there were 20 minutes of fanservice and callbacks, and then the credits ran.

[HarMGM]

Perhaps the reason why most watch Doctor Who is because it isn't good 'normal' telly, whatever that means, but because it's Doctor Who? Normalcy is overrated anyway.

[JPickford]

IT MADE NO SEEEEEENSE. I KNOW IT NEVER DOES BUT IT MADE EVEN LESSSSS.

What didn't you understand? It all makes sense. It took me a couple of views to catch it all.

[Meh]

Billie Piper, for one thing - there was no reason for the weapon thing to take her form, that I could see.

And how wasted was her appearance?

Anyone comparing it to The Doctor's Wife is clearly insane.

[Mogster]

The Moment's interface took what it thought would be a familiar form for the Doctor, but found it hard to differentiate between his past and future.

[Zio]

Besides which, of course, it was Rose that pulled off all that Bad Wolf shit at the end of the Ecclestone season, so as The Moment already stated it was the Bad Wolf entity, it actually makes perfect sense for it to take Rose's form.

I suppose the other major form it could've taken from The Doctor's life would've been River Song. Is that really what you would've wanted to have happened? Really? More River bloody Song?

[NEG]

It should have been K-9

[Meh]

Besides which, of course, it was Rose that pulled off all that Bad Wolf shit at the end of the Ecclestone season, so as The Moment already stated it was the Bad Wolf entity, it actually makes perfect sense for it to take Rose's form.

I suppose the other major form it could've taken from The Doctor's life would've been River Song. Is that really what you would've wanted to have happened? Really? More River bloody Song?

Okay, I suddenly don't mind whatsoever.

[The Boatman]

Does anyone know anything about 3D filming?

There's an argument going on at the Gallifrey Base forums over the Day of the Doctor running time: the cinema and 3D/2D bluray has it at 79-80 minutes, whereas the TV broadcast/DVD has it at 76 minutes.

This is because one is 25 frames per second, and the other is 24 FPS, hence the slower running time. The question is what speed it was originally recorded at: some are claiming that Arri 3D cameras would have recorded originally at 24 FPS, and the DVD is therefore speeded up. Others are claiming that it must have been recorded at 25 FPS (50i broadcast standard), and therefore slowed down for cinema/BD.

It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things obviously but there are a lot of technically knowledgeable people on here so I wondered if anyone knew.

[NEG]

Reading that just gave me a headache.

[El Pibe]

Number 3 in the cinema charts with just one day of showings is pretty impressive!

[Hexx]