Doctor Who

[FishyFish]

Spearhead was shot on 16mm, so it'll be interesting to see what it looks like on Blu-Ray, especially given that the BBC have stated in the past that 16mm doesn't have sufficiently high quality for them to release HD versions of programmes shot in the format.

[Sprite Machine]

I'm no expert, but most 35mm films that get digitally remastered do so at 4k, so I would have thought 16mm would achieve 2k pretty easily. Although I guess it depends on the quality of the film too. It might look a tad grainy, but there should be plenty of detail there.

EDIT: Actually explained quite well here:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/993039/shame-on-pbs-masterpiece-theater/30#post_13167283

Interesting stuff. It's more about the random film grain confusing the encoders.

[FishyFish]

That's interesting to know. I'd just assumed that it was a resolution issue, not down to image grain on cheaper fast film.

[Sprite Machine]

It's also about lighting and stuff. Low light tends to make the grain more noticeable.

Luckily, Spearhead from Space is pretty bright and outdoorsy.

More here:

http://www.4rfv.co.uk/industrynews.asp?id=155028

[scottcr]

At the weekend I watched DT's final two episodes with the kids... As stupid, rubbish, nonsense and completely incomprehensible they were - I couldn't help but be a blubbing mess at the end of it, to the point when my 3 years old asked why Bernard Cribbens was crying when handed the lottery ticket, I couldn't answer anything other that "I don't now"

If I were to point to a problem with Moffat era Who, it's that while it's technically every clever and Matt Smith is great as the Doctor... It doesn't seem to have the same heart going through it.

[Mogster]

At the weekend I watched DT's final two episodes with the kids... As stupid, rubbish, nonsense and completely incomprehensible they were - I couldn't help but be a blubbing mess at the end of it, to the point when my 3 years old asked why Bernard Cribbens was crying when handed the lottery ticket, I couldn't answer anything other that "I don't now"

If I were to point to a problem with Moffat era Who, it's that while it's technically every clever and Matt Smith is great as the Doctor... It doesn't seem to have the same heart going through it.

That was RTDs thing though. He's always been great at writing character stuff, and as I recall even went as far as to say that plot was him was just a vehicle for that rather than anything of importance in itself. That probably explains why, like you say, his episodes could often be a bit naff on the whole. the finalé had some really great character scenes, especially between the Doctor and Wilfred, but it was largely just a long, contrived way to bring about a slow "death" and that amazing last half hour.

[linkster]

Was Pertwee the first time the show got 'political'? I cant remember the story (might even be this? brain says autons) but he does sing the praises of Chairman Mao at one point

[linkster]

Think I'll stick with Sprite

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/feb/14/doctor-who-classic-episode-an-unearthly-child

[Sprite Machine]

The Silurians

(Blog has pictures)

The fresh new look for Doctor Who dissolves away again as it returns to the studio sets for this disappointing seven part serial. I was looking forward to the introduction of another 'villain' I recognise, but unfortunately The Silurians was terribly dull.

All time and space antics are forgotten about here, as the Doctor is now a full-time UNIT employee, and the threat conveniently comes to England again. There's not even a glimpse of the Tardis this time; the story plays out more like an episode of the X-Files, with Mulder (The Doctor) trying to convince a skeptical Scully (Liz) about the existence of aliens living underground beneath this new nuclear power facility.

They're not really aliens, though, as they've been living under the ground for hundreds of millions of years, and now awaken to find they are no longer the dominant intelligent lifeform on the planet. The Doctor spends most of his time trying to strike a deal with their reasonable leader, who is later killed by a more aggressive Silurian, and a back-and-forth show of force occurs between the Silurians and the UNIT soldiers. Naturally, one of the facility personnel is secretly working with the Silurians in exchange for knowledge and power, and he predictably dies.

The plot is flabby and leaves things unexplained. The Silurians have a huge dinosaur that they control... but where did that come from and what happens to it when they all go back into hibernation? It's never mentioned again. What was the deal with the people being paralysed by fear at the sight of these creatures, but later on able to see each other and talk normally? What was that all about with the particle accelerator room giving people headaches? Was that related to the fear thing?

There were some good bits. When the creatures are unseen, they're more effective. There are some first-person shots of the injured Silurian running around outdoors that work quite well. It's only when you see them in full that they just look like blokes in suits. (Video recording under studio lights do not do these costumes any favours, they look silly.) Most of the banter between the Doctor and Liz is good fun, and I could happily watch him mixing chemicals and looking at slides under a microscope for hours. I also like the Doctor's new car, with number plate "Who1". Also the ending is kind of bleak, with the military deciding to just blow the Silurian base up, killing them all, despite them being no threat anymore. The Doctor is not going to be happy with the Brigadier after this, I'm sure.

Other than that, I didn't really like this one at all. It was too long, not very interesting and it looked cheap. As this was originally a monochromatic print that was combined with the colour from a poor quality NTSC broadcast, the result is very patchy and inconsistent. Sadly, inconsistent colour is going to be a problem for a little while yet. Hopefully, boring stories won't be.

[linkster]

Thats fascinating as this is a story I first encountered as a novel and I absolutely adore it. The idea of them going into hibernation to avoid an asteroid which then never leaves, plus all the stuff about 'if you went to sleep and woke up to a house full of rats' really excited me as a kid with the simplicity of such big ideas. It maybe made me more forgiving of the dramatisation, although i was won over almost immediately by it featuring Fulton McKay

I've just remembered about three stories I cannot wait to get your thoughts on. Will keep schtum tho.

[Exidor]

The Silurians

(Blog has pictures)

Attacked by the Silurians, the Doctor does that face again. I hope that becomes his “thing”.

[Lag]

The huge dinosaur ended up in a variety of minced meat products.

[davidcotton]

"Welcome, Yes Welcome to Max Warp".

Doctor Who meets Top gear in Max warp from big finish, try the first part free here :-

http://bigfinish.com/podcasts/v/doctor-who-max-warp-february-5

Cheers

[Davros sock drawer]

Surprised you didn't like The Silurians Sprite, I watched it recently and found it quite engaging.

Considering I think this first season is pretty much the only decent Pertwee I'm interested to see how you find the rest of it. Inferno especially.

[Davros sock drawer]

Oh, and I watched The Ambassadors of Death recently on DVD, which is the next story up. The re-colourisation job is pretty good, but episode 1 is in its original format and looks great.

[CarloOos]

[Activate Rose-Tinting] But Davros, the rest has the Master in it!

[Davros sock drawer]

Hmmm, yes.

I mean, Delgado is great and all but man is he ever in it too much.

Actually I seem to remember liking Frontier in Space.

[HarMGM]

Quite excellent news just came out.

The fourth episode of 'The Tenth Planet' is to be animated for the DVD release of the serial.

http://doctorwhotv.co.uk/the-tenth-planet-lost-episode-animated-45481.htm

[Davros sock drawer]

Nice one. I didn't realise they'd done The Reign of Terror as well, is it the same animation style as The Invasion?

[HarMGM]

Don't know for sure. I think the animated Reign of Terror still needs to be released I think.

[The Boatman]

It's in the shops now. It's a different company to The Invasion and the fast cutting style led to some criticism, but it's still worth watching.

[Davros sock drawer]

I was telling the Missus about Sprite watching the classic show in order, and she said "Hey, let's watch some'". So we had a full-on Saturday night rave up watching Robot, the first Tom Baker story, on DVD. I'd borrowed it from a mate a while ago and never got around to watching it.

Most enjoyable, and bizarrely I don't think I'd ever seen it properly before. A rare treat seeing a "new" Baker story. I thought it looked terrific as well, Action Man tanks aside, due to the first use of Outside Broadcast video tape, and some quite cleverly framed CSO of the giant Robot.

Both the documentaries on the DVD were good as well, one about Baker's casting, and one about the title sequence, which is an incredible feat considering the almost Heath Robinson approach to constructing it.

[Yartek]

That title sequence is such a thing of beauty so ingrained in my mind since first seeing it almost forty years ago that nothng can even come close in just sending a tingle up my spine and making me want to just jump up and do a victory lap of the room.

[Davros sock drawer]

And it was all done with torn up strips of plastic bags, cardboard cut-outs, and still photographs.

[Sprite Machine]

The Ambassadors of Death

(Blog has pictures.)

This story follows a similar pattern to the previous one: an alien force is discovered, some people want to destroy it, the Doctor wants to help it, and the mystery behind it becomes clearer over the course of seven episodes. Unlike The Silurians, however, I found this story to be far more engaging, interesting and well-made.

I suppose part of that is down to the way the plot unravels, with more and more people revealed to be working for the enemy, and by the end of it, seemingly no-one can be trusted! But I think the main strength in this story is the portrayal of the aliens themselves. Having secretly replaced the astronauts on their Mars capsule, the 'Ambassadors' return to Earth and are only ever seen wearing spacesuits (aside from one briefly terrifying reveal later on). A combination of their slow calculated movements, their obscured features, and uncharacteristic deadliness (their touch can kill) make for an effectively scary presence. It reminded me of 'The Impossible Astronaut' (2011) – there's just something about unseen foes inside spacesuits that works so well. It also avoids the "bloke in a suit" problem, because they're supposed to look like blokes in suits.

There are some unbelievable elements, however. This is supposed to be set in the 1970s, right? The writers were perhaps a bit... optimistic of the near future of the space program. We apparently have not only sent manned probes to orbit Mars, but can get there and back in what seems like a matter of minutes or hours, rather than the months it would actually take us. It's not even set in the US – this is all supposed to be happening in England! That said, I do like the design of the space centre set, and the space sequences aboard the capsule are quite dramatically and interestingly shot.

Having watched nearly seven years' worth of Doctor Who episodes, I have now finally noticed an actor being reused in another role. The head of the space centre is the same man who played one of the Dominators from 'The Dominators'! This was a little distracting, but he's good in the role.

I would have to say I did like this story, with the caveat that it was still too long. I prefer tighter, leaner, stories. Unless it's supposed to be an epic set across time and space, you end up with a lot of repetition – people being arbitrarily captured, escaping, recaptured, and so on. It loses its urgency, especially when the climax is squeezed into the final 15 minutes. Despite this, it was enjoyable.

One final observation: in part one of this story, we see the Tardis control room in colour for the first time! Except it looks like it's either been moved into somebody's house, or the Doctor has redecorated the walls with chintzy paper and framed pictures. Either way, I was pleased to see it and to get some mention of him trying to fix it – with an amusing bit of timey-wimey fun thrown in.

[Yartek]

Ah the date the UNIT stories are set in is a whole can of worms, they were meant to take place in the near future and most assumed they happened in the late seventies/early eighties and then a Peter Davison story cocked things up.

Tennant's Doctor even referenced the probllem with a line about "Working for UNIT in the seventies, or was it the eighties?" in one of his stories.

[Exidor]

I think it's fair to say the Earth-bound stories take place in a parallel universe similar but not quite identical to our own. One where the UK is a bit more important to world affairs.

Inspired by Sprite's epic journey, I watched The Invasion last night. God damn, the Brig is one suave motherfucker.

[linkster]

There are some unbelievable elements, however. This is supposed to be set in the 1970s, right? The writers were perhaps a bit... optimistic of the near future of the space program. We apparently have not only sent manned probes to orbit Mars, but can get there and back in what seems like a matter of minutes or hours, rather than the months it would actually take us.

I guess you have to try and imagine the mind of someone in the early 70s who had literally only just got used to the idea we had put a man on the fucking moon. Time travel probably seemed around the corner.

[Davros sock drawer]

I watched this one myself recently, and pretty much agree with most of what you say Sprite. It's good, but too long.

What did you think of Pertwee in this one?

[Sprite Machine]

He's a grumpy guts a lot of the time.