Old Doctor Who

[trotsky assortment]

Since the old thread got locked, it's time for a new one.

I picked up the limited edition 'Davros' box this week.  Since I haven't seen some of the stories since they were originally broadcast, I thought I'd work my way through the set backwards, on the basis that Sylvester McCoy wasn't my favourite Doc.  Watching 'Remembrance of the Daleks', he was more fun than I remembered, although his Scrappy-Doo style companion got on my tits somewhat.  Looking forward to the rest of the set, as well as the other mountain of "Classic" Doctor Who, I received for Christmas.

Anybosy else here pick up the 'Revisitations 1' set?  I didn't have any of the stories previously, so that was a "must buy".  For those of you who upgraded to the expanded special editions, was it worth it?  I've read mixed reports regarding whether or not 'Talons of Weng Chiang' deserved to be expanded to a 3 disc set...

[Ambient Sheep]

Since the old thread got locked...

Wuh?  I had no idea, I wonder why?  It's only at 59 pages.  It's here, by the way.


In fact, if you'll excuse me, better update the list then (with apologies that I'm not responding to anything else in your post, but I haven't seen 95% of what you're talking about; I rather liked Ace, though)...


Sheepy's new expanded guide to Doctor Who threads

Main threads about the new series, in chronological order of creation:
2004/03/04 - 2004/03/20:  Izzard as Dr Who ? (Rampant speculation)
2004/03/20 - 2005/02/21:  And the new Doctor Who is... (Eccleston's announcement to the start of Series 1, just 14 pages in all that time!)
2005/02/27 - 2006/10/10:  New Doctor Who (Series 1 (27) & 2 (28))
2006/11/01 - 2007/05/21:  Newer Doctor Who  (Series 3 (29) part 1)
2007/05/24 - 2009/10/21:  The New Doctor Who thread (Series 3 (29) part 2, Series 4 (30), 2009 up to but not including The Waters Of Mars)
2009/10/21 - 2010/03/26:  The "New" Doctor Who Thread (2009 just before The Waters of Mars to just before Series 5 (31) aired)
2010/03/18 - 2010/07/27:  Doctor Who - Series 5 Discussion (No Spoilers) (Series 5 (31))
2010/06/13 - 2011/??/??:   So, Doctor Who. (started as Fry's questions thread, mutated halfway down page 12 into general post-Series-5-(31) discussion, including the 2010 Christmas special)

Other Doctor Who threads, also in chronological order:
Old Doctor Who (Original thread, 2005/05/11 - 2010/06/08)
Old Doctor Who (Current thread, 2011/01/14 onwards)
Torchwood Series 1
The Best And Worst Of Doctor Who... Ever
Doctor Who - where does everyone stand now ?
Torchwood Series 2
Torchwood Series 3
Doctor Who and the SPOILERS OF DEATH (aborted Series 5 (31) thread)
Recommend me some Old Doctor Who
Junior Masterchef with Doctor Who
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games


_{^{(Info from here and here plus my own further searching.  Thanks to Tokyo Sexwhale for reminding me back in February about the two earliest threads.  Further additions & corrections welcome.)}}

[Roy*Mallard]

Nice one, Trotsky! Great news regarding classic Who dvds being released this year (news from dr who online) - Planet Of The Spiders (at last!), Mannequin Mania (a revamped Spearhead From Space plus Terror Of The Autons - awl-fucking-right!), Frontios, Earthstory (The Awakening & The Gunfighters - another dodgy attempt to put 2 stories together), Paradise Towers, The Solar System (The Sun Makers & The Ambassadors of Death, amazingly and yet another dodgy attempt to link stories), Day Of The Daleks (with fancy new effects). Plus Revisitations 2 & 3 - 2 = re-done Carnival Of Monsters, Resurrection Of The Daleks & The Seeds Of Death - 3 = redone Tomb Of The Cybermen, Robots Of Death & The Three Doctors - both worth buying, i think. No dates confirmed, but special features have been. Confirmed dates for The Mutants (31st Jan), The Ark (14th Feb), Mara Tales (Snakedance and Kinda - 7th March). So a busy and expensive year to come.

I was very pleased with myself a few weeks back. I managed, for the first time, to get through The Armageddon Factor and i actually really enjoyed it. It's 2 episodes too long, but generally not a bad story at all.

[mycroft]

I like the tenuous links of some of those box sets. Is the Auton one worth the reinvestment when I already own Spearhead? Haven't seen the sequel.

Speaking of P'twee, I watched The Monster of Peladon for the first time the other day. Thank goodness for BrewDog ale.

[Angst in my Pants]

I like the tenuous links of some of those box sets. Is the Auton one worth the reinvestment when I already own Spearhead? Haven't seen the sequel.

Terror of the Autons is one of my absolute favourites, and often features highly on those "favourite story/most anticipated DVD release" polls.  Aren't they planning to make that available separately from the re-vamped Spearhead?  That's a bit naughty.  Either way, my answer is "Yes".

[Roy*Mallard]

Well Spearhead From Space was one of the first Who dvd's released and features a commentary and UNIT recruitment film. The new version will feature .......

* Regenerations: Documentary
* UNIT Recruitment film
* Down to Earth: Documentary
* New Commentary

Terror Of The Autons is superb and as good as (imo) Spearhead and also includes Roger Delgado's first appearance as The Master. So, for me, it's a no brainer buying the set and therefore, Spearhead again.

Ha, i really like Monster Of Peladon, despite, once again, it being 2 episodes too long. It;s worth watching for the phrase ' Come along, Aggador, old Chap'.

[mycroft]

I like Sarah trying to tell the Queen about Womens' Lib.

But yeah, I've been on a bit of a third Doctor bender of late as he was always my least favourite (although Sea Devils and Mind of Evil are two of my all time faves) and I felt I should check more of them out. This led me to view The Time Monster as well. No drink that time, either. Still, the ending's good where they're all laughing at Benton's cock.

[VegaLA]

I'd just like to say Bravo there Sheepy for some class thread digging skills. I occasionally like to look back on what was going on then.

[Phil_A]

Blimey, I've been waiting years for "Ambassadors" and now I have to buy it in some silly boxset combo? If any story deserves a release on it's own, you'd think it was that one.

[Ambient Sheep]

For fuck's sake.  I only have eight classic Who DVDs in total: Dalek Invasion of Earth, Spearhead, Inferno, Three Doctors, Carnival of Monsters, Green Death, Genesis of the Daleks & Pyramids of Mars...and now three of those are gonna be obsolete.  Thanks a bunch, BBC.  And presumably the new ones will look different and not fit on the shelf nicely.


_{^{Thanks, Vega.  It was first put together from a couple of older lists at Fry's request in the So Doctor Who thread, but I'm now aiming to keep it up-to-date and posted on the first page of any new Who thread as it starts, if that isn't too presumptious of me.}}

[Ambient Sheep]

*ignore*

[trotsky assortment]

Is the new 'Spearhead' commentary going to be in additon to the previous one, or replace it?

In some ways, digging around the net, I wish I'd not been so keen to pick up the 'Davros' set when the price dropped.  I bought it for two reasons: a) I had none of the bits featured within and 2) the original amazon blurb said the Davros documentary was an exclusive.  After a bit more research, I've noticed the exclusive documenatry has since been reissued on a third pressing of 'Remembrence of the Daleks' and soon the Davison story within the box set will be redundant, since it's being revamped as part of 'Revisitations 2'.  Still, I s'pose I have those other stories + audio extras now.

When 'Revisitations 2' comes out, I'll still get it for the other stories and extras once the price drops.  I'll certainly be a little hesitant to spend any more money of classic Who stories until they announce what's getting revamped as part of 'Revisitations 3' though.

[trotsky assortment]

Speaking of P'twee, I watched The Monster of Peladon for the first time the other day. Thank goodness for BrewDog ale.

That bad, huh? (Not seen that one myself yet).
I suppose with the bad stories, you get the luxury of pointing and laughing, as both Peter Davison and Janet Fielding did through half of their 'Time-Flight' commentary.  It's always a pleasure to get confirmation from the professionals when things appear under par!

[Bad Ambassador]

When 'Revisitations 2' comes out, I'll still get it for the other stories and extras once the price drops.  I'll certainly be a little hesitant to spend any more money of classic Who stories until they announce what's getting revamped as part of 'Revisitations 3' though.

The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Three Doctors and The Robots of Death, as mentioned above.

According to 2|Entertain boss man Dan Hall, that's it for rereleases, unless there is a siginificant vote for Vengeance on Varos, since the authoring was fucked up on the current version, so that the production notes disappear 10 minutes into Part Two (the layer change).

[trotsky assortment]

Thanks - somehow I missed that above.  Note to self: stop skim reading.

Yeah, they really need to sort out 'Vengeance On Varos'.  I read about the glitch ages ago and have avoided buying it as a result. 

Looking forward to that 'Autons' set!

[weekender]

As far as I can tell, the reason for certain box-sets is as follows:

-They can spread the total 2-story budget over both releases, but they don't have to do it in equal proportion. 

So by pairing something like Spearhead with Terror, they can spend say 70% of the dual budget on restoring Terror, and maybe 20% on restoring Spearhead (a lot of which was on film anyway so probably doesn't need much restoring iirc) and a bit (10%?) on extra features.  They therefore need some way of justifying a box-set release so while the Auton link is obvious, some of the others like Awakening/Gunfighters might not be.  I reckon they need a bit of the budget to spend on restoring Gunfighters, for what it's worth.

I expect box-sets like these to become more common, especially with a lot of the Pertwee stories (requiring restoration) still outstanding.

[weekender]

Speaking of P'twee, I watched The Monster of Peladon for the first time the other day. Thank goodness for BrewDog ale.

The Monster of Peladon is awesome once you realise that it's a satire on the 1973 miner's strike.  It's like using a science-fiction show to portray grown-up messages, but doing it in a well-intentioned but rather dull manner. 

I love The Monster of Peladon, leave it alone.

[papalaz4444244]

Is the new 'Spearhead' commentary going to be in additon to the previous one, or replace it?

If it's like the TVM second version then yes, both will be selectable.

I love Nick Courtney and Caroline John but their two-hander commentary on Spearhead is truly awful. 90 mins of two people that remember nothing so they just drone on and on. It's not their fault though, these two-hander commentaries really don't work. Nowadays they would have a moderator with plenty of facts to hand and a list of questions.

I strongly suspect the new (second) commentary will feature Terrance Dicks and the Down To Earth feature seems to support this. Uncle Terrance talking about the new Earth Exile format and the Autons should be a lot more interesting.

[biggytitbo]

Terror of the Autons is one of my absolute favourites, and often features highly on those "favourite story/most anticipated DVD release" polls.  Aren't they planning to make that available separately from the re-vamped Spearhead?  That's a bit naughty.  Either way, my answer is "Yes".

I love Terror of tne Autons, the absolute grade a example of Doctor Whos pulp fiction period. Itd still scare the kids today!

[Norton Canes]

The inclusion of the TV Movie completely put me off getting the Revisions 1 boxset. If they'd have gone for Carnival of Monsters in its place, to make a Holmes triple-whammy, I'd have been very tempted... but nothing is going to persuade me to part with cash for that sorry McGann saga.

[papalaz4444244]

The inclusion of the TV Movie completely put me off getting the Revisions 1 boxset. If they'd have gone for Carnival of Monsters in its place, to make a Holmes triple-whammy, I'd have been very tempted... but nothing is going to persuade me to part with cash for that sorry McGann saga.

I won't reopen the TV Movie argument... but the McCoy/McGann commentary and production subtitles alone were worth it to me.

But the "making of" documentary and the comprehensive interviews with Philip Segal are utterly fascinating. I used to think Segal was a knob but after watching this I really feel sorry for the guy. It won't change anyone's opinion of the movie itself if you really hate it but it's an incredible part of Doctor Who's history and undeniably influenced the post 2005-series. It's still slightly thrilling to hear of his work with Steven Speilberg and Speilberg's obvious interest in the programme. Segal's enthusiasm for Doctor Who and his ebullient manner made me reconsider his contribution in keeping the programme alive in the public eye even though no-one, including him, found the end product satisfactory.

The short feature about the TARDIS interior is also frustratingly annoying. The detailing that was never on screen is astounding.

[mycroft]

papalaz, have you read Philip Segal's Regeneration book on the making of the movie? Really interesting stuff in there on the early days of the project (and some of the hideous ideas that were in place originally, as well what would have happened if a series had come about). It's also funny to see the list of who they were considering as the Doctor, which is essentially a list of British men who can talk and walk upright.

Shame about John Sessions not getting it after putting so much effort into his audition, too - the script was a conversation between the Doctor and Napoleon on the eve of Waterloo. Sessions played both parts, and ad-libbed five minutes of extra material himself. Oh, and Tony Slattery was another auditionee.

[papalaz4444244]

papalaz, have you read Philip Segal's Regeneration book on the making of the movie? Really interesting stuff in there on the early days of the project (and some of the hideous ideas that were in place originally, as well what would have happened if a series had come about). It's also funny to see the list of who they were considering as the Doctor, which is essentially a list of British men who can talk and walk upright.

Shame about John Sessions not getting it after putting so much effort into his audition, too - the script was a conversation between the Doctor and Napoleon on the eve of Waterloo. Sessions played both parts, and ad-libbed five minutes of extra material himself. Oh, and Tony Slattery was another auditionee.

I've never owned a copy of that book, but I did watch his Mythmakers very recently for the first time and lots of that was covered.

Yes, some of the aborted scripts were actually FAR worse than the finished product. We should count ourselves lucky.

[The Roofdog]

Isn't it time for a new S6 thread yet? What the fuck are

Spoiler alert

the fucking Ood

[close]

doing back, etc.?

[papalaz4444244]

Isn't it time for a new S6 thread yet? What the fuck are

Spoiler alert

the fucking Ood

[close]

doing back, etc.?

Here's my guess...

Spoiler alert

Given the Men In Black vibe, I wonder if there is an Area 51 type prison and there are loads of different aliens in it. Well, loads of ones they have costumes for already, because of budget restrictions?

[close]

That might also explain the

Spoiler alert

Sontaran seen in recent set report pictures.

[close]

[Norton Canes]

Nope, that's from a different story.

[biggytitbo]

Spoiler alert

Matthew Grahams

[close]

story is apparently about

Spoiler alert

clones

[close]

, so the Sontarons coming back obviously fits. Although it sounds too much like the Poison Sky and I don't like the Sontarons much anyway.

[The Roofdog]

Is it set on Sontar? A Sontaran kind-of-origin story would be nice.

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

Spoiler alert

The Ood

[close]

are in Neil Gaiman's episode. Along with the Nazis and the musketeers seen at the beginning of the Series 6 trailer. Apparently Gaiman's episode is inspired by "The War Games".

[trotsky assortment]

Bringing  things back to Old 'Who'...  I finally got around to watching the commentary on 'The War Machines' yesterday.  Surprisingly informative - Michael Ferguson remembered quite a lot of stuff considering it was made so long ago.

The fact that Anneke Wills made a few references to 'The Smugglers' really piqued my interest in that story.  A quick google later and (obviously) it turns out that it's one of many we're unlikely to see.