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Old Doctor Who - Part 3

Started by Ambient Sheep, October 21, 2016, 05:20:01 PM

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JamesTC

The Trial of a Time Lord does have Classic Who's most expensive special effects shot.

Replies From View

You've made me tangentially wonder where the sixth Doctor's jacket may have come from.  He should have made it really.

gatchamandave

Quote from: JamesTC on September 11, 2019, 01:01:46 AM
The Trial of a Time Lord does have Classic Who's most expensive special effects shot.

Yes. Then immediately afterwards Colin Baker exits the TARDIS, still wearing that costume, and walks into a Trial set constructed of plastic vacform flats sprayed gold, for that look of expensive but tacky, finds that the judge is played by the Oxo mum in a costume equal parts taffetta, coat hangers and rice paper and they all start spouting Eric Saward's "banter" at one another.

The effects shot shouts out "Now everything has changed". What follows proclaims "Ha ha, no it hasnt, but made you look!"

purlieu

Quote from: gatchamandave on September 11, 2019, 12:41:11 AM
Have you seen Creature from The Pit, Warriors of the Deep, Timelash or Trial of a Timelord ? We are in pot making racist remarks about the kettle here.
Is this, like, really deep-level irony here, or did you miss the joke?

That can't be right, unless we're only counting English language shows.

Super Sentai, the show Power Rangers is based on, has been running non-stop since 1975 in Japan.

Kamen Rider would have been even longer (1971), but for an 11 year hiatus in the 1990s and Ultraman/Ultra Q would be longer still (1966) but that took 11 years off in the '80s.

Even then, every Sentai/Power Rangers series tends to have a distinct cast and setting, save for occasional guest appearances (unlike Doctor Who), and the rights to Super Sentai have moved around different production companies over the years. Saban have kept hold of Power Rangers since the start.

Replies From View

what other kinds of ranger are there

park ranger yeah but what else

Deanjam


Norton Canes


gatchamandave

Quote from: purlieu on September 11, 2019, 11:40:05 AM
Is this, like, really deep-level irony here, or did you miss the joke?
e

Er, a little from column A and a lot from column B tbh



purlieu

Meanwhile, in "I saw Doctor Who 10 years ago and I think it looked a bit like this"...

Alberon

Ian Levine didn't look too well back then.

Okay, I'll bite. What the hell is that from?

Replies From View

That Cyberman is the best one since the 60s.  It looks cross-bred with a Sea Devil.

Deanjam

I assumed Eddie the eagle had been a cyberman.

Bad Ambassador

It's from a semi-pro fan video parody of semi-pro fan videos, Do You Have a Licence to Save This Planet? The snake eats itself.

For copyright reasons, that is a Cyberon.

Replies From View

Seaberon


Have they changed the names of the Sontaran and Auton for copyright reasons too?

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Replies From View on September 23, 2019, 12:42:33 PM
Seaberon


Have they changed the names of the Sontaran and Auton for copyright reasons too?

No, I think they were able to get permission from Robert Holmes's estate, due to this and many others.


weekender

Quote from: Deanjam on September 27, 2019, 08:13:36 PMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eak26ohx1Y8&feature=youtu.be

The sound effects in that are utterly phenomenal. 

Also agree that nearly all of it was better than season 11.

purlieu

The Pit

At a certain point in this book, around 40 pages from the end, things start to come together into something resembling a really interesting story. And although the end is a bit of an anti-climax, we get what feels like the end of a really good story.
The first 3/4 of the book is utterly pointless, though. Characters just walking around, not doing much. Storylines and scenarios that have little-to-no bearing on the overall plot explored and then written out. At least half of the book could have been chopped without having any impact on the overall plot at all. The Doctor is only conspicuous by his absence: not only in that he only meets a couple of the 10+ characters explored, but also in him barely being noticeable in the few scenes he's present in, most of which involve him wandering around with William Blake (who is present for seemingly no reason, other than to very occasionally ruminate on the nature of Good vs. Evil) and making off-hand 'quirky' remarks. In the end, his presence has literally no affect on the plot whatsoever. There are a huge number of aspects of the book which are left unexplained; not in an interesting way, but in a "oh I forgot about that" way (the scene depicted on the cover, for a start.) The writing is amateurish throughout, more of a later-Terrance Dicks child-friendly style than that of a competent novelist, and there are a number of spelling and grammar mistakes in the first half.

A story about a the return of an ancient, Lovecraftian evil that the Time Lords mistakenly let into our universe millennia ago really is the sort of thing I think I'd get some enjoyment out of, but this was a mess and a total waste of potential. And time.

QuoteThere is a good reason. Three authors, towards the start of the series, were asked to introduce trial companions. So, over Love and War, Transit and The Pit, there are three prospective new companions. By the time these books got to publication, Virgin had decided on Bernice, so she had to be added to the two books. IIRC, it does have an in-universe explanation in Transit but its weak.


"It's a bold move purlieu, let's see if it pays off."

Small Man Big Horse


purlieu

Quote from: A Hat Like That on September 30, 2019, 04:11:37 PM
"It's a bold move purlieu, let's see if it pays off."
The Doctor and William Blake travel through time being exceptionally boring. Sounds good.

I'm looking forward to the end of the 'Future History Cycle' in a few books' time. Future Earth colonies are getting a bit boring now.

Still, it looks like Ace is back next. I barely noticed her absence.

daf

#2394
Quote from: purlieu on September 30, 2019, 04:37:02 PM
Future Earth colonies are getting a bit boring now.

I've never liked them - Just don't see the point - also monsters, robots, and space ships with their white walls and their "computers" can take a running jump!

If I had my way Doctor Who would be totally earthbound and just move up and down in history like a yo-yo doing comedies.

some of my favourites :
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Myth Makers (1st TV) (even with no surviving footage or tele-snaps, and just the audio, it craps over 99% of everything else!)
The Marian Conspiracy (6th audio)
The Kingmaker (5th audio)
The Time Meddler (1st TV)
The Romans (1st TV)
Other Lives (8th audio)
The Doctor's Tale (1st audio)
The Aztecs (1st TV)
The Roundheads (2nd book)
Fires of Vulcan (7th audio)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bad Ambassador


Phil_A

Quote from: purlieu on September 30, 2019, 03:26:20 PM
The Pit

At a certain point in this book, around 40 pages from the end, things start to come together into something resembling a really interesting story. And although the end is a bit of an anti-climax, we get what feels like the end of a really good story.
The first 3/4 of the book is utterly pointless, though. Characters just walking around, not doing much. Storylines and scenarios that have little-to-no bearing on the overall plot explored and then written out. At least half of the book could have been chopped without having any impact on the overall plot at all. The Doctor is only conspicuous by his absence: not only in that he only meets a couple of the 10+ characters explored, but also in him barely being noticeable in the few scenes he's present in, most of which involve him wandering around with William Blake (who is present for seemingly no reason, other than to very occasionally ruminate on the nature of Good vs. Evil) and making off-hand 'quirky' remarks. In the end, his presence has literally no affect on the plot whatsoever. There are a huge number of aspects of the book which are left unexplained; not in an interesting way, but in a "oh I forgot about that" way (the scene depicted on the cover, for a start.) The writing is amateurish throughout, more of a later-Terrance Dicks child-friendly style than that of a competent novelist, and there are a number of spelling and grammar mistakes in the first half.

A story about a the return of an ancient, Lovecraftian evil that the Time Lords mistakenly let into our universe millennia ago really is the sort of thing I think I'd get some enjoyment out of, but this was a mess and a total waste of potential. And time.

I found this one excruciating on so many levels, in fact it took me until last year to finally finish it, having originally bought a copy of the book back in 2002 or something.

There's the germ of a good idea or two in there but the sheer drudgery of the awful writing makes it feel like torture to get through. It's that classic first-time writer mistake of trying to cram every idea you've ever had into one story regardless of whether it makes sense or not - so The Pit has a murder mystery, a multi-dimensional conspiracy, Evil From The Dawn Of Time, android death squads, shape-shifting assassins, Time Lord mythology and William Blake, all thrown together in the most cack-handed, bizarrely unengaging mess of a story I think I've ever seen published as an official tie-in to a TV show.

As another reviewer pointed out, it doesn't even feel like it was edited, maybe Darvill-Evans was distracted by his own book at the time and just let it pass without proper scrutiny but I can't believe it got published in the state it was in.

It's so bad as a piece of writing that being followed by "Deceit" actually feels like a step up. Bearing in mind that "Deceit" is absolutely terrible.

purlieu

Quote from: daf on September 30, 2019, 05:23:21 PM
I've never liked them - Just don't see the point - also monsters, robots, and space ships with their white walls and their "computers" can take a running jump!
Bahaha.

I make no secret of the fact that Earth-based stories tend to be my favourite, but there are so many good stories set out in space. I just don't want about seven or eight Earth Empire stories in a row. The whole thing about Who is how varied it can be, surely?


Quote from: Phil_A on September 30, 2019, 07:51:00 PM
As another reviewer pointed out, it doesn't even feel like it was edited, maybe Darvill-Evans was distracted by his own book at the time and just let it pass without proper scrutiny but I can't believe it got published in the state it was in.
Yeah, it really did feel like fanfic. The fact that it was let through any sort of quality control process is difficult to fathom.
Quote
It's so bad as a piece of writing that being followed by "Deceit" actually feels like a step up. Bearing in mind that "Deceit" is absolutely terrible.
Yes, I spotted it has a rather low rating too, although the front cover alone does at least suggest that there's going to be something interesting in there at least.

I mean, that really is a 'what the fuck is going on there?!' picture.

I'm about 80 pages in, The Doctor has appeared for two pages and can't remember who he is. Absolom Daak is appearing in prose for the first time (never read the comics but, y'know), and Ace has been nude already once. Hmm.

Replies From View

To appear nude more than once would she need to get dressed in between?

purlieu

I'd say yes, generally, although a single period of nudity separated by a significant bulk of the novel might be allowed.