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Doctor Who - Series 10 (Part 2)

Started by Replies From View, April 15, 2017, 06:09:22 PM

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Replies From View

Quote from: Mister Six on August 06, 2017, 10:25:43 PM
Even he seemed flat in that two-parter, I thought at the time.

My favourite part of that story was when Rory had to stand around in an empty grave for a few minutes, doing absolutely nothing, until the plot needed him to come back in.  That is Chris Chibnall doing his best attempt at storytelling ever.

Thomas

I'm very excited for the Christmas special - especially as I've watched 'The Tenth Planet' this year - though I am a shade concerned that William Hartnell's face and voice are so familiar to me that David Bradley won't intuitively seem like the real First Doctor.

I happily accommodate Richard Hurndall, though, so it'll probably be fine. But he served more as a recognisable outline, in the days before repeat viewings and hi-res promo images, and didn't spend 'The Five Doctors' in crisp, closeup HD (except when he bizarrely scoffed that bit of cheese or whatever directly into camera).


Replies From View

The Five Doctors did feature a clip of Hartnell right at the beginning, however.  So people went into that story with an immediate sense of Hartnell before they saw Hurndall in action.

Thomas

That's true.

'One day, I shall be recast. Yes, I shall be recast.'

purlieu

Quote from: Thomas on August 06, 2017, 11:35:36 PM

Bradley looks more Hartnelly here than Hurndall does, so that's something.

I just hope to God he doesn't spend the entire episode gripping his lapels and ending every sentence with "hm?"

biggytitbo

I hope at least once he completly fluffs his lines, and for 10 minutes in the middle of the episode he is absent because David Bradley is on holiday.

gloria

I predict Bradley will look into the camera and say "And Merry Christmas to you at  home!" and the camera will pull back to reveal he's talking to another character on a video screen.

Replies From View

Quote from: gloria on August 07, 2017, 08:23:10 AM
I predict Bradley will look into the camera and say "And Merry Christmas to you at  home!" and the camera will pull back to reveal he's talking to another character on a video screen.

Already been predicted, I'm afraid.

Shaky

Quote from: purlieu on August 07, 2017, 12:09:25 AM
Bradley looks more Hartnelly here than Hurndall does, so that's something.

Hurndall is just a bit too avuncular, twinkly old man for me, and his hairpiece a bit too silly. Bradley doesn't really look like Hartnell either but he captures his spirit much better and his face is less jarring.

If they pull this off, I wonder if we'll see stand-ins for the other Doctors on more than a fleeting basis? I'm sure there are many Colin Baker lookalikes wandering around out there. We could have an episode full of them!

mothman


biggytitbo

Colin Baker is already too big to fit in an episode, so we don't want lots of them.

Replies From View

Quote from: Shaky on August 07, 2017, 09:48:36 AM
If they pull this off, I wonder if we'll see stand-ins for the other Doctors on more than a fleeting basis? I'm sure there are many Colin Baker lookalikes wandering around out there. We could have an episode full of them!

A similar thought is considered in Moffat's interview for DWM 515:

QuoteWilliam Hartnell, the original Doctor Who, died back in 1975 at the age of 67. But the character of the First Doctor reappeared in 1983's 20th Anniversary Special,  The Five Doctors, now played by Richard Hurndall. When BBC Two commissioned An Adventure in Space and Time  in 2013, a wonderful drama about the origins of  Doctor Who, David Bradley was cast as Hartnell, also appearing in character as the First Doctor in several key scenes.

"It was Peter Capaldi who said, 'We could get David Bradley for the main show,'" Steven confirms. "And that's when I thought, 'Yes, well, I guess we can! We really can!' That's on video somewhere, as he said it at a Comic-Con panel."

I wonder if there is something slightly different about the First Doctor, which doesn't apply in quite the same way with the other Doctors? With Hartnell having been dead for more than 40 years, and with the precedent having been set 30 years ago with Richard Hurndall, is he 'allowed' to be recast in a way that you wouldn't with all the others? You couldn't have a  faux  Tom Baker turn up, could you?

"It's an interesting one," Steven ponders, thoughtfully. "I think it's tougher now. I think when Richard Hurndall did it, we weren't really that used to the old Doctors at all. In the same story, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee turn up in only loose approximations of their costumes. They didn't really get that right. Not really. And let's be honest, they look a bit different, because they're older. Back then, we didn't know Hartnell all that well, and Richard Hurndall looked vaguely like him. But looking at him now in  The Five Doctors  – and I love The Five Doctors, I think it's glorious – he's not  very much like William Hartnell at all. But it's quite an affecting performance. I liked him. I also liked the sheer class of having William Hartnell introduce it. You know, you see a clip of him at the start. That's respecting the audience. It's saying, 'We're not pretending it's the same man.' When you see someone recast with no explanation, you have a sort of resentment, don't you? 'Are we supposed not to notice?'  We don't completely ignore the fact that he's different, but I would say what David Bradley is doing is in a different order to what Richard Hurndall was doing. He really is – it's not even an impersonation, but it does evoke Hartnell very strongly."

It's a  really  tough thing to ask an actor to do, isn't it? "It's a very,  very  difficult thing to do. He riffs   on him all the time. In the way that you know Chris Pine in the new  Star Trek  movies riffs on William Shatner? In ways that sort of make you accept him as the same person. David Bradley's doing that. He gives you actual Hartnell-isms.   He gives you the mannerisms, but also subtler things. Like the way he says 'ship'. It's all there. You're not going to think it really  is  William Hartnell – but there are  moments..."