Old Doctor Who - Part 4

[purlieu]

The Concorde thing already sets it off on a bad start for me. I can't help thinking that a good story normally starts with a good story, rather than "what novelty thing can we set a story around?" See also: "where can we go for a story this week?"

[McDead]

Anyway, musing here on a Wednesday morning. Really, really enjoying that these repeats are on in the evenings like this; like revisiting old friends. I found myself feeling all excited Monday on the train ahead of a long slog of a day, thinking ahead to that night's old Doctor Who episodes!

It's been great lately -- a bit of old Star Trek after supper, the Doctor Whos, then a muttered 'fuck's sake' every time I see that goddamned grocer's apostrophe in the opening credits of UFO.

I've enjoyed these reruns so much, I've bothered the forces TV twitter account to show more in the future. And if that doesn't work, well I fear some sort of Day of Action is in order

[Attila]

I've enjoyed these reruns so much, I've bothered the forces TV twitter account to show more in the future. And if that doesn't work, well I fear some sort of Day of Action is in order

I think it'd be great if they dipped into the 1st and 2nd Doctor ones -- and deffo more of the scarier 4th Doctor ones from the Philip Hincliffe era! Inferno is also a top notch 3rd Doctor.

[Attila]

Me too (though I was a bit younger). Him and Paul Mariner.

I'm not familiar with Paul Mariner, but as for your love of Peter Davison...eeeexcellent. (Big crush, too, on Fraser Hines, once PBS started showing the 2nd Doctor episodes).

[jamiefairlie]

I'm not familiar with Paul Mariner, but as for your love of Peter Davison...eeeexcellent. (Big crush, too, on Fraser Hines, once PBS started showing the 2nd Doctor episodes).

Died quite recently, Paul Mariner that is, not PD.

[Midas]

https://filmdistributorsassociation.com/release-schedule/all-future-releases/

It appears the two '60s Dalek films are getting re-released as a double bill in UK cinemas in July.

[Malcy]

https://filmdistributorsassociation.com/release-schedule/all-future-releases/

It appears the two '60s Dalek films are getting re-released as a double bill in UK cinemas in July.

I'd be up for that but that website is thin on the ground with info.

Going to have to have a good look through the site, can't pass up an opportunity to see a film called 'My Fat Arse and I'!

[olliebean]

https://filmdistributorsassociation.com/release-schedule/all-future-releases/

It appears the two '60s Dalek films are getting re-released as a double bill in UK cinemas in July.

Strange timing, surely next year would make more sense.

[jenna appleseed]

Biggest mistake they made with Time-Flight was upon being given permission to film aboard Concorde, not actually filming much aboard Concorde and instead turning the story into some shonky hokum about the Master in a daft racist disguise.

Time-Flight should have been a taut two-part bottle story set almost entirely aboard the plane, along the lines of the new series' Midnight.

There's a short story in one of the Davison era annuals (Night Flight to Nowhere) that's basically the interesting ideas from the basic plot of Timeflight but done right (only read it in the 90s in the Doctor Who special omnibus, have no idea which years annual it's from/if originally published before or after Timeflight had aired (fake edit: according to Tardis data core it's from the 1983 annual, published August 1982, and from google Timeflight was shown in March so... offical fix fic I guess?).

Has the whole plot about Tegan going back to vist present day Heathrow Airport and how her would friends react, the Master, a plane being taken over and an attempt to fly it through a rift (only with added hypnotism, androids and The Master being behind hijacking the plane + on looking at it again some great illustrations and a very pre-9/11 feeling moment of teagan freeing herself via having a nail file with her on the plane. )

At one point this happens and it's even more amazing looking full size

[Bad Ambassador]

The Master played by Vic Reeves as Loyd Grossman.

[pigamus]

When searching for something just now I came across this collection of composite VHS covers, bit rough round the edges but really satisfying to look at:
http://www.galactical.co.uk/tardiskey/pages/michael1.htm

[Attila]

Blah, our attempt to record then finish Vengeance on Varos fell apart, as the recorder crapped out whilst recording Part 4 last night -- Mr Attila spent more time faffing around than we spent actually looking at the serial. Was feeling like Areta was my spirit animal by the end of it -- and missed all but a few minutes of the 'fuckity bye' sequence at the end. Not even got to the 'What do we do now/dunno?' punchline. >:(

Still, crikey, had forgot just how joylessly violent that serial was. And Jason Connery's amazingly awful acting, especially compared with the delightfully evil Nabil Shaban.

Only dipped a bit into part 1 of 'Daleks Go Upstairs' with Sylvester McCoy. I like Sophie Aldred (I met her once a few years back, whilst on a flight to Baltimore -- the entire cabin I was in was me + every other seat filled with Doctor Who actors and crew headed for a convention), but have never been very keen on 7th Doctor serials. I would have rather they showed Fenric or Ghost Light.

I can't remember, tho -- is Remembrance of the Daleks the one where the crew nearly blew up Sylvester McCoy? You know the scene -- he's walking out of a warehouse set with charges, and there's a massive explosion behind him and nary a flinch from the actor.

[pigamus]

No, it's the end of Greatest Show in the Galaxy when he walks away from the circus

[daf]

[Alberon]

Though Remembrance did have a couple of really large explosions they'd never be able to get away with today. One of them got the police called out IIRC and another totally melted a dalek.

EDIT: Almost right. From wiki

For the final battle sequence between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks, the BBC Effects Department's pyrotechnics were so loud and the explosions so realistic that the London Fire Brigade was dispatched to the scene by local residents who feared that an IRA bomb had gone off. McCoy recalled that after the first explosions, a number of car alarms in the neighborhood went off, and the emergency services drivers were surprised when they arrived to see Daleks coming at them from out of the smoke.[8] The junkyard gate was part of ITV's storage facility, and the pyrotechnics not only destroyed it for the effect of the Special Weapons Dalek blowing it up, but also smashed windows in the nearby building.

[A Hat Like That]

He's got his eyes closed, do the take again.

I got through 1 episode of Varos and then lolled at the not-cliffhanger.

[Attila]

No, it's the end of Greatest Show in the Galaxy when he walks away from the circus

Ahh -- I'll admit, I think I've seen most of #7's only once or twice, and it's been years. Seen that clip more times than I've seen that entire serial.

[Attila]

I got through 1 episode of Varos and then lolled at the not-cliffhanger.

Mr Attila wtf'd at that too -- that's the era of the 45 minute episodes, isn't it -- I remember PBS trying to divide the 2-part 45 minuters into four parts, and ending up with dumb/non cliffhangers on parts 1 and 3.

[JamesTC]

Yes, they are airing the 25 minute versions of Season 22 which means Episode 1 and 3 will likely have a nonsense cliffhanger.

[Replies From View]

Heath Ledger's Joker, there.

[Replies From View]

Mr Attila wtf'd at that too -- that's the era of the 45 minute episodes, isn't it -- I remember PBS trying to divide the 2-part 45 minuters into four parts, and ending up with dumb/non cliffhangers on parts 1 and 3.

There's a brilliant version of The Five Doctors that goes like this:

The Master, who has been routinely seen up to this point, unthreateningly emerges at the bottom of a flight of stairs somewhere.

CLIFFHANGER

[Norton Canes]

Those S23 false cliffhangers in full:

Attack of the Cybermen:
1. In the sewers a dark figure stalks the Doctor and Peri
3. Two Cryons - Varn and Rost - refuse to help rescue the Doctor

Vengeance on Varos:
1. Maldak advances on the TARDIS that has just appeared from nowhere
3. Peri is groggy from the transmogrifier but the guards will be arriving soon

Mark of the Rani:
1. The Rani reveals herself by taking off her hat
3. The Doctor asks where Stephenson has got to

The Two Doctors:
1. The Computer says that the work threatened the Time Lords
3. Anita offers to show the 6th Doctor to the Hacienda
5. The 6th Doctor starts to feel the effects of the Androgum Inheritance

Timelash:
1. The Doctor tells Peri not to go wandering off, and she snippily replies 'yes sir'
3. A Morlox menaces Peri, who is chained to the wall

Revelation of the Daleks:
1. Natasha and Grigory hide from a Dalek patrol
3. Peri uses the PA to contact the Doctor, who tells her she's in great danger

[purlieu]

I think the Hacienda one is my favourite.

[Replies From View]

I think in some eras those cliffhangers would have worked better.  It's partly that the Peter Howell version of the theme creates such a dramatic 'scream' at the climactic moment that it jars tremendously when that moment wasn't filmed to be a cliffhanger.

[Bad Ambassador]

You can tell they aren't real cliffhangers because they don't involve a crash zoom into Colin Baker's face.

The four-part version of Revelation was actually shown by BBC Two in 1993.

[Replies From View]

You can tell they aren't real cliffhangers because they don't involve a crash zoom into Colin Baker's face.

That was more of a season 23 thing, to be fair.

[purlieu]

Every classic Who story should be re-cut as a part of the trial with every single cliffhanger being a zoom into the Colin Baker's face, gradually getting more tired and weary as he reaches his 140th reaction shot.

[Replies From View]

It's quite funny that it's really just exaggeration that sets those moments apart from real cliffhangers of the era.

- I was just wondering where Captain Oatwes has gone.  *INEXPLICABLE HOWELL SCREAM INTO MUSIC*

vs

- *stern expression of gross panic and blocked wind from the Doctor*  *everyone else freezes on the spot*  I was just wondering... *increased gurning* ...where Captain Oatwes... *increased gurning - this must be the worst of all headaches* ...has gone!!!!  *EXPLICABLE HOWELL SCREAM INTO MUSIC*

[Attila]

I think the Hacienda one is my favourite.

This has me giggling way more than it should, just the absurdity of an innocuous scene or comment followed by EERZZZOOOOMM and the theme music.

[mjwilson]

Though Remembrance did have a couple of really large explosions they'd never be able to get away with today. One of them got the police called out IIRC and another totally melted a dalek.

EDIT: Almost right. From wiki

While doing some searching around the possibility of the IRA bomb I found this stranger-than-usual page covering the presence of the IRA within the show:
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Irish_Republican_Army

Initial reports from the British government stated that the IRA was responsible for the terrorist attacks which occurred throughout England on Black Thursday in the 1970s. However, these reports were later withdrawn. The IRA's alleged involvement in this incident was, in fact, a cover story designed to hide the true nature of the Nestene's attempted invasion of Earth.

Quite some whiplash from that sentence.