Well at DragonCon and Christopher Eccleston has said due to his feelings about the BBC it’s very unlikely he will appear in the 60th anniversary. He is enjoying and will keep doing Big Finish audios. Billie Piper sadly canceled coming at the last minute.
That's odd because a few month's ago he said he was willing to appear in the 60th special because he wants to get paid. Either way, he needs to put on his big boy pants and just do it for the fans, not for BBC.
Rewatched a couple more Tom Baker stories that I hadn't seen in years. "The Face of Evil". Another "ah, I remember this" as the story went along. Pretty good also with great ideas and good visuals and designs -- smart use of the corridor system. And Leela had an excellent introduction and is an excellent character. (We had already seen "Robots..." and "Talons..." in the past few years so we skipped those.) "Horror of Fang Rock". I don't know if it's because it was filmed in another studio or because of the new producer, but it felt so different from the previous stories. Still, again a good idea with decent execution. Some of the minitures looked really bad and every shot at the top of the lighthouse had this outline around from being filmed against a different background. The alien was also better when talked about than shown. Baker was excellent and especially when he admits to having made a mistake does the tension rise. And Leela now dresssed in normal clothes is again brilliant. She makes me forget Sarah Jane. The other characters were mostly great and developed good throughout the stories with plausible ends and motivations. All save the secretary. She got on my nerves and I was happy to see her die. Interestingly enough, although there were several reruns of the Tom Baker years in the 90's (on the Super Channel) and I saw them if I could, I absolutely could not remember this story. At all. (I didn't get The Invisible Enemy due to the negative reviews) "Image of the Fendahl" What the hel happened here? Poor Leela what have they done to you. Bad hair, skin of a freckled red head and that outfit that's even more revealing than her previous, believable warrior garb. Add to this several butt-cheek shots, an upskirt shot and The Doctor falling on top of her. Story was one of great ideas not really executed properly -- apparently writer Chris Boucher was unable to finish it properly because he went to Blakes 7 (thankfully). Not bad but it had the potential to be better. It's tempting to say that I see a difference between the Hinchcliff era and the Graham Williams era. What I didn't see was like with "Horror..." anything I recognised from a previous viewing. Did I perhaps miss this due to college/work? "The Sunmakers" I hadn't planned on getting this but seeing favourable comments and knowing Micheal Keating (Villa in Blakes 7) was in it, I bought it anyway as a last minute decision that arrived just in time to continue. Definitely glad I did. A good story and well produced, despite the financial troubles at the time. I think it was a good idea to split The Doctor and Leela, because Leela is very good in this. Actually, Leela with the exception of "Image..." has become a favourite classic companion of mine, top five companion with Jamie/Zoe, Sarah Jane and Ace. But I almost missed the solution to the story and think it could've use a few more lines of dialogue to explain what happened. Also a very brutal story with the people throwing the oppressor from a roof. But great acting all around. And again, nothing was familiar to me making me question if I ever saw it while I thought I had seen the entire Tom Baker run. And that for now concludes the current Tom Baker rewatch. Didn't get anything else from this season since the reviews for those stories are not favourable and I want to end the Leela era on a high note. All I got left is "City..." but am pondering to get the Key to Time box (I do remember having watched the Romana I stories) and some selects episodes more from Romana II (that I also remember having seen before), like Destiny, and some early episodes from the last series.
The BBC almost blacklisted after he spoke about the wonky work conditions that almost resulted in someone getting blown up in a stunt in the first episode, he also never actually said he'd do the 60th, he said he'd do Big Finish only.
Nah, the guy went through a ton of shit, if he wants to do stuff that's in his best interest then he should.
From my understanding, DMP is too advanced for them to do in animated form at this time due to its length. As of right now, they've also said don't expect animated versions for Marco Polo and The Crusades either because they don't have the budget nor the staff to tackle them. I've seen the recreated version they did on one of the discs and enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see it in full, though, are they animating the whole thing even though they have Episode 3 in full?
Yeah masterplan, marco polo, the smugglers, the myth makers, and the highlanders are currently above their budgets due to high number of extras and costume changes and episodes that occur in those stories making them impossible to do accurately. The crusades is unlikely at the moment for other reasons like the vaguely incestuous relationship between richard the lionheart and his sister and also the fact the production featured white actors blacked up on top of the budgetary constraints. The next animations is said to be abominable snowmen after galaxy four possibly by the evil of the daleks studio (which is great if true as evil is apparantly the best animation yet and abominable snowmen is my favourite story) After that i can imagine whell in space to be likely, along with them doing the two episodes missing from the underwater menace, the space pirates and the savages seem likely, Masterplan seems like itll be the last one they do so they can put everything into it.
They fucked the show up so badly that daddy said, "You know what, I'm taking control and fixing the utter mess you made!!!" Seriously though, that's... actually kind of weird, but I'm okay with this for the moment as at least we will get good DW stories again.
I genuinwly thought itd be for just the 60th but it says series beyond... could russell want to write his own female doctor, or introduce the first gay actor to play the role. I would be fine with that, russell can write both those things so well. I dont even think itll be a return to 2005 as russells writing has evolved so much over the last *checks notes* jesus, 12 years.
Okay now they have my interest again. I think Russel will go back to basics before he tries another female Doctor or something along those lines. They have to get the audience back first.
I don't know how I feel about this. there is a lot, and I do mean a lot that I didn't Like about RTD's tenure on Who, there are seasons post RTD, that I loved more, but I have to admit watching the gradual decline of Who, I was relieved to see RTD back. cause when RTD got it right, DAMN did he get it right. so conflicted.
Personally I think RTD was the most consistent in quality as far as full seasons are concerned. Not every episode was perfect, but comparatively, Moffat only had two truly exceptional seasons and four average to subpar ones. All four of RTD's seasons were just excellent as a whole.
hmmm. see looking back I think that RTD and Moffat had some great ideas but at times couldn't stick the landing, but RTD managed to have decent season finales more often than not. Moffat's finales start strong but have weak endings, case in point: RTD's Doomsday vs Moffat's Death in Heaven or RTD's Journey's End to Moffat's The Name of The Doctor also, I think Moffat learned the wrong lessons from RTD about companions. I hate Rose Tyler I thought too much screen time and agency was given to the character( True story My brother refuses to watch Doctor Who to this day because of Billie piper. don't worry His daughters are fans thanks to me and my mom.) and the fact they made her Bad Wolf giving her even more importance irked me. but the truth is both Martha and Donna, toned it down and it didn't feel so forced. but jezus Clara Oswald! that girl finally ruined Doctor Who for me.
