Are those the ones where new software was developed to reconstruct the original broadcast color signal? I read some time ago about new technology being developed specifically for restoring lost BBC shows. They discovered that footage that's been converted from a color video signal to black-and-white film leaves tiny, almost invisible dots on the film. I think it was due to the color part of the signal causing minor interference with the luminance (black-and-white) part of the signal. The pattern of the dot artifacts can be analyzed and decoded back into a color video signal. Blew my friggin' mind. EDIT: Here we go: Chroma dots - Wikipedia Putting colour back in the Doctor's cheeks Recapturing colour from black and white film
Like I said, not as big a villain as the Master but still is a villain. Showing reverence for him doesn't make him an ally. And just FYI I rewatched the five Doctors right before the recent Christmas Special to compare Richard Hurdal with David Bradley. Also just because a character is tragic doesn't mean they aren't villains. Mr. Freeze has a tragic back story doesn't mean he's not still a Batman villain. And I think you could even say that Batman shows reverence for Ras All Ghoul, but he's still a villain. Not every villain has to be a straight up evil psychopath. They can have more depth to their character and still be villains. In fact the best villains are the ones who aren't totally evil just for the sake of being evil. Rassilon has also appeared as a villain a few times in the new series. Just like the Master he was brought back to fight in the Time War, and if there's any doubt that he was a villain, check him out in the new series.
Well, you have options to start -- and people say options are good 1) The beginning: the first episode of the first season of the first Doctor. The Downside is that as pointed out, there are several episodes missing, so you don't have complete stories or even entire stories (most have been reconstructed using audio and photo's and sometimes even with animation). Another downside is that the series at this time was very different. Slow compared to today and in many ways just a stage play on television. The focus was also very different with especially at the start, the hero being more the companion and the Doctor oftentimes more in the background (partly due Hartnell's age and physical condition). The Upside is that Hartnell is the blueprint of all Doctors who came after him. They all take an element of his Doctor. 2) Third Doctor The upside is, as pointed out, that there are no missing episodes. The pacing and approach to the series is also very familiar -- much more like todays show in setup and focus. The downside is that you've skipped the Second Doctor, Patrick Throughton, who is one of my top five favourite incarnations. 3) Fourth Doctor Upside, same as with 2) plus Tom Baker is likely the best Doctor ever. Plus, his stay in the rol is so long that it feels like a series of his own. Another plus is that many of his seasons are rated among the best of the classics series Downside, same as 2) you've skipped Throughton Alternatively, you can see which of the surviing episodes of the first two Doctor are rated best, and watch those. Personally, I would do the same with the Third Doctor since even though I saw them growing up (reruns), I've never cared much for him.
Thanks! Will check. Was Baker the guy in the hat and weird scarf? I did hear him being said to be the best incarnation of the character.
Yes, he was also the one who was the best at being the silliest and most serious at the same time. He could walk into a room walk up to a guard and say "Hello I'm a spy" then knock him out, then later in the same Arc, have a huge speech on the morality of the situation. His first couple seasons could get pretty dark and into horror territory while later they pushed the fun and silliness more. He also had Douglas Adams the creator of Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy writing episodes and later as the senior story editor. Both he and the 3rd had classic Dalek stories. This was when they were still at their most evil. They were straight up Nazi's back then and typically killed and tortured on a regular basis. The third Doctor also introduced the Master, and the original version is still the best. He was used a lot in the first few seasons as they were both stuck on earth. The 3rd though was one of the more action oriented doctors, regularly using martial arts and getting into fights. Unlike other Doctors his stories also heavily featured Unit and many episodes ended in huge military battles.
Soooo, after a delay of a day it finally showed up. Almost at 9PM, I really don't like the new delivery service Amazon started using in my city, it's a local outfit and... well the guy who delivered it to the door was just some dude in a car, no company truck, no company uniform and on top of that was using his smart phone to locate the address and so wound up going next door first instead of hitting my house. Then he just drops it off outside the door, doesn't even stick it in between the outer and inner door like regular post and Purolator and fed ex always do. I have no idea how this company still keeps doing business because I don't like the looks of them from what little I've seen of them. Anyway, I digress. Robot: The first Tom Baker story ever produced or filmed and it's... well four parts, does a decent enough job of introducing the new doctor and some of the new characters, unfortunately I felt the motivation for the villains could have used better fleshing out. Basically it boils down to a bunch of overly smart scientist types sick of being ridiculed and bullied who try to take over the world... I half expected to see Pinky and the Brain showing up at some point. The quality on the blu-ray is very nicely done though. Very crisp and well done visuals, they also did not force the aspect ratio so it doesn't fill the entire flat screen like on some other shows out there, instead you're watching it with the 16mm aspect ratio you'd expect from older films. Direct center on the screen. The special effects are those of the time and left marginally unaltered from what I could tell, they didn't even attempt to clean up some of the early green screen effects when the Robot grew large and picked up Sarah Jane, but after all those types of alterations are rather difficult to do, especially in this old of a film. Simple and elegant tale, nothing too grandiose, certainly a pleasant change from all the New Who introductions. (Which often rely heavily on massive action and more often than not something to do with the Daleks.) Not a bad first outing for #4, provided you are a fan of course, I would suspect that the dated filming techniques and the obvious special effects may cause some to be turned off by older Who adventures. But still worth watching and the Blu-Ray presentation is quite nice. Bring on Baker Season Two if you please, this short series of serials is going to go by quickly I'm afraid. Which I suppose is to be expected of Who in that era.
Yes and no. There are two Bakers who have played the Doctor. Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor who yes is the guy in the long scarf, and Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor who wore a technicolored clown coat. Oddly Colin Baker is usually regarded as the WORST Doctor, probably because the first thing he did was strangle his companion and because he refused to film the regeneration scene after his run ended, the seventh Doctor put on a wig to look like him and they just filmed him from the back till he regenerated.
Well one producer was effectively trying to kill the show during his and the 7th's run. They did Cancel for a little bit it half way through the 6th run, which is why he puts on weight for the 2nd half as he wasn't filming for a year or so. This prevented some episodes from happening like a planned return of the Celestrial Toy Maker. Fan backlash brought it back. He was treated pretty badly, and made to put on a Clown suit he didn't want to wear. He's a lot better on audio than he is on screen. The better scripts help. 6 Ways the Sixth Doctor from Doctor Who Got Screwed | The Robot's Voice http://www.pagefillers.com/dwrg/doc6e.htm Tom Baker Colin Baker
Yeah, they shafted Colin Baker pretty bad. As TB said, he is outstanding in the Big Finish audios. Although honestly, I think they all are.
He refused to film the regeneration because he was fired. Colin Baker was the first actor to play the role who’d been a fan when he was younger and it was his dream job. It really sucks how badly he was screwed over by almost everyone involved in the show at the time. Also, the companion he tried to strangle was Peri and that largely explains and justifies it.
Yeah, poor Colin. He really had an idea for his Doctor and it was a good idea: more mysterious, apprarently untrustworthy. He wanted his Doctor to be a lot like the First Doctor: someone you didn't always know you could trust and who would be unpredictable. In a way a lot like Nine and Twelve. Sadly, and this is the absolute valid reason to consider his era the worst, neither JNT (the lead producer at the time) nor the writers he had, were capable enough to pull it off. Resulting in porrly thought out stories and especially poorly written ones. And his idea thus backfired. Plus budgets went down and down, making the show look even more cheap. Add to this that Colin has a bit of theatre in his way of acting iwth big movements. Not really a problem unless you put that actor in a Multi-coloured outfit with clashing colours. It was the JNT era of bad outfits for the Doctor with Colin as clear winner. It stil baffles me that after the hiatus they didn't use Colin's suggestion of dresssing him in black -- or perhaps used the same outfit but in different hues of blue as we have seen since, it likely would've looked a lot better on screen and may have helped. Looking back, the hiatus was a good thing. It made clear that things had to change. And change they did. McCoy helped and especially Cartmell. The classics series ended wihile getting back in form with some better ideas and with better execution (though still somewhat flawed). Without the hiatus it likely would've withered and died. Not entirely, as I understand it. Even after he was fired he still wanted to film his regeneration. Except he suggested that he play the Doctor in part of the story and regenerate at the end of episode 1 or 2, and have McCoy finish it. That way he could have some sort of proper sent off (all the Doctors before him had proper stories to end their run). They refused. When it was finally made clear to him that they only wanted him to show up for a few minutes to die in some stupid way, he said no. I think Peter Davison had more of a reason . Poor guy acted his heart out in his death scene and nobody was paying any attention to him...
I've never considered Colin Baker in a dark blue suit, that would have really worked. I like some of his episodes tho, especially Vengeance on Varos, and Peri was a babe. Trial of a Timelord is a hard watch but McCoy's first season is way worse, tho as a kid McCoy was my Doctor, they were putting more of a mystique into the show and there were so many unanswered questions about his past unseen adventures, that really spurred the obsession!! Third and Forth are definitely the best starting points tho, agreed.
You mean it teased? It doesn’t need to do anything else, it shows the new Doctor and says when it’s coming, job done. There’s a small hint at what the story could be with items the 3 companions are interacting with having time messed with them (biggest one being Bradly Walsh’s character who’s paper becomes a vintage copy of the Beano)
I just noticed on my DVR schedual next Thursday there's Doctor Who The Lost Episode. I don't know why it's The as if there were only one lost episode but that's what it says. The description says an Animated Story by Douglas Adams so I'm guessing this is going to be Shada. There were a couple other episodes Douglas Adams wrote that never got produced but considering Shad a was partially filmed and is the most well known Douglas Adams adventure it's most likely that one. Also there was a trailer on YouTube saying they were working on an Animated Shada so it's gotta be that. I already own and read the book but I guess I'll check out this animated version.
Shada's not fully animated, they just animate the scenes not filmed. It's good, for some reason they held it back from America for over a year.
