Doctor Who Lost in Time set makes me a sad Whovian...
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Doctor Who Lost in Time set makes me a sad Whovian...
Last week I got a couple of Doctor Who DVD sets for the original series. The first was The Beginning, which collects the show's first three stories ("An Unearthly Child," "The Daleks" and "The Edge of Destruction," plus a 30-minute reconstruction of the lost fourth story "Marco Polo").
The second set was Lost in Time - Collection of Rare Episodes, featuring eighteen episodes from twelve otherwise incomplete and missing stories of the First and Second Doctors' tenure, in addition to various surviving clips, censor trims, and off-air footage. Two stories, "The Crusade" and "The Moon Base," are presented as complete by including the soundtrack for their missing episodes.
I bought Lost in Time knowing it would be a simultaneously interesting yet frustrating experience: some episodes have a beginning but no closure, others present only a conclusion with nothing preceding it, and some are just smack in the middle of a story with no explanation of what's going on or what will happen. But unlike one particular moron on Amazon complaining over incompleteness, I knew this would be exactly the case.
Doesn't make it any less difficult when you're actually watching them...
It's not so bad watching only episodes 2, 5 and 10 (out of twelve) of "The Daleks' Master Plan," which from what I've read seemed to be a rather convoluted sequence of chases strung together. It is irritating though when seeing episodes 1 and 3 (out of six) of "The Faceless Ones," since it turns out to be a rather interesting and gripping story about disappearing people and sinister alien agents at an airport. Much the same with episode 2 (out of six) of "The Abominable Snowmen" and episode 1 (out of six) of "The Web of Fear," the show's two Yeti stories.
The worst is having only episode 2 (out of seven) of "The Evil of the Daleks," easily the best Dalek story the show's ever done and there's just this tiny piece of it left.
So it looks like I'll be tracking down some of those complete story audio CDs that the BBC's put out in the last few years.
Something particularly interesting are the brief off-air clips, shot by fans pointing silent 8mm film cameras at the TV screen, synchronized with the relevant audio from the particular scenes; they have this strange distant, ghostly quality...
One of the other reasons for getting the set beyond my interest and curiosity with the subject was because compared to the other incarnations of the character, Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor is the one I'm the least familiar with. Since only six stories still exist in complete form, I ended up missing them back when the show was played on PBS in the 1990s. But after watching these surviving episodes along with "The Tomb of the Cybermen," I've really warmed up to his characterization, and look forward to collecting more of his stories, particularly "The Invasion."
The second set was Lost in Time - Collection of Rare Episodes, featuring eighteen episodes from twelve otherwise incomplete and missing stories of the First and Second Doctors' tenure, in addition to various surviving clips, censor trims, and off-air footage. Two stories, "The Crusade" and "The Moon Base," are presented as complete by including the soundtrack for their missing episodes.
I bought Lost in Time knowing it would be a simultaneously interesting yet frustrating experience: some episodes have a beginning but no closure, others present only a conclusion with nothing preceding it, and some are just smack in the middle of a story with no explanation of what's going on or what will happen. But unlike one particular moron on Amazon complaining over incompleteness, I knew this would be exactly the case.
Doesn't make it any less difficult when you're actually watching them...
It's not so bad watching only episodes 2, 5 and 10 (out of twelve) of "The Daleks' Master Plan," which from what I've read seemed to be a rather convoluted sequence of chases strung together. It is irritating though when seeing episodes 1 and 3 (out of six) of "The Faceless Ones," since it turns out to be a rather interesting and gripping story about disappearing people and sinister alien agents at an airport. Much the same with episode 2 (out of six) of "The Abominable Snowmen" and episode 1 (out of six) of "The Web of Fear," the show's two Yeti stories.
The worst is having only episode 2 (out of seven) of "The Evil of the Daleks," easily the best Dalek story the show's ever done and there's just this tiny piece of it left.
So it looks like I'll be tracking down some of those complete story audio CDs that the BBC's put out in the last few years.
Something particularly interesting are the brief off-air clips, shot by fans pointing silent 8mm film cameras at the TV screen, synchronized with the relevant audio from the particular scenes; they have this strange distant, ghostly quality...
One of the other reasons for getting the set beyond my interest and curiosity with the subject was because compared to the other incarnations of the character, Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor is the one I'm the least familiar with. Since only six stories still exist in complete form, I ended up missing them back when the show was played on PBS in the 1990s. But after watching these surviving episodes along with "The Tomb of the Cybermen," I've really warmed up to his characterization, and look forward to collecting more of his stories, particularly "The Invasion."
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I know in some cases with Dr Who, previously thought lost footage was found in places like Australian TV studios, I guess there's no more to be found? Pretty much what is around is what there is.
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Complete series ("season") sets would definitely be neat, like the US has had for the past few years with The Key to Time arc of Series 16. I believe a special edition of that set just came out in the UK, while ours is bare bones.
IIRC, a "The Trial of a Time Lord" set is in the works over there as well, so that kind of counts as a series set...
I'm not really bothered by the current release method of individual stories and themed sets. Right now I have the Beneath the Surface set preordered and looking forward to it, while the Tom Baker->Peter Davidson New Beginnings set sounds like a pretty good buy.
The only thing I could see interfering with releasing complete series sets is the fact that so many stories have already come out individually from all over the show's run. A lot of fans would probably be annoyed over the prospect of having to buy some stories over again just to get others that are newly released.*
*That might be a bigger issue over in the UK, since in the US, all sets save for The Beginning have their stories also released individually.
IIRC, a "The Trial of a Time Lord" set is in the works over there as well, so that kind of counts as a series set...
I'm not really bothered by the current release method of individual stories and themed sets. Right now I have the Beneath the Surface set preordered and looking forward to it, while the Tom Baker->Peter Davidson New Beginnings set sounds like a pretty good buy.
The only thing I could see interfering with releasing complete series sets is the fact that so many stories have already come out individually from all over the show's run. A lot of fans would probably be annoyed over the prospect of having to buy some stories over again just to get others that are newly released.*
*That might be a bigger issue over in the UK, since in the US, all sets save for The Beginning have their stories also released individually.
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I head "The Invasion" supposedly hasn't sold high enough to justify doing such an endeavor for the present time. Plus, didn't the studio who handled the animation, Cosgrove Hall Films, shut down within the last couple of years?
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By "series" box set, I mean the actual TV series, not an individual season. I'd like to buy everything in one box. I imagine it'd cost me two limbs, though.Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I head "The Invasion" supposedly hasn't sold high enough to justify doing such an endeavor for the present time. Plus, didn't the studio who handled the animation, Cosgrove Hall Films, shut down within the last couple of years?
Cosgrove Hall are still around, by the way. They are just seemingly more interested in aiming for a younger audience for the majority of their work on the BBC and other EU channels right now. When I watched their work as a kid it was DangerMouse, Count Duckula and Avenger Penguins to name a few.
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Jesus, Vald, the whole series? I think that'd cost a bit more than just two limbs.
Amazon carries a "Mega Collection" consisting of everything released in the US as of December 2005, 33 stories, for about $740. A "complete series" set would be several thousand dollars, something like $3500 or so...
Amazon carries a "Mega Collection" consisting of everything released in the US as of December 2005, 33 stories, for about $740. A "complete series" set would be several thousand dollars, something like $3500 or so...
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Correction, you don't need a mortgage for a house. I think you might for that set.Admiral Valdemar wrote:Pfft. They did it with Trek. Why not? I don't need a mortgage yet...
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There's about 150 or so complete (or nearly complete) stories, and at, say, £10 each that works out to about £1,500. Pricey, but not astronomically so. I think a bigger concern with such a set would be the physical space it'd take up. It might be more compact if they squeezed the stories on to Blu-Ray... but given the current price levels of DVD vs. Blu-Ray, it'd probably put the price up to about £4,000.
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If they left out any extras and combined serials into single 'episodes (i.e, trimming opening titles and end credits from the middle episodes), you could probably fit an entire serial onto a single disc. I've got the complete Blackadder set, with one season per disc - about 3 hours per.
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I'd say the biggest problem with such a ridiculous set would be the 60% forgettable, terrible, laughable, padded, nonsensical episodes. I own Invasion because I'd never seen it before - most of those I *have* seen I have no interest in watching again. Good classic DW stories make for a very short list.
andrewgpaul, can you believe people actually don't like that? Particularly on DVD, I'd at least like some dynamic chaptering to allow me to watch it in one run if I want - but all the 'fans' whinge like little bitches because the ridiculous 'last week on DW' and 'zomg forced cliffhanger' are apparently important.
andrewgpaul, can you believe people actually don't like that? Particularly on DVD, I'd at least like some dynamic chaptering to allow me to watch it in one run if I want - but all the 'fans' whinge like little bitches because the ridiculous 'last week on DW' and 'zomg forced cliffhanger' are apparently important.
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World's full of idiots. I think you've figured that out by now
The available Sylvester McCoy serials at least have the end of the opening titles as a chapter break, so you can skip them. Babylon 5 was the same, I think. Annoyingly, I did come across a show where that wasn't the case; you couldn't skip the titles because you'd then miss 2 minutes of the episode!
I was going to say that box sets by Doctor would be good, but you make a good point; the Sylvester McCoy* set would have Time And The Rani on it. Urk.
*My favourite of the original series Doctors. Sort of similar to David Tennant - Scottish, mostly comical with flashes of something darker. A friend of mine (who prefers Tom Baker) reckons it's down to which one you saw first, as a child.
The available Sylvester McCoy serials at least have the end of the opening titles as a chapter break, so you can skip them. Babylon 5 was the same, I think. Annoyingly, I did come across a show where that wasn't the case; you couldn't skip the titles because you'd then miss 2 minutes of the episode!
I was going to say that box sets by Doctor would be good, but you make a good point; the Sylvester McCoy* set would have Time And The Rani on it. Urk.
*My favourite of the original series Doctors. Sort of similar to David Tennant - Scottish, mostly comical with flashes of something darker. A friend of mine (who prefers Tom Baker) reckons it's down to which one you saw first, as a child.
"So you want to live on a planet?"
"No. I think I'd find it a bit small and wierd."
"Aren't they dangerous? Don't they get hit by stuff?"
"No. I think I'd find it a bit small and wierd."
"Aren't they dangerous? Don't they get hit by stuff?"