Oh man, I wanted one of those Marty Robinson introductions. Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of watching that very story on the new BR. But I'm surprised it was shown in colour in 77.
Between 1972 and 1984, every Pertwee serial was aired in the US from NTSC color videotapes, with 3 exceptions: * Spearhead from Space was shot entirely on film and thus didn’t have a videotape master, and so was initially offered to foreign broadcasters only as 16mm black-and-white film. It was eventually also offered as PAL videotape, but not NTSC, so no US sale is known to have been made until it was first offered as NTSC color videotape in 1984. * Planet of the Daleks wasn’t sold to the US during this period because the color videotape of Episode 3 had been wiped before the serial was offered for sale to any NTSC country. It was first offered in 1985 as NTSC color without Episode 3, even though a black-and-white film copy of that episode existed in the archive. It was offered with a black-and-white Episode 3 for the first time in 1993 or 1994. * Invasion of the Dinosaurs wasn’t sold anywhere during this period because Episode 1 had been wiped before the serial was offered for sale to anyone. It was first offered in 1984 as NTSC color without Episode 1, even though a black-and-white film copy had been recovered by then. It was offered with a black-and-white Episode 1 for the first time in 1993 or 1994. Several of these NTSC videotapes were the last known original color copies in the world, as the BBC had already wiped many of their own videotape holdings while these copies were still circulating in North America. Fortunately, many of these tapes eventually returned to the BBC, and off-air recordings of several others have been preserved, but a handful are still needed—see my post a couple of pages back (Doctor Who General Discussion Thread) for a full list. Edit: Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks may not have aired in the US until 1985; I’m unclear on why this may be the case.
I rushed my last edit to get into the 30-minute edit window, and didn’t quite make it. Please ignore the “Edit” bit at the end of the last post. Obviously, I’d covered Planet of the Daleks in detail above. As for Frontier in Space, it also wasn’t sold to the US during that period because BBC Enterprises believed episodes 1, 2, 3, and 6 had been wiped in 1974/5; copies were “found” in their own Sydney offices in 1983 and were first sold to the US as NTSC color in 1985.
I think I remember that Invasion Of The Dinosaurs got a different experimental opening for one episode in Australia? Somehow they recoloured some Pertwee thanks to merging it from the otherwise lower quality North American copies, but I also remember reading a very involved explanation about one episode where there was no copy of any sort in colour but a B&W copy had some colour information to it. Of course they'd never have had all these problems if the BBC departments had communicated with each other way back, or hadn't hired these bright bulb efficiencies folks who recycled or plain threw out prints and scripts. If not for home audio taper fans there wouldn't even be the possibility to do these animated our other reconstructions. There was Desilu in the '50s making sure I Love Lucy was around for reruns but even fifteen years later there were people thinking even elaborate and costly original drama was ephemeral.
I think you’re talking about Carnival of Monsters Episode 2. In 1973, ABC had accidentally been sent a color videotape copy that included a rejected reworking of the theme music (referred to as the “Delaware” version, as that’s the nickname of a synthesizer used in it) and a few extra seconds of footage. ABC ended up airing the story from black-and-white film at the time, and didn’t broadcast the “Delaware” tape until 1978. Here’s the Delaware opening:
You’re talking about chromadot recovery, which has now been used on at least a dozen Pertwee episodes. Here’s a brief segment on it: Here’s a wiki that goes into a lot more detail on the topic: The Unofficial Colour Recovery Wiki
WTTW showed Doctor Who starting in Sept. 1975! I recall watching it very early on in this era. WTTW - BroaDWcast
I guess that would be why I couldn't find that alternate opening on my Invasion Of the Dinosaurs DVD. Kklak! Thanks for the correction and extra info @indigovic; it's amazing all the methods by which past video and audio can be restored but that chromadot recovery is particularly impressive to me. I was thinking about what would be a good sole episode to showcase each Doctor and I think Carnival Of Monsters would be a good choice for Pertwee. It's also one I can imagine someone who likes sf tv but doesn't know Who would be able to follow and enjoy on multiple levels.
I know it's not a popular opinion but I really loved the season finale. And the timeless child plotline was such a game changer. I loved the evolution of Ryan and Graham character wise I really loved. Graham having to deal with the constant torment of being in remission of cancer I think was well written.
I wouldn't say I love it, but I'm not too far behind you. Doctor Who has always changed and reinvented itself. I do feel that this one wasn't motivated by anything except Chibnal trying to be epic and put his own major stamp on the show though. There's also some wiggle room for it to be undone, and this may even be part of his plan. I'm talking about the Master saying there was some relevant part of the Matrix that he couldn't access. This makes me not want to fully accept the Timeless Child storyline just yet. (And even if this isn't part of his plan, someone else can come along and undo it, which could happen given the controversy it's stirred up.) But many fans are outraged by it. I'm not one of them. I just feel it's not over yet.
For Jon Pertwee, I’d have to pick a story that features both UNIT and the Master, since they define his era for me. I’d also want one that’s not too long (so no 7-parters). I think best story that fits those requirements is “The Daemons.” Good story; big cinematic feel; good acting from the regulars and the guests; meaty parts for the Master, Benton, and Jo; and enough really good special effects (the opening storm, the UNIT trucks driving through the hole in the heat barrier, the church explosion) to balance out the really bad ones (Azal’s CSO, Bok’s baggy tights).
Web of Fear is getting an August release. Alas, the animation is the worst they've ever done. Looks like a video game from 20 years ago.
That is indeed surprisingly bad. Other animated episodes have looked much better. What happened? Maybe this isn't the final animation (I hope)?
I'm a tele-snaps with original audio person myself. The Web Of Fear I have has tele-snaps for the missing episode; pity that it's the one introducing Lethbridge-Stewart! After Power Of The Daleks I vowed not to buy these animation recreations, not that they aren't good or trying to be authentic, just a combination that fails to work for me.
Wow. Some of these have been better than others for sure, but this is the first one that I’m really having a problem with. The color version is really bad, and the black-and-white nearly unwatchable.
My problem is in the lighting—specifically the highlights and shadows, which are present where they shouldn’t be and absent where they should be. Things stand out sharply when they shouldn’t—like the shadows on the faces in the long shots. But then other things blend together when they shouldn’t, like all of the planes of the Brigadier’s face in the medium-close shots, so all his facial features disappear. These issues are compounded in black-and-white, as the few color cues that differentiate those planes disappear, leaving everything in a limited range of similar shades of light gray or similar shades of dark gray, with little in between.
I've heard (OK, read somewhere online) that every company that has animated any episodes of "Doctor Who" went bankrupt because, in order to get a high profile job doing work for the BBC, they underpriced the work so much that they couldn't make up any shortfall. There may be a grain of truth to this as, apart from "The Invasion" done by Cosgrove Hall all those years ago, the only other company who has done any episodes that I have heard of doing anything else has been Planet 55 who also made a series for the ABC (Australia) called "Prisoner Zero" - which was cancelled after just one season/series, ending it on a cliffhanger. And, yes, most of you are probably thinking the same thing I always think when I see that show's title: PRISONER ZERO HAS ESCAPED!
Season 13 teaser trailer was released today at Comic-Con Read that this coming season is only going to be 8 episodes long (due to Covid restrictions on production) and the season is going to be just one big story arc. So, I guess there will be no one-off episodic stories this season.
This may seem QUITE random/"out of place", but I've been curious(confused by!) for the longest time about the "arms" on the daleks! Does anybody here know why daleks have what seems to be a "plunger" for an arm/hand? That has NEVER made sense to me! Of course "making sense" was not really all that important, when it came to the Dr.! (or for any other sci fi, back at that time!) And I'm pretty sure that the writers/show-runners back then were just "making due" with what they had available to them, but out of ALL the episodes I remember seeing of Dr. Who, I don't EVER recall that "plunger arm" EVER doing ANYTHING! (besides JUST being there to look at)
*And, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even remember the other Dalek "arm" (the metal tube/pipe) EVER doing anything either!!! Ahhh! The "simplistic nature" of OLD sci fi!!! I suppose there's NOT allot of reason to worry about it now, huh???
In the very first Dalek story, the door controls in the Dalek buildings are silver discs that the Daleks manipulate with those arms; there are also a number of spherical controls that they appear to grab with them. There’s also a scene where one of them is holding up a sheet of paper (or something like it) in a way that suggests they have some ability to create suction with it. (At least, I think that was in that story.) In the first Dalek story of the new era, a character approaches an imprisoned Dalek, looks at its manipulator arm, and says, “What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?” The Dalek then grabs his face with the sucker and kills him. The series is also full of specialized Daleks that have other tools in place of the suction manipulator. There are claw arms, tray arms, cutting tool arms, funky spherical “seismic detector” arms, and even flamethrower arms. The other arm is the gun arm; it’s used quite a lot!
