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Post by ironhold on Jul 23, 2017 22:48:20 GMT
I'm anticipating a bit of a challenge when it is time to see the originals, because they aren't nicely organized like the latter ones are. I'll have to look them up by name and check original release dates. It's a real labour of over to watch some of the serials with missing episodes, some of which have had the gaps filled in with animation where the audio exists but not video. There are still entire stories that are lost and are unlikely very to be found, due to the BBC policy of wiping and reusing video tape masters which was expensive back then. It's mostly the Hartnell and Troughton era that suffers for this, I think from then on once the BBC moved to colour and Pertwee became the Doctor the archive is complete. It's not so much that the masters were expensive as it was "The BBC and ITV signed overly-generous contracts with various labor unions that restricted how many times they could broadcast any given episode of any given series". Both channels were hitting the limits on how often they could show the affected episodes, and since most of them were shot in black & white there were fears over the ability to monetize them via foreign broadcasts. As a result, the order was made to destroy them in order to make room in the archives. According to Wikipedia, enough fans the world over recorded episodes as they were broadcast that the BBC was able to salvage good-quality audio for every single episode of the run. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodesSince then, episodes - and pieces thereof - have been recovered from all over the world. ...Most embarrassingly enough, however, many of the "missing" episodes never left the BBC's custody; they were misfiled, diverted on the way to destruction, or otherwise still in their possession. For example, "Blue Peter" had at least one episode in its archives for use as stock footage. As a hilarious point of note, we Mormons are responsible for the return of two episodes. The Beeb decided to divest itself of a property, and the church ended up being the buyer. The church official responsible for taking possession of the building was mortified to discover that the Beeb had left some cabinets behind, and so ordered an immediate inventory of the contents lest something important have been forgotten. The inventory turned up the two master copies, something the Beeb sheepishly accepted back. |
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Post by Cybermortis on Jul 23, 2017 23:36:40 GMT
People COULDN'T watch shows over and over in the UK until some 20 years after Doctor Who started, and even then home recording was the exception rather than the rule until the late 80's. So the only way to see a TV show again was to wait for a program to be repeated on TV.
In fact when Doctor Who first aired there were only two TV channels in the UK; BBC, with only one channel, and ITV. BBC 2 didn't launch until a year after Doctor Who started, and Channel 4 didn't launch until 1982. Although satellite TV was available in the 1980's it was expensive and a rarity. Cable and Satellite didn't really take off in the UK until the 1990's, by which time Doctor Who had been off the air for several years.
The idea of selling shows for profit didn't really exist in the UK at this time, certainly not at the BBC. They did enter overseas ventures, helping to set up TV networks in other countries and providing them with programs; Which is where a lot of the 'lost' episodes were discovered. But it wasn't until the 1970's that syndicating shows abroad was something the BBC started to consider, and in the case of Doctor Who it wasn't until the Baker years that they started to sell the series to the US. (Which is why most Americans think of Tom Baker when they think of The Doctor, as his run was the one first put into syndication)
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Post by the light works on Jul 24, 2017 2:38:12 GMT
People COULDN'T watch shows over and over in the UK until some 20 years after Doctor Who started, and even then home recording was the exception rather than the rule until the late 80's. So the only way to see a TV show again was to wait for a program to be repeated on TV. In fact when Doctor Who first aired there were only two TV channels in the UK; BBC, with only one channel, and ITV. BBC 2 didn't launch until a year after Doctor Who started, and Channel 4 didn't launch until 1982. Although satellite TV was available in the 1980's it was expensive and a rarity. Cable and Satellite didn't really take off in the UK until the 1990's, by which time Doctor Who had been off the air for several years. The idea of selling shows for profit didn't really exist in the UK at this time, certainly not at the BBC. They did enter overseas ventures, helping to set up TV networks in other countries and providing them with programs; Which is where a lot of the 'lost' episodes were discovered. But it wasn't until the 1970's that syndicating shows abroad was something the BBC started to consider, and in the case of Doctor Who it wasn't until the Baker years that they started to sell the series to the US. (Which is why most Americans think of Tom Baker when they think of The Doctor, as his run was the one first put into syndication) I was referring to watching them as reruns. |
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Post by mrfatso on Jul 24, 2017 4:59:36 GMT
Home video came in in the early 1980s rather than the late 1980s we weren't that primative!
It was my the local MP Graham Bright that brought in the "Video Nasties" act in 1983 for example, there were plenty of people who had recorders back then and enough concern for there to be things done about it.
Heck by the late 1980s video recorders were cheap enough for me to buy one as a student and take it to University with me.
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Post by silverdragon on Jul 24, 2017 10:24:51 GMT
Home video came in in the early 1980s rather than the late 1980s we weren't that primative! And the question was VHS or Betamax. VHS won by swamping the market, Betamax was in all ways better... But both were hellishly expensive in the early 80's. |
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Post by mrfatso on Jul 24, 2017 11:29:02 GMT
Home video came in in the early 1980s rather than the late 1980s we weren't that primative! And the question was VHS or Betamax. VHS won by swamping the market, Betamax was in all ways better... But both were hellishly expensive in the early 80's. The first video my Mum brought was Betamax, it was as you say better but in the end VHS replaced it. I they were expensive but not too much we could not buy one, but working for the airline was good money back then. Or did it come from somewhere abroad brought for a bit cheaper than it would,have been here.......? You know I do not know now. |
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Post by mrfatso on Jul 24, 2017 11:33:38 GMT
The teaser trailer for the Christmas episode has been released today. SPOILERS....naturally.
It features Peter Capaldi, David Bradley as the First Doctor, Mark Gatiss and .....well someone else.
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Post by the light works on Jul 24, 2017 13:19:01 GMT
Home video came in in the early 1980s rather than the late 1980s we weren't that primative! And the question was VHS or Betamax. VHS won by swamping the market, Betamax was in all ways better... But both were hellishly expensive in the early 80's. the one thing VHS did better than beta was stuff more tape in their cassette. and that, alone, won them the war. such is the way of tech wars. ever hear of an LS-120 drive? the same drive slot would accept a standard 3.5" floppy disc OR a 120MB disc. it was in competition with the zip drive. |
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Post by Cybermortis on Jul 24, 2017 13:51:14 GMT
Re Reruns; The BBC only had a single channel when Who first aired, and although they launched a second channel a year later that channel did not show Doctor Who (in fact I don't think BBC 2 has ever aired Doctor Who). BBC 2 airs different programs than the main channel and always has.
Simply put there was no where they could really put reruns in the early days of the show.
*Trivia*; Doctor Who is often mistaken as a 'children's' show, but was in fact developed as a 'Family' series. The confusion comes from the first season being filmed by the Children's department. But it was developed in and for the BBC Drama department, and actually belonged to Drama from the start and has remained since the second season back in the Hartnell days.
Video recorders were around in the early and mid 1980's in the UK. But as noted where the exception not the rule due to the costs. By the late 1980's the price had fallen and they started to become more widespread. Growing up there were only three families I knew that had video recorders, this in an area of lower and middle income families. (The pattern was similar with DVD players in the 1990's, although the gap between the technology coming onto the market and becoming widespread was a lot shorter since the idea of home video was already firmly established.)
For Doctor Who home video was not an issue during its original run, since by the time it was widespread enough to be considered worthwhile to release TV series on VHS the series was already off the air.
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Post by silverdragon on Jul 25, 2017 6:15:44 GMT
Trying to remember back, I had left "home" [parents house] before Video became widespread, my first Vid was a Betamax, it had a pull out 15ft long corded remote control, I think it may have been "sony", I cant remember.
But it gave up working after a few years, and I bought a VHS...
Which I still have.
Its plugged in but not switched on at the plug, its used occasionally to transfer VHS to hard-drive, on Computer, as I dont have the ability to play "Scart" on my TeeVee any more.
To be honest, I was a teenager long before Colour TeeVee was all that popular, and managed a few years in my first flat with a 14inch black-and-white portable TeeVee...
Three channels, then four, then Five.
Hawld on a mo... I can time-stamp this in me own head, which is a time-slap when I think on how long ago this was, by remembering the conversation I had with the Landlord of the pub I was working at at that time...
This ends funny, so its worth telling...
We had a conversation on why certain nights were a quiet start...
We came to the conclusion
Me:-"Its because they are all a home watching Corrie", where corrie is coronation street, popular TV soap.
Him:-"Yeah, I'm sure they is... right... spread the word, I am putting a TV in the bar, they can all watch it here... it will be in the best room...
Me:-"What about thems as wanna watch 'the other side'?.. "
Him:- "So your saying two rooms, two TellyBoxes?.. good idea batman, you know anyone with a spare?.. "
His Wife... "Wont you need to put up a new aerial then?.. "
........ room for a little confusion there? ......
What followed was a short conversation made long on getting her to understand you can have the same aerial plugged in the back of Two TV's at the same time and no they dont need to be on the same channel.
"How can the areal know what you are watching then?.. wont it get the wrong signal?.." and she was quite honest at not understanding that.
Wasnt just her though, there were about a dozen people at the bar and only half of them understood that you can use one areal for more than one channel at the same time... Technology was all new back then.
And no not sexist, half the men in there didnt know this.
....some still dont?.....
That was early 80's, and back then, TeeVee turned off at night, and daytime TeeVee was still to be invented.
You had "Schools programs" on during the day, but that was all.
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Post by silverdragon on Jul 25, 2017 6:21:07 GMT
Addition to the above.
My good friend tells a story of coming home one night, to find his parents in the Kitchen, talking in hushed voices...
"Whats up?."
They were videotaping a teevee show to watch with their daughter when she got back from work, and didnt want the tape to pick up them talking....
We all remember taping the Chart show on your tape recorder sat next to the radio?.. for those that remember when they were separate items?.. well they thought that the TeeVee Video recorder worked the same way.
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Post by Cybermortis on Dec 25, 2017 20:21:11 GMT
Just seen the Christmas special with the departure of Capalidi and the first appearence of Jodie. Also picked up some rumours/claims about the new series which I've not seen confirmed elsewhere;
The special was, well not that special. It's not bad and certainly a lot better than most of the Christmas specials of recent years. But it does lack the grand scale feeling of the other regeneration episodes. This is a more 'personal' episode in which, to be honest, nothing much happens but is still fun enough.
Worth watching if you are a Doctor Who fan. But probably not something that will end up in the collection of your average Whovian.
Reactions on Twitter {SPOILERS!} (Also note I'm paraphrasing general reactions rather than specific tweets)
"Female Doctor! The BBC's left wing feminist PC agenda has taken over!"
"Less than a minute in the TARDIS as a woman and she crashes it..."
Notes; As I noted the BBC have been seriously considering having a female Doctor since Tom Baker was due to leave the show and continued to consider this up until Colin Baker left.
Crashing the TARDIS after a regeneration is not new. EVERY recent incarnation has crashed the TARDIS after regenerating.
10th Doctor; Bounced off several buildings trying to land the TARDIS before he stepped out of the doors.
11th Doctor; Crashed in Amy Ponds back garden.
12th Doctor; Crashed in Victorian London, for good measure this was while inside a Dinosaur. It also seems from dialog that the Dinosaur was one of several locations the TARDIS crashed in prior to the start of the episode.
13th's crash is, like 11th's, a result of the regeneration wrecking the TARDIS control room. The 10th and 12th Doctors crashed as they actually forgot how to fly the TARDIS after regenerating.
****
Rumours/unconfimed on my end;
The format of Doctor Who will be changing slightly. Apparently they will drop from 13 to 10 episodes per season, but increase the run time of each episode to a full hour. This probably doesn't include the Christmas specials.
The Doctor will get a new TARDIS, sonic screwdriver and three companions - although it is unclear if all of those campanions will be travelling with her all at the sametime. Lest we forget Rory didn't travel with the 11th Doctor that much, at least on screen, but was still a companion.
The new showrunner apparently has a 'five year plan' that he did not expect the BBC to agree to. If true this is very interesting since Doctors usually only stick around for 3-4 years, this would mean that the story would actually end at the beginning or halfway through the next Doctors run. That or Jodie has signed on for five years, which would be unheard of for the show and a rather questionable decision for the BBC to have made under the circumstances.
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Post by Cybermortis on Dec 26, 2017 2:04:38 GMT
I did some digging from more reliable sources, namely the BBC itself;
The new series will air in the autum of 2018.
The series will consist of 10 episodes, the first being 60 minutes in length the remaining 9 50 minutes each.
It seems that the show has been green lit for at least the next three or four years. I'm guessing that this is the length of Jodie's contract, and possibly the length of the 'plan' the new showrunner has in mind. (Or long enough that he could finish his plan early without losing too much in the process.)
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Post by mrfatso on Dec 26, 2017 7:26:47 GMT
I like the idea of a Autumn run for the show darker nights drawing in a slightly creepy feeling in the air, rather than Dr Who in midsummer.
In addition the rumours you have already mentioned I have heard the new show runner plans to do a few more multi-episode stories to give them more time to develop characters, but if that's true or not I cannot confirm.
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Post by ironhold on Dec 26, 2017 17:35:14 GMT
FYI - Fathom Events here in the US has made plans with a number of theaters nationwide to run the Christmas special theatrically tomorrow (the 27th).
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Post by ironhold on Oct 31, 2019 15:18:54 GMT
Overlord DVD admits that he cannot yet confirm it, but he's received information that an upcoming Dr. Who crossover event involving Whitaker and the past doctors will at some point involve Whitaker bawling the past incarnations out for being sexist and therefore imperfect.
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Post by the light works on Oct 31, 2019 15:36:57 GMT
Overlord DVD admits that he cannot yet confirm it, but he's received information that an upcoming Dr. Who crossover event involving Whitaker and the past doctors will at some point involve Whitaker bawling the past incarnations out for being sexist and therefore imperfect. and therefore must be bad, right? |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 31, 2019 19:34:44 GMT
Overlord DVD admits that he cannot yet confirm it, but he's received information that an upcoming Dr. Who crossover event involving Whitaker and the past doctors will at some point involve Whitaker bawling the past incarnations out for being sexist and therefore imperfect. and therefore must be bad, right? The same source is claiming that the writers are doing this *not* because it's what the fans want to see but because they're wanting to placate Whitaker by setting her incarnation up as the "best" one. |
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Post by the light works on Oct 31, 2019 23:46:38 GMT
and therefore must be bad, right? The same source is claiming that the writers are doing this *not* because it's what the fans want to see but because they're wanting to placate Whitaker by setting her incarnation up as the "best" one. and that's starting to sound an awful lot like a male fragility based complaint. |
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