oddsheep writes
"The BBC have announced they will be showing a new version of an episode originally written by Douglas Adams and that was never shown after industrial action halted the original production in 1979." "Shada" will star Paul McGann as the Doctor.
Webcast (Score:2, Redundant)
Not broadcast on one of the BBC's many channels (BBC Three would be good, kick people into getting Digital TV), but instead in dubious quality on the web?
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
Couldn't agree
This should be on Radio 4. Not BBCi, not one of the digital TV or Radio stations. This is the kind of crap Radio 4 was made for! And we can all receive it. Even online!
Re:Webcast (Score:5, Insightful)
Back in the day when BBC pumped money into 625line TV, and then Color, and Teletext, and Nicam, it was exactly the same. Not everyone have Teletext, why should they have to subsidise teletext people? Why does the BBC maintain a website and broadcast radio online for people in america and beyond, that dont pay a license fee? They had a website back in the days when there was 30,000,000 internet users worldwide
Everything starts off as a minority, specialist, service. Then the mainstream get it.
Besides, I'd think the 5 million DST, 2 1/2 million DTT and 2 1/2 million cable subscribers is a large chunk of the license fee payers. More people can techincally receive BBC Four and Choice then can receive BBC Two on analog. A second hand digibox and dish from ebay - £100. Someone to install it - £50. That gives access to 50 channels with no subscription, anywhere in the UK (unless you cant put a dish up because of conservation issues). For the 50,000 people that cant have a dish, DTT and cable will cover about 90% of them. The rest are unlikely to receive a full analog signal anyway - the highlands of scotland viewers that cant receive BBC2 dont get a rebate on their license fee.
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
It's wierd when I have both cable TV and Sky Digital and still most of the best programmes seem to be on the terrestrial channels.
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
Even in America, which has the biggest 'mob rule' around has channels like PBS, Discovery Channel, etc.
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
Incidently I dont know a single country that has unregulated use of the UHF band.
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
1) Mount satelite dish inside (will go thorugh a window). Only works if you have a clear view of 28 degrees east
2) Petition landlord for a satelite dish on the roof, with a coax cable running down into your flat.
3) Try a booster on the ariel for DTT. Try an indoor ariel (can work if theres a more pwoerful DTT transmitter nearby that your main ariel doesnt point to)
4) Get a big fat YAGI loft ariel, mount it *in* your flat, point to nearby transmitter (preferably through a window, but not essential
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
That's right, the City of the Future!
I can't get digital TV, digital radio or digital cable.
Oh and while I'm moaning about great British institutions, BT can't offer me ADSL either.
Naturally, what passes for a government in this country says that digital provision isn't a matter for them and pass you on to the regulators, who say that since x% of people CAN get these services there is nothing to complain about.
If the government is determined to switch off the analogue signal they are going to be in for one hell of a shock. There aren't just millions of people unable to get a digital signal, but millions of others who will resent being asked to fork out more money for a service they've already paid for once.
As yet, the date of the switch off hasn't been finalised and I get the impression that it will continue to be pushed back time and time again.
Just to rub salt into my wounds, my parents, who live at the very tip of Cornwall can get digital TV, digital radio and ADSL.
There is no justice in the World.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Re:Webcast (Score:2)
Re:Webcast (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Webcast (Score:1)
And that would be CD quality.
Re:Webcast (Score:2, Informative)
BBCi is the interactive part of BBC (Digital "teletext", the website, and extra video streams on news24). BBCi is not the Digital only channels.
HOW CAN THEY MAKE THIS WITHOUT TOM BAKER? (Score:2)
I admit, I'm somewhat attached.
Re:HOW CAN THEY MAKE THIS WITHOUT TOM BAKER? (Score:3, Funny)
Care for a Jelly Baby?
NO! NO! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED! STAND STILL!
Re:HOW CAN THEY MAKE THIS WITHOUT TOM BAKER? (Score:2)
Still, he was always my fave Doctor, too.
Re:HOW CAN THEY MAKE THIS WITHOUT TOM BAKER? (Score:2, Funny)
Since when has that ever been a handicap for playing The Doctor?
Re:HOW CAN THEY MAKE THIS WITHOUT TOM BAKER? (Score:2)
Pretty sure he's the oldest one still around... the first 3 have all passed on. Any of the other previous Doctors would be ok, as long as it's not Colin Baker... the big mistake in the Dr. line, IMHO.
I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:2, Interesting)
(pardon the gibberish, i am a tad intoxicated)
Re:I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:1, Funny)
(pardon the gibberish, i am a tad intoxicated)
Would you settle for "Not Quite Jake the Intoxicated"?
Re:I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:2)
Re:I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:2)
Based on this, he probably made serious contributions to many episodes, even if he didn't get full credit.
Re:I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:2)
No, he was script editor for the 17th season only. Outpost Gallifrey [gallifreyone.com] has a list of all his contributions [gallifreyone.org] to Doctor Who.
Re:I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:2)
However, as Saward had done, Douglas did write a number of other mini-scenes throughout his season to adapt to the casting and other situations, such as coming up with ways to explain K-9's absence in certain stories, the Romana body change, and so forth. He also rewrote some of the final scene in the previous season's Armegeddon Factor, including introducing the randomizer.
Re:I am quite looking forward to this... (Score:2, Informative)
serious question (Score:1)
What exactly does 'industrial action' mean?
Re:serious question (Score:1, Informative)
Re:serious question (Score:5, Informative)
Re:serious question (Score:3, Informative)
graspee
Re:serious question (Score:2)
It is unfinished, but it was released on video [amazon.ca]. If you have read the Dirk Gently novels, you will see more than a couple of plot similarities.
Re:serious question (Score:5, Informative)
because.. (Score:2, Funny)
Sigh. I hope.
Re:because.. (Score:3, Interesting)
While I personally disagree with this, it is just one of many many quirks/traits/sidesplittingly-funny-nurosies that made Douglas Adams who he was. Now that he is dead and gone lets us thank (Anyone but God) and join The Great Propeht Zarquon in saying....
So long and thanks for all the laughs
Re:because.. (Score:4, Funny)
one little detail... (Score:4, Informative)
sorry to get your hopes up, Whovians, but this isn't the new dr. who series you were promised.
Re:one little detail... (Score:1, Funny)
Nothing big will ever come out of a radio show. =)
Why remake it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why remake it? (Score:5, Informative)
They then released this version of Shada as a boxed set with the script.
I admire any new Who stuff they do, or rather I admire the effort, but nothing will ever be able to match the on-screen chemistry between Tom Baker and the sexy sexy super-sexy Ms. Ward.
In particular there is a scene at Prof. Chronotis' where the Prof., Romana and the Doctor are talking about Galifreyan stuff, and it just rocks. I think some of it is ad-libbed.
graspee
Re:Why remake it? (Score:1)
Which is why it's actually kind of good that's it's an audio drama, it doesn't really have to.
Mary Tamm was much better. (Score:3, Informative)
The original Romanavoratnalunda had a certain Je ne said quois.
Re:Why remake it? (Score:2)
You will find that a lot of Prof. Chronotis made it into the first Dirk Gentley book. I had read the book long before seeing the special edition of Shada and it gave me the strangest sense of de ja vu.
eh? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:eh? (Score:1, Funny)
Although, that sounds like a good final album for them "So Long and Thanks for all The Who".
Yes! The BBC has done it (Score:5, Interesting)
I can see why they chose Shada; Douglas Adams has a reputation which makes it that much easier to secure funding. Now, hopefully, this will not be a one-time shot like the 1996 Dr. Who episode was. Since they will build some sets, such as a Tardis set, this will make it more cost-effective to make more Dr. Who episodes if this program generates enough interest.
I am wondering how they will handle Ramona; there was one sentence which mentions Lalla Ward (the actress who played the second Ramona) but it is not clear whether they are referring to her role in the original production, or whether they are referring to her playing the role again in this production.
Fandom will have to come up with a story about how Ramona and K9 got out of N-space and got back together with the doctor again (with a possible regeneration if a different actress plays Ramona).
Glad to see somehting more substansial from BBC besides a vague promise from some BBC executive.
- Sam
OK, it's an audio-only webcast (Score:4, Informative)
Re:OK, it's an audio-only webcast (Score:3, Informative)
I expect they will have a release on CD before too long.
Romana /= Ramona (Score:2, Insightful)
Apologies for nitpicking on your mis-spelling of her name, but you were doing it consistently.
Not that it matters much, since her full name is Romanadvoratrelundar anyway.
Re:Yes! The BBC has done it (Score:2)
Both of them got out of it a long time ago in the New Adventures books. She was President of Gallifrey for a while too.
The most dangerous book (Score:3, Funny)
Shada, which was originally planned to conclude Dr Who's 17th season, finds the doctor teaming up with Romana (Lalla Ward) and K9 (John Leeson) in trying to track down the most dangerous book in the universe.
I think someone already did that. I get emails all the time offering "the most dangerous book in the universe" for sale.
It's an audio play! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's an audio play! (Score:3, Interesting)
-1 Redundant (Score:2, Interesting)
From the article:
> Produced by the Big Finish company, it stars Fox in the role
> of Professor Chronotis, with Sachs as the evil Skagra.
> Gordon is behind the silky voice of Skagra's spaceship, and
> Hayes makes a cameo performance as college porter Wilkin.
I think Douglas Adams eventually re-wrote this as one of the Dirk Gently books. One of them definitely includes a Professor Chronotis and lots of time travel. I think that bits of the same book came from another Doctor Who story as well (the one with all the extra Mona Lisas).
Dirk Gently & Shada (Score:5, Informative)
Life, The Universe and Everything used large amounts of a rejected Dr. Who plot which was originally put forward as Dr. Who and the Krikkitmen.
Once Adams ran out of radio series and old Dr. Who ideas to recycle, he really went downhill...
Re:Dirk Gently & Shada (Score:2, Informative)
The funny thing about this is, I read once where Adams was supposedly unhappy about the "Shada" video being released, precisely because of the reused elements in Dirk Gently. (This was according to a fan at a book signing.) What's funny about that is that "City of Death", of course, DID air way back when, and that certainly didn't deter him.
Grabbed from the punt. (Score:2)
I have VHS of both "The 5 Doctors" and "Shada". The "Shada" release I have wasn't part of any fancy souvenier set, just a tape. It appears to have the film they had, plus Tom Baker narrating through the missing parts.
K9 is a PERSON??? (Score:1, Funny)
So is K9 going to be some guy (John Leeson) in a suit??? How will he fit in there? From what I remember, K9 was much smaller than a normal-size human. Is John Leeson some kind of midget?
Re:K9 is a PERSON??? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:K9 is a PERSON??? (Score:1)
It's, like earlier recent episodes, mostly streamed audio, with some cartoon style images. So of course they credit the voice actors equally.
Re:K9 is a PERSON??? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah yes, but you forget - it's much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
Re:K9 is a PERSON??? (Score:2)
I've Got The Origional "Shada" On Video (Score:1, Redundant)
They released it as a special video a couple of years ago.
It's not fair! (Score:1, Funny)
ideal fantasy production (Score:2, Interesting)
Ya know what I wanna see? A really high budget Dr Who film about his origins, staring Tom Baker who's acting and portrayal-of-this-character-in-particular ability was barely exposed during his stint on the series, yet pretty much defined it for many americans. Man he managed to make gold out of average scripts ("I gave him a blank look"). I'll bet it'd make plenty o' money. Something about the politics of the timelords and the doctor's renegade nature.
Dr Who is a great low-budget tv vehicle -- you can do nearly any cheezy sci-fi plot within its framwork. Nevertheless, there's some neat ideas there, Baker's era stands out among all the others, and I'd like to see more. (Gosh, is baker still around? I'll bet he's all grey now.) (And, ya gotta love all those $3 BBC special effects -- really.)
Make it dark, dark, dark and funny. And make cheezy special effects part of the theme.
And bring in Leela. She was hot and smart (Janus thorn, anyone?). and sarah jane, cause she's cool too and so much a part of the tradition.
children's series, indeed,
-t
Re:ideal fantasy production (Score:1, Funny)
Re:ideal fantasy production (Score:1)
Ok -- having found a "fan site" and his official site, it seems Tom Baker is very much alive, and very much grey. So, instead of the origins of Dr. Who, how about a combination of his origins and (gasp!) his fate. Screw perfect continuity with the TV series which is incoherent anyway.
"gobbldygoodk with conviction" -- Tom Baker
-t
Re:ideal fantasy production (Score:2, Informative)
Re:ideal fantasy production (Score:2)
Re:ideal fantasy production (Score:2)
Best wishes,
Mike.
Re:ideal fantasy production (Score:2)
We could call it "Doctor Whorror Picture Show."
actually (Score:2, Informative)
Plot Summary (Score:5, Informative)
The entire script used to be online, but I can't seem to find it anymore. A shame, because it had some funny lines in it.
If you've read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency [douglasadams.com], you already have a vague idea of Shada's premise. Adams re-used some characters in Shada to create DGHDA.
Anyway, check out the detailed plot summary [drwhoguide.com]. A fun story.
Schwab
Re:Plot Summary (Score:3, Informative)
DOCTOR: Well, When I was on the river I heard a strange sound, a sort of babble of inhuman voices. Didn't you Romana?
ROMANA: Yes.
PROFESSOR: Oh just undergraduates talking to each other I expect. I've trying to have it banned....
Available in OGG format? (Score:1, Funny)
yes, this is a joke. Seems to be the prevailing whine on slashdot for OGG to I thought i'd throw my 0.02 in as well
Re:Available in OGG format? (Score:4, Informative)
Why Not Use Tom ? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a story from his regeneration, his snow white hair doesn't matter with no pictures.
I like McGann, but Tom was the definitive Who.
Re:Why Not Use Tom ? (Score:2)
I thought he was a pretty good Doctor. But then I quite liked Colin Baker too, so maybe I am mad or something.
Anyway, Tom Baker was almost everyone's favourite, and Sylvester McCoy was the worst... Stupid question mark wearing mumble mumble...
Re:Why Not Use Tom ? (Score:2)
Re:Why Not Use Tom ? (Score:2)
Anyway, Tom Baker was almost everyone's favourite, and Sylvester McCoy was the worst... Stupid question mark wearing mumble mumble...
I alway thought Colin Baker was the worst. I rather liked Sylvester McCoy.
FWIW, I started watching Dr. Who back in the John Pertwee days.
Re:Why Not Use Tom ? (Score:2)
Re:Why Not Use Tom ? (Score:2)
I think McCoy was a good Doctor. But he had horrible writing.
There was a time during the McCoy era when I thought the writing was getting pretty good. I don't remember if was in the beginning, middle, or end of his run.
This is frightening (Score:4, Insightful)
Still, I hope they don't kill it with high production values and lots of orchestrated scores. Perhaps they'll be smart enough to hire the same composers who worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop back in the 70's, or, failing that, get Wendy Carlos to use her Moog goodness!
Part of the great thing about Doctor Who is how innovative the production designers were without having a budget to support them properly.
While the scripts are key, and Douglas Adams' have proved to be particularly good (i.e. "The Pirate Planet" is classic Adams), the cheesy production values are still key.
Please, BBC, don't let us down!
Bigger and More Usefull Article (Score:4, Informative)
Seems that it will be the same deal as the previous "new" adventure "Death Comes To Time", with pictures being played over a radio dramatization of the script. Shame, whould have liked an actual tv program.
Good to see Manuel from Fawltey Towers in there, though I pass up the oportunity for lame Manuel/Doctor humour.
Whilst on the subject (Score:2, Interesting)
Some might be interested to know that Red Dwarf was very nearly not made due to the same type of industrial action a few years later down the line.
Rather depressing that whilst the unions fight for their workers' rights, it can mean that great TV might never have been made. Of all the things!
It's going to really twist continuity (Score:5, Interesting)
Question 1: Does this mean that the Fourth (Tom Baker) Doctor will have been in "Shada", gone to Cambridge, dealt with Skagra, or not?
Question 2: If not, then where/when exactly did President Borusa snatch the Fourth Doctor and Romana from (in "The Five Doctors" - as footage from the incomplete "Shada" was taken from that to make up for Tom Baker's absence when they filmed T5D...)?
Question 3: If it IS Paul McGann's Doctor (Eighth), then it means that Romana is currently President of Gallifrey with K-9 in attendance, after the Fourth Doctor left them both in a completely different universe ("E-Space")... and why would Romana be hanging around the Doctor then when she's President of Gallifrey? She never had much need for him until the day when she was going to use him and effectively let him die to get what she wanted
Question 4: Not to mention that Romana and all but maybe four Time Lords are suspected most likely dead and the Doctor's in shock-induced amnesia (forgetting what Gallifrey is or who he is), because Gallifrey was destroyed (in the BBC novel "The Ancestor Cell"), so where's she coming from? And for that matter, to where are they going to return the "most dangerous [Gallifreyan] book in the Universe" to when Gallifrey isn't even a smoking cinder in space?
Question 5: Not to mention that in "The Ancestor Cell", Romana had already regenerated away from her Lalla Ward / "Princess Astra copy" body into something newer, by the time Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor had taken over...
Some VERY, VERY, VERY deft script-editing is going to be required to fix this. Sadly, the seemingly non-existent Continuity/Canon Cops at the BBC don't seem to care about fixing it the way continuity's been bollocked.
The Doctor's continuity has been BADLY scrambled from the very minute in the Fox/BBC telemovie we heard the Master say the Doctor was half-human (something useless which was NEVER hinted at in the series at ALL; never had any suitable explanation in the sequel books and actually proved to make things worse, rather than actually explain anything).
Even worse, some of the "more famous" authors of the current BBC and previous 90s Virgin Books series have been allowed to bollock it up even worse; very, very, very badly.
<rant> Especially by pretentious authors who decided that the Doctor didn't need and should never, ever have a continuous, single, canon continuity because "that would just be too limiting and narrow-minded". I'm desperately resisting the urge to name names - but thanks to you, for screwing it all up. </rant>
For an excellent site which summarises nearly ALL the Doctor Who stories available, try David Boies's <http://www.drwhoguide.com/who.htm>; look up the Fourth Doctor's "Shada" (and when it's positioned), the Eighth Doctor's "The Ancestor Cell", the Fifth Doctor's "The Five Doctors"...
Re:It's going to really twist continuity (Score:2)
(Technically, the last Virgin DW-blessed book has Benny meeting the McGann reincarnation one more time; after this one, the series became the New Adventures, and Virgin wasn't allowed to use any characters or references to DW, only the characters that were specifically introduced in the Virgin run of DW books (Benny, Jason, Chris, etc), which of course went down the crapper really fast as they included elements of the big canon events in the BBC series but didn't actually mention them by name or details, and the vagueness of it all got annoying. From what I've seen, the Virgin books are not considered canon at this point, which unfortunately wrecks a lot of the good plot continuation they had with the 7th Doctor as being the Guardian of Time, more Valeyard foreshadowing, and more. Of course, most DW fans think that allowing even Ancestrial Cell to be considered canon wrecks the entire DW universe...)
And I don't think individual authors are necessarily screwing this up. I read the BBC writer's bible once at their Cult site, and it seems to me that prospective writers with stories will be asked to make their they are up to date on continuity, and not to introduce anything that 'upsets' the balance unless specifically asked to by the book series' overseers. That is, I'm pretty sure books like Interference, Shadows of Avalon, Ancestrial Cell, and the (something) of Hernietta Street one, where crucial canon elements were made, had been thoroughly discussed among a number of people before the athors were allowed to write them. Other books are more placeholders and not meant to disrupt the current canon too much (such as The Year of Intelligent Tigers and Hope, for example).
At least they aren't totally messing up the past continuity with the 'missing adventures' series using the other regenerations and past companions (though right now I'm reading through Asylum where they force a meeting of Nyssa well past her time in the TARDIS with the 4th Doctor before he even meet Nyssa... yeah....)
Re:It's going to really twist continuity (Score:2)
I think Lawrence Mile's review [google.com] of The Ancestor Cell pretty much sums up a lot of people's feelings about that book.
A better article (from gallifreyone.com) (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I don't know... (And...) (Score:2)
Mmmmm... Lala Ward...
And it also has the best quote ever...
Duggan: You know what I don't understand...?
Romana: I expect so.
Yeah, Doug wrote that - no doubt about it.
Douglas Adams Fans - H2G2 (Score:2, Informative)
Run by the BBC, the Hitch Hikers' Guide To The Universe, Earth Edition.
Liam.
--
this wasn't Adams' only Who script (Score:3, Informative)
He was also script-editor for the series for quite a few years.
Concerning Continuity and "stuff" (Score:2)
With that side based on the CFS ANYTHING is possible (we have infinite outcomes to deal with) thus it is possible that as screwed up as the storyline appears it is perfectly plausable based on CFS (as I call it Chaos Formulated Spaces, sounds better).
That should end the non-sense of people complaining about the inconsistencies. Or you can subscribe to my TST (Time-Speed-Theory) that states that a change in the past must travel through time-space granting that a change in the past will take X amount of time to catch up to the present where X =( (TimeInPresent) - (TimeInPast) )* (Speed of Light)
Therefore an secret agency that monitors timespace can see the subtle changes in time-space and calculate the change, then send a demonic entity back in time to correct the anomoly ensuring that their present is maintained.
BUahahahahahahh (Yes I am tinkering with a book based on the idea about an evil tyrant that is trying to prevent timetravel from altering his present.) Did I mention Muahauhahaahaauhah!
Re:New Doctor (Score:2, Funny)
Re:New Doctor (Score:4, Funny)
No.. but in a sudden change of heart (after certain key BBC execs found new BMWs outside their houses) the Doctor will no longer use the tardis and will instead drive a BMW.
Re:New Doctor (Score:3, Funny)
"Who. Doctor Who."
I'd like a jynnan tonix, shaken, not stirred.
Also, Dame Judi Dench will appear as Romana.
Re:New Doctor (Score:2)
We just need a Doctor Who/James Bond crossover to explain all this.
+1 Weird, but damn funny! (Score:1)
Re:Slightly off topic, but a good question... (Score:2, Interesting)
Because of that, I think that any Hitchhiker's movie will be caught in a catch-22: if it's done well, most Americans will not "get it" and only a small niche audience will go see it; if it's defiled in typical Hollywood fashion, then the loyal fans will be disgusted, and the mainstream will be unimpressed, thinking it's just an MIB knockoff.
Depressing, innit?
Film of Hitchniker's Guide... (Score:2)