Dubai? fuckin hell
The upcoming Easter special of Doctor Who has been rewritten at the last minute after a double-decker bus was damaged during production.
Writers had to alter the script after the top deck was "badly damaged" as the show was being filmed in Dubai, the BBC reports.
Executive producer Russell T. Davies and co-writer Gareth Roberts were forced to change parts of the script as there was not enough time to fly out a replacement bus.
Show producers would not comment on future storylines, but a spokesperson confirmed that shooting is "continuing as normal".
It was recently revealed that former EastEnders star Michelle Ryan and comedian Lee Evans will star alongside David Tennant in the special, which will be called 'Planet of the Dead'.
― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Thursday, 29 January 2009 13:16 (fifteen years ago) link
A double deck bus crashes into us?
― Nicolars (Nicole), Thursday, 29 January 2009 14:37 (fifteen years ago) link
posting these here, we'll no doubt find good uses for them on other threads:
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/7020/saxonaj3.gif
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6645/cybermanvx4.gif
― kingfish, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 05:41 (fifteen years ago) link
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45404000/jpg/_45404743_006764291-1.jpg
― kingfish, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 06:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Having an episode called "Planet of the Dead" after a season with both "Planet of the Ood" and "Forest of the Dead" is really annoying me for some reason.
― none of that (reddening), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 07:12 (fifteen years ago) link
new thread anyone?
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 10:30 (fifteen years ago) link
nah, keep this one going until the first special actually airs
― Donate your display name to Gazza (sic), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 10:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Is this the first time Who's been shot outside of the UK?
― chap, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Aside from the McGann one I suppose.
― chap, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:02 (fifteen years ago) link
There are some bits in Paris in one old-school episode, I'm sure.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh yeah, City of Death.
― chap, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Two Doctors entirely in Spain. Was supposed to be New Orleans.
― Inky pinky ponky, father had a donkey (aldo), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:31 (fifteen years ago) link
(sorry, was supposed to have been filmed in New Orleans, that should read.)
― Inky pinky ponky, father had a donkey (aldo), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Doctor Who 2009: Vacant Tennant, see?
― Inky pinky ponky, father had a donkey (aldo), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Did anyone watch the cop show with Matt Smith last night?
― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 13:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Part of the Fires of Pompeii was filmed in Rome.
― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 13:40 (fifteen years ago) link
And I think part of Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks was filmed in New York but not much.
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 14:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh, just hearing those episodes brought up makes me cringe.
― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 14:39 (fifteen years ago) link
1.21 jigawatts!
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 14:55 (fifteen years ago) link
No, they weren't. I remember commenting at the time that the BBC sent the entire Confidential team to NYC to do a puff piece on the story, but wouldn't even send the director on factfinding (it was all in DWM).
― Inky pinky ponky, father had a donkey (aldo), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 15:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Pretty sure I remember that they shot exteriors on Liberty Island and greenscreened everyone into them back in the UK. Although I'm not sure why I care.
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 16:26 (fifteen years ago) link
I watched a Davison story recently which had bits shot in Amsterdam. Arc of Infinity, maybe?
― JimD, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 17:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes, there's that one too.
― Inky pinky ponky, father had a donkey (aldo), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 17:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah. Not much to say - his character was pretty unremarkable.
― talk me down off the (ledge), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 17:22 (fifteen years ago) link
tonight's score:
http://www.linkandpinhobbies.com/Graphics/bk_who%20file.jpg
$20 at powells in hardback!
― kingfish, Thursday, 5 February 2009 06:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I had a copy of that! Kept it around the office when I was editor of the uni paper to scan photos and stuff, forgot to take it with me when my year was up. Bugger! From memory, the essay/memoir by Robert Holmes was very funny.
― James Morrison, Thursday, 5 February 2009 08:27 (fifteen years ago) link
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 12:03 (2 days ago) Permalink
That was the Jagaroth one - City of Death - penned by Douglas Adams. Although in retrospect it's one of the more playful and comic ones, this story terrified me more than ANY other. According to my mum anyway. I was having nightmares about the Jagaroth for some weeks after.
― GamalielRatsey, Thursday, 5 February 2009 08:32 (fifteen years ago) link
UH
― kingfish, Thursday, 12 February 2009 07:47 (fifteen years ago) link
That's actually pretty amazing (Pertwee's Venusian Aikido! lol at the busty anime companion tho).
― nosotros niggamos (HI DERE), Thursday, 12 February 2009 11:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Big Finish is going to make some audios this year out a few of the 'lost season' of scripts from 1985.
http://www.bigfinish.com/images/news/DSC02313-for-web.jpg
That io9 link adds this comment:
...Most of all, I'd caution the Big Finish people to be very careful if they decide to adapt Robert Holmes' lost Singapore story. Holmes may have been the greatest Doctor Who writer of all time, but he's also known for including bizarre racist caricatures of Asian people in his story "The Talons Of Weng-Chiang." And if it's true that Holmes' story set in Singapore was supposed to be called "Yellow Fever And How To Cure It," then that script may just deserve to sit in a drawer forever. (Not to mention the fact that it reportedly includes the Master, the Rani and the Autons, making it another overstuffed nostalgia-fest like his "Two Doctors" script.)
About the ToWC thing, wasn't the "white guy dressed up as asian guy to fool clueless white people at a magic show" a pretty established trope back then and went on for a few decades on both sides of the pond?
I know full well that this next bit could cross into all sorts of well-worn ILX tropes and we could very well have gone over all this before years ago, but perhaps by having this convo in a Doctor Who thread we can hide from the usual clusterfuckery: was the brouhaha over the ToWC story focused on a particular aspect, or just the whole "sinister oriental mage is sinister" bit? Was the problem just that the story showed all the bad stereotypes("orientalist?") that were associated with asian people at the time by white folks and had the villain being a chinese magician portrayed by an white guy? But weren't there plenty of white guys putting on make-up and affecting those same stereotypes back then to fool other white folks? Is it that there was no distinction made in the story as to the character's actual race?
In other news, bleah to more Colin audios with Peri. Having Charley around is much more interesting.
― kingfish, Thursday, 12 February 2009 18:54 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.digitalspy.com/cult/a139069/dr-who-boss-discusses-new-companions.html
"We’ve got a young female companion at Easter, and then a much older woman next Christmas - someone in her fifties or sixties. I love that."
so, old companion or new companion? Katy Manning, Caroline Shaw, Janet Fielding, Carole Ann Ford, Wendy Padbury, Deborah Watling, Louise Jameson, Mary Tamm, and Lalla Ward all qualify. And even Maggie Stables, for that matter.
― kingfish, Monday, 16 February 2009 06:40 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't have much of a problem with the character of Li Hsen Chang; he seems like a guy who's knowingly playing into the stereotypes as part of his act. The sinister silent Chinese henchmen, however, are a lot more questionable.
― thunda lightning (clotpoll), Monday, 16 February 2009 08:06 (fifteen years ago) link
and that answers that
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7897518.stm
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45489000/jpg/_45489816_006889682-1.jpg
Duncan will play Adelaide, the Doctor's cleverest and most strong-minded companion yet in the unnamed episode.
"strong-minded", huh? Like Tegan or more like Evelyn?
― kingfish, Thursday, 19 February 2009 06:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Who Evelyn?
― James Morrison, Thursday, 19 February 2009 22:07 (fifteen years ago) link
irritating old biddy companion from the radio plays
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Thursday, 19 February 2009 22:08 (fifteen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Smythe
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Thursday, 19 February 2009 22:10 (fifteen years ago) link
'Bizarre and racist cariacatures' seems a little bit much. They weren't bizarre at all in fact, they were well-established (Sax Rohmer was it, who came up with the Yellow Peril stuff in his Fu Manchu stories?). And they were racial cariacatures rather than, I think, racist.
I'm pretty certain the fuss centred around the Victorian-in-spirit as well as Victorian-in-context depictions of Chinese. Li Hsen Chang's stage presence is similar to that of the actual Chung Ling Soo - on stage Chinese bullet catching magician, but actually American William Robinson (who nicked the Chinese persona from genuine Chinese magician Chung Ling Foo. Li Hsen Chang actually does a bullet trick with Tom Baker in a particularly good set piece. There is precedence and what could be seen as deliberate reference.
However Li Hsen is genuinely Chinese and also, by the end genuinely sympathetic - in fact his type is not a racist type at all, but a generic Dr Faustus type - over reaching himself with the aid of supernatural/alien powers (if you'll pardon the crude backslash)
General henchmen somewhat problematic (and what feeble ninja skilz). Imbecile British bobbies don't show up too well either.
Robert Holmes probably wanted to do an old style early 20th century romp and didn't care too much about niceties. Personally I love it.
― Abbe Black Tentacle (GamalielRatsey), Thursday, 19 February 2009 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
That season + Key To Time season = my favorite seasons
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Thursday, 19 February 2009 22:26 (fifteen years ago) link
And they were racial cariacatures rather than, I think, racist.
That was over-casual, as well as being mis-spelt but I just felt that 'racist caricatures' rather belaboured the point.
― Abbe Black Tentacle (GamalielRatsey), Thursday, 19 February 2009 22:28 (fifteen years ago) link
FUCKING ZIMBABWE FUCKERShttp://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a147355/zimbabwe-hoarding-lost-who-episodes.html
― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Friday, 20 February 2009 16:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Time to invade.
― James Mitchell, Friday, 20 February 2009 16:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Also I would like to see the new doctor and companion get involved a la Tennant and Piper.
― James Mitchell, Friday, 20 February 2009 16:23 (fifteen years ago) link
No, really.
robert mugabe ruins the fun for everyone.
― Pacey Twitter (Roz), Friday, 20 February 2009 16:30 (fifteen years ago) link
You mean the new companion gets involved with Mugabe?
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 20 February 2009 16:31 (fifteen years ago) link
there must be 'she'll turn out to be The Rani' rumours by now
― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Friday, 20 February 2009 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link
the rani and robert mugabe: 2010 series finale.
― Pacey Twitter (Roz), Friday, 20 February 2009 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link
That article's priceless.
― chap, Friday, 20 February 2009 16:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Do you think Iran might have them as well?
― chap, Friday, 20 February 2009 16:53 (fifteen years ago) link
what does it say about me that I don't think it's a good idea to invade a country for oil but I'm all for invading a country for old Doctor Who episodes
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Friday, 20 February 2009 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link