Doctor Who: Classic or Dud?

Near the start of ep5 there is a lengthy comedy turn where Pat learns to fly a helicopter where he's doing it and is crap at it. Gary Russell has decided to turn this into a dramatic sequence where The Doctor takes brilliant evasive action to avoid giant seaweed tentacles coming out of the water.

Other notable changes are Oak & Quill losing the comedy edge they start out with, and the ESGO guy who works the comms station is inexplicably in a motorised wheelchair which makes a mess of his scene in ep6 when he doesn't turn on the Victoria Machine.

The telesnaps recon is on disc 3 and rattles along nicely, probably just about the right length.

Gary Russell has decided to turn this into a dramatic sequence ... Other notable changes are...losing the comedy edge

Story checks out.

To be fair to him he admits it on the doc about the animation.

I actually enjoy most of Torchwood, despite my current dislike of Chas Hibernia.

Yay

On Monday November 9th the book we'll be discussing is Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius by the amazing Terrance Dicks - and we'll also be considering his adaptations of novels by Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, H.G. Wells et al for the BBC's Classic Serial. So...

— Backlisted Podcast (@BacklistedPod) September 30, 2020

iirc despite taking his name off the broadcast due to Holmes' rewriting, Dicks adapted the television version closely rather than restoring his original?

Yes, it doesn't restore Sad Disney Robot or any of those parts of the non-Bland plot.

dunno much about the details, I just had the book first and don't remember being startled by any differences when I saw the episodes

Sydney Newman, the BBC drama head who commissioned Dr Who from his own brief in 1963, interviewed during the transmission of Time & The Rani:

In September 1987, Sidney Newman discussed with me his views on the recent series of Doctor Who and its producer. They were not complimentary. @doctorwho1980s pic.twitter.com/VzDAQW3Ust

— Aramaic and Old Interlace (@AramInterlace) October 24, 2020

AT LAST

https://i.imgur.com/zqV0TZU.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iMsC9dJ.jpg

To be adapted into a 12-disc set by Big Finish next year, no doubt.

Big Finish can only get the rights to boring old official Dr Who, they WISH they had the commercial drawing power of picture books based on the 2009 Australian K-9 TV series, or over seventy POD novels featuring the early adventures of Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart and his modern descendents

K9 has legs now?

2009

I have four K9 picture books from the 1980s written by David “Dave” Martin and they are quite good fun. For some reason they are one of the bits of childhood Who tat that I have found hardest to chuck out.

I have this
https://murdersville.co.uk/museum/wp-content/gallery/dr-who-1979/dr-who-annual-1979-2.JPG
(which I got in 1979, sigh)

I had and fondly recall those staple-bound 1980s K9 books too

Unrelated – a fun recent Moffat interview where he’s not talking about the usual stuff

https://www.tvcream.co.uk/podcasts/tv-cream-stays-indoors/tv-cream-stays-indoors-with-steven-moffat/

That was fun, thanks - so charming to hear him think through various aspects of The Prisoner as a viewer, and from a creative standpoint, AND to be genuinely interested enough in other people to keep asking the interviewer's perspective.

Haven't listened yet, but just learnt that Stacey Abrams is a Dr Who fan, who was interviewed by Tennant on his own podcast. (rss link)

I’ve liked all of the newest regenerations since its return (some more than others), but Tom Baker remains the one Doctor to rule them all. https://t.co/S9BJlf3BF9

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) February 8, 2019

There was a Husbands of River Song tweetalong today, with the director digging out a bunch of behind-the-scenes photos, and:

Here’s a reference you might not expect - Morecambe and Wise for scale for Hydroflax. #HelloSweetie pic.twitter.com/PjxDPtkFtD

— Douglas Mackinnon (@drmuig) November 7, 2020

https://merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/3rd-7.jpg

That "full cast" must have required some extensive grave-robbing.

Online concert-thingy recorded by the band version of the Radiophonic Workshop in lockdown, including Who content, original compositions, and improv that uses the latency in internet lag as a delay effect.

Adorable. Was just listening to this earlier today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cPsvv4eGD4

boring might be best if donald sutherland had been on it!

Happy 57th to the show, btw.

A little tweet-thread of bits David Whitaker rewrote out of Anthony Coburn's script for An Unearthly Child.

Due to the pandemic, Eric Roberts has been unable to keep up his usual pace of 24-36 films a year. Instead, his only live-action role of 2020 will be a one-minute shot-on-phone trailer for some Big Finish box set, or for the company generally, or something.

Listen to the voice of your Master! pic.twitter.com/WzoB6EovDK

— Big Finish 🎄 (@bigfinish) November 5, 2020

Finally found some time (thanks lockdown) to listen to a Big Finish – Holy Terror, by Robert Shearman — and, as noted, it’s pretty good! Not just lowered-expectations-good but actually good. Some of the jokey dialogue is a bit dated in a larky, 1990s kind of way, but it’s a genuinely good story, Colin Baker is great, and it really nails that dissonant jolly/creepy tone that Doctor who does so well. Will try the other Shearmans.

Eric Roberts is ridiculously prolific, good to see him squeezing in some pandemic era credits

Finally made it through the books-podcast ep about Terrance Dicks (and slightly about Brain Of Morbius) that Chuck linked up there - good talk, and well-produced for an amateur/zoom jobbie. Episode at https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/124-terrance-dicks-doctor-who-and-the-brain-of-morbius

I've also not been keeping up with the return of UK lockdown / cold weather tweetalongs, this month all winter/December-themed.

Last week writer Sarah Dollard, Bill actress Pearl Mackie, and regular storyboard artist Mike Collins covered Thin Ice (S10e03).

Dollard threaded her comments:

On my deathbed I'll probably still be proud of "loch-less monster" #TheBigFreeze

— Sarah Dollard (@snazdoll) December 5, 2020

But didn't say too much, having also done & threaded a BLM fundraiser back in June, when the 'official' tweetalongs stopped due to US riots:

Peter's pause after Bill reminds him slavery still exists in this time… He’s magnificent. There’s a monologue in that pause. And I know because I probably wrote it at some point. But we didn’t need it! All we needed was the sorcery of Peter Capaldi & his face #DoctorWhoBlackout

— Sarah Dollard (@snazdoll) June 6, 2020

Was I unexpectedly obsessed with the way Peter Capaldi said the word “tattoo” in Face the Raven? Yes. Did I put another important tattoo in Thin Ice just to hear him say it again? You can’t prove anything #DoctorWhoBlackout

— Sarah Dollard (@snazdoll) June 6, 2020

I can't dig back to see how much Collins contributed, but here's a few storyboards:

It's #TheBigFreeze tweetalong BTS storyboards... @snazdoll @Emily_Rosina pic.twitter.com/1hvmTCThty

— Mike Collins (@MIKECOLLINS99) December 5, 2020

Mackie largely just chimes in with other fans watching the hashtag, but has been quiet enough since that you can scroll back to see her chimes.

I remember when Michael Pickwoad showed me the sets for Westminster Bridge and the frost fair. I was so overwhelmed. In the most amazing way. What a talent. RIP Michael Pickwoad. #TheBigFreeze

— Pearl Mackie (@Pearlie_mack) December 5, 2020

you won't believe who Big Finish managed to get to write Christopher Eccleston's return to Dr Who after 15 years of acrimonious distance from the series!

He's back! https://t.co/I4XiXBpcrL pic.twitter.com/YMIHwRMS6Y

— Big Finish 🎄 (@bigfinish) December 14, 2020

When I clicked through it took a moment to parse the mundanity of what I was looking at. A comprehensive misreading of your post had led me to expect Robert Shearman!

Same. Chris looks pleased too

Shearman is novelising Dalek for a Target-ish batch next year - he hasn't written a whole Big Finish since before the TV version, so that would indeed be a bigger coup than Eccleston.

Just bought Chimes of Midnight and looking forward to it.

Incidentally, Shearman's three-volume CYOA short story book is both (a) unfinishable and (b) well-worth buying IMO

I'm intrigued. Unfinishable how?

Well, I mean, you could read all three books cover to cover, but that would defeat the object of the setup. I guess I'll finish one route through it, then go back for the rest of the stories over, I guess, my life

He's very easy to read, though. Someone on Backlisted compared him to Terence Dicks, which is OTM

Ah that makes sense, I thought you meant there was either a flaw on his CYOA or it was overly cleverly designed.

Looks good though, will order after Christmas.

For a November tweetalong of Blink, Moffat didn't rejoin twitter, but sent Ms Cook his first-draft script of Blink to post (pdf link), along with an intro:

...called Sally Sparrow And The Weeping Angel, which never mentions the word “blink” and has a completely different ending.

... I hated the last scene so much that the morning after I emailed the script - before I’d even heard a note - I wrote a new ending and hurriedly sent it in. No one has seen this version in years, and hardly anyone saw it at the time. Forgotten history, I suppose. The road not taken.

Most of the script is very close to what you saw - it changed less any other Who script I wrote, except maybe The Husbands Of River Song - but the proper title hadn’t arrived yet, so no one says “don’t blink!” Weird, really, looking back. When I changed the title, it was Russell who suggested I hit the word “blink” over and over again, like a cheesy old trailer. As you know, I ran with note for all I was worth - and what a brilliant note it was.

Elsewhere, you’ll notice my sitcom reflex gets out of control a few too many times, and Martha barely gets to appear. There’s one joke I regret cutting but that’s about it, I think. I think you’ll agree it got better.

Mind you, Russell always rather liked this ending - because, in his words, “it was a bit more lesbian.” (...)

I was about to mention an RTD tweetalong of The Runaway Bride tomorrow, but he moved it to today because of the Strictly finale.

I also missed Moffat, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill livetwooting A Christmas Carol yesterday. Catching up now, some highlights:

Moff:

Right then! #HalfWayOutOfTheDark - he hashtagged as the the UK reels into lockdown, spiralling infections, and mounting catastrophe! Half way does seem a bit optimistic right now, doesn't it? But there's nothing wrong with optimistic!

Now I've been through all my old folders and dusty boxes in the hope I could find something interesting for you all. But if it was ever there, it's all gone ten years later.

In desperation I looked at my old emails - and realised that at the time of making this Matt's hugely successful first season had just gone out and Sherlock was shown for the first time. I should have been on top of the world. And you know what?

Going by those old emails, I was in a permanent grump! Snappish, argumentative, surly, defensive! Ten years younger me was a right pain - frankly, you're lucky you've got me (no, shut up, you are!) WHY WASN'T I HAPPY?? Answer: Scottish.

Darvill:

This is difficult to do while the football is on but come on Villa! #HalfwayOutOfTheDark

Moff:

This was the first idea I had for a Christmas special (who said only - shaddup!) I love the Dickens story, and I loved the idea of the Doctor being basically all the ghosts, using time travel.

Finally the title sequence makes sense - he's flying through the clouds. You're welcome!

This was the second Who story from the BRILLIANT Toby Haynes. The visuals are quite stunning. I always feel I wasn't quite appreciative enough of Toby - probably cos I'm a grump, as already noted.

Katherine Jenkins self isolating ...

Smith:

Moffat gives me a cracking entrance here … the old I’m not Santa chimney role… soot, pat, and get Doctoring… #HalfwayOutOfTheDark

Moff:

This Matt's first performance knowing he's a hit in the role - I think you can tell. All that whirling, giddy confidence.

The crayon line - love that. My son Louis laughed at it, and asked if Matt had made it up himself. "No!" I said, "I did." He looked disappointed. "I wish Matt had made it up." I knew from then on my status.

Oh, and we go a bit Sherlock, I suppose. But, you know, the Doctor and Sherlock, they're not so far apart (and have often shared a tailor.) And in those days, my head was stuffed full of both of those shows (grumpily, as previously noted.)

I wonder if there is a specific hell for writers who force the title into the show - I'm in a lot of trouble if there is.

Oh, I miss that cast and those days. What happened to those days? Are they coming back or is time still going in one direction (despite my best efforts!)

Darvill:

I met Gambon only very briefly on this. He told me a story about his helicopter.. or James May's helicopter.. I've since forgotten the story.. how we laughed #HalfwayOutOfTheDark

Moff:

Well we had Gambon - so we cast him twice. Makes sense.

"Tonight I"m the ghost of Christmas Past." Honestly, it's like I'm round your house whispering "Geddit?" in your ear.

Oh, I like this bit. Matt disappears from shot and appears in the movie. I remember arguing in the edit that there couldn't be a cutaway - it had to happen all in one shot. I probably argued grumpily.

Matt is SO the Doctor. Silly, charming, heroic, nuts. Just perfect!

There were two special showings of this episode - and I learned a lot about how this show works the audience. The Mostly Adults audience laughed and whooped. The kids audience watched in rapt silence and jumped out of their skins when the shark crashed in.

Smith: "Corrr it’s a good episode is this !
The face spider !!! #HalfwayOutOfTheDark"

Moffat replying: "I mean what WHAT WAS I THINKING??"

Gillan:

Wee fishes #HalfwayOutOfTheDark

Moffat:

The little monologue you hear from Katherine Jenkins talking about the fish was actually written by Lindsey Alford (now Minchen) who was a constant life-saver on all but one of my Who seasons.

Now we have a famous Welsh opera singer singing to a sleeping rubber shark. I stared and stared at this in rushes, wondering how I got to do this for a living.

Smith:

I bumped into the teenage Kazran in my home town, on the street, last Xmas… Bonkers ! Hadn’t seen him since this episode. Was his first job !

Moff:

Love Matt the geeky, blundering Doctor! It was such a clever choice (his own) after David.

Oh kissing in Doctor Who AGAIN.

This story was partly based on a short Doctor Who story I wrote called Continuity Errors (which was the first Who I ever wrote actually.)

Matt Smith's mum:

Bobby loving it tooooooo 🥰 pic.twitter.com/vKUwmSvGnp

— lynne smith (@smith_lynne) December 20, 2020

Moff:

Is the changing nature of the portrait clear enough? And Older Kazran's appearing/disappearing bow tie? I know where to look, but I wonder if we nailed that detail. SACK EVERYONE!!

I mean, this is all pretty good isn't it? Nuts but good? Don't throw things, but I'm loving it.

Oh, the plot shoe-leather to get the song in. I WORKED at that.

Gillan:

I keep forgetting to tweet because I’m too engrossed in this episode #HalfWayOutOfTheDark

Moff:

There's a line cut there that I regret. After "everything has to end sometime, or nothing would get started" there was "Snow isn't snow till it falls." Shouldn't have cut that.

Smith:

If I could get one thing back from the land of Doctor Who… it would be to appear in the Christmas special each year !!! #HalfwayOutOfTheDark

Adorable. Must watch this one again - I remember it as a highlight. Can't believe it was a decade ago ffs

Dragonfire reunion:

Sylvester and some friends have a message for you x@sophie_aldred @bonnie_langford pic.twitter.com/Tsgw2Uy8DM

— Sylvester McCoy (@4SylvesterMcCoy) December 23, 2020

Catching up on the Russell T Davies / Catherine Tate tweetalong on Runaway Bride. Highlights:

FIRST, a Christmas message from the Mighty One. Calling to Twitter… David Tennant! #SantasARobot pic.twitter.com/1Pm2hS79oj

— Russell T Davies (@russelldavies63) December 18, 2020

RTD:

Best music, best titles, fight me

I wrote this FOR Catherine. I did that very rarely on Doctor Who. (I wrote for Penelope Wilton too.) But I decided Catherine was PERFECT, and we hunted her down!

“That’s not even a proper word, you’re just saying things.” My husband’s favourite line I ever wrote

To cast Catherine, we had lunch with her in Century in London. I thought she’d be so busy, we didn’t stand a chance. Turned out she LOVES David Tennant, properly, and would do anything to appear with him. Deal done, on the spot! Phew

ROSE! A lot of journalists, especially sci-fi writers, sniffily said the programme might not survive without Rose. I love proving people wrong. No kidding, it makes me roll my sleeves up and go “Right!”

Is Donna the first companion to see INSIDE the Tardis first?

POCKETS!! In her very last scene, in The End of Time, Donna gets a lottery ticket on her wedding day… but with no pockets, she has to tuck it in her cleavage. Nice call back

I probably rolleyed at the action-TARDIS and bad CGI at the time, but the police box flying down a highway, chasing a stolen taxi drive by an evil robot Santa, knocking into random cars, is such a great scene. And RTD makes it extra-Xmas-family-powered by having two wee kids cheering on Donna's jump from taxi to TARDIS from the back window of another car.

Tate:

I remember doing this stunt, I thought my boobs were going to spill out of my dress 😂😂😂
#SantasARobot

RTD replying:

That might have increased the ratings xx

SCREWBALL: Here’s a cut scene, which show the Doctor and Donna using EVERY form of transport. It’s the gag of them being constantly chasing, in action, which we lost a bit. This is on the DVD extras, starring Bella Emberg! #SantasARobot pic.twitter.com/lPDdvISbJ0

— Russell T Davies (@russelldavies63) December 18, 2020

SCREWBALL: again, more cut scenes of comedy transport. So we accidentally diminished the screwball comedy aspect of the script. The genre stumbles slightly. You only realise this years later! #SantasARobot pic.twitter.com/j7Py2tUgOJ

— Russell T Davies (@russelldavies63) December 18, 2020

SCREWBALL: this is where the comedy plot of Different Forms of Transport reaches the punchline, the Segways. It’d be funnier if the other transport scenes hadn’t been cut! It’s a punchline without the build up! #SantasARobot

— Russell T Davies (@russelldavies63) December 18, 2020

I didn’t know what Segways were called, I had to draw one!! NOW I KNOW, OBVS #SantasARobot #alliwantforchristmasisasegway pic.twitter.com/Qv8xERFfbD

— Russell T Davies (@russelldavies63) December 18, 2020

Tate:

Has The Doctor still got that flip phone? Or did he upgrade to Apple?

RTD:

CGI CUTS, here’s where the CGI spiders would’ve been great. Without them… not much happens! Missing spiders...

Again, CG Spiders missing, they would’ve been so good! They're the whole POINT of the scene

https://i.imgur.com/d4QrAyw.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/81iZOtA.jpg

more cut spiders: https://i.imgur.com/y07DQJl.jpg and https://i.imgur.com/7UwDUV8.jpg

This episode taped in July 2006 - followup:

January 2008. Claridge's! The Radio Times Cover Party. Jane Tranter sits down with me, Julie, Phil. I run the 2008 companion past her, "Penny". She says, hmm. She said, I saw Catherine yesterday to talk about future projects. But she went on and on about Doctor Who, she loved it so much. I think if you asked, you could get her back. For a whole series. I was like, never! She's so busy! She writes her own stuff! Impossible. And look what happened...

aaaand...

As a bonus, Davies posted excerpts from his first submission to Dr Who, aged 22 or so:

HERE IT IS. In preparation for today’s tweetalong, I went through some old papers to find the script and found… the VERY FIRST DOCTOR WHO SCRIPT I ever wrote!! On a manual typewriter! In 1985! 1986? Sixth Doctor and Mel!

This script has no title, but it’s undoubtedly called MIND OF THE HODIAC. I’ll post a few pages here, but it’s 62 pages long. I think, in 1985, I imagined that was a 25 minute episode!! Hah. And there’s a synopsis for Ep.2.

I’ve always said in interviews that I sent in a rough version of The Long Game… but think I misremembered, I think it was this. Must have been. It’s not bad, I like it!

When the show closed down in 1989, I had a letter from Andrew Cartmel saying ‘Thank you for your idea, I liked it and put it to one side for consideration but now we’ve closed down…’ (Contrary to what he says in next month’s DWM, fact fans)

I won’t post the whole thing - this story could still work! But it’s very much my Doctor Who, even in 1985, great big cosmic events all focusing down on an ordinary Earth family. Come and bid, Big Finish!

https://i.imgur.com/vR7rzhz.jpg

and

https://i.imgur.com/JUyaIq4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iwdVZ5G.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LjGTYRY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/A3vX95x.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vlFkKZo.jpg

That’s it, I’ve loved it, don’t forget Doctor Who on New Year’s Day and my new show, It’s A Sin, on Jan 22 on Channel 4. But good old Doctor Who. Isn’t it always, always, always the best?! MERRY CHRISTMAS! #SantasARobot xxx

Speaking of old scripts, Moffat dug up and posted his first draft of A Christmas Carol as a festive gift.

(direct pdf link)

We watched it again on Christmas Day (having seen the canonical, muppet, version the day before) and it's still marvellous - I'd forgotten it was Smith/Moffat's first, the next episodes after The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang, which we watched afterwards. Jesus, 10 years ago.

Advance notice of a tweetalong!

Director Rachel Talalay and actor Chris Addison tweeting the double feature of Dark Water / Death In Heaven on January 3rd, just in time to find out if the government will be transforming millions of small living creatures into an infection-carrying army, ready to spread a horrific form of survival to the populace, the next day.

(I assume the IRL news on the latter won't be arriving any sooner.)

This will be one day after the 50th anniversary of Missy / The Master.