"Is it over yet?" Topic

I'm wondering if (not) dr who will come back next year?

I suspect it will, in some form, as it's likely already been/being filmed??

Apparently episode ratings are averaging less per episode than the previous final episode.

The only way is down.

Next year? Maybe. 2026?

Well, Disney does seem to have a penchant for destroying franchises.

Like star wars, dr who was given to them DOA, Disney just tossed them out back to rot.

In both cases, there is a back catalogue of what people actually want, but is ignored.

All fans want, all fans need is a rerelease of the star wars trilogy.

I think in both cases it's remnants of previous mismanagement simply being amplified.

A drift from classic who, which already had a drift from 1st to seventh, has grown to the extreme.

What was originally a kids show-to family show, is now containing elements (at least) that only appeal to some adults and being made by similar people.

"There's your problem…"

The solution???

As I said on another thread, A kids show run by groomers. What could go wrong?

Trailer for Christmas Special

youtu.be/j9_RYmJswmM

It continues

Started watching Doctor Who in 1970 with Tom Baker. Though I was able to see many of the earlier doctors.
To me they began with the last three doctors. Just my opinion. The creation of all of the past unknown life's was the end for me. No more continuity. Never watched an episode of the last doctor.

If I was running the franchise, I'd get ahold of the old scripts from 60's and refilm them (with updated SFX and new actors) seeing as the original shows were all erased. People tune in for entertainment, not agendas…

I just watched the Christmas Special trailer, and I have no idea what's going on. The Doctor is hopping through time, sure that's expected. He's offering a sandwich to unknown people, ? Suddenly the focus shifts to a woman who speaks to houseflies, again ?

I still want Rupert Grint as a 1 season Doctor, just so I can hear the line…

"Finally, a ginger!"

2 points

Its been filmed so of course it will be on TV next year

Secondly, dont watch something you know you hate, just so you can tell people you hate it. Life's too short.

"Its been filmed so of course it will be on TV next year"

I may have to put that on a bumper sticker.

TV and film researchers are now rolling around laughing. Good work.

It would not be the first time a lot of money was spent on a show or film, only for it to disappear or be hopelessly delayed.

link

Wikipedia link.

"Secondly, dont watch something you know you hate, just so you can tell people you hate it"

It's six of one, half a dozen of the other.

I don't watch the ultra modern tat. Only got part way into Capaldi.

But I read whats going on, so I know it's best not to watch it.

On the other hand, someone has to watch it to let other know how bad it is. So I'm grateful for them doing that.

"from 60's and refilm them (with updated SFX and new actors) seeing as the original shows were all erased."

Well, there were the 2 theatrical movies with Peter Cushing.

The oruginal shows, mostly exist. Mostly from filming a tv screen for regions that didn't yet have video tape players, if memory serves.

So they are probably better quality than the video tape would be now.

With invasion of the dinosaurs, I think it was, they were able to see the screen pixels and tell what colour was being displayed, even though it was black and white film, so were able to recolourise it from that info.

Believe it or not, the acting and effects are half the appeal of the classic series.

I prefer to watch something real, like a model, or costume.

Nothing wrong with the classic Who girls that needs replacing either.

The history of TV is littered with unaired pilots, plus cancellations of existing series, but I dont see it likely anyone would junk a completed season.
It ultimately comes down to commercial imperatives not artistic sensibilities.

Everything from the 3rd Doctor onwards exists, though a few episodes had to be recolourised.
Yhe gaps are within the first two Doctors whensome tapes were erased, though some have been found, and there have been vakiant efforts to use animations.

If you are lucky enough to have access to BBC Iplayer, everything that exists, from 1963 to date, is there.

Everything available from 1963 through the run of the original show is also available on Tubi, including some of the previously mentioned animated recreations. I'm in the middle of watching the Tom Baker years, and yes, he is without a doubt the best Doctor.
Recent favorite exchange:
Doctor: "Ah, yes, Aneth. Lovely planet."
Anethian: "Oh, you've been there?"
Doctor: "Yes, but not yet."

Tom Baker is always the one that even the casual viewers at the time most remember and associate with the original series.
Being in the role for 7 years , and having some inspired writers and producers, have a lot to do with this.
I think his first two thirds was stronger.. I recently watched a couple from his last series and felt underwhelmed, in fact didnt even finish one of them.
To everything its time.

Even in his strongest period, there can be mis-steps.Ive just finished watching "The Seeds of Doom" [the Krynoid] and there not a few quite horrifying and violent sequences. A UNIT Sgt fed into a compost mincing machine.. and the Doctor getting into physical fights in which he shows a disturbing degree of expertise. Not like Pertwee's elegant Venusian Aikido.

There are so many quotable lines to choose from.
This was the period that started to see the show expanding beyond its UK audience, which is why so many overseas viewers rember the 4th Doctor as their first.

All the Doctors have their ups and downs.

I have an appreciation for Patrick Troughton, the 2nd Doctor— competence combined with quirkiness. I liked the use of the plastic recorder (flute) as a character trait for him. He successfully established that a new regeneration of the Doctor was a new person as well as the old person— different, and yet also the same. Well done, which is why I rank him second.
Pertwee was great, eccentric in his own right, but a little too competent, and with the quirk factor lowered a bit too much for my taste. But he was still a good Doctor, and made the whole "stuck on Earth with UNIT" concept work (though it was a bad idea, which thankfully the show dumped— the TARDIS is as much a character as the Doctor himself— a stranded TARDIS is boring, and ignoring a primary premise and asset of the show!

However Pertwee's run is the best for new people to see, as it is earth based, so easy to get into.

Also it's the first in colour, as some people are weird about black and white.

It's also more mature than the first two.

Plus spearhead from space is filmed, not tv cameras.

He also encounters all regular enemies up to them, less Cybermen (except onstage) and yeti (2nd doctor only anyway).

So many reasons.

He's definitely the doctor to measure other seasons against.

I feel Tom Baker was when they started making the stories in a faster/production line fashion, rather then like miniseries. Closer to other SciFi like Space 1999, BSG, so on.

It was also when that thing happened that later had John Rhys Davies leave sliders. Every story was based on the latest movie.

Well, I think Arc in space predated Alien. Seeds of Doom was like Thing from another world, both predating John Carpenter's later movie (or did it? Maybe it was a clone of the 80s film?), Obviously Dune gets a go in Robots of death, novels, at least?, I'm sure there were more??

Well, as far as hammer horror, probably.

No, it isn't over. I think a thread of this general form will appear every few weeks, prompted by nothing and generally grinding away at the exact same grievances.

Jon Pertwee is not coming back – being dead. Of course Tom Baker was different – Tom Baker in general was very different from most people one might meet. And he had Douglas "hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" Adams as a script writer.

After all these threads I still don't know what you reasonably want….dead actors won't return, the 1970s are not coming back. It is 2024 and the world is different. Thank goodness.

Oh, amusingly enough my local cinema showed the original 3 Star Wars films over the bank holiday weekend. Great as they are they have not aged well – Empire Strikes Back has some of the poorest stop motion ever put on film, they cannot handle perspective at all in scenes involving star destroyers and tie fighters, and Yoda…. where to start.

My younger self would be aghast at such comments, but what did he know – he was just some dumb kid 🙂

Comparing the 1960s and 2024 is a waste of time. I stated my position in the upper section.

My comment is that the flow of show does not depend on the doctor actor. It depends on the producer, director and writers. IMHO, better production staff early on.

"original 3 Star Wars films"

I don't believe that for a second.

Unless they were operating outside of Disney parameters.

The original trilogy still beat the prequels and tat Disney pump out.

Only the ATATs were stop motion from memory, and they still hold up. And are actually real, as opposed to fake CGI. Someone probably still has them somewhere.

You are forgetting the tauntaun, when Han is riding one it looks like a lump of plasticine crossing the screen. Laughably bad.

And the AT-ATs….they did look kind of cluncky at times. I hate to say it, but I think I was better off remembering it as really great, seeing it again on a really big screen showed up the limitations of the time.

I didn't forget the awesome go motion Tauntauns. They just weren't stop motion.

The clunky ATATs was the point of using stop motion for them, over go motion.

Limitations?

Necessity is the mother of invention.

I fondly remember the dead cgi spiders in there crude geometric form sliding across the screen as the camera panned in the mysterious island with Patrick Stewart.

Stop motion doesn't do that.

Awesome?

Well – matter of opinion I guess.

And when they were close up puppets….OMG…so bad. IMHO, don't expect everyone or even anyone to agree.

"Awesome?

Well – matter of opinion I guess."

Perhaps of the cinema and many of the film's patrons recently near you?

Info on that would be nice, which cinema was it?

"And when they were close up puppets….OMG…so bad."

Well, they look pretty good to me, but then i've never seen a real one to compare them to.

Certainly miles ahead of CGI Jabba. Which ever one you choose.

They should get PJ to complete the original Jabba scene and include it as a special feature in a new original trilogy release of Star Wars, full stop, period, "that's all there is, there isn't any more."

The King Kong spider pit stuff he did was cool.

Perhaps Mr Arnold's death scene and Lex on the baby trike could be another.

While I'm rambling, the real hurricane prevented Samuel Jackson form flying over to film his death scene, even though a leg and, that, arm were made. Oddly lex's ride was scrapped, even though the baby trike was almost finished.

Coincidence? I think not. Haven't read the full script, by chiasmicly the two scenes mirror each other.

Black man who smokes gets killed by adult carnivours. He hates this hacker crap. He couldn't save the day. He's inside in the dark. He can't out smart raptors. He has glasses. So on

Young Girl who's a vegetarian has fun on a baby herbivores. She prefers to be called a hacker. She did save the day. She's out side in light. She can out smart raptors. She does not wear glasses. So on.

I suspect when his scene was scrapped, hers had to be.

They are the only cut scenes I'm aware of also.

While I'm rambling.

PS

To clarify, I mean deleted scenes of the ready to, then oddly pulled manner.

I put Arnold's death just before the galimimus, from memory. But lex's around first meeting the kids, which would work in a Jurassic world like set up, but was supposed to be around the triceratops scene. But production and editing may have moved that later anyway.

Her entrance v his exit makes sense, but not around the trike scene.

Unless there are other scenes they play against, perhaps also missing.

You see the hell I live in.

I don't think naming the cinema makes a difference – it looks the same in any cinema…it was on a big screen, and there were maybe 20 people who came to see it…

….the scenes in the rebel base with the Tauntauns up close in my opinion showed the limitations of the puppetry, we aren't going to agree (surprise!), but that's ok.

I must be easily pleased but Im forgiving of the special effects in older films and TV.
Or I just fail to notice!

The tweakings Lucas did to the original trilogy with extra crowds, scenes, and a different face for Ghost Vader, didn't add anything to the story.

They were what they were.

Yeah, good.

If I want to see ILM dinosaurs, I'll watch JP.

"I don't think naming the cinema makes a difference – it looks the same in any cinema"

I'm just trying to figure out which versions they were showing.

I find it unlikely that they were the original theatrical versions, as you can't even buy them anymore.

The negatives were cut up doing the special editions, so they would have to be old prints.

The last release on DVD was just the laserdisc scan.

Films would/should have been returned decades ago.

Did they give them a final cinema run in the 90s when the final chance VHS came out??

Besides which they would have to get permission/pay fees to screen them, so Disney/distributors would know all about it.

So I suspect they were special editions screened.

Details please, if I'm wrong.

It'll have been whatever print the distributor (Disney I suppose) currently supplies – the Star Wars was the enhanced print with new CGI, Empire was exactly as I recalled it from 40 years ago (!), and I didn't bother with Jedi. It wasn't some sort of film club using battered old VHS copies !

As I suspected. I'd assume empire was a special edition too.

I think the confusion is me saying original trilogy (which is correct) instead of original theatrical trilogy.

I have the original theatrical release of Star Wars on DVD. At points one can see the compositing "ghosts" in space flight sequences involving multiple craft. But I don't care— it's pure and unadulterated by CGI, and I love it.
I also have TESB and RotJ in their pre-prequel glory. Papa Skywalker's Force Ghost is the middle-aged man (and the actor under the helmet in his death scene), as he should be. There was no "Anakin" character to muddy things up with.

So the above are what I watch. As far as I am concerned, any other versions Do Not Exist.

Oh, and in my version, Han shot first. Because that's what a smart guy does. Only a moron waits for the other guy to fire.

"I also have TESB and RotJ in their pre-prequel glory."

The special editions came out before the prequels.

They came out in 1997 for the 20th anniversary. The CGI was used as a test for the prequels. Jurassic Park dinosaurs were used for the basis of most of the Tatooine CGI creatures.

If you want CGI, go play a computer game.

That said, one star wars console game I liked was rebel assult 2, but that used filmed actors.