Oh, British TV!
Apr. 24th, 2008 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSo there'll be a new Blake's 7 , hm? Well now. As someone who likes the current Battlestar Galactica, I don't have a problem with a "re-imagining" and think this is a better solution than trying for a sequel. (Sequels for B7 are a little more impossible than for other shows anyway.) Of course, the result could be terrible, mediocre or splendid: nobody can know just yet.
In other British tv nows, I hear Being Human (aka the one about the Werewolf, the Vampire and the Ghost) has been ordered for a full season. Which is great news as the pilot was rather adorable and very promising.
A few notes while listening to the audio commentaries for The Green Death and The Keeper of Traken:
Green Death (which was one of the first Third Doctor stories I saw, eons ago, but I only got around to exploring the dvd extras this last week):
Katy Manning and Barry Letts, commenting on the ongoing Metabilis III gag in the Pertwee era: "Yes, every time he wants to go there, something terrible happens, right?" "Definitely. The next time he goes there, he turns into Tom Baker."
They heard about Roger Delgado's death during the filming of The Green Death. "The sweetest man." (Letts makes the comparison to Boris Karloff, who also specialized in villains and was incredibly nice in real life; Jon Pertwee in the SFX interview reprinted for the special edition calls Delgado "incredibly gentle" and names his death as one of the reasons that made him decide to leave.)
Everyone is quite proud DW had this story devoted to environmental issues years before it became fashionable, and quite depressed the situation for the environment currently looks more dire than ever.
They also love the scene where the Doctor disguises himself first as the milkman and then as the cleaning woman, reminscencing about Jon Pertwee as a character actor and his comic timing.
Pointing out that Jo is barely out of school in Terror of the Autons, Katy Manning sees her development on the show as a coming of age story.
About that Jo/Doctor matter: the boys say the Doctor was "half in love with her", but not in "that way". Everyone feels very sorry for the Doctor in this story anyway, though they chuckle when he drags Cliff Jones away instead of leaving him in front of the fireplace with Jo. Katy Manning audibly cries when it comes to the farewell scene. Aww.
The pseudo-documentary on the dvd about those mysterious goings-on in Wales in the 70s is priceless, culminating with the revelation that Stevens and BOSS, far from being dead, are currently running the BBC.
Keeper of Traken
Everyone is fanboying (and fangirling, in Sarah Sutton's case) Kassia. Was very amused at the actors chiding the characters for the fact Tremas and Nyssa don't comment on her demise at all during the last episode.
The general consensus on Tom Baker seems to be "brilliant actor, really scary in person". Johnny Byrne thinks that's why he made a convincing alien.
Anthony Ainley reports that he wasn't told anything about the Master's backstory other than "most evil Time Lord"; he wanted to watch some of the Delgado episodes as preparation but John Nathan Turner didn't provide them. Many years later, when the BBC finally repeated some Third Doctor serials, he did see Roger Delgado as the Master on tv, "and only then did I realise that the Master actually had a soft spot for the Doctor the size of Wolverhampton". To which I say, well, not that Delgado's performance doesn't make that obvious, but what did you think you were playing in Castrovalva?
John Nathan Turner is responsible for all the chuckling. He liked it when Geoffrey Beevers did it and told Ainley to use it as often as possible. No comment.
Johnny Byrne loved writing the introduction Doctor and Adric scene and has a mini-rant about how the TARDIS was overcrowded from this point onwards through the Five era and how just one companion was the way to go. Considering one of the more common complaints about New Who is that with the exception of two or three episodes per season (Jack era in s1, Mickey in s2, Jack again at the end of s3), we only have one companion on the TARDIS, this amused me to no end.
He also never forgave the production team for destroying Traken in the next story, which they had not told him they'd do. 'Twas his planet.
Lastly, a few Doctor Who fanfic recs. I had a craving for Academy era fanfic, and here are a few of those, featuring the Doctor, the Master and the Rani as children and youths:
Childhood Ends
Roses in December
Experimental Subjects
Things to do on Gallifrey when you're bored
In other British tv nows, I hear Being Human (aka the one about the Werewolf, the Vampire and the Ghost) has been ordered for a full season. Which is great news as the pilot was rather adorable and very promising.
A few notes while listening to the audio commentaries for The Green Death and The Keeper of Traken:
Green Death (which was one of the first Third Doctor stories I saw, eons ago, but I only got around to exploring the dvd extras this last week):
Katy Manning and Barry Letts, commenting on the ongoing Metabilis III gag in the Pertwee era: "Yes, every time he wants to go there, something terrible happens, right?" "Definitely. The next time he goes there, he turns into Tom Baker."
They heard about Roger Delgado's death during the filming of The Green Death. "The sweetest man." (Letts makes the comparison to Boris Karloff, who also specialized in villains and was incredibly nice in real life; Jon Pertwee in the SFX interview reprinted for the special edition calls Delgado "incredibly gentle" and names his death as one of the reasons that made him decide to leave.)
Everyone is quite proud DW had this story devoted to environmental issues years before it became fashionable, and quite depressed the situation for the environment currently looks more dire than ever.
They also love the scene where the Doctor disguises himself first as the milkman and then as the cleaning woman, reminscencing about Jon Pertwee as a character actor and his comic timing.
Pointing out that Jo is barely out of school in Terror of the Autons, Katy Manning sees her development on the show as a coming of age story.
About that Jo/Doctor matter: the boys say the Doctor was "half in love with her", but not in "that way". Everyone feels very sorry for the Doctor in this story anyway, though they chuckle when he drags Cliff Jones away instead of leaving him in front of the fireplace with Jo. Katy Manning audibly cries when it comes to the farewell scene. Aww.
The pseudo-documentary on the dvd about those mysterious goings-on in Wales in the 70s is priceless, culminating with the revelation that Stevens and BOSS, far from being dead, are currently running the BBC.
Keeper of Traken
Everyone is fanboying (and fangirling, in Sarah Sutton's case) Kassia. Was very amused at the actors chiding the characters for the fact Tremas and Nyssa don't comment on her demise at all during the last episode.
The general consensus on Tom Baker seems to be "brilliant actor, really scary in person". Johnny Byrne thinks that's why he made a convincing alien.
Anthony Ainley reports that he wasn't told anything about the Master's backstory other than "most evil Time Lord"; he wanted to watch some of the Delgado episodes as preparation but John Nathan Turner didn't provide them. Many years later, when the BBC finally repeated some Third Doctor serials, he did see Roger Delgado as the Master on tv, "and only then did I realise that the Master actually had a soft spot for the Doctor the size of Wolverhampton". To which I say, well, not that Delgado's performance doesn't make that obvious, but what did you think you were playing in Castrovalva?
John Nathan Turner is responsible for all the chuckling. He liked it when Geoffrey Beevers did it and told Ainley to use it as often as possible. No comment.
Johnny Byrne loved writing the introduction Doctor and Adric scene and has a mini-rant about how the TARDIS was overcrowded from this point onwards through the Five era and how just one companion was the way to go. Considering one of the more common complaints about New Who is that with the exception of two or three episodes per season (Jack era in s1, Mickey in s2, Jack again at the end of s3), we only have one companion on the TARDIS, this amused me to no end.
He also never forgave the production team for destroying Traken in the next story, which they had not told him they'd do. 'Twas his planet.
Lastly, a few Doctor Who fanfic recs. I had a craving for Academy era fanfic, and here are a few of those, featuring the Doctor, the Master and the Rani as children and youths:
Childhood Ends
Roses in December
Experimental Subjects
Things to do on Gallifrey when you're bored
