What drop in quality? Sorry, but I have to disagree. I'm enjoying the series as much as I ever have, if not more.
Just going back to this post - it's interesting how companions now have 'closure', back in the day, many just disappeared in a couple of cases just blown out into space to die and be forgotten or left on a sofa!
Or written out between episodes. "Where's Dodo?" "Oh, she decided to stay behind here on the 60s, and she told us off screen to say she was leaving. Here's her key." "Oh well then, why don't you come along in her place?"
That's the one. I believe the story was War Games. The actress was contracted for a certain number of episodes. They decided not to renew her contract, even though it ended halfway through the story. So they had her take a nap, and we've never heard from her again.
Well, I think it probably has to do with the change in story structure. Where old Doctor Who would tell one long story broken up into multiple episodes, you could have one companion along for the ride and then dump him/her when the next big story begins. In that way, old seasons of Who are kind of like today's Christmas specials. The Doctor meets some new people, has an adventure, and then says goodbye at the end of the episode (like Donna in "The Runaway Bride" or Dumbledore Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol"). With the new seasons, we follow these companions on their journey with the Doctor for years at a time, and we [are supposed to] grow attached to them. For them to simply disappear would be very unsatisfying as a viewer.
Dodo's fate has always bothered me greatly. Granted, she wasn't the most popular companion, but I always liked the character and it's a terrible shame the character was ditched so unceremoniously. It's also a shame that Jackie Lane (who, along with Matthew Waterhouse) is the only surviving companion actor to not return to reprise their role in the Big Finish audio plays and has no interest in doing so (but still shows up for the conventions). I know she retired from acting (and she's Tom Baker's agent) but it would be nice to have just one companion chronicle from her...
And that's something I think is weird. Matt has done two (so far) audios for Big Finish, in their other ranges, but nothing yet for Doctor Who. And then they bring the character back in that one-off, and have him played by some other actor. What a waste!
Heh, that was pretty rude of her, not to even bother saying goodbye to The Doctor. And, also, pretty uncaring of The Doctor to just take their word for it, no questions asked. For all he knows, they could've mugged her and left her bleeding in an Alley
You know what really sucks? That's the only Ben and Polly story that is still 100%. Smugglers, Power of the Daleks, Macra Terror, and Highlanders (Jamie's first) are all gone. Tenth Planet, Underwater Menace, Moonbase,and Faceless Ones are all incomplete. All four episodes of War Machines still survive, and they're on DVD. Why is this sad? Because Ben was a really HOT Navy boy, who only wore his Navy costume ... *drool*
Yea, Ben was HAWT, though he was a bit of a prick sometimes, LOL Moonbase, actually, there is a very good Talking Animated Telesnaps Reconstruction of Ep 1 and 3, that I believe isn't distracting at all, it's almost as good as watching the actual episodes, much better, IMHO, then the standing Telesnaps Reconstructions Ep 1, which will guide you to Ep 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXpu5hVBU3g
Be glad there's even that - until 1984, only part 2 of War Machines survived (ditto for Time Meddler). So at one point there were no complete stories for Ben and Polly (or Victoria, come to that. And only 8 episodes at all for the pair. For Victoria there were only two. And no episodes at all for Katarina and Sara).
That's a question I've always been meaning to ask, how many episodes have been found in what time period? I assume there was a starting point, where they had "X" number of surviving episodes as a base, and then a hunt began, which most recently brought us Galaxy 4 ep 3, and Underwater Menace ep2 in (announced in Dec 2011) When did the hunt begin and how many episodes were turned up in total? Is there a Wiki page with all the details?
Unless I'm missing something, that doesn't seem to list what was recovered when, so I'll put a list together for that - but rather than take this thread further OT, I'll put it in a separate post/thread, unless the mods object. Then they can maybe sticky it for reference. Here you go... http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=7560448#post7560448