Missing episodes: a hypothetical question

[Relayer1]

Looks like I'm in the minority then...

[Rarewolf]

Relayer1 wrote:

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Put it this way - animation is costly and time consuming. Cheaper animation looks, er, cheap.

CGI will continue to get cheaper, especially when used with motion capture. Take the copious amounts of telesnaps, map them into 3D, use motion capture suits to insert the actors and you are there. The very next best thing to finding the episodes, and within a few years, affordable.

If they wanted to, they could probably finish the Baker Shada now...

And before you know it - Holodeck versions!

I do think in the case of such animations they don't need to be in much of a rush. Indeed, the longer it's left the cheaper and better it should be.

But none of us, or the talent involved in the originals are getting any younger.

[Christopher]

Relayer1 wrote:

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If they wanted to, they could probably finish the Baker Shada now...

I doubt that, because most of it was never shot at all, so there's no audio to base it on. And at least three of the original cast members (Denis Carey, Gerald Campion, and David Brierly) are dead, while the rest no doubt have much older-sounding voices, so even if you did reassemble them to act it out, it wouldn't quite match.

Anyway, we've already got the Flash-animated Paul McGann version of Shada.

[Brendan Moody]

Actually, Ian Levine has already produced an animated completion of "Shada," with John Leeson doing K9 and one Steven O'Donnell recording the few Denis Carey lines in the animated sequences. (I can't find any information about Gerald Campion's part.) Additionally, impressionist Paul Jones replaces Tom Baker, who was unwilling to participate. Otherwise, I think the major cast was intact. But Levine, who was making the animation largely for his own private entertainment (he does a fair bit of this sort of thing), made no effort to get the legal clearances that would be necessary for the formal release of such a project, and the forthcoming Legacy Box DVD set will include only the only VHS version of "Shada," with linking narration by Tom Baker. Whether this is because the Adams estate wanted too much money, because range producer Dan Hall doesn't believe "Shada" ought to be completed via animation, or because everyone has a grudge against Ian Levine, remains controversial.

[Rarewolf]

Brendan Moody wrote:

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(I can't find any information about Gerald Campion's part.) Additionally, impressionist Paul Jones replaces Tom Baker, who was unwilling to participate. Otherwise, I think the major cast was intact.

As he was only on location and the study set, all of Gerald's scenes (and the Policeman's) were recorded in 1979.

Christopher Neame recorded his lines from LA.

Some of their voices have changed a little, but since 90% of Skagra and his ship's voices weren't recorded it just means the for 10% they sound younger, rather than the rest sounds older. Indeed the one scene recorded that did feature Shirley Dixon as the voice of the ship was her last scene, and the Doctor had clearly been tinkering with the programming and personality by then anyway.

I don't think Daniel, Victoria or Lalla sound any different.

It works.

Had it been done for more stringent purposes, you could perhaps redub the 70s footage of the deceased actors (with K9 thats rather easy) But Ian Levine was very defiant on keeping as much of the original as possible. Well all of it.

[gastrof]

Is Levine's version of Shada available ANYWHERE?

[Brendan Moody]

No. A few people have seen it at private screenings and the like, but no commercial release is planned or seems likely, and Levine is adamant that it not circulate unofficially. Given time I suppose it might leak in spite of him, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[Lonemagpie]

Brendan Moody wrote:

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because everyone has a grudge against Ian Levine.

The reverse seems, also, to be the case...