Not actually Classic Who, but overlapping... I decided to sign up to BritBox, and the first thing I watched was the 1982 miniseries adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles that was the first thing Tom Baker did after Who, with Barry Letts as producer, Terrance Dicks as script editor, and Caroline John playing Laura Lyons, with visual effects supervised by Peter Wragg, who'd begun doing the same job for Who earlier in '82. The miniseries is four 28-minute episodes, the same format as a typical Who serial. It's very much a 1982 BBC production with stagey videotaped interiors and grainy prefilmed exteriors.
I thought it was an okay adaptation. There's not much distance between Baker's Holmes and his Doctor, but there's no real reason why there should be, since the characters have so much in common. I found him reasonably effective in the role, but apparently Baker himself and the BBC were dissatisfied with his performance, which might be why they didn't continue the series.
The big disappointment for me is Terence Rigby's Watson, who comes off as a distracted fuddy-duddy and leaves a weak impression. One could have wished for a more compelling presence as Watson, both because so much of the story focuses on Watson without Holmes and because Tom Baker was such a dominating presence that he needed a worthier co-star to balance him.
At first I thought the music was by Dudley Simpson, since it had very similar orchestration, but the composer was someone else. I guess it must've sounded similar because it was probably using the same BBC studio musicians and instruments.
The building used for Baskerville Hall's exterior looked familiar, and I've probably seen it in Who, but I can't remember where.
I thought it was an okay adaptation. There's not much distance between Baker's Holmes and his Doctor, but there's no real reason why there should be, since the characters have so much in common. I found him reasonably effective in the role, but apparently Baker himself and the BBC were dissatisfied with his performance, which might be why they didn't continue the series.
The big disappointment for me is Terence Rigby's Watson, who comes off as a distracted fuddy-duddy and leaves a weak impression. One could have wished for a more compelling presence as Watson, both because so much of the story focuses on Watson without Holmes and because Tom Baker was such a dominating presence that he needed a worthier co-star to balance him.
At first I thought the music was by Dudley Simpson, since it had very similar orchestration, but the composer was someone else. I guess it must've sounded similar because it was probably using the same BBC studio musicians and instruments.
The building used for Baskerville Hall's exterior looked familiar, and I've probably seen it in Who, but I can't remember where.
