The War Games -- colororized

[Saul]

I skimmed to the end for the regeneration (will give a full watch tomorrow). I was actually surprised they did that. I had already seen it on YouTube a year ago. I don't dislike it. Not perfect, but kinda cool? At the end of the day it doesn't do any harm. Just from skimming the episode it may have overdone it a bit with the placement of modern Who imagery.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I have not seen this yet, but I was watching a review that pointed out something that will be very controversial here and elsewhere. It would seem that apparently...

Spoiler

...every time that the War Chief is shown on screen, the musical cue that they use is the one used for the Saxon Master.

Of course, this is confirmation of nothing whatsoever and does not canonize any long-standing fan theories. I'm sure it's meant to be both an Easter egg and a nudge-nudge wink-wink to the fans, but it is sure to stoke the flames of discussion, as I'm sure it was meant to.

Also...

Spoiler

...when the Doctor and is given a choice of faces to choose from, the selection has changed to faces that he will actually possess in the future, including Capaldi. Which makes no sense whatsoever because that face was specifically chosen due to events of an adventure that he hasn't even had yet.

 

[N-121973]

It could have done with being about 30 minutes longer, I did feel there was stuff left behind on the 'cutting room floor' that should have remained. I did like the regeneration though.

Spoiler: Spoiler for a 55 year-old production

I would have liked it if there'd been a post-credits scene set on the War World where the camera drifted over to the War Chief's body and we saw him regenerate into Roger Delgado's Master.

 

[Saul]

Spoiler: Spoiler for a 55 year-old production

I would have liked it if there'd been a post-credits scene set on the War World where the camera drifted over to the War Chief's body and we saw him regenerate into Roger Delgado's Master.

Spoiler: Actually

after he is shot and they drag him away you can hear the regeneration starting.

 

[Pindar]

Not bad, it made more sense than the colourised Daleks did.

It was too frantic an edit, but it looked great.

The regeneration did look a bit fake but is nice to have.

 

[Christopher]

I have not seen this yet, but I was watching a review that pointed out something that will be very controversial here and elsewhere. It would seem that apparently...

Spoiler

...every time that the War Chief is shown on screen, the musical cue that they use is the one used for the Saxon Master.

Ah. I saw a review that mentioned a musical cue that nodded to a fan theory, and I guessed that was what it was.

 

[Saul]

It was too frantic an edit, but it looked great.

After watching it that's my opinion too. Nice, but sometimes felt like "previously on Docto Who".

 

[jaime]

I don't think 6B was ever officially adopted by the BBC. The only times it's been seemingly acknowledged on the show was The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors. The Five Doctors was written by Terrance Dicks, who is basically the architect of 6B, so not too shocking he acknowledged it, though I believe he played it off as a mistake due to faulty memory afterwards to get around BBC's rule that TV shows can't acknowledge tie-in materials, backing it up with his philosophy of "continuity is only whatever I can remember." Meanwhile with The Two Doctors, it's generally believed Robert Holmes genuinely forgot the Second Doctor wasn't sent on missions by the Time Lords during the show. Though given his friendship with Terrance Dicks, it's been debated in some circles whether he really forgot or just said he did in order to not get in trouble for referencing his friend's work in the tie-in material.

The tie-in stuff that directly referenced it came ten to twenty years down the line really. So the origin is widdershins — five and two doctors basically did impossible things that could only really be explained (and you could lump Three Doctors in there too, as that’s also the Time Lords picking up the Second and sending him on a Bob, which he accepts, at their whim) by something like the 6B concept. Knocking it out of the realms of canon possibility isn’t *really* done by this (he could have sat in that chair after dropping Jamie off to live in Noughties Scotland where he would be safe after all… Jamie’s survival/freedom being the price paid for his services) though it does outright remove the possibility of rather sensibly putting the Jo Martin Chef!Doctor in there instead of the pre-Hartnell SNAFU that makes even less sense than anything with the terrible Zodin or the Faction Paradox precursor shenanigans that involved Shockeye The O’Quancing Grig.

 

[diankra]

UK time zone, I presume? Seems pretty late when the goal is to bring in new kids to see an era they would otherwise not be able to sit through thanks to this show having been made in B&W and stretched out to 10 episodes. May as well go to the museum and hang signs strategically on statues or artwork over some of the good bits while everyone's at it because modern audiences can't handle it, probably.

Still, it's a fun experiment, and even Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia would be impressed.... and the funnest part is they never minded the originals remaining intact, too!

BBC4 shares a slot with a children's channel and starts at 7pm. So an afternoon screening wouldn't be on BBC4.

 

[jaime]

I can tell you that a couple of people who would have watched it on first broadcast have seen it in its new form on BBC 4, and they haven’t bothered with the current era in quite some time.

So it’s… sort of bringing in new viewers.

It will eventually get me watching it too, though have sworn off this years Xmas special for personal reasons.

Edit: started watching it, it’s going to be a piecemeal watch through. The colour is nice, though makes it seem *less* real in a way, largely because the Great War is one of this events that feels like it happened in B&W. Documentary feel.
The editing does let it down — it’s moving so fast that characters basically feel like they don’t exist anymore, and the whole court-martial scene was missing the ‘good soldier wavers and tries to introduce fairness, to question things, and is then hypnotised’ stuff which it feels poorer for. Even if I hadn’t known what was there, it’s one of those bits where shots chosen make it clear something has been cut — which happens a lot so far. Perhaps they should have at least gone for two hours.

 

[diankra]

I can tell you that a couple of people who would have watched it on first broadcast have seen it in its new form on BBC 4, and they haven’t bothered with the current era in quite some time.

So it’s… sort of bringing in new viewers.

It will eventually get me watching it too, though have sworn off this years Xmas special for personal reasons.

Edit: started watching it, it’s going to be a piecemeal watch through. The colour is nice, though makes it seem *less* real in a way, largely because the Great War is one of this events that feels like it happened in B&W. Documentary feel.
The editing does let it down — it’s moving so fast that characters basically feel like they don’t exist anymore, and the whole court-martial scene was missing the ‘good soldier wavers and tries to introduce fairness, to question things, and is then hypnotised’ stuff which it feels poorer for. Even if I hadn’t known what was there, it’s one of those bits where shots chosen make it clear something has been cut — which happens a lot so far. Perhaps they should have at least gone for two hours.

It's interesting that The World at War is repeated pretty regularly, whereas The Great War isn't. Possibly because it's B&W, possibly because there as some controversy over it featuring recreations.

 

[bdub76]

Looks like it might include new footage per the Radio Free Skaro podcast that interviewed the guy that did some of the editing on this serial.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Ah. I saw a review that mentioned a musical cue that nodded to a fan theory, and I guessed that was what it was.

Spoiler

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[Emperor-Tiberius]

Look, lets remember the omnibus is not meant to be the definitive take on this story. Its definitely not going to replace the original serial in any way, be it canonicity or whatever. Its meant to be an easy intro to newer fans who get into Who through DisneyWho, or start watching NuWho on streaming and want access to old stories as an apetizer.

Also, I don't think the season 6B theories were at all discounted by this edit. Indeed, that concept in itself is an edit, of the Second Doctor's fate after all. So, I would not lose my sleep over this. The splinter Second Doctor is still out there.

 

[jaime]

Look, lets remember the omnibus is not meant to be the definitive take on this story. Its definitely not going to replace the original serial in any way, be it canonicity or whatever. Its meant to be an easy intro to newer fans who get into Who through DisneyWho, or start watching NuWho on streaming and want access to old stories as an apetizer.

Also, I don't think the season 6B theories were at all discounted by this edit. Indeed, that concept in itself is an edit, of the Second Doctor's fate after all. So, I would not lose my sleep over this. The splinter Second Doctor is still out there.

6B was at least a retcon by Terrance Dicks, and therefore infinitely preferable to any since.

 

[Saul]

I don't know as well as others here but Big Finish did 'Beyond War Games' where the Second Doctor is extracted from his timeline a quantum of a second before his exile. I haven't listened to the story but sounds similar to what they did with Clara.
Then there's the whole RTD idea of all Doctors having a bi-generation. So there are two outs to fit theories.

 

[kirk55555]

I'd personally rather kill Season 6B and bury it in the cold ground then accept that every Doctor has a bi generation (and somehow literally no one ever saw it, even the people who have been right next to him while he was regenerating). I just don't cound what the colorization did as canon, or just stick the regeneration scene after 6B, with The Docto going into 6B stuff between when the Timelords say they're going to change his face and when it actually happens.

 

[matthunter]

There's always Seven's line from the Tales of the TARDIS short with Ace, explaining that in some timelines he regenerates but doesn't in others. Though one would imagine the Time Lords frown on that sort of thing... unless they can abuse it to have a caged Doctor doing missions for them.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

6B was at least a retcon by Terrance Dicks, and therefore infinitely preferable to any since.

Modern Who seems so devode of talent behind the camera that all they can do is mess with what people made before them for no real reason other than they think viewers are so stupid that they cannot in 60 plus years be left to make up there own minds on ambiguous stuff like this or Morbius.........so god forbid modern viewers are not spoon fed everything now.

 

[Saul]

My problem with modern Who dealing with old stuff is that they leave it ambiguous. They play around with answering big mysteries such as the Doctor's name, past lives, where he's from, human side etc. But they never give a definitive answer. By touching on the lore without answers they're just adding more confusion to it.