One of at least two. I used to have the 1992 VHS release that had the existing portions of "Shada" bridged with Tom Baker narrating what happened in the missing portions.
Speaking of animations, I just watched the first episode of the animated "The Celestial Toymaker" reconstruction, the one with the idiosyncratic 3D animation style. It's a bizarre mix of well-done elements and terribly done elements. The surreal reinterpretation of the visuals is creative, and the shot compositions are often well-done, but the character designs are hideous and the computer animation is at early-1990s levels of stiffness and crudeness. In some scenes, like the Doctor's exchange with the Toymaker, the character animation (i.e. body language and movement) is nicely subtle, natural, and expressive despite the limitations of the character models, but in other scenes, the character movement is really crude and jerky (and Steven has his head tilted back almost constantly for some reason). I can't understand why the animation is so technically bad, decades behind the state of the art.
As for the story itself, it's pretty weak, random, and dull. I don't think I liked it much when I watched the still-photo reconstruction and the surviving episode. The main appeal is Michael Gough, but it's not as effective when we only have his voice and can't see the menacing expressions he did so well.
Incidentally, I recently saw Gough as the villain in an episode of the 1954-5 Sherlock Holmes TV series that's streaming on Tubi, "The Case of the Perfect Husband," where he played a coolly sadistic psychopath and was one of the show's most effective and scary guest villains (also one of the show's only guest actors that I recognized on sight, the other being Natalie Schafer). I can see why Doctor Who cast him to play an all-powerful archvillain, although I think I would've preferred to see him in a better serial than this one.
^^^This 100%.
The script was frequently rewritten {Hayles, Tosh, Davies). A letter says that the whole point was lost and the story should have been dropped.
One version featured George and Margaret, from a Godot style play where they never actually arrived. The writer had initially said yes, but then changed his mind.
Last edited:
The McGann version was an interesting idea, but it didn't really work for me because the Doctor still talked and acted like Tom Baker, so I couldn't quite buy it as an Eighth Doctor story.
Definitely. There was that bit with the Doctor riding around on a tricycle (?), which seemed a little OTT even for Baker, let alone McGann.
Last edited:
I enjoyed the Celestial Toymaker, but I suspect only because the animation's visuals made it far more surreal and interesting than the live-action must've been, judging from the surviving fourth episode, which is not the best directed episode lets say - but Gough is majestic in it of course.
Anyway, I'd largely agree with Christopher's review on the designs/visuals of the animation, but I did find the story sufficiently imaginative and interesting, even if the games themselves were rather trite. In any case, the Toymaker was certainly an exciting characterr and I'm rather curious as to why he wasn't a recurring one.
Anyway, I'd largely agree with Christopher's review on the designs/visuals of the animation, but I did find the story sufficiently imaginative and interesting, even if the games themselves were rather trite. In any case, the Toymaker was certainly an exciting characterr and I'm rather curious as to why he wasn't a recurring one.
Honestly I found Gough's vocal performance less effective than his Sherlock Holmes gig I mentioned earlier. He was a great villain actor, but I don't think this character, or certainly this script, made the best use of his talents.
Yeah, it's bizarre how these are supposed to be these intricate games requiring great skill to solve, but they're really so simple and clumsy. The whole script seems to be talking down to its audience, making Dodo such a dodo that she needs the Doctor to explain obvious things like impersonating the Toymaker's voice. (Yes, I know it's a kids' show, but it's rarely had such a low estimate of children's ability to comprehend as this serial seemed to.) And Steven's lines got very repetitive, telling Dodo the same things over and over.
Perhaps because this serial was so problematical, or perhaps because it was erased and largely forgotten. Or maybe it was difficult to tell stories about such a powerful adversary. Although they almost brought him back in "The Nightmare Fair" in the cancelled Colin Baker season. Graham Williams's novelization of that was very well-written, which surprised me, since I thought Williams's run as producer was the weakest in the classic show's history. (Also since the other two Missing Episodes novelizations I read were really bad.)
I'd agree with @Turtletrekker. And it is very well done to boot.
There were proposals for sequels: a Troughton about the Toymaker's sister, a Tom where the Toymaker proves to be the power behind the big bad, and of course Nightmare Fair.
The Queen of Time is pretty good: https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Queen_of_Time_(audio_story)
Started rewatching classic DW again in the past few days.
So far, I (re-)watched "The Romans", "The Celestial Toymaker" (the colour animation for the first time!), "The Underwater Menace" (also catching up on the colour animation I hadn't seen before), "The Moonbase" and, finally, the 3rd Doctor "Spearhead from Space", "Doctor Who and the Silurians" and "The Ambassadors of Death".
So far, I (re-)watched "The Romans", "The Celestial Toymaker" (the colour animation for the first time!), "The Underwater Menace" (also catching up on the colour animation I hadn't seen before), "The Moonbase" and, finally, the 3rd Doctor "Spearhead from Space", "Doctor Who and the Silurians" and "The Ambassadors of Death".
Yes, especially compared to the Pertwee episodes of which the colour had to be restored from NTSC tapes ... those look a bit blurry.
"Warriors of the Deep" (special edition, blu-ray).
While I should have worn my eyeglasses more consistently, but I saw nothing egregious with the AI sharpening/upscaling used, which was something of a relief. Whether other stories reveal anything significant, I dunno. But, so far so good, and better than season 13's fare...
The f/x inserts of the underwater base and craft definitely look like cleaned up telecine material, not re-scanned 16mm film as the film is said to not be available for this story: https://chuckipedia.ca/index.php?title=Surviving_16mm_Film_Inserts_in_''Doctor_Who'' has the full list and whose last-edit timestamp is sadly too recent to not consider. Fans of season 19 are by far the luckiest in terms of surviving filmed material. That said, the cleaning up and addition of detail complementing the original material renders a very sumptuous look.
The tightening up of the story, especially parts 1 and 2 with select dialogue removed as audiences can figure out the macro-sociological issues on their own without the Doctor's sarcastic quip (which his others that remain come off better as a result), helps immensely. So does creating alternate camera angles. The special edition also adds replacement eyes for Silurians, which seem off-kilter but compared to the original where one could see the human actor eyes, it's still an improvement.
Solow's death is much improved and the base staff's outfits remain just as killer as before, and still likely inspired in part by "Thriller"
.
I'd heard varying things on the clip show of the previous two encounters, and the clips used are very well handled. The one clip that had some YouTube channels up in arms I must disagree with as it's simply footage otherwise contextless from a different show, is trying to build upon the explosion scenes where lots of Silurians and Sea Devils die - simply exists to render more weight TO the Silurians' desire to wipe out humanity that much more. While the Silurians are still intent to kill the Doctor, the clips' use are very well handled and the creative liberty actually accentuates the scene and Silurian intent that much more strongly. Kudos!
All in all, this is a fantastic update and is a lot snappier and watchable. Best of all, nothing really terrible in terms of AI upscaling goofs were noticed but, again, the season is still young.
7/10
While I should have worn my eyeglasses more consistently, but I saw nothing egregious with the AI sharpening/upscaling used, which was something of a relief. Whether other stories reveal anything significant, I dunno. But, so far so good, and better than season 13's fare...
The f/x inserts of the underwater base and craft definitely look like cleaned up telecine material, not re-scanned 16mm film as the film is said to not be available for this story: https://chuckipedia.ca/index.php?title=Surviving_16mm_Film_Inserts_in_''Doctor_Who'' has the full list and whose last-edit timestamp is sadly too recent to not consider. Fans of season 19 are by far the luckiest in terms of surviving filmed material. That said, the cleaning up and addition of detail complementing the original material renders a very sumptuous look.
The tightening up of the story, especially parts 1 and 2 with select dialogue removed as audiences can figure out the macro-sociological issues on their own without the Doctor's sarcastic quip (which his others that remain come off better as a result), helps immensely. So does creating alternate camera angles. The special edition also adds replacement eyes for Silurians, which seem off-kilter but compared to the original where one could see the human actor eyes, it's still an improvement.
Solow's death is much improved and the base staff's outfits remain just as killer as before, and still likely inspired in part by "Thriller"
.I'd heard varying things on the clip show of the previous two encounters, and the clips used are very well handled. The one clip that had some YouTube channels up in arms I must disagree with as it's simply footage otherwise contextless from a different show, is trying to build upon the explosion scenes where lots of Silurians and Sea Devils die - simply exists to render more weight TO the Silurians' desire to wipe out humanity that much more. While the Silurians are still intent to kill the Doctor, the clips' use are very well handled and the creative liberty actually accentuates the scene and Silurian intent that much more strongly. Kudos!
All in all, this is a fantastic update and is a lot snappier and watchable. Best of all, nothing really terrible in terms of AI upscaling goofs were noticed but, again, the season is still young.
7/10
Similar threads
