Classic Who on BBC America

[diankra]

I've checked the credits online and there's no composer credit for this serial. Which is odd, since it has some rather distinctive music. It has kind of a Dudley Simpson sound to it, but I'm not sure. ...Wait a minute, on second thought, I think it's tracked music from "The Moonbase." But that doesn't have a composer credit either.

The music was stock tracks, principally a piece called called Space Adventure by M Slavin (also used as you mention in The Moonbase, and also The Tenth Planet and The Web of Fear). All the various stock tracks from Tomb were put out on CD about 15 years back, though I'd doubt it's still available.
V-Sat Astra 3967 was the release number just in case it is.
Other tracks included Astronautics Theme by E Sendel, Palpitations by J Scott, Desert Storm by H Freischner and Space Time Music by Wilfred Josephs (who also did some of the music for The Prisoner).

 

[Christopher]

^Okay, thanks.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I'm really wondering how they're going to fill out an entire half hour special on the Eighth Doctor. Sure they could get into the audios, but that's not exactly visual.

I do think the half-hour special could include a look at how Who endured in both print & audio during his time. But I think most of it will be commentary on the movie itself (both in front & behind the camera) as well as how fans received the Doctor as suddenly a romantic figure, IMO.

 

[Photoman15]

Maybe a new Doc 8 episode?

 

[diankra]

On the Toberman thing... the initial idea, which doesn't really come across onscreen, was that he was deaf, and that Kaftan had paid for him to get cybernetic ears, so he was both grateful to her for helping him, but also working off a debt for the cost of that (so, effectively, a slave. Which is also a racist, but in a different way to the strong but dim stereotype we get onscreen). That makes better sense of why the Cybermen upgrade him than the onscreen reference to him being 'powerful' - he already had some implants, so they added more (and perhaps controlled him through the existing ones).

 

[Klaus]

The Doctor really played with fire here. He manipulated events and allowed Kleig to get to where he could awaken the Cybermen, despite all his insistence that that shouldn't be allowed to happen... just because he wanted to see what Klieg's plan was? I think he let his curiosity get the best of him there.

Oh, and brilliant suggestion, Doctor -- lock up the crazy power-mad logicians in the room full of prototype weapons! How could that possibly go wrong? Is it me, or is the Doctor basically just making everything worse?

But the Doctor choosing to re-electrify the doors seems uncharacteristically vicious for him. Killing Cybermen is one thing, but he set it up to kill any hapless archaeologists who might come across the tomb again -- and he does get Toberman killed as a result. Again, practically everything bad here is the Doctor's fault. Why not just have the expedition use more of the blasting equipment they used at the beginning and re-bury the tomb?

This definitely seems to me to be one of those episodes where the Doctor's curiosity and impish tendencies get him [and others] into a great deal of trouble... the sheepish look on Troughton's face as he admits that he just wanted to see what Klieg would do was priceless...

...my question is what the holy hell was up with George Roubicek, the guy playing Captain Hopper [who was pretty much the actual saves-the-day hero in most of the episode]? His delivery was so bizarre that it just dropped me out of nearly every scene he spoke in, thinking "wtf is up with him??" It sounded like he was halfway between parodying what a strong-willed spaceship captain might sound like and a really bad John Wayne impression. Amusing to see from wiki that he was a dialogue coach [!] and appeared in Star Wars.

 

[Christopher]

^Welcome to the wonderful world of fake American accents in Doctor Who. Roubicek was nowhere near as bad as Paul Grist in "The Claws of Axos" a few years later.

 

[Mr Light]

Boy, watching "The Aztecs" and then "Tomb of the Cybermen" is quite the change. Tomb looked positively cinematic in comparison! And I'd forgotten how great Patrick Troughton is. It's a real shame they don't have more surviving stories of him. I found the docu really interesting that he basically set the mold for every Doctor that came after him, particularly Matt Smith.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The Cybermen are easier to take seriously when they don't draw cute little graphic logos on all their stuff.

 

[Klaus]

No, those are sinister stencils!!!

 

[Mr Light]

I thought that was a Cyberman political cartoon O_o

 

[Mr Light]

Do we know what Pertwee serial airs and when yet?

 

[Christopher]

Whatever it is, I pray they don't use that awful widescreen distortion thing they used on "Tomb of the Cybermen."

 

[publiusr]

The portrayal of Toberman is quite an unfortunate racial stereotype, a product of the period. Yet nonetheless he's allowed to be somewhat heroic toward the end, which redeems it somewhat.

They didn't even bury the man. I liked how he spooked Jamie though.

I tend to think that the Baker Episode will be The Talons of Weng-Chiang

As much as we all loved Elisabeth Sladen (who played Sarah-Jane), Leela is perhaps what many remember about the fourth doctor. Talons is rather like The Prisoner episode Hammer into Anvil--you are looking for a stock episode to showcase as much of the characters as you can encapsulate into one show.

As for Pertwee, I'd like The Dæmons.

 

[Klaus]

^^We've been assuming that six-parters are too long for their timeslot and commercial density, which would take Talons out of the running...

 

[Christopher]

"Talons" also has some unfortunate racial stereotyping and yellowface casting that makes it problematical today.

"The Daemons" is a good choice for Pertwee, but it's five episodes, not four. I won't be surprised if they do "The Three Doctors." But of the other 4-parters, I think I'd like to see either "The Curse of Peladon" or "The Time Warrior." As for Tom Baker 4-parters, there are several good candidates -- "The Ark in Space," "The Deadly Assassin," "The Robots of Death" (one of the most acclaimed serials), "Logopolis."

 

[Mr Awe]

Do we know what Pertwee serial airs and when yet?

This is my own theory, which could admittedly be full of hot air. At anyrate, I think the pick for the Pertwee serial will be meaningful in terms of whether we'll get a multi-Doctor anniversary special.

If they pick The Three Doctors, it's to set the stage for newbies about the idea of multiple Doctors.

However, if they don't pick The Three Doctors, it's because they don't want people to expect a multi-Doctor anniversary special.

So, depending on the anniversary plans, I'm thinking it's either The Three Doctors or Terror of the Autons.

Terror fits well because its 4 episodes, introduces the Master, and showcases UNIT. It's a good way to showcase that particular era.

Mr Awe

 

[Christopher]

This is my own theory, which could admittedly be full of hot air. At anyrate, I think the pick for the Pertwee serial will be meaningful in terms of whether we'll get a multi-Doctor anniversary special.

If they pick The Three Doctors, it's to set the stage for newbies about the idea of multiple Doctors.

However, if they don't pick The Three Doctors, it's because they don't want people to expect a multi-Doctor anniversary special.

The problem there is that it's BBC America that's running the past-Doctor specials, and despite the name, they're not really the same entity as the BBC. They're owned by BBC Worldwide, but they're an American network with American executives (which is why they show so much American TV with only tenuous British connections, like Star Trek TNG). So the people who make the decisions about what programs BBC America will broadcast are not the same people who are making the decisions about what new Doctor Who stories BBC Cymru Wales will produce. Which means that the BBCA schedulers might not actually know what the anniversary special will be about.

 

[Mr Awe]

I suspect that there is a stronger connection between them, particularly for Doctor Who. But, like I said, I'm only guessing!

 

[Sindatur]

I could've sworn I'd seen it posted somewhere (Maybe Syfy Forums?) that Pertwee's Serial was already announced as Spearhead from Space?

ETA: Yea, here it is
http://press.bbcamerica.com/program.jsp?id=102366