Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Serials?

[Green Lantern]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Yeah but that was intentional... it was even in the script! MJ was playing an alien, and the nose was part of the disguise...

Yeah, but originally they were just going to CGI it, but it proved to be a pain in the ass and John Hurt ended up getting really pissed off, plus MJ was being a bit of a bastard in filming, so hurt punched him in the face, and his nose fell off.

Yeah but that was intentional... it was even in the script! MJ was playing an alien, and the nose was part of the disguise...

I never really liked that one. I mean, I get that they were trying to be clever, what with this happening in a Red Nose Day special and all, but it really ruined Michael Jackson for me.

yeah, plus he was a fucking bastard in filming. he was the reason John hurt wanted to leave soon after. I remember watching behind the scenes on the bonus DVD and man did those two hate each other!

What really pissed Hurt off is that that special lead into a full four part serial, with Jackson coming back for several cameos each episode, after that serial, John Hurt announced he would be leaving Doctor who at the end of the series. I especially hated the fact that parts 2 and 3 kept becoming musicals filled with Michael Jackson songs. By the time they got to Thriller, Jackson an hurt looked like zombies without make up! I think when John Hurt had to dance to Smooth Criminal and land in Michael Jacksons arms and then twisting him ankle was really the last straw.

 

[Samurai8472]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

I hope Roger Moore comes back as Hurt Doctor's brother.

LOL at the sonic Rolex!

 

[Green Lantern]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

I hope Roger Moore comes back as Hurt Doctor's brother.

LOL at the sonic Rolex!

Oh yeah that was great. Apart from that moment when Hurt cut off his left hand for pushing him over as a child....

Anyway, found a picture of the Michael Jackson episode. Man they really did look like zombies!

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Yeah, they never really answered the question in the RTD era - what did happen to The Surgeon (the Roger Moore character, in case you're wondering) after the Time War... Did he die, or escape ala Master?

 

[Green Lantern]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Don't you remember, the Surgeon was killed by the Rani on her hen doo. Well he already lost a lot of blood after Hurt cut off his hand.

 

[MissionFever]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

I hope Roger Moore comes back as Hurt Doctor's brother.

LOL at the sonic Rolex!

Oh yeah that was great. Apart from that moment when Hurt cut off his left hand for pushing him over as a child....

Anyway, found a picture of the Michael Jackson episode. Man they really did look like zombies!

Although it's from a minor (non-cannonical?) episode. This screen grab really does encapsulate so much of what went WRONG during the Hurt era.

1- Iffy special effects: I mean, its pretty clear that they just (poorly) rotoscoped Hurt's head and the TARDIS into the Thriller video.

Which is part of what lead to...

2- Different cuts released in different regions. Now this is, (of course) infamously a unique case. What with the BBC only securing MJ's music rights for the British broadcast, while the international (i.e. Canadian) audience got a massivly cut down series of disjointed shorts and a couple of dance numbers with royalty-free music dubbed in.

But of course this sort of thing was going on all the time. It's half the reason there's so much confusion about what happened, (hence the differing recolections here.)

As near as I can tell, it was common for there to be as many as three different cuts of an episode. There was the UK post-watershed cut, the pre-watershed re-broadcast (which sometimes was atually aired first), and the CBC (International) version.

It'd be one thing if these versions simply had some recuts due to the adult content from the late-night versions, but as is now infamous, they were ususally re-cut so extensively (including exclusion/inclusion of cut scenes) that its hard to follow. A major sub-plot might be promoted to the main plot, or it might be dropped entirely.

(I'm not even going to go into how CBC recast a number of guest parts in series 2 to meet CanCon requirments).

Then there were those US "Specials" that aired occasionally on FOX. The way they liberally intercut material from different serials, is really amazing in retrospect. "The Master of McCrimmon" essentially summarized a whole series into a 90 minute movie. It's utter nonsense but I remember really enjoying it at the time.

 

[Green Lantern]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

I know, and what really pissed a lot of fans off was that in Hurts second series, they changed the classic blue police box to a black one with red windows. Plus with all the edits made it really confusing as they would use series 1 footage sometimes the TARDIS would appear black and red, while other times it would appear back to its classic blue colour.

 

[Mitty]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

I still cry thinking about the single stand out episode of Hurt's run, "Puppies of Gallifrey". For those that missed it, at the moment Hurt's "Doctor" Time Locked Gallifrey, Rodan (last seen in "The Invasion of Time") managed to transmat all the Puppies of Gallifreyan Children into a TARDIS and that TARDIS out of range of the Time Lock. The Doctor later encountered this TARDIS, and resettled the Gallifreyan Puppies on Earth with disabled children.

Incredibly touching and well acted.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

You all gotta admit tho, his costume of the priests cassock with the rust jacket and that hat.... damn!

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Don't you remember, the Surgeon was killed by the Rani on her hen doo. Well he already lost a lot of blood after Hurt cut off his hand.

Yeah, but that episode's lost, and I don't seem to recall it as well. I wish some day it can be recovered - its the Doctor's brother, for crying out loud!

 

[TJ Sinclair]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Yeah, they never really answered the question in the RTD era - what did happen to The Surgeon (the Roger Moore character, in case you're wondering) after the Time War... Did he die, or escape ala Master?

Deleted scenes indicate that he became known as Irving Braxiatel, of the Virgin New Adventures and Big Finish Bernice Summerfield fame.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

What did everyone think of the musical episode? Was using British music hall tunes a good idea?

 

[The Wormhole]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

The problem with the musical episode is it's obviously just a reaction to Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode, and not even half as well planned out. Mind you, the duet between Davros and Rassilon on the pressures of being founding fathers of their respective societies is amazing. I'm still shocked that didn't win any awards, from either TV or music awards shows.

 

[MissionFever]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Yeah the musical was influenced by Buffy's, they make that pretty clear to anybody who's seen both. I mean the doctor's "Going Through the Vortex" was damn near a cover of OMwF's opener.

 

[Mitty]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Also, remember that they had to significantly rework a few episodes of the First season due to sensitivities over 9/11, and a couple of them got dropped entirely. One was later heavily edited and later became "Daleks Take Manhattan". If you keep your eye on some of the unscripted crowd scenes set in Central Park, you can spot Hurt's Doctor in the background.

 

[TJ Sinclair]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Yeah the musical was influenced by Buffy's, they make that pretty clear to anybody who's seen both. I mean the doctor's "Going Through the Vortex" was damn near a cover of OMwF's opener.

It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but I did appreciate that Hurt at least attempted to do his own vocals, even if it did come off as kind of a cross between Rex Harrison and Richard Harris.

 

[SeerSGB]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Where they really jumped the shark was when they tried to imply that Facehuggers were a failed Dalek genetic experiment. I mean, come on having him deposit the mutant embyros on planet with catalog name LV426, tell me they weren't doing a backdoor crossover.

 

[TJ Sinclair]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

^That was much more of an Easter-egg than anything serious. It might have inspired the wonderful "Besieged" fan film a decade later, though.

Like I said, the crossover with The X-Files, though, was pretty good, and it was great to see some of those ideas picked up in Torchwood, however obliquely. Guess the brass at the BBC weren't watching the spin-off quite as closely.

 

[Green Lantern]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

You all gotta admit tho, his costume of the priests cassock with the rust jacket and that hat.... damn!

Oh, you mean his first costume from series 1? I never thought that suited him, although he was much more doctor like back then. It was only in his second series when he beat up that guy at Ace's wedding, stole his waist coat along with other clothes, then went to his own future, beat up the tenth doctor, and stole the ninth doctors leather jacket that the series went the dark route. Speaking of which, how on Earth did they predict that David Tennant would play the tenth doctor? Or did they hire him just because he appeared in that old Hurt episode?

Don't you remember, the Surgeon was killed by the Rani on her hen doo. Well he already lost a lot of blood after Hurt cut off his hand.

Yeah, but that episode's lost, and I don't seem to recall it as well. I wish some day it can be recovered - its the Doctor's brother, for crying out loud!

Oh god yes. I don't know how they lost all of those digital copies in this day and age. Rumour has it it's lost in a web of digital data somewhere, although it would only take a day to recover. It's just that the BBC can't be assed, and fans aren't allowed to volunteer to find it as it goes against copyrights. The only other episode really is a lost one because it was shot live, but the BBC forgot to record it, and at that time no one really watched doctor who, so no one ever recorded it. Although rumour has it one guy still has it on VCR, it's just due to copyrights, the BBC can't legally use it, and the owner himself will get 2 years in jail if he watches it himself. Damn VCR company. I heard that the BBC were going to animate it back to life with the audio that survived as some geek recorded the audio there live, a shame he couldn't just stay at home and record it.

What did everyone think of the musical episode? Was using British music hall tunes a good idea?

Which one? The Michael Jackson one that was mentioned earlier (terrible!) or the one where John Hurt does a duet with Duran Duran?

Also, what did everyone think of them using that old song from the seventies "doctor whooo hey, doctor who!" as the main theme song?

 

[The Wormhole]

Re: Am I the only one that felt uncomfortable about the old Hurt Seria

Also, what did everyone think of them using that old song from the seventies "doctor whooo hey, doctor who!" as the main theme song?

Let's just say I'm glad when RTD came on the scene they worked out their differences with Ron Grainer's estate.