Classic Who on BBC America

[Mr Awe]

^ Interesting. So, if my theory holds, no multi-Doctor special. Although, I suppose they could still air The Five Doctors or The Two Doctors. But, could this be a step to not fan the fires for a multi-Doctor special?

I'm surprised they picked Spearhead. It's a bit slow in my opinion and there are better 4 part options available, including Terror of the Autons if they wanted the Autons. I think Terror does a better job with the Autons too and intros the Master. YMMV.

Mr Awe

 

[Sindatur]

^ Interesting. So, if my theory holds, no multi-Doctor special. Although, I suppose they could still air The Five Doctors or The Two Doctors. But, could this be a step to not fan the fires for a multi-Doctor special?

I'm surprised they picked Spearhead. It's a bit slow in my opinion and there are better 4 part options available, including Terror of the Autons if they wanted the Autons. I think Terror does a better job with the Autons too and intros the Master. YMMV.

Mr Awe

Yea, The first Serial is not very representative of a Doctor, and most of them aren't the best stories.The Opening Serial is best reserved for doing a full run of a Doctor's stories, IMHO

 

[VDCNI]

Spearhead is a much better story that Terror Of The Autons but Terror is more representative of the era and features the 3rd Doctor more so I'm surprised they didn't go for that.

Spearhead is getting a Blu-Ray release this year though so I wonder if they are able to show the HD version.

 

[Sindatur]

Spearhead is a much better story that Terror Of The Autons but Terror is more representative of the era and features the 3rd Doctor more so I'm surprised they didn't go for that.

Spearhead is getting a Blu-Ray release this year though so I wonder if they are able to show the HD version.

They didn't show the superior versions of The Aztecs or Tomb of the Cybermen, so, I very much doubt they'll show the Superior version of Spearhead From Space, before it's released.

 

[C.E. Evans]

^ Interesting. So, if my theory holds, no multi-Doctor special. Although, I suppose they could still air The Five Doctors or The Two Doctors. But, could this be a step to not fan the fires for a multi-Doctor special?

I'm surprised they picked Spearhead. It's a bit slow in my opinion and there are better 4 part options available, including Terror of the Autons if they wanted the Autons. I think Terror does a better job with the Autons too and intros the Master. YMMV.

Mr Awe

I think "Spearhead..." does neatly establish the Third Doctor's exile on Earth, the beginning of his association with UNIT, and his official working relationship with the Brigadier--all of them comprising a big chunk of the show's overall history. The Autons might just be gravy, but they could also serve as the link to the show's 2005 revival with "Rose," IMO.

 

[publiusr]

"The Daemons" is a good choice for Pertwee, but it's five episodes, not four.

Delgado was his evil best in that. Sad if they don't choose it. Maybe if the don't run the previous flashback--they had Aztecs and Tomb together last time.

 

[Procutus]

If they do go with 'Spearheads', at least it has the virtue of being the first DW ep shot in color.

I've not seen that one and it would be cool to see it as it was Pertwee's first outing. I'd rather see 'The Time Warrior' again, but will be happy with whatever we end up with.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Spearhead from Space also has the advantage of having one of the more iconic shots from Classic Who.

 

[OmahaStar]

Spearhead from Space also has the advantage of having one of the more iconic shots from Classic Who.

Three looking into the mirror and complaining?

 

[Mr Light]

The Autons breaking out of the glass displays in the mall?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The latter.

 

[Iamnotspock]

The Autons breaking out of the glass displays in the mall?

Pedantic I know, but not until Rose (2005). The Autons in Spearhead... break out of a high street shopping centre, with the glass-smashing itself being an off-screen sound effect.

 

[Christopher]

Arrghh, they did that awful image-distortion thing to stretch it out to letterbox aspect ratio again. Why, why, why?! It looks horrible and stupid that way. Everyone standing left or right of center is bloated out ridiculously. Why would any human being on the entire planet think that was in any way desirable to look at?

Anyway, "Spearhead" is a a better story than I remembered. The production was rather problematical, with pretty bad audio and a rather amateurish look, but the story was effective and the pacing remarkably brisk. Well, in some respects. The downside is that it takes the Doctor nearly half the serial to get his act together and start participating meaningfully in the investigation of the Autons.

I've always found the design of the Nestene life form in the tank, just the pulsing bit we got to see through the window, to be surprisingly effective for something so simple. It's basically just a plastic bag with a rod pulling it in and out in the middle, but it manages to convey a rather creepy pseudo-organic appearance, and it's actually supposed to look plastic as well, so that works. The rubber tentacles at the end are less effective, I guess because they don't have that disturbingly transparent cell-membrane quality.

 

[Redfern]

I watched the retrospective, of course, and just enough of the actual story to see if they pulled that "stretch to LetterBox" formatting again. The "pan" in space, drawing Earth into the shot was the give away, turning our home world into a bloody egg for several frustrating moments. After that, I switched off the TV. I had viewed my vintage "from the air" VCR recording of the serial only a couple of months ago, so I was satisfied.

Having seen BBCA pull this stunt twice, I now wonder why it didn't with "The Aztecs"? (Though I'm glad it didn't, not having seen that adventure before that broadcast.)

Well, now we know, at least in part, why Moffatt created the Weeping Angels. To hopefully present viewers the feelings of dread he experienced upon seeing shop dummies lumbering under their own power within the streets. (And in their debut, the Angels certainly did that.)

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[RAMA]

I find it cool that BBCAmerica is showing these old episodes and the restrospective in the US! Some of these like Spearhead from Space may be rudimentary but they're still pretty good stories. Pertwee I must say...is awesome. However they look, they look better than the PBS versions I used to watch..

RAMA

 

[Christopher]

I watched the retrospective, of course, and just enough of the actual story to see if they pulled that "stretch to LetterBox" formatting again. The "pan" in space, drawing Earth into the shot was the give away, turning our home world into a bloody egg for several frustrating moments. After that, I switched off the TV. I had viewed my vintage "from the air" VCR recording of the serial only a couple of months ago, so I was satisfied.

I was tempted to turn it off, but it's been so long since I've seen it that I put up with it. But I hope BBCA is getting enough complaints about this obscenity that they stop doing it before the next one.

Well, now we know, at least in part, why Moffatt created the Weeping Angels. To hopefully present viewers the feelings of dread he experienced upon seeing shop dummies lumbering under their own power within the streets.

I've never heard them called "shop dummies" before, so it was weird to hear everyone saying it constantly in the retrospective. I guess that's a British usage. And a comparatively recent one, since in the actual serial they did call them "mannequins," which is what we call them in the US. I think they also called them "window dummies" once or twice in the serial, though.

It was weird that one of the interviewees in the retrospective was some guy I didn't recognize, Adam Garcia. I looked him up, and he played Harriet Jones's assistant in "The Christmas Invasion" -- and that's it. I don't get it. Is he famous from some other show?

 

[sidious618]

All the episodes they've aired have also been on Netflix which is annoying. I'd like to see some that aren't as readily available.

 

[OmahaStar]

All the episodes they've aired have also been on Netflix which is annoying. I'd like to see some that aren't as readily available.

Already announced for Tom Baker is the Pyramids of Mars. I wonder what they're going to do when they get to June? NONE of Colin's stories (outside his time with the Davison stories) are streaming on Netflix. As for August, it will be the first time the US has seen the McGann movie in years ... I'm all for that!

Even though I don't care for the character (see? I can be nice), I wonder why Katy Manning wasn't part of the documentary? She's the only full-on companion who is still with us, and I think should have been included.

Would it be too much to hope that there are extended interviews, and BBC is planning to release them on DVD/Blu-Ray once they've all aired?

 

[Redfern]

I've never heard them called "shop dummies" before, so it was weird to hear everyone saying it constantly in the retrospective. I guess that's a British usage. And a comparatively recent one, since in the actual serial they did call them "mannequins," which is what we call them in the US.

Well, I personally used the phrase I did because I can never correctly spell the other.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Mr. Adventure]

NONE of Colin's stories (outside his time with the Davison stories) are streaming on Netflix.

His coat uses up too much bandwidth.