Dreamland

[Count Zero]

I'm liking it, so far. At first, I thought the animation was sort of weird. It looks great, but the characters themselves move in an odd, unnaturalistic way. But I got used to it. I loved the snippets of the war they've shown in episode three. Overall pretty grim for something made for kids, though.

 

[Count Zero]

So, is anyone else still watching this? I admit I'm unduly excited and curious how they're going to defeat the big cockroach guys in the remaining two episodes.

Spoiler: part 4

Of course, the Doctor could just use the genetic weapon in some way to wipe them out but I doubt it's really his style and it's also unsuitable for something aired on cbbc.

 

[Bacl]

I think for me the problem is that I watched the 2001: A Who Odyssey not long before I saw Dreamland Part 1.... The fact that a fan can make something that looks SOOOO much better than this is kinda disappointing.

Joy

Yeah, agree 100%. What never ceases to amaze me is how handicapped and constrained they seem to be about producing some of this stuff. I know the BBC is both cash-strapped and stingy, but seriously, Doctor Who has to be raking in the cash. It CAN'T be that expensive to make some halfway decent animation.

Let alone the fact that "Who Odessy" was amazing in style and innovation.

 

[davejames]

Wow, that animation is just embarassingly bad. I know the BBC is cheap, but I can't believe they or Davies REALLY expected the final product to look like that, especially when they've got guys like Tennant and Warner involved.

Most likely by the time they noticed the problem, it was too late to change anything.

 

[Count Zero]

The Colonel's remark about the Doctor sounding like a 'Commie' have got me thinking about what the Doctor's politics might be. My first thought was that the Doctor is a sort of Anarchist. But now I'm not so sure. Is he more of a hippie or more of a punk?

 

[Cyke101]

^ Whatever the case may be, he's just having fun

I'm liking Dreamland more than I thought I would. Also, since I have a Wii and "No More Heroes," I'm sort of accustomed to the animation!

My brother was absolutely tickled by the notion of the Doctor coming to 1950s America for a bowl of chili, and then later on references Die Hard and Alien (and Die Hard 2. and Aliens. and Die Hard 3...).

 

[Joy]

Finally just got to watch parts 2-4. I've mostly gotten over the badness of the graphics, focusing more on the voice-acting and the story.

And I really do quite love the story. I even almost shed a few tears at one point (yeah, I'm a sap, whatever. LOL).

Can't wait to see how everything works out in the end!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Am I the only one not bothered by the animation? I don't have a problem with it, kinda reminds me of Borderlands.
I watched the first part but I'm going to wait to watch the whole thing on BBC HD.

 

[Pingfah]

Nah, I quite like the animation too, I prefer it to the cartoon Infinite Quest, and Tennant looks much more like Tennant in this.

Having seen p1 though, I am now holding off until I can see the whole thing as one episode.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Youtube has Dreamland...I'm going to check it out later on.

 

[Count Zero]

After my remarks about part 4 I laughed when it was heavily implied in part 5 that he would indeed

Spoiler: part 5

use the genetic weapon against the Viperox.

Well, they found a kid-friendly away around that but I don't quite understand why

Spoiler: solution to the Viperox problem

he needed the weapon at all for generating the sound annoying to the Viperox.

I loved the quip about the TARDIS having the best sound system in the universe. All in all, I really liked Dreamland. It was fun.

 

[Chris3123]

I really liked it, except of course for the animation style. A story based in America is rare for Doctor Who.

I really like how it established that there actually are aliens that look like what we call Grays in the DW universe.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Am I the only one not bothered by the animation?

Nope, me three!

For those complaining that the Beeb should have lavished more cash on this bonus episode, look at the lost episodes of "The Invasion". I found them aesthetically pleasing, but not everyone did. And from what I gather, that's what's stopped any further lost episodes being released in this way.

Having seen p1 though, I am now holding off until I can see the whole thing as one episode.

I'm intrigued enough to want to do the same, I imagine it would be more satisfying to watch it in that way.

P.S. Bob, thanks for linking, I don't usually browse the Beeb's Who pages.

 

[Andy S]

Well, I absolutely loved Dreamland. Yes, the animation took a little getting used to, but after the first episode I didn't really notice it apart from the rather staccato running and the backgrounds, ships and alien visualisations never bothered me at all.

The scripting and direction were as good as anything we've seen in the live action series itself (and contained at least one of my favourite lines ever:

Spoiler: Doctor Quote

Always count your steps - you never know when you might have to escape in a box

)

As an experiment the whole thing totally worked and I wouldn't mind seeing more in the same vein, or even yet another animation style. As someone who loves The Infinite Quest / Invasion animation as well as this, I think it can't hurt to try new ideas in the future and with the new production team coming in I hope they'll continue in the noble tradition.

 

[Kelso]

I thought it was great- no problem with the animation.

I wish they would do a full series like this.

 

[Count Zero]

I wish they would animate the missing episodes of early Who in any way. They still have the audio tracks so they wouldn't even require voice actors ...

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

I wish they would animate the missing episodes of early Who in any way. They still have the audio tracks so they wouldn't even require voice actors ...

They did so professionally (see The Invasion).

I wish though they'd had a chance to do something entirely unseen. Or one only glanced through the handful of snippets saved here and there.

 

[Count Zero]

Yeah, I know the two missing episodes of The Invasion were animated. But there are so many that were not. There are entire serials missing, where they could theoretically redesign the sets completely. It would be almost like making something new.

An animation series would be cool, but the main problem would be which Doctor to use so as not to interfere with the live series. Maybe the young first Doctor? Or Eight?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I didn't mind the animation of "Dreamland" either. No-one should expect Final Fantasy or Beowulf standards. The story is pretty good as well.

There are quite a few partial episodes just as popular (if not more so) as the "The Invasion" that could do with being completed with animation -- "The Evil of the Daleks" and "The Web of Fear" for example. "The Underwater Menace" and "The Space Pirates" not so much, if ever.

 

[wamdue]

I have now seen dreamland, shame about the CBBC DOG, and what a tease the title sequence is, David Tennat & Georgia Moffett, not that she really deserves it, Cassie did not do all that much, and Jimmy Stalkingwolf was a more interesting character of the two.

I know its been asked before, but exactly how heavy is the TARDIS, it would seem that Cassie & Jimmy had no problem picking it up, unless they had help off screen.

Given that ive now seen Waters of Mars, and there are suggestions that this is set after that (for example the Doctor not wanting to be thanked) but its a damm good job the events of Roswell are not a fixed point in time, then again its not like this episode was based around the time of the crash. I could not help but wonder if the Doctor decided to go to Dreamland before he landed.

I really would like more animated Doctor Who, and dare I say it, can it be 10? no reason we cant have a two Doctor with McGann as Count Zero suggests.

I would say this was better than the Infinite Quest, as the longer episodes gave the story more room, to breath, where as the 3 minute long Infinite Quest episodes, it was resolve the last cliff hanger, move the plot along a bit, and stumble on to the next cliff hanger