High-Res First Doctor in "Day of the Doctor" Trailer: How?

[FalTorPan]

In the "Day of the Doctor" trailer, we get a close-up of the first Doctor. The clarity and level of detail of the Doctor's face obviously exceeds that of any video footage of the first Doctor's stories, and it looks more clear than most if not all publicity stills that I've seen as well.

How in the world did they accomplish this? Was his face Photoshopped from scratch, using available visual references as guides, but ultimately improvising on the rest of the details?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

How in the world did they accomplish this? Was his face Photoshopped from scratch, using available visual references as guides, but ultimately improvising on the rest of the details?

I assumed it was a CG recreation of Hartnell's face, possibly derived from promo shots for Doctor Who and other work like The Mouse that Roared.

Which reminds me, on a totally tangential note. I've long thought that Hartnell's character in The Mouse that Roared is the first Doctor, who has infiltrated Grand Fenwick to prevent Tully Bascombe from doing anything stupid with the Q-Bomb. Grand Fenwick would be the perfect setting for a Doctor Who story.

 

[StCoop]

http://i4.walesonline.co.uk/whats-o...ALTERNATES/s2197/William-Hartnell-4599104.jpg

 

[The Nth Doctor]

http://i4.walesonline.co.uk/whats-o...ALTERNATES/s2197/William-Hartnell-4599104.jpg

Nice find. Looks exactly like what we see in the trailer.

Anyone know which serial that's from? For some reason I want to think it's The Web Planet.

 

[DimesDan]

In the "Day of the Doctor" trailer, we get a close-up of the first Doctor. The clarity and level of detail of the Doctor's face obviously exceeds that of any video footage of the first Doctor's stories, and it looks more clear than most if not all publicity stills that I've seen as well.

How in the world did they accomplish this? Was his face Photoshopped from scratch, using available visual references as guides, but ultimately improvising on the rest of the details?

magic.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

Photos back then were still high-res. I'm sure they found a few promo photos of him, scanned them, and did some CG-enhancement.

 

[FalTorPan]

Photos back then were still high-res.

Um... duh.

http://i4.walesonline.co.uk/whats-o...ALTERNATES/s2197/William-Hartnell-4599104.jpg

WOW! I've seen a lot of Hartnell/first Doctor photos, but I had never seen this one. Awesome find!

 

[FreddyE]

That is a great colorisation job...I´d love to see more of him in color.

 

[Mitty]

We got a semi-surprise old ep find. I wonder if we might get a surprise colourisation. I've seen examples on youtube of colourised clips from Hartnell episodes.

 

[Captain Crow]

There's a behind the scenes picture that show it's a Hartnell mannequin.

 

[StCoop]

There's a behind the scenes picture that show it's a Hartnell mannequin.

They all were, except for Matt and maybe David, with their real faces mapped on.

They didn't bother with Colin and Sylvester's faces because let's face it after Davison they gave the job to any old fucker with an Equity Card. (c) Mark Gatiss 1999

 

[Allyn Gibson]

There's a behind the scenes picture that show it's a Hartnell mannequin.

They all were, except for Matt and maybe David, with their real faces mapped on.

They didn't bother with Colin and Sylvester's faces because let's face it after Davison they gave the job to any old fucker with an Equity Card. (c) Mark Gatiss 1999

I doubt they bothered with Troughton's face, either, as he had his back to the camera.

And did Gatiss really say that? I knew he wasn't a pleasant person (he called me an "anal retentive asshole" years ago because I criticized his historical liberties in Invaders from Mars), but that's... pretty strong.

 

[Brendan Moody]

It's a line from, "The Pitch of Fear," a comedy sketch Gatiss wrote for Doctor Who Night in the nineties. You can see the sketch on the Beginning boxset or on YouTube, but that line has been removed at Gatiss' request because both of the actors unsurprisingly took offense.

 

[StCoop]

You can see the sketch on the Beginning boxset or on YouTube, but that line has been removed at Gatiss' request because both of the actors unsurprisingly took offense.

Though not until the series came back and he wanted a chance to write for it.

Much like Moffat's infamous interview from around the same time it goes a long way to explaining why I don't like either man.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

They didn't bother with Colin and Sylvester's faces because let's face it after Davison they gave the job to any old fucker with an Equity Card. (c) Mark Gatiss 1999

I feel bad because I love Colin & Sylvester but I still think this is funny.

And while it's not the fault of the actors, I do think there was sort of a haphazard mindset behind the casting during the JNT era. It seemed like the mindset was less about finding the best actor and more about deliberately finding actors who contrasted with their predecessors. Even Davison was, IMO, a somewhat dubious choice. He's a good enough actor that he was able to fake his way through it but I don't think he was really Doctor material, certainly not back then. (He's kind of grown into it while doing the audios. As an older man, he'd acquired a certain deadpan, Pertwee-esque charm to go alongside his youthful earnestness.)

 

[StCoop]

And while it's not the fault of the actors, I do think there was sort of a haphazard mindset behind the casting during the JNT era. It seemed like the mindset was less about finding the best actor and more about deliberately finding actors who contrasted with their predecessors.

Unlike Tom Baker - Jon Pertwee?

Colin Baker had a far more distinguished acting career than either of those two when he got the part and while he might have been best known for off-the-wall stuff on TV McCoy was and still is a respected stage actor.

Or to put it another way... They didn't write the scripts, design the costumes, build the sets, compose the music or turn the studio lights up way to high; so why do people act as if they were somehow responsible for the faults of their eras?

 

[Brendan Moody]

Colin Baker had a far more distinguished acting career than either of those two when he got the part and while he might have been best known for off-the-wall stuff on TV McCoy was and still is a respected stage actor.

That's the thing that always gets to me about Gatiss' little wisecrack. If people like Pertwee, Tom, Troughton, etc. better than McCoy and Colin that's one thing; I can see why. But the idea that the earlier Doctors are in a whole other class as performers is ridiculous. They're all (with the possible exception of Davison) second-tier comedians or character actors.

 

[StCoop]

They're all (with the possible exception of Davison) second-tier comedians or character actors.

Washed-up former Tough Guy actor.
Obscure character actor who wanted to do it in Blackface.
Comedian with no history in dramatic roles.
Bricklayer.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

And while it's not the fault of the actors, I do think there was sort of a haphazard mindset behind the casting during the JNT era. It seemed like the mindset was less about finding the best actor and more about deliberately finding actors who contrasted with their predecessors.

Unlike Tom Baker - Jon Pertwee?

I could be wrong, but I'm not aware of "Lets find an actor totally the opposite of Jon Pertwee" being a major motivation in Tom Baker's casting. In fact, it kind of seems like Tom Baker's bonkers portrayal was as much of a surprise to the production team as it was to anyone else. Terrance Dicks said that he wrote the 4th Doctor a bit wacky in "Robot" but just intended for it to be a brief period of post-regeneration wackyness, not the regular thing that Tom Baker turned it into.

 

[Redfern]

I've read accounts that the showrunners wanted the fourth Doctor to be older and less a "amn of action" like Pertwee which is why the character of Harry Sullivan was introduced. The idea was to partially return to the show's earlier dynamic with the Doctor primarily as a "thinker" with Harry and Sarah handling the action aspects. In fact Bernard Cribbins was one of the actors considered, though at the time, he wasn't really that old and would have been in make-up like Hartnell.

But as we know, Baker caught their eye and those original plans were partially tossed. Harry was still introduced and stayed the 12th series as originally planned.

So, yeah, the producers were thinking about going for something purposely the opposite of Pertwee.

Sincerely,

Bill