• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Nominate a Classic Who you'd like to see with updated effects

mythme

mythme

Commodore
Commodore
We all know that when it comes to Classic Who, the "story is more important than the effects" is the usual argument. But if given the choice, of all the Classic stories which one would benefit from a "facelift" with new/updated effects or model work?

Having seen most of the Classic stories by now, my nomination would go to "Invasion of the Dinosaurs". The story is fairly strong but the actual dinosaur models are pitiful. Inserting new creatures like the ones we saw in "Dinosaurs on a Space Ship" or the T. Rex in "Deep Breath" would help things immensely. Enhancing the time-displacement effects, the Doctor's stun gun (which shoots nothing), the spaceship and UNIT's ubiquitous pyrotechnics could also be done. "Sweetening" the Whomobile would be an extra treat.
 
Last edited:
The original Caves of Androzani DVD did feature a fix of the bad matte painting of the mountains when the TARDIS lands, I think.

I think Ressurection of the Daleks could also benefit from some work. The weapons used by the prison ship officers and the "Dalek" troopers only light up and make sound like some kind of toy, with no actual beam effects or anything like that. I'm guessing they spent all the money on the Dalek laser effects, which had beams (Although in earlier Dalek stories, the effect of a Dalek beam was only someone being 'negative'-an effect which is actually still used in modified form along with the Rememberance of the Daleks X-ray effect.
 
Depends whether we're talking realistic or dream case: dodgy space shots can be replaced, dodgy monsters on-set with the actors are more tricky (so no more sorting out of Androzani than has already been done).
Dream world version... fix Warriors of the Deep so it's all darker, the Silurians don't have their necks coming loose, the Sea Devils don't look drunk because the actors can't see out of the costumes, and of course the Myrka is a barely seen electric claw lashing out from the dark...
 
Web Planet needs a bit of a script re-write as well. For every bit of stuff like seems like a real glimpse into a genuinely alien society (the hints of the Menopotera 'religion', for instance), there's some "Do I really have to say this?" dialogue...
 
The Mutants would be a good pick but it'd be hard to fix things like the depression scene with mere CGI.

In a number of a ways though it's hard to imagine mere changes in Visual effects could do much, The Web Planet I think is fine the way it is. Some of them though only need tweaked I think the Skarasan is one example of a visual effect that might look better were it tweaked.

The Invasion Of Time and Earthshock both has CGI options on thei DVDs, but none of the model effects were altered. I do like what was done on the Dalek Invasion Of Earth DVD and the movie version of The Curse Of Fenric. But CGI doesn't automatically make a given story better.
 
The Tardis crash seen in 'Time and the Rani' is just a cartoon and always been hard to watch. Many of the FX in the McCoy tenure were bad when you think it would have been better being in the late 80's. Especially, when one season before we had the great scene of the Tardis being pulled into the Time Lord ship/station.
 
Tom said:
The Tardis crash seen in 'Time and the Rani' is just a cartoon and always been hard to watch. Many of the FX in the McCoy tenure were bad when you think it would have been better being in the late 80's. Especially, when one season before we had the great scene of the Tardis being pulled into the Time Lord ship/station.
Click to expand...

So you want to use CGI to fix CGI? . The space station opening of The Mysterious Panet is a great, but as Colin BAker pointed out, you go from that great visual effect to a cheap looking corridor.
 
Other stories that haven't been mentioned.

Claws of Axos. Specifically the inside of the spaceship. Some interesting things could be done using morphing effects.

The Power of Kroll. I don't know if it would make the story any better, but redoing the octopus would sure make it less embarrassing.

Tom said:
The Tardis crash seen in 'Time and the Rani' is just a cartoon and always been hard to watch. Many of the FX in the McCoy tenure were bad when you think it would have been better being in the late 80's. Especially, when one season before we had the great scene of the Tardis being pulled into the Time Lord ship/station.
Click to expand...

To be fair, those shots were pretty high tech for the time. I remember watching it with a room full of fans shortly after it was broadcast, and we were all ooh-ing and aaah-ing over it. Someone even commented "Who died and left the BBC rich?" :)
 
Cutter John said:
The Power of Kroll. I don't know if it would make the story any better, but redoing the octopus would sure make it less embarrassing.
Click to expand...
The big model octopus is fine, it's just the 'flat' FX join between model and location work that looks dodgy.
The tentacles in the live scenes are obviously awful. But then tentacles usually are...
 
Cutter John said:
Other stories that haven't been mentioned.

Claws of Axos. Specifically the inside of the spaceship. Some interesting things could be done using morphing effects.
Click to expand...

More importantly- put a background in the jeep shows where the blue screen is left just as a blue screen, cos they forgot to the background in.

(I remember first seeing this in B&W and not noticing, cos then it just looked like a typical British day...
 
I thought some of the FX in the McCoy stories were pretty good. Dragonfire has some OK model work (Although the sets and the "Dragon" look are very cheap looking). Rememberance of the Daleks also had some nice work for the Dalek flagship IMO (Especially the opening shot)-and although it looks primitive compared to Nuwho, we did get our first decent hovering Dalek.
 
The Ark in Space.

It's such a fun story but the bubble wrap monster was more funny than scary...
 
^The original DVD (and possibly the recent re-release, I'm not sure) actually had the option to replace the model shots of Nerva Beacon with CG replacements (which also redesigned part of the station too). Didn't change the monster though if I remember correctly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top