Really happy this is true! I can't wait to see it. 
Re-shooting the lost episodes...
- Thread starter The Laughing Vulcan
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There are nearly five minutes of surviving footage, as well as full telesnap documentation. (My first exposure to this story was a magazine-bound "Photonovel" -- which I still have -- that presented all 400 telesnaps in order alongside the script of the serial.)
Did someone say "Ian Levine"?
I'm elated that its coming relatively soon. It could've been an announcement for next year, for all we knew. Good call to capitalize on the broadcast date of the serial.
It almost certainly will, given it's BBC Worldwide funding this thing and it is airing on BBC America. Chances are we'll have to wait until next spring, if the releases of Enemy of the World, Web of Fear and Underwater Menace are any precedent.
Well that's good. I'm very excited to see this. My second favorite Classic Doctor getting his debut story animated is mind blowing. With this, we'll have the debut stories of all the Doctors available on video in some form. I hope this does well and makes the BBC money, maybe then we'll see some more Classic Who stuff if it does.
I'll spend money on this just to encourage BBC to keep on doing it.
Apparently at one point in the '80's Patrick Troughton suggested he redo (I think) Evil of the Daleks after finding out it had been destroyed...
Of course, if Who had gone down the general TV route of recycling old scripts as a general thing, sods law it would be episodes that the originals wound up surviving of.
I think the real surprise for me with Who since its come back is they've not done something with Shada. Yep, the script would need reworking for the current Doctor and cutting down to, say, a two parter (which wouldn't be that hard most likely with the faster pacing of New Who, less chasing about on bikes probably, but the PR push from having a Doctor Who episode they can slap the name of a famous author feels like it should have been a no-brainer.
And Power of the Daleks animation! Yay!
It was a no-brainer. Big Finish adapted Shada in both audio drama and semi-animated form quite a long while ago, with Paul McGann effortlessly slotting right into Tom Baker's place. (Pretty sure the animated version's on YouTube, if you look hard enough.) If you like it more purist, there's always Gareth Roberts' novelization. (I know Ian Levine was trying to put a partially-animated reconstruction together a few years back, but I think the Big Finish version ended up scuttling it.)
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I was aware of the audio and book (though the audio is actually closer to the shooting scripts than the book is if we're going for purism), it just seemed like a no-brainer for the TV show to take advantage of a bunch of unused scripts by a famous writer in some form, especially as the prior adaptations would only have been heard/read by a relatively tiny number.
Absolutely disagreed. Levine's version is the only "real" version, IMO. The BF version seems like an inferior read by a largely miscast cast, including McGann who woefully delivers Doug Adams' witty script. Its a Fourth Doctor, written for the Fourth Doctor. Sorry, but thats really how it was meant to be.
... not that the Levine version was perfect (really, the whole Shada bit is actually kinda silly), but its still more authentic than what BF made.
^ I didn't know the Levine version had actually been finished. I'll have to look for it.
To each their own. I love Big Finish's version of Shada and the audio remains one of my favorite Eighth Doctor adventures. Paul McGann and Lalla Ward have a wonderful chemistry together, which had been previously demonstrated in Neverland and Zagreus.
I have no interest in Ian Levine's version.
I have no interest in Ian Levine's version.
Yeah, it even includes all surviving cast members contributing to it with the exception of Tom Baker. Infamously, Ian Levine tried to get 2 Entertain to include it on the Shada DVD, but they refused. He didn't react well to that, but when does he?
Any word on how full a DVD release of POTD will be?
I'd rather not double dip for a bare bones DVD now and one with extras later. And I may as well go for the online episodes of the episode if there won't be any extras on the DVD.
I'd rather not double dip for a bare bones DVD now and one with extras later. And I may as well go for the online episodes of the episode if there won't be any extras on the DVD.
I hope the DVD would, at the very, very least, include the original surviving footage.
I wonder if the decision to animate the whole story means they've finally given up on trying to find the episodes of Power themselves, or they've managed to confirm the episodes are truly gone for good.
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