IC Forum Archive

aderack · Posts: 5018

Metaphor much?

George · Posts: 1656

I just finished season one of the new show. It makes me damn excited for Torchwood. Captain Jack is a bisexual Han Solo played by Tom Cruise, which just plain works.

The end of the season was okay. Russel T. Davies episodes are consistently decent, but the really great episodes were by other writers.

Daleks look way too much like R2D2 to be scary. I don't understand how the alienness of the Daleks is a good thing. The more alien something is, the less scary it is. The Terminator is one of the greatest sci-fi villains because he looks like a human on the surface. The other great sci-fi villain is the Alien, which is a penis with teeth. It's not entirely human, but the identification with the human organs we least want to be attacked by make it scary.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Speaking of which, there's another, longer trailer. (Torrent; no Youtube yet.) Sort of halfway between the "original" trailer and the first released one.

Making up for lost lead time, I guess.

Also, one of the episodes sounds like a sorta-sequel to The Empty Child. Note that it seems to focus mostly on the two (overtly) Doctor Who-originated characters!

Also, press release/interview thing with Barrowman. I like the anecdote about the canteen, at the end.

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTBHUhwr2xQ

new 60 second trailer that aderack mentioned up on youtube now. Should finish processing soon

aderack · Posts: 5018

A minute and a half of prosthetic fun.

aderack · Posts: 5018

George wrote:

Captain Jack is a bisexual Han Solo played by Tom Cruise

I like that decription. I think what they're aiming for is a somewhat inverted version of a Flash Gordon-type "chin hero". It's probably significant that he's American.

See, Doctor Who basically comes out of that serial sci-fi tradition -- except the Doctor is about as far as you can get from the cheesy American teeth-and-gun serial hero. So, to sort of play with the roots of the series, let's put Buck (Naked) Rogers on the TARDIS. Exaggerate the swagger and promiscuity. It'll be meta!

Davies has outright said that he expected Jack would be an annoying character that everyone would have had enough of after a couple of episodes -- except, whoops, add John Barrowman and he takes on his own life. Now there's no getting rid of Jack!

That's a pretty good sketch of how the show works, really. Think up something ridiculous, then write it and play it straight with (nevertheless) a built-in awareness of how bizarre everything is, and somehow it hangs together.

Ashura · Posts: 735

Can we change that to say 'Tom Cruise with some sense'... ?

aderack · Posts: 5018

So the first episode of series three is called "Smith and Jones". ("John and Martha" would be almost as great.) Apparently there are plans to destroy the Sonic Screwdriver again. Though there are no other titles available (aside from "The Runaway Bride"), the writer/episode lineup is as follows:

30X - Russell T Davies (runaway bride)
301 - Russell T Davies (introduction of Martha)
302 - Gareth Roberts (Shakespeare)
303 - Russell T Davies (New New York II)
304/305 - Helen Raynor (set in 1930s "old" New York)
306 - Stephen Greenhorn
307 - Chris Chibnall
308/309 - Paul Cornell
310 - Steven Moffat
311 - Russell T Davies (double bank episode)
312/313 - Russell T Davies

So similar Davies distribution to this year: Christmas, plus the first episode and another early one (set in the year five billion), then the final three. Paul Cornell (Father's Day) gets the late-season two-parter slot; Helen Raynor gets the mid-season one. Moffat's got the final non-RTD episode again.

Overall the balance seems good on paper: three one-parters, then a two-parter (as with series one). Then two one-parters, a two-parter, two one-parters, a two-parter.

Stephen Greenhorn seems to be a playwright; he's done a few things for TV, and written a few books. Overall, apparently most of his really "big" stuff has been for theater, though. Chris Chibnall has written for Life on Mars; he's currently the head writer on Torchwood. Gareth Roberts has done a lot of Doctor Who-related stuff. Most recently he did Attack of the Graske and the Tardisodes. He's going to have a big role in the Sarah Jane spin-off. Helen Raynor is the script editor, so presumably she knows what she's doing.

I just noticed that Tom MacRae doesn't seem to have an episode after all! That's good, because his series two episodes sucked! They sucked the energy and life right out of the series! I was a little worried, as early reports said they'd given him another episode to screw up. No, though! They seem to be keeping things pretty close to home this year: RTD, the script editor, the people in charge of the two other spin-offs, Cornell, and Moffat. And this playwright guy.

Note also: the final four episodes are Moffat, Davies, Davies, Davies. We know that this is the period where Jack's returning. He's sort of a half-and-half Moffat/Davies creation. Also note: episode 11 is still the "double bank" episode, in which the leads will barely feature. If instead of Elton it focuses on Jack, then... hey. Especially with a lead-in from Moffat, this could get really interesting.

Combined with the New York progression, it seems like there might be much more of a flow next year than there was to series two.

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JjoBL-Dyvi0

more viral marketing along the lines of the parking garage.

aderack · Posts: 5018

ALSO OF NOTE

There is a large portion of Doctor Who fans who are ardently against stepping up the release rate, or -- say -- finishing up the last few Troughton and Colin Baker releases over the short term because they only have (time/money) to (watch/buy) each release as it comes out now, and so the more things are spaced out and the more variety there is to releases, the happier they are.

Since, of course, it's impossible for them to put off buying a DVD until they've the money or time or interest. Or only to buy the ones they're most interested in. That would be absurd. Therefore, everyone else must be subjected to the schedules of their personal lives.

And... they're the ones the BBC actually listens to, by and large. So. There's another factor.

aderack · Posts: 5018

More politics to dwell over: apparently the overall conservatism of the RT, combined with strong resistance toward recent restoration techniques that weren't immediately perfect yet had potential, has apparently driven away founding member James Russell in a huff -- to the extent that he's decided he wants nothing to do with Doctor Who ever again. What's interesting is that he was still deeply involved as of the release of Genesis of the Daleks, earlier this year.

Last I saw, he was developing new techniques for colorization that might have aided in filling in some of the missing bits of the Pertwee era. Some of the results were, frankly, amazing -- far beyond what I'm used to being passed off as commercial colorization. The rest of the RT just shrugged, and dismissed every suggestion he -- and a few associated people -- put forward. Apparently -- according to Ian Levine -- that was the last straw. He kind of collapsed into a quiet puddle of fury, and decided he'd had enough.

Ashura · Posts: 735

I still don't get their attitude. It's closer to the original in color even if it's not perfect than when it's in B&W. That's hella retarded. Though I guess that's also why we talk here instead of there.

Well, that and lazyness.

Also, Darkie, thanks for putting up that trailer.

aderack · Posts: 5018

I... just typed a lot, then the browser burped and it vanished. Hmm.

I suppose we'll see what happens with Ambassadors of Death. Judging from that sample, I can't imagine them turning down the full, uncompressed version. It looks like it'll just need some color grading, and marriage with a high-quality black-and-white signal. If they do accept it, that'll mean -- given that this is basically the original color (if scrambled, then descrabled and tweaked) -- there's one more serial to cross off.

As far as Pertwee's concerned, there are only eight episodes left with missing color: one each from Planet of the Daleks and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and all six from The Mind of Evil. In the first two cases especially, you'd imagine that a high-quality reasonably inexpensive colorizing process would be welcome: only twenty-five minutes to deal with, and a whole serial will be complete. Well, hum.

Supposedly the Ambassadors process might also be applicable to Mind of Evil to one extent or another, though I don't really know much about that -- and according to Ian Levine, at the moment Steve Roberts isn't letting him near the tapes. For all I know, that might just be Levine making noise.

About The Invasion, since it seems to roughly tie in here: apparently that had almost nothing to do with the RT; it was a project of BBCi -- in other words, the people who look after the Doctor Who website. They commissioned the material from Cosgrove on a lark, since they had a bit of budget stashed away that they hadn't used for anything. The original plan was for it to go up on the website. Then that fell through, and Cosgrove kept going, eventually turning up a couple of really polished episodes, all paid for, that no one knew what to do with. So someone got the idea to throw 'em on a DVD along with the remaining episodes of the serial. Apparently about half the RT wasn't thrilled with this, as they felt they had better things to do. Some other members were more enthusiastic, in particular Mark Ayres.

Now that the thing's done, and everyone internal has seen it and it's proven its way, the gears are turning and they're starting to think about future animated reconstructions -- though they keep saying this release will have to sell a ridiculous amount for the people ultimately in charge of DVD releases to think about funding any more.

And yet -- rumor has it that Cosgrove has already begun at least preliminary work on Power of the Daleks. That's Troughton's first story, of which no episodes remain. Apparently they've gone about getting permission to use the likenesses of various actors who were involved, which suggests at least some intent.

Considering that almost the entirety of Troughton's first season is missing (only six random episodes, all on Lost in Time), it would be interesting to approach it as a predominantly animated series -- just go through chronologically. Heck, after The Invasion there are only 106 episodes left to animate. That's not so much. And there are just 29 of those in Troughton's first season -- that's roughly comparable to one year of an animated series. Season five has 27 missing episodes, so that would be another nice season commission. That would almost complete Troughton's run, save five episodes of The Space Pirates.

Likewise, 29 for Hartnell's third season -- which would only leave five episodes from the beginning of season four (including the final episode of The Tenth Planet), and a few scattered episodes from his first two seasons (two each from The Crusades and The Reign of Terror, plus all seven of Marco Polo). Most of these, along with The Space Pirates, could be specially done.

Surely something like this -- given a little promotion -- would be a pretty good success on a saturday morning or after school slot. With all of the other TV spin-offs it seems reasonable to expect that a mostly-animated telling of earlier incarnations of the Doctor (appropriately enough in black and white) would go over well. Especially since most of these stories would be seen for the first time in forty-some years! And never in this precise format.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Have I mentioned this here before?

super secret Torchwood footage.

Or not?

Baron Patsy · Posts: 573

Ashura wrote:

Also, Darkie, thanks for putting up that trailer.

I believe that the proper term is African-American.

Ashura · Posts: 735

Baron Patsy wrote:

I believe that the proper term is African-American.

Whoops.

I actually read Iammadmak as Iammadark.

aderack · Posts: 5018

So. Conversation continues. Several people, of course, absolutely could not believe or understand that box sets, in particular season sets, sell better than individual discs. All of the logistics I laid out flew completely over their heads. All of the phenomena I referenced, like people ignoring the range altogether until BBCWWA gets some season sets in order, and stores not even carrying individual discs, and people on that very forum constantly complaining that they can't find any non-boxes in stores, went ignored.

I mentioned that the only reason the Key to Time set was released over here was that BBCWWA requested it as a last-ditch effort to "save" the ailing range, by giving stores an "anchor" that they could display, and to offer casual customers some kind of an entry point. And indeed it was a tremendous success -- as evidenced by the continued existence of the Doctor Who DVD range. They got snarky and started asking for proof, and asked why, if box sets sell so well, BBCWWA keeps breaking them up into individual releases. I said the individual releases were for people like them, and nobody else cared, and then I went to Amazon rankings:

213 - Series One
1,541 - The Beginning
1,929 - Key to Time
2,368 - Genesis of the Daleks
3,560 - Web Planet
3,793 - Inferno
4,878 - Pyramids of Mars
5,117 - City of Death
5,416 - Ark in Space
5,923 - Lost in Time
6,199 - Dalek Invasion of Earth
6,753 - Revelation of the Daleks
7,272 - Mind Robber
7,634 - Robots of Death
7,660 - Talons of Weng-Chiang
7,986 - Seeds of Death
8,177 - The Leisure Hive
8,076 - Claws of Axos
8,689 - The Visitation
8,713 - Green Death
9,311 - Spearhead from Space
10,198 - Curse of Fenric
10,625 - Horror of Fang Rock
12,009 - Series One, Vol. 1
12,237 - The Aztecs
13,423 - Carnival of Monsters
13,835 - The Five Doctors
14,399 - The Three Doctors
14,937 - Tomb of the Cybermen
15,247 - Vengeance on Varos
15,341 - Resurrection of the Daleks
16,245 - Ghost Light
18,748 - Earthshock
20,818 - Caves of Androzani
21,225 - The Pirate Planet
22,124 - Remembrance of the Daleks
23,880 - The Stones of Blood
24,381 - The Two Doctors
28,212 - Androids of Tara
32,702 - Lost in Time (Troughton)
33,442 - Power of Kroll
36,526 - Ribos Operation
44,320 - Armegeddon Factor
47,859 - Lost in Time (Hartnell)
56,765 - Series one, Vol. 3
65,900 - Series one, Vol. 2
71,882 - Series one, Vol. 4

I then mentioned that the individual releaes, all around, were probably inflated here in comparison to the boxes as they're next to impossible to find offline.

No telling yet how they'll respond to this.

aderack · Posts: 5018

A follow-up crosspost:

Here are some rough calculations. If you invert the sales rankings, so you assume the worst-selling Doctor Who release sold one copy (71,882 - 71,882 + 1), then by the same relative measurement the best-selling would have sold 71670 copies (71,882 - 213 + 1). Using this as a yardstick, we can say that -- relatively speaking -- the complete Key to Time set sold 69954 copies and the collected individual KTT discs -- though each a poor seller in its own rght -- have sold 243593 copies.

So on the surface that's sort of interesting -- if logical. Although the set is one of the biggest sellers ever and the individual discs are some of the smallest, the individual sales collectively outnumber the box sales by about 3-1/2 times. Of course, the set contains six discs -- so what it comes out to is for every person who bought the box set, another person bought three and a half of the six individual DVDs from the set. Or for every two people who bought the set, another two people bought seven discs -- equivalent to just over one set's contents.

Still, the set (at $50) only costs about 3-1/3 times as much as an individual disc from the set (at $15) -- so the actual ratio of profit from sets versus individual releases is pretty close to equal. (That's $3653895 for the indies, versus $3497700 for the sets.) Releasing them individually, then, effectively doubles the intake for what is otherwise one of the highest-selling releases of the range.

Compare that to the highest-ranking individual release, which has no part in a set. That's Genesis at (remember, a relative) 69514 copies, at $28 each. That's $1946392. If we assume that each of the individual releases would have earned this much had the box set not existed to eat away at their sales -- which is an outrageous assumption -- that comes out to $11678352, compared to the $7151595 of the existing release pattern. Although Genesis costs almost twice as much as an individual KTT release, this figure is only 1-2/3 times the amount -- and again, using a ludicrous example of the individual sales potential of any random Who release.

Though I'm not in the mood to do the math right now, if we were to take an average sales or earnings (at average price range) of every Who release to date, and multiply that by six, I get the feeling the figure would be substantially less than the actual Key to Time figure. Even if you don't tally in the box sets or their individual component releases, to keep the figures "pure", it seems likely the result would be similar.

So. Yes. The evidence from at least this one retailer seems to suggest that box sets, backed up by component releases, are the way to go.

aderack · Posts: 5018

And first impressions

George · Posts: 1656

So if Doctor Who season 3 reintroduces Captain Jack - when does Torchwood air? In between seasons 3 and 4 or concurrently with 4? I assumed they were going to do it like Angel which aired directly after Buffy (until Buffy switched networks), but if they're hyping it so much right now I would think it's coming soon.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Torchwood is airing in... a week? Something like that. It takes place post-Parting of the Ways, certainly, for Jack, and post-Doomsday for the Who universe at large -- meaning it seems to take place somewhere in 2007. I'm guessing series three (or at least Jack's reappearance in it) will pick up sometime after the events in Torchwood. Wouldn't be surprised if there's some overlap in timeframe between Torchwood and series three.

winkerwanker · Posts: 2414

It airs on Sunday.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Oh hell. That soon? I guess so! Twenty-second.

Fuck time.

aderack · Posts: 5018

For those who haven't seen it, tonight's episode of Doctor Who is pretty much the best episode in the history of the series. SO! Might be one to catch!

I wonder how the commercials will screw with its flow.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Also! There are some interesting comments here.

John Barowman wrote:

Yeah, the thing is... Jack says a line in the first episode: “One day I’ll find the Doctor, the right kind of Doctor, and maybe he’ll be explain it’. Because something has happened to Jack and he doesn’t know why it’s happened and Jack doesn’t understand it.

If anything, how Doctor Who had the Bad Wolf thing, the links of Torchwood will be learning more about Jack - until we get to the penultimate episode.

There are crossover references in it which are for the Who fans. There are also certain... things, shall we say, that I have in The Hub that are from Who. Because remember what Torchwood 1 did. They collected anything that was found, and we have remnants of that - although Torchwood 1 disappeared, it no longer exists, destroyed in the battle of Canary Wharf - they became imperialistic. But we’re not like that. Jack is for the greater good. And if were to describe the characters Jack is obviously the hero the glue that keeps Torchwood together and the decision maker. Owen is the physician, the medical end. Toshiko is the computer genius. Suzie Costello is the engineer and second in command. And Ianto is the clean-up man, basically he’s like what Alfred is to Batman, he’s that same kind of thing to Jack - and there’s a great storyline there, that’s all I can tell you!

aderack · Posts: 5018

So it's aired -- two episodes' worth, back to back!. A Mad Martha rip of episode one is now up on Demonoid; episode two will probably be coming soon. Both are also available in a huge DVD format, though I'd probably recommend waiting.

James · Posts: 1735

That was actually kind of fun. The hub looked like a cheap, shitty set and the alien thing looked pretty good but also like a rejected character from Angel but Eve Myles is fucking hot and all the fucking and guns sold me on it (also the sociopathic date rapist who runs the med lab was a nice addition to the cast, since he's basically irredeemable). Jon Barrowman is maybe the only man I'd ever do sex with, probably.

Oh, but Russel T Davis needs to stop wanking off about his refutal of an afterlife. Being an atheist should be about rejecting the concept of a guiding deity, not things that are empirically impossible to prove or disprove. I fucking hate smug wankers like that and I'm an atheist myself.

Baron Patsy · Posts: 573

Damn, and I was going to try and get to sleep early tonight.

aderack · Posts: 5018

That did seem a little forced in. Not a big deal, though. The only rationalization I can find is maybe it was halfway meant to reflect the grim world outlook of the show. "This isn't Doctor who! There's nothing after death!" Unless you're Jack. I guess that's why the gloves get locked away at the end. He's the only one allowed to come back to life.

The characters are pretty interesting so far, yeah -- how amoral everyone is. Overall doesn't entirely feel like they've got the package together yet, though I guess that's excusable for a pilot episode. Pretty good, regardless. My download of the second episode doesn't have any sound after the first fifteen seconds, so guess it's just the one tonight.

Something I really didn't expect is that this is basically a retelling of "Rose". Replace Time Lord with Time Agent, replace TARDIS with Hub. There's even the useless boyfriend -- albeit more Welsh. I guess that's the issue that put me off just a little; I got the idea that this was going to be a completely different kind of a series, that just happened to be set in the Who continuity. From the first episode, it's basically Doctor Who except bleaker and with only the one setting. And with a bigger cast.

Thus, I guess, the eagerness to push the "this series is bleak / no afterlife" card. Actually, there's a lot about this episode that was a little on-the-nose.

Ah well. Again, definitely not bad so far. I like what's there. And I like moments like the one at the end with the paving stone. I like the chutzpah to promote someone as a major cast member, and to put that person's name in the titles, then off her in the first episode. Not so sure I like all of the "cute" references to the parent series. By the "Doctor" conversation they were getting tiresome. I imagine they'll trail off considerably now that the show is established, though.

Ashura · Posts: 735

aderack wrote:

Chutzpah spoilar.

Isn't that what Joss Whedon wanted to do with Buffy? He wanted to put Xander's friend in the first ep's opening? He finally did that with Tara, I think.

I know RTD is a fan, so it's probably a nod.

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

It seems like its just doctor who with more blood and less explanation about everything.

aderack · Posts: 5018

In episode two, they're overdoing the "Gwen as audience" thing. You don't have to have her ask all those questions just because someone in the back of the theater might wonder.

Still, getting a little better overall. This is reminding me a little of Millennium, in its starting pains -- though again Millennium has more of its own personality to it, compared to The X-Files. Also, more self-sure than Torchwood. You've got good characters; rely on them to carry the story. Stop making them redeclare who they are every time they appear, in case we've forgotten.

As far as tethers to the main series, I like the hand thing better than all of the tiny references last time. Get it over with, one big hunk. Interesting that he knows whose hand it is. And that it still twitches. I wonder if he knows the Doctor has regenerated, or even regrown his hand. The only people who could tell him, I suppose, are Harriet Jones or her assistant. Unless there were TV cameras around the estate.

Both episodes feel a little over-long. I notice they fit into a 50-minute timeslot instead of a 45-minute one. I wonder how much difference that makes.

Anyway, yeah. Pretty good and getting better. Just little things. Though it kind of goes against most of what I've been saying, I'm curious how they'll handle the Cyberwoman.

Chutzpah: I've heard that! So probably. I admit, the way the character was handled, I wondered for a while if he was another major cast member early on, who just got written out after a while. Then he, uh, got written out.

George · Posts: 1656

Ashura wrote:

aderack wrote:

Chutzpah spoilar.

Isn't that what Joss Whedon wanted to do with Buffy? He wanted to put Xander's friend in the first ep's opening? He finally did that with Tara, I think.

Actually, Tara is completely shafted from the opening credits. She's in about as many episodes of season 5 as Spike (nearly all of them), but he gets an opening credit and she doesn't.

The characters Joss Whedon puts in the opening credits and then gets rid of are Oz in Buffy season 4 and Doyle in Angel season 1. In the case of Doyle, most people think it was because he was doing too many drugs and needed to be written out (because he ODed a couple years later), although Whedon claims he planned it from the beginning.

Ashura · Posts: 735

Yeah, but, uh, look at the episode where Tara dies. She's in the opening credits for that episode alone. He only wanted to do it for one episode. Oz is in a lot of opening titles and technically doesn't die.

Legal Step · Posts: 1030

Excuse me who was that lady who played Madame Duboious Renet blah blah? She made quiet an impression with me.

Oh found her:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0617009/

aderack · Posts: 5018

That was David Tennant's girlfriend, alias Sophia Myles.

edit: yes!

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

For everyone who wants Torchwood Declassified and isn't in the UK, here's a demonoid link: http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/501025/6251060/

Interesting to note that the person who has uploaded it is the same person who hasn't finished uploading episode 9 and 10 of The War Games. Even though episode 5 won't finish, I can still watch it even as random parts of the show flash in and out at the wrong times.

Lick Meth · Posts: 154

I was pretty disappointed by this, somewhat.

I don't understand the practical worshipping of Captain Jack that I've seen in some places. That bit with him standing on the square frame above the building in the first (or was it the second?) episode really got my goat; it's as though he's some awesome super-cool hero, and I haven't seen him do shit yet. You've always got to cater towards those who approach your programmes almost freshly; admittedly, I didn't see much of Doctor Who (an old-school fan, who saw a couple of Tennant's episodes - and he's really not bad), but that's no excuse.

Also, and I know that the UK has some weird accents, but the Cardiff accent was really starting to get on my tits by the end of the first episode (at least it didn't sound hammy like Jack). It's the accent that kids in my region would take the piss out of regularly, saying words like "Daffodils! (Daff-oh-dills)" in that nob Welsh accent. At least they're not pretending it's London, but, y'know. Give me a homegrown Scouse accent any day.

Maybe it'll grow on me (the show, not the accent).

aderack · Posts: 5018

So more Torchwood. This series really feels like it's moving slowly; like the development of the characters, in particular, is being intentionally drawn out futher than it needs to be. Still, at this point things feel like they're coming together rather more. Chemistry amongst the leads is still a little weird. That is to say: weirdly weak.

Story was predictable, though it's a deal more sophisticated than the previous two episodes. (Written by Helen Raynor, script editor for Doctor Who.) If there were any Doctor Who references, they didn't shove 'em in my face this time! Gwen is almost out of her overdone incredulous mode. More Owen, which can't be a bad thing. Not enough Ianto; he looks like he's got tons of promise. A special ops butler!

At least on paper, next week seems like it should be really interesting. Leftover Cyberconversion unit gone mad! Written by Chris Chibnall again; head writer, and guy behind the "sex monster" episode. Out of the three so far, that wasn't the least interesting -- so. I guess we'll see how he does the second time around, without the burden of still trying to introduce things.

From here, the last four episodes all sound promising. All of the middle five sound somewhat generic, at least in rough outline. I'm guessing we might get half a dozen good episodes out of this series.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Really interesting interview here with Andrew Cartmel, script editor for the original show's last three seasons. At that point he was basically in charge of the show's creative direction, and to my mind it's one of the strongest eras of the show. The fans can't stand it, of course. To wit:

Cartmel wrote:

We did the rather cruel thing of destroying a fanboy. There was a lot of laughter on the set when we finally executed that fucker, I can tell you! Well justified.

George · Posts: 1656

I find it interesting that he says one of the problems was that his crew members wouldn't go and see a movie like The Terminator which had fantastic effects despite being low budget, because that problem happened to James Cameron himself. James Cameron's Aliens was filmed in the UK and the British crew HATED him because he wanted them to work American hours and not have two tea times per day. They tried to screen Terminator for the crew so that they would realize they were working for a genius and that the movie they were making would be watched decades later, but none of them wanted to see it. It didn't help that Cameron was replacing British director Ridley Scott.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Who previously worked for the BBC on set design, and just barely didn't design the TARDIS interior.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Steven Moffat wrote:

Just before anyone sticks any words in my mouth - it happens, you know, it does, it does - I WAS asked [to contribute to Torchwood], I would have loved to, am extremely busy, couldn't.

Absolutely LOVED the three episodes so far - brilliant, brilliant stuff. Really spooky one last night. And Russell's opener was another satanically clever masterclass in episode 1 writing. Or it would be if I had the faintest idea how to learn from it. Generally I just settle for nicking the jokes.

Steven Moffat

aderack · Posts: 5018

George wrote:

I find it interesting that he says one of the problems was that his crew members wouldn't go and see a movie like The Terminator which had fantastic effects despite being low budget, because that problem happened to James Cameron himself.

Curiously, one of the few "good guys" he mentions, Mike Tucker, still worked at the BBC effects department as of 2005 (after which that department was disbanded and he went off to form his own effects shop). His final job at the BBC? All of the model work for the 2005 series of Doctor Who.

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

I just finished Ghost Machine. No complaints really, I didn't think it was bad but it wasn't that good either. Next week looks like it will be Pet Semetary with the you know who from Army Of Ghosts.

aderack · Posts: 5018

Yeah, it's climbed the ladder from "mildly disappointing" to "so-so". I'm quickly losing my enthusiasm for this series, though next week seems to have the potential to somewhat redeem it.

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

If anything, it is a nice light filler between season 2 and season 3 of new Doctor Who. It would be nice if it could stand on its own better.

Edit: possible spoilers follow: aside from the whole how did Jack get back to now mystery, nothing really seems that interesting about him so far. All we have learned is that he doesn't sleep and he can't die. So basically at this point, he is the equivalent of superman, except he can't fly and he is even more of a dick. At least the other characters at least seem more interesting or have potential to get more interesting, especially Ianto Jones.

aderack · Posts: 5018

I understand that next week focuses on Ianto -- meaning even more potential!

Yes, Jack is a plank here. Gwen is a wittering plank. No friction or heat between the two boards. Toshiko Sato is completely unexplored. Owen is interesting, if one-note. Ianto is tantalizing, and thus far underused!

I was really expecting this to be novel and energetic. Like Homicide, with alien technology. It's fluff, though. As you say, I guess it's nice filler. Just... hum. More identiity would be nice.

Even as a Who side story, it's kind of a non-starter. Jack in 2007: Surf board. Rift. Now that they've revealed right up front that he can't die (that's a bit of a waste; they could have waited until the revelation would have explained a bunch of dumb things you'd seen him doing over the course of the series), it's mostly an exercise in tedium, waiting for the series end so you can see how it transitions back into Doctor Who. Feels like it's stalling.

Again, though, the last few episodes sound great. Maybe it'll all come together in the end.

aderack · Posts: 5018

A pretty good article about the restoration of The Invasion. Curiously, it barely mentions the animation; it's left to a passing reference in the final paragraph.

The Invasion is coming out in a matter of days, in the UK. I think three or four days, now. Somewhere around there. Some shops are already selling it, before the street date.

It'll be one of the March releases here. That's not too bad, I guess. However in the meantime I think I'll look forward to a... uh, sneak preview of the animated episodes.

James · Posts: 1735