Random Note #1: The book, Origins of the Universe written by one Oolon Caluphid, appears in Destiny of the Daleks, not City of Death. Check out the story notes on OG for confirmation at http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=5j . And since I like technical trivia, Destiny featured the first use of a Steadicam in the show.
Random Note #2: Leisure Hive is one of my favourites. Here we had a new, energetic director, Lovett Bickford, trying to show off with some very interesting shots. In particular, this is perhaps the only occasion in the original series where we see the TARDIS materialize in a seamless moving camera shot with the Doctor and Romana exiting the box and joining a crowd. A rather ingenious use of split screen and panning using a Quantel video editor methinks.
Then there is the most impressively cinematic synth soundtrack. The reimagined title music was created in the same spirit as the original Delia Derbyshire rendition with lots of electronic manipulation. (In fact, I think this was the only other arrangement of the theme tune that Delia ever approved of.) Later versions of the signature tune were performed using off-the-shelf standard sythesizers. I feel sure that Delia would be turning over in her grave if she could hear what Murray Gold did, sampling her work and pasting it into his bloated arrangment. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Ayres/DWTheme.htm#Howell
Random Note #3: There is one interesting interpretation of Logopolis that was not mentioned in the podcast. You did note the Doctor meeting up with the Watcher for some unheard words part way through the story. Then, at the end we see the Doctor fall off the radio telescope. Or did he? It does sort of look like he lets go of the railing, rather than just slipping off. Perhaps he knew that he was supposed to die and join with the Watcher in his regeneration. Sort of fits nicely with the denouement of the hero archetype, too. (Admittedly, the "slip" was probably bad acting/direction, rather than the more cerebral interpretation I describe.)
Jean-Paul, that is some cool factoidage. NOt least because it turns out I was right and "Tome of Dr. Who Lore" Steven was wrong. :)
You betray a depth of television tech knowledge not seen by myself since the dark days of Movie Central. Are you by chance a film/tv tech nerd like myself and I Am Steven? If so, maybe we have another podcast in the making here....:)
Though I disagree on the Murray Gold front. Orchestral scores FTW! :)
Nuh-uh, Mr. Frey! See? It says that the book was in "Destiny", not "City", as you thought. I will not have my nerdery afronted in such a way! Ruff ruff! Bark!
Did the Doctor fall, or he did let go? I think that if he didn't let go, he would have fell anyway ten seconds later. Good for maybe one or two more companion clips, at best.
Yeah, I said Destiny. :) At least, I think I did. Meh. :)
You guys are quite the Holmesian double-act. But I have to rule in Frey's favour. The History of the Universe by Oolon Caluphid features in Destiny. And the Doctor quickly thumbing through a book, mentioning the middle as being a bit boring, is from City of Death part one: http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5h.htm . Warren has these two scenes associated with their correct stories. It sounds like Steven has these bits mixed up in his head.
This is assuming that I am correctly recognizing who's voice is who's!
Jean-Paul (in post #7 anyhow) is quite correct about which book is where... I just checked City and around the 7m mark of episode 1 we can see the book to which the Doctor refers as "a bit boring in the middle." So, Warren had it half right (48m24s of the podcast) and Steven was fully correct. Thankfully I can tell whose voice is whose. =)
Yes, apparently I am confused as to whose voice is whose. Chris always tells me that Warren's voice is higher pitched than Steven's, so that was what I was going with.
So then I listened to the introductions at the top of the podcast, and my hearing picks up Steven's voice as higher pitched than Warren's--maybe it's my speakers. So all this time, I've associated the voices to the wrong person. Damn you, Chris.
I'm still listening to the podcast (the book situation was brought to me by Jean-Paul on AIM, so I jumped ahead to listen to that bit and prove him, and Steven, correct). That being said, random thoughts:
- Romana: Yum to both. Mary Tamm wore sexier outfits, but there was just something about Lalla... I don't know what... but still, yum. Maybe it was her maturity versus Romana I, I don't know.
- Steven has never seen The Matrix films? Wow. You sir are no longer a nerd. =)
(I hate them myself, for what it's worth. The first was fantastic if nothing more was done with the series, but then it just got silly and unnecessarily complicated as a series.)
- I vote a technical commentary be done and that Jean-Paul be invited to participate. Between what he brings up via IM and what Steven brings to the podcast and comments, I think it would be a marvelous podcast.
- I met Douglas Adams once, at MacWorld San Francisco 1999, so that'd be the second week of January. I may well have the only picture (blurry though it is) of him looking short (the puny human was only 6'5" after all). He was a very nice bloke.
You realize, Chris, that I now have to parse through any past commentaries I made regarding the podcast and exchange Warren's name with Steven and vice versa. They are now a schizophrenic entity in my mind. I've gotta go eat a brownie or something now so I feel better.
I'm a big Romana II (Lalla Ward) fan myself. Something about the snooty personality and her very British looks gets to me. I was just watching Warriors Gate the other day, and there's a hilarious gag I never noticed before. In episode two just outside the TARDIS, Romana is describing the Tharils to the crew from the Privateer. She mentions that the Tharils are hairy, then stands up on tip toe to quickly look at the bald spot on one of the crew's head. Nice! Quintessential Romana II there!
Brownies like you might find in Nightmare of Eden (gotta keep some level of relevance)? =)
Further thoughts:
- Sex Pistols vs Emerson Lake and Palmer. Yep, over my head that one was.
- Shada... to this day I have yet to watch the reconstruction or watch the webcast version. Since there were those issues with Douglas Adams and novelisations, I of course never read it. I bought Dirk Gently, but never actually bothered to read it. One day I ought to rectify that.
- JNT's upheaval was a necessary step and it was so good that it happened. Except for that whole bit about Lis Sladen being asked to come back, refusing, and we wind up with Tegan instead as a companion.
And just to redeem myself a little, I Am Steven is a Doctor Who god of knowledge. Actually, that might be construed as a bad thing. Never mind.
Hrm, a mention of vampires (sort of) in Fenric, but no mention of the vampire-like creatures in Series 3 of the new series?
And as for Daleks... YES, stop using them! They're overused, darnit! Though I'd heard a rumour somewhere they only got a license to use them for the first 3 years, so if that doesn't get renewed we won't see them again, so they're using (overusing) them while they can.
That being said, I'm looking forward to the Art Deco dalek (as rumoured). =)
Me not seeing The Matrix allows me to cram that much more of Doctor Who knowledge into this rat's maze of a brain of mine. If I do, indeed, know much about Doctor Who, it is not a badge of honour, merely a sign of how much free time I have had over the decades.
Incidentally, I'm halfway through "The Wheel in Space" on my months-long chronological journey through the history of Who. I really enjoyed the Hartnell era, and I am completely digging Troughton's reign. Most of the reconstructions I am viewing for the first time. The following have struck me as being quite good :
The Daleks' Master Plan
The Massacre
The Power of the Daleks
The Faceless Ones
The Evil of the Daleks
The Abominable Snowmen
Fury From the Deep
"Power" could be Top 10 material for me, and "Snowmen" is totally creepy. If anyone has yet to see these, find 'em and watch 'em. Posthaste!
I downloaded Masterplan but had to toss it for HD space reasons, but I watched Evil and quite dug it. Power is supposed to be one of the best stories ever, and I hope to get to it one day but have yet to do so. I remember being excited with the John Peel novelisations of Power & Evil back in the day and read them straightaway. Alas it's been far too long sine they came out for me to remember what I thought of them.
One of my favourite bits of Evil was there was another Beatles song in it, which I didn't know (until i saw the reconstruction I thought it was just the two in Remembrance and the one in The Chase).
The Massacre I remember disliking the book, but perhaps the visual element helps with it. The Faceless Ones was a great book, but the extent of what I've seen of it is what's on the Lost in Time collection. Abominable Snowmen I recall liking... and Fury from the Deep. Well, that was bar none the longest DW novelisation out there (with smaller print than normal, too!). I didn't enjoy the book... but it did see the departure of Victoria (yes?) so it has its place in history.
I'm waiting for the day these are returned to the BBC archives. I have troubles getting through Troughton episodes. I think The Dominators is the only complete Doctor Who story that I've never actually watched through. I don't even know the plots of the Troughton Dalek stories.
I know that Chris has been itching to do a podcast, by the way...
Well, there was the talk of us doing that podcast commentary for The Girl in the Fireplace, which never happened.
That being said, I've said before I don't know if i have anything to offer. =)
Ah yes the podcast that will never be. I think it would have been done but we never did find the time to do it.
Good episode Warren and Steven keep them coming.
Oh, and my booming, James Earl Jones-esque baratone just doesn't seem to come through on the podcast. But rest assured - it is indeed booming.
I'll take Steven's word for it. The telephone quality podcast compression could be adversely affecting the tonal quality of the hosts' voices. Given Steven's god-like knowledge of Doctor Who, I would expect for him to sound more like Darth Vader rather than a Troughton-era Cyberman. ;-)
Well, the telephone quality is due to the Gizmo project. One the one hand, it doesn't sound all that great, but on the other hand it has a nice shiny "record" button, and Skype doesn't. I keep trying to think of ways to make the podcast sound better, but they involve time I don't have to do a lot of screwing around.
You might give something like WireTap Pro (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/) a try. It records from any sound source, so whatever communication app gets used doesn't need a built-in record function. There are presumably other, similar options out there as well. However it does all boil down to time (to hunt or learn the nuances) and possibly a shareware fee, and there are presumably higher-bitrate options than Gizmo or Skype as well which would help audio fidelity.
I actually have Wiretap Pro; used it for the "live" podcast we did for Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. I'll have to figure out a way to get different inputs in, but that shouldn't be too tough. Dunno about higher bandwidth stuff, though, as TWIT and other "big" podcasts use it.
Note: Your browser must have Javascript enabled to submit comments.