The recovered surprise

[kurt devery]

What was everyone's best surprise from​ the recovered episodes mine would include
Day of Armageddon:The alien delegates being different to what we expected
Airlock: that monologue straight to camera and the blood on the drahvin

Enemy of the world: Salamander punches the Doctor!

[zaqwilson]

EOTW 6: the end of the recon says something like "salamander accidentally bumps the controls" when infact he reaches down, pulls a random switch during the struggle and the Tardis takes off with doors open.

The telesnap of Salamander flying off in time and space has those white spots on it...until i saw the ep, i assumed it was damage or an artifact on the telesnap itself, not a visual effect.

After seeing WOF 1, I had assumed they set up the cliff hanger better at the end of EOTW 6. At the end, as Salamander spins off in time and space, it is not well conveyed that the Tardis and its occupants are in dire straights.

The VERY BEST surprise was the recovery of the full Serial itself. Always loved the audio of the serial from lost in time, never expected to see the full product with my own eyes!

[ianphillips]

Unfortunately, there haven't been any discoveries announced since I became a fan of Doctor Who (classic or otherwise) so I've never had the opportunity to be surprised by something in an episode recovery.

[George D]

Let's hope you can.

When I was younger, I thought shows like Web if fear would be lost forever. Many judged enemy of the world by episode 3 which was a weaker episode. The days before audio, telesnaps, and recons left a lot to many imaginations.

[Richard Tipple]

For me it has to be Airlock.

An unremarkable episode from an unremarkable serial. It wasn't on the top of anyone's wish-list. It isn't an episode shrouded in fan mythology - and yet it's such an enjoyable 25 minutes of television! It's bold, bright and feisty. We have humour, conflict, trepidation. We have beautifully shot flashbacks and monologues.

The production team obviously cared enough to make it the very best it could be and - creatively speaking - they threw the kitchen sink at it. It perfectly incapsulates the magic of 60's Doctor Who. A children's TV programme, made on a showstring, with something in calculably enchanting about it. It's exactly the reason why I love the show.

[George D]

Because of the quality of current recons, I cant say there hasn't been much in the way of surprises for me. While it was definitely an improvement when eotw was recovered, I felt I could follow the gist of the story very well tgo ohrough the recon so had a good feeling what it was about.

The only "surprise" I can think of was with the return of tomb of the cybermen. Before it was recovered, it was proclaimed as the ultimate dr who story. When it was recovered I had heard the audio and book and didn't find the special effects as mind blowing as described.

On a more positive note, I felt evil was one of the most amazing dr who experiences on just the audio alone. very moody, dramatic, and great plot twists for the ultimate end.

[Alastair Fleming]

Air Lock: The Chumblies had lights all over them which lit up when communicating.
The Enemy Of The World 1: The brilliant opening scenes on the beach especially the shot from inside the helicopter as it took off.
The Enemy Of The World 4: The lift sequence.
The Enemy Of The World 6: How well done the ending was with the fight between the Doctor and Salamander and the shot of Salamander flying into the vortex.

Hoping for many more surprises to come!

[Robert Lia]

Tomb of the Cybermen was awesome when it was recovered and rush released onto VHS. I had not herd the audio of that story so I saw it having only read the TARGET paper back. I thought it was great from start to finish. Yes some of the special effects were a bit of a let down by 1992 standards but still it was worth it seeing it cold

[kurt devery]

Ahh the memories... for me tomb is and always be up there for greatest who find..90 minutes of complete who that just happened to be at the time the holy grail like it or loathe it tomb came back complete and where were you all I was at school seems like yesterday

[Darren Jones]

A surprise for me was the set design for the 'Tomb', especially the Ealing filmed sequences; it looked far more expensive than usual.
Also, Joseph Furst's performance in UM ep 2, while still a bit pantomime, is far more nuanced than the perceived poor acting and OTT "NOTHINK IN ZE VORLD CAN STOP ME NOOOWWW" from the longer extant ep 3.
Having said that, my biggest surprise was how well EotW3 fitted into the whole story (I LOVE Griffin!) - before it was a 'boring' and 'talky' episode and now it provides a welcome and comic interlude between all the action and intrigue happening around it.

[Simon Collis]

Jun 9, 2017 16:00:12 GMT Alastair Fleming said:

The Enemy Of The World 4: The lift sequence.

I can't not think of EOTW every time I see the transport tubes in Space:1999...

[Sue Butcher]

I wasn't surprised that Airlock was good because I had a couple of friends who really enjoyed Galaxy 4 the first time around. But I wasn't expecting much from Enemy Of The World. It really didn't sound promising, but it turned out to be one of the best Troughton stories.

[lousingh]

I'm showing my age here.

The French Revolution - for some reason, the sections in the Bastille seemed far more realistic to me than I expected. They really creeped me out.

From a personal angle - Hartnell's performance in this story gave me the notion that he expended more energy in nailing his part in historicals. I recall when I first heard "The Massacre" and then saw the telesnap reconstruction: he nails every line as the Abbott of Amboise - hardly a trivial feat for someone who fluffed a lot of lines in many stories around it.

[Martin Dunne]

Things that weren't in the Targets novels.

The lone Cybermat wheeling along slowly at the end of Tomb.
The Cyberleader's head falling off when not-a-Turkish-wrestler Toberman threw him across the room.
The tracking shot at the start of Airlock.