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Post by lousingh on Mar 13, 2019 20:07:14 GMT
I really wish they wouldn't edit the scene out. However, as long as the recon is there and completely, I can deal with this kind of change.
I think this is a trial balloon for some abbreviated animations with full recons. As we all noted before, it would not surprise anyone that, say, a Marco Polo recon is re-edited to have actual Chinese actors and actresses play some of the parts in an edited version (say, 7 episodes with a 15 minute run time) while a full recon was also in the package. Given some of the reaction over here with the "undue length", "repetitiveness", and "time-wasting" in "The Power of the Daleks", the BBC have to be thinking about this for general sales for the longest of the remaining stories.
Personally, I loved the longer ones. Then again, some people thought I was nuts because I didn't think that every story aside from "The Dalek Master Plan", "The Seeds of Death" and "The Mind of Evil" should have been 4 episodes or shorter and these three should have been 5 episodes. Then again, the people who argued this with me praised "Earthshock" for its "character-driven plot" and "Resurrection of the Daleks" for "not wasting time explaining things."
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Post by Brad Wolfe on Mar 14, 2019 0:51:36 GMT
Unless sales are astronomically good and unexpectedly so I can't see us ever getting full animations of Highlanders or Massacre, or Smugglers, or even some of the other stories. At first I was against it, but if there are telesnap recons included as well where possible, I'd rather that than have no animation at all (personally I prefer the animations to watch as a viewer, the telesnaps as more of an interested fan, if that makes sense).
That said, I hope if edits are made they're of more superfluous or repetitive scenes. I think the Macra edit is unfortunately a far better scene than some of the other scenes in it.
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Post by scotttelfer on Mar 16, 2019 21:19:58 GMT
Unless sales are astronomically good and unexpectedly so I can't see us ever getting full animations of Highlanders or Massacre, or Smugglers, or even some of the other stories. At first I was against it, but if there are telesnap recons included as well where possible, I'd rather that than have no animation at all (personally I prefer the animations to watch as a viewer, the telesnaps as more of an interested fan, if that makes sense). That said, I hope if edits are made they're of more superfluous or repetitive scenes. I think the Macra edit is unfortunately a far better scene than some of the other scenes in it.
Interestingly enough, they've said that The Highlanders was considered a suitable candidate for animation (all that tartan was just a little too ambitious for their second project, so they opted for something a bit simpler so they could focus more on the quality of the animation) so they must be reasonably confident in the sales figures from Power.
I suspect the issue is going to be less about marketability and more about the cost to produce. They know Doctor Who sells, the problem is getting to that point in an affordable manner.
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Post by DavidGreene on Mar 19, 2019 4:40:17 GMT
There was a clip of The Macra Terror just recently release by Digital Spy today as well as a short interview with the animations producer Charles Norton as to why they chose The Macra Terror as the next serial to animate. Link below Digital Spy Macra Terror link
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Post by timmunton on Mar 20, 2019 1:29:57 GMT
Have been looking forward to this one. Unfortunately I don't like the look of the Doctor in the clip at the 'Digital Spy' webpage ( & Thanks for the link David Greene )- he doesn't look much like Troughton & certainly looks less like Troughton than the way he is drawn in any of the other official animations. Too young-ish, face too smooth, too cartoonish & just not very facially accurate imo. The only thing noticeably on the plus side re. his depiction in this clip is the sometimes narrowing/shifting of the eyes for emphasis when talking - a Troughton trait, which is done very well here.
On the DVD/Bluray cover he looks okay in terms of likeness (average though the cover is overall) - but not in this clip. Maybe he'll look better in the other scenes or in the black & white version (though the latter probably won't make any difference to his look)...
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Post by julianbotting on Mar 24, 2019 16:16:53 GMT
My copy of Macra came this morning, I’ve watched the first episode in black n white , looks good nice and smooth 👍 Hopefully we’ll get wheel in space next 🤔
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Post by gregoryfink on Mar 26, 2019 14:09:10 GMT
Waiting to watch this later this week but had the opportunity to see a clip from episode three at the recent gallifrey one convention. Charles Norton and Rob Ritchie did a very good job considering timelines and budgets available. I wish them well on the next project and eagerly look forward to what ever it may be.
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Post by mattg on Mar 26, 2019 18:58:58 GMT
Got my copy on Monday but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. I preordered the steel book version in December, long before the artwork was confirmed/revealed but must say, as with the Power of the Daleks steelbook before it, the design is stylistically superb! ....that bloody Nu Who logo though. Urgh. P.S. Perusing the comments here I appear to be one of the few 'Macra purchasers who intends to watch it in good ol' B/W. As with 'Power before it I've just got no desire to view the colour version for some reason. Oh well, each to their own I guess!
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Post by timmunton on Mar 27, 2019 4:00:27 GMT
mattg - I'm watching in black & white (would always do that first). Am half way through it - it's mainly pretty good. Later on will view the colour version because the audio commentary is on that version & I'm looking forward to hearing that - ie. no audio commentary on the monochrome one. Am unlikely to watch colour one without the commentary playing, though won't completely rule out that possibility.
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Post by wheninrome on Apr 4, 2019 14:36:04 GMT
Got my copy on Monday but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. I preordered the steel book version in December, long before the artwork was confirmed/revealed but must say, as with the Power of the Daleks steelbook before it, the design is stylistically superb! ....that bloody Nu Who logo though. Urgh. P.S. Perusing the comments here I appear to be one of the few 'Macra purchasers who intends to watch it in good ol' B/W. As with 'Power before it I've just got no desire to view the colour version for some reason. Oh well, each to their own I guess! Watching the B & W version myself, the colour is too incongrous for my Troughton viewings! I watched the first five minutes in colour (Well, okay the second five minutes ) and it was just too bizarro for me...
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Post by odysseaschristou on Apr 6, 2019 22:29:10 GMT
Got my copy on Monday but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. I preordered the steel book version in December, long before the artwork was confirmed/revealed but must say, as with the Power of the Daleks steelbook before it, the design is stylistically superb! ....that bloody Nu Who logo though. Urgh. P.S. Perusing the comments here I appear to be one of the few 'Macra purchasers who intends to watch it in good ol' B/W. As with 'Power before it I've just got no desire to view the colour version for some reason. Oh well, each to their own I guess! Watching the B & W version myself, the colour is too incongrous for my Troughton viewings! I watched the first five minutes in colour (Well, okay the second five minutes ) and it was just too bizarro for me... Hi all my first post (although I have been visiting this site for years) so be gentle with me.
I watched it B&W first then colour with audio and must say, I preferred the colour version (just seemed to have more detail).
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Post by richardwoods on Apr 7, 2019 10:16:42 GMT
Well that was an odd one, a bit of a strange story, sort of 1984 set in Butlins!
I didn’t remember it from first time around, (I never bothered with the telesnap recon as I don’t find them easy to engage with), apart from bit where they were watching the Macra control room through the window, which seemed vaguely familiar.
I watched the colour version & in hindsight kind of wish I’d watched the b&w as I found it distracting. Also I wish they had used Pat’s real face in the start! Liked the colourised visual feedback effects though.
Still overall a thumbs up. Keep the animations coming.
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Post by Robert Lia on Apr 7, 2019 19:32:11 GMT
Watched both versions last night. I had of course listened to the cassette version way back in 1992 and the CD version when it came out as well. I watched the black and white version first as Pat's era was made in black and white. Color does not seem right for his ear at least in my old mind. They did a good job with it. One can tell from the censor bits that they took some artistic license on the way of getting it done. For that reason I don't see why they could have not taken the same artistic license with the scene they claim they had to edit out. I did not like them animating pat's face in the opening. I feel they should have left it as it was.
As for the color version I did not care for the colors used at the very start of the title sequence but it was other wise ok. I am glad they left the end titles alone. This story does look nice in color though. I can see why they would want a color version for the younger fans. Now it can be remarketed in a animation box set in full color.
I look forward to more animations.
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Post by Michael D. Kimpton on Apr 9, 2019 15:48:10 GMT
I think the colours of the intro came about because they were taking from the use of spectrum in Pertwee's first intro, with different colours mixing into each other and so on. Having the animated Troughton works here in my mind because they're accepting the fact that these AREN'T the originals, and are playing with it a little more. As for the artistic license, yes, I agree that the cut scene didn't need to be cut, but one has to consider the complications of animation when budget is involved. Maybe they ran out of time, or didn't have enough money for the more complicated stuff... I really don't know how it works because I'm just a comic artist; I'm not very knowledgeable of how things work in the animation industry, especially when it comes to a group set up just to work on Doctor Who. As for the scene with Polly, overall I liked what they did. Not being held back by an immobile and troublesome prop, they had freedom to present the Macra as a truly menacing species. It makes me think back to Tomb of the Cybermen. Many people were disappointed by the recovered episodes, as the budget limitations of the time differed from how one's imagination plays out. They were kind of fooled by the soundtrack into believing the visuals were grander than what they could have been. With Macra's animation, they're basically giving us what one's imagination of how the scenes played out based on audio would work... I say "us", but this kind of thinking would only apply to non fans of the black and white era, or even the Classic era in general; longtime viewers of the black and white era like us may find it hard to swallow that the episode differs from both the tele-snaps and the censored footage because that's what we KNOW to be true about the story. Modern fans don't, and it's my understanding that they were done this way to try and attract the attention of Whovians not entirely familiar to the limitations of black and white Doctor Who. The PROBLEM though, lies in the black and white episodes now; should the episodes ever be found, they won't live up to the animation, as far as the modern fans who watched the animations will be concerned. I'm kind of worried the episodes may be given negative flack because of this, like Tomb did. Now I know I said I LIKED the changes for artistic license, but I'd still welcome the clumsily done original ANY day. But it's a double edged sword; it's nice to see them play with it and make it more exciting, but if the episodes are found, it's gonna put some people off when they see it wasn't as exciting as it first appeared, and I'm kind of hoping that, whatever story they animate next, they'll keep the changes to a minimum, to avoid this possibility happening again. I hope this post makes sense, but as I'm rushing it out before I take my dogs out, it probably won't.
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Richard Develyn
Member
Living in hope that more missing episodes will come back to us.
Posts: 574
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Post by Richard Develyn on Apr 16, 2019 9:45:34 GMT
Watched the first two espisodes in colour last night and I really enjoyed it.
Shame about the cut scene, I have to say, but that's only because I know the story. Wouldn't have missed it otherwise.
I thought I would go straight for colour this time around because this just *isn't* the espisodes, so might as well go whole-hog new-thing. After all, all those shots of the colony at night and so on, were way better than they would have been able to manage with the originals. And the macra looked much better animated!
Of course, the whole thing rests on the quality of the original story, which I really love. I enjoy early episodes more than later ones and I've always thought Macra was great at building tension. It must have been pretty frightening to kids at the time.
The animation is crude, of course, but I have no problem with that, and I think the studio's done a pretty good job. It made me wonder about even cruder animation such as found in the early marvel stories, from the 60s, which I've always been quite a fan of.
Richard
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