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Post by lousingh on Jul 21, 2014 14:51:13 GMT
I agree with everyone about the negotiations. It can be a long time between discovering that the episodes exist, the actual procurement of them, the double-checking of their actual existence and condition, the restoration of the episodes, and then the actual announcement of the find. Depending on the conditions, this can take quite a while.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 17, 2014 23:58:37 GMT
Three stories rise above the rest for me here - The Power of the Daleks, The Macra Terror, and The Evil of the Daleks. I took Power because of how diabolical the Daleks are. "I am your servant!" Just awesome. But a lot of good stuff this season too.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 17, 2014 23:56:22 GMT
The Dalek Master Plan for its scope, Mavic Chen, and the cleverness of the Daleks. I had a hard time putting aside The Myth Makers and The Massacre.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 17, 2014 23:53:51 GMT
I took The Crusade. I have always thought it was fabulous.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 17, 2014 23:52:06 GMT
Exterminate!
However, I like The Aztecs, The Sensorites, and The Reign of Terror a lot too.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 17, 2014 23:49:05 GMT
I have a heavy bias - I hate colourisation from a gut level unless the original was released in colour and your are just restoring it. If you want to make it and/or watch it, then go ahead. But I definitely want nothing to do with it.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 16, 2014 14:22:12 GMT
I think Wheel is a decent but not great story. Part of its problem is that there are 3-4 clearly awesome stories that season (The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep), one under-rated story (The Enemy of the World), and one initial story of a classic monster (The Ice Warriors). That's pretty rugged company there. If you put it in the next season, the only clearly superior stories are The Mind Robber and The Invasion. (I always liked The Seeds of Death and The War Games, but that's hardly a consensus.)
The telesnap reconstructions are on youtube and dailymotion. Look for El Doctorio on youtube and greendude33 on dailymotion. The BBC are very good about allowing these recons from Loose Cannon stay up.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 15, 2014 20:49:34 GMT
I kind of get the less-than-stellar reviews of The War Games - especially here in the US. (For that matter, any of the DW before Tom Baker plus the stories longer than 4 episodes.) In the US, most people only had access to omnibus version of the stories. I love The Dead Planet, but The Ordeal is slow going in spots - especially when you are at the 1:55 mark when it starts. The War Games was the only one split over two movies, so you combine the long sit times with the lack of patience and the extra wait and PRESTO - a legion of bad reviews.
The standard 10 episode version, on the other hand, is great in a few small bites; I just get too restless watching it for hours on end. On the other hand, if I am learning a new language, framework, or utility, it's great having a window open to it because I cam keep working longer. :-)
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Post by lousingh on Jul 14, 2014 23:55:27 GMT
One reason I brought this up is because it does happen to me. I may never go to Gallifrey Base or read DWM again. My nephews' and nieces' friends find it strange that I am more enthused about the recovery of "The Enemy of the World" than I was about "Stolen Earth." Heck, I worked at a place where several co-workers used my preference for old DW as evidence that I was holding the company back technologically because I refused to change with the times. (In exchange for them staying and getting promoted, they used that as part of the grist of the case for firing me!) As a software developer myself I've got to say that's utterly ridiculous and, had they worked at the company where I work, would probably be grounds for disciplinary action against them. I tend to keep away from organised fandom & the big websites myself as I find the vocal minority spoil it for the silent majority. Some people don't understand: - the difference between 'fact' and 'opinion';
- how to communicate with other people; and
- that they're actually communicating with real, living, breathing people.
and the anonymity offered by the web gives them the perfect place to vent their bile with no real comeback. I realise this behaviour isn't exlusive to the 'Who' community, but it's where I've seen some of the worst examples. It's truly, truly pathetic. Johnathan Molyneux Molyneux - I was trying to include you here too, but I couldn't figure out how to embed two quotes here. I found out that these guys became 1-2-3 on the programming staff shortly after I was canned. I imagine that it was either them or me and they were the young hot shots of the place. (I didn't mention that the guy who became #1 said that, and I quote, "If he has a graduate math degree, that must be the easiest subject to get a PhD in ever.") So I am better off not being there anyway. There are worse fandoms. At least no one from DW fandom gave me death threats over this, unlike Star Trek fans in 1987-8 who got upset when word got around that I disliked Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ship warring in fandoms like those aimed at pre-teens and teens are just insane (courtesy of my friends' and family's kids). One fandom has TWO suicides that I KNOW OF from ship warring and other fan wars; I have helped talk three other people out of killing themselves. It is horrible.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 13, 2014 20:08:34 GMT
Having picked Web, my choice will change if anything else turns up of course. Fury could well be better than most think. A real tough season in all... Honestly, I expect Fury from the Deep to be considered very good. The first time I saw the scene where Oak and Quill capture Mrs. Robson, I was stunned at how frightening it was - and I was 30! I always liked The Enemy of the World; I could never understand the negative reviews I kept seeing from older fans. Of course maybe as a kid, Salamander doesn't have the appeal of the Ice Warriors or the Cybermen, which could cloud everyone's opinions of them.
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Post by lousingh on Jul 12, 2014 19:56:23 GMT
I picked Tomb, but boy, I can make an argument for The Abominable Snowmen, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, and Fury from the Deep. The audios for The Abominable Snowmen and Fury from the Deep are excellent; The Tomb of the Cybermen has been one of my favourites for years; and the recent recoveries of The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear show just how good they were.
It is the joy I get from watching these stories that keep me hooked on the missing episodes.
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Post by lousingh on Jun 26, 2014 13:16:46 GMT
One reason I brought this up is because it does happen to me. I may never go to Gallifrey Base or read DWM again. My nephews' and nieces' friends find it strange that I am more enthused about the recovery of "The Enemy of the World" than I was about "Stolen Earth." Heck, I worked at a place where several co-workers used my preference for old DW as evidence that I was holding the company back technologically because I refused to change with the times. (In exchange for them staying and getting promoted, they used that as part of the grist of the case for firing me!)
Obviously, the evolution of Doctor Who mirrors that of society. Look at the attitudes towards women, minorities, religions, etc. in the Hartnell stories compared to the McCoy era; then compare that to the Smith stories. It is eye-opening. When I watch the older stories, I have to remember the attitudes prevalent in the era they were filmed versus what I know now, or else some of them would offend me like no business.
Obviously, the pacing of stories has sped up over time. Sometimes, that clears out what we now would consider dead space, but other times, we lose out on characterisation, background culture, etc. Similarly, the style, tone, and mood of the series has changed over time. The current trend I don't like is the lack of emphasis on the universe outside of Earth.
I should point out that in an abstract sense, it is very hard to write truly different story. A new story "Invasion of Planet X" is likely going to seem like "The Dalek Invasion of Earth," "The Invasion," "The Claws of Axos," etc. in a macro sense; the difference is just going to be in the details. You have to go quite far afield before you create something truly different - but then people get upset at defective garbage machines, murderous circuses, etc. because they are "oddballs."
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Post by lousingh on Jun 18, 2014 22:29:57 GMT
Don't forget the artery-clogging fatty red meats that people ate with more artery-clogging fried foods.
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Post by lousingh on Jun 18, 2014 22:28:41 GMT
I would have loved a "Doctor-Lite" episode after Rose got trapped in the alternate universe where her friends and family are telling her to stop pining for the Doctor, grow up, and move on. It's one of the few series that can get away with something that so plays against TV conventions; it should have availed itself of the opportunity to do so. Wasn't going to happen with RTD at the helm. His vision of the show was very much one big Mary Sue fanfic, with Davies as the companion, not the Doctor. What your propose would have been way too close to psychotherapy. Sadly, I think you are right. I always liked that Doctor Who would combine movies and books in strange and occasionally subversive ways within a serial. Sadly, if Doctor Who wasn't going to do that with Rose, then I have no hope for other series to deal with it. I have been debating the problems with shipping from a psychological angle. In general, they make people believe that "true love" just falls out of the sky and the relationship is perfect. Then, depending on the ship, one of two mindsets gets re-inforced: 1. F/M who has dated a bunch of idiots while a really nice but ordinary M/F who has had a thing for her/him waits for her/him to see what has been in front of her/him all the time. Eventually, s/he realises (s)he's the perfect boy/girl. 2. F/M who always gets everything s/he wants has a BFF who either gets M/F who will settle for her/him as the F/M's scraps. But the best M/F they never dated sees her/him for how great s/he is while the original BFF fails to take what that person offers. So when Doctor Who turns into a shipper show, it loses the edge it has in that it can subvert these cliches.
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Post by lousingh on Jun 8, 2014 21:12:39 GMT
I get it every now and then over here. Maybe it's because it's "in" currently in the US.
I actually don't care what others think; I was just trying to get a feeling for how prevalent this silly attitude is.
Some new fans can't believe I strenuously object to shipping. I actually don't mind romance much (heck, I've been wondering for years why we haven't seen a pair of companions fall in love), but I mind the "meant to be" mentality that, say, the Doctor-Rose thing had. Indeed, IMHO, Doctor Who should take these tropes and turn them on their ears. I would have loved a "Doctor-Lite" episode after Rose got trapped in the alternate universe where her friends and family are telling her to stop pining for the Doctor, grow up, and move on. It's one of the few series that can get away with something that so plays against TV conventions; it should have availed itself of the opportunity to do so.
One thing that many new fans can't understand is that I detest the lack of well-developed ALIEN planets and species. The original series used to give little snippets of alien cultures, technologies, races, etc. that could be very interesting. (In particular, I loved how Malcolm Hulke did these.) I miss that sense of seeing the universe on screen.
Another point of contention is that many don't understand how I could like a story that I can't watch in one sitting and/or is more than a couple of episodes long. Others can't understand that I don't mind that the Vardans were guys wrapped in tinfoil and badly superimposed upon the screen. Part of the fun was that you had to overlook the obvious production shortcomings and think about the stories that were on. I guess I am too old to have their lack of patience.
I actually like the new series, but I miss the depth and development that the longer stories of seasons past could bring you.
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