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Post by Ed Brown on Jan 29, 2017 21:20:06 GMT
No one in the USA, Canada or even Australia was interested in Genesis of the Daleks as it had been shown to death on assorted affricates of PBS, TV Ontario and the ABC over and over again. Earth Shock was interesting as if was in the 50 minute format. The Cures of Peladon was of interest as it was the chance to get an off air copy of 2 episodes in full PAL color. In this repeat, Genesis of the Daleks was a big disappointment, as it was so heavily edited: 2 x 45 minutes was all we saw of it, IIRC, even though it was a 6-parter. We had to wait until the 1990s for a complete tv repeat of this serial. But Curse of Peladon, at least, was shown in full, as 2 x 45 minutes, with only the closing credits from one episode and the opening credits from the next being dropped at the 22 minute point, so that none of the actual story was lost. I remember how poor the picture quality was on the first 45 minute part, due to it being an NTSC conversion. Earthshock (another 4-parter) was at the time a very recent serial, which had only just been shown on its first transmission, in the new 2-episodes-a-week format introduced with Peter Davison, so no one in the UK paid much attention to the fact that it was being repeated as two 45-minute compilations. Say what you will about the dreaded JNT, but he fought very hard for the show in his early years in the job, getting two big repeat seasons aired, with The Five Faces season in 1981 and then this Doctor Who and the Monsters season, plus getting a big anniversary special on air for the 20th Anniversary that November. He pushed through more repeats than the show had ever had before. |
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Post by Richard Bignell on Jan 29, 2017 22:14:55 GMT
The Sea Devils 88-minute compilation was ... shown again in place of the cricket on Monday 27 May 1974. I think that might have been a Bank Holiday in 1974, as I remember seeing this compilation. From memory, I was off-school, on holiday. Which suggests it wasn't a normal working day. The BBC agree. That afternoon, Dr Who replaced 'Holiday Grandstand', which the Radio Times says was scheduled to run from 1.15pm, with Frank Bough, and cover a cricket match from Headingley (Yorkshire v Lancashire, the afternoon's play in the Roses Match): genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1974-05-27I can't specifically recall how long the running time of this repeat of The Sea Devils was, beyond a vague impression that it lasted most of the afternoon. Nor do I recall enough about it to comment on which bits might have been omitted in reducing its running time down to (if you say so) 90 minutes. Someone else mentioned The Daemons, regarding its omnibus repeat at Christmas 1971. Probably because it was Christmas, when the BBC used to have eons of screentime to fill due to suspension of normal programmes, my impression is that it was shown in full, and not edited at all for length - except possibly for the removal of opening and closing title sequences. Sadly, the BBC say it was shown in a 90 minute timeslot, from 4.20pm to 5.50pm: genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1971-12-28As mentioned before, we know the running times that the compilations of The Daemons and The Sea Devils run to as audio recordings exist of both broadcasts. The Programme-as-Broadcast sheets likewise confirm that The Daemons ran for 89'05" and The Sea Devils for 88'24". No guesswork needs to be applied to this one as the compilation is included on the DVD release of the story. |
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Post by Hugh Pearson on Jan 30, 2017 23:41:43 GMT
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Post by andyeves on Jan 31, 2017 2:37:27 GMT
My main memory of watching these DW omnibuses is that one clashed with a wrestling match - another great British TV institution of the 1970s! - that I was keen to see, so much so that I elected to miss some of the omnibus.
Big Daddy & Giant Haystacks v Kendo Nagasaki & Rex Strong … watched with great anticipation as it was just after Daddy had unmasked Nagasaki … but as it happened, the fight was crap and over far too quickly, and left me wondering why I’d bothered missing some of DW for it!
Really couldn’t remember which story it was although was convinced it was a Pertwee. However, the dates have just confirmed it must have been Genesis.
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Post by Richard Bignell on Jan 31, 2017 10:00:51 GMT
Very nice! The original Genesis repeat wasn't the only time that a compilation was shown on a Saturday. Both Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius were, which were his missed the end-of-year compilations for 1976, neither of which are mentioned in the article. Of course, as we now know, The Seeds of Doom was also going to be repeated as a 90-minute compilation that year, but it wouldn't have been on the late-December date that he was expecting - that would have been shown on 11 December, ending the three-week run of repeats. Sadly, it got pulled at very short notice and replaced with Gerry Anderson's Into Infinity. The planned edit is a good one by Camfield and works very well. |
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Post by Richard Marple on Jan 31, 2017 13:09:39 GMT
Very nice! The original Genesis repeat wasn't the only time that a compilation was shown on a Saturday. Both Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius were, which were his missed the end-of-year compilations for 1976, neither of which are mentioned in the article. Of course, as we now know, The Seeds of Doom was also going to be repeated as a 90-minute compilation that year, but it wouldn't have been on the late-December date that he was expecting - that would have been shown on 11 December, ending the three-week run of repeats. Sadly, it got pulled at very short notice and replaced with Gerry Anderson's Into Infinity. The planned edit is a good one by Camfield and works very well. I mentioned the planned Seeds Of Doom compilation a couple of pages ago, which DWM had a feature on in the 1990s. |
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Post by Richard Bignell on Jan 31, 2017 14:24:37 GMT
Yes, I included Douglas' original 11 pages of notes for the unmade edit as a PDF on the DVD of The Seeds of Doom.
I put it all together a few years back. It took a bit of work to cover some of the edits in the music, but it flows really well.
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Post by Ed Brown on Feb 10, 2017 16:19:21 GMT
Thanks for brightening my day. You gave me a good chuckle, talking about your thoughts on the possibility of the BBC heirarchy choosing 'Inferno' as a Christmas repeat in 1970. You made me laugh: even though it was a 7-parter, the likelihood is they would have still cut it to 90 minutes. 'Inferno' without the parallel world bits.  I felt cheated when I saw from your second piece that the BBC cut 'The Sea Devils' to 90 minutes, but then showed half an hour of rubbish after it, when they could easily have run the omnibus repeat for 2 hours instead. If I'd only known sooner, I'd have written in and complained! |
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Post by Ed Brown on Feb 10, 2017 16:45:29 GMT
The Seeds of Doom was also going to be repeated as a 90-minute compilation that year, but it wouldn't have been on the late-December date that he was expecting - that would have been shown on 11 December, ending the three-week run of repeats. Sadly, it got pulled at very short notice and replaced with Gerry Anderson's Into Infinity. I remember seeing 'Into Infinity' (possibly not on the occasion you mention), and thought it very dull. Not a patch on even a butchered omnibus version of 'Doctor Who'. |
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Post by Hugh Pearson on Feb 10, 2017 17:31:22 GMT
I am glad that you enjoyed the read Ed - but to be clear, it's not my blog - it's by someone named David who lives in South-east of London, UK. It was just something I found on the web.
I am in Canada, so the only "movie length" omnibus editions that I saw were the PBS broadcasts from the USA. Some minor editing might have been done in those, but basically the opening titles and the final episode's end credits were retained at the beginning and end of the broadcast, but all of the other ones were chopped out. Very different from those UK broadcasts.
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Post by Hugh Pearson on Apr 16, 2019 19:02:16 GMT
With the announcement of the upcoming Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 10 Blu-ray, I noticed this tidbit -> Plus: a repeat omnibus of The Green Death unseen since Christmas 1973
I'm wondering if this offering will be audio-only plus the camera script OR if it will include a new reconstruction of the missing omnibus version based on the 1973 audio recording?
Any chance that you can help out with this one Richard B.? Hoping for the latter of course. Thanks in advance, Hugh
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Post by gordonroxburgh on Apr 16, 2019 20:11:48 GMT
I don't know the answer for certain. But as it says "unseen since Christmas 1973" does rather suggest it will be visual, rather than audio only. My best guess is that it is going to be a new reconstruction based upon the audio recording, and perhaps also based on any surviving notes on the edit. No doubt we will find out more in due course, it is also my guess that this omnibus version might get a screening at the BFI in June or July.
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Post by Jon Rumfitt on Apr 16, 2019 20:46:41 GMT
Richard, Did you ever locate the audio for the Day Of The Daleks omnibus? I definitely (audio) recorded it at the time, and there's a good chance I still have it. Jon I see from the DWAS Reference Journal that The Day of the Daleks compilation ran 60 minutes & 29 seconds and it was broadcast on on 3 Sep 1973 (BBC Cymru on 06-09-1973). There was a movie format VHS released in 1986 (re-released in 1988) for this story that ran "nearly 90 minutes". So, there are two different condensed versions that were done. I'm not sure you could call the VHS version a compilation in the same sense as the 1973 version. In common with many early VHS releases, that was simply a matter of chopping out the opening and closing titles because they thought that no one would want to sit through all of those. The annotated Day of the Daleks camera scripts for the compilation still exist in the BBC's Written Archive. As with all the compilations, an audio recording also exists, although I've not found anyone who has that one as yet! |
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Post by Richard Bignell on Apr 16, 2019 22:20:00 GMT
With the announcement of the upcoming Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 10 Blu-ray, I noticed this tidbit -> Plus: a repeat omnibus of The Green Death unseen since Christmas 1973I'm wondering if this offering will be audio-only plus the camera script OR if it will include a new reconstruction of the missing omnibus version based on the 1973 audio recording? Any chance that you can help out with this one Richard B.? Hoping for the latter of course. Thanks in advance, Hugh It's a reconstruction of the compilation put together with close reference to the off-air audio. |
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Post by Richard Bignell on Apr 16, 2019 22:22:42 GMT
Richard, Did you ever locate the audio for the Day Of The Daleks omnibus? I definitely (audio) recorded it at the time, and there's a good chance I still have it. Jon Hello Jon, We do have a copy of the audio for the Day compilation now, but an additional recording of it would always welcome. Sometimes those old 1970s off-air recordings aren't always the clearest and having alternative sources is always a help. |
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