Hello everyone, the Historian here with the wrapup for our penultimate story. Which was…charitably…not among the best of the Project. I’m still unsure whether it was the worst, but I think it’s fair to say it probably ranks near the bottom for the Project team.
- Tag Archives Wrapup
Story wrapups, where we discuss the story as a whole.
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Wrapup – The Seeds of Death
Hello everyone, the Hissssssstorian here, with the wrapup of our latesssst sssssstory.
All right, that’s enough of that.
PRODUCTION NOTES: As with several stories this season, Seeds of Death had a bit of a troubled gestation. Brian Hayles began work on a storyline right after the initial Ice Warriors story, but then had to abandon it for a new one when the production team was less than impressed. The scriptwriting stage was further complicated when Frazer Hines changed his mind about leaving at the end of the Krotons, which meant another rewrite. Then Troughton was given a week’s holiday, which meant the Doctor had to be written out of episode four. Ultimately, episodes three through six were completely rewritten by Terrence Dicks.
After all that, the production itself didn’t seem to have run into many problems. For the whole story, see the Brief History of Time (Travel) page for this story.
PROJECT NOTES: We really enjoyed this one. There’s no question that the plot is a bit overcomplicated and the story’s a little light, but we had a lot of fun. What can I say, we like foam. And scary, but slightly silly monsters with amazing weapons. Sure, the whole “human adventure and exploration vs. the T-Mat” thing got completely buried in Ice Warrior shenanigans, but the whole thing somehow worked.
Yeah, the wrapup’s a little light this time, but we did have a good time with the discussions:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6And here’s the official episode guide.
Tomorrow–something very exciting! A story I’ve never seen before, never read a novelisation, kept away from all but the most general summary…sure, the story doesn’t have a great reputation, but…exciting!
Until then, I remain
THE HISTORIAN
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Wrapup — The Krotons
Hello everyone, the Historian here, almost-late as usual with the wrap-up for our previous story. So, The Krotons. Not the most distinguished or best loved story of season six, by any means. Well, let’s dive in…
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Wrapup — The Invasion
Hello everyone, the Historian here, making it in just under the wire (as usual) with a wrapup of our last story. And wow, what a story it was! Honestly, we covered a lot of this ground already over the past eight discussions, so let’s see if I can come up with anything new.
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Wrapup — The Mind Robber
Hello everyone, the Historian (and not Ketina) here, wrapping up our short stay in the Land of Fiction. Or are we? Or were we never there at all….? Continue reading Post ID 1371
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Wrapup — The Dominators
Hello everyone, the Historian here, with the first wrapup post of the TARDIS Project’s final season! As our regular readers know, there was some…difference of opinion about the merits of The Dominators among Project personnel. For now, though, let’s move along with the first half of the post.
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Wrapup – The Wheel in Space
Hello everyone, the Historian here with both the final story wrapup for Season Five and the first “live” wrapup on the new website! Continue reading Post ID 1371
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Wrapup — The War Machines
Hello everyone, the Historian here, welcoming you to the final story wrapup for season three! Only two years late!
No, but seriously, let’s get to the wrapup.
PRODUCTION NOTES: Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis had yet to put their mark on Doctor Who, having been handed several previously commissioned stories when they took over the show, but the new producer and story editor had definite ideas of what they wanted to do. The idea was to make the show both more contemporary (pulling in the teenage audience a bit more) and bring more science fiction ideas to the fore. To prepare for the former, they had Peter Purves’ Steven written out in “The Savages” and decided to not renew Jackie (“Dodo”) Lane’s contract, which ran only to the second episode of the following story. Lloyd reportedly broke the news to Lane, telling her it had nothing to do with her performance. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Understandably, she felt a bit hard done by, and refused to talk about or have anything to do with the show until the 50th anniversary celebrations in 2013. (A little time travel for you there, given the date of this entry!)
To replace Dodo, the team came up with two characters. “Rich,” who had been planned as a Steven replacement before Dodo was dropped, became Ben Jackson, a sailor in his early 20s. Interestingly, given the problems John Wiles had encountered when he wanted Dodo to speak in something other than RP, actor Michael Craze was allowed to speak in a cockney accent as Ben, giving us a very different class of character, figuratively and literally, than the show had seen up to this point. Once the decision to replace Dodo was finalized, it was decided that an up-to-date female character, a “swinging” career girl somewhat older than any “Doctor Who girl” since Barbara Wright. They decided to call her Polly and to cast Anneke Wills, an up-and-coming actress who had visited the Doctor Who set several months before when her then-husband, Michael Gough, had portrated the Celestial Toymaker. Polly would be posh West End to Ben’s working class East End–all very trendy!
Now let’s move on to the second part of Lloyd and Davis’ plan to revitize the show. In order to have more of a science basis to the science fiction (really science fantasy, let’s be honest) in the show, they decided to hire a Scientific Advisor. (Two words that have great resonance for Doctor Who fans!) They finally settled on Dr. Christopher “Kit” Pedlar, after asking him how he would incorporate the new Post Office Tower into a science fiction plot. He suggested a super computer attempting to take over the world using a network of other computers and robotic agents. He got the job and Doctor Who got a new story idea!
Ian Stuart Black, after writing “The Savages,” was brought in at the last minute to replace another writer…and there I’ll leave the production side of things, save to recommend you look at this story’s Brief History of Time (Travel) page for more info!
PROJECT REPORT: Let me start this section with an admission. While watching this story, the Project members did not realize (and, for some reason, I did not remember) that the version of the story we watched was technically incomplete, with small sections of some of the episodes too damaged or missing for the DVD. The Restoration Team used off-air recordings and reused/repurposed footage to compensate for this…which explains some of our reaction to, among other things, the battle scene in episode three.
I feel like we really liked this story…and weren’t impressed at the same time. The ideas were certainly appreciated–much was made of the “hey, it’s the internet!” thing–but the execution, especially the War Machines themselves, came in for some derision. We were, with the possible exception of Schmallturm, happy to see Dodo go…but were unhappy with the way she was unceremoniously “disappeared.”
On the other hand, we all agreed that Ben and Polly (or “Popeye and Eye Candy,” as they have been dubbed, regardless of how Ketina tends to type them!) were a fantastic addition to the cast. Michael Craze and Anneke Wills immediately impressed the Project. We can’t wait to see what happens to them as they make their first journey in the TARDIS!
Here are the links to the episode discussions:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4Well, it only remains for me to add the BBC Episode Guide link and to once again thank our guest for the Episode 4 discussion, Max. Come back soon, Max!
A Third Season wrapup will come soon–can’t say when, but soon! Until then, I remain
THE HISTORIAN
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Wrapup – The Savages
Hello everyone, the Historian here and I am on a roll! Don’t expect posting in the gaps to keep up at this pace, but I will admit I am feeling a bit more optimistic about actually catching up! Once again, watched in 2011, wrapup written in 2014, now let’s get to it!
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Wrapup – The Gunfighters
Hello everyone, the Historian here, once again attempting to fill in the gaps left by the posting pause. As before, regardless of the date of this post, this is being written in January of 2014. Last time, things got a little involved, so I’m going to try to streamline this (and future) story wrapups. Let me know what you think.