You can’t rewrite history! Not one line!
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- Tag Archives Wrapup
Story wrapups, where we discuss the story as a whole.
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Wrapup – The Keys of Marinus
And so, we’ve come to the end of another story, Terry Nation’s “The Keys of Marinus.” A long-time favorite of Ketina’s and a sentimental favorite of mine, neither of us had seen it in years. Of course, we were both used to seeing it slightly out of context, immediately after “Inside the Spaceship,” without “Marco Polo” between the two stories. Seeing (sort of) the lost historical did, I think, change how we viewed “Keys,” far beyond understanding the continuity of Ian’s Chinese jacket (or, as Schmallturm would have it, the “flaming chicken” jacket). The episodic nature, which worked so well in the absence of “Polo,” causes “Keys” to pale a bit, with very little development shown in any of the mini-stories within the whole. Even the murder mystery (the most developed by far) was a bit thin. It’s fairly obvious that these scripts were written quickly, as the “Brief History of Time (Travel)” page for “The Keys of Marinus” details.
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Wrapup – Marco Polo
Well, we’ve come to the end of our first reconstructed story, which, thanks to an apparent error on the part of the dubber, led to a bit of the bending of the rules here at the TARDIS project. Yes, we have officially missed an episode, but I assure you that, if I get my hands on a copy of the recon for “Mighty Kublai Khan,” we will watch it, write up a special post and I’ll link back to here. I’m hopeful that this will happen before the end of the Project!
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Wrapup – Inside the Spaceship
Well, it doesn’t seem all that long ago we were doing this for “The Daleks,” does it? At two episodes, “Inside the Spaceship” (aka “The Edge of Destruction,” “Beyond the Sun” (although that last is a product of a fan error in an early reference book), etc.) is the shortest story of the first season. In fact, the story behind the story is interesting, to me at any rate. Just before production started on “Doctor Who’s” first story, there was some question by higher ups as to how viable this “experiment” would be. The show was given thirteen episodes to find its feet; if people didn’t take to it and (just as importantly for the BBC) if the production just didn’t justify the cost, then that would be the end. Unfortunately, this requirement didn’t jibe with the scripts already commissioned. In fact, thirteen episodes would only take things through the second episode of “Marco Polo!” Somehow, two extra episodes needed to be filled, but no extra budget could be allocated. Thus, we get “Inside the Spaceship,” with only the four regulars and only the standing TARDIS sets. Even with the success of “The Daleks,” it wasn’t sure up to the filming of the first part of this story that the series would continue, which gives the Doctor’s line about how “this could be the end” in episode two a certain poignancy. For the whole story of the production (and much more competently told), take a look at its “Brief History of Time (Travel)” link.
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Wrapup – The Daleks
The Historian here, celebrating the TARDIS Project’s completion of Doctor Who’s second serial, “The Daleks!” It’s difficult to know where to begin in an assessment of this story, given its (I think it’s fair to say) overwhelming importance to the show as a whole. Without the Daleks, Doctor Who in its original “entertain and educate” remit might have lasted a year or two and be remembered by a few people who watched it as kids. But the Daleks, they changed everything, infuriating BBC Head of Drama (and Doctor Who creator) Sydney Newman, who initially saw them as the “Bug Eyed Monsters” he’d specifically demanded the show not feature. Thankfully for us, producer Verity Lambert stuck to her guns and defended the script and production…and the rest is history. Or, in our case, still to come!
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Wrapup – 100,000 BC
The Historian here. As we end each story, I think I’ll try to include a few links that talk about the production and such. In the future, I’ll try to get Ketina (and whoever else is interested) to engage in a discussion of the story as a whole and how we think it helped to develop the series from our perspective. Obviously, that’s a little difficult when discussing the first story, though I think we did an all right job in the episode posts themselves. As always, if you’d like to engage more, please feel free to comment and we’ll do our best to keep the conversation going.
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