Douglas Adams Written Dr. Who Episode Goes Into Production

oddsheep writes "The BBC have announced they will be showing a new version of an episode originally written by Douglas Adams and that was never shown after industrial action halted the original production in 1979." "Shada" will star Paul McGann as the Doctor.

Comments

Yes! The BBC has done it

[Kiwi]

Finally, after six years, we have another Dr. Who episode. From the BBC, to boot. This can be the sign of more things to come.

I can see why they chose Shada; Douglas Adams has a reputation which makes it that much easier to secure funding. Now, hopefully, this will not be a one-time shot like the 1996 Dr. Who episode was. Since they will build some sets, such as a Tardis set, this will make it more cost-effective to make more Dr. Who episodes if this program generates enough interest.

I am wondering how they will handle Ramona; there was one sentence which mentions Lalla Ward (the actress who played the second Ramona) but it is not clear whether they are referring to her role in the original production, or whether they are referring to her playing the role again in this production.

Fandom will have to come up with a story about how Ramona and K9 got out of N-space and got back together with the doctor again (with a possible regeneration if a different actress plays Ramona).

Glad to see somehting more substansial from BBC besides a vague promise from some BBC executive.

- Sam

Re:because..

[cbuskirk]

{arogant sarcasm} How dare you insult Mr. Adams like that. As an ardant Athiest he would be quite offended at the notion of an afterlife. {/arogant sarcasm}
While I personally disagree with this, it is just one of many many quirks/traits/sidesplittingly-funny-nurosies that made Douglas Adams who he was. Now that he is dead and gone lets us thank (Anyone but God) and join The Great Propeht Zarquon in saying....
So long and thanks for all the laughs

It's going to really twist continuity

[troff]

It IS going to twist continuity. Badly.

Question 1: Does this mean that the Fourth (Tom Baker) Doctor will have been in "Shada", gone to Cambridge, dealt with Skagra, or not?

Question 2: If not, then where/when exactly did President Borusa snatch the Fourth Doctor and Romana from (in "The Five Doctors" - as footage from the incomplete "Shada" was taken from that to make up for Tom Baker's absence when they filmed T5D...)?

Question 3: If it IS Paul McGann's Doctor (Eighth), then it means that Romana is currently President of Gallifrey with K-9 in attendance, after the Fourth Doctor left them both in a completely different universe ("E-Space")... and why would Romana be hanging around the Doctor then when she's President of Gallifrey? She never had much need for him until the day when she was going to use him and effectively let him die to get what she wanted

Question 4: Not to mention that Romana and all but maybe four Time Lords are suspected most likely dead and the Doctor's in shock-induced amnesia (forgetting what Gallifrey is or who he is), because Gallifrey was destroyed (in the BBC novel "The Ancestor Cell"), so where's she coming from? And for that matter, to where are they going to return the "most dangerous [Gallifreyan] book in the Universe" to when Gallifrey isn't even a smoking cinder in space?

Question 5: Not to mention that in "The Ancestor Cell", Romana had already regenerated away from her Lalla Ward / "Princess Astra copy" body into something newer, by the time Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor had taken over...

Some VERY, VERY, VERY deft script-editing is going to be required to fix this. Sadly, the seemingly non-existent Continuity/Canon Cops at the BBC don't seem to care about fixing it the way continuity's been bollocked.

The Doctor's continuity has been BADLY scrambled from the very minute in the Fox/BBC telemovie we heard the Master say the Doctor was half-human (something useless which was NEVER hinted at in the series at ALL; never had any suitable explanation in the sequel books and actually proved to make things worse, rather than actually explain anything).

Even worse, some of the "more famous" authors of the current BBC and previous 90s Virgin Books series have been allowed to bollock it up even worse; very, very, very badly.

<rant> Especially by pretentious authors who decided that the Doctor didn't need and should never, ever have a continuous, single, canon continuity because "that would just be too limiting and narrow-minded". I'm desperately resisting the urge to name names - but thanks to you, for screwing it all up. </rant>

For an excellent site which summarises nearly ALL the Doctor Who stories available, try David Boies's <http://www.drwhoguide.com/who.htm>; look up the Fourth Doctor's "Shada" (and when it's positioned), the Eighth Doctor's "The Ancestor Cell", the Fifth Doctor's "The Five Doctors"...

Re:It's an audio play!

[mbourgon]

Just an FYI - the radio shows ROCK. Many are written by former writers of the show, they have the actual actors performing their original roles (one with the Brigadier, even!). This is as close to the show as you'll get.