Douglas Adams Written Dr. Who Episode Goes Into Production
Posted by
chrisd
on from the let-go-of-my-coat-tegan dept.
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.
There is already a Tom Baker version of Shada. It's a 2 tape set and I can get it at my local video store. The back of the slick makes reference to production hassles but I've never hired it because I've found that re-watching Dr Who (Blake's 7, Battle of the Planets, etc..) is an effective way of exterminating any sense of fond nostalgia.
--
--- Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Re:Why remake it?
by
Graspee_Leemoor
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The Tom Baker version of Shada, i.e. the original and proper version of Shada was never completed due to a strike at the BBC. Way back whenever the BBC did the post-production on the unfinished scenes and got Tom Baker to do some new segments where he stands in a Dr. Who museum and narrates what happens in some scene that is missing.
They then released this version of Shada as a boxed set with the script.
I admire any new Who stuff they do, or rather I admire the effort, but nothing will ever be able to match the on-screen chemistry between Tom Baker and the sexy sexy super-sexy Ms. Ward.
In particular there is a scene at Prof. Chronotis' where the Prof., Romana and the Doctor are talking about Galifreyan stuff, and it just rocks. I think some of it is ad-libbed.
graspee
Yes! The BBC has done it
by
Kiwi
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
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
--
The secret to enjoying Slashdot is to realize that it should not be taken too seriously.
It's an audio play!
by
PCM2
·
· Score: 4, Informative
From the article:
Following several false starts in attempting to bring it back, the drama will finally be premièred in a webcast on BBCi in the spring... Produced by the Big Finish company, it stars Fox in the role of Professor Chronotis, with Sachs as the evil Skagra.
For those who don't know, Big Finish has been producing a series of audio dramas starring various incarnations of the Doctor. They use the original actors (Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davidson, and some of the companions, among others) and they have access to some of the original theme music, sound effects, etc. There's nothing in this article to make me believe this is anything else but another in the series. If the BBC was really going to produce a video version of the Doctor -- with all the budgetary concerns that entails (no snickers from the Doctor Who haters out there, please) -- do you really think they'd premiere it as a Webcast? No, expect this one coming your way via MP3 or RealAudio sometime soon.
Re:serious question
by
PCM2
·
· Score: 5, Informative
What exactly does 'industrial action' mean?
It means the BBC Unions went on strike during the original filming. They never completed the episode, though a restored version was produced for home video with Tom Baker narrating the missing bits.
-- Breakfast served all day!
OK, it's an audio-only webcast
by
Kiwi
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Not clear in the article, but this is an audio-only webcast. Oh well; nice thought while it lasted.
- Sam
--
The secret to enjoying Slashdot is to realize that it should not be taken too seriously.
I hate the way the BBC pumps my license fee into projects that are completely worthless (fame acadamy, eastenders). Fortunatly the BBC exists for the minority of the population. If we relyed on tabloid "mob rule", we'd have back to back football and big brother on TV, back to back Justin Timberlake on radio, and stupid flash and "Free Tonez" on bbci.
Back in the day when BBC pumped money into 625line TV, and then Color, and Teletext, and Nicam, it was exactly the same. Not everyone have Teletext, why should they have to subsidise teletext people? Why does the BBC maintain a website and broadcast radio online for people in america and beyond, that dont pay a license fee? They had a website back in the days when there was 30,000,000 internet users worldwide
Everything starts off as a minority, specialist, service. Then the mainstream get it.
Besides, I'd think the 5 million DST, 2 1/2 million DTT and 2 1/2 million cable subscribers is a large chunk of the license fee payers. More people can techincally receive BBC Four and Choice then can receive BBC Two on analog. A second hand digibox and dish from ebay - £100. Someone to install it - £50. That gives access to 50 channels with no subscription, anywhere in the UK (unless you cant put a dish up because of conservation issues). For the 50,000 people that cant have a dish, DTT and cable will cover about 90% of them. The rest are unlikely to receive a full analog signal anyway - the highlands of scotland viewers that cant receive BBC2 dont get a rebate on their license fee.
Most of the plot of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a retread of Shada. When the video release of the filmed bits of Shada plus Tom Baker's linking narration came out. Adams donated his royalties to charity, which stopped any annoying legal turmoil over the fact that he'd used the same plot in Dirk Gently.
Life, The Universe and Everything used large amounts of a rejected Dr. Who plot which was originally put forward as Dr. Who and the Krikkitmen. Once Adams ran out of radio series and old Dr. Who ideas to recycle, he really went downhill...
The entire script used to be online, but I can't seem to find it anymore. A shame, because it had some funny lines in it.
If you've read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, you already have a vague idea of Shada's premise. Adams re-used some characters in Shada to create DGHDA.
Re:Available in OGG format?
by
h0tblack
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Although the beeb insists on using Real for 99% of it's audio and video these days, the geezers in the background tested ogg vorbis a while back. It was a great trial IMHO and had some good content. It was a shame when they stopped the streams, but now, with the legal issues resolved, they're planning on bringing them back up. This could bode well, especially with the increase in streaming content from the beeb.
This is frightening
by
yroJJory
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
After seeing how Fox destroyed my favorite series with that attrocious movie in 1996 (starring Paul McGann), I suppose the BBC won't do worse.
Still, I hope they don't kill it with high production values and lots of orchestrated scores. Perhaps they'll be smart enough to hire the same composers who worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop back in the 70's, or, failing that, get Wendy Carlos to use her Moog goodness!
Part of the great thing about Doctor Who is how innovative the production designers were without having a budget to support them properly.
While the scripts are key, and Douglas Adams' have proved to be particularly good (i.e. "The Pirate Planet" is classic Adams), the cheesy production values are still key.
Please, BBC, don't let us down!
-- Jory
Bigger and More Usefull Article
by
seh99
·
· Score: 4, Informative
here
Seems that it will be the same deal as the previous "new" adventure "Death Comes To Time", with pictures being played over a radio dramatization of the script. Shame, whould have liked an actual tv program.
Good to see Manuel from Fawltey Towers in there, though I pass up the oportunity for lame Manuel/Doctor humour.
Re:K9 is a PERSON???
by
silhouette
·
· Score: 5, Funny
How will he fit in there? From what I remember, K9 was much smaller than a normal-size human.
Ah yes, but you forget - it's much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
I thought Pierce Brosnan was the new Doctor. Oh wait...
No.. but in a sudden change of heart (after certain key BBC execs found new BMWs outside their houses) the Doctor will no longer use the tardis and will instead drive a BMW.
-- no sig.
It's going to really twist continuity
by
troff
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
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"...
A better article (from gallifreyone.com)
by
shadowlight1
·
· Score: 4, Informative
BBCi has revealed plans for its 40th anniversary of Doctor Who webcast: a remake by Big Finish Productions of the classic "lost" Doctor Who story Shada, written by the late Douglas Adams. "Shada" was originally abandoned due to an industrial strike, although it was eventually released on video with linking narration by Tom Baker. In this new version of "Shada", the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) is reunited with old friends Romana (Lalla Ward) and K-9 (John Leeson) "in a quest to track down the most dangerous book in the universe." The cast features such notables as James Fox ("A Passage to India," "The Remains of the Day") as Professor Chronotis, Andrew Sachs (best remembered as daffy waiter Manuel on "Fawlty Towers") as Skagra, Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood in the "Harry Potter" films) as Chris Parsons, Hannah Gordon (presenter of UK Channel Four's "Watercolor Challenge" and originally in the Doctor Who serial "The Highlanders") as the voice of Skagra's ship, Susannah Harker ("Ultraviolet") as Clare Keightley, Melvyn Hayes ("Quatermass II," "Ain't Half Hot, Mum") as college porter Wilkin, and Stuart Crossman in an unknown role. "This is a tremendously exciting project," director Nicholas Pegg told BBCi. "We've really pulled out all the stops on this one. We've had a fantastic time in the studio and I hope people will agree that we've done justice to one of the greatest writers Doctor Who was ever blessed with." Says Big Finish producer, Jason Haigh-Ellery, "This is a great opportunity to finally produce Doctor Who's most famous lost script, and a fine tribute to Douglas Adams." Lee Sullivan will produce animation for the new webcast and Gary Russell, on authority from the estate of Douglas Adams, has tailored the script to add some framing information and tie it into the story. BBCi senior producer James Goss stated on the Outpost Gallifrey Forum, "Big Finish have come up with a neat way of fitting the new Shada into continuity without messing around with the original script too much. Without going into detail, there's a short prelude set on Gallifrey, where the Doctor turns up to see Romana, explaining that they've got some unfinished business to attend to... involving a call for help from an old friend that they appear to have been somehow prevented from answering." At right, a photo from BBCi with McGann, Ward and K-9. The recording was taped in early November, and is set for debut on BBCi next spring. (Thanks to BBCi, as well as everyone who wrote in to let us know about it and the report on Biggerstaff's website)
Slashdot Mirror
what the poster forgets mention that this is not the TV show, but rather a web based audio drama.
sorry to get your hopes up, Whovians, but this isn't the new dr. who series you were promised.
There is already a Tom Baker version of Shada. It's a 2 tape set and I can get it at my local video store. The back of the slick makes reference to production hassles but I've never hired it because I've found that re-watching Dr Who (Blake's 7, Battle of the Planets, etc..) is an effective way of exterminating any sense of fond nostalgia.
---
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
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
The secret to enjoying Slashdot is to realize that it should not be taken too seriously.
Breakfast served all day!
There was a BBC strike in 1979. The script was complete, but it never went into production due to the stoppage.
I write in my journal
Breakfast served all day!
Not clear in the article, but this is an audio-only webcast. Oh well; nice thought while it lasted. - Sam
The secret to enjoying Slashdot is to realize that it should not be taken too seriously.
I hate the way the BBC pumps my license fee into projects that are completely worthless (fame acadamy, eastenders). Fortunatly the BBC exists for the minority of the population. If we relyed on tabloid "mob rule", we'd have back to back football and big brother on TV, back to back Justin Timberlake on radio, and stupid flash and "Free Tonez" on bbci.
Back in the day when BBC pumped money into 625line TV, and then Color, and Teletext, and Nicam, it was exactly the same. Not everyone have Teletext, why should they have to subsidise teletext people? Why does the BBC maintain a website and broadcast radio online for people in america and beyond, that dont pay a license fee? They had a website back in the days when there was 30,000,000 internet users worldwide
Everything starts off as a minority, specialist, service. Then the mainstream get it.
Besides, I'd think the 5 million DST, 2 1/2 million DTT and 2 1/2 million cable subscribers is a large chunk of the license fee payers. More people can techincally receive BBC Four and Choice then can receive BBC Two on analog. A second hand digibox and dish from ebay - £100. Someone to install it - £50. That gives access to 50 channels with no subscription, anywhere in the UK (unless you cant put a dish up because of conservation issues). For the 50,000 people that cant have a dish, DTT and cable will cover about 90% of them. The rest are unlikely to receive a full analog signal anyway - the highlands of scotland viewers that cant receive BBC2 dont get a rebate on their license fee.
Most of the plot of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a retread of Shada. When the video release of the filmed bits of Shada plus Tom Baker's linking narration came out. Adams donated his royalties to charity, which stopped any annoying legal turmoil over the fact that he'd used the same plot in Dirk Gently.
Life, The Universe and Everything used large amounts of a rejected Dr. Who plot which was originally put forward as Dr. Who and the Krikkitmen.
Once Adams ran out of radio series and old Dr. Who ideas to recycle, he really went downhill...
"Information wants to be paid"
It's not so much an afterlife, more a sort of apres vie...
"Information wants to be paid"
Douglas Adams wrote lots of Dr Who episodes many of which were aired.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
The entire script used to be online, but I can't seem to find it anymore. A shame, because it had some funny lines in it.
If you've read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, you already have a vague idea of Shada's premise. Adams re-used some characters in Shada to create DGHDA.
Anyway, check out the detailed plot summary. A fun story.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Although the beeb insists on using Real for 99% of it's audio and video these days, the geezers in the background tested ogg vorbis a while back. It was a great trial IMHO and had some good content. It was a shame when they stopped the streams, but now, with the legal issues resolved, they're planning on bringing them back up. This could bode well, especially with the increase in streaming content from the beeb.
After seeing how Fox destroyed my favorite series with that attrocious movie in 1996 (starring Paul McGann), I suppose the BBC won't do worse.
Still, I hope they don't kill it with high production values and lots of orchestrated scores. Perhaps they'll be smart enough to hire the same composers who worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop back in the 70's, or, failing that, get Wendy Carlos to use her Moog goodness!
Part of the great thing about Doctor Who is how innovative the production designers were without having a budget to support them properly.
While the scripts are key, and Douglas Adams' have proved to be particularly good (i.e. "The Pirate Planet" is classic Adams), the cheesy production values are still key.
Please, BBC, don't let us down!
Jory
here
Seems that it will be the same deal as the previous "new" adventure "Death Comes To Time", with pictures being played over a radio dramatization of the script. Shame, whould have liked an actual tv program.
Good to see Manuel from Fawltey Towers in there, though I pass up the oportunity for lame Manuel/Doctor humour.
How will he fit in there? From what I remember, K9 was much smaller than a normal-size human.
Ah yes, but you forget - it's much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
Experts agree: everything is fine.
No.. but in a sudden change of heart (after certain key BBC execs found new BMWs outside their houses) the Doctor will no longer use the tardis and will instead drive a BMW.
no sig.
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"...
BBCi has revealed plans for its 40th anniversary of Doctor Who webcast: a remake by Big Finish Productions of the classic "lost" Doctor Who story Shada, written by the late Douglas Adams. "Shada" was originally abandoned due to an industrial strike, although it was eventually released on video with linking narration by Tom Baker. In this new version of "Shada", the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) is reunited with old friends Romana (Lalla Ward) and K-9 (John Leeson) "in a quest to track down the most dangerous book in the universe." The cast features such notables as James Fox ("A Passage to India," "The Remains of the Day") as Professor Chronotis, Andrew Sachs (best remembered as daffy waiter Manuel on "Fawlty Towers") as Skagra, Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood in the "Harry Potter" films) as Chris Parsons, Hannah Gordon (presenter of UK Channel Four's "Watercolor Challenge" and originally in the Doctor Who serial "The Highlanders") as the voice of Skagra's ship, Susannah Harker ("Ultraviolet") as Clare Keightley, Melvyn Hayes ("Quatermass II," "Ain't Half Hot, Mum") as college porter Wilkin, and Stuart Crossman in an unknown role. "This is a tremendously exciting project," director Nicholas Pegg told BBCi. "We've really pulled out all the stops on this one. We've had a fantastic time in the studio and I hope people will agree that we've done justice to one of the greatest writers Doctor Who was ever blessed with." Says Big Finish producer, Jason Haigh-Ellery, "This is a great opportunity to finally produce Doctor Who's most famous lost script, and a fine tribute to Douglas Adams." Lee Sullivan will produce animation for the new webcast and Gary Russell, on authority from the estate of Douglas Adams, has tailored the script to add some framing information and tie it into the story. BBCi senior producer James Goss stated on the Outpost Gallifrey Forum, "Big Finish have come up with a neat way of fitting the new Shada into continuity without messing around with the original script too much. Without going into detail, there's a short prelude set on Gallifrey, where the Doctor turns up to see Romana, explaining that they've got some unfinished business to attend to... involving a call for help from an old friend that they appear to have been somehow prevented from answering." At right, a photo from BBCi with McGann, Ward and K-9. The recording was taped in early November, and is set for debut on BBCi next spring. (Thanks to BBCi, as well as everyone who wrote in to let us know about it and the report on Biggerstaff's website)