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Douglas Adams' Doctor Who
Blue Stone writes "As you probably know, the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" author, Douglas Adams, wrote a number of Doctor Who episodes. The BBC in its wisdom has turned one of his stories "Shada" into a Flash animation. Although the animation is rather primitive, I found the story very entertaining (you can always minimize the window and just listen.)"
..are his contributions to childrens cartoon Dr. Snuggles and Monty Python's Flying Circus!
Check IMDB!.
You sure? As far as I could see, this Flash animation is what they were talking about in the BBC story. No live filming seems to be indicated, just voice recording. Flash is all we're getting. The BBC story you liked to is very sketchy, mentioning only BBCi, but not making it clear that it was going to be an animation with voice over (only a slight step up from a radio production).
The original Shada was released on VHS tape by the BBC a few years ago, with Tom Baker narrating the missing sections. It came with a copy of the original script.
The original Shada episode was never actually finished and aired due to a strike at the BBC.
While a "special edition" video was released where Tom Baker read the missing portions of the script out, it was very difficult to get a real feeling for the story because so much of the action was missing.
I haven't watched the flash animation yet, but hopefully it brings some life to this neat story that never really got told.
BTW, another great Douglas Adams Dr. Who that actually was completed and aired was "The Pirate Planet", the second of the key to time series.
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
This is the THIRD such Doctor Who webcast (though the first based on archive material): the previous ones (Death Comes To Time, Real Time) have been released on CD.
The animation is just plebdazzle: it was (re)written as an audio play for the 8th Doctor (Paul McGann).
You could buy it on VHS (come to that, I think i have it in the attic) - but its sold out, but some chains like Blackstar will try and locate a copy for you if you ask them:9 4
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/70000000229
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I haven't seen all of the Dr. Who episode, but so far they've mentioned Professor Chronotis at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge. The Professor is a main character in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (the first DG novel), and he resides at the College (which is fictional btw). The book was published in 1987 and set at a similar time, so 8 years after this script was written.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was written by Douglas Adams. It is more or less the same plot as Shada (also written by Adams) which is why Chronotis is also in the book. It's the same story. (And a good book - I would recommend it).
According to his website he's seems very much alive, however the site will soon be dead has we here at slashdot slashdot it.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
The BBC's internet-only radio service BBC7 carries radio versions of Dr. Who periodically. Currently they are airing a story called "The Ghosts Of N Space" weekends at 18:00 and Midnight GMT. Check out their Sci-Fi schedule at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/drama/7thdimension.shtml .
I've got the video that the BBC put out. Parts of it are missing and it's got more rough edges than your average Doctor Who episode, but an older looking Tom Baker fills in the gaps with on screen narration. It's alright, but not as good as the finished City of Death, which is I think another Douglas Adams write.
For anyone else thats downloaded them all Directly to their HDD instead of watching them from the BBC site to get around the big "You Can't watch this unless its at its original source" thing just play it in quicktime.
Read Errant Story.
Douglas Adams has been my favorite author for quite some time. I've read everything of his that I could come across. Some of his lesser known stuff is on his website, articles that I think you'll particularly enjoy:
Little Dongly Things
How to Stop Worrying and Love the Internet
Frank the Vandal
The Private Life of Genghis Kahn
He was a geek, though he knew he couldn't begin to pursue it as far as he wanted to, and his death distressed me quite a bit. Those are my favorite extracts from the archives.. Enjoy!
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency [amazon.co.uk] was written by Douglas Adams. It is more or less the same plot as Shada...
:-)
Not quite the same - but if you add in City Of Death then you pretty much have the rest of the plot
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For all you not in the UK, there is a Radio 4 show of impression based comedy called Dead Ringers and while most of it is local UK oriented (except for the George Bush piss-takes), they also do a superb Tom Baker as Doctor Who calling vaious people on the phone. Some of the best bits (in Real Audio unfortunately) are here - Doctor Who calling the real Tom Baker, for example, was superb (Tom Baker reacts very well).
And for those who haven't seen it, Tom Baker's fiction The Boy Who Kicked Pigs is a very dark children's book, and well worth a read.
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best
As others have pointed out, this is the third Doctor Who webcast adventure. In addition, the producers of this story have also done numerous other audio stories, which are available on CD. The audio stories feature the original television Doctors and numerous of the television Companions, as well as some original Companions (some of whom I think are better than any of the televised ones.
For more information, go here.