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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).
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 .
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!