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New Animated Dr. Who Series
smak writes "To celebrate the doctor's fourtieth anniversary, the BBC and Cosgrove Hall Films are webcasting a fully-animated adventure starring Richard E. Grant. You can watch the first episode of Scream of the Shalka and new episodes will be launched every Thursday. Enjoy." It requires Flash 4, but also looks pretty damn cool.
It occurred to me the other day that there was a 4th Doctor story ("Deadly Assassin") involving a computer-generated world called the Matrix. One sat down, put some gear on one's head, then appeared inside this world using a virtual body. If one's Matrix body dies, one's real self dies as well. The lone hero struggles against an enemy who can take advantage of the fact that the "laws" of physics, well, aren't.
No bullet dodging, but given that the BBC's special effects budget was about the price of a cheeseburger, that should come as no surprise.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I guess I'm way out of the loop. What have they done with the theme song? It's all... techno. BTW, does anyone know where I can legally get a Dr. Who theme as an MP3?
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
Richard E. Grant, rumored as the front-runner in the new Dr. Who series being developed by the producer of Queer as Folk. I wondered briefly whether his appearance in this meant he'd landed the role for certain, but a Dr. Who fan tells me that he'd been selected for this long before the new series was decided on.
.)
(Amusing trivia note: Grant actually already has played the Doctor in live-action...for about thirty seconds, in the Comic Relief charity benefit spoof episode The Curse of Fatal Death
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Would it ruin anything if one watched these new animated eps without seeing *any* of the original series?
Like eagles on pogo-sticks! -- Glottis
What can I say other than it seems to me the BBC has an amazing handle on the Internet, and how to use it to its fullest potential. It seems every week something prompts me to say out loud: "BBC Rules!".... ..In fact, so much more than any other pre-internet broadcaster I have seen. "Major Kudos", its nice to watch some Doctor for the first time in a long time.
---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
its clearly the best show. you have a time traveller who goes around solving other peoples problems and dependning on which one you watch he has a different personality. but always he is knowledgeable and intelligent moreso than everyone else. he also frequently changes nice looking english hoes. might i add, also from all time periods.
a rmageddonfactor/quote.shtml
:)
of course the 4th and 7th are most memerable to me. maybe the 2nd one was good too.
Marshal: 'How can we have peace until we have the ultimate deterrent that will ensure a lasting peace?'
Doctor: 'Tell me Marshal, if you had this ultimate deterrent, what would you do?'
Marshal: 'Use it of course, make sure it works.'
Doctor: 'Yes... You have a true military mind, Marshal.'
Marshal: 'Thank you.'
--
k9 rocks the casbah too:
Drax: 'Blimey, it's a dog! Who's a little tin dog, then?'
K9: 'Your silliness is noted.'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/
also i have tonnes of pirate dr who. if anyone has a nice ftp or collection of torrents i would be happy to trade.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Because MPEG is expensive, both in bandwidth and server CPU. It can't be easily compressed further during transport (like Flash) and is terribly inefficient at simple animation like this series (at least not without a lot of optimization and tweaking). It's also resolution dependant meaning if they did offer it in MPG, it would be painful to watch, in a tiny 320x240 size.
Flash is vector based graphics with some code to make it all move and some sound. It has the added benefit of being both animation studio and viewer of the final product, which makes it a perfect choice for animation like this, so much that there is a whole genre of (entertaining) flash mini-series out there on the 'net.
Get off your righteous high arse, download Flash, disable it if you must, and enable it when you want to view things like this. Personally, Flash ads are offensive and annoying, but I find I can quickly ignore them -- filter them out, or turn them off within an instant when the need arises. Flash itself isn't bad, just like HTML itself isn't bad. That doesn't mean I am going to uninstall my web browser because I can't stand the latest X10 (HTML) ad.
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
Oh, I don't know. I thought the New Zealand meteorite scene was a little stiff, but basically a tributr to Spearhead From Space and the ubiquitous Pertwee-era yokels. Just one step up from Sam Seeley and the immortal Pigbin Josh.
After that, things just got better. The new Doctor's first contact with humans in the pub was glorious, then he turned on the charm and kindness, and back at the house he was definitely back into the swing. What I think I loved most was the way Paul Cornell managed to recreate the atmosphere of 1970's Who.
The deep, repetitive da-na-na-nnn, da-na-na-nnn, ...
There is a story behind the music. It was written by Delia Derbyshire, who was working for the BBC Radiophonics workshop. She was an absolute pioneer in electronic music, who worked by physically cutting, pasting, splicing and stretching pieces of tape to creat some real groundbreaking noises.
Her work was hugely influential on modern music - you can see her influence in The Beatles, and many fashionable young electronics gurus cite her (e.g Aphex Twin, Autechre).
I guess this is one of the things that makes a cult program - all the stories and folklore that enshroud it.
...can be found over at Big Finish productions, where for their 50th Doctor Who CD (nicely enough being released this month), they united pretty much every single actor who's played on their shows so far, including the last 4 doctors, most of their respective companions including their "new" companions they've added to keep some variety into the show, Nick Courtney as the Brig, John Leeson as K9, and a whole bunch of others, for a 3-CD story.
There's a wonderful set of pictures from the recording sessions available. Yes, the various doctors are getting old, and only McGann could probably reprise his role on screen...but on the radio/audio, the voice and your memories and imagination make it all work.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe