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sinepost
Nov 16, 2004

four o'clock and all's well

egon_beeblebrox posted:



Picked up some Literature today

The chapter written by Robert Holmes in that book is brilliant. I wish he’d been around for at least a few DVD commentaries :ohdear:

Edit: Actually, wrong book! I’m thinking about The Doctor Who File. Same author and similar cover.

Here’s a bit from it with Holmes describing getting the script editor job on Doctor Who:

quote:

The lust for power gripped me and a few days later I was sitting opposite Ronnie Marsh, the then Head of Serials, across an acre of polished maple. He started telling me about the guide-lines he felt the programme should follow.

“Two or three seasons ago,” he said, “we had some clot who wrote the most dreadful script. It had faceless policemen in it and plastic armchairs that went about swallowing people. I might tell you there were questions in the House. Mrs Whitehouse said we were turning the nation’s children into bedwetters...”

The thought of all that soiled linen made me put down Ronnie’s awful coffee. Could it be that he was referring to Terror of the Autons?

“Tut, tut,” I muttered, feeling the job slipping away. “How awfully irresponsible.”

The BBC has a system called ‘trailing’ which basically means that the incomer follows the incumbent around for a few weeks. As I already knew how to read and had been a script editor before, all Terrance had to do was show me where he kept the aspirins. He went off singing merrily.

sinepost fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Mar 2, 2018

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Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

sinepost posted:

The chapter written by Robert Holmes in that book is brilliant. I wish he’d been around for at least a few DVD commentaries :ohdear:

Edit: Actually, wrong book! I’m thinking about The Doctor Who File. Same author and similar cover.

Here’s a bit from it with Holmes describing getting the script editor job on Doctor Who:

Omg. That’s the best story.


Welllll Douglas Adams’ biscuit story is better.


Wellllll actually Christian Slater’s Jack Nicholson story is up there too.




Welllll you know what, it’s a good story.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

I assume that Phillip Hinchcliffe arrived about five seconds afterwards and said for the first time "let's terrify the little buggers to death"?

Vinylshadow
Mar 20, 2017

Got into Doctor Who through My Little Pony, of all things and I started with the 50th Anniversary Special (And kept getting Matt Smith and David Tennant confused for one another) before hunting down the start of the Revival Series

When the Doctor opened the door and met Rose, I wondered if I was watching the wrong show, but much like Rose, by the end of the episode, I was totally on board and powered through the rest of the first Series

Watched the rest of the series over the next few months and enjoyed everything (although there's a few episodes I'd definitely skip on rewatches)

Once I was caught up with the Revival, I then went in search of the Classic series and watched some of One, Four, Five, Six, and Seven, as well as the Movie

Saw the Reanimated version of the Power of the Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen, and Invasion for my Two fix, and one of these days I need to watch some of Three so I can see more of the Classic Master

Of all the Classic era, Genesis of the Daleks, Stones of Blood (Amelia Rumford was an absolute hoot), and Pyramids of Mars are probably my favorite

Small Strange Bird
Sep 22, 2006

Merci, chaton!
Jesus Christ, the new turn this thread has taken is making me feel old. I remember being terrified by Aggedor when I was little.

Servoret
Nov 8, 2009



egon_beeblebrox posted:



Picked up some Literature today

This kind of ties into my first Who. I guess there was some sort of push in American nerd fandom for Doctor Who in the early Eighties. My parents got into it, and the first serial I ever watched was Robot, and I still remember where I was when I watched it and falling in love with Tom Baker right away. I watched pretty much all of Baker, some of Davison, and some of the bad Baker on PBS repeats, and then caught the first couple seasons of Hartnell and Pertwee when the repeats looped around to the beginning again along with a smattering of Troughton because not many complete serials survived. I sort of consider McCoy to be an illegitimate Doctor because I never caught any of his episodes!

So where the Haining book comes in is that Doctor Who was somehow big enough in the States around 1983 that I was able to buy it at a school book fair in my dinky little elementary school in Milwaukee. And I got a few Target novelizations and Doctor Who magazines around that time too. Also, the local revival theater did a double feature of both Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies around then and I still have some vivid sense memories of what it was like watching them from the balcony of the old-timey movie palace that was showing them.

I saw the McGann Doctor Who pilot when it aired, and I eagerly anticipated Rose when it first came out. I loved Eccleston right away as the Doctor, didn't have some weird misogynist reaction to Billie Piper, and just didn't like the trash can scene because I didn't like Davies's kiddy humor bits or Mickey, really.

Unkempt
May 24, 2003

...perfect spiral, scientists are still figuring it out...

Payndz posted:

Jesus Christ, the new turn this thread has taken is making me feel old. I remember being terrified by Aggedor when I was little.

First one I remember was a Peladon, but I don't remember which one. I would've been 6 or 7.

I preferred the new guy, though. He was great.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
I got a little creative before the snow here in the UK vanishes.

Vinylshadow
Mar 20, 2017

The_Doctor posted:

I got a little creative before the snow here in the UK vanishes.



You should @ that to the Doctor Who twitter, it looks lovely

Bicyclops
Aug 27, 2004

I think "the first time I watched Doctor Who" is a pretty good discussion for the off-season, and I've enjoyed reading everyone's stories about discovering it. It really is a show that should allow people to jump on at almost any point, ideally, and either just keep watching, tune in from time to time, or dive into it and get addicted. It makes sense that there are some common jokes and references once you really get into it, but it's like any show that you really enjoy: it's best experienced on a rewatch, through the eyes of someone who is experiencing it for the first time.

Chickenwalker
Apr 21, 2011

by FactsAreUseless
I don't really watch Doctor Who anymore but I will always be disappointed that Capaldi didn't get to be super sweary talking about Daleks.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


I'm pretty sure I've told this story before but here goes...

I had watched a few episodes of the original series when I was a kid, but the continuity was too much for me to get into it - I was never good at tracking when a given show was on TV, and so I never hit critical engagement. When the revival came along, I first heard about it through an annoying roommate who praised its campiness, which turned me off of the idea. A few years later a girl who I was ... getting to know ... invited people over for the 50th anniversary show. Any reason to spend time with her, right? Anyway, I watched the 50th with her, and I enjoyed it. We never got together, but I went and watched from the beginning of Eccleston, and here we are!

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

Chickenwalker posted:

I don't really watch Doctor Who anymore but I will always be disappointed that Capaldi didn't get to be super sweary talking about Daleks.

Because Doctor Who isn’t the Thick of It, that was a different role. It’s like being being mad Gandalf didn’t bust out his magnetic powers.

Bicyclops
Aug 27, 2004

It's really weird getting into a show through an ex. Like, I've gotten into a bunch of shows through my wife, but that just kind of feels like part of my daily life, like anything else we do together. The shows that I still enjoy that I was connected to through an ex are way weirder, like you're having a conversation with yourself from years ago and trying to figure out why you can't quite gel, despite obviously having so much in common.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

sinepost posted:

The chapter written by Robert Holmes in that book is brilliant. I wish he’d been around for at least a few DVD commentaries :ohdear:

Edit: Actually, wrong book! I’m thinking about The Doctor Who File. Same author and similar cover.

Here’s a bit from it with Holmes describing getting the script editor job on Doctor Who:

Haha I'm slowly making my way through A Life In Words whenever I get a spare moment (not often :smith) and I just got to the section where he becomes Script Editor recently and read that particular story. That rules.

2house2fly
Nov 14, 2012

You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!

The_Doctor posted:

Because Doctor Who isn’t the Thick of It, that was a different role. It’s like being being mad Gandalf didn’t bust out his magnetic powers.

Uhhh that would have ruled

CobiWann
Oct 21, 2009

Have fun!

egon_beeblebrox posted:



Picked up some Literature today

As an aside, I’d love to see a new version of Quantum Leap.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
Weren’t they going to reboot that? Sam’s daughter or something?

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
Bakula was talking about wanting to do a film as recently as last year.

It would be nice if Sam got home.

Narsham
Jun 5, 2008

Rhyno posted:

Bakula was talking about wanting to do a film as recently as last year.

It would be nice if Sam got home.

Clearly he did. But some other sucker named Dr. Sam Becket never did. Poor guy.

Wheat Loaf
Feb 13, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
I think the first Doctor Who I saw was Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD when it was on TV. I remember because I had to go to the Boys' Brigade display that evening so I didn't get seeing the end of it.

I'm not sure what the first episode proper I saw was, though. I think it must have been "Remembrance of the Daleks" because that was the first dvd I got, then "The Five Doctors" would have been second (the second ever Doctor Who thing I was into was the John Peel novel War of the Daleks - I was probably too young for it at the time though I eventually went back and re-read it).

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.

Rhyno posted:

Bakula was talking about wanting to do a film as recently as last year.

It would be nice if Sam got home.

Quantum Leap is a property that to me always seemed ripe for continuation or reboot. It’s basically an american Doctor Who with a built-in fanbase and original leads that have always been open to returning. For a while it was consistently in the top 10 weekly Nielsens, right alongside Cheers, Cosby Show, and Roseanne. It’s also a quasi-anthology show and that’s a growing trend for genre stuff right now. Black Mirror and the 4 or 5 imitators floating around, American Horror Story, True Detective, the upcoming Jordan Peele Twilight Zone, etc.

Servoret
Nov 8, 2009



Big Mean Jerk posted:

Quantum Leap is a property that to me always seemed ripe for continuation or reboot. It’s basically an american Doctor Who with a built-in fanbase and original leads that have always been open to returning. For a while it was consistently in the top 10 weekly Nielsens, right alongside Cheers, Cosby Show, and Roseanne. It’s also a quasi-anthology show and that’s a growing trend for genre stuff right now. Black Mirror and the 4 or 5 imitators floating around, American Horror Story, True Detective, the upcoming Jordan Peele Twilight Zone, etc.

Dean Stockwell is going to be 82 in two days and Scott Bakula is going to be 64 this year. Probably time to recast, as much as I loved that duo back when the USA Network was showing Quantum Leap repeats every day. I don’t really want to see a recast show, though. It would have to have leads as likable as the original cast, and similar production quality to the original or I wouldn’t even give a reboot a watch.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
I like the idea of his mid being the central figure. Maybe trying to bring him home at lomg last.

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.

Rhyno posted:

I like the idea of his mid being the central figure. Maybe trying to bring him home at lomg last.

I’ve thought about that too but his kid would be nearly as old as he is since she was born through time travel shenanigans and worked at the lab the same time he did.

Maybe his granddaughter?

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
Honestly it doesn't even have to be a relative. Just someone in the far future finds the accelerator and decides to save Sam.

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.

Rhyno posted:

Honestly it doesn't even have to be a relative. Just someone in the far future finds the accelerator and decides to save Sam.

Oh yeah, that’s definitely the obvious answer for a continuation. It allows the new show to be its own thing and still bring back Bakula/Stockwell for guest spots if they want

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Big Mean Jerk posted:

Oh yeah, that’s definitely the obvious answer for a continuation. It allows the new show to be its own thing and still bring back Bakula/Stockwell for guest spots if they want

It can be Gushi's granddaughter!

Bicyclops
Aug 27, 2004

Big Mean Jerk posted:

Quantum Leap is a property that to me always seemed ripe for continuation or reboot. It’s basically an american Doctor Who with a built-in fanbase and original leads that have always been open to returning. For a while it was consistently in the top 10 weekly Nielsens, right alongside Cheers, Cosby Show, and Roseanne. It’s also a quasi-anthology show and that’s a growing trend for genre stuff right now. Black Mirror and the 4 or 5 imitators floating around, American Horror Story, True Detective, the upcoming Jordan Peele Twilight Zone, etc.

I tried to watch this once, but for some reason, Netflix has every episode but the pilot, and I was immediately very confused. I'm sure it's something you can just pick up from wherever, but I tend to watch things linearly, in order.

Rirse
May 7, 2006

by R. Guyovich
Ha, I restarted Xenoblade to finish it and forgot that one of your party members is voiced by Jenna Coleman. And go figure, her character is a hybrid!

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.

Bicyclops posted:

I tried to watch this once, but for some reason, Netflix has every episode but the pilot, and I was immediately very confused. I'm sure it's something you can just pick up from wherever, but I tend to watch things linearly, in order.

I don’t see it on Netflix US anymore, but Hulu has the whole series and it looks like it’s in the correct order.

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Big Mean Jerk posted:

I don’t see it on Netflix US anymore, but Hulu has the whole series and it looks like it’s in the correct order.

If they have the version with the original music restored, that might be worth a subscription for a bit.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
I’d hope any new QL series kept the future aesthetic of computers made of light up Lego.

Maelstache
Feb 25, 2013

gOTTA gO fAST

Servoret posted:

Dean Stockwell is going to be 82 in two days and Scott Bakula is going to be 64 this year. Probably time to recast, as much as I loved that duo back when the USA Network was showing Quantum Leap repeats every day. I don’t really want to see a recast show, though. It would have to have leads as likable as the original cast, and similar production quality to the original or I wouldn’t even give a reboot a watch.

I doubt you could make a show that even looks like Quantum Leap now, as even in the early nineties it was a style of production that was very much of the past - having shows like Twin Peaks, NYPD Blue and X-Files coming along probably didn't help.

That's not to say there isn't room for a potential continuation, but it would have to be very, very different just because TV production has changed so much in the last three decades. Even new X-Files doesn't really resemble classic X-Files very much, despite having a lot of the same crew on board.

If they cast a younger actor to replace Sam, I guess you'd have to shift the time-frame to have the show be about Millennial nostalgia, as opposed to baby boomer nostalgia like the original was. That's assuming they'd stick to the rule about only leaping within the leaper's lifetime.

Bicyclops posted:

I tried to watch this once, but for some reason, Netflix has every episode but the pilot, and I was immediately very confused. I'm sure it's something you can just pick up from wherever, but I tend to watch things linearly, in order.

For some reason all the double-length episodes were/are missing from Netflix, so no "Lee Harvey Oswald", no "Leap Back", and no series finale. Always seemed like a bizarre oversight on their part.

Giant Tourtiere
Aug 4, 2006

TRICHER
POUR
GAGNER

Servoret posted:

Dean Stockwell is going to be 82 in two days and Scott Bakula is going to be 64 this year. Probably time to recast, as much as I loved that duo back when the USA Network was showing Quantum Leap repeats every day. I don’t really want to see a recast show, though. It would have to have leads as likable as the original cast, and similar production quality to the original or I wouldn’t even give a reboot a watch.

I forget which goon I'm stealing this from but I still think Katee Sackhoff could do an outstanding Al.

Astroman
Apr 8, 2001


Stockwell was pretty spry in BSG. :shrug:

One difference between 90s tv and now is that I think people would demand more worldbuilding/answers about The Present and the tech involved. QL took place in the Near Future and what glimpses they showed of it were pretty laughable. The entire infrastructure of the project, right down to the computers and what Al was looking at wasn't shown as I recall. There wasn't a big Stargate-esque room with giant machines, or a holodeck. Al's computer interface was a buncha blinkenlights on a piece of plastic. Ziggy wasn't even a black box, not to us.

That meant the show could focus on the here and now for Sam, and what he was experiencing, cut off from the present. And it meant that outside of certain episodes, the present wasn't a factor, and there weren't a lot of stories in the present affecting the show. They also showed very little of the mechanics of time travel, the consequences, and how it worked, again outside of certain eps like where Sam wanted to save his father or Al's marriage. I would imagine in a post :lost: world the audience would demand b-plots in the present/future, episodes showing how time travel functions in this universe, etc. And of course overall mytharc plots, which QL was very lean on.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
Yeah how long ago did BSG end dude.

DoctorWhat
Nov 18, 2011

A little privacy, please?
like nine fuckin years i think

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.
The other thing with a Quantum Leap reboot is the lead really should be a woman of color. I love Bakula and QL almost always handled episodes where Sam leapt into a woman or POC fairly well for the time, but there’s no way that would fly in 2018. And that’s before you even get into the inadvertent “white savior” aspect of the original show.

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Edward Mass
Sep 14, 2011

𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen
𝅘𝅥𝅮
Is there really a demand for a new Quantum Leap? Can't we just, you know, have something original?

(I realize I'm saying this in a thread for a show that got revived 16 years after cancellation)

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