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Post by Black Orchid on Apr 19, 2023 13:15:01 GMT
designed by Christopher Loftus
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Post by Cyggy on Apr 20, 2023 22:38:37 GMT
From a 2020 Rewatch.... Episode 1 Review: (Opted to watch the Loose Cannon Reconstruction - as opposed to the narrated soundtrack)
As an opening installment, that wasn't too bad. I did start to notice that the TARDIS crew was conspicuous by it's absence though. (Turning up fifteen minutes into the 24 minute episode.) In fact it felt a bit like a Saward script, more interested in his own guest characters than the regulars. I liked it for it's straightforward storytelling. And there was a Troughton moment with a quip back to Jamie (who had just asked a question) that surprised me by making me chuckle. The fruity, plummy tones of Ian's boss add to the charm of this first episode - and at least episode two has been given context now. The old style television in mission control dated it somewhat, but bless 'em, at least they were trying. I thought I sensed a slight weariness off Patrick as he entered this episode, almost as though he was on automatic pilot. I guess he was pretty much burned out on the series, but am glad he seemed to rally himself as he got to THE WAR GAMES. Maybe he will get more into it as this story progresses. We shall see. I like the music and the floating in space, laying the bomb scenes and the look of the spaceships are all pretty impressive really imo. This tale hovering at a 6 out of 10 for now - but that might change for me as the rewatch progresses. (In response to fellow rewatcher Yartek asking: Is that the longest time into an episode that the Doctor and companions appear?) I reckon it must be. Credit to the episode though. I was enjoying the characters, situation and world building to such an extent that it took a while before the delayed presence of our heroes was painfully obvious, though I was very much ready for them to arrive when they finally did. Actually, based on even just this first episode, I do think that this particularly story is a potential gift to any future animators. Whatever it's perceived shortcomings as an adventure, the things that could be done with both artistic licence, the widescreen format, colour and all the starscapes, could make this story potentially visually shine, in terms of the outer space scenes? And I do love that wailing voice over said scenes. I can't help but think that some imaginative stars and planets animation would really compliment that voice well? NB: A review of the time of Episode 1 from THE SPECTATOR columnist, Stuart Hood: THE OPTIONAL EPISODE 2....
Having watched episode 1 and with 7 days until episode 3, the problem of whether or not to have a sneaky viewing of the existent episode 2 has reared it's Robert Holmsian head. In the end I decided to watch episode 2, if only for context. It flows much better now, having watched episode 1 - and we have our first glimpse of Madeline, the woman with metal hair. I cannot - for the life of me - ever envision a time when metal hair (or okay, a hair shaped hat, helmet, whatever) will be a stylish fashion statement. But it is at least a distinctive look. I notice that she gives the game away as to her part in this narrative with a smile. I was expecting to find Milo Clancy as awkwardly misjudged a performance as always, but for some reason Clancy isn't annoying me yet. Not sure why. I remember reading the memoirs of Patrick Troughton's son and this episode got singled out as one that Patrick was very unhappy with as he approached the end of his run - being stuck in that piece of beacon, shut away from the main story - but I have to say I think Patrick - and also Wendy - sell the dire predicament that they are in very well indeed. I really did feel as though our heroes were running out of oxygen, with a brilliant Doctor only making matters worse for them all with his wonderful tinkering with a ripped open wire panel. Fifty minutes into this adventure - the length of a full BLAKE'S 7 episode and I am still enjoying it. A third of the tale down and it still has two thirds in which to disappoint and live up to it's terrible reputation. I hope it doesn't. I really, really want to like this story and see it as a neglected gem.
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Post by Cyggy on Apr 20, 2023 22:44:41 GMT
Episode 3:
Milo isn't annoying me as much as I thought he would. From what I had seen of this tale before, I was convinced that it would be a good idea - if it were ever animated - to have an option where Gordon Gostelow's voice skills had been replaced by an actor more sympathetic to the material and who was taking the vocal requirements of the role more seriously. I have wavered now slightly on this. It seems that Robert Holmes wrote the character this crazy way and that even Anthony Hopkins would struggle with producing a believable Milo Clancy. That being said, what of this third installment? Well, at least our heroes are out of that sealed off compartment at last. One would be forgiven for thinking that THE SPACE PIRATES was all about their running out of air predicament due to the loss of all the other episodes. But no, we're about to embark on a romp with the regulars and their newfound space cowboy friend. There's a lost moment where Troughton tries desperately to catch a teapot on the wildly veering Liz, but fails and it smashes on the floor. Then there's milo and his copper needles Han Solo moment. PAUSE - Imagine Harriison Ford as Han Solo, saying every single Clancy line? Would it work? (I might have to go back and watch episode 2 now to test this theory. But already, I can't imagine Han Solo eating a boiled egg, so this theory may be flawed.) More intrigue with the metal haired Madeline. I never realised until now, but we have, through the wiping of this particular episode, lost a lovely Doctor and Zoe moment, one that surely would have already been used in clip shows and documentaries already, if it existed. SPOILER: It's the scene where Zoe informs the Doctor that she has worked out where the parts of the beacon (and, by extension the TARDIS) are heading, using information she had made note of and calculating the difference between where they were before and where they were after, even allowing for the Doctor's error with the magnets. And yes, it ends with the predictably wonderful line about the Doctor musing on why he hadn't thought of that and Zoe seizing on it to ask yes, why didn't he? Troughton's facial reaction is lost to the ages and all we are left with is silence. Such a pity. What gets me is that not only are we never likely to see it - but that nobody has ever, to my knowledge, talked about it. I bet even Wendy has forgotten all about it after all these years. Can't see her wading through telesnap recons. Such a pity as I agree that it's up there with the other Zoe moments that thankfully do exist. Someone please find this episode! NB: 16:00 into episode 3 for anyone wondering what all the fuss is about but honestly can't face watching the entirety of the episode..... And a transcript of said moment..... The episode ends with our heroes in said mines and them falling down a bottomless shaft. As good an episode ending as any. Sorry, but I am not hating on this story yet. As has been pointed out by another poster, 30% more story was added onto this through no fault of the author's. I have allowed for this, using Zoe-like calculations (although being nowhere as good) and am left with the conclusion that this story is working just fine. It's moving along nicely, given the script editing circumstances, and at least has straightforward story-telling. Have moved my score for the story from 6 to 7. Which is all very well. But will it all fall apart in Episode 4? I think that THE SPACE PIRATES has more going for it than I have been previously led to believe by received fan wisdom? This might be a bit of a stretch, but it occurs to me that there are early echoes of ANDROZANI here, with the Doctor and co. somewhat desperately caught up in a pathetic local affair as some really ruthless people are happily prepared to kill over the most valuable substance known to humanity, and, as a result, finding themselves being shot at and pushed from pillar to post and in the depths underground. With no Clancy in it to lighten the mood and, indeed, save their lives from a horrifying death by suffocation, this surely would be a dark tale indeed? Even the fruity, plummy voiced General is happy to issue orders to kill Clancy and stupidly thinks him to be the mastermind behind it all. For Stotzy, read Caven. For Krau Timmen read the duplicitous, metal-haired Madeline. For Chellak, read the General and for Salateen read "ian". I could just be reading too much into this though. :death: And we don't seem to have a vengeful Jek character yet either. :? And there's three episodes left that might show this to just be an ultimately very silly and badly thought out tale indeed - as bad as it's legend. Am looking forward to finding out one way or the other, but I remain optimistic at this point and think so far that it is only dismissed by many because of the Clancy Factor.
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Post by Cyggy on Apr 20, 2023 22:48:34 GMT
Episode 4:
My heart sank when our heroes landed in another inescapable cell, which didn't bode well for this installment. Was it to be another 25 minutes of desperate effort used in not getting out of the cell.
One good thing about this rewatch is that the story is starting to make a lot more sense now that we are being encouraged to focus on it. The cellmate Sorba seems an early echo of the Salateen "old lag" scene, but - unless I missed something (which is entirely possible after just the one viewing so far) but I am at a loss as to why Sorba has been kept alive in the first place?
General Hermack has never sounded as disappointed in his beloved Major Warne as he does here, with the whole copper needles malarkey, but he is soon back to calling him "Eee-yan" so presumably all is forgiven. Sad to think that Warne's career went so badly wrong later that he changed his name to his mother's maiden name, Eckersley and started piddling about with the affairs of Peladon, but that's for Big Finish to chronicle in 12 largely uneventful box sets.
Frankly the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are starting to grate a little with their continued suspicion of Clancy. He has to spell out for them that he has saved their lives once, warned them not to wander off and has now spent an hour trying to open the stupid door, all while holding a gun that he could shoot them with, but hasn't - before they finally grasp that he might actually be a non-threat. The Doctor in particular is usually a much better judge of character than this.
Another lost moment, that surely would have been used in clip shows already is the obvious, but still amusing moment when the Doctor finds out that the control panel is connected and gets a nasty shock - as Zoe observes.
The Doctor's "I'm not a magician!" to Zoe somehow felt wrong too. Surely that is exactly what he is?
Milo and our heroes continue to be witless fools as they make their way in a lift (which made me think of Morgus pushing that president down his) to Madeline's office, without ever once asking themselves how she could in any way not be involved, considering that she is sitting at the heart of matters, like a spider at the centre of a web. Our heroes used to be brighter than this.
Am finding this story to be disrespectful to the character of the Doctor. He usually plays the fool, hiding his brilliant Columbo-like deductions and awareness of what's really going on. Here he is led like a fool from one calamity to another and doesn't realise who the bad people are - and even suspects a daft old anti-authority figure like Clancy.
That's not to say that I dislike the story yet though. I am enjoying it and watching it properly for the first time makes me like it more, just with reservations of how the Doctor is being written. Certainly the plot is at last making sense, considering I had no clear idea of the details and individual scenes until forcing myself to sit down and really concentrate on each episode like this.
I would only have disliked this episode if they were still stuck in that cell with Sorba at the end of it. Thankfully they weren't and had moved along in the narrative all the way to Madeline's office, with two episodes still to go. Will the last two episodes be padded affairs or are there still a good few twists and turns yet to come in the last third of this neglected tale. Am looking forward to finding out.
Whole tale so far - just scraping 7 out of 10 still - but there's time for that to drop. I don't see the final score being higher than that though. But am not hating it at all. It just seems like as good a space opera romp as any and can't - bar the way it's writing the Doctor a bit - understand yet why it is so loathed as standard by received fan wisdom.
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Post by Cyggy on Apr 20, 2023 22:49:58 GMT
Episode 5:
The thing that's coming over most strongly to me is the committed acting of all involved. Madeline, Dervish (who suddenly has an unexpected third dimension of regret and a buried conscience), Caven and all the others.
Milo has grown on me and I no longer find him unbearable. I remember suggesting once that any animation should maybe have the role re-voiced by someone taking it seriously, but no longer think that. He's as committed as the others in the role.
Our heroes do seem to be sidelined though, with Madeline suddenly taking centre stage as the voice of conscience. I kept expecting Caven to abruptly shoot her, reminding me as he did, constantly of Stotzy. A complete psychopath.
There's the famous Zoe and candles scene. I did read a fan theory about this proving that the Mind Robber never happened or something, but can't recall the details now.
No photo exists of the Dom Isigri character of course, although I did see a sketch of his costume in some magazine or other.
A good cliffhanger ending. Structurally, I think this story is just fine.
An okay episode, but the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe do just seem to be guest stars in a space opera that could easily have them written out entirely I suspect?
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Post by Cyggy on Apr 20, 2023 22:51:21 GMT
Episode 6:I have enjoyed this tale and will always have a soft spot for it now as the first ME Rewatch. I think it's such a shame that the only episode we have is the one without Caven in it. Troughton does very good "recovering from the choking exhaust fumes of a spaceship" voice acting, I think. I never thought a missing episode would remind me of a Blake's 7 one, but I thought it all went very ORBIT at the start of the episode, with an out of control space vessel with two passengers aboard, heading for disaster, owing to a nefarious plot involving two men and a woman on the ground. Metal haired woman still isn't in Servalan's league though. It occurs to me that Big Finish could get endless box sets out of the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and Milo's adventures aboard The Liz, set in the years that they are trying to find and reach the beacon. Hope they aren't reading this. :death: The Scooby Doo ending is kinda sweet, I thought. I thought that the sound on this episode was particularly poor. I'd love them to find at least one more episode of this - as we would finally get to see Caven in all his evil glory and I think he would be the main part of any reappraisal, or at least slight improvement in reputation. I'm glad we watched this. I have finally watched all of THE SPACE PIRATES properly. Or as best as is possible and have really enjoyed it. I appreciate it more as a story now, with foreshadowing of future Holmes tales. It is no longer just a bunch of photographs of actors in silly costume, a wailing singing voice over spaceships, and that - not really representative- second episode, but a full story, with a strongly acted main villain - and even Milo has grown on me. Episode I'd most like back is still probably 3 though - with episode 6 definitely snapping at it's heels, but only because it's the wrap up episode. 5 out of 10 for this episode. 6.5 out of 10 for the whole story.
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Post by Black Orchid on Apr 26, 2023 7:21:04 GMT
Episode 3:
This might be a bit of a stretch, but it occurs to me that there are early echoes of ANDROZANI here, with the Doctor and co. somewhat desperately caught up in a pathetic local affair as some really ruthless people are happily prepared to kill over the most valuable substance known to humanity, and, as a result, finding themselves being shot at and pushed from pillar to post and in the depths underground. With no Clancy in it to lighten the mood and, indeed, save their lives from a horrifying death by suffocation, this surely would be a dark tale indeed? Even the fruity, plummy voiced General is happy to issue orders to kill Clancy and stupidly thinks him to be the mastermind behind it all. For Stotzy, read Caven. For Krau Timmen read the duplicitous, metal-haired Madeline. For Chellak, read the General and for Salateen read "ian". I could just be reading too much into this though. :death: And we don't seem to have a vengeful Jek character yet either. :? Excerpt from a review by Jonathan Morris: However, Robert Holmes obviously recognised the dramatic potential in what he had accidentally hit on, which is why this approach was re-worked for The Caves Of Androzani. Consensus has it that The Caves Of Androzani is a re-write of The Power Of Kroll; well, yes, they both feature gun-runners, but that’s about it. The Caves Of Androzani is actually a re-writing of “The Space Pirates” [in much the same way that The Mysterious Planet is The Krotons with knobs on]. Think about it. They both feature cold, manipulative, unscrupulous business people in art-deco offices who have become associated with psychopathic, mercenary criminals. They both feature extensive cave networks, pit shafts and cliffhangers about crashing spaceships. They both feature stupid generals whose names end in ‘ack’, for goodness’ sake! But, most of all, they share the same approach to plotting. However, whilst in “The Space Pirates” the two story threads do not intersect until the end, in The Caves Of Androzani it is the Doctor’s arrival that sets the other thread [Morgus’ downfall] in motion, and even as the story progresses the Doctor’s actions impact on those around him [he frees Salateen, which leads to the army’s attack, in much the same way that freeing Dom Issigri leads to the Space Corps’ attack]. However, what is surprising is how, for much of the story, the Doctor and Peri are sidelined in terms of the plot – they follow the same procession of being captured and escaping that the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe enjoy in “The Space Pirates”. They meet interesting people along the way, true, but they have little interaction with the other plot thread – just as the Space Corps don’t affect the Doctor in “The Space Pirates”, Morgus’s actions don’t really affect the Doctor in The Caves Of Androzani. underthreehundred.blogspot.com/2014/03/space-cowboy.html
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Post by Black Orchid on May 7, 2023 11:50:22 GMT
"INT. ATOMIC FUEL STORE" Clayton Hickman, twitter
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Post by Black Orchid on Jul 18, 2023 16:01:51 GMT
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Post by Future-Diver on Jul 18, 2023 16:09:16 GMT
I really like this photo - Jack May and Donald Gee. That shot makes ' The Space Pirates' look far more impressive and interesting than it actually was (although with most episodes missing, it's very hard to tell).
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Post by Black Orchid on Jul 18, 2023 16:12:57 GMT
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Post by Black Orchid on Jul 18, 2023 16:14:17 GMT
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Post by GC on Oct 19, 2023 15:07:34 GMT
Doctor Who The Space Pirates - the lost sound effects (a short comparison video)
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Post by GC on Aug 30, 2024 18:20:41 GMT
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Post by GC on Aug 30, 2024 18:55:54 GMT
^Had no idea Wendy Padbury wore a wig for Who...
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