Black Guardian Trilogy DVD

[Stuart Wallis]

I can't believe Stuart hadn't seen "Mawdryn" since it was originally on! I'm not having a go, I'm just amazed you never saw the video or a UK gold repeat or summat of that nature.

I never got round to buying it on video; given my slight apathy towards it at the time from what I rememered of it, and the need to spend the money elsewhere... And I've never watched UK Gold either. This box set has filled a couple of holes in my collection, Terminus being the other one, which is why I bought it now.

[Pip Madeley]

Received the Enlightenment Special Edition today from LoveFilm - it's the biggest load of w**kery I've ever seen in my life. Just awful. The conversion to widescreen leaves a relatively blurry picture, the pacing is ruined, the addition of so many sound effects leaves you with a headache and the CGI is pretty pathetic for today's standards.

[Si Hunt]

Basil: "... otherwise okay?"

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

It's another triumph for 2/E.

Although, to play Devil's Advocate I suppose at least they're trying to do different things - it always sounded like an odd idea to me, an edited version of the complete show with some new FX, but you never know it might have been a surprise hit.

[Si Hunt]

It's just a little pointless, especially if you lose picture quality in doing it!

It may sound blasphemous but maybe if they'd filmised it as well? (please don't shoot me). Well if you're going to try and make it look like a modern day episode, you may as well go the whole hog*

Si.

* I'm not advocating dubbing on new Dialogue for Peter Davison where he does a Kenneth Williams impression and tells every human he meets how great they are

[Simon R]

It would have been a better idea to try it on "Warriors of the Deep" which has more scope for improvement than "Enlightenment".

Maybe they had some money to use up in the budget?

[Si Hunt]

Yes, it did seem odd that they picked one of eighties Doctor Who's best stories to try and improve! I mean, it's not like there's a shortage of clunkers going on around that time - why not fix up "Warriors"? Or re-score "Twin"? Or do a "Ghost Light" that makes sense? etc.

Si.

[SiHart]

It was a good idea, and to be fair, it was difficult to tell what material they had cut out of it. It didn't seem to lose too much- but I think they botched it by making it widescreen and by using cheap CGI that seemed less evocative and less convincing than the original modelwork. I think they should ahve gone the whole hog and rescored it too, because the mix of the original score and the new bits wasn't a happy mix at all. It's a shame because the bit where they went all new (for the smashed tiara jewel running bit) worked really well and added something.

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

Just seen the Russell Harty clip - I don't know what made me cringe more: Davison's singing/dancing or Esther Rantzen in thigh high leather boots.

[Si Hunt]

It's odd (although probably not that odd, given Mark Ayres looking down on high) that re-scoring is apparently a big no-no because of offending the original composer. Producers they don't give a rats arse about offending, i.e re-editing "The Five Doctors" without asking and pissing off JNT.

Si.

[Perry Vale]

Also, reading between the lines from comments by various RT memebers, what we ended up with for the SE was some sort of 'rescue job' from what Brendan originally delivered....