h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

well I'm 16 november 76, which make the deadly assassin the one nearest my birthday,

yeah a novelisation of DNA's dw scripts would have been good, they didn't actually get around it so much as just write it for their fanzine,

I know how you feel with the releases I now have the chance to get all the DW's on dvd or at least the ones I want, I have all the big finnish audio's and subscribe to them, although I did have to catch up a little at first, actually I bought them on tape and for my birthday last year I decided to buy a new personal tape player to listen to them on, it was then that the annonced that thery were going to stop doing the tapes and just release them on cd, i was a bit annoyed,

I'd like to buy all the sountracks but if they do what they did with the tenth planet I might not bother, I am trying to get the spin off video's I bought a few from a dw convention i want to last year and i got one of the probe one off the internet

So, does the Deadly Assassin reflect your charecter in any way

I was very impressed with the way that the Tenth Planet worked, as I said. Do you know if all of the episodes have surviving telesnaps? If so, there is no reason at all why they cannot release everything they have on video or DVD, at least on a small scale, for the avid collectors.

By the way - do you know anything about the Radio 4 pilot - I was wondering if Radio 2 had agreed to broadcast/finance it as the rumours are suggesting.

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the deadl y assissin not in anyway as far as i can think now,

as far as I'm awear telesnapes exist for all of them, but don't quote me on tha,t as do all audio versions, but yeah it would be great, only trouble is would they be bought what if people wait to see if any episodes turn up at a later date?, I probably but them the day they came out and as they have released stuff with missing episodes, so it looks good

the klast I heard was that the radio series had been dropped, shame, but they mat release the pilot,

have you listened to the previous ones?

If they were released as a video and people bought them, there is a chance that someone would see one and think "according to this, this episode doesn't exist - but I've got a copy in my attic! Perhaps I should contact the BBC...?" I'm sure that it's possible to make to less than 100 missing episodes, the BBC just needs to advertise what it lacks more. But yes, it's not something the general public would buy, but there are enough die-hard fans to make it worthwhile. Afterall, it may well be the only chance to see something unseen since it was lost - if the audios have an audience, videos definately would.

But no, I have not heard either the Doctor Who or Blake's 7 radio series...

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the only other thing would be to release the videos and if the missing ones turn up, re release the complete story and then another video with the missing episodes from different storys or with a documentry its unlikly though

yeah i think more should be done, there are some fans who've produced videos of missing episodes using pictures, don't know what there'er like

assuming they haven't already I think that they should recover all photo's they possibly can from people who worked on the series who took photo's, and then see what they can do

I'm sure that they could produce something, if they removed all people from the pictures they had, they could make up an empty background for the audios to be played against and then re insert people, you could amke up a few more pictures, if you see what I mean, don't know what it would look like but it would be interesting, to see

the doctor who radio weren't bad slightly grander than the big finnish but not as good

I know exactly what you mean - if you look at the restoration team website, when they describe how they "re-made" Episode 4, they state that "There were also several good pictures of the Cybermen in the snow outside the Polar Base, but it wasn't easy to use these
as there aren't any such scenes in episode 4. However, I was able to cut out individual Cybermen and apply them to indoor scenes."
So, with a mixture of simple cut & paste techniques which anyone can do, telesnaps and perhaps doing a little CGI on backgrounds etc., I'm sure they can do something. Alternatively, when they get around to releasing DVDs of the surviving Hartnell/Troughton stories, perhaps they could include on each DVD the episodes they do have from incomplete stories as extras. It would not be as good, but still is better than nothing.

They could do something similar with what they did for "Tenth Planet 4" for "Shada" - afterall, the script should still be about, and if they can get Tom Baker etc. to go through the words as if it was a "Big Finish" type drama, and then include the photos they have of the sets, perhaps include drawings of what they don't have photos for, and a caption bar at the bottom - should work better than what I have heard of the Tom Baker narration.

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i've thought for a while that they should record a complete audio of shada,

there is some footage of location from i think one of the patric troughton and willian hartnell storys which is in colour, taken by a fan or something that could be used, and also some colour photo's so it could be possible to use the colour and make a scene of a black and white story in colour that would be worth buying, if they tried to get all the photos they could

There never was any real reason why they couldn't record an audio of Shada - in fact I'm surprised they haven't tried it.

At the moment I'm hoping that they're going to release some Colin Baker on video, as so far my Colin Baker collection consists of "Attack Of The Cybermen". It's going to be a long time before they show Colin Baker on UK Gold again - they're only up to season 14. Although I can imagine that they might have some problems releasing "Trial of a Timelord" when even 6 parters were released as double cassettes...

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well, good news first, two weeks after getting married I've now become a grandfather, yeah you read right, my wife is a little older than me and her daughter gave birth on the first of may(same day as my sisters birthday) they've called her Tamera, there both fine,

as you know my dw tapes from Ukgold are in a mess, when they brought out ukgold they said there would be no breaks in programmes, I was quite annoyed when they did, and they never showed them in the right orderand they switched to a late evening slot which was at different times, so I have a few gaps and then there were repeats on BBC2...

i was enjoying the repeats of blakes 7 on BBC2 pity they stopped

as fro trial of a time lord I bought the tardis tin which had the 14 episodes on three videos, there is no reason that they can't put six episodes on one video they've done it before, thats why the double video packs came down to around £16.99 from £19.99, because people complained

Congratulations! Yes, I certainly had to read that twice before I managed to unconfuse myself and know exactly what you meant
So, how do you feel to be a grandfather? Old? Confused? Exactly the same as before?

You're right in that UK Gold can be annoying in where they put the breaks. During "Genesis of the Daleks" they put one in halfway through one of Davros's speech! I'd prefer it if they did it on a more episode basis, show an episode with beginning and end credits, then had a break, then the credits again, or remove the breaks completely. One or the other. The way they're doing it now is just crazy. But at least they are showing Doctor Who, and Blakes' 7 - the only bad thing is that it's at 6am on a Sunday morning.

I've heard that they're planning on releasing "Tombs of The Cybermen" on DVD in January - that's one to look forward to. So far, my Patrick Troughton watching has consisted of the episodes in the "Cybermen - The Early Years" tape and "The Mind Robber".

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being a grandfather, much the same as before, although I have held the baby whaich was a first for me I've usually managed to stay well from them so far,not that I don't like babies, I've never really had the chance to get to know any,

there isn't that much patric troughton stuff about, that's a shame, I read the book of the mind robber a couple of times before I actualy saw it and was as little dissapointed with it, who was it that said that he knew a boy who prefered listening to science fiction on the radio because the pictures were so much better?,

I may have asked this before but have you ever watched star cops or the tripods?

I see the micheal jackson is planning to sell his beatles hits to raise some money, maybe paul maccartney will get his dream of owning the beatles songs again come true.

First of all, you may wish to have a look at this conversation: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F48874?thread=110992 The only baby I've really held was my sister who is 10 years younger than me. I did a bit of babysitting, when I was 15 and she was 5, but nothing very strenuous. I also baby sat for my nextdoor neighbour's 1 year old, but she stayed asleep each time, so I don't really know that much about looking after babies. Apparently my step-brother (who I don't know has two daughters) so technically I'm a step-uncle, but as I've never met them it doesn't really affect me much. Yes, there are only 6 complete Patrick Troughton stories at the moment - his was the most hit period. They've got some clips of missing episodes on http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho that they've only just put up, but alas I cannot see them. I quite enjoyed "The Mind Robber", but then I didn't know the story, which always makes a difference. I was a little disappointed by "The Daleks" as I've seen the film "Doctor Who And The Daleks" so many times I knew what was going to happen. But yes, I know what you mean. I think you have asked about The Tripods before, the answer to which is I vaguley remember seeing some of Series 2 on it's original run back in the 80s, but haven't seen it since. I was thinking of getting the release on video, but got the Cybertin instead. I haven't seen, or know much of, Star Cops. Yes, there's definately a lot of news on the Paul McCartney front right now. He's said to have said that he has written some love songs for what's-her-name which he will release as an album soon. I wonder what they'll be like? Will it be another "Flaming Pie", or a "McCartney III"?

I've got the invasion and the ice warriors, the dalek, cybermen, and patric troughton years, aswell as the six complete stories, its a real shame,

the daleks I can never remember what happends in the end, I can remember bits of the film and the episodes but always seem to come away not quite knowing what happened, in the film its different, I would like to get the new remastered video but now with the dvd, but they not comming out as much as the videos are so.........

the tripods I watched on the bbc first time round then on ukgold, the only trouble was that it was cancelled after the second season I think, there were maybe three, but it was left hanging in mid air, I read somewhere that it made it hard to sell overseas because it was never finnished off properly, just a episode to wrap thing up would have done

as for Paul Mc, I heard something about that too, and that they might be getting married soon

I really regret not getting the Dalek tin when i had the chance - trouble was, I didn't have the money then!

How does "The Invasion" work? Arren't there 2 episodes missing from it - have they done much to broach the gap? Is it just an audio CD as in "The Crusade/Museum" box set?

You're right that they don't seem to be planning to release DVDs very quickly at the moment - only about 4 or 5 a year. Which is good as it means I should be able to afford to keep up with them. I have heard rumours that they are planning on releasing all available stories for the 40th Anniversary, but how true that is, I don't know.

I'd heard that "The Tripods" was based on a trilogy (I think it was John Christopher who wrote the original books) and they did roughly a book per season, but because of poor ratings never made season 3. I could be wrong, though. If it comes onto UK Gold again, I'll probably watch it. But as far as I know, the BBC will be more likely (still unlikely) to make more Doctor Who than a finish for The Tripods. I really need to see it, though.

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I so shocked, I was walking round town saterday and saw newspaper sign top author dies, but never though too much about it, it was whan I got home and found an e-mail that i knew, so sad,

the doctor who videos I went for are the special sets, and the ones with missing episodes, the invasion i think there is just some linking material by nicolas courtney no cd or anything,

I liked the tripods I just though that they could of done something at the time to finish it off,

I definately wasn't expecting it! I was told by a friend, and my initial reaction was "You've gotta be kidding?!". Still, by now I've accepted it, and it hasn't really made that much of an impact.
It's true I admired Douglas Adams, and I thought he was a good author, but there were things I disliked about him. Principly being his attitude to his Doctor Who scripts being novelised. Which makes you wonder what is going to happen about that now - does the BBC now have rights to write novelisations of Shada etc?

Another question is what will happen over the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film project now that DNA is dead.

I bought the "Five Doctors" DVD (or "Three Doctors, a Double and Clips From Shada") in the end yesterday, and enjoyed watching it. I think that from now on I too will only get things that are special sets, or contain extras, and just watch the rest when they appear on UK Gold.
I think I've got the extra UNIT Recruitment film they include on "Spearhead" when I recorded "Planet of the Daleks" - they showed 5-minute documentaries before each episode. I think that "Caves of Androzani" is supposed to have been released on DVD, but I can't find it in the shops anywhere.

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I still find it hard to belive, as for the doctor who scripts, and the hitchhikers film the rights now lies with who he left them too I suspect his wife, so its up to what she thinks best, as someone said in an e-mail now that douglas is out of the way they can do whatever they like with the film

Can I assume you have a dvd player or know someone who does, a friend has a few dvd's and was very jelaous when i told him I bought one, the five doctors more like how the three doctors should of been, I bout the video, then the special edition video so I'm a bit reluctant to get the DVD one, if I see it second hand Maybe,

yeah I taped the planet of the daleks but you know of my tapes.......

the special sets seem more worthwhile, and maybe worth something in a few years not thats why I'm buying them though

the caves of androzani is very good, one of the best in my opinion, if they doon't remove it here iS a link to the bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho page which should tell you when its released or where

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/

Thanks for the link - I see that "Caves Of Androzani" is to be released next month - oh well, it gives me time to save up, and perhaps get a few more DVDs too. I still don't have a DVD player, but as next year I'll be living in a house with 2 DVD drives and 2 DVD players, so I don't think that playing DVDs will be a problem .
I've heard rumours that the next Boxset released will be a Master Boxset - which to me is a pity. After all, the Master was a Pertwee era and after villain, so we'll see nothing that isn't shown on UK Gold or hasn't already been released. What do you think?

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I'm not so happy with my DVD player, i really wanted a multi region, but I bought it in a hurry and now I'm regreting it, I loked because yuo can sometims use a code to make it into a multi player but as things go the one I bout can't and would have to be chipped, which means sending it off and would cost another hundred pounds and invaladate the warrantee, but the one they've offered to replace it with might mean, plugging the leads into a flap on the side on the Tv, rather than using a scart going into the back,

the master boxset, I haven't read much about it, I thionk roger dalgado was the master, anthony ainly master i never liked, But I'll probably get the tin if not just fro completion, the ast two tins they've done, assuming it will be a tin, were almost identicle, the first two were good, special, the cybermen and dalek were just videos in a tin, its only really worthwhile if there's something extra you don't get if you just bought the videos, besides the tin that is

so what about star treck , star wars, sliders, x-files, etc

I *think* that three of the DVD players/drives are multi-region, so I should be okay. I'm hoping that not only will DVD players come down in price soon, but that multi-region playing will be standard. Afterall, everyone wants to be able to play as much as they can, and no-one really sees any reason why they shouldn't. I guess that, as a member of the public, I don't really care about international copyright laws. Afterall, we're all human, so why should people in one country have moer of a right to watch one thing than anyone anywhere else? Okay - so I'm definately being over-simplistic and tedious - so I'd better change subject

I too thought that Roger Delgado was the best, and only, Master. Anthony Ainley was too much of an immitation, and also too sterotypical. But you're right in that it's better if you get something special in the tin, like the keyring etc. in the Crusade/Museum boxset.

I was never really an X-Files fan, strangely enough. I watched the first 5 seasons, but felt it was getting too repetitive. I didn't care about a government conspiracy, and when Muldar and Dana kept either dying or disappearing, I felt it was too much. I also never really saw Sliders.
Star Trek and Stawr Wars, I enjoy, though. I've just not watched either for ages!

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