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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/news/02111301.shtml

Its great to see that the Beeb are attempting to bring the story back. Presumably they contacted Tom Baker, but it seems that they couldn't get him to do the story. There are a lot of conflicting views about Shada, that it was a weak storyline, its overlong, etc. As I didn't see the special video, I am eager to see what the finished result will be like. The cast is fantastic. I wonder if the script will be altered, if Douglas' estate gave permission to have the script tightened up for a 21st century audience? Its a nice tribute to Douglas, and to John Nathan Turner, who tried to complete the story.

Nah, Tom wasn't approached as he's shown no interest at all in being in the plays. Despite rumours regularly circulating to the contrary on fan forums, that's the way it is.

I understand the scripts have been edited slightly to incorporate certain new elements (such as Romana's role as President of the Time Lords, which has been established in previous audio plays), but the majority of the script is as Douglas left it in 1979.

You're right about the cast - it's a major coup for Nick Pegg to be able to assemble the single most impressive cast for a Who story ever.

Woohoo! I did get to see the original at one point, and it did have some nice points, most of which turned up in Dirk Gently. Prof. Chronitis was a great character. I seem to remember the ending was a bit confused, but that might just have been because it was unfilmed. Looking forward to this.

I hope that this isn't just the only 'big event' that the BEEB were planning for the 40th anniversary. But it seems likely that they won't do a tv series as well. Probably another Doctor Who Night. Or repeat Genesis Of the Daleks for the umpteenth time, opposite Coronation Street. (sounding very cynical)

I personall can hardly wait! Come on 2003!

Hmmm. I never thought I'd be the one raising this - and I'm not dogmatic about these things, I'm just mildly curious - but I wonder what the canonical status of this 'new' Shada will be? Given that the fourth Doctor's already had a virtually identical adventure (we just didn't see most of it on TV, only the bits where he gets timescooped off the punt and crawls out from under the gate).

Well I see this as (drum roll please)

THE OFFICIAL SHADA!!

By this I mean that the 8th Doctor Shada is the canonical time placement of it on the simple premise that this was finished and Tom's wasn't. So the most that's cnaon about Tom's are the clips from Five Docs

Hhh, well, you might have a point if the bits we've already seen in The Five Doctors are excised from this version of the script. If they're not then it's going to look exceedingly strange for history to more-or-less repeat itself this way. If both Tom B and McGann have identical punt scenes, they can't both be canonical, surely?

Then again, I'm one of those 'if it's not on TV, it's not canon' extremists...

"it's a major coup for Nick Pegg to be able to assemble the single most impressive cast for a Who story ever."

Well, I don't know about that. The webcast story "Death Comes to Time" managed to get Stephen Fry, Kevin Eldon and John Sessions in major roles, as well as cameos from the likes of David Soul and Anthony Stewart Head...

"I wonder what the canonical status of this 'new' Shada will be? Given that the fourth Doctor's already had a virtually identical adventure"

Well, we never saw it on telly, so it's not really an issue. All we saw was the punting scene from The Five Doctors - so we know that the 4th Doctor took Romana to Cambridge, that's all. Anyway, apparently the producers have inserted odd lines to explain away the discrepancies between the 1979 version and the 2003 version of Shada.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone fancied doing a celebratory article for h2g2, to be released around the same time as the webcast. It'd be nice to do a history of the troubled production of the original story, the creation of the special video release and the production of the new story as an article for the site...

SG

Could be interesting. Don't know too much myself, but I'm sure if you started it off we could all chip in with various facts.

it would also be good if the entry coukd be part of my doctor who uni project.

(tentivley) I might be willing to do this article thing depending on how long you wanted it to be...

i think i'd much rather the finish an audio version of the origional, bit more model work, some stuff like they did for the ark in space dvd, and either do some animation or, present the missing stuff like they've done with the videos of the tenth planet.

weather its canoconial or not doesn't really matter, so long as its good, and i don't see why not.

on the same point does this mean the sixth doctors missing season will be done at some future time as well?.

I guess I could ask what would we like to see, if no new tv or film is made, what special thing would you most like for the 40th.

I would like to hear Big Finishs' version of C Bakers unmade season 23 story 'Yellow Fever'. I think that the Autons would make a fitting 40th Anniversary foe for Colins doctor.

i'd love to have the sixth doctors unmade season done, i suspose that's the good thing about big finish, its given colin baker a real chance at being the doctor. since his first story was at the end of peter d's, anmd he was very much the anti heros, then the 45 minutes eipsodes and then a 14 part story.

i've been trying to think wahta would be really good for the 40th, if no new series, can't think of much.

if no new series, then a new Doctor Who movie. i think that BBC could make a lot of money from doing another Doctor Who movie or television series, and i'm surprised they haven't tried to bring Doctor Who back on TV yet.

They claim there are rights issues to be sorted out (having sold various rights to American networks and film companies, they're having trouble ensuring that all the profit from any new DW goes directly to them).

Also the fact they have the charming misapprehension that DW would have to be megabudget in order to succeed, when personally I think the opposite might be true...

I recently saw 28 Days Later, and thought that the location filming in 'deserted' London was very similar to 'Dalek Invasion Of Earth'.
What has this to do with bringing back Doctor Who, you say?
Well, for such a brilliant film, it was even more remarkable the fact that it had a very small budget, but was still breathtakingly effective.

It just shows that you don't need stacks of cash to produce a good film/series.

I think that the Beeb should do a televised version of Shada, and with todays relatively cheap CGI, it could be made with a small budget.

i think there are a few people at the bbc who just don't like the show. I think the big problem is that it costs a lot more than what they show these days, reality tv, cookery shows, decorating/gardening shows, all very cheap stuff, no scripts a couple of days shooting, no expensice make up, set designs, actors.

the last i heard was that the rights reverted back the the bbc already, given that fact they did the curse of fatal death comic relief thing.

The interesting thing is doctor who is going stronger than ever, the big finish cd's oput every month, not including the benerice sumerfeild, sarah jane smith and dalek stuff, the other spin off productions, bbc boooks took back the right to release the books, and doctor who has more spin off books than any other sci/fi show, the dvds seem to do well. the bbc web site doing their audio stuff, the web cam stuff. WHSmith wanted doctor who box sets to sell.

the bbc are making a lot of money from the show, considering the work they put into doing these other things, it seems madness not to do a series. they even did cgi stuff as an option to replace the model work on the ark in space dvd.

They don't need a huge budget, as big finish have proved, a good script/story well done will do, some of the earth bound audio stuff I've enjoyed listening to a lot. All you need is the doctor, a companion, the TARDIS, and a good script.

all the continuey like they had the the paul mcgann movie you don't need, it turns viewers away, you don't need daleks and cybermen - least no to start with. what harm could a new series do?.

The Curse of Fatal Death was outside of the rights issue, seeing as it wasn't meant to generate profit for the Beeb itself, but for the charity - and seeing as the producer had to remind Terry Nation's estate that it was her mother who brokered the deal over the rights to the Daleks for their former client in the first place.


The writer of Curse of Fatal Death explained it to me as just that it's very easy to make a one-off Doctor Who and get good ratings, but it's much harder in today's market to make a series work, and very few people want to risk their careers on making something they know at least some people don't want to.

The other big problem is that many people within the BBC still believe that big fat lie about being unable to compete with American budgets. Anyone who saw the French and Saunders pastiche of the Phantom Menace a few years ago with know just how untrue that was - they managed to do very convincing Star Wars effects for what was little more than a two minute scene in a sketch show!

This just shows how little they understand about the show - it's a bit like saying they can't make costume dramas because they can't afford to build an entire city the way Martin Scorsese has done for Gangs of New York. Just because it's imaginative and sci-fi driven doesn't mean it *has* to have great special effects. The League of Gentlemen manage to tell interesting and terrifying stories on a sitcom budget, for example.

I know of three separate parties who have asked if they could be considered, should the show come back, but until the rights from a certain American film director (no, not Spielberg) revert back to the BBC, we won't be seeing anything new on the Who front.

Luckily enough, my spies tell me that the rights are due to return early next year. Just in time for... ooh, who'd have thunk!