Yeah; they just got drawn out so long, what with the gap years and (in Smith’s case) split seasons. They have basically the same number of episodes; Tennant just got three extra specials in his gap year.
Compared to Hartnell who had, like, 40-episode seasons, each episode recorded just a week before transmission. So, the show was in continual production and broadcast for over nine months of the year.
Which makes the recent trend of producing thirteen episodes and then wringing your hands about how, well, we can’t expect the actors to stick around forever seem very strange to me…
Wow, Class is neat. Such good dialogue. And everything has consequences.
By the second episode, one of the principle characters seems to be suffering PTSD from the events of the series. How often do TV characters have believable emotional reactions to what’s going on around them?
SUMMARY
Class is all about being a normal person who lives through terrifying stuff from beyond one’s understanding and has no way to cope with it.
And apparently the first episode of the animated Power of the Daleks airs (in the UK) tomorrow? Where did time go!
There also will be a colo(u)r version, and a Blu-Ray that contains both. The DVD (and Blu?) is done up in classic series style, with the Restoration Team providing all the typical lovely extra – commentary, documentaries, production odds and ends. It’s like the DVD range never ended!
It was good! Not as good as Cosgrove Hall’s work on The Invasion or the Moonbase stuff, but there’s much more of it, produced on a tighter schedule. A few clumsy moments aside (mostly near the start for some reason), it’s a solid visualization. Far and away the clearest presentation of the story.
Class will be on BBCA alongside Who 10 for so,e reason…
So. Yeah. There are definite rough spots (including many shots weirdly held for too long), and curiously those tend to be more toward the beginning, but as a whole this is one of the better animation jobs. Not up to Cosgrove Hall’s stylish work on The Invasion, and maybe not even up to The Moonbase, but not far behind that.
Got to say that Mark Ayres’ work on the audio is bewildering. Don’t know how he got all of that from a mono off-air recording. I saw it in a multiplex, with full surround, and though his mix is subtle it’s engrossing and very clearly directional when it helps the storytelling.
The cinema edit is a movie one; titles and credits removed, except the first and last. It’s a bit of a whoof, sitting through two and a half hours of that without even chopping it up into chapters to mark the time, but it was worth it. The animation clearly sells the story better than any previous presentation.
It was also neat to see the newly reconstructed title sequence for the first time. To think they could have been using that on the DVDs all these years, if they’d just bothered.
Makes me wonder if the elements exist for the dedicated Troughton titles, in the event that we see more of these animations.
The documentary afterward was pretty weird to see on a big screen with surround sound. It’s basically your typical wooly old wonderful classic Who DVD extra, as narrated by Toby Hadoke. Some passing insight from Rob Shearman, a bit of bafflement from Michael Briant, who floor managed this one. “I don’t really remember anything I didn’t direct.” It’s the daft sort of thing we know and love, but… somehow playing next door to A-list Hollywood releases.
Presumably that will be on the DVD.
Now I’m curious about the colo(u)r version.
Hated the premise and the leads. And I got enough of Matt Lucas last xmas. Everything else was ok i guess? The new series trailer didn’t do it for me either. Hmph.
Oh, but i did start watching Class and i dig it a bunch after being pretty sure i wouldn’t.
Yeah, Moffat’s been hopefully spending all this time getting his final season together. I guess we’ll see.
And that’s what I though he was on about with that machine but then it didn’t get activated. I didn’t know what the hell was going on in the intro despite an excuse for the Christmas eccentric man on the roof thing.
I’m still really not a fan of Moffat’s asshole Doctor unless it’s the focus of the episode like it was with the mummy space train one. Dude’s all about saving the earth for some reason but doesn’t give a shit about individuals like when the Little Britain dude getting choked, and chows down on sushi while that exec guy got his brain removed.
So I finally got around to finishing Class and hmmm…(Spoilers)
I’ve heard that this was Patrick Ness’s first foray into TV writing and it shows. I mean, I liked it for the most part, but the pacing was all over the place. Some episodes rattled along nicely (‘The Metaphysical Engine, Or What Quill Did’, also my favorite episode), while some were stuck in a weird repetitive loop, like ‘Detention’ and ‘Night Visitors’, which kept cutting back and forth between two sets of two characters having conversations in rooms that boiled down to “C’mon, take my hand!” “But why?” “Because, uh, stuff!” around and around again. And it’s great that the characters experience PTSD, something rarely acknowledged on TV. But by the end all the characters had been so put through the wringer, it became exhausting to watch. As for the ending to the series, I applaud the audacity of it, but it’ll be a bastard to follow up if the show gets renewed, and a shitty ending if it doesn’t.
Also, I now have a massive crush on Katherine Kelly.
I was ready to quite DW again after that last season being full of sucky episodes. This season also has half garbage. But then you get a really fun one like this latest cyberman episode! I enjoyed it enough that I’m kinda pissed?? I’m back in it again. This is the Doctor Who experience.
As usual, it’s the cast that carries it. Graham is maybe the main reason I’m watching this show. I love this dude. It’s like… wild, that the best character in this latest incarnation of Doctor Who is the white male boomer, but it’s their fault for making him so likable! Put some of this effort into the other companions!
Jodie’s version of the Doctor is also great. I wish we got more lore or personal ambitions, etc, with this version of the Doctor, but her quirks and general mannerisms are delightful.
Ryan and Yasmin exist. As far as I can remember, Yasmin just disappears for half of every episode and pops in at a later point to hurriedly ask a series of questions to the group. I still don’t know what she wants or what she likes or anything like that, she and Ryan could literally just merge into one beige nutrient sludge and I wouldn’t be any the wiser.
I think this is my favorite version of the Master so far. This actor rules. It is never unwelcome to have this motherfucker explode into an episode for no clear reason.
I have very mixed feelings about Whittaker pretty much doing a Tennant style Doctor. It’s a very welcome respite from the cutesy asshole Doctor era, but also I wanna see her make the character her own!
