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MAG.E 6
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MAG.E 6 (Disk 1 of 2).adf
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1977-12-31
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@3"THE HARTNELL YEARS" VIDEOTAPE
@2==============================
@1
Well, since it seems en vogue to be writing reviews of Dr.Who stories, I
thought I'd write one about "The Hartnell Years", which I just bought and
watched.
First, the package :) The box for the video is a pleasant dark blue, much
better than the desceptive pink of "Cybermen: The Early Years". However, I
don't think much of the photograph of Hartnell they chose to put on the
cover... it relly makes him look old and pudgy. :)
But I suppose it's the content that really matters. As in the other
"Years" tapes, the music used is "Doctor Who - Latin Version", arranged and
performed by Keff McCulloch (who wrote the music for "Time & the Rani",
"Delta & the Bannermen", "Remembrance of the Daleks", "Battlefield" and
"Silver Nemesis"). I have the full length version on a CD, and believe me,
it has even cheesier parts in it :). Sylvestor McCoy narrates this video,
and IMHO, he does a great job. The only other "years" tapes I've seen are
"Cybermen" and "The Pertwee Years", and compared to the narrations of CB
and JP, McCoy really does the best job. He also appears in his Dr.Who
costume which I thought was a nice touch (although he needed a haircut...
badly!). His amusing sight gags while surrounded by Dr.Who props and
costumes, probably adlibbed, made the tape even more enjoyable. But, now
onto the Hartnell material...
AN UNEARTHLY CHILD, original pilot episode. I am glad they reshot this
one! Just about everything in the reshoot was a big improvement on this
one. Most notably, the actors do a much better job in the reshoot than
this original (perhaps they had more time to rehearse and think about their
lines). Anway, they didn't seem that much "in character" as they did in
the reshoot. Carole Ann Ford (as Susan) made me wince at several points.
She was REALLY hamming it up! In the flashbacks where Ian and Barbara
recalled all her slip-ups in class, Susan appeared really odd. Everytime
she slipped up, she would look around her very suspiciously.. and I mean
VERY suspiciously (ie: a few sessions of OverActors Annoymous would benefit
Ford at this point!). In the reshoot, she had reworked her role much
better: she seemed more nervous and embarrased by her slip-ups, and didn't
look around her with her eyes bulging out as if thinking "Ha! If they only
knew!". Also, when she was discovered in the TARDIS by Ian and Barbara,
she seemed rather cool and condescending, much the "superior alien"
attitude. In the reshoot, however, she was much, much better. Hartnell
was a little TOO nasty in the original pilot too, especially when he said
that he had no other choice but to kidnap Ian and Barbara. McCoy showed a
scene from the pilot which they had to do a second take because of too much
background noise. Second take??!!!?? My god! That must have been awful for
them. It was painfully obvious while watching the pilot that they didn't
bother to do many retakes, especially when the actors messed up their
lines! Overall, the reshoot had much better production values, and who
knows, maybe they did a few third takes? :) (I did notice in both versions
that in all of the flashbacks of Susan in class over the preceding months
she was always wearing the same clothes... I guess she takes after her
grandfather)
Next up was part 3 of "The Crusade". It is interesting to see how much
Hartnell had developed his character by this time. As McCoy said, he had
softened his personality considerably. This episode had solid
performances, and although I'm not too keen on the historical Dr.Who
stories, I quite enjoyed it.
After this, McCoy showed us a clip from a Hartnell episode (I'm not sure
which one) which was dubbed into Arabic. This was quite amusing! :)
And finally, there was the final episode of "The Celestial Toymaker"...
quite an enjoyable romp. Considering the lower production values of the
series back in the sixties, I think they did quite a good job of this. I
didn't even mind DoDo in this one, although she always got on my nerves
(especially in the "Gunfighters", but let's face it, everyone gets on my
nerves in that one). [Oh, Bud Bennett, I noticed that the Doctor used the
TARDIS external PA system in this one, so that's another answer to your
trivia question.]
Overall, it was an enjoyable watch and worth checking out. The links with
McCoy really helped things move along, as you spend half the time looking
behind him at all the props and monster costumes stacked behind him, trying
to identify them all. It's a pity they didn't show the regeneration scene
from Hartnell to Troughton, but I suppose I'll have to watch "The Troughton
Years" for this!
@2Pat Wigfull