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The (New) Series Two episode "Fear Her" is on at the moment... I had forgotten that the Doctor does say in passing to Rose that he was a father once.

So is Susan his granddaughter or not?
 
I believe that she is. I don't understand why there is apparently controversy about this. There are approximately 300-500 years of his life before "An Unearthly Child". Also, in the new series he mentions his wedding day.
 
Yes... I just remember hearing somewhere she was not and then the recent uproar about him having a child made me think that I was imagining things.

And by the way, since I was at a record store the other day picking up some classic punk rock LP re-issues (Chron-Gen makes me happy) and they had the US DVD set of the first 3 Doctor Who stories used, so I picked it up and have since run into a cheap copy of Pyramids of Mars (about 30 minutes ago, actually) so I can subject my wife to the beginning of the original series (as well as the first appearance of the Daleks) as well as some Tom Baker goodness. Since BBC goods are so overpriced, I am now on the buy what I can find used program of collecting the classic series.

I still wish someone would remaster it like Trek though...
 
Michael L. said:
I still wish someone would remaster it like Trek though...
Click to expand...

Some have been. Several of the ones from the 80s have had new digital effects created to replace the older effects. Also, many have been remixed in 5.1 audio. What is nice is that you can always choose to watch the new version or the old version since both are on the disc. Like the remastered Star Trek, the new effects are subtle and don't call attention to themselves. They are just cleaner.
 
I hate 5.1, but that's why I don't have a surround sound set up!

The re-done effects are interesting though. I haven't run across a DVD touting this yet, although I have looked at very few. I will look into this... if they are only the ones with digital effects to begin with then I probably haven't run across any. I bought the only DVD the used place had and the bookstore where I picked up Pyramids of Mars didn't have anything with Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy. I can't imagine any shows earlier than that having digital effects!

Thanks for the heads up; are they as well done as Star Trek Remastered?
 
Ark In Space, Earthshock, The Five Doctors, Revelation Of The Daleks, and The Curse Of Fenric are ones that I have with redone effects. They are not as elaborate as the ST redone effects. Also, a lot of episodes are redone using the original elements and recomposited using better technology. Robot is an example. Now you don't see through the large robot. Early BBC color separation technology used orange for some reason instead of green or blue like US productions used, so there was a lot of bleed through.

One that I don't have yet, but is supposed to be amazing, is The Invasion. They animated the two lost episodes in a style matching the live footage. The original audio exists for the two episodes, so they didn't need to re-voice anything, just animate them. I don't think it was the same company, but they used a similar style for the recent 10th Doctor/Martha Jones animated series "The Infinite Quest."
 
"The Invasion" is one I have heard about... it is animated by the same group that did Dangermouse, isn't it? The others are pretty low key in their mention of it. I looked up the US release of "The Five Doctors," for example, on Amazon and Warner Home Video (the distributor) and I think only customer reviews mention the re-done special effects!

I have a guess about the orange. Digital green is used because it is a color that does not occur much so it is easy for the computer to pick out without losing unintended bits of the picture, but it could be white, black or any color. Blue was used in analog because it was extremely hard to reproduce, it tended to wash out anyway. Remember "copy-proof" blue pencils and inks that would not show up on photocopies? Same thing. Some SFX people were concerned that using blue would cause problems for effects shot for outdoor, blue sky scenes; the next hardest color for analog reproduction is orange. The BBC crew may have felt that orange promised more flexibility or would work better with PAL. Problem was that it did not work as well!

I am going to stick to my strategy of sticking to used purchases, but I am interested in seeing some of the redone episodes now.
 
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