I just want to talk about this....
If you have been a sensible little boy or girl and had a proper good night's sleep last night, then it may "Surprise" you to know that BBC Worldwide have announced a new DVD and Blu-ray release of Shada, the infamous, incomplete Doctor Who story.... Well, I say incomplete...
The trailer for the new animated version of Shada.
For those of you new to all this, the lowdown is as follows; in 1979 Hitchhiker's Guide author and Doctor Who Script Editor Douglas Adams wrote a six part Doctor Who story that was set to be the final story for Graham Williams' last series. It was meant to be a Time-Lord story not set on Gallifrey, a love letter to Adams' university home of Cambridge, and a whirlwind across space and time looking for the prison planet of the Time Lords.... or it would have been if everyone's other favourite pastime in 1979, union dispute striking and company lockouts, hadn't gotten in the way and left two recording blocks unfinished.... For nearly fifteen years, the story went unfinished, and the only light of day any of it saw was about three short minutes of it in The Five Doctors...
Then, in 1992, after "conning" Douglas Adams into releasing the footage to him to use, John Nathan Turner commissioned a video release of the filmed footage, with new linking material from Tom Baker, this attempt being the third such try he had of getting Shada to be seen... Then in 2003, to celebrate 40 years of Doctor Who, BBC and Big Finish collaborated on an audio Eighth Doctor version of Shada, along with an accompanying webcast.... Then in 2012, BBC announced an official novelisation of Adam's script, to be penned by Gareth Roberts (quite simply, IT WAS GOOD!), and in 2013, the VHS version of Shada was released on DVD along with More Than Thirty Years In The TARDIS.... Oh, and Ian Levine also did an unofficial animated version that didn't get a public release because of rights issues (or so I'm told)...
So, now we have the official sixth version of Shada to be released, coming out in time for the 54th Anniversary of Doctor Who. The main difference here is that, as well as being a re-release of the 2013 DVD, the new version includes animation of the original intended scenes, along with all the surviving original actors returning to provide voices...
So.... my thoughts? Well, I'm not surprised that this is happening, especially by the fact this thing got leaked two months ago... But I treated that news with an air of "Eh, if it happens, it'll be nice..." mood. Now that they've released a short trailer for it... I'm actually a little excited. Not much as I've already exhausted every publicly released version of Shada beforehand, so I pretty well know the story. No, my main draw is what they are doing with it...
The animation on this is being provided by the same crowd that did last years AMAZING Power Of The Daleks recreation and judging from the trailer, the animation is being kept to the same quality, if not slightly better. Plus, the fact they've got all the surviving cast, including Tom Baker, to return to finally complete this damn thing once and for all, is a testament to the quality BBC are going for. I know some people are a bit peeved that this is the next animation project being done instead of a proper lost story, and I do sympathise with them, but I have to admire the way BBC Worldwide are going above and beyond to have the animation do justice to the original footage.
This new version is being set for release on 24th November on digital, and on 4th December for DVD and Blu-ray. And it's the Blu-ray that intrigues me. Especially the fact that they're wanting to upscale the original footage along with the high def animation. But, thinking about it, it's not a bad idea, as the vast majority of Shada's filmed footage is the exterior location filming, which for ease and commodity, was done with regular film instead of videotape, so upscaling it isn't a pointless task.
All in all, the more I think about it, the more I'm actually a little excited for this. And to those who are still annoyed that we're not getting an animated lost story instead, I do sympathise with you... but let me put it this way... if this thing sells well, this and Power will be proof that there's a proper market for animated recreations...
That and, even if you have the original DVD, getting the Blu-Ray won't feel that much like double dipping, as there's going to be more content!
Doctor Who: Shada: The Animated Version is due for release on 24th November on digital, and on 4th December for DVD and Blu-ray. Previous versions are found at respective outlets and stockists.
Original news story: http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/article/unfinished-fourth-doctor-classic-shada-to-be-finally-completed/
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