Welcome back, Orville. Quick answer? I don't know. The visual/conceptual resemblance to the Captain and his bird from the Pirate Planet is inescapable. But it could well be a coincidence.
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Nelvana's Doctor Who
- Thread starter DG Valdron
- Start date
Welcome back, Orville. Quick answer? I don't know. The visual/conceptual resemblance to the Captain and his bird from the Pirate Planet is inescapable. But it could well be a coincidence.
Tardis 204, Spring 2005,
Interview with Ted Bastien, by Anna Boudreau
So tell us about Season 2. Some fans complain about the changes from the first season.
(Laughs) Well, that’s certainly a diplomatic approach. I don’t think Season 2 is all that bad. Doctor Who is an odd cartoon. Everyone loves it, but only certain parts - the light part of season one, or the dark half of it, or the third season, or the second. I think that season 2 was probably our most consistent season.
There’s a general feeling that the animation went downhill a little.
Well, that’s hard to argue with. I think though, that you have to understand the constraints that we were under. With animation, after a while, you start to do some recycling. There’s only so many expressions a face has, once you’ve drawn all of those, it gets simpler to just recycle the motion cycle rather than spend all that time and money drawing it all over again. Walking, same thing, once you’ve got a few cycles of characters walking then that goes in the bank, as it were, and you don’t keep drawing it, you just pull out the walk cycle.
So if people are starting to get familiar - if they say ‘oh wait, the Doctor made that gesture way back in episode six, or he laughed just like that in episode nine, or that’s exactly how he walked in episode ten... Well... Yes! Remember those old Paul Soles Spiderman cartoons.... there were maybe four different web swings, they used them a bunch of times in every episode, and no one ever complained.
Every animation does that, every single one of them. British, Japanese, American, Disney, Hanna Barbara, you name it. We spend a lot of money doing these drawings - motion cycles, backgrounds, you name it, and you don’t have an unlimited budget, so of course your recycle.
The longer you’re around, the more you do it. Hanna Barbera, they ran the Flintstones for years. It got to the point, they could literally churn out a new Flintstone’s episode in a week - 5000 drawings, and 4500 are in the can - you’d introduce a new character a new situation, minimal drawing, mix and match from your bank, and that’s it!
And that’s what you did in the second season?
Of course. Now, in the second season, what threw us for a loop was the order.
The Order of the episodes?
No, no. The total number of episodes. We were set to do 13. We had budgeted for thirteen, and when I say budgeted, we were looking at a standard second year budget. So we weren’t spending as much money, we had all these cycles and backgrounds in the bank. Really, our budget was about half or two thirds what it was. Our production timetables were about a third shorter, again, so much was already drawn. What happened was the purchaser, at the last minute, comes to us and says "We really liked what you did with Doctor Who, tell you what, instead of thirteen, give us twenty episodes." Sure, there was some extra money for the extra episodes, but not that much. So suddenly, we were stuck doing 20 episodes, in the time and for the money that in the first season would have gotten us eight to ten. The big crunch was time, there was just no extra time for a workload that had increased by fifty per cent.
So how did you cope?
We raided the vaults! We couldn’t just rely on our own bank. Nelvana had some other series in the can. Droids and Ewoks, everyone knows those. We went out, swiped backgrounds, borrowed footage wherever we could. It got spotted of course. But it looked good, and it got done. We borrowed a lot of artwork from Rock and Rule. Literally, we were going through Nelvana’s videotapes, making notes, going ‘can we borrow this’, ‘can we steal that’, ‘nice background!’
That must have complicated the writing?
Oh yes it did! First season, we would just commission scripts the normal way. Someone had an idea, we’d flesh it out, and someone would write a script. But this time? Half the time, we were going "okay, you have these backgrounds, you have a scene with a skimmer shooting across the dunes, you have a giant robot, now give us a story with the Rani in it!" Or we’d go "Nice script, but instead of New York, can you set it on Tatooine... and add a dinosaur." If you do that, you’re going to be getting a lot of your scripts in late, so then that handicaps you, the actors aren’t able to rehearse it properly, you’re rushed in your decision making, your visual direction and instructions. It would get frantic. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy, and I don’t ever intend to be that busy again. But it was an experience, and I was always amazed that we got it all done on time, and done as well as it did.
You used a lot of two parters and even a couple of three parters. There was a lot of intercontinuity references. Was that an attempt to emulate the serial format of the original series?
No, not at all. That was another attempt to stretch the budget. We had plans for thirteen single episodes. We intended to do single episodes. We needed twenty. So we ended up going ‘this script for a single episode, could you stretch it out over two parts?’ That way, we could reuse all the backgrounds, and if we were drawing new characters, we could keep them in play longer, we were literally recycling as we were drawing. That was important, as the cast of bad guys had changed completely. We had almost nothing in the bank for the Master for instance.
There was a lot of internal continuity to this season, the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Yes and no. Our goal was to make the episodes as stand alone as possible. I mean, if your audience has to know about the three or four previous episodes to get something out of it... then you’re not going to build your audience. Even two parters, that wasn’t our plan originally. But then, you’ve got basically an interlocking supporting cast of villains, you find yourself throwing in oblique references. I think the most blatant was when the Mutants were escaping from the Rani, she’s talked about very clearly, but the point is that they’re henchmen who are trying to escape... you don’t need the whole backstory, the episode is self contained in that the monsters are trying to get away from the bad guys. The continuity references were basically things that if you didn’t get them, it wouldn’t spoil your enjoyment of the episode. If you did get them, fine. But they weren’t vital.
The second season seemed closer in terms of continuity to the live action series?
That was deliberate. The first season, we took a lot of liberties with the concept. You can’t expect twelve year olds in North America to be up on the lore of twenty-five years of a British Series. So we were all very concerned that it be as accessible as possible. The second season, I think we were a bit more comfortable, and there were reference materials available, and the hardcore fans kept writing us letters. So yes, we deliberately brought the backstory and the world much closer to the live action series. But again, you want to do it so that it’s not vital. If we did a cartoon episode, and the only way you could understand what’s going on would be to have watched years of the original series... well, we wouldn’t be doing our job.
Attack of the Cybermen?
I don’t know what that means.
A lot of people compare this series to Tom Baker’s ‘Key to Time’ serial?
Is that a question? I’m sorry, I’m not that familiar with the reference.
Season 16 of the Live Action Doctor Who. Tom Baker’s Doctor goes on a quest to find and assemble the Key to Time, which will give the wielder infinite power. So every serial deals with him finding another piece of the Key?
I still don’t get it.
Was the Time Crystal your version of the Key to Time? In both the live series and the cartoon series, the Doctor is searching for a crystal that gives infinite power over time and space. Were you trying to imitate the live series?
Oh. Okay, I see it now. The answer is no. The Time Crystal was basically a McGuffin. It didn’t mean anything, it was just a device to move the plot. The Doctor goes to a mysterious, dangerous, planet - well, why does he bother? Why doesn’t he go get a pizza instead? You need a motive. So we invented the Time Crystal. He’s looking for the Time Crystal. Why? The Time Lords want him to find it? Why? Who knows. Or the bad guys are about to get their hands on it... Which would be bad... so the Doctor has to do something. We were borrowing footage from other cartoon series, even recycling from Rock and Rule, it doesn’t match at all - explanation - it’s the time crystal. It was just convenient, you needed motivation, you needed to explain something, it’s the time crystal. What it looked like, what it did, that didn’t really matter. I think that the drawing changed a few times. It’s properties changed. It was really only central to a couple of episodes, and that wasn’t consistent. It was a plot device, that’s all.
I suppose the Key to Time was also just a plot device.
I would assume so.
The second season saw some changes in the supporting cast?
Well, Maurice and Cree, they were always our backbone. The core of the show was the Doctor, Casey and K9. As we were reflecting on the first season though, we felt that the cast was too old overall. I love Don Franks work. But we decided that it should be more about Casey and her friends, that was the demographic we were aiming for. Doctor Who having a teenage companion, that was one thing. Having a bunch of them, that was getting kind of creepy. So we opted for this revolving cast of Casey’s friends coming in and out, showing up, you see.
The second season was more .... Toyetic (aimed at merchandising toy lines)?
That was very deliberate. We tried that as well in the first season, but we simply did it better.
Any other comments?
In the first season, we really had trouble shifting between light and darkness. We started out with half the season being very lighthearted, even silly. Then half way through, it got almost dark, grim, very serious. Almost nightmarish in some ways - end of the world stuff, crazy old men destroying the earth, parasites taking over peoples minds. The Daleks, we misfired with the Daleks, they were dead serious and quite nasty. Compare that to the cybermen at the start, they looked like chrome skeletons but mostly they were goofy.
Not being able to keep that consistent tone hurt us, I think. It was bad storytelling. We should have mixed them up, but instead it was funny-ha ha, the first half, and eek-scary the second half. It was hard to build an audience from that.
So in this second season, we opted to avoid getting dark. We wanted light adventure. The world was not going to blow up, no one was going to die, nothing scary. We hit that mark. The second season had a consistent tone, it was fun, it was adventurous, it never got too dark or scary, and didn’t get too silly. I’m very proud of it.
The ratings did go down from the first season though?
Yes and no. The ratings for the first season were all over the map. We had some very highly rated episodes, and several poorly rated ones. Overall we were much more consistent. We didn’t reach any of the heights of the first season, but we also didn’t have any bad episodes. Our averages were a little worse than the first season, but it wasn’t too substantial. But I don’t think that was unique for us. Still, the consensus in house was that the ratings weren’t good enough. Which is why the third season was postponed for 18 months, and why it was dramatically different.
How do you feel that your season compares to the original series?
There’s no comparison. It’s an adaptation, a complete adaptation with a different audience, different technology, different era, different audience. There’s no way to compare it to a British serial in the 1970's starring Tom Baker and aimed at a general television viewing audience, we’re a North American cartoon, aiming at 8 to 14 year old boys on Saturday mornings. I don’t know, I would like to think that the Brits, if they looked and took account, they’d recognize this as their show, a version of their show.
But the proper standard of comparison is for the other animated series of the 80's and 90's. It’s not the most famous. We weren’t the most profitable, or the longest running, or the most expensive. But I think we did very good work, we did something that was different, that was unique, that drew from very different traditions. I’m proud of the work.
Interview with Ted Bastien, by Anna Boudreau
So tell us about Season 2. Some fans complain about the changes from the first season.
(Laughs) Well, that’s certainly a diplomatic approach. I don’t think Season 2 is all that bad. Doctor Who is an odd cartoon. Everyone loves it, but only certain parts - the light part of season one, or the dark half of it, or the third season, or the second. I think that season 2 was probably our most consistent season.
There’s a general feeling that the animation went downhill a little.
Well, that’s hard to argue with. I think though, that you have to understand the constraints that we were under. With animation, after a while, you start to do some recycling. There’s only so many expressions a face has, once you’ve drawn all of those, it gets simpler to just recycle the motion cycle rather than spend all that time and money drawing it all over again. Walking, same thing, once you’ve got a few cycles of characters walking then that goes in the bank, as it were, and you don’t keep drawing it, you just pull out the walk cycle.
So if people are starting to get familiar - if they say ‘oh wait, the Doctor made that gesture way back in episode six, or he laughed just like that in episode nine, or that’s exactly how he walked in episode ten... Well... Yes! Remember those old Paul Soles Spiderman cartoons.... there were maybe four different web swings, they used them a bunch of times in every episode, and no one ever complained.
Every animation does that, every single one of them. British, Japanese, American, Disney, Hanna Barbara, you name it. We spend a lot of money doing these drawings - motion cycles, backgrounds, you name it, and you don’t have an unlimited budget, so of course your recycle.
The longer you’re around, the more you do it. Hanna Barbera, they ran the Flintstones for years. It got to the point, they could literally churn out a new Flintstone’s episode in a week - 5000 drawings, and 4500 are in the can - you’d introduce a new character a new situation, minimal drawing, mix and match from your bank, and that’s it!
And that’s what you did in the second season?
Of course. Now, in the second season, what threw us for a loop was the order.
The Order of the episodes?
No, no. The total number of episodes. We were set to do 13. We had budgeted for thirteen, and when I say budgeted, we were looking at a standard second year budget. So we weren’t spending as much money, we had all these cycles and backgrounds in the bank. Really, our budget was about half or two thirds what it was. Our production timetables were about a third shorter, again, so much was already drawn. What happened was the purchaser, at the last minute, comes to us and says "We really liked what you did with Doctor Who, tell you what, instead of thirteen, give us twenty episodes." Sure, there was some extra money for the extra episodes, but not that much. So suddenly, we were stuck doing 20 episodes, in the time and for the money that in the first season would have gotten us eight to ten. The big crunch was time, there was just no extra time for a workload that had increased by fifty per cent.
So how did you cope?
We raided the vaults! We couldn’t just rely on our own bank. Nelvana had some other series in the can. Droids and Ewoks, everyone knows those. We went out, swiped backgrounds, borrowed footage wherever we could. It got spotted of course. But it looked good, and it got done. We borrowed a lot of artwork from Rock and Rule. Literally, we were going through Nelvana’s videotapes, making notes, going ‘can we borrow this’, ‘can we steal that’, ‘nice background!’
That must have complicated the writing?
Oh yes it did! First season, we would just commission scripts the normal way. Someone had an idea, we’d flesh it out, and someone would write a script. But this time? Half the time, we were going "okay, you have these backgrounds, you have a scene with a skimmer shooting across the dunes, you have a giant robot, now give us a story with the Rani in it!" Or we’d go "Nice script, but instead of New York, can you set it on Tatooine... and add a dinosaur." If you do that, you’re going to be getting a lot of your scripts in late, so then that handicaps you, the actors aren’t able to rehearse it properly, you’re rushed in your decision making, your visual direction and instructions. It would get frantic. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy, and I don’t ever intend to be that busy again. But it was an experience, and I was always amazed that we got it all done on time, and done as well as it did.
You used a lot of two parters and even a couple of three parters. There was a lot of intercontinuity references. Was that an attempt to emulate the serial format of the original series?
No, not at all. That was another attempt to stretch the budget. We had plans for thirteen single episodes. We intended to do single episodes. We needed twenty. So we ended up going ‘this script for a single episode, could you stretch it out over two parts?’ That way, we could reuse all the backgrounds, and if we were drawing new characters, we could keep them in play longer, we were literally recycling as we were drawing. That was important, as the cast of bad guys had changed completely. We had almost nothing in the bank for the Master for instance.
There was a lot of internal continuity to this season, the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Yes and no. Our goal was to make the episodes as stand alone as possible. I mean, if your audience has to know about the three or four previous episodes to get something out of it... then you’re not going to build your audience. Even two parters, that wasn’t our plan originally. But then, you’ve got basically an interlocking supporting cast of villains, you find yourself throwing in oblique references. I think the most blatant was when the Mutants were escaping from the Rani, she’s talked about very clearly, but the point is that they’re henchmen who are trying to escape... you don’t need the whole backstory, the episode is self contained in that the monsters are trying to get away from the bad guys. The continuity references were basically things that if you didn’t get them, it wouldn’t spoil your enjoyment of the episode. If you did get them, fine. But they weren’t vital.
The second season seemed closer in terms of continuity to the live action series?
That was deliberate. The first season, we took a lot of liberties with the concept. You can’t expect twelve year olds in North America to be up on the lore of twenty-five years of a British Series. So we were all very concerned that it be as accessible as possible. The second season, I think we were a bit more comfortable, and there were reference materials available, and the hardcore fans kept writing us letters. So yes, we deliberately brought the backstory and the world much closer to the live action series. But again, you want to do it so that it’s not vital. If we did a cartoon episode, and the only way you could understand what’s going on would be to have watched years of the original series... well, we wouldn’t be doing our job.
Attack of the Cybermen?
I don’t know what that means.
A lot of people compare this series to Tom Baker’s ‘Key to Time’ serial?
Is that a question? I’m sorry, I’m not that familiar with the reference.
Season 16 of the Live Action Doctor Who. Tom Baker’s Doctor goes on a quest to find and assemble the Key to Time, which will give the wielder infinite power. So every serial deals with him finding another piece of the Key?
I still don’t get it.
Was the Time Crystal your version of the Key to Time? In both the live series and the cartoon series, the Doctor is searching for a crystal that gives infinite power over time and space. Were you trying to imitate the live series?
Oh. Okay, I see it now. The answer is no. The Time Crystal was basically a McGuffin. It didn’t mean anything, it was just a device to move the plot. The Doctor goes to a mysterious, dangerous, planet - well, why does he bother? Why doesn’t he go get a pizza instead? You need a motive. So we invented the Time Crystal. He’s looking for the Time Crystal. Why? The Time Lords want him to find it? Why? Who knows. Or the bad guys are about to get their hands on it... Which would be bad... so the Doctor has to do something. We were borrowing footage from other cartoon series, even recycling from Rock and Rule, it doesn’t match at all - explanation - it’s the time crystal. It was just convenient, you needed motivation, you needed to explain something, it’s the time crystal. What it looked like, what it did, that didn’t really matter. I think that the drawing changed a few times. It’s properties changed. It was really only central to a couple of episodes, and that wasn’t consistent. It was a plot device, that’s all.
I suppose the Key to Time was also just a plot device.
I would assume so.
The second season saw some changes in the supporting cast?
Well, Maurice and Cree, they were always our backbone. The core of the show was the Doctor, Casey and K9. As we were reflecting on the first season though, we felt that the cast was too old overall. I love Don Franks work. But we decided that it should be more about Casey and her friends, that was the demographic we were aiming for. Doctor Who having a teenage companion, that was one thing. Having a bunch of them, that was getting kind of creepy. So we opted for this revolving cast of Casey’s friends coming in and out, showing up, you see.
The second season was more .... Toyetic (aimed at merchandising toy lines)?
That was very deliberate. We tried that as well in the first season, but we simply did it better.
Any other comments?
In the first season, we really had trouble shifting between light and darkness. We started out with half the season being very lighthearted, even silly. Then half way through, it got almost dark, grim, very serious. Almost nightmarish in some ways - end of the world stuff, crazy old men destroying the earth, parasites taking over peoples minds. The Daleks, we misfired with the Daleks, they were dead serious and quite nasty. Compare that to the cybermen at the start, they looked like chrome skeletons but mostly they were goofy.
Not being able to keep that consistent tone hurt us, I think. It was bad storytelling. We should have mixed them up, but instead it was funny-ha ha, the first half, and eek-scary the second half. It was hard to build an audience from that.
So in this second season, we opted to avoid getting dark. We wanted light adventure. The world was not going to blow up, no one was going to die, nothing scary. We hit that mark. The second season had a consistent tone, it was fun, it was adventurous, it never got too dark or scary, and didn’t get too silly. I’m very proud of it.
The ratings did go down from the first season though?
Yes and no. The ratings for the first season were all over the map. We had some very highly rated episodes, and several poorly rated ones. Overall we were much more consistent. We didn’t reach any of the heights of the first season, but we also didn’t have any bad episodes. Our averages were a little worse than the first season, but it wasn’t too substantial. But I don’t think that was unique for us. Still, the consensus in house was that the ratings weren’t good enough. Which is why the third season was postponed for 18 months, and why it was dramatically different.
How do you feel that your season compares to the original series?
There’s no comparison. It’s an adaptation, a complete adaptation with a different audience, different technology, different era, different audience. There’s no way to compare it to a British serial in the 1970's starring Tom Baker and aimed at a general television viewing audience, we’re a North American cartoon, aiming at 8 to 14 year old boys on Saturday mornings. I don’t know, I would like to think that the Brits, if they looked and took account, they’d recognize this as their show, a version of their show.
But the proper standard of comparison is for the other animated series of the 80's and 90's. It’s not the most famous. We weren’t the most profitable, or the longest running, or the most expensive. But I think we did very good work, we did something that was different, that was unique, that drew from very different traditions. I’m proud of the work.
K9 and the Doctor
(Reprinted from The Encyclopedia of Saturday Morning Cartoons, Random House, 2002)
After the second season of Doctor Who, the series was not picked up by CBS for the next broadcast season. A series outline for a third season was prepared, and scripts and storyboards were commissioned. But development work was halted when the series failed to sell.
Although Doctor Who went off the air in the United States, the series ran again in Canada on the CTV network. There were additional sales in the Australian and New Zealand market, in France, and in some minor markets. There was sufficient income and interest from international markets that Nelvana felt it worthwhile to continue to pursue development.
On the next buying round, the Americans again passed. However, at this time, informal commitments were made to purchase a limited run, on condition of substantial changes in the series format.
At this time, Nelvana was having substantial success with the Care Bears franchise, aimed at a younger demographic. Cartoons oriented towards the 8 to 14 male market were coming under increasing fire, and subject to more and more restrictions on violent acts and language. The decision was made to re-orient the show towards the 4 to 12 boys and girls demographic.
The series was renamed K9 and the Doctor, and the role of K9 was expanded considerably. The robot dog was given substantially more personality and was often the decisive character in the series. The Doctor and Casey remained as central characters, but the relationship between Casey and K9 was moved to the foreground. Casey was de-aged to a pre-teen, roughly 10 to 12, and her colour was bleached changing her from a relatively light skinned African-American to a caucasian. The Doctor was also redrawn slightly, this new version being older and smaller and notably more eccentric with childlike qualities. His role was reduced substantially, often simply conveying the cast to and from their adventure. His relationship was officially Casey’s grandmother, and it was established that he was babysitting for her parents.
Two other supporting cast members were added - John and Gillian, twin nephew and niece of the Doctor, both younger and smaller than Casey, age estimated at 8 to 10, although they only appeared in four of the seven episodes. They were voiced by Maurice LaMarche and Cree Summer-Franks respectively, who also played the Doctor and Casey. LaMarche and Summer-Franks were the only members of the voice cast to carry on from prior seasons.
Opposing them were the Doctor’s Nemesis, the Master, and his robotic henchmen - the Trods and Quarks. At that time, both toy lines were continuing to be marketed.
The revised series was rigidly formulaic along the lines of Inspector Gadget. Typically, the Doctor, Casey and K9 (sometimes accompanied by John and Gillian) would travel to a new location as part of Casey’s studies. This would turn out to be the site of some plot by the Master, which Casey and K9 would discover. If John and Gillian were appearing, one or both would be captured by the Master or his henchmen. Casey and K9 would attempt to foil the Master’s scheme. The Master would defeat K9, but Casey would intervene to rescue the robot dog, using whatever lesson was the centerpiece of the episode, and then K9 would defeat the Master, who would then flee. The conclusion of the episode would amount to a restatement of the important lesson.
The seven episode titles are:
3.01 Doctor and the Dinosaurs
3.02 Casey and Columbus
3.03 Gillian and the Moon Landing
3.04 Casey and the Cavemen
3.05 John and Julius
3.06 Doctor and the Underwater City
3.07 Casey and the Spaceship
The final series would feature the lowest per-episode budget of Nelvana’s three seasons of Doctor Who, and the most limited animation. Most backgrounds and background character images were recycled from the first two seasons, the existing footages of the Tardis, Tardis Interior, the Master, the Trods and the Quarks were all heavily reused.
CBS made an initial buy of seven episodes, with an option for a further six. Nelvana again commissioned scripts and storyboards for the further six episodes, but the option was not exercised. This revised version of the series failed to garner any international sales at all, except for a single run buy in from a Canadian broadcaster.
At this point, Nelvana made the decision not to continue to pursue projects under the Doctor Who franchise, and allowed its rights to lapse two years later.
K9 and the Doctor is generally seen as the weakest of Nelvana's three seasons, due to the poor quality of animation and formulaic storytelling. However, it does have a small group of adherents, who prize it for its treatment of its youthful protagonists and for the relationship between Casey and K9. Parents magazine scored it an A- and complimented the emphasis on positive lessons and values combined with exotic locations.
The third season is not available on VHS or DVD, although bootleg copies from the original transmissions are shared among collectors.
(Reprinted from The Encyclopedia of Saturday Morning Cartoons, Random House, 2002)
After the second season of Doctor Who, the series was not picked up by CBS for the next broadcast season. A series outline for a third season was prepared, and scripts and storyboards were commissioned. But development work was halted when the series failed to sell.
Although Doctor Who went off the air in the United States, the series ran again in Canada on the CTV network. There were additional sales in the Australian and New Zealand market, in France, and in some minor markets. There was sufficient income and interest from international markets that Nelvana felt it worthwhile to continue to pursue development.
On the next buying round, the Americans again passed. However, at this time, informal commitments were made to purchase a limited run, on condition of substantial changes in the series format.
At this time, Nelvana was having substantial success with the Care Bears franchise, aimed at a younger demographic. Cartoons oriented towards the 8 to 14 male market were coming under increasing fire, and subject to more and more restrictions on violent acts and language. The decision was made to re-orient the show towards the 4 to 12 boys and girls demographic.
The series was renamed K9 and the Doctor, and the role of K9 was expanded considerably. The robot dog was given substantially more personality and was often the decisive character in the series. The Doctor and Casey remained as central characters, but the relationship between Casey and K9 was moved to the foreground. Casey was de-aged to a pre-teen, roughly 10 to 12, and her colour was bleached changing her from a relatively light skinned African-American to a caucasian. The Doctor was also redrawn slightly, this new version being older and smaller and notably more eccentric with childlike qualities. His role was reduced substantially, often simply conveying the cast to and from their adventure. His relationship was officially Casey’s grandmother, and it was established that he was babysitting for her parents.
Two other supporting cast members were added - John and Gillian, twin nephew and niece of the Doctor, both younger and smaller than Casey, age estimated at 8 to 10, although they only appeared in four of the seven episodes. They were voiced by Maurice LaMarche and Cree Summer-Franks respectively, who also played the Doctor and Casey. LaMarche and Summer-Franks were the only members of the voice cast to carry on from prior seasons.
Opposing them were the Doctor’s Nemesis, the Master, and his robotic henchmen - the Trods and Quarks. At that time, both toy lines were continuing to be marketed.
The revised series was rigidly formulaic along the lines of Inspector Gadget. Typically, the Doctor, Casey and K9 (sometimes accompanied by John and Gillian) would travel to a new location as part of Casey’s studies. This would turn out to be the site of some plot by the Master, which Casey and K9 would discover. If John and Gillian were appearing, one or both would be captured by the Master or his henchmen. Casey and K9 would attempt to foil the Master’s scheme. The Master would defeat K9, but Casey would intervene to rescue the robot dog, using whatever lesson was the centerpiece of the episode, and then K9 would defeat the Master, who would then flee. The conclusion of the episode would amount to a restatement of the important lesson.
The seven episode titles are:
3.01 Doctor and the Dinosaurs
3.02 Casey and Columbus
3.03 Gillian and the Moon Landing
3.04 Casey and the Cavemen
3.05 John and Julius
3.06 Doctor and the Underwater City
3.07 Casey and the Spaceship
The final series would feature the lowest per-episode budget of Nelvana’s three seasons of Doctor Who, and the most limited animation. Most backgrounds and background character images were recycled from the first two seasons, the existing footages of the Tardis, Tardis Interior, the Master, the Trods and the Quarks were all heavily reused.
CBS made an initial buy of seven episodes, with an option for a further six. Nelvana again commissioned scripts and storyboards for the further six episodes, but the option was not exercised. This revised version of the series failed to garner any international sales at all, except for a single run buy in from a Canadian broadcaster.
At this point, Nelvana made the decision not to continue to pursue projects under the Doctor Who franchise, and allowed its rights to lapse two years later.
K9 and the Doctor is generally seen as the weakest of Nelvana's three seasons, due to the poor quality of animation and formulaic storytelling. However, it does have a small group of adherents, who prize it for its treatment of its youthful protagonists and for the relationship between Casey and K9. Parents magazine scored it an A- and complimented the emphasis on positive lessons and values combined with exotic locations.
The third season is not available on VHS or DVD, although bootleg copies from the original transmissions are shared among collectors.
Interesting to see the cabal of evil time lords at the end of season one. It reminds me a little of the cabal of super-villains from the 1966 Batman film
I'm a little surprised that the Monk didn't appear again. I guess that he was more or less displaced by the Master, but as you say, he could have worked well with Troughton. There were rumours a couple of years ago that he would appear in the new series with Patrick Stewart cast in the role.
There's some similarity with the Celestial Toymaker there. Given that the BBC tweaked the limits of copyright ownership in that story ("Of course Cyril the schoolboy isn't meant to be Billy Bunter"), Nelvana could probably get away with any similarity.
Cheers,
Nigel.
I'm a little surprised that the Monk didn't appear again. I guess that he was more or less displaced by the Master, but as you say, he could have worked well with Troughton. There were rumours a couple of years ago that he would appear in the new series with Patrick Stewart cast in the role.
There's some similarity with the Celestial Toymaker there. Given that the BBC tweaked the limits of copyright ownership in that story ("Of course Cyril the schoolboy isn't meant to be Billy Bunter"), Nelvana could probably get away with any similarity.
Cheers,
Nigel.
Yep. Brayshaw's War Chief was the Time Lord. He was subordinate to the War Lord who was head of the operation. That left scope for Brayshaw's War Chief to have regular bitchfests against the Security Chief, and scheme to overthrow and replace the War Lord. As it turns out, the War Lord has him shot to death, and shortly after, Troughton calls in the Time Lords on the whole operation.
I have to wonder though - why the War Chief was such a subordinate. The whole operation depended on the technology he supplied, but despite this, he had to fight for second banana. Of course, it gave the character a lot more scope.
I had Nelvana muddy the waters by calling their War Chief the War Leader. A bit of political correctness going on there. They didn't want to use War Chief for fear of offending Indians in Canada. But they didn't want to call him the War Lord because they already had Time Lords. So War Leader ended up as the compromise.
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Very much so. Or Spider Man's Sinister Six. Or a lot of villain team ups. Thematically, it was a bit of a misstep by Nelvana, because for the cartoon, this was the first appearance of any of them. So instead of 'Ultimate Alliance of Super Villainz!' It was just a bunch of guys showing up with no prior history. It kind of undermined Nelvana's hopes for a big finish.
Never understood that myself. Peter Butterworth was a working actor right up to 1979, and he'd have been available for both Troughton and Pertwee, even for much of Tom Baker's run. He was literally only a phone call away.
If you'd like to watch a fairly decent adventure of the Monk, with the Master and Rani thrown in for good measure, I'll recommend Time Stealers 4, the Three Masters. It's by far the most polished and fun of the Time Stealer's fan film series, the cinematography and editing reaches professional levels, the story is engrossing, and several of the performances are not bad at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRXyBKrxojg&feature=youtu.be
Definitely. In his every appearance I wrote the Monk as playing some sort of game - Dinosaur Fun Land, Galactic Fun Land, so there were definitely nods to the Toymaker in my mind. Oddly, the Toymaker seemed such a humorless character.
A couple of Tiny Postscripts on K9 and the Doctor
Extreme nerds like myself will know that John and Gillian were the Doctor's grandchildren in the Doctor Who comic strips of the 60's. Originally, they were pre-teens who were sent by their (absent) (unidentified) parents to visit with their grandfather, who turned out to live in a police box in the junkyard. He then took them on a series of completely non-parentally approved adventures through time and space. When Troughton came in, John and Gillian were instantly upgraded, without explanation, to teenagers. Eventually, they were written out as the strip went along.
The infantilization of Doctor Who to 'K9 and the Doctor' is inspired by the similar flanderization of 'The Real Ghostbusters cartoon,' which in the third season, changed its name to 'Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters' and the re-vision of that series to aim for a younger audience.
Saturday morning cartoons were pretty competitive, many didn't last more than a season or two, and there was a strong incentive to target a younger audience. So this phenomenon was hardly unusual. Of course, the usual tendency was to just cancel and replace with something more child friendly: Droids gets replaced by Ewoks gets replaced by Care Bears. But with some series, you'd get a dramatic retune, as they tried to salvage the franchise.
Would a real Nelvana Doctor Who have ended like this? Probably not, but you never know. Nelvana's real breakthrough was with Care Bears, so they may well have been inspired to push all their productions in that winning direction.
More likely, a real Nelvana Doctor Who probably would have been one season, or would have only lasted two or three seasons at best. Saturday morning Cartoons were incredibly competitive, and for every Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles or He Man there was an army of one season wonders. A long life was unlikely.
Extreme nerds like myself will know that John and Gillian were the Doctor's grandchildren in the Doctor Who comic strips of the 60's. Originally, they were pre-teens who were sent by their (absent) (unidentified) parents to visit with their grandfather, who turned out to live in a police box in the junkyard. He then took them on a series of completely non-parentally approved adventures through time and space. When Troughton came in, John and Gillian were instantly upgraded, without explanation, to teenagers. Eventually, they were written out as the strip went along.
The infantilization of Doctor Who to 'K9 and the Doctor' is inspired by the similar flanderization of 'The Real Ghostbusters cartoon,' which in the third season, changed its name to 'Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters' and the re-vision of that series to aim for a younger audience.
Saturday morning cartoons were pretty competitive, many didn't last more than a season or two, and there was a strong incentive to target a younger audience. So this phenomenon was hardly unusual. Of course, the usual tendency was to just cancel and replace with something more child friendly: Droids gets replaced by Ewoks gets replaced by Care Bears. But with some series, you'd get a dramatic retune, as they tried to salvage the franchise.
Would a real Nelvana Doctor Who have ended like this? Probably not, but you never know. Nelvana's real breakthrough was with Care Bears, so they may well have been inspired to push all their productions in that winning direction.
More likely, a real Nelvana Doctor Who probably would have been one season, or would have only lasted two or three seasons at best. Saturday morning Cartoons were incredibly competitive, and for every Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles or He Man there was an army of one season wonders. A long life was unlikely.
I've only discovered this thread today, and read it all in one sitting - just to let you know I think it's great. As a Doctor Who fan, it's fascinating to see it distorted through the funhouse mirror of the 80s Saturday cartoon format, as well as all the "real life" elements - Terry Nation's and Michael Grade's involvement being highlights. Especially enjoyed the villainous Time Lord team up episode! 
One thing to note, the furious reactions of UK Who fans aside, is that an awful lot of these sorts of US (and also European) cartoon series did show up on British TV, either on Saturday mornings or in the weekday afternoon "after school" programming that both main channels did in those days. I'm not sure how the ownership rights would complicate matters, but it seems like a plausible development for the series to find its way onto Children's BBC in the early 1990s - whether it could develop a following there and how that might affect any of the abortive 90s Who reboot projects, I have no idea.
One thing to note, the furious reactions of UK Who fans aside, is that an awful lot of these sorts of US (and also European) cartoon series did show up on British TV, either on Saturday mornings or in the weekday afternoon "after school" programming that both main channels did in those days. I'm not sure how the ownership rights would complicate matters, but it seems like a plausible development for the series to find its way onto Children's BBC in the early 1990s - whether it could develop a following there and how that might affect any of the abortive 90s Who reboot projects, I have no idea.
I think it would be complicated by the fact that the BBC were the original rights holders. The BBC would probably retain broadcast rights for the Cartoon, so there's no real money for Nelvana to sell to them, and certainly no option of selling to ITV etc.
It might well have made it onto Children's BBC at some point, I suppose. But whether it would have an impact would depend on how it was presented. There's an immense number of Saturday morning cartoons that came and went.
I suspect that British fans would have moderated over time. Their big objection to the animated series would be "But it's not the live series." I think that it might have acquired a little 'cult within the cult' status, with VHS bootlegs in regular trading, the mockery taking on a fond edge.
As to what impact it might have had? On general pop culture, not too much. But it might have made the concept of an animated series more palatable, and might have changed up some of the online stuff.
We could, hypothetically, have seen the Scream of the Shalka people on BBCi managing another couple of stories of the Shalka Doctor, just as a warm up.
As it was, the Shalka Doctor was essentially T-boned when they decided to commit to a live action series. But hypothetically, there was still a window of time to do more Shalka Doctor stories in that format - Blood of the Robots would have been terrific from what I know of it, much quirkier and more fun than Shalka, with perhaps more use of the potential of flash animation.
If Russell T. Davies and the BBC saw the Shalka online serials as a kind of warm up act, rather than detracting from the Brand, it could have turned out differently. So its possible that a successful or semi-successful Nelvana Doctor might have changed attitudes just that little bit.
Of course, the big handicap of the Shalka crew was that they were learning on the spot and reinventing every wheel as they went, and I'm not sure that would change.
We might have seen one of the British houses, Cosgrove Hall or Aardman taking a wee stab at the Doctor, just based on the fact that there was a working precedent. Perhaps during the Tenant period - there was lots of crazy stuff going on in the Tenant Era - three spin off series in Torchwood, Sarah Jane, and Doctor Who Confidential, plus one offs like Infinite Quest, Dreamland and Music of the Spheres.
Anyway, thanks for reading - please feel free to go take a look at my David Burton - Doctor Who timeline. Also bite sized.
Separated at Birth!
This is a follow up to post #126 about the Trods. The Trods, by the way, were a real, genuine, authentic Doctor Who monster. I didn't make that part up.
The Trods were created by the Doctor Who comic strip. Back in the 1960's,the Doctor Who comic strips wer published through 'TV Comics' It seems that what happened was Terry Nation licensed the Daleks to 'TV Century 21'.
The Doctor Who comic strip didn't have the rights so they couldn't use the Daleks in their Doctor Who strips. This was kind of inconvenient as the Doctor without Daleks is like Peanut Butter without Chocolate - what you gonna do for your Reeses Pieces then, ET?
What they - and by this I mean writer Roger Noel Cook and artist John Canning, created substitute Daleks - the Trods. You didn't have to think hard to see the Trods as substitute Daleks - both Trods and Daleks 'robot races' - the Trods being full out robots. Both ran (initially) on static electricity. Whereas the Daleks were roughly cone shaped, the Trods were inverted cones on Tractor threads.
Here's what they looked like....
The Trods own stories and appearances paralleled the Daleks. Pursued by the Trods is essentially the Dalek story, The Chase, with the serial numbers filed off. In a comic strip of the Space Museum, an empty Trod casing is on display.
Ultimately, the Trods were undone by the Daleks, both literally and literarily. TV Comics got the rights to the Daleks from TV Century 21. And when that happened, the Daleks showed up in the comics and killed off the Trods.
Too bad, so sad. Of course, the Trods never appeared in the live action series.... Or did they?
Take a look at this guy:
Notice a resemblance - the loosely inverted cone shaped barrel body, the shoulder projections, the cone shaped head with face-like features, the short stubby legs?
If this isn't a Trod, it's something that could pass for one with a coat of paint and a pair of sunglasses. To me, it looks very much like an adaptation of the drawing, with adjustments for practicalities of the man in a suit - so block-like feet instead of a pair of caterpillar treads, and manipulator arms in front rather than spidery claws on the sides. But it's very, very Trodlike. Maybe I'm wrong, decide for yourself.
What the hell is it doing in the live action show? What is it? Where is it?
This guy is a 'Servo Robot' , played by Freddy Foote, from the Patrick Troughton serial, Wheel in Space, first episode, airing April 27, 1967.
Now, the background of this guy, is that the Tardis has an accident and has to land on this empty/derelict spaceship. Some McGuffin about a mercury leak. The Doctor and Jamie have to exit the Tardis and stay out until the smoke clears. Turns out that the ship isn't empty. There's this Servo Robot wandering around minding the place. At first, it's okay, but then it spots the Tardis, shuts the door, it casts the ship into motion causing the Doctor to hit his head, releases a bunch of mysterious white pods which fly to and attach themselves to a nearby space station and starts to menace the Doctor and Jamie, at one point trying to burn through a bulkhead door. Jamie destroys the thing, and that's it for that, end of episode.
The second episode starts, and from there, its Cyberman Hijinx on a Space Station. Which is a little peculiar. I mean, the Wheel in Space is a six episode cyberman serial.
But the first episode isn't about Cybermen at all, its not set on the wheel in space. Instead, its this little self contained adventure about the Doctor encountering a slightly sinister robot on board a derelict space ship. It's almost a stand-alone adventure, all by itself, and really, it doesn't have much to do with the rest of the serial.
Anyway, I poked around a bit into the background of Wheel in Space, and came up with this little bit, courtesy of Shannon Sullivan, who runs the 'go to' site for Doctor Who.
I find it fascinating to think that the Wheel in Space actually had its genesis as a Cyberman/Dalek mash up. I'm not surprised that Terry Nation shot it down. But I am quite intrigued that that's what they were planning.
Would it have still been on a space station? Would it have been called the Wheel in Space? Who knows. It had to be set somewhere - the Troughton stories were all about a group of characters trapped in an isolated setting - on a moon base, an arctic base, an archeological dig on an ice planet, at a glacier research station, etc. etc. So a space station... well, there was going to be one, sooner or later.
But knowing what we know of the Trods peculiar history, I have to wonder, was it possible that somewhere in the production office or production design team, someone was thinking of the Trods in their role as Dalek substitutes again?
For the hell of it, I looked up the dates of the Trod stories, to see if the timing could match up. The first two Trod stories - The Trodos Tyranny and the Return of the Trods, took place with the second Doctor, in Apil/May, 1966, and October, 1966.
But then, the next story, The Trodos Ambush, was January/February, 1967, and featured the second Doctor. That was the story where the Daleks came along and trashed the Trods.
Despite being wiped out early in 1967, the appeared in the 1968 Annual, in Pursued by the Trods. Basically, the Trods master Time travel and start chasing the Doctor all over the place until he gets some mammoths to run them over. The similarities to the Chase are obvious. Ironically, the 1968 Annual also ran a Dalek story as well.
It's those last two appearance that makes me wonder, because the timing seems to be right for something.
Now, I'm under no illusion that the journeymen who wrote, drew and published the Doctor Who comic strip had any input at all into the TV series. That's just apples and oranges. I imagine that the comics guys were putting out dozens of comics a month, drawing and writing nonstop, just to make the rent. They were making a decent living hopefully, and hopefully they enjoyed what they did. But they had no illusions about their level in the food chain. They were pumping out a product for kids. There was none of this multi-media stuff going on back then.
Stuff might run downhill to the artists and writers from the TV show, but they had no special access. Hell, their reference materials were often out of date or misleading. Let's just say that in the comics, the 2nd Doctor wore a funny hat for a long time because that's what a reference photo showed and they weren't watching.
Still, the work wouldn't have been completely unknown. I believe that the TV Comics were run in mass market newspapers or magazines. So it's not impossible that some of the production staff might have seen it. Kit Pedlar seems like the type to read a few comics in his spare time - he once had a stuntman dress up as a cyberman and took him shopping to see the reaction.
And Terry Nation was sensitive and pushy enough about the Daleks, that perhaps his dealings with the Comic strips, and a clever work around might have gotten into the gossip mill.
So I could see a few ways things might happen. Kit Pedlar's kicking around a Dalek/Cyberman outline. They tell him 'No Daleks', so he just crosses out the name and a few paragraphs, and just leaves it as a Robot for the important parts. Maybe he's thinking Trod in that moment. Or maybe David Whittaker, who gets the job of turning the outline into a script, thinks Trod.
Maybe they didn't think Trod. Maybe they just wrote 'generic robot.' Or maybe they wrote a description of the Robot which turned out to be a pretty good match for the Trods. Or maybe they wrote something along the lines of 'not particularly human, and as opposite a dalek in looks as we can get' which would be a Trod.
Whatever happens, somewhere along the way, possibly early on - that single Servo Robot gets a whole episode to itself. That's an interesting decision - to structure that first episode that way.
Or maybe it's the production design team. Maybe the carpenter or the metalworker or the draftsman, someone or someones in the Art department decide to give Terry Nation a finger by making something as close to a Trod as they can do in real life. Maybe they were testing out the design as a practical costume... the show was always looking for its new 'next Dalek.'
Food for thought. It's hard to say. So far as I know, no one else has made the connection, and I suspect most of the people who might have said yea or nay have probably passed on, or probably don't remember. If was fifty years ago. So I guess we'll never really know. And even if there is a memo, or a design blueprint or an outline with the word on it... its such a small thing, I doubt that it would come down to us, more likely, forgotten, overlooked and archived.
I'm curious as to when the 1968 TV Comics annual and Pursued by the Trods actually came out - before or after this story was in development?
If it came out before or when the Wheel in Space was in development, then together with Ambush on Trodos, there's a pretty good substantial case that the Trods were around and might have consciously or unconsciously influenced the show's creative people at some stage.
If it came out after, then it might be a hint that the comics people smelled something in the wind. After all, Ambush on Trodos basically had the Doctor reconciling with the Trods and the Trods being wiped out by the Daleks. They were finished with the Trods, they had the property they wanted? Why bring the Trods back, and back as their old selves, for one last hurrah? Unless maybe they had the notion that the Wheel in Space had brought their creation to life, and there was some mileage to be gotten out of them? Maybe. Or maybe they were just filling pages? And even if the artist or writer saw a resemblance between the Servo Robot and Trods, its not proof that the television show creators intended it or even knew.
Still, I can look at those pictures, and I am so struck by the resemblance. My gut tells me that there must be something there.
The Trods of the comics had one final appearance - in the 1969 TV Comics Annual, in a Cyberman story with the Second Doctor called the 'Time Museum.' The Cybermen (10th Planet style Cybermen, I did mention their reference material was often out of date) pursue the Doctor through the Time Museum, a very clear nod to Hartnell's 'Space Museum', and while they're running they come across a deactivated shell of a Trod as an exhibit.
Anyway, food for thought, hope you enjoyed it.
This is a follow up to post #126 about the Trods. The Trods, by the way, were a real, genuine, authentic Doctor Who monster. I didn't make that part up.
The Trods were created by the Doctor Who comic strip. Back in the 1960's,the Doctor Who comic strips wer published through 'TV Comics' It seems that what happened was Terry Nation licensed the Daleks to 'TV Century 21'.
The Doctor Who comic strip didn't have the rights so they couldn't use the Daleks in their Doctor Who strips. This was kind of inconvenient as the Doctor without Daleks is like Peanut Butter without Chocolate - what you gonna do for your Reeses Pieces then, ET?
What they - and by this I mean writer Roger Noel Cook and artist John Canning, created substitute Daleks - the Trods. You didn't have to think hard to see the Trods as substitute Daleks - both Trods and Daleks 'robot races' - the Trods being full out robots. Both ran (initially) on static electricity. Whereas the Daleks were roughly cone shaped, the Trods were inverted cones on Tractor threads.
Here's what they looked like....
The Trods own stories and appearances paralleled the Daleks. Pursued by the Trods is essentially the Dalek story, The Chase, with the serial numbers filed off. In a comic strip of the Space Museum, an empty Trod casing is on display.
Ultimately, the Trods were undone by the Daleks, both literally and literarily. TV Comics got the rights to the Daleks from TV Century 21. And when that happened, the Daleks showed up in the comics and killed off the Trods.
Too bad, so sad. Of course, the Trods never appeared in the live action series.... Or did they?
Take a look at this guy:
Notice a resemblance - the loosely inverted cone shaped barrel body, the shoulder projections, the cone shaped head with face-like features, the short stubby legs?
If this isn't a Trod, it's something that could pass for one with a coat of paint and a pair of sunglasses. To me, it looks very much like an adaptation of the drawing, with adjustments for practicalities of the man in a suit - so block-like feet instead of a pair of caterpillar treads, and manipulator arms in front rather than spidery claws on the sides. But it's very, very Trodlike. Maybe I'm wrong, decide for yourself.
What the hell is it doing in the live action show? What is it? Where is it?
This guy is a 'Servo Robot' , played by Freddy Foote, from the Patrick Troughton serial, Wheel in Space, first episode, airing April 27, 1967.
Now, the background of this guy, is that the Tardis has an accident and has to land on this empty/derelict spaceship. Some McGuffin about a mercury leak. The Doctor and Jamie have to exit the Tardis and stay out until the smoke clears. Turns out that the ship isn't empty. There's this Servo Robot wandering around minding the place. At first, it's okay, but then it spots the Tardis, shuts the door, it casts the ship into motion causing the Doctor to hit his head, releases a bunch of mysterious white pods which fly to and attach themselves to a nearby space station and starts to menace the Doctor and Jamie, at one point trying to burn through a bulkhead door. Jamie destroys the thing, and that's it for that, end of episode.
The second episode starts, and from there, its Cyberman Hijinx on a Space Station. Which is a little peculiar. I mean, the Wheel in Space is a six episode cyberman serial.
But the first episode isn't about Cybermen at all, its not set on the wheel in space. Instead, its this little self contained adventure about the Doctor encountering a slightly sinister robot on board a derelict space ship. It's almost a stand-alone adventure, all by itself, and really, it doesn't have much to do with the rest of the serial.
Anyway, I poked around a bit into the background of Wheel in Space, and came up with this little bit, courtesy of Shannon Sullivan, who runs the 'go to' site for Doctor Who.
I find it fascinating to think that the Wheel in Space actually had its genesis as a Cyberman/Dalek mash up. I'm not surprised that Terry Nation shot it down. But I am quite intrigued that that's what they were planning.
Would it have still been on a space station? Would it have been called the Wheel in Space? Who knows. It had to be set somewhere - the Troughton stories were all about a group of characters trapped in an isolated setting - on a moon base, an arctic base, an archeological dig on an ice planet, at a glacier research station, etc. etc. So a space station... well, there was going to be one, sooner or later.
But knowing what we know of the Trods peculiar history, I have to wonder, was it possible that somewhere in the production office or production design team, someone was thinking of the Trods in their role as Dalek substitutes again?
For the hell of it, I looked up the dates of the Trod stories, to see if the timing could match up. The first two Trod stories - The Trodos Tyranny and the Return of the Trods, took place with the second Doctor, in Apil/May, 1966, and October, 1966.
But then, the next story, The Trodos Ambush, was January/February, 1967, and featured the second Doctor. That was the story where the Daleks came along and trashed the Trods.
Despite being wiped out early in 1967, the appeared in the 1968 Annual, in Pursued by the Trods. Basically, the Trods master Time travel and start chasing the Doctor all over the place until he gets some mammoths to run them over. The similarities to the Chase are obvious. Ironically, the 1968 Annual also ran a Dalek story as well.
It's those last two appearance that makes me wonder, because the timing seems to be right for something.
Now, I'm under no illusion that the journeymen who wrote, drew and published the Doctor Who comic strip had any input at all into the TV series. That's just apples and oranges. I imagine that the comics guys were putting out dozens of comics a month, drawing and writing nonstop, just to make the rent. They were making a decent living hopefully, and hopefully they enjoyed what they did. But they had no illusions about their level in the food chain. They were pumping out a product for kids. There was none of this multi-media stuff going on back then.
Stuff might run downhill to the artists and writers from the TV show, but they had no special access. Hell, their reference materials were often out of date or misleading. Let's just say that in the comics, the 2nd Doctor wore a funny hat for a long time because that's what a reference photo showed and they weren't watching.
Still, the work wouldn't have been completely unknown. I believe that the TV Comics were run in mass market newspapers or magazines. So it's not impossible that some of the production staff might have seen it. Kit Pedlar seems like the type to read a few comics in his spare time - he once had a stuntman dress up as a cyberman and took him shopping to see the reaction.
And Terry Nation was sensitive and pushy enough about the Daleks, that perhaps his dealings with the Comic strips, and a clever work around might have gotten into the gossip mill.
So I could see a few ways things might happen. Kit Pedlar's kicking around a Dalek/Cyberman outline. They tell him 'No Daleks', so he just crosses out the name and a few paragraphs, and just leaves it as a Robot for the important parts. Maybe he's thinking Trod in that moment. Or maybe David Whittaker, who gets the job of turning the outline into a script, thinks Trod.
Maybe they didn't think Trod. Maybe they just wrote 'generic robot.' Or maybe they wrote a description of the Robot which turned out to be a pretty good match for the Trods. Or maybe they wrote something along the lines of 'not particularly human, and as opposite a dalek in looks as we can get' which would be a Trod.
Whatever happens, somewhere along the way, possibly early on - that single Servo Robot gets a whole episode to itself. That's an interesting decision - to structure that first episode that way.
Or maybe it's the production design team. Maybe the carpenter or the metalworker or the draftsman, someone or someones in the Art department decide to give Terry Nation a finger by making something as close to a Trod as they can do in real life. Maybe they were testing out the design as a practical costume... the show was always looking for its new 'next Dalek.'
Food for thought. It's hard to say. So far as I know, no one else has made the connection, and I suspect most of the people who might have said yea or nay have probably passed on, or probably don't remember. If was fifty years ago. So I guess we'll never really know. And even if there is a memo, or a design blueprint or an outline with the word on it... its such a small thing, I doubt that it would come down to us, more likely, forgotten, overlooked and archived.
I'm curious as to when the 1968 TV Comics annual and Pursued by the Trods actually came out - before or after this story was in development?
If it came out before or when the Wheel in Space was in development, then together with Ambush on Trodos, there's a pretty good substantial case that the Trods were around and might have consciously or unconsciously influenced the show's creative people at some stage.
If it came out after, then it might be a hint that the comics people smelled something in the wind. After all, Ambush on Trodos basically had the Doctor reconciling with the Trods and the Trods being wiped out by the Daleks. They were finished with the Trods, they had the property they wanted? Why bring the Trods back, and back as their old selves, for one last hurrah? Unless maybe they had the notion that the Wheel in Space had brought their creation to life, and there was some mileage to be gotten out of them? Maybe. Or maybe they were just filling pages? And even if the artist or writer saw a resemblance between the Servo Robot and Trods, its not proof that the television show creators intended it or even knew.
Still, I can look at those pictures, and I am so struck by the resemblance. My gut tells me that there must be something there.
The Trods of the comics had one final appearance - in the 1969 TV Comics Annual, in a Cyberman story with the Second Doctor called the 'Time Museum.' The Cybermen (10th Planet style Cybermen, I did mention their reference material was often out of date) pursue the Doctor through the Time Museum, a very clear nod to Hartnell's 'Space Museum', and while they're running they come across a deactivated shell of a Trod as an exhibit.
Anyway, food for thought, hope you enjoyed it.
Fair enough.
I think the structure of the War Lords was basically down to the War Chief being a Gallifreyan (not 'one of them') and the need for a conspiratorial element in the plot to allow the Doctor to manipulate them to frustrate their plan.
Have you read Timewyrm - Exodus? I rather liked the War Lord's reappearance in that book, complete with horribly mutilated appearance and Morbius-style plan for the Doctor's body.
TV Comics were a publication in their own right, so they would have been on the news agents' shelves alongside other comics such as Beano and Dandy. Their particular specialty was doing comic book versions of current TV programmes. Their annuals also featured some short prose stories, usually with a couple of illustrations.
Annuals were usually published ready for the Christmas before the year printed on the cover, so it would probably be published around October 1967. I think that would make it before Wheel in Space was in development - it is likely that some of the children of the production staff would have received the annual as a Christmas present.
Edit: Here's the cover, courtesy of Amazon:
That looks like the Doctor in the front seat of the roller-coaster (just losing his hat !), and there's a couple of Daleks down below.
Cheers,
Nigel.
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TV Comics were a publication in their own right, so they would have been on the news agents' shelves alongside other comics such as Beano and Dandy. Their particular specialty was doing comic book versions of current TV programmes. Their annuals also featured some short prose stories, usually with a couple of illustrations.
Annuals were usually published ready for the Christmas before the year printed on the cover, so it would probably be published around October 1967. I think that would make it before Wheel in Space was in development - it is likely that some of the children of the production staff would have received the annual as a Christmas present.
Edit: Here's the cover, courtesy of Amazon:
That looks like the Doctor in the front seat of the roller-coaster (just losing his hat !), and there's a couple of Daleks down below.
Cheers,
Nigel.
I have the 1969 annual (older than me!) somewhere. It has the final appearance of the Trods, in The Time Museum, where the travellers use their empty casings to hide from Cybermen.That is so very cool.
By the way, if you hunt around online, you can actually find those old Doctor Who comics.
I took advantage of that to read the Trod stories. They were ... brief. Almost perfunctory. Like comparing potato chips to real food. All the Doctor who strips were like that back then.
I think to really appreciate them, you'd almost have to learn about and embrace the particular cultural contexts in which they were created and consumed.
By the way, if you hunt around online, you can actually find those old Doctor Who comics.
I took advantage of that to read the Trod stories. They were ... brief. Almost perfunctory. Like comparing potato chips to real food. All the Doctor who strips were like that back then.
I think to really appreciate them, you'd almost have to learn about and embrace the particular cultural contexts in which they were created and consumed.
This timeline is wrapped up, but for a few post scripts.
For those coming late to the party, this Timeline is about Nelvana, a Canadian animation company. In the late 80's/early 90's, they were actually involved with the BBC to produce a Saturday morning cartoon version of Doctor Who. They were actually at the point of having scripts done, storyboards and artwork before the plug was pulled. Some of the artwork can be found online, and appears in this Timeline.
This chronicle is a 'what if' - what if the plug wasn't pulled, and Nelvana proceeded to produce a cartoon series. This is the story of that series, with interviews with cast and creator, quips, reviews, a detailed story breakdown of the first season's thirteen episodes. I'm pretty happy with it - please feel free to take a few moments to look through it.
If you're a Doctor Who fan, interested in alternate histories of the Doctor, let me make a couple of further recommendations.
The David Burton Doctor - In the early 90's, a local English Actor named David Burton had a period of brief notoriety when he was rumoured to be the New Doctor Who for a private revival. According to Burton, a pilot was even shot. Nothing ever came of it, and Burton's story is popularly considered to be a hoax. But what if it wasn't? What if it was real and a season came out of it?
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=329405
The Peter Cushing Doctor - an exploration of Peter Cushing's extended career playing the Doctor in movies and on radio, by myself, DValdron. It's not quite where I want it to be. It's actually my re-do. You can find my first attempt, a bit of a mess.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=332783
The Cushing, Burton and Nelvana Doctors form a kind of trilogy of mine.
But I'm Still The Doctor? - The fall of Colin Baker, a radical new direction for the Trial of a Time Lord, inspiration from remote locations, and the emergence of a female Doctor. Mostly it's going to be about the backstage stuff, but hopefully lots of Drama, Intrigue, Politics and unprotected Sex. I'm doing this with Chimera Virus, but it's on hold right now. Still, if it ever gets off the ground, it will be rockem sockem.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=359953
Doctor Who Fan Film Reviews - This isn't on alt history, but if you're a Doctor Who fan, I'm going to plug it anyway. These blogs contain my reviews of the best of the Doctor Who Fan films, including the locations to watch them. Thrill to the Rupert Booth Doctor, who literally, created an entire season in the 90's indistinguishable from the real show. The Barbara Benedetti Doctor, the first and greatest of the female Doctors. See Fan films that actually starred Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and a host of real actors from the show. Thrill to Fire and Ice, a near professional creation that actually did the Ice Warriors better than the real show. Wonder at Downtime, which created the Brigadier's daughter and revived the Great Intelligence and the Yeti. Or how about recreations of actual Doctor Who stories that were scripted but never produced, like Dark Dimensions and Masters of Luxor. Or Time Stealers, featuring the adventures of the Master, the Rani and the Monk. To be honest, 90% of fan films are simply enthusiastic shite, more fun to make than to watch. But there's a handful that are good enough, polished enough, fascinating enough, that they could stand up in the presence of the classic series. This is what I want to find and review. Check them out.
http://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/blogs/
http://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/blogs/
I would be remiss in not recommending Dav's wonderful "Who's the Doctor" about Tom Baker quitting early and being replaced with... John Denver?
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=302923
Chimera Virus also did the briefer, but quite interesting "The Ribos Divergence - an Alternate Fifth Doctor" about Tom Baker quitting early and being replaced by Richard Griffiths. Check it out.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=306669
Lord Vetinari goes in a different direction, with "The Yankee Doctor - the Story of the American Doctor Who Series, 1964 to the Present" full of familiar names. Most intriguing and quite enjoyable.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=304968
Nezza has "Doctor Who's House of Cards - Redux." A timeline about a different 1970's with different Doctors, starting with Ian Richardson as the third doctor. Nezza is a fan, and has started a few other Doctor Who threads and lines, all of which are intriguing, but house of cards is his most detailed work on the Doctor.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=310658
Sadly, that's all I can find for Doctor Who 'show based' alternate histories. There are actually quite a few pages started for the Doctor, but most of them don't go further than a small handful of superficial posts. It's a pity. I find alternate portraits of the Doctor quite intriguing.
However, there's a couple more links I'll reference:
BrainBin's gigantic and astonishing pop culture timeline, immense, intensively researched, wonderfully creative "That Wacky Redhead" - it focuses on a Lucille Ball who decides to keep control of production, and the many many outcomes - including a continuing Star Trek series, new paths for Doctor Who, including a cross over with Star Trek, and many others. I honestly have trouble keeping up. Brainbin, like Jared, has one of those seminal timelines, showing us possible avenues of exploration we never dreamed of, inspiring and inspiriting. The Doctor Who component is a small thread, but quite interesting, and the timeline is a work of fascination. Go check it out:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=220395
Finally, for Who fans, there's The Official Doctor Who News Thread, which is pretty descriptive. 300+ pages, dating back all the way to July, 2007, comprising a living record of fan reviews, commentary, rumour-mongering, backbiting, flirtation, epiphany, celebration, gossip, trolling, analysis, breaking news and everything base and wonderful in between.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...67785&page=287
If I've missed a really good Doctor Who alternate history thread, please throw it in here. If any of this inspires anyone to go at it and create their own, then I'll be happy. Read, Think, Write...
Oh, and finally some shameless self promotion:
Bear Cavalry.... This is my thread for personal mini-timelines which only need to run a few pages. Icelandic Bear cavalry, the rise and fall of Atlantis, the reign of a Smarter Saddam, the mysteries of Martian Canals, The Real story of the Cthulhu cult, Urban Carebears, the Romans crossing the Atlantic for Coffee, an Elephant based civilization in New Guineau, the Retrosaurs of the Megagalapagos... and more. Fun stuff.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=277501
The Moontrap Timeline - What if all those 80's and 90's classic sci fi movies and TV series - Alien, Predator, Terminator, Escape From New York, X-Files and all their B-Movie imitators actually took place in an alternate timeline, an alternate history stretching into the past and through to the future.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=197520
Moontrap Timeline II - Tokyo Drift - This is a sequel to my timeline by Lord Carcosa. Not actually my own work. But I'm flattered to have inspired him, and although I lurk, I'm careful not to post because I want to enjoy his unfiltered creativity. But although it's not mine, I can't help but throw it a plug. Lots of fun.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=337878
Empire of Mu - Did you know that there's actually a real sunken continent in the Pacific Ocean? No shit. Atlantis may have been a fable, Lemuria and Mu the dreams of misguided mystics. But there's a real continent down there, sunk about 20 million years ago. But what if it hadn't sunk, who would have found it, and what would they have done.
It's relatively short, my first timeline on the site, and the subject matter for a novel, if I ever stop writing these goddammed timelines.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=126440
Axis of Andes - This is a long and elaborate one. It's also finished, unlike the other two big ones. OTL Ecuador and Peru went to war for about two weeks, during WWII. In this timeline, the Andean war escalates into a third great theatre of WWII and an epic struggle of almost all the South American nations in one way or the other. I think Venezuela sits it out, but that's it. Written in response to a challenge that there was no plausible way WWII could come to South America.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=172524
Green Antarctica - Gigantic, Dark, Scary, Nightmarish. Actually, I don't think it's that bad. But it's got a reputation. Word of advice: Don't go near the Koalas. And if there's a disclaimer saying "don't read this part" ... don't goddammed read it. Still ongoing.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=158364
Land of Ice and Mice aka ULTIMATE THULE - This was supposed to be a collaboration between me and Dirty Commie. He started the thread, so its under his name, and he had three posts, I have a thousand. Anyway - its a thread about making the impossible into the plausible - about an Agricultural dawn civilization developing among the Inuit and spreading around the arctic circle. Ongoing.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=222103
Cool Potential Domestications - A really interesting discussion thread, running thirty pages, exploring everything from Saber Tooths to Eucalyptus to Lizards.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=222103
And that's it. Thank you all for coming, you've been a lovely audience. I've had a lot of fun writing, and I hope you enjoyed our little journey together. Single file towards the exits ladies and gentlemen, thank you, thank you. Perhaps we'll see each other again....
For those coming late to the party, this Timeline is about Nelvana, a Canadian animation company. In the late 80's/early 90's, they were actually involved with the BBC to produce a Saturday morning cartoon version of Doctor Who. They were actually at the point of having scripts done, storyboards and artwork before the plug was pulled. Some of the artwork can be found online, and appears in this Timeline.
This chronicle is a 'what if' - what if the plug wasn't pulled, and Nelvana proceeded to produce a cartoon series. This is the story of that series, with interviews with cast and creator, quips, reviews, a detailed story breakdown of the first season's thirteen episodes. I'm pretty happy with it - please feel free to take a few moments to look through it.
If you're a Doctor Who fan, interested in alternate histories of the Doctor, let me make a couple of further recommendations.
The David Burton Doctor - In the early 90's, a local English Actor named David Burton had a period of brief notoriety when he was rumoured to be the New Doctor Who for a private revival. According to Burton, a pilot was even shot. Nothing ever came of it, and Burton's story is popularly considered to be a hoax. But what if it wasn't? What if it was real and a season came out of it?
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=329405
The Peter Cushing Doctor - an exploration of Peter Cushing's extended career playing the Doctor in movies and on radio, by myself, DValdron. It's not quite where I want it to be. It's actually my re-do. You can find my first attempt, a bit of a mess.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=332783
The Cushing, Burton and Nelvana Doctors form a kind of trilogy of mine.
But I'm Still The Doctor? - The fall of Colin Baker, a radical new direction for the Trial of a Time Lord, inspiration from remote locations, and the emergence of a female Doctor. Mostly it's going to be about the backstage stuff, but hopefully lots of Drama, Intrigue, Politics and unprotected Sex. I'm doing this with Chimera Virus, but it's on hold right now. Still, if it ever gets off the ground, it will be rockem sockem.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=359953
Doctor Who Fan Film Reviews - This isn't on alt history, but if you're a Doctor Who fan, I'm going to plug it anyway. These blogs contain my reviews of the best of the Doctor Who Fan films, including the locations to watch them. Thrill to the Rupert Booth Doctor, who literally, created an entire season in the 90's indistinguishable from the real show. The Barbara Benedetti Doctor, the first and greatest of the female Doctors. See Fan films that actually starred Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and a host of real actors from the show. Thrill to Fire and Ice, a near professional creation that actually did the Ice Warriors better than the real show. Wonder at Downtime, which created the Brigadier's daughter and revived the Great Intelligence and the Yeti. Or how about recreations of actual Doctor Who stories that were scripted but never produced, like Dark Dimensions and Masters of Luxor. Or Time Stealers, featuring the adventures of the Master, the Rani and the Monk. To be honest, 90% of fan films are simply enthusiastic shite, more fun to make than to watch. But there's a handful that are good enough, polished enough, fascinating enough, that they could stand up in the presence of the classic series. This is what I want to find and review. Check them out.
http://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/blogs/
http://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/blogs/
I would be remiss in not recommending Dav's wonderful "Who's the Doctor" about Tom Baker quitting early and being replaced with... John Denver?
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=302923
Chimera Virus also did the briefer, but quite interesting "The Ribos Divergence - an Alternate Fifth Doctor" about Tom Baker quitting early and being replaced by Richard Griffiths. Check it out.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=306669
Lord Vetinari goes in a different direction, with "The Yankee Doctor - the Story of the American Doctor Who Series, 1964 to the Present" full of familiar names. Most intriguing and quite enjoyable.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=304968
Nezza has "Doctor Who's House of Cards - Redux." A timeline about a different 1970's with different Doctors, starting with Ian Richardson as the third doctor. Nezza is a fan, and has started a few other Doctor Who threads and lines, all of which are intriguing, but house of cards is his most detailed work on the Doctor.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=310658
Sadly, that's all I can find for Doctor Who 'show based' alternate histories. There are actually quite a few pages started for the Doctor, but most of them don't go further than a small handful of superficial posts. It's a pity. I find alternate portraits of the Doctor quite intriguing.
However, there's a couple more links I'll reference:
BrainBin's gigantic and astonishing pop culture timeline, immense, intensively researched, wonderfully creative "That Wacky Redhead" - it focuses on a Lucille Ball who decides to keep control of production, and the many many outcomes - including a continuing Star Trek series, new paths for Doctor Who, including a cross over with Star Trek, and many others. I honestly have trouble keeping up. Brainbin, like Jared, has one of those seminal timelines, showing us possible avenues of exploration we never dreamed of, inspiring and inspiriting. The Doctor Who component is a small thread, but quite interesting, and the timeline is a work of fascination. Go check it out:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=220395
Finally, for Who fans, there's The Official Doctor Who News Thread, which is pretty descriptive. 300+ pages, dating back all the way to July, 2007, comprising a living record of fan reviews, commentary, rumour-mongering, backbiting, flirtation, epiphany, celebration, gossip, trolling, analysis, breaking news and everything base and wonderful in between.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...67785&page=287
If I've missed a really good Doctor Who alternate history thread, please throw it in here. If any of this inspires anyone to go at it and create their own, then I'll be happy. Read, Think, Write...
Oh, and finally some shameless self promotion:
Bear Cavalry.... This is my thread for personal mini-timelines which only need to run a few pages. Icelandic Bear cavalry, the rise and fall of Atlantis, the reign of a Smarter Saddam, the mysteries of Martian Canals, The Real story of the Cthulhu cult, Urban Carebears, the Romans crossing the Atlantic for Coffee, an Elephant based civilization in New Guineau, the Retrosaurs of the Megagalapagos... and more. Fun stuff.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=277501
The Moontrap Timeline - What if all those 80's and 90's classic sci fi movies and TV series - Alien, Predator, Terminator, Escape From New York, X-Files and all their B-Movie imitators actually took place in an alternate timeline, an alternate history stretching into the past and through to the future.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=197520
Moontrap Timeline II - Tokyo Drift - This is a sequel to my timeline by Lord Carcosa. Not actually my own work. But I'm flattered to have inspired him, and although I lurk, I'm careful not to post because I want to enjoy his unfiltered creativity. But although it's not mine, I can't help but throw it a plug. Lots of fun.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=337878
Empire of Mu - Did you know that there's actually a real sunken continent in the Pacific Ocean? No shit. Atlantis may have been a fable, Lemuria and Mu the dreams of misguided mystics. But there's a real continent down there, sunk about 20 million years ago. But what if it hadn't sunk, who would have found it, and what would they have done.
It's relatively short, my first timeline on the site, and the subject matter for a novel, if I ever stop writing these goddammed timelines.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=126440
Axis of Andes - This is a long and elaborate one. It's also finished, unlike the other two big ones. OTL Ecuador and Peru went to war for about two weeks, during WWII. In this timeline, the Andean war escalates into a third great theatre of WWII and an epic struggle of almost all the South American nations in one way or the other. I think Venezuela sits it out, but that's it. Written in response to a challenge that there was no plausible way WWII could come to South America.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=172524
Green Antarctica - Gigantic, Dark, Scary, Nightmarish. Actually, I don't think it's that bad. But it's got a reputation. Word of advice: Don't go near the Koalas. And if there's a disclaimer saying "don't read this part" ... don't goddammed read it. Still ongoing.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=158364
Land of Ice and Mice aka ULTIMATE THULE - This was supposed to be a collaboration between me and Dirty Commie. He started the thread, so its under his name, and he had three posts, I have a thousand. Anyway - its a thread about making the impossible into the plausible - about an Agricultural dawn civilization developing among the Inuit and spreading around the arctic circle. Ongoing.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=222103
Cool Potential Domestications - A really interesting discussion thread, running thirty pages, exploring everything from Saber Tooths to Eucalyptus to Lizards.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=222103
And that's it. Thank you all for coming, you've been a lovely audience. I've had a lot of fun writing, and I hope you enjoyed our little journey together. Single file towards the exits ladies and gentlemen, thank you, thank you. Perhaps we'll see each other again....
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Yes, it looks like an attempt to portray something that looks light and fluffy but is actually sinister and evil, but it doesn't quite come off. The new series episode The Idiot's Lantern had the same problem. By contrast, the Big Finish Companion Chronicles episode The Scorchies manages to pull it off brilliantly.
I'm certainly looking forward to seeing more of your take on Cushing's Doctor. I actually enjoyed his two Doctor Who movies as in a time before VCRs they were the only chance I had to see something like the early Dalek episodes.
Well DAv also did Dr Who ? as a very entertaining American version of the series.
I hesitate to plug my own Shuffling the Doc as it is nowhere near the length or quality of the other TLs.
Cheers,
Nigel.
I mainlined this timeline in one sitting, and really enjoyed it. Super interesting how you were extrapolating the SORT of series that we could have gotten, based on the concept art we had.
I do have a few questions, though they may have been answered elsewhere in the thread:
-The Doctor is voiced by Maurice LaMarche. Is there a specific role of his that you pictured the Doctor being like, vocally?
-Pretty sure that I saw this, wanted to double-check: did Jon Pertwee voice the other/"older" Doctor?
-You're using the concept art made for the Master for the War Chief/Leader's design. What do you think the general designs are like for the Rani, the Master, and the Monk? Did you give any thought as to who voiced them, if they were known vocal talent at all?
I do have a few questions, though they may have been answered elsewhere in the thread:
-The Doctor is voiced by Maurice LaMarche. Is there a specific role of his that you pictured the Doctor being like, vocally?
-Pretty sure that I saw this, wanted to double-check: did Jon Pertwee voice the other/"older" Doctor?
-You're using the concept art made for the Master for the War Chief/Leader's design. What do you think the general designs are like for the Rani, the Master, and the Monk? Did you give any thought as to who voiced them, if they were known vocal talent at all?