|
Post by jjpor on Feb 21, 2012 20:16:03 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Maggadin on Feb 21, 2012 22:40:49 GMT
And when the show came to shoot its first pilot, it was basically a disaster — nothing went right technically, and also the performances were pretty terrible. William Hartnell's Doctor was intensely unpleasant and kind of scary, and his granddaughter Susan was cold and exaggeratedly alien. I have to disagree with this, I found the more ''alien'' Susan highly appealing and not really ''exaggerated'' at all, (whatever that means), and I wish they'd gone down that route, rather than going the more stereotypical teenager route (as well as having her basically married off to a human at sixteen). I also loved Hartnell's vicious laugh when Ian and Barbara couldn't get out of the TARDIS, although I agree that the Doctor would probably have developed into a somewhat different character, if they'd kept that portrayal. Other than that, I like how they pointed out the essentially groundbreaking and unorthodox nature of the show, as it was back in the day. They didn't mention what is obvious to me, which is that today's version is very ''safe'' and conventional in comparison.
|
|
|
Post by magnusgreel on Feb 22, 2012 3:11:37 GMT
Great article, jjpor. I'm linking to it on Facebook.
|
|
|
Post by jjpor on Feb 22, 2012 19:59:27 GMT
Glad you liked it, Magnus. Re the pilot version vs the aired version - I don't disagree, Maggadin, but you can see how when they were already taking some big risks they'd not push their luck too far. Russell T Davies would no doubt argue the same about the compromises he made to make NuWho successful during its first difficult year or two, but I'd gently suggest he was self-aggrandising just a little bit. I'd then mutter something about standing on the shoulders of giants etc etc.
|
|
|
Post by Maggadin on Feb 23, 2012 0:03:53 GMT
I agree that it would have been pushing their luck, but I don't agree that the performances were ''pretty terrible''. Quite the opposite, in fact.
|
|
|
Post by jjpor on Feb 23, 2012 21:31:11 GMT
Oh, I'm with you on that. "Terrible" seems a bit harsh even for somebody who prefers the as-aired version, but it's a matter of opinion, I guess. One thing I would say about the article is they should have been a bit clearer on which bits were indirectly reported speech and which bits were comments by the journalist, because I think there might be a bit of an overlap there somewhere. More direct quotes probably necessary to clear up any uncertainties over who thought/said what.
|
|
|
Post by Maggadin on Feb 23, 2012 23:08:23 GMT
Well, I wasn't commenting on whether or not it would have been pushing their luck, I was commenting on the actual quotation, which was about the performances themselves, and that I didn't agree that Susan was ''exagerratedly alien'' (What does that even mean? As compared to what?)
|
|
|
Post by magnusgreel on Feb 24, 2012 2:30:02 GMT
After hearing about the pilot for years, when I finally saw it, it seemed almost indistinguishable from the aired version to me. I remember something about the Dr being from Earth...??
|
|
|
Post by primsong on Feb 24, 2012 16:36:57 GMT
What an interesting read - one of the things I admire about the show is the fact they struggled on and persevered in *spite* of constantly being starved of resources and shoved into back corners in the hopes they would die. I have much more admiration for something like that than some over-funded and over-hyped thingummy that's really a flop but keeps going anyway because they know the Right People. It says the show had some honest-to-goodness quality and appeal that wasn't manufactured by advertising. Love it.
|
|
|
Post by jjpor on Feb 24, 2012 20:28:49 GMT
Sorry for being unclear Maggadin - I thought you meant what you did actually mean, I just communicated it somewhat poorly. Magnus, I think there are some obvious differences between the two versions in tone and in content but you may well be right that they've been exaggerated somewhat and maybe veered into fan folklore a bit. Personally, while I'd disagree with the article's characterisation of the pilot, I like Susan's portrayal in the as-aired version of An Unearthly Child very well indeed. I don't think her character started to be treated badly until a while later. And in Edge of Destruction, something of the pilot version arguably resurfaces.
As you say, Primsong - one of the great things about oldschool Who is the can-do attitude and the ability to do a lot with very little in the way of resources. The BBC, being effectively state-funded, has always been that way a bit, I guess, but I would like to see the new series team try to operate with the kind of constraints the old series was produced under.
|
|