It was a dark and stormy day. By late afternoon, Eleanor was still not home, work and workout were behind me, but the ground was still too wet to mow. No Mets until the evening, no unseen Dexters or Jackies to be had. Thus it was I gave in to the call of the past and popped in disk one of the Four-series Genesis of the Daleks.
Oh my stars and TARDIS.
The cheesy effects. The brain-at-door implementation of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development (it's in the concordance, Mel, look it up) which explains the iron crosses on the Kaled bad guys. The fascination, even then, with redonkulous anagrams. The Time Lord (I thought the Doctor was the last one?) who rather resembles Marty Feldman playing Eyegor. Most of all, though, the fascinating flipping between outdoor film and on-set videotape which I know was a staple of the 1970s Beeb. Python had it, too, and they rather made fun of it- such as in this one, right after the first appearance of the Spanish Inquisition, about 6:20 in.
And yet? and still? He's the Doctor. Practically in a pith helmet, and that scarf! (Was that perhaps the inspiration for Arthur's towel?) Somehow, the lack of as many toys, and as much CGI, makes his character all the stronger. Plus, I finally got to meet Sarah Jane. Get that Phil Collins song out of my head.
So, yeah. I'll be watching the rest of them, and probably not waiting for dark or storm before I do so.
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The visual effects from it did remind me of one other, much less-loved, series of that era, which I know I've written on here before- called The Starlost. It was developed by Harlan Ellison, who was so pissed by the final product that he slapped an Alan Smithee pseudonym on it and I never even knew, watching them on channel 4 as a teen, that Cordwainer Bird was the same guy who wrote "City on the Edge of Forever." I did know that the star, Keir Dullea, had been Dave in 2001, and that this role was pretty much the proof that HAL had sent his acting career out the airlock, too.
What I didn't know, until this morning, is that Starlost is now available on Netflix.
Naturally, I've ordered the first disk. Hey, my DVD played Incubus and didn't explode, right?
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ETA.Em called this morning. She's getting the full spectrum of college life- a kid already expelled for bringing the chronic; the town water supply getting full of tiny livestock due to all the excess rain; a 2 a.m. fire alarm that turned into an arrest of one of the counselors' ex-boyfriends who'd been stalking the place; and in between, they do some actual work-
You can scroll through the rest of them here; she's not the only one with pink hair.
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thanatos_kalos :: (no subject) [+2]
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Men on Film. Or tape, as the case may be.
During the 4th Doctor episodes Time Lords were plentiful ... well, not extinct. That happened later. Rusty killed off the Time Lords himself, mostly to simplify backstory for the new series. In the old, the Doctor was variously on the run from or simply bored with his home planet, and occasionally a reluctant errand boy. The Time Lords are much more impressive as legends than they ever were onscreen, but there's correspondingly less survivor's guilt and angst in the old series as well. Not that the Doctor can't sometimes still be distant and alien and even a little lonely, but it's not doled out quite as generously. Genesis of the Daleks is brilliant-- one of the best. The events of the ep are, according to Russell T Davies (Head Writer/EP of the Revival 2005-2010) the opening shots of the Last Great Time War, which culminates sometime between the 1996 film (8th Doctor) and the 2005 revival (9th Doctor). During the last major battle-- pre Revival; the last act of the Tine War was Rose resurrecting Jack in 'The Parting of the Ways' (cf. 'Utopia')-- Gallifrey was destroyed, and the Daleks and Time Lords burned with them (cf. 'Dalek'). So. What's the historical basis for making Davros basically Captain Pike from "The Menagerie" on the bottom and Mister Magoo on the top? The chair was designed to mimic the Daleks themselves, and I believe Davros was supposed to have been crippled in the war, hence his kind of mad scientist-ness. Davros has a bit of an arc through later eps-- 'Destiny of the Daleks' wasn't the greatest, but 'Resurrection of the Daleks' has some good stuff, IMHO, and then he's got a bit to do in Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. Then...well, if you watch later New Who, he crops up again. |