gordon_r_d sent me Presents...

[capri0mni]

Alas, I did not think of exchanging presents, this year... the idea completely slipped my mind (besides, I had no idea of anything he might want) until the very last minute.* I shall have to get him back for this. Oh, yes.

What he sent were a couple of DVDs from The Troughton Years ("The Mind Robber" and "The Invasion"). At first, I was a bit worried, because I've lost the owner's manual for the computer's DVD program, and that manual has the license code to activate legal ownership, and personalize settings. When I brought up the help menu for customer support, last year, it told me to call the number printed in the owener's manual... *headdesk*.

But, luckily, these disks played just fine, without any needed fiddling. And I must say:

1. The. More. I. See. Of Troughton. The More. I. LOVE.
   
   
2. And Black and White Sci-Fi Pwns Everything.
   
   Really. Futuristic dystopias and surrealistic, mind-bending, dreamscapes work best in black and white. Dystopias, because you can't really get the brooding shadows and grim, gritty atmosphere when you can see folks in the background wearing pink striped ties and purple socks. And dreamscapes work best in black and white because, even if we really do dream in color, the colors are more muted than when we're awake.



3. And I'm having fun with the extras on the DVDs, too (But, tell me, please: What does that episode of Basil Brush have to do with "The Mind Robber?" -- "Web of Fear," I'd understand, but)...

*(The whole Yuletide thing just whooshed over my head like the punchline to a very obscure joke, this year)

Comments

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite Troughton stories is "Tomb of the Cybermen."

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. That one, too... if I'm not mistaken, that's the first Who serial I used to introduce my Dad to the series.* He was hooked right away, and he "got" the character of the Doctor in a nutshell, saying something like: "He's the hero, not because he has any special power, but just because he has more experience than anyone else..."

Now that I know my DVD player actually works, I'll have to upgrade from the VHS copy of Tomb that I have...

*(I made a concerted effort not to start with a Tom Baker serial, because, in America, Tom is in full Saturation as the Doctor, and I wanted to disabuse my father of that notion. ... I also made him wait between watching episodes, to give him time to wonder about the cliffhangers, and squirm, a bit) ;-)

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

My mother started out watching it during Troughton's run. :)

[scarfman]

I don't know how old your computer is, or what's your platform of choice, but what with Windows Media Player most of them these days come being able to play DVDs. If you're keeping a checklist of reasons for upgrading, waiting for it to reach critical mass, here's one to add (especially if you acquire any DVDs that won't play without the program manual).

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I bought this computer last year, just before the new machines with Vista came out; it runs on XP.

To be fair, the "CD" I was trying to play last year, was another one of random fun stuff that Gordon did up for me, on a DVD-rom disk... so the fact that it's home made may have something to do with it. I could play such discs on the computer I had before this one. But that computer is in my closet, right now.

What really annoys me though is that the customer support number is not online, somewhere-- only in the manual. That's not very supportive.

[scarfman]

For all that Paddy always insisted that Billy was the greatest Doctor in creating the role for us all, Billy's Doctor Who as an example of genre was all over the map but it was during Paddy's tenure that Doctor Who settled in to being what it's been ever since. And if you don't believe that, watch a PBS station showing their extant full stories in order. The jump from The Chase (Ian's last story) to The Time Meddler (the first story without Ian) is a quantum leap, and so is the jump from The War Machines (the last full Hartnell story extant) to Tomb of the Cybermen (the first full Troughton story).

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, I think Paddy just couldn't except the title as "Greatest Doctor" for himself very gracefully.

Hartnell may have created the role. But it was Troughton who created the character. Back in October of last year, I wrote this: Why the second Doctor is more canonical than you (http://community.livejournal.com/two_love/15390.html).

[alto2.livejournal.com]

To echo Scarfman's comment from the Mac side (and the PC side, from what I understand), VLC is a little miracle-worker. I use it to play everything these days. It plays damn near everything without you having to hunt up extra codecs (which is how QuickTime operates, alas) and it also ignores region coding, at least on the Mac, so it's got that extra advantage.

I loved "The MInd Robber" and "The Invasion"--and "The War Games is also fabulous. I really should scrounge up a Troughton icon one of these days...

[pedanther]

(But, tell me, please: What does that episode of Basil Brush have to do with "The Mind Robber?" -- "Web of Fear," I'd understand, but...)

They couldn't put it on the "Web of Fear" DVD because there isn't going to be one -- "Web of Fear" has too many episodes missing. (Likewise "The Abominable Snowmen".)

As for why they picked "The Mind Robber" to include it with instead, I'm not sure; maybe it's because of all the metatextuality in the story.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, they could have included on The Invasion, too, since the Brig makes referrence, several times, to the Yeti...

What's also odd is that there are no credits for the Basil Brush episode included... it just starts cold and stops cold. I had to go into Wikipedia to find out who that actor was, and wtf that madness was all about. It was nice madness, but still...

[pedanther]

Maybe they felt that The Invasion had enough extras of its own, and The Mind Robber was poor, lonely and unloved?

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

That could be... also, The Mind Robber had a 20-minute interview with Frazer Hines, about his carreer and Doctor Who, and he makes special mention of the yetis and the costumes... and one of those costumes was reused, it looked like, from their Doctor Who days... (The Beeb was reusing and recycling before it was cool!).

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Gordon clearly has excellent taste as Mind Robber and Invasion are two of the second Doctor's best stories. Is it the animated version of Invasion?

2. Also actual science in the fiction! I've been rewatching The Moonbase and lost count of the number of real!science ideas incorporated seamlessly into the story.

3. Doctor Who dvd extras are often absolute crack. :-)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

1. Yes, this is the version with the animated fill-ins. Beautifully done, too, I think. I can't see why they don't do that with all the missing episodes.

2. Yes. that is love. And in the commentary (which I'm also enjoying -- its like eavesdropping on a family watching their old home movies), someone made the comment that it was nice for the writers to remember the part of Zoe's character that she was a math and computer whiz (A girl geek! in the 60's! That idea just blows my mind... and she's not treated like a freak, either).

3. But fun crack...

[gordon-r-d.livejournal.com]

I think they wold like to do more animated missing episodes, but due to the costs involved it's looking more and more like The Invasion will be a one-off, which is a terrible shame.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Oh, Bother.

Well, at least we've got "The Invasion" out of it...

Must start looking into recons...

[brassfire.livejournal.com]

Heh, my dreams usually have either full spectrum colour or extra saturation. At least, the ones I remember...

[gordon-r-d.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Glad you're enjoying them. :)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

*Sqush*