But Horns of Nimon was quite original when it was released in December 1979. The Nimon control room was a great set and Soldeed had a touch of Roger Delgado about him. The previous story from November 1979 The Nightmare Of Eden was sort of reminiscent of the Yeti stories from the 1960s.
The irony of Professor Chronotis spending his retirement teaching at a college on Earth, when that’s exactly what the Doctor ended up doing when he met Bill.
Yes! I'm so glad you're watching Shada, it's a wonderful story. Apart from the 4th Doctor and Romana's usual charm, Denis Carey is a hoot as Prof. Chronotis. Obviously with Gallifrey having been destroyed, trapped, then destroyed again it's harder to do nowadays but I miss these random Time Lords who would pop up across the cosmos and shoot the breeze with the Doctor.
Daniel Hill, who plays Chris Parsons, met his wife on this story. She's called Olivia Bazalgette, and was a production assistant. He nicknamed her "Liv Bag". The street choir weren't in the script, but the director met them in the pub the night before and said they could be in it. But he didn't expect them to actually turn up! The space shots were indeed done "new", alongside the animation. They still used models and old film cameras but had more time and resources, so they look great.
That's basically it, yeah. All of the location filming was completed, but a lot of the studio filming was cancelled due to the strike. At any other time, the story would likely have been pushed to the following season, but this was the last story under producer Graham Williams and script editor Douglas Adams (who also wrote this story) and so it was abandoned. So we have a mixture of live action from 1979, and animation with newly recorded dialogue from 2017. I think some of the model shots are new too. As far as I know, all the surviving actors returned to voice dialogue. David Brierly (voice of K9) died in 2008, so they used various archive audio clips. Denis Carey (Professor Chronotis) died in 1986, but most of his scenes had been completed anyway, with a few lines being reworked for the Doctor instead.
John Nathan Turner was production manager for this story, it was his last in that position until he took over the show as producer the following season. Word was he tried to get “Shada” finished for years, maybe as a holiday special or something, so the filmed material wouldn’t go to waste but he and Tom Baker were NOT on the best of terms. In any case Tom was definitely done with the show when he left and as time went on it became more and more difficult to assemble all the pieces so it didn’t happen.
@@karlmortoniv2951 Tom did eventually get along fine with JN-T once enough time had passed, and he recorded linking narration (written by JN-T), in character as the Doctor, for the abridged VHS release of Shada.
Big Finish adapted Shada as an audio in 2003 with Paul McGann as the Doctor (Tom Baker didn't start doing Big Finish until 2012) along with Lala Ward as Romana and John Leeson as K9.
Shada, the story that refused to die. Super amazing that you're reacting to this lost gem. What was supposed to have been writer Douglas Adams' personal magnum opus before moving on to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy afterwards, as well as the swansong of Graham Williams (producer/showrunner from Season 15-17), ended up getting dashed to the rocks halfway through filming. Back then, the prospect of industrial action was practically a fact of life in every workplace in Britain, and the BBC was extremely and strongly unionised in those days. The different departments working within the BBC were very, very protective about their different roles within the industry, and demarcation was always a huge problem. In the past, industrial action disrupted filming on both The Invasion of Time and The Armageddon Factor, but the real issue was during the filming of Shada. The major problem was a long-running demarcation dispute between the prop-men's department and the electricians' department concerning the electric clock that appeared in the children's TV show, Play School, which resulted in the whole of the BBC basically grinding to a halt because this dispute couldn't be sorted out. With Shada, they'd already filmed all the location shots and had completed only a small amount of studio work when the strike was called. By the time the strike was resolved, however, there was absolutely no studio time available as the BBC was busy shooting their Christmas specials, in particular for their famous comedy sketch programme, The Morecambe & Wise Show. So, The Horns of Nimon ended up being a premature end to, not only this season on transmission, but to the entire Graham Williams period of the show. Shada was left abandoned until other versions came along, including a 1992 version that had linking interludes between scenes featuring Tom Baker and a 2003 Big Finish version with Paul McGann replacing Tom Baker. Now, the 2017/2021 version is, without a doubt, the definitive version. I've always had a massive soft spot for Shada and is definitely the best Season 17 has to offer alongside City of Death, and both written by the late great Douglas Adams. Funnily enough, the idea of a Time Lord being a professor at a university is definitely an idea that Steven Moffat would greatly utilise for Peter Capaldi's third and final season.
This was a great one written by the great Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame. It was adapted by Big Finish as a radio play featuring the 8th Doctor, Paul McGann and released as a slightly animated web series back in the mid-00s. It was released again as a book that expanded on the story just a couple of years ago.
I love that the webcast version starts with the prologue and directly references [a future story] with 8 begging Romana to find out what happened when they were taken out of time, making both versions canon
@@acediamondx yeah, that’s how I first heard this story too. It was also my introduction to the Eighth Doctor, Romana and K-9. I had discovered DW during a Labor Day marathon on Sci-Fi Channel. It was the Empty Child episode. I was flipping through channels and came across Ross a nice looking blonde hanging from a balloon. Figured I’d stick around to see how it turned out. Watched the rest of the marathon! Then I went on RUclips (back when you could do this) to watch the previous eight episodes. By now I was hooked so I was watching anything I could find on RUclips! As it was Tennant’s first season had already aired in the UK and wasn’t due to air until ‘07. So I found those on RUclips! By the time the third season aired I was a confirmed Whophile and “sailed the seven seas” to get the third season as it aired.
I wasn't sure if you were going to react to this story or not, so I'm delighted to see this pop up in my notifications 😊. Your info on why this is part animation is spot on. Writer Douglas Adams later reused characters and plot elements from this for his book, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
As someone who lives in Cambridge this is a fun watch, it’s crazy seeing the Doctor getting chased down streets I walk every day! Although the college in this story is fictional, I’m pretty certain they filmed it at Emmanuel College
The BBC strike that shut down production enabled Tom Baker to make a last-minute trip to Los Angeles to attend a Doctor Who convention. That's where I met him!!
That acapella group you see during the bike chase scene was an actual group of students from Cambridge's acapella club. They were so excited that they got to be in an episode of Doctor Who and immediately told all their friends and family to watch for them when the new season aired. Sadly, they never did get to see them. 😅
This story has had a few attempts at being finished. This is the one with animated bits. There’s also one with Tom Baker cuts (where Tom himself basically explains the plot). There are a few others too.
Did you notice the music? It is similar to the music used in "The City of Death". heheh, The Doctor is being chased by "Rover Jr." ("The Prisoner" reference).
So few people remember that the late, great Douglas Adams, was a script editor for Who in the 70's His most obvious contributions are the stories City of Death and The Pirate Planet, as they were at least completed and released. For those familiar only with his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, they may not realize that Adams lifted many story elements from Shada for the first installation of his new series, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. While I'm only guessing, I think it fairly safe to assume, when DGHDA was released, that the BBC would have had zero interest in releasing a half finished story onto video, though they did use elements from the serial in The Five Doctors to explain away Baker's lack of participation. For those who have yet to read them, I highly recommend the Dirk Gently duo, which apart from the already mentioned title includes a sequel titled The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul.
We're lucky to have the animation and audio now. Back in the 80's, when I watched this on our local PBS station, the missing scenes were narrated by Tom Baker sitting in a chair, as I recall.
I had no idea animation was added. When I first watched this (which was years ago on VHS) it didn’t have animation and those bits were narrated by Tom Baker
This story was half way through filming but was cancelled due to the technician strike at the BBC studios so this story never made it to broadcast so the previous story "The Horns of Nimon" abruptly became the season 17 finale. In 1992 there was VHS release of this and the missing gaps had Tom Baker narrating the story telling us what scenes happened next. The animated scenes were taken from the original script to complete the gap scenes and almost all the same actors returned to voice the characters in 2017. As some people pointed out and I'm sorry no ones warned you about this story I'd had left this until after you finished Classic Who maybe left for a Dr. Who December or something but never mind no big deal 😊.
Not sure if you realised this, but the clothes Skagra changes into are those of the man whose car he gets into ... this does raise a few unanswered questions like, what the hell happens to the man? Is he still out there in his car, naked?
@@paulhunter6178 I had to look it up to refresh my memory… and keep in mind you asked for the summary of what I’m about to reveal. it’s chapter 9 of the novelisation… The character is named as David Taylor. In true Target novelisation fashion, even though this story has yet to be released in Target format, he’s given a whole backstory… David was in town grocery shopping for his mom - his dad had recently died and David moved out. He was picking up a few things for dinner at his mum’s, and we learn the character is gay and, given how the villain is dressed, thinks that he’s a campy Swede in town, and David picks him up, thinking he’s lucked out for a quick hook-up, but Skagra ends up murdering him in the car with the sphere - and it’s implied that David might be an early victim of AIDS, as a skin lesion is revealed, after he is killed, which aligns roughly with when this story is set. David’s last thought is of his mum and how she’ll be worried that he’s late for dinner. But yeah, that’s the craziness of Doctor Who books in a nutshell for you 📚
@@DoctorWhoBookClub Thanks for that, not sure what I was expecting when you said it had been covered in a book; but safe to say I was thinking it was a random throwaway line. Not a life history.
Yeah, that moment ended up being expanded into an entire chapter for the novelisation. Some novelisations add a lot of extra content, some are pretty bare bones and just follow the script. Shada ends up adding a lot of additional material. @@paulhunter6178
Shada......Shaddaaaaa...Shadaaaaaaa... Yay that you're reacting to Shada! It's really to bad they didnt finish this serial, but Thank Rassilon for The 1992 Recon version With Tom baker on camera doing linking narration for scenes not Available!), The Paul McGann 2003 Animaiton-Web version (It was ok for the time during the wilderness years) and the One you're watching! The one you're watching is FANTASTICALLY DONE! They Link the Live action and Animation well! Douglas Adams Was brilliant when he wrote this!!! Romana's outfit..So cute!
The incidental music for "Shada" (which was written by Keff McCulloch and Mark Ayers) imho has a Dudley Simpson feel to it; it gives off strong "City of Death" vibes to me, which only makes me love this story even more.
Cool! I didn't even know they made a half-animated version of this! I knew Big Finish re-made this story for Paul McGann's Doctor that was also animated, but it's cool to know they completed Tom Baker's version!
this is the only story i have never seen for reasons you stated. i have it on blu-ray so i decided to watch it along with you. for the first time i have no idea what's going to happen. which is unusual for me with classic who. can't wait for the rest & see what you think of the story overall. when i saw that guy with the cape, i said, "she (meaning you) will love it!" & you did. great reaction. can't wait to see what happens next
This is a great story and knowing it would have only taken two studio days to complete is a sad fact. A majority of this season's budget was allocated for the Paris filming in "City of Death" and the Cambridge recording here. That explains the lack of money evident in stories like "Nightmare of Eden". There's been so many attempts to bring "Shada" to life, and this version is the definitive one for me.
I get the feeling Jess could be easily convinced to join the evil side if they offered her some fabulous outfits. :) I agree with you that this is a relatively simple story and, watching it for the first time with you, I think that's part of its charm. It's almost like a "slice of life" story, at least in these first two parts. We're just seeing what three Time Lords talk about during their downtime. I also really like Romana's line asking if Parsons was "young, old, tall, short" and mixing up tall and short. It reminded me of when the War Doctor asked Eleven if he could speak without waving his hands about and he said yes, while waving his hands about. I do have an annoying "fan brain" nitpick when it comes to Professor Chronotis; in the Eleventh Doctor's era, during "The Doctor's Wife", a lot of dialogue about the Corsair was cut down because Steven Moffat didn't want another Time Lord to seem too similar to the Doctor. So it does irk me a little bit that there's another Time Lord who loves Earth so much that he decided to retire on it (and let's not forget the Doctor's mentor who showed up in "Planet of the Spiders").
There's an earlier version of this you can find on VHS that has Linking narration by Tom Baker kind of half in character as the doctor. It actually fits better with the version of the doctor he played in the 50th special then the 4th doctor proper.
I appreciate hearing people respond to costuming in this style and era of television, so no need to apologize for your fashion discussion in my view. (And I might want to see you watch Blake's 7 specifically because of the outfits in that show. Especially Servalan's.)
Correct! This was the series finale but they never finished filming, there's been countless attempts to recreate this in novels, audios, and animations.
They reworked the story and footage to shada many times over the years. I still have the original VHS release where they had Tom baker narrate the scenes not filmed, using photos like the telesnaps of the 3 & 4 season. And in 2003 they reworked the script to have the 8th Doctor reunite with Romana as an audio play, that was also semi animated on the BBC website. Then this version which I believe is available aaa completely animated story as well but I’m not sure
I think one reason for the oddly gentle pace of the story is that, with so much footage missing, "everything existing" has been used, whereas the chances are if the serial had been finished and transmitted back in 1980, a lot of those quiet, charming, but lazy little moments would have ended up being cut - or at least trimmed- for timing reasons.
I have this release in my collection, a great 4th Doctor adventure. When I watch Shada, it's always the Ian Levine version. I just think it's better, an opinion many won't agree with.
In 1992 they released it but to get around the unfilmed bits had T.Baker/ a future Doctor (or Curator) remembering & narrating the bits that weren't filmed e.g Parsons cycled to his lab & thumbed through the mysterious book. Which then got ported to dvd in 2013. As Part of the 40th Anniversary, Big Finish partnered with BBCi to "animate" Shada but due to T.Baker not wanting to, was done with McGann, as a sequel (Doctor="can you remember going to Cambridge in 1979?", Romana= I remember you punting us down the river Cam but we left in a hurry soon after" Doctor="we have to go back & finish our business") of sorts to Shada. In 2017, we got this version however it was an omnibus movie length, then 2021's complete S17 Blu-Ray Boxset had 2017's Shada as a 6 parter as was intended. Out of the original narrated 1992 VHS/2013 DVD, 2003 Webcast/Big Finish CD & 2017 omnibus animation/2021 serial animation Think my ranking is: 1)2017/2021 animation (2021 having the edge) 2)2003 Webcast/Audio Drama (Audio Drama over Webcast though) 3)1992/2013 Narrated version (but weirdly like the soundtrack to this one the most). Though if we had 2017 animation with the score of the 1992 soundtrack, and the Webcast's framing device, I think that would be the definitive version for me.
"Shada" could've been such a classic. I really love this story. A pity Douglas Adams didn't think much of it himself, but I honestly think it's some of his best work. Probably just needed a few tweaks here and there to bring it up to snuff. Chronotis is a delight, and I wish he could've been recurring
With animations and reconstructions and complete audio recordings, it's difficult to picture (or hear) a time when some Dr Who stories were just not seen. 60 years on, the only really 'lost' episode is the original recording of 'The Dead Planet' (the first episode of The Daleks, re-recorded after it was discovered that voices from the studio gallery could be heard on the soundtrack). 'Shada' is, sadly, a reflection of its times. Outside of the Saturday night escapism offered by Doctor Who or Basil Brush or The Two Ronnies, Britain was lurching from labour force strike to labour force strike - turning some parts of British industry (notably the automobile conglomerate British Leyland) into an easy target for comedians. What we have left probably hints at a strong production, in the vein perhaps of 'City of Death' (also from departing script-editor Douglas Adams), but I think this is probably the best we're going to have. And what it occasionally lacks in live action performance, it makes up for in the story.
I don’t know that it means anything, but it feels like something that made Douglas Adams laugh when he wrote it. It works as a way to telegraph that the Professor might be a bit more than he seems without being too obvious about it.
The question "one lump or two?" was commonly used at the time to ask how many sugars a tea-drinker wanted. (Sugar cubes were the big new convenience craze; no more dithering over whether someone wanted a level teaspoonful or a heaped one, you could just give number!) So the natural assumption when hearing the question is that it's about sugar, and you answer accordingly. Then the professor asks "sugar?", and Parsons does a double take, thinking: "What? Hang on, what were you asking about before?" The Doctor on the other hand is already familiar with the professor's favourite joke, hence his wink/grin to Romana as he short-circuits it... And in so doing, alerts the professor that an old friend has come to call, rather than a student or colleague.
Douglas Adams would later reperpose Chronotis and that godawful joke in his book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, a book that also reuses elements from City of Death.
Looking forward to more of your reactions to this story. I know it through the Big Finish audios (I bought it on impulse because it was written by Douglas Adams), but it's good to see it with Tom Baker, as it should be. And, yes, the professor is great.
The Professor reminds me SO MUCH of Patrick Troughton, especially how Troughton looked when he was older! I've NEVER seen this version of Shada!! I read the book, saw the 1st attempt to tell it with Tom Baker narrating the action in a museum, and almost bought what was then the ultimate version when it was a novel! Whew! My least favorite part - - those plastic cherries in Romana's hat! That look always comes off as tacky to me. Everything else is great!
Ahh yes Shada the unfinished story due to technician strikes at the bbc or was it itv i get them confused? I did the own the unfinished version narrated by Tom Baker and I owned the complete version thanks to a friend of mine who gave it to me. Now i own this story thanks to the collection range.
BBC, though ITV had been off air for several months due to similar strikes. As a result, City of Death part 4 still holds the record for the highest viewing figures for a Doctor Who episode.
Personally I would have advised you to leave this till you finished Classic Who, as a treat to ease the ending of it. Because nonne at the time ever saw it , not till 1992 . But it is a good story, maybe too long. But good.
Shada is a much better end to the Graham Williams era than The Horns of Nimon.
It makes me so happy that it's now complete with the original cast
Couldn't disagree more
But Horns of Nimon was quite original when it was released in December 1979. The Nimon control room was a great set and Soldeed had a touch of Roger Delgado about him. The previous story from November 1979 The Nightmare Of Eden was sort of reminiscent of the Yeti stories from the 1960s.
The irony of Professor Chronotis spending his retirement teaching at a college on Earth, when that’s exactly what the Doctor ended up doing when he met Bill.
Maybe one thing led to another.
Yes! I'm so glad you're watching Shada, it's a wonderful story. Apart from the 4th Doctor and Romana's usual charm, Denis Carey is a hoot as Prof. Chronotis. Obviously with Gallifrey having been destroyed, trapped, then destroyed again it's harder to do nowadays but I miss these random Time Lords who would pop up across the cosmos and shoot the breeze with the Doctor.
I love how Jess reacted worse when he changed his outfit, than she has when some characters have died.
Daniel Hill, who plays Chris Parsons, met his wife on this story. She's called Olivia Bazalgette, and was a production assistant. He nicknamed her "Liv Bag".
The street choir weren't in the script, but the director met them in the pub the night before and said they could be in it. But he didn't expect them to actually turn up!
The space shots were indeed done "new", alongside the animation. They still used models and old film cameras but had more time and resources, so they look great.
That's basically it, yeah. All of the location filming was completed, but a lot of the studio filming was cancelled due to the strike. At any other time, the story would likely have been pushed to the following season, but this was the last story under producer Graham Williams and script editor Douglas Adams (who also wrote this story) and so it was abandoned. So we have a mixture of live action from 1979, and animation with newly recorded dialogue from 2017. I think some of the model shots are new too.
As far as I know, all the surviving actors returned to voice dialogue. David Brierly (voice of K9) died in 2008, so they used various archive audio clips. Denis Carey (Professor Chronotis) died in 1986, but most of his scenes had been completed anyway, with a few lines being reworked for the Doctor instead.
John Nathan Turner was production manager for this story, it was his last in that position until he took over the show as producer the following season. Word was he tried to get “Shada” finished for years, maybe as a holiday special or something, so the filmed material wouldn’t go to waste but he and Tom Baker were NOT on the best of terms. In any case Tom was definitely done with the show when he left and as time went on it became more and more difficult to assemble all the pieces so it didn’t happen.
@@karlmortoniv2951 Tom did eventually get along fine with JN-T once enough time had passed, and he recorded linking narration (written by JN-T), in character as the Doctor, for the abridged VHS release of Shada.
Big Finish adapted Shada as an audio in 2003 with Paul McGann as the Doctor (Tom Baker didn't start doing Big Finish until 2012) along with Lala Ward as Romana and John Leeson as K9.
Shada, the story that refused to die. Super amazing that you're reacting to this lost gem. What was supposed to have been writer Douglas Adams' personal magnum opus before moving on to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy afterwards, as well as the swansong of Graham Williams (producer/showrunner from Season 15-17), ended up getting dashed to the rocks halfway through filming. Back then, the prospect of industrial action was practically a fact of life in every workplace in Britain, and the BBC was extremely and strongly unionised in those days. The different departments working within the BBC were very, very protective about their different roles within the industry, and demarcation was always a huge problem. In the past, industrial action disrupted filming on both The Invasion of Time and The Armageddon Factor, but the real issue was during the filming of Shada.
The major problem was a long-running demarcation dispute between the prop-men's department and the electricians' department concerning the electric clock that appeared in the children's TV show, Play School, which resulted in the whole of the BBC basically grinding to a halt because this dispute couldn't be sorted out. With Shada, they'd already filmed all the location shots and had completed only a small amount of studio work when the strike was called. By the time the strike was resolved, however, there was absolutely no studio time available as the BBC was busy shooting their Christmas specials, in particular for their famous comedy sketch programme, The Morecambe & Wise Show. So, The Horns of Nimon ended up being a premature end to, not only this season on transmission, but to the entire Graham Williams period of the show.
Shada was left abandoned until other versions came along, including a 1992 version that had linking interludes between scenes featuring Tom Baker and a 2003 Big Finish version with Paul McGann replacing Tom Baker. Now, the 2017/2021 version is, without a doubt, the definitive version. I've always had a massive soft spot for Shada and is definitely the best Season 17 has to offer alongside City of Death, and both written by the late great Douglas Adams. Funnily enough, the idea of a Time Lord being a professor at a university is definitely an idea that Steven Moffat would greatly utilise for Peter Capaldi's third and final season.
This was a great one written by the great Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame. It was adapted by Big Finish as a radio play featuring the 8th Doctor, Paul McGann and released as a slightly animated web series back in the mid-00s. It was released again as a book that expanded on the story just a couple of years ago.
So many versions of this story! It’s like its own multiverse.
I love that the webcast version starts with the prologue and directly references [a future story] with 8 begging Romana to find out what happened when they were taken out of time, making both versions canon
@@acediamondx yeah, that’s how I first heard this story too. It was also my introduction to the Eighth Doctor, Romana and K-9. I had discovered DW during a Labor Day marathon on Sci-Fi Channel. It was the Empty Child episode. I was flipping through channels and came across Ross a nice looking blonde hanging from a balloon. Figured I’d stick around to see how it turned out. Watched the rest of the marathon! Then I went on RUclips (back when you could do this) to watch the previous eight episodes. By now I was hooked so I was watching anything I could find on RUclips! As it was Tennant’s first season had already aired in the UK and wasn’t due to air until ‘07. So I found those on RUclips! By the time the third season aired I was a confirmed Whophile and “sailed the seven seas” to get the third season as it aired.
Ahhh the row boat scene. Seen that many many times 😏
After this story was unfinished, Douglas Adams who wrote this adapted it into Dirk Gently’ as Holistic Detective Agency
I wasn't sure if you were going to react to this story or not, so I'm delighted to see this pop up in my notifications 😊. Your info on why this is part animation is spot on. Writer Douglas Adams later reused characters and plot elements from this for his book, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
The actor who plays Chris Parsons is in one of my favorite British comedies called Waiting For God
Which stared the last stories's Graham Crowdon of course!
@@AndyRossism lol. That’s right. I forgot that. I didn’t recognize him because I’m used to seeing him old. Thanks.
As someone who lives in Cambridge this is a fun watch, it’s crazy seeing the Doctor getting chased down streets I walk every day! Although the college in this story is fictional, I’m pretty certain they filmed it at Emmanuel College
The Twelfth Doctor as a professor in his last season had a definite feel of a callback to Professor Chronotis in this story.
Glad you watch this in order, and context.
“Shada” is a German word for “terrible”
Very glad that you decided to view this one now.
I'm from Cambridge. This is one of my absolute favourite Doctor Who stories!
Same! So weird seeing the Doctor getting chased down those familiar roads 😂
@@jacobcurle8964 and the local knowledge lets us chuckle at the Doctor teleporting across the city from shot to shot lol.
The BBC strike that shut down production enabled Tom Baker to make a last-minute trip to Los Angeles to attend a Doctor Who convention. That's where I met him!!
That acapella group you see during the bike chase scene was an actual group of students from Cambridge's acapella club. They were so excited that they got to be in an episode of Doctor Who and immediately told all their friends and family to watch for them when the new season aired. Sadly, they never did get to see them. 😅
This story has had a few attempts at being finished. This is the one with animated bits. There’s also one with Tom Baker cuts (where Tom himself basically explains the plot). There are a few others too.
I knew you would love Chronotis. Skagra's outfit would fit in the period if he went to a New Romantic club.
This story has many actors who were in Blake,s Seven as well as Doctor Who.
Did you notice the music? It is similar to the music used in "The City of Death". heheh, The Doctor is being chased by "Rover Jr." ("The Prisoner" reference).
The "lost" Doctor Who story.
Love your enthusiasm towards the costumes.
The actor playing Chronotis was in Blake,s Seven and so was Chris Neame who plays the main villain Skagra.
So few people remember that the late, great Douglas Adams, was a script editor for Who in the 70's His most obvious contributions are the stories City of Death and The Pirate Planet, as they were at least completed and released. For those familiar only with his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, they may not realize that Adams lifted many story elements from Shada for the first installation of his new series, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. While I'm only guessing, I think it fairly safe to assume, when DGHDA was released, that the BBC would have had zero interest in releasing a half finished story onto video, though they did use elements from the serial in The Five Doctors to explain away Baker's lack of participation. For those who have yet to read them, I highly recommend the Dirk Gently duo, which apart from the already mentioned title includes a sequel titled The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul.
Ah bonus - I thought we were going to jump straight into the 1980s this week!
Cambridge is an old university city, hence so many bicycles, roughly 1/5 of the population are students.
We're lucky to have the animation and audio now. Back in the 80's, when I watched this on our local PBS station, the missing scenes were narrated by Tom Baker sitting in a chair, as I recall.
I had no idea animation was added. When I first watched this (which was years ago on VHS) it didn’t have animation and those bits were narrated by Tom Baker
Shada begins, basically, just with Four and Romana having a day off and going sailing. That’s literally why they’re there: they’re on holiday.
This story was half way through filming but was cancelled due to the technician strike at the BBC studios so this story never made it to broadcast so the previous story "The Horns of Nimon" abruptly became the season 17 finale.
In 1992 there was VHS release of this and the missing gaps had Tom Baker narrating the story telling us what scenes happened next.
The animated scenes were taken from the original script to complete the gap scenes and almost all the same actors returned to voice the characters in 2017.
As some people pointed out and I'm sorry no ones warned you about this story I'd had left this until after you finished Classic Who maybe left for a Dr. Who December or something but never mind no big deal 😊.
Not sure if you realised this, but the clothes Skagra changes into are those of the man whose car he gets into ... this does raise a few unanswered questions like, what the hell happens to the man? Is he still out there in his car, naked?
This question is answered in at least one of the novelisations of this story. 📚
@@DoctorWhoBookClub Please provide the answer. Extended WHO media, being somewhat large, I'm sure others will be intrigued and gratified with a reply.
@@paulhunter6178 I had to look it up to refresh my memory… and keep in mind you asked for the summary of what I’m about to reveal. it’s chapter 9 of the novelisation…
The character is named as David Taylor. In true Target novelisation fashion, even though this story has yet to be released in Target format, he’s given a whole backstory… David was in town grocery shopping for his mom - his dad had recently died and David moved out. He was picking up a few things for dinner at his mum’s, and we learn the character is gay and, given how the villain is dressed, thinks that he’s a campy Swede in town, and David picks him up, thinking he’s lucked out for a quick hook-up, but Skagra ends up murdering him in the car with the sphere - and it’s implied that David might be an early victim of AIDS, as a skin lesion is revealed, after he is killed, which aligns roughly with when this story is set. David’s last thought is of his mum and how she’ll be worried that he’s late for dinner.
But yeah, that’s the craziness of Doctor Who books in a nutshell for you 📚
@@DoctorWhoBookClub Thanks for that, not sure what I was expecting when you said it had been covered in a book; but safe to say I was thinking it was a random throwaway line. Not a life history.
Yeah, that moment ended up being expanded into an entire chapter for the novelisation. Some novelisations add a lot of extra content, some are pretty bare bones and just follow the script. Shada ends up adding a lot of additional material. @@paulhunter6178
so close to the 1980s, can't wait to see your reactions to the start of next season
Cambridge is known to be a very cycle heavy city.
Shada......Shaddaaaaa...Shadaaaaaaa...
Yay that you're reacting to Shada!
It's really to bad they didnt finish this serial, but Thank Rassilon for The 1992 Recon version With Tom baker on camera doing linking narration for scenes not Available!), The Paul McGann 2003 Animaiton-Web version (It was ok for the time during the wilderness years) and the One you're watching!
The one you're watching is FANTASTICALLY DONE! They Link the Live action and Animation well!
Douglas Adams Was brilliant when he wrote this!!!
Romana's outfit..So cute!
I like to think it’s Tom Baker playing The Curator - and not The Doctor - in the 1992 VHS video links ✨
Oh, i like that! @@DoctorWhoBookClub
The incidental music for "Shada" (which was written by Keff McCulloch and Mark Ayers) imho has a Dudley Simpson feel to it; it gives off strong "City of Death" vibes to me, which only makes me love this story even more.
Cool! I didn't even know they made a half-animated version of this! I knew Big Finish re-made this story for Paul McGann's Doctor that was also animated, but it's cool to know they completed Tom Baker's version!
The best part is that someone asked the BBC which version was canon. They said "both"
this is the only story i have never seen for reasons you stated. i have it on blu-ray so i decided to watch it along with you. for the first time i have no idea what's going to happen. which is unusual for me with classic who. can't wait for the rest & see what you think of the story overall. when i saw that guy with the cape, i said, "she (meaning you) will love it!" & you did. great reaction. can't wait to see what happens next
parts of this story were reused by Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. which has a fantastic radio play version.
the cricketmen section of the hitchhikers books was also from a fully unused episode of who
Absolutely love this one.
You go right on commentating about the clothes--it's great. I'm here for it.
This is a great story and knowing it would have only taken two studio days to complete is a sad fact. A majority of this season's budget was allocated for the Paris filming in "City of Death" and the Cambridge recording here. That explains the lack of money evident in stories like "Nightmare of Eden". There's been so many attempts to bring "Shada" to life, and this version is the definitive one for me.
I get the feeling Jess could be easily convinced to join the evil side if they offered her some fabulous outfits. :) I agree with you that this is a relatively simple story and, watching it for the first time with you, I think that's part of its charm. It's almost like a "slice of life" story, at least in these first two parts. We're just seeing what three Time Lords talk about during their downtime. I also really like Romana's line asking if Parsons was "young, old, tall, short" and mixing up tall and short. It reminded me of when the War Doctor asked Eleven if he could speak without waving his hands about and he said yes, while waving his hands about.
I do have an annoying "fan brain" nitpick when it comes to Professor Chronotis; in the Eleventh Doctor's era, during "The Doctor's Wife", a lot of dialogue about the Corsair was cut down because Steven Moffat didn't want another Time Lord to seem too similar to the Doctor. So it does irk me a little bit that there's another Time Lord who loves Earth so much that he decided to retire on it (and let's not forget the Doctor's mentor who showed up in "Planet of the Spiders").
There's an earlier version of this you can find on VHS that has Linking narration by Tom Baker kind of half in character as the doctor. It actually fits better with the version of the doctor he played in the 50th special then the 4th doctor proper.
I appreciate hearing people respond to costuming in this style and era of television, so no need to apologize for your fashion discussion in my view.
(And I might want to see you watch Blake's 7 specifically because of the outfits in that show. Especially Servalan's.)
Correct! This was the series finale but they never finished filming, there's been countless attempts to recreate this in novels, audios, and animations.
They reworked the story and footage to shada many times over the years. I still have the original VHS release where they had Tom baker narrate the scenes not filmed, using photos like the telesnaps of the 3 & 4 season. And in 2003 they reworked the script to have the 8th Doctor reunite with Romana as an audio play, that was also semi animated on the BBC website. Then this version which I believe is available aaa completely animated story as well but I’m not sure
I think one reason for the oddly gentle pace of the story is that, with so much footage missing, "everything existing" has been used, whereas the chances are if the serial had been finished and transmitted back in 1980, a lot of those quiet, charming, but lazy little moments would have ended up being cut - or at least trimmed- for timing reasons.
Kinda wish you'd went in blind to this one and had the animation catch you by suprise.
If I were her, and that'd be the case, I would just be confused and stop the episode to check if I got the right version, so this is much better
24:05 Let me see if I can help. His first name began with an A - no, B...C..........G....................X....Y! Young Parsons!
I have this release in my collection, a great 4th Doctor adventure. When I watch Shada, it's always the Ian Levine version. I just think it's better, an opinion many won't agree with.
I think it's great when you talk about things many of us would never notice left to our own devices.
In 1992 they released it but to get around the unfilmed bits had T.Baker/ a future Doctor (or Curator) remembering & narrating the bits that weren't filmed e.g Parsons cycled to his lab & thumbed through the mysterious book. Which then got ported to dvd in 2013. As Part of the 40th Anniversary, Big Finish partnered with BBCi to "animate" Shada but due to T.Baker not wanting to, was done with McGann, as a sequel (Doctor="can you remember going to Cambridge in 1979?", Romana= I remember you punting us down the river Cam but we left in a hurry soon after" Doctor="we have to go back & finish our business") of sorts to Shada. In 2017, we got this version however it was an omnibus movie length, then 2021's complete S17 Blu-Ray Boxset had 2017's Shada as a 6 parter as was intended.
Out of the original narrated 1992 VHS/2013 DVD, 2003 Webcast/Big Finish CD & 2017 omnibus animation/2021 serial animation
Think my ranking is:
1)2017/2021 animation (2021 having the edge)
2)2003 Webcast/Audio Drama (Audio Drama over Webcast though)
3)1992/2013 Narrated version (but weirdly like the soundtrack to this one the most).
Though if we had 2017 animation with the score of the 1992 soundtrack, and the Webcast's framing device, I think that would be the definitive version for me.
"Shada" could've been such a classic. I really love this story. A pity Douglas Adams didn't think much of it himself, but I honestly think it's some of his best work. Probably just needed a few tweaks here and there to bring it up to snuff. Chronotis is a delight, and I wish he could've been recurring
I say Seska will you be watching and reating to, Blake,s Seven sometime in the future that science fiction series is well awesome in billions of ways.
Despite the many, MANY hurdles to get this story completed I still love it and have it in my ten best stories under the 4th Doctor.
With animations and reconstructions and complete audio recordings, it's difficult to picture (or hear) a time when some Dr Who stories were just not seen. 60 years on, the only really 'lost' episode is the original recording of 'The Dead Planet' (the first episode of The Daleks, re-recorded after it was discovered that voices from the studio gallery could be heard on the soundtrack). 'Shada' is, sadly, a reflection of its times. Outside of the Saturday night escapism offered by Doctor Who or Basil Brush or The Two Ronnies, Britain was lurching from labour force strike to labour force strike - turning some parts of British industry (notably the automobile conglomerate British Leyland) into an easy target for comedians. What we have left probably hints at a strong production, in the vein perhaps of 'City of Death' (also from departing script-editor Douglas Adams), but I think this is probably the best we're going to have. And what it occasionally lacks in live action performance, it makes up for in the story.
I never understood the whole lump gag. Are they implying the milk is lumpy ie gone off?
I don’t know that it means anything, but it feels like something that made Douglas Adams laugh when he wrote it. It works as a way to telegraph that the Professor might be a bit more than he seems without being too obvious about it.
I've always took it as he has Future/Space/Milk which is available in cube form, for ease of use? No more crying over it being spilt....
The question "one lump or two?" was commonly used at the time to ask how many sugars a tea-drinker wanted. (Sugar cubes were the big new convenience craze; no more dithering over whether someone wanted a level teaspoonful or a heaped one, you could just give number!)
So the natural assumption when hearing the question is that it's about sugar, and you answer accordingly. Then the professor asks "sugar?", and Parsons does a double take, thinking: "What? Hang on, what were you asking about before?"
The Doctor on the other hand is already familiar with the professor's favourite joke, hence his wink/grin to Romana as he short-circuits it... And in so doing, alerts the professor that an old friend has come to call, rather than a student or colleague.
Douglas Adams would later reperpose Chronotis and that godawful joke in his book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, a book that also reuses elements from City of Death.
At least the Cambridge location filming was completed first. Having visited the city it was great to spot areas used in the story.
i don't normally comment but your hair is looking FAB. the tardis blue nails the dress, girl you are SERVING
Happy New Year Jess
Looking forward to more of your reactions to this story. I know it through the Big Finish audios (I bought it on impulse because it was written by Douglas Adams), but it's good to see it with Tom Baker, as it should be.
And, yes, the professor is great.
Hiya. Talking of outfits, yours is amazing. Stay safe. All the best to you.
The Professor reminds me SO MUCH of Patrick Troughton, especially how Troughton looked when he was older! I've NEVER seen this version of Shada!! I read the book, saw the 1st attempt to tell it with Tom Baker narrating the action in a museum, and almost bought what was then the ultimate version when it was a novel! Whew! My least favorite part - - those plastic cherries in Romana's hat! That look always comes off as tacky to me. Everything else is great!
I love this Jess
To this day i hate the quiz show blankety blank in the uk as it was given priority for recording over the rest of Shada....
Professor Yana vibes.😊
You talk fashion all day girl! Love
I wonder Seska if you will watch and react to Blake,s Seven and also Sapphire and Steel as well
Ahh yes Shada the unfinished story due to technician strikes at the bbc or was it itv i get them confused? I did the own the unfinished version narrated by Tom Baker and I owned the complete version thanks to a friend of mine who gave it to me. Now i own this story thanks to the collection range.
BBC, though ITV had been off air for several months due to similar strikes. As a result, City of Death part 4 still holds the record for the highest viewing figures for a Doctor Who episode.
I love your dress
You can do as much evil s💩t as you want to, so long as you do it FABULOUSLY.
4:12 the scenes of them on the boat will reappear in the fifth doctor story the five doctors
Fabulouuuuussss!!!
Personally I would have advised you to leave this till you finished Classic Who, as a treat to ease the ending of it. Because nonne at the time ever saw it , not till 1992 .
But it is a good story, maybe too long. But good.
I was distracted by your dress and nails