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Doctor Who - Revolution Of The Daleks

New Years Day - 6:45pm - BBC One ... 8pm (US) - BBC America (December 2020)

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AS
Ash101
Also a nice little newsnight cameo from Maitlis.


Filmed in the newest studio too? Which is a shock considering this episode has been in the can for at least 12 months.
Alfie Mulcahy and Cold Open gave kudos
JA
JAS84
Maybe they reshot that scene?

I am pleased at the mention of "2021" in that trailer.

The pandemic obviously prevented them filming a series in time to be broadcast in Jan-March 2021.

I believe that tonight's episode would've been recorded in something like autumn 2019, together with the previous series. The festive specials are therefore always in the can for many months before they get shown.

Either they've been able to at least start filming a new series fairly recently, or have plans to do so quite soon (e.g. spring) with a view to airing it later this year (e.g. Oct-Dec, or whatever).

I'm so glad that we won't have to wait until January 2022 for more DW, as I had feared when news first broke of the next series being delayed. Tonight's single episode having to sustain us for a whole calendar year was not a pleasing prospect.
They've already started filming, John Bishop was spotted on set too, but of course it was assumed he was just a guest star.
DJ
DJGM


Also a nice little newsnight cameo from Maitlis.


Filmed in the newest studio too? Which is a shock considering this episode has been in the can for at least 12 months.


That'll probablybe the extra scene that was made fairly recently and quickly edited (or shoehorned) into the episode at the last minute.
CO
Cold Open
Also a nice little newsnight cameo from Maitlis.


Filmed in the newest studio too? Which is a shock considering this episode has been in the can for at least 12 months.


Maybe certain little bits and bobs, such as the Maitlis insert, were filmed much more recently than the bulk of the episode? (Possibly replacing a "news programme" scene originally filmed in 2019, that has since become outdated-looking due to e.g. a presenter leaving the Beeb, a change of studio/set or programme branding etc?)

Maybe they even left a hole, always intending to film the "Newsnight" insert much closer to the episode's air date and edit it in?

EDIT: Others have beat me to it, whilst I was still typing!
AM
Alfie Mulcahy
Also a nice little newsnight cameo from Maitlis.


Filmed in the newest studio too? Which is a shock considering this episode has been in the can for at least 12 months.


Good point actually. They must've changed that quite last minute.
JK
JKDerry
Filming might have to be altered for a bit since John Bishop and his wife contracted Covid. John has said the virus flattened him and his wife, even though both are very healthy. I hope he will be fit and well to come back filming for the remainder of the series?
DA
davidhorman
The aspect ratio still annoys me. The news graphics look guff in that format.


I was annoyed by the inappropriate use of those graphics. You'd never get a slow tracking shot right into a speaker's face like that on the news, so that shot just shouldn't have had the graphics on it. It really seemed like an afterthought, with only one or two shots that actually looked like they would have been gathered by an OB crew (and one of those looked to be low-resolution compared to the rest). They could have had a nice bit of panicking cameras and hurried throws back to a concerned Sophie Raworth (or, if only, Simon McCoy). It would have been worth consulting with a news team over how to shoot that scene rather than trusting it to a dramatic cinematographer (also why you should try and have real reporters if possible; give an actor a writer's version of a reporter's spiel and it never seems to go right).

So many missed opportunities televisual-wise and so much of the episode felt half-finished - you see a Dalek blob launch itself at Jack, but then it cuts and it's already on his face. Jack's first appearance had zero build-up, as did the TARDIS's arrival at the house - Yaz could have had a nice little speech there about much they did - or perhaps did not - need the Doctor. The dialogue too, felt at times like it was cobbled together from a bucket of generic lines. Moffat could make dialogue zing and RTD was master of How People Actually Talk, but Chibnall doesn't seem to have the hang of either (Jack's parting line to the Daleks, "I'm Jack Harkness and I'm immortal" made absolutely no flippin' sense at all ).

And then (to go a little more in-universe for a moment) the Doctor just goes and blithely kills a TARDIS? That might have worked in the classic series but since 2005 great play has been made of how sentient and intelligent TARDISes are.

The bit at the end was a nice coda for Ryan and Graham, but Ryan's leaving felt really forced and desparately in need of some expansion. Just a few minutes showing that he's got himself a fulfilling job in social care, or something, or that he's got a burgeoning relationship on the go. There was a dangling plot thread with Graham's cancer possibly returning that could have been of use there too, but that went nowhere as well (just like the Doctor's dialogue with Graham in that previous episode).

On the plus side, John Bishop should be a worthy replacement for Bradley Walsh.
Last edited by davidhorman on 2 January 2021 1:02am
AndrewPSSP and Alfie Mulcahy gave kudos
JA
JAS84
To be fair, that second TARDIS had to be disposed of. Otherwise, Graham and Ryan would still have access to it.
DA
davidhorman
That's another thing. I'm sure there's a maxim about not letting your plot resolution revolve around the bad guys doing the daftest thing possible, i.e. all cramming themselves into a TARDIS when just one or two would do...
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
The aspect ratio still annoys me. The news graphics look guff in that format.


I was annoyed by the inappropriate use of those graphics. You'd never get a slow tracking shot right into a speaker's face like that on the news, so that shot just shouldn't have had the graphics on it. It really seemed like an afterthought, with only one or two shots that actually looked like they would have been gathered by an OB crew (and one of those looked to be low-resolution compared to the rest). They could have had a nice bit of panicking cameras and hurried throws back to a concerned Sophie Raworth (or, if only, Simon McCoy). It would have been worth consulting with a news team over how to shoot that scene rather than trusting it to a dramatic cinematographer (also why you should try and have real reporters if possible; give an actor a writer's version of a reporter's spiel and it never seems to go right).


Do be aware that it's almost always a deliberate decision when it comes to news inserts to do them "wrong", or at least in some way that makes it clear that it isn't "real" (see Ofcom 2.10). Yes it does take those of us who notice things like this out of the action, but it is what it is.
AM
Alfie Mulcahy
The aspect ratio still annoys me. The news graphics look guff in that format.


I was annoyed by the inappropriate use of those graphics. You'd never get a slow tracking shot right into a speaker's face like that on the news, so that shot just shouldn't have had the graphics on it. It really seemed like an afterthought, with only one or two shots that actually looked like they would have been gathered by an OB crew (and one of those looked to be low-resolution compared to the rest). They could have had a nice bit of panicking cameras and hurried throws back to a concerned Sophie Raworth (or, if only, Simon McCoy). It would have been worth consulting with a news team over how to shoot that scene rather than trusting it to a dramatic cinematographer (also why you should try and have real reporters if possible; give an actor a writer's version of a reporter's spiel and it never seems to go right).


Do be aware that it's almost always a deliberate decision when it comes to news inserts to do them "wrong", or at least in some way that makes it clear that it isn't "real" (see Ofcom 2.10). Yes it does take those of us who notice things like this out of the action, but it is what it is.


Yeah. Usually they add fake scan lines or have the camera zoom in on a pixelated screen. To show that it's not real. Mabey the aspect ratio allows them to get around it somewhat.
PA
Parker
Probably the best line in the JW series has to be when the Doctor Says to Jack 'Have you had some work done' Jack replies ' You can talk' Very Happy

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