It’s definitely channeling Quatermass this. Demonic characters, excavations, ancient creatures visiting the Earth! All the better for it. Great reactions.
It’s a rarity right enough. Brilliant way to build up to Azal’s appearance too, I mean if it’s got the Master cowering in fear as the theme crashes in it must be scary.
@@kevinmerchant2478 is this the first time this happens? I know we’ve had cliffhangers where the team aren’t involved (Tlotoxl, Salamander, Gen Scobie etc) but I can’t think of one before this where a baddie is in jeopardy.
10:48 The idea that aliens intervened in human history was very popular then, thanks to Erich von Däniken's book "Chariots of the Gods?", first published in German in 1968 and as a best-selling English paperback and film in 1970/71. Although "Chariots" and its sequels were easily debunked - most famously by Carl Sagan - Däniken's sensational(ist) theory went on to underpin the more recent "Ancient Aliens" series on the History Channel.
"The Daemons" 1-3 and 5 come from 16mm b/w telerecordings, made by filming a screen. It's very complicated, but the only way this survived was that the output of the original color PAL videotape was filmed by a 16mm film camera in monochrome, and then the original color PAL VTs were wiped. And for a time the b/w version was all that survived. Then, they took the color from an off-air American broadcast that happened before the original color tapes were wiped, and they combined that with the b/w telerecording to restore the color. With the next episode, you should see a significant improvement in video quality because it's the only original PAL VT in this story to survive.
@@kierenevans2521 It's a bit of an improvement over the DVD, but still a wee bit sketchy. Just imagine how it would have looked if they'd saved all the location films!
Definitely a few snips to this one, running about 17 mins on the omnibus. One thing that blew me away watching this edit is the jump in picture quality from the last scenes of ep 3 to the opening shots of ep 4. I’ve been quite happily viewing away so far not remotely bothered by the picture quality but when that shift occurs it’s incredibly striking. I’m quite tempted to hook up my vcr and dig out the vhs (which itself had some restoration work done on it) to see what I was blissfully oblivious to back then.
Director Christopher Barry was unable to attend his sister’s wedding during this production, not because of filming but because Jon Pertwee (or possibly his agent) insisted his cabaret booking take precedence. Christopher Barry’s telegram ‘Dr Who prevents me from being at your wedding’ was read out at his sister’s reception with the other telegrams of congratulations. You mention Ridley Scott, who in 1963 was a BBC designer and slated originally to be working on The Daleks; the rota changed and Ray Cusick did it instead, designing those iconic pepperpots… and the main director on The Daleks (other than the episodes directed by Richard Martin) was Christopher Barry. Another feat of ingenuity was that to enable him to get more filming done in a shorter time, on some shots 2 or possibly more than 2 film cameras were used from different shooting angles simultaneously, ‘crystal locked’ for synchronisation, so that instead of single camera filming, multi-camera was being used as per tv studio technique of the time - though without the as-live editing between shots by a vision mixer, this being film cameras rather than tv cameras with monitor feeds to a gallery or outside broadcast van - the different angled shots would still have to be selected for the film editor to cut in and out of, but with the assurance of precision on synchronised time-coding on the separate cans of film. To add to problems, there were weather variations as there had been on The Claws Of Axos, with sudden heavy snow followed by a rapid thaw - which is why patches of snow or puddles can be seen in some shots - even the heat barrier shots, the scorched strip of earth achieved by carefully emptying bags of coal dust from a local coal yard and laying it out with precision.
As co-written by Barry Letts (already tuning in to the foibles and wish-lists of his main cast) this serial is one where the alternately praised/reviled ‘UNIT family’ really becomes embedded, all its primary people present. For me, it’s also a turning point in the relationship between the Third Doctor and the Brigadier (Troughton’s Doctor and Lethbridge-Stewart got on better but then the Second Doctor was free to travel in his TARDIS). The Third Doctor and the Brig squabble here too, but both start to work together, ironically forced to by the intervention of the heat barrier, the Doctor even reprimanding Jo for not appreciating the Brig’s problems. It also can be seen as Pertwee’s Doctor showing at times insufferable levels of arrogance and condescension to his ‘team’ - albeit enforced by his frustration and his predicament of exile - and at times I wonder why anybody would want to give him the time of day, but it’s the charisma of the Doctor and his concern for Earth that is behind his bluster.
@@curmudgeone One of the things that puts me off this story a bit is that it shows the third Doctor at his most obnoxious. In context, it’s understandable, as his brief taste of freedom in the previous story is over and it must be hard having to accept being stuck in exile again, but he is really not very likeable here.
His obnoxious nature is noticeable a few times within the season. I don't remember him being like that from what I watched when I was younger but I think a majority of the stories I saw were season 9 onwards.
This story is perhaps the ultimate example of the show taking a rationalist approach to supernatural phenomena, if one is inclined to regard the presence of horned aliens on Earth for the previous 100,000 years as a rational explanation! I think a lot of that comes from Barry Letts, who was probably the most interested of all the Classic Who producers in science fiction and so perhaps found a scientific (or pseudoscientific) explanation for the inexplicable to be quite a satisfying pursuit. That isn’t to say he lacked faith, as he was a committed Buddhist. It is nice that another representative of the Osgood family later turns up in New Who, but it has to be said that Sergeant Osgood appears a rather unlikely soldier. Mind you, he’s not the first oddball we have seen working for UNIT, which leads me to think that, due to the nature of its work, it became something of a home for eccentrics and misfits…
Letts was specifically into Zen, wnich - as he points out in his biography - he adopted more as a philosophy or way of life, rather than a religion/faith.
Christopher Barry, who directed part of the first Dalek serial, (and Rescue, Romans, Savages, Power of the Daleks - he'd work into the Tom Baker era of Season 17) - good at visuals and working with the casts.
@@johng5859 Barry did return in the early 90's, to film a retrospective, with cast, on "The Daemons" -could have been money, or professional courtesy. I didn't know of any issues with Jon P'....and C'Barry did other odcu' for this story for DVD. Most reports, was that his Direction was efficient, and what we have to see is creative quality. His last story on Season 17 - yeah, problems for some of the "alien" effects, with some Cast. Barry's return for a "wilderness years" project, rather good.
@@jonathanmurphy3141 I have heard in a couple of places that they didn’t get on, hence why Barry didn’t direct another Pertwee story after The Mutants, but I don’t know the details. He was certainly one of the show’s top directors, and maybe in later years the two of them made up.
Regarding picture quality, here's a short piece from 'Tomorrow's World' detailing the work done in the early 90s. Techniques have improved and been added to since then, but it gives you a basic idea... th-cam.com/video/eYKDKJaqgZw/w-d-xo.html
![สาวเมืองเพชร - ธีเดช ทองอภิชาติ [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kEt7F9PvO3I/mqdefault.jpg)
It’s definitely channeling Quatermass this. Demonic characters, excavations, ancient creatures visiting the Earth! All the better for it. Great reactions.
I am slightly disappointed that you didn't notice the cliff hanger where the villain is in danger, rather than our chums...
True. Very unique.
It’s a rarity right enough. Brilliant way to build up to Azal’s appearance too, I mean if it’s got the Master cowering in fear as the theme crashes in it must be scary.
@@kevinmerchant2478 is this the first time this happens? I know we’ve had cliffhangers where the team aren’t involved (Tlotoxl, Salamander, Gen Scobie etc) but I can’t think of one before this where a baddie is in jeopardy.
10:48 The idea that aliens intervened in human history was very popular then, thanks to Erich von Däniken's book "Chariots of the Gods?", first published in German in 1968 and as a best-selling English paperback and film in 1970/71. Although "Chariots" and its sequels were easily debunked - most famously by Carl Sagan - Däniken's sensational(ist) theory went on to underpin the more recent "Ancient Aliens" series on the History Channel.
It's really great to see you both so engrossed in this one :)
The quality is so high. It makes a real difference.
@@TheShallowProclamation it's certainly one of the enduring stories, a real fan favourite.
The next episode has the famous line “chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid”.
"The Daemons" 1-3 and 5 come from 16mm b/w telerecordings, made by filming a screen. It's very complicated, but the only way this survived was that the output of the original color PAL videotape was filmed by a 16mm film camera in monochrome, and then the original color PAL VTs were wiped. And for a time the b/w version was all that survived. Then, they took the color from an off-air American broadcast that happened before the original color tapes were wiped, and they combined that with the b/w telerecording to restore the color. With the next episode, you should see a significant improvement in video quality because it's the only original PAL VT in this story to survive.
The DVD (and Bluray) uses the chroma dot recovery method in addition to the off air recording.
@@kierenevans2521 It's a bit of an improvement over the DVD, but still a wee bit sketchy. Just imagine how it would have looked if they'd saved all the location films!
Definitely a few snips to this one, running about 17 mins on the omnibus.
One thing that blew me away watching this edit is the jump in picture quality from the last scenes of ep 3 to the opening shots of ep 4. I’ve been quite happily viewing away so far not remotely bothered by the picture quality but when that shift occurs it’s incredibly striking.
I’m quite tempted to hook up my vcr and dig out the vhs (which itself had some restoration work done on it) to see what I was blissfully oblivious to back then.
This was another story, restored to color -only episode 4 is the original tape.
Director Christopher Barry was unable to attend his sister’s wedding during this production, not because of filming but because Jon Pertwee (or possibly his agent) insisted his cabaret booking take precedence. Christopher Barry’s telegram ‘Dr Who prevents me from being at your wedding’ was read out at his sister’s reception with the other telegrams of congratulations. You mention Ridley Scott, who in 1963 was a BBC designer and slated originally to be working on The Daleks; the rota changed and Ray Cusick did it instead, designing those iconic pepperpots… and the main director on The Daleks (other than the episodes directed by Richard Martin) was Christopher Barry.
Another feat of ingenuity was that to enable him to get more filming done in a shorter time, on some shots 2 or possibly more than 2 film cameras were used from different shooting angles simultaneously, ‘crystal locked’ for synchronisation, so that instead of single camera filming, multi-camera was being used as per tv studio technique of the time - though without the as-live editing between shots by a vision mixer, this being film cameras rather than tv cameras with monitor feeds to a gallery or outside broadcast van - the different angled shots would still have to be selected for the film editor to cut in and out of, but with the assurance of precision on synchronised time-coding on the separate cans of film.
To add to problems, there were weather variations as there had been on The Claws Of Axos, with sudden heavy snow followed by a rapid thaw - which is why patches of snow or puddles can be seen in some shots - even the heat barrier shots, the scorched strip of earth achieved by carefully emptying bags of coal dust from a local coal yard and laying it out with precision.
As co-written by Barry Letts (already tuning in to the foibles and wish-lists of his main cast) this serial is one where the alternately praised/reviled ‘UNIT family’ really becomes embedded, all its primary people present. For me, it’s also a turning point in the relationship between the Third Doctor and the Brigadier (Troughton’s Doctor and Lethbridge-Stewart got on better but then the Second Doctor was free to travel in his TARDIS). The Third Doctor and the Brig squabble here too, but both start to work together, ironically forced to by the intervention of the heat barrier, the Doctor even reprimanding Jo for not appreciating the Brig’s problems. It also can be seen as Pertwee’s Doctor showing at times insufferable levels of arrogance and condescension to his ‘team’ - albeit enforced by his frustration and his predicament of exile - and at times I wonder why anybody would want to give him the time of day, but it’s the charisma of the Doctor and his concern for Earth that is behind his bluster.
@@curmudgeone One of the things that puts me off this story a bit is that it shows the third Doctor at his most obnoxious. In context, it’s understandable, as his brief taste of freedom in the previous story is over and it must be hard having to accept being stuck in exile again, but he is really not very likeable here.
His obnoxious nature is noticeable a few times within the season. I don't remember him being like that from what I watched when I was younger but I think a majority of the stories I saw were season 9 onwards.
@@TheShallowProclamation He mellows a lot in Season 9 - I would say this is the last story where he acts in an unpleasant way.
This story is perhaps the ultimate example of the show taking a rationalist approach to supernatural phenomena, if one is inclined to regard the presence of horned aliens on Earth for the previous 100,000 years as a rational explanation! I think a lot of that comes from Barry Letts, who was probably the most interested of all the Classic Who producers in science fiction and so perhaps found a scientific (or pseudoscientific) explanation for the inexplicable to be quite a satisfying pursuit. That isn’t to say he lacked faith, as he was a committed Buddhist.
It is nice that another representative of the Osgood family later turns up in New Who, but it has to be said that Sergeant Osgood appears a rather unlikely soldier. Mind you, he’s not the first oddball we have seen working for UNIT, which leads me to think that, due to the nature of its work, it became something of a home for eccentrics and misfits…
Letts was specifically into Zen, wnich - as he points out in his biography - he adopted more as a philosophy or way of life, rather than a religion/faith.
Moffat's original intention was for the Osgood's to be father and daughter but other media imply they are uncle and niece.
I'm pretty sure the clip of the helico-pter exploding is the actual shot from FRWL, not an unused one.
So all thru these 100K years, did the Daemons choose to leave the Silurians hibernating and out of the way ?
Christopher Barry, who directed part of the first Dalek serial, (and Rescue, Romans, Savages, Power of the Daleks - he'd work into the Tom Baker era of Season 17) - good at visuals and working with the casts.
He didn’t get on with Jon Pertwee, apparently, which is why his next third Doctor assignment was also his last.
@@johng5859 Barry did return in the early 90's, to film a retrospective, with cast, on "The Daemons" -could have been money, or professional courtesy. I didn't know of any issues with Jon P'....and C'Barry did other odcu' for this story for DVD. Most reports, was that his Direction was efficient, and what we have to see is creative quality. His last story on Season 17 - yeah, problems for some of the "alien" effects, with some Cast. Barry's return for a "wilderness years" project, rather good.
@@jonathanmurphy3141 I have heard in a couple of places that they didn’t get on, hence why Barry didn’t direct another Pertwee story after The Mutants, but I don’t know the details. He was certainly one of the show’s top directors, and maybe in later years the two of them made up.
@@johng5859 I admire "the Mutants" -forgot that c'Barry directed that too!
Would the Brigadier, be a "spare Lime"-???
Surely limes were for the Navy, and the Brig was an Army man ;)
@@ftumschk No one should suffer from Scurvy! Vitamin C!
Regarding picture quality, here's a short piece from 'Tomorrow's World' detailing the work done in the early 90s. Techniques have improved and been added to since then, but it gives you a basic idea... th-cam.com/video/eYKDKJaqgZw/w-d-xo.html