Doctor Who The Happiness Patrol Effects Comparison
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- In 2024, The Happiness Patrol received a Special Edition edit for its Blu-ray release, featuring additional effects shots, re-edited and extended sequences, completely new cliffhangers, a reworked sound mix and reinserted untransmitted material. Here is a comparison of the updated footage with the original footage and the new Special Edition edit.
Please leave any and all feedback in the comments.
TH-cam has annoyingly taken away links on new uploads but all my socials are still up on my older videos.
![Doctor Who: The Five Doctors Effects Comparison [Redux]](/img/n.gif)
This is definitely the special addition with the most changes
This story really benefits from the new effects and added shots!
This is a contender for one of the best new effects ever
/agreed, what else would you say is a contender? Top five?
I quite like the cleaned up techno-noir feel of the new effects!
Now Terra Alpha looks like a futuristic city.
And a Miserable place to live.
I love how empty Terra Alpha is because of Helen A's attempts to eliminate unhappiness in this edition
Wow, I'm really impressed. These effects look like they really build out the world. I need to pick up this box set. Thanks for uploading!
The infusion of the old sets mixed with the CGI, like that is insanely impressive! Funny thing is it felt easy to overlook the old effects (even though it felt like a definite soundtage rather than an actual city) but this just adds so much more dimention. A look Doctor Who aimed to achienve but couldn't back then.
Wow this is AMAZING! It's just so perfectly done, with so much care and attention to detail. Some of the effects obviously couldn't pass as having been produced back in '88, but tonally everything fits in so perfectly, feels justified, authentic and never brings you out of 1988. This is truly lovely and elevates the original episode to new heights. I knew some of the early Doctor episodes were being remastered but this is actually the first I've seen of the McCoy era and as someone who loved McCoy as a kid this is a thing of beauty to me.
When I bought season 25 blu ray collection, the only story I was going to skip was the happiness patrol; I’d always hated it. But I thought nope I’m going to watch it even if it’s just once and the special edition of it blew me away! It felt so different from the original version it felt alive and it really hooked me, it shows how the right changes can make an old diamond in the rough shine again.
For me this is the best “do-over” of all the revisited ones so far. A few obvious cgi bits in the fx but it actually works fine with the look of the piece, extra bits of scenes, tweaks and newish cliffhangers really turn this story into something magnificent. 👍
These were very well done effect shots. The amount of time and work really paid off. The Happiness Patrol is one of the many examples where a good idea of a story was cut short by the lack of budget and art direction went camp. These effects really help elevate it to a new level of quality.
As someone who already loved The Happiness Patrol, I love the Aditional expansions given to Terra Alpha here in the Special edition.
Dang they straight-up turned this thing into Blade Runner
With a hint of Dick Tracy.
A very definite improvement. The new city effects scenes remind me of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner movie.
LOL You think?
@@Scripture-Man Don't bother preaching to me, friend.
Damn this looks incredible. Really matched the artistic vibe on the cover of the VNAs too.
Two different but both great viewing experiences. Always enjoy when Dan gets a new video up.
I recently got this on blu-ray and i have to say the new effects are stunning on all stories!
I love the news effects so much.
This is magical
Wow. Wow. Wow. Got to get this now.
This is absolutely phenomenal.
Probably the first one where the new FX legitimately improve upon the original, rather than simply fixing issues or providing a fun alternative.
This really gives me hope that one day, (it would need a lot of effort and capital) we might get a truly improved version of Invasion of the Dinosaurs. As little CGI as possible, rather top tier puppet work like the Rancor monster in ROTJ which was a mere 9 years later and the technology wasn't too advanced to have existed in 1974.
The look of this story, along with the nusic, always reminded me of the ITV programme Night Shift that used to come on late at night in the 90s
Thanks so much for this
I see the BBC finally upped their game on these Blu rays, very nice indeed!
Really opened up Terra Alpha
I love your comparison videos. You are the only person on TH-cam who does them properly.
Do you have any plans to do comparisons of the new Blake's 7 Blu-ray effects? I would LOVE to see that.
@@christopherwilliams4409 possibly down the road
I think the last year's updated effects is much better than the Original Transmission effects...
*In my opinion*
This makes middle school me, so happy 😊
Damn I’m going to have buy this.
They done an amazing update on this one.
That really is rather lovely!
Great job!
Sylvester McCoy once complained that the sets were so cheap that they should've filmed it in black and white instead to mask this. Now I understand why. I must say that while the original version is already good as it is (for what they could pull off at the time), the updated version makes the world much richer.
The problem I have with some of these special editions, is the newly inserted stuff can change the meaning of a scene to the point that it doesn't work anymore. In the Fury from the Deep animation they altered the computer controller so he's now in a Professor X style floating wheelchair. Ok, except when the weed attacks and he's knocked out of his wheelchair, this is now the focus of the scene. How will he get away if he can't walk? Will he die? Will the Doctor risk his life to go and save him? It distracts the audience when it never should have. It's the same at the end of the Abominable Snowman animation when they see a real yeti and it looks totally different from the robot versions...which makes no sense as the monks thought the robots were the real thing. They knew what the real ones looked like and the robot versions were made to look like that. And in stories like The Happiness Patrol you have a scene where Helen A is looking at her photo album and quickly hides it away when the door is knocked, because love for Fifi is a personal thing and its is a something her opponents could use against her...yet in this version the photos of her and Fifi are plastered on massive billboards across the planet? I love new effects when they are done well (the Blake's 7 boxset is perfect), but I feel like these are sometimes done by fans who are putting their own interpretation of the story in to the actual story and messing up the narrative. I'm grateful for a version that has all the deleted scenes back, but it sucks that there are concessions made if I want to watch that. Same with Remembrance that has loads of great reinstated scenes and new effects, but also cuts out 2 existing scenes and alters jukebox music. I want these special editions to be everything I've always loved, plus more. Not a trade-off where i get new scenes but at a price.
Same team did this and Blake's 7 😊
The new effects are superb, but there is a strange artefact of an old effect at 4:47. In the '88 edition the last line of the screen text is reflected (upside down) at the bottom of the glass table ("FOR TAKE OFF") . With the new '24 text the inverted "FOR" is still visible, but the rest of the line has been removed. So I would guess the FX artists noticed the reflection needed replacing or removing but didn't finish the job...? For all that, I can't see why the shot needed updating anyway! 😄
This detail has completely ruined the entire project. RECALL THE BLU-RAYS AND HAVE THEM DESTROYED!
@@Scripture-Man I DEMAND the BBC fix this IMMEDIATELY!!!
Wow. These edits really do capture the dystopian environment Helen A created on Terra Alpha!
It was actually how it was described in the script but due to budget back then they couldn't do it
Brilliant. Many thanks
Great ! I really like this one 👍
Ps: will you one day make the comparison with the new specials effects of enlightenment?
@bonjour4884 I will be in due time, I wanna get the other S25 stories finished first though.
I can't blame you for that ! You always do a great job anyway, thank you 👌
Quite enjoy this new effects, gives it the Blade Runner look
Welcome to Cyberpunk 1988.
_’DRAT!’_ 😂
Of the special edition this was the only one to truly benefit the story (I came away from Remembrance likely it less).
The CGI isn't perfect as it's very clearly CGI (that Sugar Shack is poor) - but the sticking point for me is that the city embellishments aren't consistent with the design of the story - yes the story was scripted to look very plastic and neon but the studio set isn't (they went with a stylised crumbling Venice look). They're nice to have and it doesn't spoil the story for me - I've always loved it.
Favourite embellishment is definitely the Kandyman in the pipes getting submerged in the fondant surprise.
Something that would have benefited the special editions - expanded music scores - it took me out of the stories at times as I'm so familiar with the music. Mark Ayres did his best playing around with the existing music but he clearly struggled in a few places. I would have spent the budget for the special editions there - pay McCulloch and Glynn to create more music.
excellent
It looks a lot better than the Day of the Daleks SE "futuristic city".
Looks like a completely different story.
2:16 What an odd thing to change
It looks more menacing now. Doctor Who is meant to be scary after all!
@@Scripture-Man The button on her desk looks more menacing? 🤔
For most of it, the effects blend it quite nicely! In some cases, it feels a bit too much for me. But overall, this is a solid special edition, far far better than the Remembrance of the Daleks Special Edition.
They massacred my boy 😭
@@mastterby yes the Kandyman did meet a gruesome end
@@DanTheMan2150AD The Kandyman is also my boy that's true, but I loved the claustrophobic feel of the original and how amibitous it was to make a cyberpunk city in a little studio. The new effects are Lucas levels of distracting.
@mastterby The Original version is still in the boxset though. It's not lost to time.
With candyman death works so perfect and much better
Fifi, the greatest villain's name ever
As always the original is best.
@@kamandi1362 nah
The words "as always" seem to betray a stubborn predetermination that all remasters are inferior, when the fact is that almost every new shot is an improvement, either artistically, or in terms of telling the story, or both.
"As always the original is best" - the rallying cry of the gatekeeper
@@ACtheLegendI’m not stopping anyone from watching the remasters. My opinion is that the original team did a good job and I find the new effects jarring. I’ve never seen a remaster that bettered the original.
@@kamandi1362 Entitled to your opinion sir!
I'm all for touch-ups where they improve an otherwise quite jarringly dated aesthetic (like dinosaurs in Invasion of the Dinosaurs), but this seems so excessive they might as well have remade the episode?
story*
Imo these shots add nothing to the story. Just looks bland and fake like all 21st century TV and movies
I grew up with McCoy, and I don't like 21st century TV movies and can't watch them (especially current Doctor Who). But to me this remaster is utterly superb in every way.
@@Scripture-Manglad you enjoy
@@Scripture-ManStop talking utter gibberish.