The Abominable Snowmen
Loose Canon's Recon: Okay, I'd heard that the CGI Yeti in this looked really goofy and people thought they shouldn't have attempted to make moving Yeti. I gotta disagree. Yeah, the moving CGI Yeti did look goofy, but anytime they can animate something, anything in a recon, I'm gonna say, "go for it." It means less scrolling text along the bottom of the screen, and that just makes for a more enjoyable viewing experience in my book. (I will say that scrolling text on a static image is totally different from text on a foreign film, however.)
There was only one surviving episode of this six-parter, and while the BBC did do a fandamntastic job of cleaning it up for release on the Lost in Time DVD set, the recon team did a fandamntastic job of putting together a really good reconstruction of the other five episodes. Yeah, some of the source images were rough, but the recons were clear and vivid enough to ensure the viewer didn't get bored.
And then there were the CGI bloopers that the Loose Canon team did. Not ROTFL funny, but amusing nonetheless. However, the appearance of the Quark in the Monestary was pretty funny.
The Actual Story: There was some definite padding in this serial. And while the padding was mind-numbingly dull in Faceless Ones (because the recon was so poor), the padding in Snowmen wasn't nearly as bad because the recon was considerably better. Does that justify the padding, no, but it does make it more bearable.
I noticed a definite similarity between this story and Web Planet from Hartnell's era. Not only did Padmasambhava sound a lot like the Animus (they must have use the same voice modulator for both "baddies", but there was also the theme of people/creatures being forced to do things against their will. The monk/master had powers over all the monks - specifically Songsten in this story - and the Yeti, and the Animus had power over the Zarbi in Web Planet. And when monks (or our heroes) came into the presence of Padmasambhava, they were almost immediately under his control. Same with the Animus in Web Planet. Which isn't to say that that's a bad plot idea. And there were certainly enough differences to keep me interested. But I did notice the similarities.
Overall, it wasn't a bad story, but it had its slow moments. I would say more here about the character of Victoria (who I'm really just getting to know well), but I'm going to wait and write up a big piece on that after I've seen all her stories. We watched Ice Warriors yesterday (expect a review soon), and with luck I may get to write some meta about Victoria in the near future.
There was only one surviving episode of this six-parter, and while the BBC did do a fandamntastic job of cleaning it up for release on the Lost in Time DVD set, the recon team did a fandamntastic job of putting together a really good reconstruction of the other five episodes. Yeah, some of the source images were rough, but the recons were clear and vivid enough to ensure the viewer didn't get bored.
And then there were the CGI bloopers that the Loose Canon team did. Not ROTFL funny, but amusing nonetheless. However, the appearance of the Quark in the Monestary was pretty funny.
The Actual Story: There was some definite padding in this serial. And while the padding was mind-numbingly dull in Faceless Ones (because the recon was so poor), the padding in Snowmen wasn't nearly as bad because the recon was considerably better. Does that justify the padding, no, but it does make it more bearable.
I noticed a definite similarity between this story and Web Planet from Hartnell's era. Not only did Padmasambhava sound a lot like the Animus (they must have use the same voice modulator for both "baddies", but there was also the theme of people/creatures being forced to do things against their will. The monk/master had powers over all the monks - specifically Songsten in this story - and the Yeti, and the Animus had power over the Zarbi in Web Planet. And when monks (or our heroes) came into the presence of Padmasambhava, they were almost immediately under his control. Same with the Animus in Web Planet. Which isn't to say that that's a bad plot idea. And there were certainly enough differences to keep me interested. But I did notice the similarities.
Overall, it wasn't a bad story, but it had its slow moments. I would say more here about the character of Victoria (who I'm really just getting to know well), but I'm going to wait and write up a big piece on that after I've seen all her stories. We watched Ice Warriors yesterday (expect a review soon), and with luck I may get to write some meta about Victoria in the near future.