BFI Event At Southbank
Sorry for the haphazardness of this report back but I would like to start with this...
Classic British television has given me short, brief moments in time that linger in the mind long after the show has finished. Bagpuss, Fawlty Towers, The Office have all gave me these memories in bite size chunks. I therefore, cherish Christopher Eccleston's tenure and incarnation of The Doctor the most in recent history. He reaffirmed this belief to me at the BFI (British Film Institute) on a rain soaked afternoon in London.
Christopher had laid the foundation stone for Tennant, Smith and now Calpadi to how to play the Doctor in the 21st century. Hindsight can be a wonderful, at other times you look back with more than a little tear in your eye as was the case with yours truly on a rain soaked afternoon walking back to St Pancras from Southbank.
Frankly I didn't care whether Christopher didn't attend or not, the email message from him was typical of a man who I know has a wicked sense of humour to inject some fun from the very start of proceedings. "I love the Doctor, I love the BFI. When the 100th comes round I'll be with my sonic and Stannah chair lift, providing the Daleks don't have theirs. And then I'm going to save the universe and you stupid apes."
Having met him on more than one occasion I can understand why he didn't attend this event because Who was a job to him, he wasn't going to let the albatros hang round his neck. And no, not because of me neither, he's currently filming "Lucan" with Rory Kinnear in case you're asking out there.
I haven't watched "Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways" two parter since they first aired in June 2005. I cry, physically cry at the end because it's such an emotionally charged two parter. I really don't think that some people give enough credit to what Christopher did to lay the foundations of reinventing an iconic television character. It was a huge gamble, to quote Phil Collinson (who remembered me from the Children In Need Concert in 2006 at Cardiff), "it was terrifying, simply terrifying but once we had casted Christopher as the Doctor we knew it was going to be a success.". Also he revealed at the premiere of "Rose" he revealed that Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts (two lengendary directors of classic Who) threatened to walk out if it wasn't any good as they had done previously to the Who movie staring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor. Fortunately they didn't this time and gave the thumbs up.
Collinson confirmed my initial inklings way back in 2005, that everyone was under a single contract, including Christopher and that it was Christopher's decision alone to leave after just one season. I was going then going to ask the panel about what Christopher described in a Masterclass alledging a "bullying" culture and why that "his face didn't fit" by certain executives at the BBC. I restrained myself, partly due to the fact having a theatre full of Whovians wouldn't exactly go down well and also that my friend was next to me who got me the ticket in the fist instance.
I look back at the two episodes and think how pedestrian it looks compared with the energies of the current Who. But this was 2005 and not 2013 and people hadn't yet come to grips with the new, bolder version. There are huge laughs alongside the drama of Rose arguing with her mother, without overkill, "Russell has perfect pace," according to Collinson who first Davies way back in 1997.
There's very few alternative and out takes of Season 1 mainly because everyone from the tea lady to Christopher himself wanted it to work and consequently everyone was tensed up and stressed. Collinson wished these tapes to be in his attic if there were any!
There was talk of difficulty obtaining the rights to the Daleks from the Terry Nation Estate. A lot of discussion going back and forth to the Nation family and the alternative version was later used in Tennant's tenure. Basically a glowing globe with Swiss army weapons which would terrify the Doctor and revealed at the end to be a genetic mutated human inside created by the Daleks. An alternative regeneration version was secretly filmed to foil Internet uses. Rose Tyler was going to have a fatal illness and the Doctor was going to save her by absorbing the virus.
"Dalek" was given the go ahead and when Nicolas Briggs gave the immortal "Exterminate" through his voice modulator, Christopher was heard to say, "What the fuck is that?"
Yes I cried...again, but with treasured memories.
Classic British television has given me short, brief moments in time that linger in the mind long after the show has finished. Bagpuss, Fawlty Towers, The Office have all gave me these memories in bite size chunks. I therefore, cherish Christopher Eccleston's tenure and incarnation of The Doctor the most in recent history. He reaffirmed this belief to me at the BFI (British Film Institute) on a rain soaked afternoon in London.
Christopher had laid the foundation stone for Tennant, Smith and now Calpadi to how to play the Doctor in the 21st century. Hindsight can be a wonderful, at other times you look back with more than a little tear in your eye as was the case with yours truly on a rain soaked afternoon walking back to St Pancras from Southbank.
Frankly I didn't care whether Christopher didn't attend or not, the email message from him was typical of a man who I know has a wicked sense of humour to inject some fun from the very start of proceedings. "I love the Doctor, I love the BFI. When the 100th comes round I'll be with my sonic and Stannah chair lift, providing the Daleks don't have theirs. And then I'm going to save the universe and you stupid apes."
Having met him on more than one occasion I can understand why he didn't attend this event because Who was a job to him, he wasn't going to let the albatros hang round his neck. And no, not because of me neither, he's currently filming "Lucan" with Rory Kinnear in case you're asking out there.
I haven't watched "Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways" two parter since they first aired in June 2005. I cry, physically cry at the end because it's such an emotionally charged two parter. I really don't think that some people give enough credit to what Christopher did to lay the foundations of reinventing an iconic television character. It was a huge gamble, to quote Phil Collinson (who remembered me from the Children In Need Concert in 2006 at Cardiff), "it was terrifying, simply terrifying but once we had casted Christopher as the Doctor we knew it was going to be a success.". Also he revealed at the premiere of "Rose" he revealed that Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts (two lengendary directors of classic Who) threatened to walk out if it wasn't any good as they had done previously to the Who movie staring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor. Fortunately they didn't this time and gave the thumbs up.
Collinson confirmed my initial inklings way back in 2005, that everyone was under a single contract, including Christopher and that it was Christopher's decision alone to leave after just one season. I was going then going to ask the panel about what Christopher described in a Masterclass alledging a "bullying" culture and why that "his face didn't fit" by certain executives at the BBC. I restrained myself, partly due to the fact having a theatre full of Whovians wouldn't exactly go down well and also that my friend was next to me who got me the ticket in the fist instance.
I look back at the two episodes and think how pedestrian it looks compared with the energies of the current Who. But this was 2005 and not 2013 and people hadn't yet come to grips with the new, bolder version. There are huge laughs alongside the drama of Rose arguing with her mother, without overkill, "Russell has perfect pace," according to Collinson who first Davies way back in 1997.
There's very few alternative and out takes of Season 1 mainly because everyone from the tea lady to Christopher himself wanted it to work and consequently everyone was tensed up and stressed. Collinson wished these tapes to be in his attic if there were any!
There was talk of difficulty obtaining the rights to the Daleks from the Terry Nation Estate. A lot of discussion going back and forth to the Nation family and the alternative version was later used in Tennant's tenure. Basically a glowing globe with Swiss army weapons which would terrify the Doctor and revealed at the end to be a genetic mutated human inside created by the Daleks. An alternative regeneration version was secretly filmed to foil Internet uses. Rose Tyler was going to have a fatal illness and the Doctor was going to save her by absorbing the virus.
"Dalek" was given the go ahead and when Nicolas Briggs gave the immortal "Exterminate" through his voice modulator, Christopher was heard to say, "What the fuck is that?"
Yes I cried...again, but with treasured memories.