Hmmm...

[jjpor]

Most intriguing.

I suspect this may relate to the story that I refrained from posting about here last week because nobody online who might be in the know seemed to believe it was true. If that does turn out to be the case, it's obviously nowhere near as exciting as the unearthing of new "lost" episodes or whatever, but it's enough to be going

Comments

[platypus]

Is that an animated TARDIS in the teaser announcement? That would pretty much clinch it.

The BBC gets way too excited about some things. I mean, it would be neat and all, but when they announce that they'll be announcing something, I expect it to be something significant about the mothership, not spinoffs or animations. Although, at the time of the Class announcement, all the alternatives I could think of were scary, so I was relieved that it turned out to be something a bit anticlimactic.

[jjpor]

You're right. I personally think that an animated Power of the Daleks, if that is what it is, would be nice but ultimately not that groundbreaking as the audio and various telesnaps, recons etc are out there. As you say, this sort of thing just raises expectations that it's going to be something *really* big.

Class might be good, you know. Or not. ;)

[gaiamix]

Yeah. It seems to me it will just be a publicity thing. Like, a spinoff which is only connected to Doctor Who through some names of places and items.

[jjpor]

From what I see it's aiming for a sort of "Torchwood with younger actors" thing at the moment, which might be entertaining enough I suppose, but as you say is unlikely to bear much resemblance to the parent series. Although Capaldi apparently appears in at least one episode, fwiw.

[a_phoenixdragon]

Intriguing announcement indeed!

[jjpor]

I thought so. :)

[wunnerwmn]

I'd love to see more of Two, even if he's a cartoon. Wonder who'll do his voice...Frazer Hines, maybe? He's subbed for Troughton on Big Finish audios, I believe.

[lost_spook]

They still have the audio, so the voices will be from the original soundtrack - nobody will be 'doing' Patrick Troughton but Patrick Troughton (thank goodness). That's how they've done the other animated episodes already, and the original soundtrack definitely still exists for Power, as I have it on cassette.

[wunnerwmn]

Ah - thanks, I didn't know that. I haven't seen the other animated episodes. Or even heard of them, actually.

[lost_spook]

They've done them a few times where there's only one or two episodes missing out of an otherwise complete story. They've never animated a completely missing serial before. But the audio soundtracks are available via BBC audio, and you'll often find fan reconstructions on YouTube, using those and the telesnaps or other visual material. :-)

[lost_spook]

/o\

I hate the animated episodes! I can barely stand one at a time, let alone six episodes of one of my favourite DW adventures. /irrational misery.

Which is to say that for some reason I get the same unbearable dissonance I get with TV or film biopics where I know the subject from their own TV/film work or whatever, or anything where the thing registers as not the real thing and something in me starts panicking. But Power is one of my favourite stories and hopefully this will make it more widely available to people who don't do audios - and maybe more people will learn to love Ben, Polly, Two and Lesterson and Janley. I don't find it easy to listen to the lost eps on soundtrack only, because they weren't meant that way, and I was still utterly blown away by this one & Robert James in particular gives an amazing performance as Lesterson despite lack of surviving visuals

[newmoonstar]

I know how you feel! I think I'm probably in the minority in preferring to see the telesnaps rather than animation for missing eps, but to me there's something more exciting about seeing some visuals from the actual production.

Still, it's nice to have animation when there's no telesnaps to be had, and some of the animation can be charming- I liked the puppet-like quality of the animated versions of the characters in 'The Ice Warriors' for instance- I think the Second Doctor era lends itself to cartoon-ification pretty well, actually.

But I totally get the 'wrongness' feeling you describe- I feel that same way about voices. When they replace the voice actor of a character I love, I always notice and I can't stand it. It happened in one of my favorite childhood cartoons and I'm still not over it! I'm probably the only person who's absolutely gutted that Big Finish recast Barbara. Jemma Powell does look like Jackie Hill, but that doesn't help on audio! Her voice is so different that I know it'll bother me too much, which means I won'

[lost_spook]

Yes, I am torn because my personal feeling is that I would totally buy audio-visual reconstructions from the BBC, but I know that this way will appeal to far more people - and Power is such a great serial that that is exciting

[jjpor]

I really think it depends on what the animation is like, as to whether this is something exciting or just a slightly less historically interesting substitute for a recon/telesnaps. I notice that the trailer is a bit light on actual animation, apart from the Daleks who don't actually have to look very smooth or lifelike in their movements etc due to being, well, Daleks. That makes me think it might be something quite basic along the lines of the previous odd episodes animated for DVD releases. Which I liked fine on those DVDs, tbh, but I don't know how well that would hold up as a viewing experience over the course of six full-length episodes. I've often thought that making full animated versions of completely "lost" stories might be a good idea, and especially in terms of "selling" them to NuWho fans or even "casuals" ;D but I guess I'm waiting to see how it's executed before deciding whether it was a success or not. Which takes nothing away from the fact that it must have taken great effort, artistry and expense to do; not

[newmoonstar]

Obviously not as exciting as a missing episode being found, and didn't really merit any hype from the BBC, but still, the prospect of a missing story getting some attention from the less hardcore fans who are daunted by recons or audio-only is always welcome. The more people become fans of Ben & Polly, the better!

[jjpor]

Indeed! Those crazy kids deserve as wide an exposure as possible if you ask me. I'm in agreement regarding the hype. I'm also a bit saddened by the thought that if they're putting this much effort and expense into animating it, then the various rumours about them finding episodes of Power must be untrue. Still, I would be kidding myself and others if I claimed my grubby mitts won't be all over this when it goes on sale. ;)