Folks, I’ve slowly been keeping up with my rewatch of Doctor Who from the beginning. As of 29 July, 2024 in fact, I’ve completed watching all of the original five series, in order, with up to 3 viewings of each one.
The thing is, I try to get as close to broadcast quality as I can, and if the original still exists in the archive, then I just watch the original. But if the original doesn’t exist, then there’s often a version produced by Loose Cannon Productions, which used original audio and photos and clips, as well as occasional new footage at the original location. I consider that to be the gold standard of video recreation and is always the last of the editions I watch, typically on the Dailymotion channel, ElDoctorio channel, cleverly named David Agnew, a pseudonym used by freelance writers like Douglas Adams.
I also watched the BBC official Telesnaps, in addition to the Loose Cannon, though they are always an inferior product. And when Loose Cannon wasn’t available, I tried to watch a version from Who Recons, though, but that isn’t my preference.
I have also been watching the commercially available Animations. I watch those in full HD aspect ratio and colour. However, if the commercially available animation exists, even for an existing episode, I watched that as well as the Loose Cannon. Sometimes there are also fan-made animations and I try to watch those too, but they’re not my favourite, and I watch only if no official animation exists, such as with The Wheel in Space, Episodes 1, 2, 4, and 5, where I watched BBC Telesnap, Fan Animation, and Loose Canon.
Finally, there is one story which has been lovingly produced as a live-action dramatization. It was produced by the students and graduates of The University of Central Lancashire, with an introduction by Edward de Souza. I watched this video with my Mission to the Unknown viewing.
The thing is, when Series 5 ended, it ended with The Wheel in Space showing a clip from The Evil of the Daleks. And, before The Dominators was broadcast, the BBC rebroadcast the entire 7-part story over 9 weeks in the summer of 1968. Of course, I wasn’t going to insert another week of episodes into my 2.5 year schedule just to accommodate this. Fortunately, The Wheel in Space, Episode 6 was scheduled for a Saturday, meaning before I watched The Dominators, Episode 1 on Sunday, I could binge rewatch The Evil of the Daleks again, of course from Loose Cannon telesnaps and the original BBC copy of Episode 2. There’s no way I would have watched the animation again because The Beatles won’t let the BBC play their music in Doctor Who. As a Paperback Writer, I vehemently protest! Yet another reason I prefer Loose Cannon, because they get it right!
Watching the entire 7 parts on that Sunday, things made more sense when I subsequently watched The Dominators, Episode 1, later that evening. Specifically, Zoe asks the Doctor if his mind hurt after projecting the entire story. Why would it hurt? After all, the Doctor got to enjoy that lovely, haunty incidental score by Dudley Simpson again.
I also have a note about the recently released The Celestial Toymaker animation. Since this came out after I’d watched the telesnaps and original part 4, I wasn’t able to watch it then. However, as I enter the 1970s, with originally broadcast, full-colour, 26-stores per year, vs. the 40 or so from the 1960s, I decided to schedule it as a double-header. As I watch the four parts of Spearhead from Space in September, I will also be watching The Celestial Toymaker animation, with episodes 1:1. This works out well as both are 4-part stories. And that will hopefully be the last time in this rewatch that I ever double up any viewings!
I hope.
