TV Movie extras

[dbskyler]

Still making my way through the extras on the Doctor Who TV movie DVD, and what did I stumble across? Nicholas Courtney! Nicholas Courtney, who had nothing whatsoever to do with this movie, was the host for one of the extras. Oh, look at him. There he is. It's sad, but also kind of nice to get the surprise appearance.

I like the Paul McGann/Sylvester McCoy/Nick Briggs commentary, although I've only heard the first half so far. I particularly loved one story Paul McGann told. His agent at the time of the movie was Janet Fielding, and she came to Vancouver to be present during the shooting. Some local Doctor Who fan came over to McGann, started talking to him, looked at Janet, paused, and then suddenly realized who she was. The fan then went into a long list of every single episode Janet had ever appeared in, and everything she had ever done. And Paul McGann, new to Doctor Who fandom, could only wonder, "What have I gotten myself into?"

But so far, the best extra is definitely Paul McGann's audition. Not for the audition itself, but for the amazing crackiness of the script. I'm glad clocketpatch warned me about it, because if I had come across that cold, I have no idea what my reaction would've been.

For those of you who haven't encountered this yet, let me try to summarize the apparent plot for you:

The Doctor visits the Master's grandfather, and thanks him for taking care of him. The Doctor reveals that he has found the Scrolls of Rassilon. Not the Black Scrolls that were burned in "The Five Doctors" I presume, but some other scrolls. Because as we all know, Rassilon had a thing about scrolls. Anyway, these scrolls were prophesied to be found by an important Time Lord who is a descendant of Rasillon, but the Doctor discounts that because he's not descended from Rassilon, unlike the Master's grandfather, or the Master's son, or the Master. Except -- surprise! Grandad tells him that his son -- Ulysses -- went to Earth, got an Earth woman pregnant, and sent the resulting son back to Gallifrey. This son was -- you guessed it! -- the Doctor. This apparently means the Doctor deserves some sash of some sort (I bet it was the Sash of Rassilon), but all the Doctor can focus on at that moment is how he and the Master are brothers.

That's the first audition scene. Then in scene 2, there are Nazis. I kid you not. Nazis. And V2 rockets. Because what goes better with Gallifrey, sashes and scrolls than Nazis?

Then in scene 3, the Doctor's talking to a woman who knows the Doctor's father, and saw him regenerate from an old man into "a weathered Kansas farmer." I mean, what? So okay, maybe you can say weathered, but what would make you call a regenerated Time Lord a farmer right off the bat? And why would you say he's from KANSAS?

I'm still trying to figure out how this was all supposed to go together into a coherent story. I also want to know what the sash has to do with anything. Or the scrolls. Or Kansas. I'm sort of tempted to send the whole thing over to dw_straybunnies just to see if someone can write this into a fic.

Finally, speaking of American Time Lords:

Does it bother anyone else that the Master speaks with an American accent in the TV movie? It throws me every single time I watch. It just seems wrong!

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yay for Nick C!!

I confess I've not looked at the extras on the R2 TV Movie - wonder if they're the same?

Also, the plot for the audition script? Sounds seriously over-the-top nonsensical (the Master's secretly the Doctor's brother? Oh well, I guess I should be glad the Master's not secretly the Doctor's father! *rolls eyes* And now I'm wondering if the Ten & Martha exchage in 'Utopia', about Martha thinking Ten was going to say the Master was his secret brother, and Ten saying she's been watching too much TV is an in-joke reference to the TVM?)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I think the R1 and R2 releases have some extras in common (the "electronic press kit", for instance), but the R1 release has some extras that the R2 version doesn't.

ISTR the OTT plotline was John Leekley's fault - he came up with a wild plot-arc and a 'series bible' in handsome-looking binding, according to the book "Regeneration" which details all this.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, there was a whole lot of it in a DWM years back too. Certainly the Leekley bible was known about even in 1996, as I remember the third Internet Adventure we did being based around it.

[thisbluespirit]

It depends whether it's the original DVD release or the new 'Revisited' version, which is only available in the box set over here. There are certainly a lot of extras on the new one.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

It's the original release - I bought it a couple of years ago...

[thisbluespirit]

Then probably not! It didn't have very much on it, which was why I refused to buy it.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Well I tend not to buy DVDs for the extras, but because I want to re-watch something (possibly ad nauseum!).

[thisbluespirit]

Well, yes, true, although I also must confess to a slight commentary addiction. I had the tape-recording from 1996, and I wasn't buying it on DVD until they put some contribution from Paul McGann on it, 'cos I knew they would have to eventually.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I, on the other hand, often take months or more to get around to commentaries (I don't think I've even finished with all the DW Season 3 extras yet - and I've had that boxset since it first came out!)

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. It does depend on who's on the commentary - I've got quite a few I haven't got round to myself, but anything with Peter & Janet, Sylvester and/or Sophie, Colin etc etc is usually much fun. :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I never remember to even look to see who's doing the commentaries - I'm a bad Pers/fan. o-O

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, no, it is probably much saner not to get excited about commentaries... :lol:

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Bah, sanity's overrated!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

You can only get it in a box set?? I hate when they do that! What did they pair it with?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Talons of Weng-Chiang and Caves of Androzani. I don't know if it's been released yet.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

What? How did they come up with those to go along with the TVM (or with each other)? Did they spin a roulette wheel?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I... don't quite know. Talons and Caves are definitely considered "fan favourites"; the TVM... isn't. Caves was apparently an early release (I suspect the same is true of Talons), so I suppose it makes sense to have a re-release if new material has come up since.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, 2Entertain are using a randomiser for these things. I don't know why they think it's a good idea to reissue 3 DVDs together, when people are bound to have bought at least one of them... And Talons is a mystery. Caves and the TVM were both early releases that are obvious choices to have a bit more polish and few more extras. Talons came much later and had a whole extra disc with it anyway. The next lot of reissues this month contains Carnival of Monsters, Seeds of Death and Resurrection of the Daleks. I had a whole post about the randomness sometime, I think.

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Didn't john_elliott make a Random Box-Set Generator in response to your post? I seem to remember that.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I think the idea of the Master being the Doctor's brother goes back further than that. If I'm remembering correctly, they were going to write it into a Third Doctor story, but then Roger Delgado's death put an end to it.

The R1 DVD literally just came out for the first time, as rights issues prevented us from having it before now. It's labeled "Special Edition," and the extras were obviously made pretty recently. For example, Sylvester McCoy makes a reference to Tennant's episode "The Doctor's Daughter" in the commentary.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yes I knew the R1 DVD had only just come out - didn't realise, though, that it wasn't just a R1 re-release of the existing DVD.

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Obviously all American farmers are from Kansas! ;-) Because Kansas is the only place between New York and L.A. ("The South" is also a place in America, but it is farther from L.A. and does not have farmers, only hillbillies.) /snarky Hoosier

(As to knowing he was a farmer right off the bat, all I can figure is that his clothes regenerated along with him and he was suddenly wearing overalls and holding a pitchfork. Hee!)

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Now I can't stop picturing Two in baggy overalls looking with some bemusement at the pitchfork that is taller than himself.

Ben: "Doctor, what happened? You look like a Farmer!"
Polly: "And why are you wearing an "I Heart Kansas" button?"
Two: "How strange. I seem to have a sudden affinity for pitchforks and tractors. (pause) Well, this should be interesting."

X-D

[thisbluespirit]

Well, his clothes have been known to do that. (Hartnell to troughton?) and I think something like Four was wearing boots and Five sat up wearing shoes, so you NEVER KNOW. :-D

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yes, and there are no cities on the East Coast other than New York, and San Francisco is a suburb of L.A.

(Although come to think of it, I've met New Yorkers who believe both of those things . . . )

LOL at the regenerated farmer clothes, complete with pitchfork! Maybe the sonic screwdriver regenerated into the pitchfork? Oooh, a sonic pitchfork!

[clocketpatch]

You missed the bit where the Doctor's grandfather is Borusa... apparently because they did a random draw of "Time Lords we know the names of" and, well, I suppose as Pers says we should be happy they didn't draw the Master. Or the Monk.

SEND IT TO THE BUNNIES!

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Now throwing the Monk in the mix would indeed be worthy of a bunny!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask you about that. Unless I completely missed it, the audition script doesn't mention Borusa. Where did you get that from?

[thisbluespirit]

I have vague memories of that being in the Leekley Bible stuff, so I'm sure Clocket is right! :-) It stands out in my memory even now...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Really? Wow. So how did they reconcile that with Borusa being a stone face in the Tomb of Rassilon? Or did they just pretend that "The Five Doctors" doesn't exist?

[thisbluespirit]

What, like Sarah Jane seems to? :lol:

I don't think it was exactly that detailed. Besides, Terrance Dicks dealt with that nicely in The Eight Doctors. And just cos someone's your grandad, it doesn't mean they aren't still locked up somewhere for going mad and trying to take over the planet, I suppose. I haven't seen any of it in recent times - I'll investigate my extras some time soon...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

But . . . but . . . he's talking to his grandfather, and showing him the scrolls!

Okay, now you've got me imagining that whole scene taking place in the Tomb of Rassilon, with the Doctor kneeling on the floor to show the scrolls to Borusa's stone face.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, it's only nice to keep yr garndfather amused while he sits out his eternal torment encased in stone, really... :lol:

[thisbluespirit]

In ref to cracky fic, I will try and find and link to the adwc round robin - one of the Internet Adventures (oh, my, some bits of 1990s net fandom I miss so very much!) - Altered State which worked around the Leekley bible being a parallel universe (where the Doctor was the son of Ulysses, the Master was his brother and liked cross-dressing; the Doctor had a dodgy moustache and slept with Grace) in which the real Eight and Grace find themselves, with their parallel versions being in the proper universe. Being as it was a round robin, I don't guarantee it made any sense by the end, but I am pretty sure it was definitely cracky. And mostly good cracky.

This stuff, as you see, is not a shock to me. :-) I am actually a very old internet fan. I just had a gap of about 8 years, during which the whole net changed while I wasn't looking and found fans no longer embark on foolish joint fic-writing ventures with high hearts and what have you. ("Stuff the people at Fox, and the BBC EDAs! We'll write our own series together!!") But people tend to shout at you less for liking Sylvester McCoy, so it's not all bad. ;-)

I shall come back with the link later. I am not supposed to be replying to comments and things right now.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yes, try to find that link!

[thisbluespirit]

Okay, since all the archived versions seem to have died, the way to get it is to go back via Google groups to the original posts and reposts. Here is the whole lot of posts and I'm sure a clever person like you can manage to read each chapter in order!!

Chapter One is here, anyway.

(The Internet Adventures were started up shortly prior to UK broadcast of the TVM by a random group of DW fanficcers. They were moderated Round Robins, and despite the fact, as anything does, involving twelve or thirteen different fan fic writers, they often wound up being very weird themslves, we all took them very seriously - they were our 'official' Eighth Doctor adventures!! There was even a DisContinuity Guide and awards, and all sorts. Sadly, I wasn't involved in Altered State, as I had to go home for the hols, plus I had just got the chance to kick off our series of Missing Doctor Who Adventures. Sorry. That is all very complicated. They were round robins. They are now very old and make me nostalgic. They probably make NO SENSE WHATSOVER, but some chapters are excellent. That is all. I am still proud of my 2 good reviews in the extremely critical guide!!)

(Edited to have a better search result that actually includes ch3...)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Whee, thanks!

[thisbluespirit]

PS. I think any random bunnies should be sent to dw_straybunnies Yes.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

wait wait WHAT?!

...was that... the real.. audition? Is my tiredness getting to me? Am I missing here something? I read that three times trying to figure out where these scenes come from.

WHAT?!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

It certainly looked like the real audition. There's even a point where someone off-camera interrupts and asks Paul to play it as being a little more excited, which he then does.

Your reaction was pretty much my reaction!