BBCA Fourth Doctor special

[dbskyler]

The "Doctors Revisited" Fourth Doctor special is on my TV right now, so here we go with a liveblog!

-- TOM BAKER!!!! They interviewed Tom Baker! HOORAY!!!!!!!!
-- Steven Moffat is obviously a huge fan of the Fourth Doctor. He has good taste. : )
-- And look what's coming up after the commercial break -- Sarah Jane!
-- And, it's over. Not much time spent on her, but some very nice things were said. And apparently David Tennant tweaked the script for "School Reunion" so the Doctor would call her "Sarah," and not "Sarah Jane." The benefits of having a real fanboy play the Doctor!
-- Look now, it's Louise Jamison! Awww. And John Leeson! Double awww.
-- Okay, now they're into clips and "famous foes," etc. Zygons and Davros so far. The more I watch, the more I find myself smiling. The Fourth Doctor really is MY Doctor. He just looks so right on the screen.
-- And ahhhhhh, it's over? IT'S OVER??? BUT . . . ROMANA! THEY DIDN'T COVER ROMANA! AT ALL!!!!!!!!! NOT EVEN ONE LITTLE CLIP!!!! WTH?????????????????

And yes, the Fourth Doctor episode is now on my TV, but I can't get too excited by that, because I own it. And have watched it many, many times. (No, it's not "Genesis of the Daleks," hooray! And yes, it is a Sarah Jane episode. "Pyramids of Mars," my prediction was correct! Although much as I love this one, I still would have chosen "City of Death" instead.)

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Unless they plan to give Romana her own special (which is sadly unlikely), that really is terrible.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's really terrible. On the plus side, they spent a lot of time with Louise Jamison -- not only did they interview her about Leela, but they also interviewed her about K-9.

I'm wondering if the lack of Romana is because no one had the guts to ask Tom Baker about the character. Of course, if they didn't want to bring up Lalla Ward, they could have just asked him about Mary Tamm . . .

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Airbrushed from history, Romana? Poor show, I would say.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Poor show, indeed. See my comment to thisbluespirit above -- since the format was to use interview clips from Tom Baker / Steven Moffat / David Tennant / etc. about each aspect of the show, I'm wondering if they left out Romana because no one had the guts to ask Tom Baker about her. But even so, they could have still had Steven and David talk about her. It really makes no sense to me at all why they would leave her out. Just her status as a fellow Time Lord makes her a hugely important companion in terms of the "mythos" of the show, and besides that, she was a great companion -- both of her!

I really wonder who makes these decisions on what/who to cover in these retrospectives. What are they thinking?

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

That could be a factor, I suppose, but as you say why not just ask one of the others? And you know, it's not just Romana - I would have thought Douglas Adams's involvement with the programme during the time she/they was companion would be something worth noting. And you know, City of Death enjoys a certain (very well-deserved imho) reputation among fandom - surely that might have deserved a mention too?

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

The lack of Douglas Adams doesn't surprise me, because the specials never go into things like script editors or producers, or notable episodes -- they're much shallower than that. In fairness, there's not really time for more than shallow coverage of an era, as they only get around 40 minutes, including commercials. But even without that, the format is geared towards fluff rather than serious content, and they don't go into production topics or behind-the-scenes stuff, but instead focus on actors and characters (the Doctor, the companions, the foes). Even that stuff seems pretty random; for example, for Four, the Zygons got a huge mention, but there was nothing on the Black Guardian.

There was a clip or two from "City of Death" that accompanied some quote from Steven or David about the Fourth Doctor's character, so Romana did briefly appear on-screen during the special, but it's a shame that she wasn't explicitly mentioned and celebrated.