From: ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin)
Subject: Re: CLARIFICATION ON COLOURIZ
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 16:26:45 GMT

In article <3TeRRB5w165w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca> yadallee@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Dave Shariff Yadallee) writes:
>ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin) writes:
>
>-
>- AS I can recall reading in "doctor Who - The Early Years," Britain used
>- a 405-line picture as the technical standard until 1967, when they
>- upgraded to 625-lines, or the current PAL standard.
>- To me, this suggests that everyone at the time had to get a new set, as
>- I don't think the two systems could be automatically compatible.
>- Pertwee became the Doctor in 1970, by which time everything was being
>- done in 625-lines.
>- We can see this effect for ourselves.  Am I the only one who thinks that
>- Hartnell stories don't look as crisp as Troughton ones?  This is because
>- after '67, the Troughtons would have been in PAL, rather than 405 lines,
>- even though they were still black and white.
>
>  This was the period of which my parents were growing up in.  And Iain don't
>take this personally, but it's obvious that you don't understand the UK.  Its
>not just a matter of getting a new set, it is also a matter of the standard of
>living.  Given right now that the majority of TV sets in the UK is now colour.
>When the parents and I were living in the UK say from 1963 to 1972, a colour TV
>would have been considered a luxury, not a neccessity.  I would have been an
>expensive proposition to own a colour TV, and then there is the annual cost to
>have a lincense to own one.
>  It's a way different lifestyle than North America.  Mid you, I got readjusted
>to British life in a hurry 4 months ago.


	I can recall color TV sets being luxury items here too, so it's not
just a UK thing.  
	Anyway, what was the point of your pointing that out?


>-
>- ALL of Jon Pertwee's stories were origninally made in full 625-line color.
>- Film copies were made of these stories for foreign sales to countries
>- who didn't have the same technical standard (even though it would be
>- difficult and expensive to convert directly from one standard to another,
>- going from one standard to film and then to the other standard would in
>- fact be simpler (or the station could just show it off the film, that is
>- possible)).
>- These film copies were in black and white, and it is these film copies that
>- Americans have seen in place of the original color copies in the cases
>- of "Doctor Who and the Silurians," "The Ambassadors of Death,"
>- "Terror of the Autons,"  "The Mind of Evil," and "the Daemons"
>-
>  Pertwee was indeed both, as the BBC has to compensate for the fact that
>colour TV would not catch on till was in the middle of the 1970's.
>
>
I am not disputing that, merely saying that the original copies were in
color and the show was originally broadcast that way in the UK.
If you had a black and white set, then of course it will look like it's
black and white.  As for the lines in the picture, I think it would have
been necessary for both the black and white and color sets to be 625-lines
after 1967.


>
>
>Dave Shariff Yadallee (yadallee@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca,
>userLIBE@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca)
>God Save the Queen, God Bless us All! Remember! Jesus Saves!!
>Canadians: send a clear message to the government!  ON Oct. 26, Abstain


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