From: steven.k.manfred@UWRF.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: "Shada"  CBS/Fox video release REVIEW  !SPOILERS!
Date: 12 Oct 92 22:25:30 GMT



spoilers ahead for the CBS/Fox video release of "Shada!"

SPOILERS!




















OK.

This is a very *nice* video.  I have had the fortune to possess a "pirate"
copy of Shada previous to this one, the infamous "computer text" version
where the completed material was edited together with computer text
explaining the missing scenes.  The trouble with that old version is that
virtually every copy I've ever seen of it is lousy in terms of picture
quality, the text messages are too long, and without any music or sound
effects or special effects the completed stuff is also very boring.

This new version rectifies all that.  My first reaction was "I CAN SEE IT!
I CAN SEE WHAT'S GOING ON!"  The music is one of Keff McCulloch's better
scores for Doctor Who, but his style seems rather at odds with our
expectation of what the music in a Tom Baker story like this should be.
Once you get over that, however, it is rather good, and infinitely better
than nothing at all.  
The special effects could, with a bit more money, could have been better
than they were, but they're definitely better than they would have been
in 1979!  :)  My main trouble is the contrast difference between the
Paintboxed in sphere on some of the film footage during the bicycle chase.

I've read that Douglas Adams didn't want this story to go out ever,and
for the life of me I can't see why.  Perhaps it runs a little long,
but that was common for Baker six-parters.  The dialog is a joy to listen
to, the Cambridge jokes are great, and Skagra is the *real* villain.
You know, a villain who actually says "No" when the Doctor asks him to
reveal his secret plans.  

It also seems rather selfish of him.  Although it was his script, a lot
of other people put a lot of hard work into that show, and as Tom says
"We all cried a lot" about the show being cancelled.  For Douglas to want
all their work to go for nought forever for no good publicly stated reason
makes me want to perhaps not buy "Mostly Harmless" when it comes out.
(I think I know his real reason, his lifting of mass sections of "Shada"
to be used in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency."  Also, if he's
just sold film rights to that story, he could be in for some copyright
trouble now from not only the BBC but CBS/Fox as well.)

End flame of Douglas Adams.

All the missing sections are narrated simply wonderfully by Mister Tom Baker
standing in front of various exhibits at the old Museum of the Moving Image
set-up, speaking directly to the camera, and being enormously more enter-
taining than computer text messages.  
As for the sections that were finished....
A lot of good stuff in this show that makes me wish it had been finished.
The acting is tremendous, making me wonder how on Earth you go from the
cast of "Horns of Nimon" to the cast of "Shada" in a week with such a 
quantum quality leap.  My favorites are Denis Carey as the little old
Professor Chronotis and definitely Christopher Neame as Skagra.
The thing that makes one want to weep is how little of Skagra's scenes
were finished, so much of what he does takes place on the Carrier Ship,
in the TARDIS, in the bridge of his own ship, and on Shada, all of which
wasn't finished.  He is SO good in the location work and in his other
brief appearances that I wish we could somehow work up a rematch between
him and the Doctor.  

As for the story itself, I don't see anything wrong with it, again, except
perhaps for some padding, but much of that may perhaps have been cut in 
the finished version had it been finished.  Recall that a filming crew
usually films a little more than it needs in case it does need it, 
but since about half of this show wasn't done, EVERYTHING is in the video,
when it may have been cut afterwards.

Personally, I like Skagra's idea of making the whole universe one mind
rather than trying to rule the universe.  When I first heard that I was
well impressed.

So, overall grade then of about an 8.5  (1-10)_


Steve/Iain