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Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Mulett
Posts: 9,057 Forum Member
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Got the evening to myself so have cracked open the UNIT Files box set - Invasion!
Strange watching the time tunnel opening credits with Pertwee. Actually, its quite strange seeing Sarah Jane with the 3rd Doctor rather than the 4th.
Very creepy opening episode!
Strange watching the time tunnel opening credits with Pertwee. Actually, its quite strange seeing Sarah Jane with the 3rd Doctor rather than the 4th.
Very creepy opening episode!
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It was a jolly typical romp along with UNIT. I think Sarah Jane was the star of this story!
I watched the first ep in B&W. Does anyone know if the colour version is any good? Is the mauled driver especially gory?
I watched it in colour and it was pretty good. The mauled driver would never get into Who today!
I love that Sarah is being officially introduced as the Doctor's assistant.
It would have been a very different story with Jo Grant!
I'm really looking forward to seeing IOTD on DVD. Did you watch episode 1 in b&w or colour? I think the cleaned up b&w will be great and very atmospheric.
Oh dear . . I think those camera flashes are waking up that T-Rex ....
I thought it looked more of a classic in B&W!! (If it had remained in b&w - the chroma-key wouldn't have shown up so badly either!!):D
And now, the Whomobile!
haha, yeah it's the only one so far where a dinosaur doesn't appear out of nowhere for no reason.
Only joking - love this story. It makes great use of the Sarah Jane as a journalist angle that makes the character stand out. Maybe she should have hacked Charles Grover's phone and that would have cut the episode down by 3 episodes.
Don'tcha just love the way it seems to raise itsself upright withoug making any leg movements or anything?
It just sort of 'floats' back up into a standing position.
Who was never about special effects but this is the one story where they are so bad in places they do let down what is a rather good story.
Too expensive to undertake apparently .
I think its my new favourite Pertwee story, mainly because it feels more like a Tom Baker story. Well worth buying this one!
And an interesting interview with Lis Sladen where she says Pertwee quit because he asked for a payrise and was turned down.
I think this is one of the few later UNIT stories where The Brigadier isn't quite a comic relief as he had become in some of the previous ones. Even Benton has a large slice of the action!
The only other thing I didn't like aside the effects is the constant double crossing and getting caught only to escape again storyline.
TBH I'm glad there wasn't some how I feel putting new cgi effects on these classic series dvd's just dosen't feel right yes the dinosaurs were naff by today's standards by I just except them for the time they were made in and in truth they don't really bother me at all.
We can do that but it would have been nice as an alternative.
Some of the other CGI adjustments were unnecessary in my opinion and the original effects fitted in with the vintage of the story and overall appearance .
But for IOTD the effects definitely are way below par for the series at the time.
It's an intelligent and interesting story .
But show it to newcomers and it would get laughed off the screen.
I'm all for leaving things as they are and when they do make adjustments I always want the original there too .
With Star Trek TOS I now watch the Blurays with the new effects as they've corrected the series only shortcoming and also given it a new lease of life on broadcast tv.
But as ever , the original effects are included too for posterity.
Some shots are passable - the tyrannosaur sleeping in the hangar works, and the shot of the Brig and the Doctor driving underneath the diplodocus in the last episode is actually extremely well done (it's much better than the terrible shots of an immobile Bessie CSOed 'driving' across the Giant Maggots, just two stories ago) but most of them must be considered the worst effects in Doctor Who. The 'half-hearted waving guns about with a machine gun noise dubbed on' just won't do, either.
A shame, really, as otherwise it's probably one of the best written and acted stories of the third Doctor's era. There's a lovely helicopter tracking shot that took my breath away.
As for the colour recovery - it's not perfect, but it's perfectly watchable. It's probably on a par with the old VHS 'recolourised' ones. Just don't expect 'Planet of the Daleks' standard.
Yes, this bit really surprised me. There wasn't even any smoke coming out of the machine gun. It was just a soldier moving it up and down in his hand in time to a sound effect. Sometimes Who just hands its to the critics on a plate!
I always quite liked the "slightly washed out" look of the old VHS ones. I wondered why they'd bothered recolouring Planet of the Daleks, as everything is beige and mushroom!