The BBC are to re-make some missing episodes of classic comedy shows like Steptoe and Son and 'Til Death Us Do Part, obviously with new actors.
Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen, at least it's better than re-making classic episodes that still exist, which would frankly be a travesty IMO.
It will at least allow the scripts to be seen being performed again.
If deemed successful, could this set a precedent for re-mounting other lost programmes, like missing early episodes of Doctor Who?
If so, what would people like to see re-mounted, even if it's only individual episodes rather than complete stories?

This is a one off sort of event season to celebrate sitcoms, I believe, with the whole point being a bit of nostalgia for beloved shows that are long gone but still fondly remembered.

Doctor who is still very much with us, and as such, I don't think the bbc would go to the trouble of, or spend the money on remaking old episodes whilst at the same time still making new episodes, when the remakes would only really be of interest to some older fans, and not the wider audience. Plus I think even amongst Classic who fans, some dislike the idea of another actor playing one of the established incarnations.

Plus, you say it would be a travesty to remake existing episodes, so what happens if they go to all the time, effort, and financial cost to remake an old episode, and then the original is found? You and anyone else with an interest would likely then shun the new version that they had made for you, in favour of the original, and then all their time and effort would be a waste.

If they want nostalgia reair the old episodes with a documentary with the living stars.

Remaking a studio based sitcom is far easier than a programme like Doctor Who, with its location filming and special effects and much larger cast of actors. To keep in character, presumably you'd need to use the same filming techniques and special effects as used in the 60s as well.

The animation of missing episodes worked very well (until they became too expensive) as at least we still have all the soundtracks to the missing episodes

They haven't still got the episodes concerned, that's the problem!
They are specifically only re-making lost episodes.
Of course the argument that you wouldn't do it with DW because it's still a "living" series is quite justified, and there are very few DW episodes that would be anywhere near as easy to re-make as a sitcom would be of course. The Edge of Destruction/The Brink of Disaster would be a relatively easy one, but that still exists!

I agree - the animated episodes were generally very good indeed. And an excellent substitute for the real thing.

I wouldn't be very keen on remaking missing episodes with a new cast though. Seems both pointless and a little disrespectful somehow.

I feel the same about these one-off remakes of old sitcoms. Remember when Paul Merton remade a few Hancock episodes some years ago? Yes they were still quite funny, because the scripts were strong, but it simply wasn't as good as the original. I think this is mainly because the scripts were written for that one actor in mind, and so anyone else is always going to be trying to recreate something, rather than offering something new. These new versions of Steptoe / Till Death Us Do Part etc, will surely have to be close to the originals for the production to work, and that's kind of the point in doing them - but this will inevitably draw comparison with the originals and the new versions will inevitably come off worst, because we've all had 50 odd years of familiarity with the originals.

The same problem befell that new Dad's Army film. If they'd tried to make it quite different from the old series then there'd be little point in calling it Dad's Army, but by making it quite close to the TV show then comparisons are of course made, and with the TV show still airing every Saturday (and to decent ratings too) the new film comes off worst.

There are no missing steptoe and son episodes so puzzled with that. Not a fan of remakes at all. Ant and dec did a version of the likely lads, no hiding place. It was rubbish.Hate the star trek reboot too.

Indeed the master-stroke of regeneration, is that the Doctor changes his face and personality. Imagine if the 2nd Doctor had to be a Hartnell lookalike, with the same personality as the 1st Doctor, he would have come across as a poor and pointless imitation.

The way technology is advancing, we won't need lookalikes.
Real-time face capture could be applied to existing archive material of Doctors #1 and #2, the original existing soundtrack from missing episodes and a voice actor miming the dialogue.
It's still early days yet but here's an example of what can already be achieved:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk

Choosing the right camera-script shot of the actor/s and comparing it with a telesnap to get the closest or near enough comparison.
Now imagine rotoscoping (cutting/transferring the actors from one film to another) and overlaying them onto a raw photo of the set from any missing story, as background.

Interesting you say that. I did wonder, as they recovered a lot of Steptoe episodes that were thought lost some years ago from low quality tapes that one of the writers had from when the episodes were new, but I wasn't aware that all of the episodes were now in existence.
The story I read about the re-makes of missing episodes quoted Steptoe as being one of the shows having episodes re-made, but that may have been a mistake of course.

Indeed, if anyone's seen Terminator genisys with current Arnie fighting the 80's version of himself, or tron legacy with young and old jeff bridges, it shows the technology is already out there.

I've thought for years that once this sort of technology gets cheap enough to be affordable to tv shows, then I can envision one day having a new multi doctor story which properly includes all incarnations.

The steptoe and son they are remaking is the 1970 a winters tale which was made in colour but like most of the steptoe only exists in black and white-on dvd anyway.

Classic movies are remade regularly but true re-makes don't seem to happen for TV shows. They're usually rebooted completely (and often almost unrecognisable) e.g. Battlestar Galactica or semi-reboots (I'd put Doctor Who in this category) or true continuations (TNG).

I think RTD and Moffat would be dismayed that you don't think new who a 'true continuation' when they've done everything possible to make it so. Moffat in particular crams as many classic who references into a series as he can, and cant help but have a moment about 'the brigadier' almost every time Kate Stewart is on screen (even though at this point I think she is a good enough character, that they don't need to keep mentioning her heritage and keep her in the shadow of a former character).

There would be nothing they could have done that they didn't do to make it a 'true continuation' that wouldn't have made it immediately fail. I think one of the biggest strengths of the comeback was how it perfectly toed the line between continuing the story for those who already knew the show, whilst also giving enough information for new fans jumping on board. It was key to it's success.

Doctor Who is a true continuation. So is Dallas or X-Files, if you need further examples.

I will concede I overstated (just a little ) and was thinking mostly of how it was back in 2005 when I wrote the semi-reboot comment.

Back in 2005, there was very little to connect C21 to C20 Doctor Who beyond the basic concept: The Doctor and the TARDIS. Since then it has gradually strengthened the links and continuity with C20 Doctor Who.

The very first 21st century story featured Autons, and the fifth saw the resturn of the Daleks, plus the Cyber head in the 'museum' in the same episode. UNIT also featured heavily in Aliens Of London.
Yes, the links to 20th century who have increased over time, but they were always there.

It is a continuation, but doubtless for many there is a fine line between Classic Who and New Who in terms of format, style, etc. and it even started from "Series 1" rather than "Season 27" I can see where GDK is coming from with the "semi-reboot" comment.

Back in 2005 many viewers were unsure if it was actually the same canon as Classic Who or if it was a reboot entirely.

Even with the concept of regeneration, it would have been easy for them to just cast someone who was a lot like Hartnell, but they took a gamble and made a completely different character, and that's a big part of why Who endures throughout the decades.

i'll admit there were less back references at the start, but obviously that had to be the case for the revival to be successful.

RTD and his team were in the position of dusting off an old show, which was beloved by some, but barely or not at all heard of by others (especially younger viewers), and trying to get as many of those people on board as possible. To do that, the first and foremost point was to get the basic concept across, and then gradually back reference over time.

As someone who started with new who, I'm pretty sure if I had tuned in and from the start they had done a Mcgann regeneration in the first scene, then proceeded to talk about the timelord council, davros and the brigadier, it would have seemed completely inaccesible to me, and I wouldn't have watched further, just like most of the people who started with new who and now make up a large chunk of the audience. They've done more than enough since to cement the link between classic and new who.

Also, as others have said, even with the well thought out 'balancing act' of trying to appeal to both old fans and new viewers, they still managed to include classic who references in the first series.


Indeed. Also, the first series explained about the time war and subsequently why the timelords and gallifrey aren't around within the first few episodes. Plus the emperor dalek was in the finale.

Speaking of that, there were originally plans back in 05 to show McGann regenerating into Eccleston's Doctor in the last Eighth Doctor comic strip of DWM. Not sure why RTD and the comic writers changed their minds but I guess it just wouldn't have worked within the context of the show, with the Ninth Doctor being born from the Time War.

16 years since the end of the Classic show, 9 years since the TV movie is an eternity in TV terms, especially when you're trying to attract a new audience, many of which would never have seen the show before.

Hence having probably the least Doctorly looking Doctor of them all, as it got people in. Imagine if the trailer had some comic actor in a silly costume as the Doctor, a lot of people would have immediately switched off!

I suppose not doing that story in comic form worked out for the best, as it allowed them to use the time war story for the 50th, without annoying the comic readers.

So they are re-making an episode that still exists, even if only in black and white.
That's not good, especially with such a classic that was so dependent on the personalities of its original lead actors. Oh dear.

A complete re-boot would presumably have started with a re-make of An Unearthly Child.
Thank goodness they didn't go down that road!