Dr Who Underworld - new DVD release cleaned up nice

[Mikey]

As most of you know the extensive CSO used in the Tom Baker story Underworld makes it pretty hard to watch because the bad SFX is just plain distracting.

I just finished watching the new DVD release and I must say the Restoration Team did a pretty nice job cleaning it up and making it more watchable.

The restoration is not without flaws including Tom having his hair a bit buzzed on the edges where it meets the CSO but at least the blue halos are gone.

The only problem left is the floating effect --- meaning, they still don't look like they're actually where they supposed to be... But I suppose there's no way to correct this even today.

All in all a nice restoration that makes Underworld a lot more palatable.

m

[palitoy]

That was one where I read the Target novel before I saw it, LET DOWN.

[jds1911a1]

one of the more forgettable stories (if it wasn't for the terrible effects it would be totally forgettable). Bob Baker and Dave Martin mailed this one in and it is by far the worst episode of Season 15 and Worst Leela story. The CSO shots were cringeworthy in the original edit (the color masking didn't help either) making Invisible Enemy (another CSO heavy story) look like an effects masterpiece in comparison.
I'm looking forward to seeing how it's cleaned up

[palitoy]

I've always felt that this is too similiar to "For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky" episode of Star Trek. Both deal with lost, underground societys ruled by a supercomputer called "The Oracle".

[Mikey]

I've always felt that this is too similiar to "For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky" episode of Star Trek. Both deal with lost, underground societys ruled by a supercomputer called "The Oracle".

As a big Trek fan i'm quite embarrassed to have never noticed their similarities until reading this now.

[palitoy]

I'm pretty sure the only reason I noticed was after reading the book, the episode of Trek came on.

[samurainoir]

That was one where I read the Target novel before I saw it, LET DOWN.

I think this is exactly why I was never a Doctor Who fan until recently with the new series. I had watched a few episodes, and then read a bunch of the DW Target novels that my school library had, and the episodes I saw couldn't match up to the ones in my head.

Being a Star Wars kid, I think I had certain expectations for SFX at that point. It got better during the Davidson era, but I generally just watched some of those because there was nothing else on during Saturday afternoons after the Monster/Kung Fu movie on channel 29 was over.

[Mikey]

Bad SFX never bothered me much because I always watch Classic Dr Who with the mindset of watching a play on stage.
It's the characters, specifically the Dr himself that carries the show for me.

If the Dr is up to par i'd enjoy a show filmed with all unpainted cardboard backgrounds.

[palitoy]

It all depended on how ambitious the story was, in the case of Underworld the overall production values doomed it had I not read the book.

I remember reading "the mutants" and the only surprise I had in watching was one of the characters was black, I totally had him as a blonde.

[jds1911a1]

Mutants was a much better story to start with and it did keep the CSO to just a few shots. It's funny for those of us in the about 40 and up I remember when reading the novels was my only outlet to "relive the stories". Terrnce Dicks novelisations were great often better than the original scripts I've read later. I only remember seeing 5 stories from Hartnell and Troughton (it was like Unearthly child, daleks, aztecs, web planet, and skip to war games) in the mid 80's do without the books I'd have known little about their eras.

and I remember (possibly incorrectly) seeing Mind of Evil in color back then but the color prints were lost in the years since