Started Sat 9-Jun
Lily made a comment that was that Series 2 seemed more ambitious than Series 1. Last year the series was often filmed against a flat studio set with dry dialogue. But with this serial especially the scene seems so much more daring and 'big'.
Sharlene made a comment that the theme in the first couple of episodes was palpably doom laden.
Anthony made a comment that the show starts off great and then falls over when the budget runs out.
The show was now regularly being being made in the Television Centre in a big studio with better lighting and cameras. Daleks Invasion has quite a bit of location filming.
The British ratings were climbing even higher than year 1. Regular 9 millions, frequent 10's and by mid series 13's. Those numbers meant DW was making executives take notice.
But the budget was the same...
The location filming is very obviously silent (with stock music overdubbed for what seems like minutes at a time) and looks kind of avant garde compared to the studio work.
Often the studio scenes in this are a bit sloppy: lots of wobbly sets, Daleks with ill controlled movement and under rehearsed dialogue, fight scenes with unconvincing hits and falls, obvious painted backdrops.
We watched episode 1 with the 2002 CGI replacement shots, namely the Battersea Power Station and the Dalek Saucer. These are considerably less ridiculous than the originals.
Despite these drawbacks, overall this story is epic in scope and serves as a worthy return of the Daleks.
ABM Rating 3.25/4.00
LJM Rating 4.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.50/10.00
Peak Ranking No. 1 (out of 10)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Link to Rankings Scoreboard
Cumultive Ranking:
ReplyDelete2/10
!!!what!!! 1 surely!???
N02 Rank is correct.
ReplyDeleteFrom Quickflix
ReplyDeleteBack in the 1960's "sci-fi" was a guarantee that a movie would be risible. It wasn't until 1968's 2001 A Space Odyssey that that mould was broken. Since the 70's the biggest movies of all time have been Star Wars, Alien, and Independence Day etc. Viewed through the lens of cinema history as it stands in the early 21st century, it is obvious that the concept of this DW show is far too ambitious for the modest means at the disposal of the producers of this story. Daleks (6 of 'em) invading the devastated Earth of the 22nd century (well, the BBC's backyard...) in Black and White.... To appreciate this DW ep requires the modern viewer to unwind their expectations a great deal. As you watch this think about what it would be like if you re-made it today...... CGI, film, sound effects, big budget.... and then remember that that's how it seemed to the kids of the 60's.... this sort of show was imagination fuel (back then).... There are plenty of good bits in this show but they're hard to see. The horror of returning to what you think may be "home", finding it deserted, buildings in ruins and then the Daleks appear and they have already won: this is a compelling situation and one which doesn't actually ***need*** big budget CGI to be realized. Well it's **a** description of episode 1......