Personally, I liked David Bradley's performance in An Adventure in Space & Time and Twice Upon a Time. In fact a lot 9f people who had worked with Hartnell told him they were moved by his performance and a lot of fans thought they had colorized the old episodes
I personally would love to have live action recreations. David Bradley is an amazing 1st Doctor and personally I'd like to see Harry Melling play the 2nd. He is Patrick Troughtons grandson after all
If we could only get one, then I'd choose animation every time. No matter how much they reimagine certain parts of the story (such as the helicopter scene in Fury - which I love by the way), the fact it's the original audio makes it feel authentic, but at the same time these aren't ever going to be exact recreations so why not add a full Dalek army, or a room full of Macra. Telesnap recons exist to recreate the episodes as close as possible to the originals, animations are sort of like watching a classic story with the new special effects turned on. If they were to do refilmed versions, I wouldn't expect shot for shot remakes for the same reasons. Hell, I wouldn't be against (for example) if they wanted to refilm The Crusade but with Susan instead of Vicki because they already have an actress for her. To me, refilmed stories would be a their own thing, rather than something that would fill the gap of missing episodes. Rather like the Cushing films are to the main series. They'd be fun to watch though.
I can understand your point, but not all of them have the full original sound recordings. Personally, I would like to see such episodes, for the 1st doctor at least, reshot with the same cast that did the movie An Adventure in Space and Time They did an excellent job casting that to get the feel of the original crew
@@alexlazebat839 It's always better to have the originals, I'm just saying that, in absence of having the originals, the cast of an adventure in space and time would be the next best thing.
To be honest, I really would not like recreations. Mission to the Unknown was fine because it didn’t have Hartnell but the other stories I just wouldn’t be a fan. I’d rather be as original as possible so that includes keeping the original audio. Also, I highly doubt that there will be a big enough budget available to recreate the stories I just like everything to be as faithful as possible so that’s why I prefer animations and telesnaps because it has original audio
Yah but you could use the original audio both times Luke has shown up on the Mandalorian he was voiced by Mark Hamill while being played by a stand in you could frame the episodes exactly the same with replicas of all the original costumes and sets and sync everything to the original audio and just put a layer of cg and deepfakes for the things that cant be replicated and to give a bit more authenticity to it. Only question at that point is if you'd want it brought down to the resolution of the original and in black and white with film grain and everything or would you want them in color and as high resolution as possible to go with colorized remasters of the originals.
@@theninjamaster67 Hmm, maybe the film grainy resolution of the original, but in colour so fans would have the option to view the episodes in colour or the original b&w presentation like they've been doing with animated recreations since the 2016 version of "The Power of the Daleks".
@@AndrewChapman I can go either way with it I don't mind old black and white footage but I also find film restoration fascinating especially with just how good they can make some things look with a bit of work and a good print for instance the 4k 77 print of Star Wars fans restored that is so high res it looks brand new (and it's the original 1977 edit before all the special edition stuff) another really good example is the 4k release of the 1999 Mummy and the sequel the Mummy returns that look frickin amazing. That being said there's also some pretty good examples of some older films that look a lot worse when restored like arguably the original King Kong since it makes the stop motion stand out a lotttttt. All I know is I'd personally just love to see a deepfake recreation of these episodes so I have the chance to see them as close to the original as you can get.
1:20 I feel the issue isn't animation as a medium being bad at capturing expression, but rather the budgets they gave them all. The Moonbase and Ice Warriors has some of the best Troughton animation I've seen. If the BBC wanted to fund stronger animation, I feel it'd be a better option
it's interesting, I think a lot of the problem is just the choice of studio too. I really think that a lot of the time it's down to the fact that they not only did it on a low budget, but didn't really bother to choose a good animation team. Whenever I watch the animated versions of these stories it really feels like they're let down by minor details over major ones, a little bit of idle animation here, a bit of wobble there, and they'd look WAY better, instead of a cut rate version of Archer. EDIT: The Moonbase one is great btw, I think mostly because they were animated by someone who cares, haha. Others feel very 'phoning it in' if you get me.
I'd love to see a recreated version of the "Dalek Master Plan" with Bradley as the 1st Doctor. Plus, that story could be retold as a anti war story. It has a lot of pretty dark themes not least the deaths of not one but two companions. With today's budget you could do something that would demonstrate Doctor Who is timeless and as a tribute to all who worked on the original era of Doctor Who.
@@JaredsGaming And that's what we all need: stories which unite and inspire us become better people. Both as ourselves AND to others. Wouldn't that be a great story to tell our own Grand Daughters?
I think re-imagining with different Doctors and Companions would be a fun route. In particular getting the 12th Doctor to act out some Hartnell episodes and Eleven in some Troughton episodes. I always like to imagine how the Xth Doctor would behave in such and such an episode. (My favorite episode to imagine each Doctor in is Heaven Sent! :D But that's neither here nor there. ) I think it would really bring some excitement from both sides of the Doctor Who community to make updated versions with different Doctors. Which in turn would probably justify the budget.
I don't see that as being a likely method but agree that it would be interesting to see, at the very least... Obviously these versions wouldn't be considered part of either Matt Smith's or Peter Capaldi's era...but as a "just for fun" exercise would certainly be enjoyable. I just doubt the BBC would be interested at all in that sort of effort...😔
I personally wouldn’t want to see live action recreations of episodes. The budget would surely be extremely low considering these are made-for-DVD recreations of 60 year old episodes. Maybe they could do some scene recreations, but I wouldn’t be a fan of an entire story being done that way. It would feel really wrong, I think. Acting and TV production is so different now to back then. If they kept the old dialogue, most modern actors just would feel really wrong performing it I think. I prefer to stay doing animations personally. But I would be really excited to see any way of reconstructions of episodes! Love the video, every Josh Snares video gives me the biggest smile.
The animations seem like the best way to go as they still use a portion of the original episodes. I personally find it difficult with reconstructions / recastings / Impressions because it's just someone pretending to be the actor rather than the actual one
I uses to say no we shouldn't do that, but I've warmed to it and kinda think, well whats the harm in trying it once? Pick one story, give it a go and see how we feel.
Whilst I loved an Adventure in time and space as a drama about the birth of the show, when it comes to the missing stories themselves it would be animation only. Animating the shows with the original audio is paramount for me as that is the closest to the original as we could get.
Sadly, no news of a Marco polo remake. Luckily, we ARE getting a "the underwater menace" remake EDIT: and a celestial toymaker remake but it's in the style of web of fear 3 🤮
Honestly, I wouldn't want recreations of those stories, unless they were their own beautiful interpritation. I'm ok if they aren't all animated or found because the mystery/ lack of around the episodes is a great draw to many of us in the community. However, I am ungodly salty about the lack of an animation for the savages.
I don't know. You bring up really good points. Personally I would like them to limit the visuals so the recreation scenes look exactly like the scenes as they where in the 1960's. The acting being off slightly by replacement actors I don't believe would bother me that much as a larger expanded set pieces. Recreations, if done properly I believe not only honor the original Doctors and everyone involved in the original series but it also honors us, the fans.
Hi Josh Thank you for a very thoughtful consideration of the issues you raised. One point however, is that all of the stories were filmed multi-camera and that resulted in a significant amount of dead time and make watching old episodes quite difficult for modern audiences. I think that innovation in the field of accessable AI enhanced CGI in the next ten years could enable the creation of photo-realistic avatars based on the original actors. An algorithm that tracks all currently captured performances for all the performaces of key actors (Dr Who and companions) would be able to establish body language, stance and default facial expressions which can overlay edited and enhanced original audio. One could create an entire episode to block the characters, run it in real time and then chose the best shots to match the original audio. One clear implication of such a technique would be to vastly improve individual scene and overall story pacing. The net effect would be to increase dramatic inpact by reducing total duration. Remember that individual directors were often frustrated by the constraints of multi-camera studion shooting, such that the final result often bore little resemblance to their initial visions of the story. Avatar based reconstruction could end up being closer to the original visions of writers and directors, thus pay more homage to the desire of the storytellers. Just a thought, and once again thank you for your clear, caring and considered content.
How would you feel about a middle-ground between animation and physical acting? Something like what Joel Haver does, painting over an actual performance with animated characters and sets, but more polished up and professional?
Here's an idea - Source Filmmaker. Why not use that to create reconstructions using the original audio? Really, you'd just need one or two people making models of each character, and then you could essentially restage entire scenes a bit like a videogame cutscene. Just a thought.
I feel like a reimagining of The Massacre would be interesting. If I were to handle a reimagining of the story, I would try to get the sets as close as possible, but use the camera script as an example of what could be possible rather than use it as the only option. A good director could make certain scenes incredibly engaging, especially the sword fight, even if the sets don't have enough space.
From my perspective it's only the best way to visually represent the existing soundtracks that's important. I have zero interest in reimaginings with a different cast.
The First Doctor Big Finish stories with the Adventure in Space and Time actors utterly convinced me that a recast can work. It comes down entirely to the casting for me, Shearsmith Troughton? Doesn't work so much for me, but that original TARDIS team? I think I genuinely forget they're not the original actors because they capture their essence and the idea of the characters so well. Also, the reconstructions and novelizations are pretty satisfying already in my opinion. Deepfakes or other forms of new animation just seem like dubious advancements for those. Even some of the more stilted animations (ice warriors/faceless ones) did make me question the point of the project all together. For that reason I'm always going to be a fan of reimagining a classic story from the ground up. It's the whole 'wow! 2 cakes!' meme for me. Even though the footage might be gone, the story does still exist (and can still be enjoyed in multiple mediums!) and so you may as well recast and reshoot it from the ground up. I just doubt the BBC will have the interest to do so. Make them low budget stage plays or something.
I agree in the sense that I'd be happy if they did more First or Second Doctor stories with new actors rather than recreating existing stories.A bit like the way they reimagined Star Trek
@@MegaTheExtremist I agree. Bradley was dire. Only surpassed in dreadfulness by the actor playing Troughton as a clown. He didn't seem to grasp that when Troughton was on set he was playing a character.
I would not want to see that because it wouldn't be the same actors or the same performances. Mission to the Unknown was the only one where that worked.
I like the animations, I just kind of wish they could've stuck with the first production studio (Cosgrove Hall Films, which I know shut down/went out of business) that made the missing parts for the Patrick Troughton story, _"The Invasion"._ I really liked the design and movements they used for the characters.
I always imagined the doctor retelling the episode to Rory and Amy, intercutting their banter with the episode proper, but with them cast in the roles of the original doctor and companions.
I heard somewhere that after filming An Adventure in Space & Time Mark Gatiss jokingly said “Right that’s a wrap, let’s remake Marco Polo”. While I much prefer them animating the missing episodes I would’ve been down with them remaking just that one story with the David Bradley’s 1st Doctor, as it was one of the earliest & most famous missing stories. Tbf I am saying this as someone who’s never experienced that serial so I don’t know how it would compare to the original.
I always think of the animations as a little bit of an extra. It’s basically like listening to the audio recordings but with a little bit of visual excitement. It’s been great for my kids who just don’t have the patience or attention span to listen to the audio as I can introduce them to great stories that I’ve lived for years. I’m not averse to the idea of reconstructing them in live action if it were a bit of an experiment maybe on the odd episode or important scene as it would be entertaining, but I think it would be a step too far to do entire stories that way. I see the animations as preservation work. If you were preserving an ancient building you’d need to include sections of new build to stabilise it and make it fit to present, but it would be important for the new sections to be easily distinguishable from the original, but in keeping of the spirit of the original, to allow the original material shine through on its own merit. Live action reconstructions wouldn’t achieve the same effect. And the temptation would be there to use David Bradley as the first Doctor. I wouldn’t want to see that. Don’t get me wrong - I think he’s a brilliant actor. I thought he was brilliant when he played William Hartnell. But I didn’t feel so convinced when he played the first Doctor in Twice Upon A Time. It felt too much like a caricature of the first Doctor - or maybe it’s just me.
The animations have definitely affected my view on some of the stories. For example, if Fury was animated in the same style as of The Moonbase I probably would have loved it alot more. So far the animation in The Moonbase is the best of the bunch.
I think a film reimagining, like the two Dalek films with Peter Cushing, could be a good way to go. Take the script, tighten it up, do it with a lowish budget, and have the initial release to cinemas. You could contract actors for the main cast so you have a consistent Doctor and Companions. Each film follows the plot but the actors give their own takes on the characters and material. You could even have "pre-credits" scenes to explain new companions or people leaving- so basically do the missing stories as a separate film series. It's not perfect, but it fills the gaps while being its own thing. You don't have to like it, but it's there for those who want to experience the story in a live action format. The vast majority of the audience aren't hardcore fans, and if it were done well enough, would be happy with it. Depending on the production and how it was handled, you could have one or two a year during school holidays. Could end up being a decent money spinner for the Beeb
My opinion! Classic is Classic! Sadly that we have lost the original Doctor Who episodes but there is absolutely no replacement for all the original actors.
For me the important is restoring the original Doctor Who episode that is aired on that year such as Marco Polo. Have the Lost in Time DVD and there’s lot to seek for the lost parts. Hope that all missing parts of the episodes would complete to see. Maybe in the near future on DVD and on the The Collection blu ray sets. That alone is immense to watch for a Doctor Who fan. The War Games from the end of the second Doctor is magic and it have 10 parts. Which all is fantastic to watch in 1 run if you have the time.
One idea that I feel could work for SOME stories, not ALL, is reconstruction using motion capture technology. This has become quite big in some productions when they need an actor deaged or for a character to appear if the original actor is unavailable for one reason or another. This was used in TRON: Legacy for the CLU character and Rogue One for Tarkin and Leia. But I’d only use it for some stories. One I’d use it for is The Dalek Masterplan. This also allows the original audio and the recovered episodes to likely be used. And when I saw your reaction to deep fakes, which is a form of motion capture, I look at it as bringing a production to live, not resurrecting a dead actor or character. However, I believe the issue people have with motion capture is that it’s considered more ‘realistic’ compared to hand drawn animation. Regardless I believe this approach should only be for specific stories and used sparingly.
I would like to see the episodes remounted. And not just the missing ones, the existing ones as well. We still stage Shakespeare and Noel Coward and Sondheim and Cole Porter, even though their plays have been staged before and definitively filmed and those films exist. Of course, what most fans want is to complete their collection - they want a form of closure. I can understand that. And I would love to see more of Hartnell and Troughton should they ever surface! But I want these fabulous scripts and ideas to live on and on, and speak to new generations, just as Romeo and Juliet do. The remount - it's a thing.
I'm a massive fan of the animated recreations myself. While they're not perfect by any means, I think it's great that we as modern day viewers get a chance to experience these stories with more than just audio and telesnaps. But I do think that it would be interesting to see some live action recreations as well. I mean, we've got David Bradley who I think does a good take on his version of the First Doctor and since Big Finish have done some audio stories with him, I think it would be nice if he had some onscreen stories for himself as well, beyond his appearance in 'Twice Upon a Time'. I think it would be interesting to see how he would portray the Doctor if he were in a live action recreation of a story such as 'The Daleks' Master Plan'. I think fans would be asking too much if they wanted every recreation to be absolutely perfect to the original, it's just not feasible to do it like that. That's why they're called recreations, they're not expected to be the same as the original but brings the story to life again. But I would definitely like to see some live action recreations one day alongside more animated versions. I like how they've been trying to experiment with more recent animations and while they weren't perfect, it's something that they can learn from and improve for the future. I mean, look at how the more recent style of animation for them started and look where it was by the time we got 'The Evil of the Daleks'. It was just a massive improvement to what we got with the first version of the animated 'Power of the Daleks'. It's partially because of how much better the animation was that makes 'The Evil of the Daleks' my favourite missing story.
I think it's a travesty the way the 2nd doctor, my fave doctor, was portrayed in an adventure in space and time (whoever played him looked nothing like Patrick, although his personality was similar so all was not lost, and no harm to the actor. Whereas all the others look pretty spot on with their real life counterparts.)
Interesting your comment about the Dr Who books. I love the new and missing adventures books that they made during the 90s. The missing ones were just like the TV episodes except more complex. A lot of them I prefer to the new TV episodes. They just had a more science fictiony style compared to some of the more character driven tv episodes. Loved the cyberpunk atmosphere of the 7th Doctor New Adventures too.
Recently you had news that the animated reconstructions would be ending. I really like those. I'd like to see those continue and eventually be finished.
Good overview. I'd prefer animations, as long as they are really good productions, over recreations with replacement actors. Agree 'Mission to the Unknown' is the perfect exception for the same reasons you stated.
I thought back in 2013 they should have restaged the missing episodes using the original camera scripts with legit period equipment. It has been done before, the Inside No. 9 episode "The Devil of Christmas" (which if you're a fan of period television you should definitely watch) was made as if it was a rediscovered lost episode of an anthology series from the 1970s, using old cameras in a multicamera setup recorded onto analogue tape. I think it would definitely be in the spirit of vintage television if there were some minor differences, television was more like theatre than film in the 1960s and '70s, and people accepted different actors or slightly different portrayals so long as they were true to the script.
I would definitely go with animation for those who need the visuals. I personally have been fine with the audios, though some could do with remastering. Recreating an episode with new actors sounds like a lot of labor and resources to put into a niche product. A whole different beast from animation. Part of me feels, “what’s done is done. Until new tapes are found, we should stick to telesnaps and put the lost stories to rest,” but those who want the visuals do deserve something.
Well presented points of view, Josh. Animations vs re-creations is a real conundrum as opinions are very divided. I like some animations but others are hard to watch. I’d also love to see some old serials re-made almost as they were written, but others are just too dated by the period to do this. What if they did mini-sodes and created a shortened version of the missing stories? Like a condensed version just for the fandom….
You are awesome my friend, but that last part you did trying to be the First Doctor, I know the name of a good therapist you may want to see. I HIGHLY recommend it. Anyway, to answer one of your questions, I think that Bill Hartnell and Pat Troughton would be honored to have their voices put to animation. Those two were great actors and they always put themselves into every role they did, not just Doctor Who. If they were alive right now, i think they would be happy for others to at least HEAR the work they put into Doctor Who in its early years. IMO i don't think they would have had any issue with the animation of their missing episodes. It really is sad that BBC America is killing the animation range. So many more great stories to be done. The Dalek Masterplan, Marco Polo, The Wheel in Space and The Celestial Toymaker to name a few of the ones i really wanted to see. Maybe they will re-think if Doctor Who fans complain a little.
Another fun video!! I still want more missing episodes recreated/animated/revisited. I vote for Josh Snares as William Hartnell in a possible future "13 doctors story".
If they were going to remake episodes in live action, they may as well use modern aesthetics and production values. I think for most fans, changing the whole cast between serials would be too jarring for the remakes to slot between the surviving episodes like the animations do. That being said, I'd certainty give them a watch. I think animations are a good compromise; they work as stand-alone productions while retaining a huge chunk of the original performances. Hand drawn animation doesn't pretend to accurately replicate the real world. It's no more jarring than going from "42" to "The Infinite Quest".
At first I didn't like the animations, but they've kind of grown on me in the past few months watching them so I really hope the bbc can resolve the issue. They may not be the original episodes but I kind of prefer them over the tele snap recreations.
Personally I would be totally happy with remakes. I'd like them to look as close to the original as possible when it's episodes that are filling in gaps (I definitely enjoyed those little snippets of Tenth Planet, for example!), but for remakes of an entire serial, I'm not so fussed, those are the ones where I'd be happy with completely recasting the extras, jazzing up the monsters, expanding the sets, releasing it in full colour. Just keep the same lines, that's all.
I’d be up for refilming. It’s a shame they didn’t go all the way and re-film The Tenth Planet when they did the couple of scenes from it for Twice Upon a Time.
As for remaking the lost episodes, I'd much rather they animate them as I think those usually work really well (aside from Reign Of Terror but that's just my personal opinion) and do a good job of staying true to the original while allowing a fresh take on what those episodes would have been like. They're also so much easier to watch than telesnaps. Reshooting with new actors though, I think it'd take a lot of dedication from those actors to get the performances right, otherwise it'll just come off like an unofficial tribute show rather than as a legitimate episode. Not that there's anything wrong with a bunch of fans re-enacting the lost episodes for the sake of other fans, but I don't think it's something the BBC should be considering. It'd be different if it was the early 1980s and they wanted to remake some of the lost Troughton episodes as he and all of his eras companions were all still alive and hadn't aged too much to get away with playing the same characters, but now they'd need a whole new cast and that's never going to feel right to a lot of fans. I really want to see all of the lost episodes returned to a watchable format, but I don't know if I'd be keen on watching a new set of actors trying to replace these icons. It was different for Mission To The Unknown because it didn't feature any series regulars so they were able to make it work.
I think if they can match the level of accuracy the animations managed I’d be happy to see restaged versions, keeping the same script but letting the actors/set designers take liberties with the visuals and acting. I think as long as the script’s the same, and they shoot enough alternate takes/B-roll footage they could probably have the original audio as an option, like the updated effects/surround sound on the Collection boxsets. It would never sync up 100%, but if they get it close as possible it’d be okay as an optional feature, and allow them to cater to as many fans as possible. As with the animations, they could have colour/B&W options, with the black and white ones matching the original aspect ratio for stories with surviving episodes.
I know they would never do this (because of the cost), but it would be great if they could do live re-enactments using deepfake technology to make the faces of the new actors resemble the original cast.
I think if the BBC had a huge budget they could make a low budget version and a high budget/cinematic version! Like with the animations you have B&W and Colour
I enjoy the animations myself. I think they should stick as close as possible to what was INTENDED in the originals, if they'd had more time, money etc. I'd love if they would animate, in that spirit, 'The Quatermass Experiment' and ''A' for Andromeda' as well. I'd also love to see 'Target Luna', the first of the 'Pathfinders' series, (on ABC), produced by Sydney Newman, (before he moved to the BBC), and staring Michael Craze.
I love the telesnap reconstructions and I would love if they remade them because some of the animation designs are very hit and miss and some movements are to stiff
OMG, that last scene...you just SLAYED me Josh! How dare you? 😅😂🤣🤣🤣🤣 Jk, that was really funny...just had to put that out there, awesome job! 😅😂🤣😁 Okay, now back to what I WAS about to talk about before you cracked me up at the end...🤣🤣🤣🤣 Sooooo glad you mentioned Mission To The Unknown, I'm sure you've figured by now that I'm a HUGE fan of it and will never STOP giving shout-outs to the University of Central Lancashire Drama Department for that one...REALLY top-notch effort on their part and it deserves all the recognition it can get for being just an AWESOME remount of a long-missing episode...that said, I can't imagine that being anything more than a one-off for the reasons that you discussed. Being that we don't have ANY of the series regulars in that episode means that we're meeting the entire cast for the first and only time there, so if none of them look as they originally did or act as they originally did, it isn't really a loss so long as the performances are good and the visual style works for the time which in Mission's case it most CERTAINLY does. But bring in the all-too familiar faces of the main cast and I can clearly see where this would cause a problem for a lot of people. We expect to see William Hartnell in the First Doctor episodes, so seeing someone else performing the character in potentially a different way could DEFINITELY be off-putting. Myself, however, I try to be a bit more open-minded. I guess you could say that I'm in the latter camp of being more interested in the story over how it looks. That's a big reason why I've always been so excited about these animations, even going so far as to place the Evil of the Daleks animation at Number Two in my Top Five list of favorite Classic Who serials. The animation brings that story to life so amazingly well for me that I'm not even bothered if every scene doesn't look exactly as it should. The animation tells the story brilliantly and perhaps there's a chance that a well casted and performed live-action remount could do the same, so long as excessive budget isn't spent on techniques (looking at you, deep fakes) that aren't really proven to work well on these efforts. Guess what I'm saying is that if the BBC does decide to go with remounts, I'll look forward to them and will definitely want to watch them just to see these stories again but I'm not yet certain if they'll hold up as well as the animations... We'll just have to see...😅☺️ Anyway, keep up the good work Josh! You're quickly becoming my favorite Doctor Who UA-camr and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with Classic Who restoration efforts in future and especially what you have to say about them... KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK! 👍☺️😁
This is so spooky! I was watching your video and thinking "how would they go about recreating "The Web Planet" if it happened to be missing' and seconds later, heard you presenting the very same argument! Thanks for another great video.
With a bit of technical creativity there is a potential half-way house between re-staging, and animation that might work quite well... Motion capture technology is getting cheaper all the time, and there are now relatively inexpensive sensor kits that can be strapped to body parts to capture at least basic movement. If we coupled these technologies to basic low polygon 3D character models of an episode's characters, toon shaded (aka cel shaded) to give them a cartoon look, you'd get something that superficially resembled an animated reconstruction, but had the fluidity and freedom of movement you'd get from a live action performance. The camera too would be able to pan and zoom freely, as in live action. No more flat 2D animations. (If you take a look at classic games like Jet Set Radio -- circa 2000 -- you get an idea of how 3D worlds can be rendered to give them a flat 2D cartoon look, while retaining the freedom of 3D.) At first I assumed modelling all the characters and studio sets in 3D would be extortionately expensive, but then I recalled how the BBC were able to fund five 'Adventure Games' featuring the Eleventh Doctor back in 2010 and make them available as free downloads (to UK residents at least), so the costs can't be so overwhelming as to be impossible. Plus we're not looking for photo-realistic Playstation 5 era models here, just Playstation 2 era models with enough detail for the flat toon shading to look okay as a cartoon. Once you've got your 3D models of The Doctor, etc, you use mo-cap to give them movement in sympathy with the existing episode soundtracks (effectively you capture actors miming to the audio), and add facial animations for the emotions and dialogue. What you end up with is cartoons that look totally rotoscoped, with camerawork that looks more like a tv episode, produced at (hopefully) a reasonable cost. Okay, so despite falling cost some of these ideas may still be a bit too pricey, even today -- but as the technology gets better, and cheaper with each passing year, in the not too distant future fully 3D cartoon animations might be an effective way of bringing missing episodes back to life. They effectively allow you to marry real acting performances with cartoon imagery, in a way that might make the animated reconstructions a lot more palatable.
In my opinion, I like more the idea of a faithful restoration of the missing episodes/scenes. Using technology and/or taking the shots again, trying to make it as similar as posible to the original, and obviously, if there's a script, but the audio has been lost, the same thing would apply. I'd even say to make it in black & white, because there's no missing episodes after the second Doctor.
If my instincts (and hopes) are right, RTD’s plan for Doctor Who going forward is to expand the Whoniverse with a spin-off series, etc. What about yearly specials that remake classic missing episodes to make up for the short-sightedness of junking episodes. Restore some glory because some episodes are likely lost forever. Imagine David Bradley as the First Doctor and Richard Armitage as Marco Polo? 90 minute special on BBC at Easter. A spiritual reimagining that honours the original but also updates it for a modern audience. Anyhow, keep being you, Josh Snares!
I'm new to this topic, but i find it fascinating and not without it's charm, I am glad they have made the audio versions available, it's kind of tantalising and a test of your fandom, if you can close your eyes listen to the soundtrack and build the episode in your mind. Also cool in that I think the soundtracks & sound design are fascinating in itself and it castes more light on them. There is no way, apart from finding a full copy, to bring those episodes back, so whatever you do will have compromises. Mission to the Unknown was a delightful undertaking and I think partly because it was a student production a one off. But I wouldn't be against other one offs, do them all differently, don't try to hide that they're recreations, I think it is more important to have the vibe than the actual look of an actor. I don't like the idea of re imagining as that is just creating something new, but I don't think you have to include flubs unless they were somehow magic, as at the time if they could have they would have removed the flubs. I also think they should experiment with using different amounts of original audio. In the end it is almost a point of fascination, it will never be resolved fully, but no harm trying.
I enjoy Doctor Who (more so classic era). I love your enjoyment of Doctor Who. Love your perspective, contribution and charm. Thanks fellow A’stray-yan.
I can't imagine live action recreations. Who would you get? What I would like is higher quality, CGI animation, perhaps similar to Marvel's What If. That would allow for more expressiveness from the characters and scenes could be staged as they would be in live action. I'd also like to see some of the Big Finish productions set to animation, if it could be done well
I really enjoyed this video. Thanks Josh for giving us both sides of the argument and one definite "Yes or No" because as you said everyone has their own opinion.
I'm totally for a reimagining of missing Doctor Who episodes. Practically we have modern technology and ways to budget and source materials in ways that the old days did not have. Classic Doctor Who was made in an age when the internet did not exist. It would be so much easier to produce those episodes, and their scale, in this current time. Some careful script editing could massively improve the stories and their pacing. Also, David Bradley did such an exceptional job at portraying William Hartnell, but he is getting on quite a bit, about to turn 80! BBC have to act NOW if they want to take advantage of this - they can't just wait around and let it lie as some dreamy idea. Start with one episode, see how it goes, then build from there.
Awesome video!! :D If they do remake the missing episodes from scratch [new actors, set design etc.], I would rather they just start from the very start and create an animated series with a completely new vibe (a bit like what new cartoon show revamps are doing right now - e.g. DuckTales (2017)). I think the First Doctor era could work really well as a cartoon too tbh :) Just an idea tho xD
Personally, i think it would be cool if they did go back and re-made every one of the original William Hartnell episodes, and all the original Patrick Traughton episodes as well, but re-imagined all the episodes, they could even do it as a re-boot, and film all the episodes in colour, there's a whole lot they could do, but still keep it true to the originals, I think that would bring-in more fans to the series.
Great video as always Josh! I obviously like the concept of remaking missing episodes. They would be new versions and not replace the original clearly... They should be respectful of the original material, follow the script, follow the original production process to create an authentic piece of work, in black and white, 4x3 presentation. A new way to bring to life these missing episodes. Great way to explore these cracking stories with new audiences.
The only story I think they should reimagine in live action is Marco Polo, simply so all of S1 has some form of visual record besides the telesnaps. Plus, I think it would be exciting making an updated version following Sydney Newman’s original intention of educating kids about history!
For me. no. I am interested in the original missing episodes as they were made by those actors, directors, designers, crew, in that year etc. I'm not interested in the stories redone as they're missing why I like them.
I'm lucky enough to have seen the missing episodes when first aired in the 60's so am easily pleased with the telesnap route which is enough to jog my old memory.
I think one of my favourite approaches that could be feasible in the relatively close future is using a graphical engine like Unreal and actors to act the parts. If correctly modelled in a 3D software, the modern physics effects, photogrammetry and the new face modelling would allow us to have the closest thing to a live action classic Who and would potentially make the animations obsolete, even though I love them. People are already making complex fan made titles with relative ease, but staging an entire episode... that's another game. We've been proved that's possible nowadays, but I find it a bit more complex than simply throwing assets into gameplay because it requires acting and proper equipment. Nevertheless, that approach has a promising future and with the new funding Doctor Who is getting, it would be awesome. And there's another big advantage (which is arguably a bit scary and interesting): We could reuse the assets for other projects. Personally, if Bad Wolf and Sony are taking care of this BBC IP for the foreseeable future, I think they should find a studio that could go the extra mile with the classics. It would be the closest thing we would have to a full revival and, if done right, it would be a very different experience. Not just that, but it would be highly profitable when applying the assets to gameplay, which is one sector of Doctor Who that is often overlooked.
As a long time Whovian, I have watched every episode that has ever been shown, yep even the missing ones. I have loved a vast majority of the animated ones but they really don't compare that well. It's great to hear the voices but saying that, there are many comments that spoken today can and will cause offence to somebody somewhere. To avoid that you would have to revamp the script to more modern expectable level and that would detract from the original. I would like to point out that I am a full on sci-fi nerd of the highest level so I was very happy when the fans got together to make follow on episode to some Star Trek stories and in the same way as even after a few minutes I tend to see and hear the original actors in there I think (and hope) that the same would be true with Dr Who as well, so if it is done in a truly respectful way I think remaking as near to the original as possible would work for me.
The only scenes that I can think of that might be considered offensive today are from An Unearthly Child (Red Indian) and The Celestial Toymaker (n word). David Bradley's sexism when he played the 1st Doctor in NuWho could be considered offensive. Sexism that was never present from the 1st Doctor in Classic Who. Star Trek TOS has far more offensive scenes in it. The sexism is unbelievable.
As much as it sounds like a bit of a good idea, I have to say no on this one. Even though the idea of remaking lost episodes with different actors worked with Dad’s Army but with Doctor Who it’s not possible (the episode Mission to the Unknown is an exception)
Personally, I liked David Bradley's performance in An Adventure in Space & Time and Twice Upon a Time. In fact a lot 9f people who had worked with Hartnell told him they were moved by his performance and a lot of fans thought they had colorized the old episodes
I personally would love to have live action recreations. David Bradley is an amazing 1st Doctor and personally I'd like to see Harry Melling play the 2nd. He is Patrick Troughtons grandson after all
If not, perhaps Sam or William!
i think Harry's a bit too young to play the 2nd Doctor
@@peterstangl8295 Makeup could work, could make it real subtle if they still shoot it in black and white.
100% agree
Michael Troughton currently voices his father's incarnation for Big Finish so he could be an option too (Piers Fletcher-Dervish, Time Lord he he).
If we could only get one, then I'd choose animation every time. No matter how much they reimagine certain parts of the story (such as the helicopter scene in Fury - which I love by the way), the fact it's the original audio makes it feel authentic, but at the same time these aren't ever going to be exact recreations so why not add a full Dalek army, or a room full of Macra. Telesnap recons exist to recreate the episodes as close as possible to the originals, animations are sort of like watching a classic story with the new special effects turned on.
If they were to do refilmed versions, I wouldn't expect shot for shot remakes for the same reasons. Hell, I wouldn't be against (for example) if they wanted to refilm The Crusade but with Susan instead of Vicki because they already have an actress for her. To me, refilmed stories would be a their own thing, rather than something that would fill the gap of missing episodes. Rather like the Cushing films are to the main series. They'd be fun to watch though.
plus remaking can be problematic a few things may go wrong like with Dads Army
I can understand your point, but not all of them have the full original sound recordings.
Personally, I would like to see such episodes, for the 1st doctor at least, reshot with the same cast that did the movie An Adventure in Space and Time
They did an excellent job casting that to get the feel of the original crew
@@MrGreensweightHist i prefer the original cast i do not own any big finish audio with the first 3 doctors because they have all died
@@alexlazebat839 It's always better to have the originals, I'm just saying that, in absence of having the originals, the cast of an adventure in space and time would be the next best thing.
@@MrGreensweightHist but would you buy audio without the original actors?
I would love to see a missing Hartnell story redone with Bradley as an experiment. That would be fun
Well BBC could try to persuade those people who have copies of the missing episodes to release them...
To be honest, I really would not like recreations. Mission to the Unknown was fine because it didn’t have Hartnell but the other stories I just wouldn’t be a fan. I’d rather be as original as possible so that includes keeping the original audio. Also, I highly doubt that there will be a big enough budget available to recreate the stories
I just like everything to be as faithful as possible so that’s why I prefer animations and telesnaps because it has original audio
Yah but you could use the original audio both times Luke has shown up on the Mandalorian he was voiced by Mark Hamill while being played by a stand in you could frame the episodes exactly the same with replicas of all the original costumes and sets and sync everything to the original audio and just put a layer of cg and deepfakes for the things that cant be replicated and to give a bit more authenticity to it.
Only question at that point is if you'd want it brought down to the resolution of the original and in black and white with film grain and everything or would you want them in color and as high resolution as possible to go with colorized remasters of the originals.
@@theninjamaster67 Hmm, maybe the film grainy resolution of the original, but in colour so fans would have the option to view the episodes in colour or the original b&w presentation like they've been doing with animated recreations since the 2016 version of "The Power of the Daleks".
@@AndrewChapman I can go either way with it I don't mind old black and white footage but I also find film restoration fascinating especially with just how good they can make some things look with a bit of work and a good print for instance the 4k 77 print of Star Wars fans restored that is so high res it looks brand new (and it's the original 1977 edit before all the special edition stuff) another really good example is the 4k release of the 1999 Mummy and the sequel the Mummy returns that look frickin amazing.
That being said there's also some pretty good examples of some older films that look a lot worse when restored like arguably the original King Kong since it makes the stop motion stand out a lotttttt.
All I know is I'd personally just love to see a deepfake recreation of these episodes so I have the chance to see them as close to the original as you can get.
Just when missing episodes are distressed, Josh snares is here to save us!
1:20 I feel the issue isn't animation as a medium being bad at capturing expression, but rather the budgets they gave them all. The Moonbase and Ice Warriors has some of the best Troughton animation I've seen.
If the BBC wanted to fund stronger animation, I feel it'd be a better option
it's interesting, I think a lot of the problem is just the choice of studio too. I really think that a lot of the time it's down to the fact that they not only did it on a low budget, but didn't really bother to choose a good animation team. Whenever I watch the animated versions of these stories it really feels like they're let down by minor details over major ones, a little bit of idle animation here, a bit of wobble there, and they'd look WAY better, instead of a cut rate version of Archer.
EDIT: The Moonbase one is great btw, I think mostly because they were animated by someone who cares, haha. Others feel very 'phoning it in' if you get me.
I'd love to see a recreated version of the "Dalek Master Plan" with Bradley as the 1st Doctor.
Plus, that story could be retold as a anti war story. It has a lot of pretty dark themes not least the deaths of not one but two companions.
With today's budget you could do something that would demonstrate Doctor Who is timeless and as a tribute to all who worked on the original era of Doctor Who.
It's a good story for a feature length film.
@@JaredsGaming And that's what we all need: stories which unite and inspire us become better people. Both as ourselves AND to others.
Wouldn't that be a great story to tell our own Grand Daughters?
12:49 ah, a bit of Venusian Aikido... but you must also have quality foot work to master it.
I think re-imagining with different Doctors and Companions would be a fun route. In particular getting the 12th Doctor to act out some Hartnell episodes and Eleven in some Troughton episodes. I always like to imagine how the Xth Doctor would behave in such and such an episode. (My favorite episode to imagine each Doctor in is Heaven Sent! :D But that's neither here nor there. ) I think it would really bring some excitement from both sides of the Doctor Who community to make updated versions with different Doctors. Which in turn would probably justify the budget.
I don't see that as being a likely method but agree that it would be interesting to see, at the very least...
Obviously these versions wouldn't be considered part of either Matt Smith's or Peter Capaldi's era...but as a "just for fun" exercise would certainly be enjoyable.
I just doubt the BBC would be interested at all in that sort of effort...😔
I personally wouldn’t want to see live action recreations of episodes. The budget would surely be extremely low considering these are made-for-DVD recreations of 60 year old episodes. Maybe they could do some scene recreations, but I wouldn’t be a fan of an entire story being done that way. It would feel really wrong, I think. Acting and TV production is so different now to back then. If they kept the old dialogue, most modern actors just would feel really wrong performing it I think. I prefer to stay doing animations personally. But I would be really excited to see any way of reconstructions of episodes! Love the video, every Josh Snares video gives me the biggest smile.
but would anybody buy them as animations came with a loss is this any better
The animations seem like the best way to go as they still use a portion of the original episodes. I personally find it difficult with reconstructions / recastings / Impressions because it's just someone pretending to be the actor rather than the actual one
I uses to say no we shouldn't do that, but I've warmed to it and kinda think, well whats the harm in trying it once? Pick one story, give it a go and see how we feel.
Animation is the best way for now! Liked the Hartnell impression by the way!
Whilst I loved an Adventure in time and space as a drama about the birth of the show, when it comes to the missing stories themselves it would be animation only. Animating the shows with the original audio is paramount for me as that is the closest to the original as we could get.
Would love the BBC to redo Marco Polo for the 60th anniversary next year. Might not work but I'd love them to try
Sadly, no news of a Marco polo remake. Luckily, we ARE getting a "the underwater menace" remake
EDIT: and a celestial toymaker remake but it's in the style of web of fear 3 🤮
Honestly, I wouldn't want recreations of those stories, unless they were their own beautiful interpritation. I'm ok if they aren't all animated or found because the mystery/ lack of around the episodes is a great draw to many of us in the community. However, I am ungodly salty about the lack of an animation for the savages.
I don't know. You bring up really good points. Personally I would like them to limit the visuals so the recreation scenes look exactly like the scenes as they where in the 1960's. The acting being off slightly by replacement actors I don't believe would bother me that much as a larger expanded set pieces. Recreations, if done properly I believe not only honor the original Doctors and everyone involved in the original series but it also honors us, the fans.
Hi Josh
Thank you for a very thoughtful consideration of the issues you raised.
One point however, is that all of the stories were filmed multi-camera and that resulted in a significant amount of dead time and make watching old episodes quite difficult for modern audiences.
I think that innovation in the field of accessable AI enhanced CGI in the next ten years could enable the creation of photo-realistic avatars based on the original actors. An algorithm that tracks all currently captured performances for all the performaces of key actors (Dr Who and companions) would be able to establish body language, stance and default facial expressions which can overlay edited and enhanced original audio. One could create an entire episode to block the characters, run it in real time and then chose the best shots to match the original audio.
One clear implication of such a technique would be to vastly improve individual scene and overall story pacing. The net effect would be to increase dramatic inpact by reducing total duration. Remember that individual directors were often frustrated by the constraints of multi-camera studion shooting, such that the final result often bore little resemblance to their initial visions of the story. Avatar based reconstruction could end up being closer to the original visions of writers and directors, thus pay more homage to the desire of the storytellers.
Just a thought, and once again thank you for your clear, caring and considered content.
How would you feel about a middle-ground between animation and physical acting? Something like what Joel Haver does, painting over an actual performance with animated characters and sets, but more polished up and professional?
Here's an idea - Source Filmmaker. Why not use that to create reconstructions using the original audio? Really, you'd just need one or two people making models of each character, and then you could essentially restage entire scenes a bit like a videogame cutscene. Just a thought.
Or Blender or Dreams
@@TheRealUnkn0wn_289 Also interesting choices, yeah.
Doctor Who Marco Polo remake but every character is played by Josh Snares
I feel like a reimagining of The Massacre would be interesting. If I were to handle a reimagining of the story, I would try to get the sets as close as possible, but use the camera script as an example of what could be possible rather than use it as the only option. A good director could make certain scenes incredibly engaging, especially the sword fight, even if the sets don't have enough space.
I'm all for you recreating Marco Polo yourself, playing the Doctor alongside sock puppets!
From my perspective it's only the best way to visually represent the existing soundtracks that's important. I have zero interest in reimaginings with a different cast.
The First Doctor Big Finish stories with the Adventure in Space and Time actors utterly convinced me that a recast can work. It comes down entirely to the casting for me, Shearsmith Troughton? Doesn't work so much for me, but that original TARDIS team? I think I genuinely forget they're not the original actors because they capture their essence and the idea of the characters so well.
Also, the reconstructions and novelizations are pretty satisfying already in my opinion. Deepfakes or other forms of new animation just seem like dubious advancements for those. Even some of the more stilted animations (ice warriors/faceless ones) did make me question the point of the project all together.
For that reason I'm always going to be a fan of reimagining a classic story from the ground up. It's the whole 'wow! 2 cakes!' meme for me. Even though the footage might be gone, the story does still exist (and can still be enjoyed in multiple mediums!) and so you may as well recast and reshoot it from the ground up. I just doubt the BBC will have the interest to do so. Make them low budget stage plays or something.
I agree in the sense that I'd be happy if they did more First or Second Doctor stories with new actors rather than recreating existing stories.A bit like the way they reimagined Star Trek
That BF series is embarrassingly bad. Bradley is absolutely awful in the role.
I'd have to see Shearsmith do a longer stab at the Second Doctor to see if it would work or not before passing judgement.
@@MegaTheExtremist I agree. Bradley was dire. Only surpassed in dreadfulness by the actor playing Troughton as a clown. He didn't seem to grasp that when Troughton was on set he was playing a character.
I would not want to see that because it wouldn't be the same actors or the same performances. Mission to the Unknown was the only one where that worked.
I'd prefer more animation, then once they've completed all the missing stories they can move on to animating the best of Big Finish.
Re-enactments would lose the charisma of not only the Doctor but the other actors involved. Charisma is half the charm. Think of the Brigadier!
I like the animations, I just kind of wish they could've stuck with the first production studio (Cosgrove Hall Films, which I know shut down/went out of business) that made the missing parts for the Patrick Troughton story, _"The Invasion"._ I really liked the design and movements they used for the characters.
I read that they were too expensive.
@@Poliss95 When I think of the quality of the *subsequent* animation projects, _that sounds about right..._
This is an idea that I've had in my head for a while. I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking of this possibility!
Me too I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently with the technology of deepfake and whatnot. I think fan made projects could be the future.
I always imagined the doctor retelling the episode to Rory and Amy, intercutting their banter with the episode proper, but with them cast in the roles of the original doctor and companions.
I heard somewhere that after filming An Adventure in Space & Time Mark Gatiss jokingly said “Right that’s a wrap, let’s remake Marco Polo”.
While I much prefer them animating the missing episodes I would’ve been down with them remaking just that one story with the David Bradley’s 1st Doctor, as it was one of the earliest & most famous missing stories. Tbf I am saying this as someone who’s never experienced that serial so I don’t know how it would compare to the original.
I always think of the animations as a little bit of an extra. It’s basically like listening to the audio recordings but with a little bit of visual excitement. It’s been great for my kids who just don’t have the patience or attention span to listen to the audio as I can introduce them to great stories that I’ve lived for years. I’m not averse to the idea of reconstructing them in live action if it were a bit of an experiment maybe on the odd episode or important scene as it would be entertaining, but I think it would be a step too far to do entire stories that way.
I see the animations as preservation work. If you were preserving an ancient building you’d need to include sections of new build to stabilise it and make it fit to present, but it would be important for the new sections to be easily distinguishable from the original, but in keeping of the spirit of the original, to allow the original material shine through on its own merit. Live action reconstructions wouldn’t achieve the same effect.
And the temptation would be there to use David Bradley as the first Doctor. I wouldn’t want to see that. Don’t get me wrong - I think he’s a brilliant actor. I thought he was brilliant when he played William Hartnell. But I didn’t feel so convinced when he played the first Doctor in Twice Upon A Time. It felt too much like a caricature of the first Doctor - or maybe it’s just me.
The animations have definitely affected my view on some of the stories. For example, if Fury was animated in the same style as of The Moonbase I probably would have loved it alot more.
So far the animation in The Moonbase is the best of the bunch.
I think a film reimagining, like the two Dalek films with Peter Cushing, could be a good way to go. Take the script, tighten it up, do it with a lowish budget, and have the initial release to cinemas.
You could contract actors for the main cast so you have a consistent Doctor and Companions. Each film follows the plot but the actors give their own takes on the characters and material. You could even have "pre-credits" scenes to explain new companions or people leaving- so basically do the missing stories as a separate film series.
It's not perfect, but it fills the gaps while being its own thing. You don't have to like it, but it's there for those who want to experience the story in a live action format.
The vast majority of the audience aren't hardcore fans, and if it were done well enough, would be happy with it. Depending on the production and how it was handled, you could have one or two a year during school holidays.
Could end up being a decent money spinner for the Beeb
The vast majority of the audience would be hardcore fans if the BBC hadn't totally messed things up after RTD left.
My opinion! Classic is Classic! Sadly that we have lost the original Doctor Who episodes but there is absolutely no replacement for all the original actors.
They could use new actors and stuff, but fun it over with surviving audio
For me the important is restoring the original Doctor Who episode that is aired on that year such as Marco Polo. Have the Lost in Time DVD and there’s lot to seek for the lost parts. Hope that all missing parts of the episodes would complete to see. Maybe in the near future on DVD and on the The Collection blu ray sets. That alone is immense to watch for a Doctor Who fan. The War Games from the end of the second Doctor is magic and it have 10 parts. Which all is fantastic to watch in 1 run if you have the time.
One idea that I feel could work for SOME stories, not ALL, is reconstruction using motion capture technology. This has become quite big in some productions when they need an actor deaged or for a character to appear if the original actor is unavailable for one reason or another.
This was used in TRON: Legacy for the CLU character and Rogue One for Tarkin and Leia.
But I’d only use it for some stories. One I’d use it for is The Dalek Masterplan. This also allows the original audio and the recovered episodes to likely be used.
And when I saw your reaction to deep fakes, which is a form of motion capture, I look at it as bringing a production to live, not resurrecting a dead actor or character. However, I believe the issue people have with motion capture is that it’s considered more ‘realistic’ compared to hand drawn animation.
Regardless I believe this approach should only be for specific stories and used sparingly.
I would like to see the episodes remounted. And not just the missing ones, the existing ones as well. We still stage Shakespeare and Noel Coward and Sondheim and Cole Porter, even though their plays have been staged before and definitively filmed and those films exist.
Of course, what most fans want is to complete their collection - they want a form of closure. I can understand that. And I would love to see more of Hartnell and Troughton should they ever surface!
But I want these fabulous scripts and ideas to live on and on, and speak to new generations, just as Romeo and Juliet do. The remount - it's a thing.
I'm a massive fan of the animated recreations myself. While they're not perfect by any means, I think it's great that we as modern day viewers get a chance to experience these stories with more than just audio and telesnaps. But I do think that it would be interesting to see some live action recreations as well. I mean, we've got David Bradley who I think does a good take on his version of the First Doctor and since Big Finish have done some audio stories with him, I think it would be nice if he had some onscreen stories for himself as well, beyond his appearance in 'Twice Upon a Time'. I think it would be interesting to see how he would portray the Doctor if he were in a live action recreation of a story such as 'The Daleks' Master Plan'. I think fans would be asking too much if they wanted every recreation to be absolutely perfect to the original, it's just not feasible to do it like that. That's why they're called recreations, they're not expected to be the same as the original but brings the story to life again. But I would definitely like to see some live action recreations one day alongside more animated versions. I like how they've been trying to experiment with more recent animations and while they weren't perfect, it's something that they can learn from and improve for the future. I mean, look at how the more recent style of animation for them started and look where it was by the time we got 'The Evil of the Daleks'. It was just a massive improvement to what we got with the first version of the animated 'Power of the Daleks'. It's partially because of how much better the animation was that makes 'The Evil of the Daleks' my favourite missing story.
Just do The Dalek Master Plan.
I think it's a travesty the way the 2nd doctor, my fave doctor, was portrayed in an adventure in space and time (whoever played him looked nothing like Patrick, although his personality was similar so all was not lost, and no harm to the actor. Whereas all the others look pretty spot on with their real life counterparts.)
Interesting your comment about the Dr Who books. I love the new and missing adventures books that they made during the 90s. The missing ones were just like the TV episodes except more complex. A lot of them I prefer to the new TV episodes. They just had a more science fictiony style compared to some of the more character driven tv episodes. Loved the cyberpunk atmosphere of the 7th Doctor New Adventures too.
Recently you had news that the animated reconstructions would be ending. I really like those. I'd like to see those continue and eventually be finished.
Good overview. I'd prefer animations, as long as they are really good productions, over recreations with replacement actors. Agree 'Mission to the Unknown' is the perfect exception for the same reasons you stated.
Hi Josh, I would be extremely happy if we had more animation lost stories. Great work Josh, keep up the good work.
I thought back in 2013 they should have restaged the missing episodes using the original camera scripts with legit period equipment. It has been done before, the Inside No. 9 episode "The Devil of Christmas" (which if you're a fan of period television you should definitely watch) was made as if it was a rediscovered lost episode of an anthology series from the 1970s, using old cameras in a multicamera setup recorded onto analogue tape.
I think it would definitely be in the spirit of vintage television if there were some minor differences, television was more like theatre than film in the 1960s and '70s, and people accepted different actors or slightly different portrayals so long as they were true to the script.
An engaging super-slick production as always! 🏆🇬🇧🤖
I would definitely go with animation for those who need the visuals. I personally have been fine with the audios, though some could do with remastering.
Recreating an episode with new actors sounds like a lot of labor and resources to put into a niche product. A whole different beast from animation. Part of me feels, “what’s done is done. Until new tapes are found, we should stick to telesnaps and put the lost stories to rest,” but those who want the visuals do deserve something.
Well presented points of view, Josh. Animations vs re-creations is a real conundrum as opinions are very divided. I like some animations but others are hard to watch. I’d also love to see some old serials re-made almost as they were written, but others are just too dated by the period to do this. What if they did mini-sodes and created a shortened version of the missing stories? Like a condensed version just for the fandom….
You are awesome my friend, but that last part you did trying to be the First Doctor, I know the name of a good therapist you may want to see. I HIGHLY recommend it. Anyway, to answer one of your questions, I think that Bill Hartnell and Pat Troughton would be honored to have their voices put to animation. Those two were great actors and they always put themselves into every role they did, not just Doctor Who. If they were alive right now, i think they would be happy for others to at least HEAR the work they put into Doctor Who in its early years. IMO i don't think they would have had any issue with the animation of their missing episodes. It really is sad that BBC America is killing the animation range. So many more great stories to be done. The Dalek Masterplan, Marco Polo, The Wheel in Space and The Celestial Toymaker to name a few of the ones i really wanted to see. Maybe they will re-think if Doctor Who fans complain a little.
Another fun video!! I still want more missing episodes recreated/animated/revisited. I vote for Josh Snares as William Hartnell in a possible future "13 doctors story".
If they were going to remake episodes in live action, they may as well use modern aesthetics and production values. I think for most fans, changing the whole cast between serials would be too jarring for the remakes to slot between the surviving episodes like the animations do. That being said, I'd certainty give them a watch.
I think animations are a good compromise; they work as stand-alone productions while retaining a huge chunk of the original performances. Hand drawn animation doesn't pretend to accurately replicate the real world. It's no more jarring than going from "42" to "The Infinite Quest".
Love your videos, Josh. Keep up the good work.
Josh, I would like to see a recreation of all the missing episodes but where you play every character.
At first I didn't like the animations, but they've kind of grown on me in the past few months watching them so I really hope the bbc can resolve the issue. They may not be the original episodes but I kind of prefer them over the tele snap recreations.
I personally would love to see what the most advanced A.I. could do to remaking and reconstructing the missing episodes.
Personally I would be totally happy with remakes. I'd like them to look as close to the original as possible when it's episodes that are filling in gaps (I definitely enjoyed those little snippets of Tenth Planet, for example!), but for remakes of an entire serial, I'm not so fussed, those are the ones where I'd be happy with completely recasting the extras, jazzing up the monsters, expanding the sets, releasing it in full colour. Just keep the same lines, that's all.
I’d be up for refilming. It’s a shame they didn’t go all the way and re-film The Tenth Planet when they did the couple of scenes from it for Twice Upon a Time.
At the end of the day all that matters is that they remain true to the script, characters and themes and that they are entertaining.
As for remaking the lost episodes, I'd much rather they animate them as I think those usually work really well (aside from Reign Of Terror but that's just my personal opinion) and do a good job of staying true to the original while allowing a fresh take on what those episodes would have been like. They're also so much easier to watch than telesnaps. Reshooting with new actors though, I think it'd take a lot of dedication from those actors to get the performances right, otherwise it'll just come off like an unofficial tribute show rather than as a legitimate episode. Not that there's anything wrong with a bunch of fans re-enacting the lost episodes for the sake of other fans, but I don't think it's something the BBC should be considering. It'd be different if it was the early 1980s and they wanted to remake some of the lost Troughton episodes as he and all of his eras companions were all still alive and hadn't aged too much to get away with playing the same characters, but now they'd need a whole new cast and that's never going to feel right to a lot of fans. I really want to see all of the lost episodes returned to a watchable format, but I don't know if I'd be keen on watching a new set of actors trying to replace these icons. It was different for Mission To The Unknown because it didn't feature any series regulars so they were able to make it work.
I think if they can match the level of accuracy the animations managed I’d be happy to see restaged versions, keeping the same script but letting the actors/set designers take liberties with the visuals and acting. I think as long as the script’s the same, and they shoot enough alternate takes/B-roll footage they could probably have the original audio as an option, like the updated effects/surround sound on the Collection boxsets. It would never sync up 100%, but if they get it close as possible it’d be okay as an optional feature, and allow them to cater to as many fans as possible. As with the animations, they could have colour/B&W options, with the black and white ones matching the original aspect ratio for stories with surviving episodes.
Such a nice and intelligent young man. If my son came home with him I'd be so proud.
I think you had the right idea while back about improving the quality of the telesnaps through various techniques.
I know they would never do this (because of the cost), but it would be great if they could do live re-enactments using deepfake technology to make the faces of the new actors resemble the original cast.
I think if the BBC had a huge budget they could make a low budget version and a high budget/cinematic version! Like with the animations you have B&W and Colour
I cannot express how much I fucking love this channel
I enjoy the animations myself. I think they should stick as close as possible to what was INTENDED in the originals, if they'd had more time, money etc.
I'd love if they would animate, in that spirit, 'The Quatermass Experiment' and ''A' for Andromeda' as well.
I'd also love to see 'Target Luna', the first of the 'Pathfinders' series, (on ABC), produced by Sydney Newman, (before he moved to the BBC), and staring Michael Craze.
I love the telesnap reconstructions and I would love if they remade them because some of the animation designs are very hit and miss and some movements are to stiff
Love the new video! My preference is animation with the original audio.
OMG, that last scene...you just SLAYED me Josh! How dare you? 😅😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
Jk, that was really funny...just had to put that out there, awesome job! 😅😂🤣😁
Okay, now back to what I WAS about to talk about before you cracked me up at the end...🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sooooo glad you mentioned Mission To The Unknown, I'm sure you've figured by now that I'm a HUGE fan of it and will never STOP giving shout-outs to the University of Central Lancashire Drama Department for that one...REALLY top-notch effort on their part and it deserves all the recognition it can get for being just an AWESOME remount of a long-missing episode...that said, I can't imagine that being anything more than a one-off for the reasons that you discussed. Being that we don't have ANY of the series regulars in that episode means that we're meeting the entire cast for the first and only time there, so if none of them look as they originally did or act as they originally did, it isn't really a loss so long as the performances are good and the visual style works for the time which in Mission's case it most CERTAINLY does. But bring in the all-too familiar faces of the main cast and I can clearly see where this would cause a problem for a lot of people. We expect to see William Hartnell in the First Doctor episodes, so seeing someone else performing the character in potentially a different way could DEFINITELY be off-putting.
Myself, however, I try to be a bit more open-minded. I guess you could say that I'm in the latter camp of being more interested in the story over how it looks. That's a big reason why I've always been so excited about these animations, even going so far as to place the Evil of the Daleks animation at Number Two in my Top Five list of favorite Classic Who serials. The animation brings that story to life so amazingly well for me that I'm not even bothered if every scene doesn't look exactly as it should. The animation tells the story brilliantly and perhaps there's a chance that a well casted and performed live-action remount could do the same, so long as excessive budget isn't spent on techniques (looking at you, deep fakes) that aren't really proven to work well on these efforts.
Guess what I'm saying is that if the BBC does decide to go with remounts, I'll look forward to them and will definitely want to watch them just to see these stories again but I'm not yet certain if they'll hold up as well as the animations...
We'll just have to see...😅☺️
Anyway, keep up the good work Josh! You're quickly becoming my favorite Doctor Who UA-camr and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with Classic Who restoration efforts in future and especially what you have to say about them...
KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK! 👍☺️😁
This is so spooky! I was watching your video and thinking "how would they go about recreating "The Web Planet" if it happened to be missing' and seconds later, heard you presenting the very same argument! Thanks for another great video.
With a bit of technical creativity there is a potential half-way house between re-staging, and animation that might work quite well...
Motion capture technology is getting cheaper all the time, and there are now relatively inexpensive sensor kits that can be strapped to body parts to capture at least basic movement. If we coupled these technologies to basic low polygon 3D character models of an episode's characters, toon shaded (aka cel shaded) to give them a cartoon look, you'd get something that superficially resembled an animated reconstruction, but had the fluidity and freedom of movement you'd get from a live action performance. The camera too would be able to pan and zoom freely, as in live action. No more flat 2D animations.
(If you take a look at classic games like Jet Set Radio -- circa 2000 -- you get an idea of how 3D worlds can be rendered to give them a flat 2D cartoon look, while retaining the freedom of 3D.)
At first I assumed modelling all the characters and studio sets in 3D would be extortionately expensive, but then I recalled how the BBC were able to fund five 'Adventure Games' featuring the Eleventh Doctor back in 2010 and make them available as free downloads (to UK residents at least), so the costs can't be so overwhelming as to be impossible. Plus we're not looking for photo-realistic Playstation 5 era models here, just Playstation 2 era models with enough detail for the flat toon shading to look okay as a cartoon.
Once you've got your 3D models of The Doctor, etc, you use mo-cap to give them movement in sympathy with the existing episode soundtracks (effectively you capture actors miming to the audio), and add facial animations for the emotions and dialogue. What you end up with is cartoons that look totally rotoscoped, with camerawork that looks more like a tv episode, produced at (hopefully) a reasonable cost.
Okay, so despite falling cost some of these ideas may still be a bit too pricey, even today -- but as the technology gets better, and cheaper with each passing year, in the not too distant future fully 3D cartoon animations might be an effective way of bringing missing episodes back to life. They effectively allow you to marry real acting performances with cartoon imagery, in a way that might make the animated reconstructions a lot more palatable.
In my opinion, I like more the idea of a faithful restoration of the missing episodes/scenes. Using technology and/or taking the shots again, trying to make it as similar as posible to the original, and obviously, if there's a script, but the audio has been lost, the same thing would apply. I'd even say to make it in black & white, because there's no missing episodes after the second Doctor.
If my instincts (and hopes) are right, RTD’s plan for Doctor Who going forward is to expand the Whoniverse with a spin-off series, etc.
What about yearly specials that remake classic missing episodes to make up for the short-sightedness of junking episodes. Restore some glory because some episodes are likely lost forever.
Imagine David Bradley as the First Doctor and Richard Armitage as Marco Polo? 90 minute special on BBC at Easter. A spiritual reimagining that honours the original but also updates it for a modern audience.
Anyhow, keep being you, Josh Snares!
I’d like to see a remake/reimagining of ‘Get off my Cloud’ which was an episode of Out of the Unknown which features Daleks.
I'm new to this topic, but i find it fascinating and not without it's charm, I am glad they have made the audio versions available, it's kind of tantalising and a test of your fandom, if you can close your eyes listen to the soundtrack and build the episode in your mind. Also cool in that I think the soundtracks & sound design are fascinating in itself and it castes more light on them.
There is no way, apart from finding a full copy, to bring those episodes back, so whatever you do will have compromises. Mission to the Unknown was a delightful undertaking and I think partly because it was a student production a one off. But I wouldn't be against other one offs, do them all differently, don't try to hide that they're recreations, I think it is more important to have the vibe than the actual look of an actor. I don't like the idea of re imagining as that is just creating something new, but I don't think you have to include flubs unless they were somehow magic, as at the time if they could have they would have removed the flubs. I also think they should experiment with using different amounts of original audio. In the end it is almost a point of fascination, it will never be resolved fully, but no harm trying.
I enjoy Doctor Who (more so classic era). I love your enjoyment of Doctor Who. Love your perspective, contribution and charm. Thanks fellow A’stray-yan.
I can't imagine live action recreations. Who would you get? What I would like is higher quality, CGI animation, perhaps similar to Marvel's What If. That would allow for more expressiveness from the characters and scenes could be staged as they would be in live action. I'd also like to see some of the Big Finish productions set to animation, if it could be done well
Great content as usual. Also, loving the hair! 👍🏻
I really enjoyed this video. Thanks Josh for giving us both sides of the argument and one definite "Yes or No" because as you said everyone has their own opinion.
I'm totally for a reimagining of missing Doctor Who episodes. Practically we have modern technology and ways to budget and source materials in ways that the old days did not have. Classic Doctor Who was made in an age when the internet did not exist. It would be so much easier to produce those episodes, and their scale, in this current time. Some careful script editing could massively improve the stories and their pacing. Also, David Bradley did such an exceptional job at portraying William Hartnell, but he is getting on quite a bit, about to turn 80! BBC have to act NOW if they want to take advantage of this - they can't just wait around and let it lie as some dreamy idea. Start with one episode, see how it goes, then build from there.
Awesome video!! :D If they do remake the missing episodes from scratch [new actors, set design etc.], I would rather they just start from the very start and create an animated series with a completely new vibe (a bit like what new cartoon show revamps are doing right now - e.g. DuckTales (2017)). I think the First Doctor era could work really well as a cartoon too tbh :) Just an idea tho xD
Personally, i think it would be cool if they did go back and re-made every one of the original William Hartnell episodes, and all the original Patrick Traughton episodes as well, but re-imagined all the episodes, they could even do it as a re-boot, and film all the episodes in colour, there's a whole lot they could do, but still keep it true to the originals, I think that would bring-in more fans to the series.
This is a tough call. I mean, it worked so well with Mission to the Unknown because they didn’t have to worry about recasting the Doctor or anything.
Wow I reckon that would be So Awesome if They just make the missing episodes stories Man!😯
Great video as always Josh! I obviously like the concept of remaking missing episodes. They would be new versions and not replace the original clearly... They should be respectful of the original material, follow the script, follow the original production process to create an authentic piece of work, in black and white, 4x3 presentation. A new way to bring to life these missing episodes. Great way to explore these cracking stories with new audiences.
love your videos josh, thank you so much
Your k9 recreation was outstanding!!!
The only story I think they should reimagine in live action is Marco Polo, simply so all of S1 has some form of visual record besides the telesnaps. Plus, I think it would be exciting making an updated version following Sydney Newman’s original intention of educating kids about history!
For me. no. I am interested in the original missing episodes as they were made by those actors, directors, designers, crew, in that year etc. I'm not interested in the stories redone as they're missing why I like them.
I'm lucky enough to have seen the missing episodes when first aired in the 60's so am easily pleased with the telesnap route which is enough to jog my old memory.
I think one of my favourite approaches that could be feasible in the relatively close future is using a graphical engine like Unreal and actors to act the parts. If correctly modelled in a 3D software, the modern physics effects, photogrammetry and the new face modelling would allow us to have the closest thing to a live action classic Who and would potentially make the animations obsolete, even though I love them. People are already making complex fan made titles with relative ease, but staging an entire episode... that's another game. We've been proved that's possible nowadays, but I find it a bit more complex than simply throwing assets into gameplay because it requires acting and proper equipment. Nevertheless, that approach has a promising future and with the new funding Doctor Who is getting, it would be awesome.
And there's another big advantage (which is arguably a bit scary and interesting): We could reuse the assets for other projects. Personally, if Bad Wolf and Sony are taking care of this BBC IP for the foreseeable future, I think they should find a studio that could go the extra mile with the classics. It would be the closest thing we would have to a full revival and, if done right, it would be a very different experience. Not just that, but it would be highly profitable when applying the assets to gameplay, which is one sector of Doctor Who that is often overlooked.
Absolutely adore this channel and adore you josh your content is always “Fantastic!!”
As a long time Whovian, I have watched every episode that has ever been shown, yep even the missing ones. I have loved a vast majority of the animated ones but they really don't compare that well. It's great to hear the voices but saying that, there are many comments that spoken today can and will cause offence to somebody somewhere. To avoid that you would have to revamp the script to more modern expectable level and that would detract from the original. I would like to point out that I am a full on sci-fi nerd of the highest level so I was very happy when the fans got together to make follow on episode to some Star Trek stories and in the same way as even after a few minutes I tend to see and hear the original actors in there I think (and hope) that the same would be true with Dr Who as well, so if it is done in a truly respectful way I think remaking as near to the original as possible would work for me.
The only scenes that I can think of that might be considered offensive today are from An Unearthly Child (Red Indian) and The Celestial Toymaker (n word).
David Bradley's sexism when he played the 1st Doctor in NuWho could be considered offensive. Sexism that was never present from the 1st Doctor in Classic Who.
Star Trek TOS has far more offensive scenes in it. The sexism is unbelievable.
As much as it sounds like a bit of a good idea, I have to say no on this one. Even though the idea of remaking lost episodes with different actors worked with Dad’s Army but with Doctor Who it’s not possible (the episode Mission to the Unknown is an exception)
I'd rather have no more missing episodes found than have them remade.