The Jason Davis

It was a splendid talk and I look forward to revisiting it in print, though it will suffer slightly lacking the animation with which you invigorated the original presentation.

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

"You'll be fine," says the guy who recognized the same filthy optical printer used to make the credits and captions for both Four Weddings and a Funeral and Backbeat without being cleaned between movies.

That's an astonishing find in 2025. It's one thing to have it bouncing around episodes shot at Television Centre or other BBC facilities when there was still Design Department with a cache of stock set pieces, but now it must be at some independent rental facility or somesuch.

Evil.😁

I am offended on behalf of the 3/4" U-matic format, which was unjustly overlooked in the preparation this inane scam/brilliant performance art.

Not just a BBC thing; the "actor's director" versus the "technical" director concept came up with Babylon 5. The directors recommended to the producers for the first season were characterized as "performance-oriented" so it was a dichotomy even the recommending producer-director subscribed to.

Very few, I'd bet.

When I interviewed Janet Greek for my Babylon 5 books, her theater-directing background was discussed at length, given the theatricality of that series and the predominance of stage actors in the regular cast. She was frustrated by the requirement for extensive coverage.

A shot from the studio rehearsal of Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan episode 'Volcano', showing several actors ont he TARDIS set, with various video cameras around the scene.

The death of multi-camera TV: a thread. I know most of you will know the technical parts of this (and may have read it in the other place) but bear with me. 1/ 🧵

The loss of multi-camera video as a medium has had a deleterious effect on filmed productions as well. Directors no longer learn to move actors through a three-dimensional spaces in real time, creating tableaus throughout scenes, nor to trust long takes and the natural rhythms of performances.

One day, the Doctor Who Literature Podcast will come back. Yes, it shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no jealousy of Joe Ford reading Ghost Light. I'll just go forward in all my beliefs, knowing my literary reunion with Josiah Samuel Smith will come.

RIP #ChristopherHBidmead 😢
He understood that there’s poetry in science; beauty in maths (even in a lay-by). More than anything he had a keen grasp of the character of The Doctor, and how to write him to make the most of the actor’s strengths. His stories are uniquely ethereal & academic.

Thank you both for this exquisite discussion, particularly the bits about getting past the Doctor's pricklier exteriors and the notion that approachability isn't necessarily a given in human (or Gallifreyan) interactions. Much appreciated.

Pursuant to the request for future subjects, I submit: THE STRANGE WORLD OF GURNEY SLADE, DOOMWATCH, YES, (PRIME) MINISTER, DANGER UXB, MOONLIGHTING, THE SINGING DETECTIVE (or any Potter), WISEGUY, PRESS GANG, ON THE AIR, MADE IN CANADA, WONDERFALLS, THE HOUR, DANCING ON THE EDGE & YOU'RE THE WORST.

I’m glad my order—the production order, with a few modifications where episodes were produced out of sequence—worked for you.

I’ve never watched the series without season five—too many favorite moments in there—but it would have been a satisfactory conclusion if things had gone differently.

I would have loved a nice loom.

Londo Mollari watches the bombing on Narn.

Hello.