Doctor Ooops

[wshaffer]

I was looking at some photos over at Doctor Who's Tragical History Tour from the lost episode "Marco Polo". (Which is lost on film, but exists as an audio soundtrack. I listened to it recently, along with a typically lively review of it in the latest episode of the podcast Cadmium 2.

I got an unexpected laugh out of this photo. At the top right corner, above a doorway, in what is ostensibly a 13th-century palace of Kublai Khan, you can clearly see a "No Smoking" sign. Set dressing blunder, or evidence that someone was messing with the time stream? You decide.

Comments

[14cyclenotes.livejournal.com]

Tsk. Teasing old Doctor episodes for their sets is like teasing a man in a wheelchair about his dancing. ;) After a while I think the BBC decided that cheesey sets and SFX were part of the Doctor's charm - and even if they weren't the show wasn't getting any more money.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Well, be fair, I'm not laughing at this set for its cheapness - I'm laughing because the "No Smoking" sign on what was otherwise a really rather good looking medieval Chinese set was incongruous. (And to be perfectly fair to the production team, I should point out that the photo I linked was a still photo taken of the set, not a frame from the lost film - so there is no reason to believe that that anachronistic "No Smoking" sign was ever seen by the camera.)

The scary thing about Doctor Who's budget is that other contemporaneous British science fiction shows had substantially less money. Ever seen The Tomorrow People or Sapphire and Steel?

[paulgreaves.livejournal.com]

I certainly have. I LOVE Sapphire and Steel (and I adore Big Finish's version) and The TP's are good fun, although it's quite something to find a show that had less money spent on it than Who!

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I'm currently watching Sapphire and Steel assignment #3. It's amazing how creepy you can make a bunch of colored lights and a pillow seem.

[14cyclenotes.livejournal.com]

I admit that I have not seen these shows of which you speak. OTOH I have seen Red Dwarf.