Story: The Leisure Hive
Written By: David Fisher
Length: 4 Episodes
Year: 1980
The amount of changes in this story are incredible. By the end of Season 17, things were clearly downhill, everything needed a kick in the pants if it was going to stay on the air. Doctor Who was at this point in time a staple for Saturday nights, and it was cheap for the BBC to produce and got plenty of viewers. So to keep it running a little longer they needed to change gears and fix the problems that plagued Season 17.
Enter John Nathan-Turner. A controversial figure among the fans, but at the time it must be said...he was exactly what the show needed. I don't agree with everything he did, but I must admit this season is leaps and bounds better than the previous year. What did he do? He did what he called bringing the show into the 1980s.
We got a whole new title sequence, a snappy star field that is crisp and modern (for 80) and replaced a sequence that was genuinely out of shape. A whole new logo was used to replace the old Diamond Logo. He didn't just change the image though, this is the first time the show had a knew arrangement of the theme music in years. The first time it wasn't the original Delia Derbyshire mix. This time Peter Howell took the reigns and created a cleaner and brighter version. It wasn't nearly as ominous, but in all honesty by the time we got to the Tom Baker version of Derbyshire's work it wasn't nearly as ominous as it was when it originally appeared in 1963.
Tom Baker also got a makeover, a long burgundy coat and hat to match, and a more stylized suit underneath, and even a stylized version of the scarf...which Turner wanted to lose entirely, probably one of the few battles he lost.
The show from here until the end of the 80s has bright even lighting, and looks pretty fucking terrible. Shadows were once a friend of the show, now they are missing entirely. Only on rare occasions and near the end of the decade did they start to work their way back in.
So the Leisure Hive, with all these sudden changes how does it fare? Pretty good. Its a decent story that was fun to watch. It would never make my favorites list, but really nothing from Tom Baker post 1977 ever does. It is by no means a terrible episode though. Decent.
NEXT TIME: The Golden Pentangle
Written By: David Fisher
Length: 4 Episodes
Year: 1980
The amount of changes in this story are incredible. By the end of Season 17, things were clearly downhill, everything needed a kick in the pants if it was going to stay on the air. Doctor Who was at this point in time a staple for Saturday nights, and it was cheap for the BBC to produce and got plenty of viewers. So to keep it running a little longer they needed to change gears and fix the problems that plagued Season 17.
We got a whole new title sequence, a snappy star field that is crisp and modern (for 80) and replaced a sequence that was genuinely out of shape. A whole new logo was used to replace the old Diamond Logo. He didn't just change the image though, this is the first time the show had a knew arrangement of the theme music in years. The first time it wasn't the original Delia Derbyshire mix. This time Peter Howell took the reigns and created a cleaner and brighter version. It wasn't nearly as ominous, but in all honesty by the time we got to the Tom Baker version of Derbyshire's work it wasn't nearly as ominous as it was when it originally appeared in 1963.
Tom Baker also got a makeover, a long burgundy coat and hat to match, and a more stylized suit underneath, and even a stylized version of the scarf...which Turner wanted to lose entirely, probably one of the few battles he lost.
The show from here until the end of the 80s has bright even lighting, and looks pretty fucking terrible. Shadows were once a friend of the show, now they are missing entirely. Only on rare occasions and near the end of the decade did they start to work their way back in.
So the Leisure Hive, with all these sudden changes how does it fare? Pretty good. Its a decent story that was fun to watch. It would never make my favorites list, but really nothing from Tom Baker post 1977 ever does. It is by no means a terrible episode though. Decent.
NEXT TIME: The Golden Pentangle
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