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RE-RELEASED ON DVD WITH ADDED FEATURES - INCLUDING 'AUDIO TRACK' WITH BARRY LETTS AND MYSELF REMEMBERING WHEN STORIES.... I would think it is available from a DVD shop near you... |
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Michael E Briant
My Doctor Who Direction
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I hope to be joining Christopher Barry as well as other people from the original 'Who' in Gloucester sometime in the month of April 2008. |
I shall always be grateful to Barry Letts who gave me the opportunity to direct my first major production COLONY IN SPACE and then went on to allow me to direct SEA DEVILS, THE GREEN DEATH & DEATH TO THE DALEKS
Barry was a clever and talented producer with a nose for a good script and an idea.
He let me get on with things, for the most part, without interference but did not hesitate to step in when he felt I had got it wrong. I think he was probably the best producer Doctor Who had after Verity created it. He certainly liked and understood the science fiction genre, understood acting and the theatrical effects. I shall always be grateful to him for opportunities he gave me early in my career.
I am sad that I was probably very difficult to work with. Directors have to follow their own dream but sometimes I wish I had done it a bit more diplomatically and politely. You have a choice as a director - do what you believe to be right - that which pleases you or try to please other people - producers et al. The former does not always make you friends and the latter does not make good productions. There is a line between the ideas of the producer and what a director can bring to the story. The good producers find directors who are creative and imaginative. When you let slip the dogs of war there is no knowing who they will bite - the inferior producers select directors who will toe the line, be really respectful and obey orders. None the less like Doctor Who are very reliant on the 'taste/instincts' of the producer running them and Barry was creative and imaginative and a good leader.
For me the great times of Dr Who were the days of Bill, Patrick, Jon and Tom. After that I feel it lost it's way a bit and certainly stopped developing or innovating. I thought it tended to rehash old ideas and rely too much on special effects.
When Patrick took over as a 'space hobo' he was totally different from the 'mad professor'. When Jon arrived he turned the Doctor into an elegant, charming intellectual with aikido! Tom was determined to be different and despite scripts that were designed for Jon's interpretation of the role he became this apparently shambling, bumbling Marx brothers character WHO outwitted the villains of this world.
SOME TIME AGO I WROTE:
When the new series happens it will be fascinating to see if it approaches this special genre of si fi in a fresh and new and different way. The competition to-day with films like Spiderman, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter is enormous as is their budgets. It seems to me the new' Who' format will have to be special and different and of the 2nd millennium not the first
. What an exciting challenge!
July 2006 La Rochelle
Well the new 'Who' certainly has the budget and special effects. I think they are done brilliantly. The whole show has been very successfully updated. I am a bit sad the good Doctor is still fighting the old enemies - I feel the stories are a little old fashioned. I would have preferred it to have become more 'X Files' in its style but maybe that's just me.
If you are interested in my memories of the Doctor Who's I directed the following links will take you there.
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THE DIRECTORS vol. 2 There is an excellent (cos I am in it!) DVD just out of an interview conducted by Cris Dunk of Christopher Barry and me at the Panoptican 7 in 1986. in which we discuss directing the Daleks, Cybermen, Wookey Hole, William Hartnell, Pat Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. A few bits about how we go about the conception of a production of Dr Who and stories from our days as directors of the series. Keith Barnfather and his editor Anastasia kindly sent me a copy and I found it excellent viewing, interesting and entertaining. If you are a fan of the 'old Dr Who's' it is for you. PRODUCED BY REELTIME PICTURES Ltd 2006 or keith@reeltimepictures.co.uk
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WHO AND ME his latest book is now available to download for £10 Do you want to find out everything you can about Dr Who in the classic days?
Barry Letts was the producer of Dr Who from 1970 to1975. He tells you things in his book, Who and Me, that you’d never expect to hear. He tells you about the grinding hard work hidden behind the glamour of television. He tells you what it takes to produce the sort of show that grabs people as Dr Who has done. He tells you what it was like to be an actor in the pioneer days of live drama on TV – and the secrets of success if you are a writer or a director
What Jon Pertwee was really like? How Katy Manning and Lis Sladen were chosen to star alongside Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker? How Patrick Troughton was one of the first British TV stars? How Roger Delgado became the Master the moment the character was born? What it was like to be asked to take over a failing programme and be part of the turnaround that made it the smash hit that is one of the top shows thirty-five years later?
The book will download into your computer or you may print it out so just If you do not have Adobe Reader 4 or better, you are going to need to download
Your computer needs 'Word 'and be able to download 'PDF' secure files When you press the buy button on the next site you will be taken to a secure web site owned by ClickBank where you can pay by PayPal or Credit Card |
Barry
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