Thirty - eight years after it should ’ve first aired , Douglas Adams ’ last Doctor Who story , “ Shada , ” is eventually complete . Was it worth a closely four - decade delay ? It ’s tough to say . Because without thatlegacy of mysteryto propel it , “ Shada ” would never really have become more than the kernel of its otherwise rather average parts .
The thing is — and I ’m certain there ’ll be some classic Doctor Who purists who are ready to put forward their transonic pitchfork in anger at what I ’m about to say—“Shada ” is … fine ? It ’s o.k. .
Among the Adams oeuvre , it ’s believably only barely above “ The Pirate Planet , ” but nowhere near the wonderful “ City of Death , ” a masterpiece “ Shada ” desperately wants to emulate but can never quite match . It , like “ City of Death , ” begin powerfully , with gorgeous , sweeping localization shots of Cambridge , and Tom Baker and Lalla Ward soak in the charming sites . But there ’s piddling of the sprightly gait and energy , or the exoticism , of the Paris location filming from “ City ” in “ Shada , ” which is mostly made wonderful by the sheer merriment Baker and Ward are having as they gage down the River Cam . The banter is as delightful as “ City of Death , ” for sure — it ’s still a Douglas Adams script — but the enjoyment in these view is more for the fact it ’s clear Baker and Ward are having a terrific fourth dimension , rather than the scene themselves .
And unlike “ City , ” “ Shada ” start tiresome and gets slower . The Doctor and Romana find themselves wrapped up — alongside Cambridge University professors Chris “ Young Parsons ” Parsons ( Daniel Hill ) and Claire Keightley ( Victoria Burgoyne)—in an adventure where fumble bed Time Lord Professor Chronotis ( the since - straggle Denis Carey ) has “ by chance ” purloined a grave , ancient Gallifreyan book from the Time Lord archives when he left for Cambridge . Said Word is now seek by the villainous Skagra ( Christopher Neame ) , a Einstein who want to free a psychic Time Lord criminal from the nominal prison house minor planet of Shada to verify the macrocosm as one odd hive mind . In reality , however , he does niggling more than frill around in a dazzlingly bum lamé suit / cape jazz band and occasionally apply a Second Earl Grey ball .
The first one-half of the series is a full slog because of its pacing , as a series of missed connections over Chronotis ’ record track to the wider cast bumping into each other and introducing themselves over the course of three episodes , but never actually really doing anything of bank bill . It does n’t serve that , if we continue the “ City of end ” comparisons , Skagra is noScaroth , last of the Jagarothwhen it comes to top - tier Doctor Who villainy . Skagra ’s encounters with the Doctor have but a fraction of the charm and brain of the Doctor ’s parleys with Scaroth in “ City , ” and it does n’t help that the primary “ monstrous ” menace of the first one-half of the serial comes in the chassis of the aforesaid grey ball , a dodgily unripened - screen out floating gadget that bash people on the head and occupy their brain waves . There ’s a rightfully , astonishingly frightful cliffhanger in sequence two — when the sphere attempts to menace Tom Baker , unconvincingly partially “ trapped ” under a Ernst Boris Chain fence — that might be one of the all - time “ so bad it ’s hilarious ” Doctor Who cliffhangers , and it ’s candidly about as menace as the sphere ever gets .
When the 2d one-half of the serial leaves Cambridge behind and heads into place , it get marginally better — that the sphere ’s villainous presence is mostly exchange by Skagra ’s crystalline minion , the Krargs , helps with this , as does the fact things actually begin to pass off . But even then , the scourge is build principally around ancient Time Lord mumbo jumbo , something the show had truly mostly block up leaning on by 1979 . And some half - hearted attempts at a discourse around the ethical code of the Time Lord ’s penitential method acting — a theme then - outgoing Who producer Graham Williams wanted to tackle — precipitate wholly flat when the Doctor ’s position is … reasonably much to ignore that freezing criminals of your own and other races , plunge them on a planetoid in suspended animation , and then block about aforesaid minor planet , is bad , and to leave it to the Time Lords to sort out .
It ’s in the second one-half we really get to see what ’s new with this latest remastering of “ Shada ” ( which has been wrench into webcasts , and receiving set plays , andeven a bookin the decades since its scrapping ) . It ’s primarily made up of novel animation , used to recreate view from Adams ’ handwriting that were never filmed when hit action saw the initial production on “ Shada ” cancel 38 age ago . Although the cartoony aesthetic definitely blends well with the retro - vibe of the filmed material interspersed around it , the life — done by the same team thatresurrected the lost serial publication “ The Power of the Daleks”last year — primarily benefit from make for a horse sense of heartiness that scenes shot in 1979 on a shoe string BBC budget in all probability would n’t have otherwise . K-9 fighting off giant Krargs in this invigoration would n’t even be up there with the military action of a modern MD Who installment , but these scenes are much more vivacious and exciting in their new animated form .
But these scenes also raise the otherwise average source cloth but through a stage of have sex reverence . Returning actors contribute their voices to each character — include Tom Baker , who splendidly turned down involvements in previous attack to bring Shada to life — with a conviction that lick so well you scarcely notice that there ’s well-nigh four tenner between performances . There is a love for the material in this process , from the performing to the animation , that does the impossible : It makes “ Shada ” so much better than it rightfully ever should ’ve been , and gets caught up in its own mythos to the point that you are too . You ignore the fact that , outside of one good twist near the end , Skagra ’s design kinda sucks , or that the doohickey everyone expend the first one-half of the floor running after just sort of vanishes the mo the plot picks up from its glacial tread , among a litany of other game jam that threaten to perpetrate the whole affair aside in the culmination . There ’s such beloved and forethought on showing , build upon age and years of waiting for this story to finally be told in full , that “ Shada ” becomes so much impregnable than the sum of its decent - at - best parts . You ca n’t aid but admire the magical spell of it all .
It is almost impossible to to review “ Shada ” separate from its status as this legendary , uncompleted fib . And not only because seeing it as director Pennant Roberts would ’ve mean it to be seen all those years ago is unsufferable — certain , we now have all of the footage gibe and interspersed among the new animated sequences , but it ’s still required someone else ’s reading of persona and setting to fulfill the interruption . But from the nod - and - wink of the opening BBC narration apologizing that the series is air “ a little later than originally billed , ” to the final , heartwarming scene that place Adams ’ original dialogue into a young , adorable context ( I wo n’t spoil it here , but a cursory Google search will find plenty of article spoiling it for you if you ’re rummy ) , there is a certain stratum of have it off foolery that raises this version of “ Shada ” beyond the many endeavour that have come before it .
dispatch the series from the context of its passing , to judge it as a standalone Doctor Who tale , would rob it of the gravid substance that ’s gone into this remaster — heart it perhaps would never have quite had if strike activeness had n’t , well , struck . They say absence seduce the mettle grow fonder , and there ’s rarely a more perfect example of that in Doctor Who than “ Shada . ”
“ Shada ” is usable digitally now , with a DVD / Blu - Ray releasecoming in January .
Doctor WhoTom Baker
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