vivdunstan

We've started watching the new remastered Blu-ray version of the BBC 1988-1990 Narnia TV stories. Working slowly through the three televised serials (Lion, Caspian & Dawn Treader, and Silver Chair), before watching the new extended combined making of documentary on the final disc.

First "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". Which I watched in 1988, and later on video with Martin who'd never seen it. He's never seen the other Narnia TV stories at all.

Some quick thoughts, more about the production side of things than the story itself (mostly):

• Relatively little happens in quite a few of the earlier episodes, at least compared to 1984’s “The Box of Delights”, which admittedly I adore.
• I wondered where I recognised the Professor from. Seymour in Last of the Summer Wine! Which my family was glued to on Sunday nights back then.
• Barbara Kellerman’s White Witch stretches things too much towards overacting.
• Aslan’s camp looks to older me now more like a 60s hippies commune.
• Ronald Pickup - yay!
• Aslan moves his body well but his mouth movements are very stiff.
• I do like the special effects of the creatures and phantasms that the Witch conjured. But many of the other special effects are less successful for me, and often clunky. Again not overall as good for me as in the earlier Box of Delights.
• The direction could be better in a lot of places, to smooth how the child actors are handled. It just often feels awkward.
• And it is so unsubtly Christian. In the whole Narnia book series that is most true of this book and, above all, the final one. But I’m finding it harder to watch as an adult.

Despite all those thoughts I'm enjoying this rewatch, though am less appreciative of it now as an adult than I was as a child back in 1988. And I definitely don't think it's anywhere near as successful, or as good to rewatch years later, as my admittedly beloved Box of Delights.

Martin stunned me tonight by saying that he doesn't think he'd ever read any of the original Narnia books, even as a child, growing up in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s.

He also wouldn't have noticed the Christian/religious elements in this Narnia story, without me hinting. Despite growing up in a more religious and consistently church going household than me. Though we're not sure how much of that side of things sunk in.

Fun article in the Guardian today.

Just finished watching this tonight, the Matt Smith story that sees Amy separated from the Doctor and Rory, and time shenanigans mean that Amy ends up spending a very very long time trapped ...

This was my favourite episode of that year on first watch. It even beat Neil Gaiman's "The Doctor's Wife" for me. And I think I voted in the Hugos that year, when both stories were on the Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) shortlist. And I knew which I preferred, though the Gaiman story won the Hugo award in the end.

It's still powerful to rewatch today. The opening third is standard scifi setup, but when you meet the older version of Amy the emotional level escalates rapidly. I think I probably related to that more this time, because I'm closer in age to that version of Amy than I was when this first aired.

The direction is a joy, and one scene in particular stands out for me, when the two Amys - young and old - are able to talk to each other across time. Originally an older actress was intended to play older Amy, but Karen Gillan wanted to give it a go. And with the aid of prosthetic makeup does a fantastic job. By far her best acting in Doctor Who ever.

It's also remarkable as a low budget and Doctor lite episode. Matt Smith is very much in it, but the story is carried by Amy (both versions) and Rory, and both act superbly. I should also praise the writer Tom MacRae. I wasn't that keen on his Cybermen two-parter with David Tennant, but this - his other story - is stellar.

The ending is inevitable, but how you get there is in turns moving and shocking. And throughout so brilliantly acted.

This remains an absolute highlight for me of the Matt Smith era. There were some gems, even if there were some clunkers too.

Continuing our rewatch of Babylon 5, and this is another one we’ve skipped multiple times before. The pre credits scene with a hand emerging ever so slowly from the cargo hold isn’t a great start. But some of the guest cast are good. Michael Beck isn’t great, but better than he was in Xanadu. It is also nice to see some of the series’s focus shift away from the station, especially towards Mars, but also with the glimpse of that intriguing wasteland on Earth. There is a nod forward with Ivanova and Talia. And the Sheridan/Garibaldi investigative combo is fun. But it’s definitely a missable episode. But hey, the first time we hear and see Zack. Which is nice!