I know the general consensus these days amongst the clever kids is that the UNIT stories are set in the year of broadcast. I am not sure how that fits with "The Invasion" being set in a near future (say 1975) in which the UK clearly doesn't have its own space programme whereas by the time of "The Ambassadors of Death", the UK has its own Mars programme. Which presumably means that the US, USSR, France, China, Japan and probably several other countries do too. By the time, we get to "The Android Invasion", the UK has a military space programme of its own as well with Senior Defence Astronauts in Jupiter space. If anything, "Ambassadors" is probably set in the early 1980s and "Android" (transmitted in late 1975) the late 1980s. Yes, it doesn't look it. But we have to accept that the timelines of "Ambassadors" and "The Waters of Mars" and "Kill the Moon", etc. etc. just aren't the *same* timeline.
'I also love that the space programme is so advanced that by 197something Britain has had seven different Mars missions, but in 2009 Bowie Base One is the first actual settlement on Mars. Sure it is, Russell.'
This seems fair enough. Even before you consider things like regime changes, political climate, etc, I don't think near double figures of missions to Mars implies you will *ever* establish a colony. I mean, they could all be returning 'slim possibility but not realistic' as their experimental results. How many Apollo missions were there? But we have no moonbase.
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'Also the thought occurs that this is a weirdly future-facing story: this is exactly the kind of mental coup the security services kept muttering about re Wilson in the mid ‘70s.'
'despite having been broadcast a decade before I was born, it feels oddly like home.'
I recently opined (on a Big Finish extras track available wherever you get your audio drama soon, natch) that the thing that defines Pertwee, particulary exile era Pertwee, and PARTICULARLY Season 7, is that it is about something, and that something is Speculative Fiction in the truest sense. It is about where we are, and where we're going, in the real world beyond the show. Hence stories about geopolitics and ecology and little grace notes like 'BBC 3'. I feel like this has some pertinence to both the above quotes.
As regards your Benton question - When filming the Invasion, Douglas Camfield recognised that Ian Levene, who was just one line walk on, had screen charisma. So he pulled together various other extras' lines and bits from other characters in scenes and moved them over to Benton to gin up a character because he believed Levene had potential as a bigger role. So he was positioned to be part of the S7 plan from the off.
The sudden edits are cos around this point* the BBC got new videotape machines (AMPEX) that could edit video electronically (rather than splicing tape) but it was still a bit hit-and-miss (and a bit you-only-get-one-go-at-this). This and DWATSilurians are the beginning of Doctor Who stories being put together in the edit.
I know the general consensus these days amongst the clever kids is that the UNIT stories are set in the year of broadcast. I am not sure how that fits with "The Invasion" being set in a near future (say 1975) in which the UK clearly doesn't have its own space programme whereas by the time of "The Ambassadors of Death", the UK has its own Mars programme. Which presumably means that the US, USSR, France, China, Japan and probably several other countries do too. By the time, we get to "The Android Invasion", the UK has a military space programme of its own as well with Senior Defence Astronauts in Jupiter space. If anything, "Ambassadors" is probably set in the early 1980s and "Android" (transmitted in late 1975) the late 1980s. Yes, it doesn't look it. But we have to accept that the timelines of "Ambassadors" and "The Waters of Mars" and "Kill the Moon", etc. etc. just aren't the *same* timeline.
'I also love that the space programme is so advanced that by 197something Britain has had seven different Mars missions, but in 2009 Bowie Base One is the first actual settlement on Mars. Sure it is, Russell.'
This seems fair enough. Even before you consider things like regime changes, political climate, etc, I don't think near double figures of missions to Mars implies you will *ever* establish a colony. I mean, they could all be returning 'slim possibility but not realistic' as their experimental results. How many Apollo missions were there? But we have no moonbase.
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'Also the thought occurs that this is a weirdly future-facing story: this is exactly the kind of mental coup the security services kept muttering about re Wilson in the mid ‘70s.'
'despite having been broadcast a decade before I was born, it feels oddly like home.'
I recently opined (on a Big Finish extras track available wherever you get your audio drama soon, natch) that the thing that defines Pertwee, particulary exile era Pertwee, and PARTICULARLY Season 7, is that it is about something, and that something is Speculative Fiction in the truest sense. It is about where we are, and where we're going, in the real world beyond the show. Hence stories about geopolitics and ecology and little grace notes like 'BBC 3'. I feel like this has some pertinence to both the above quotes.
As regards your Benton question - When filming the Invasion, Douglas Camfield recognised that Ian Levene, who was just one line walk on, had screen charisma. So he pulled together various other extras' lines and bits from other characters in scenes and moved them over to Benton to gin up a character because he believed Levene had potential as a bigger role. So he was positioned to be part of the S7 plan from the off.
The sudden edits are cos around this point* the BBC got new videotape machines (AMPEX) that could edit video electronically (rather than splicing tape) but it was still a bit hit-and-miss (and a bit you-only-get-one-go-at-this). This and DWATSilurians are the beginning of Doctor Who stories being put together in the edit.
* 1968.