Kaga

Come on, site.

I tried changing my avatar almost 12 hours ago.

Like I know there's a lag involved in switching avatars but this is ridiculous.

The creepiest thing that ever happened to me

ladyonyx04 said
Actually I have a Fourth Doctor thing that was never released on TV because the BBC had a strike, and some that are completely lost to the archives. Don't know from which Doctor they are missing from...

Shada never aired on TV, but they did release it on VHS (and I think DVD as well) eventually. As a result, it's available online, as well, so it's not completely unwatchable.

The lost episodes are ones that BBC completely destroyed back in the 70's, back when archiving for these sorts of things wasn't as good and, without digital technology, all that film took up actual, physical storage space and so sometimes old things got thrown out to make room for new things. BBC was never able to release them on VHS or DVD afterwards and, since fan recordings of shows were extremely rare back then, I'm pretty sure hardly any of them were recovered. About a third of Hartnell's episodes and like half of Troughton's were lost in that way. Thankfully after that they cleaned up their act and stopped destroying old content. :/

However, it is clear that BBC is at least attempting to make up for their past mistakes. Since the audio was still salvageable for all of them, they do make that available - in fact they even have narration covering everything that should've been conveyed visually, which pretty much turns the episodes into an audio drama, but that's still way better than nothing. Also, in the case of a few episodes, they created animated versions to replace the original video. ...The animation isn't very good, in my opinion, but at least it's an attempt. Also, BBC's website has a list of all the lost episodes with a note at the bottom saying something like "If you have any Doctor Who content that you think might be of interest to us, here's how you can contact us". So they are still trying to fill in those gaps in the episodes, it seems. But unfortunately I imagine VHS copies of episodes people had recorded at home ~45-50 years ago are rather hard to come by.

The creepiest thing that ever happened to me

HollywoodMole said
Don't they have episodes that have been completely lost?

Yes. A good chunk of Hartnell's and Troughton's episodes, unfortunately.

However, fan-made reconstructions exist for these episodes. They're rather impressive.

As for the episodes that Netflix doesn't have, you can find just about all of them on Dailymotion.

But in terms of just getting started, it doesn't really matter that so many chunks are missing. Just find a complete arc, watch that and see what you can find from there. Given the way that most of the arcs are so self-contained, you really can jump in at just about any one of them and still understand most, if not all of what's going on. And when you really think about it, a lot of new Who episodes are like that, too.

As you may have noticed, I'm not nearly as pedantic about strictly watching all episodes in a series 100% in order as most fans of a series are. *shrugs* I can assure you that you can skip around some and be fine.

Just... wait to try watching the lost episodes until you get into Classic Who in general, assuming you do find something that hooks you. The reconstructions are nice and they're better than having nothing at all, but sometimes they can be a little tiring to slog through.

The creepiest thing that ever happened to me

HollywoodMole said
I don't know, something just doesn't click with me. I feel a connection with the characters in new Who, I can't find that in classic. (Also, that's creepy as hell.)

Which Classic episodes did you watch? Maybe you just need to get used to the Classic formula first, as I can easily see how that could prevent you from really connecting with any of the characters. Starting with a Tom Baker episode I feel is a good way to jump in - he's generally a fan favorite, so it's unlikely you'll dislike him, and because he doesn't come from the show's earliest beginnings the culture shock won't be nearly as strong as if you started with Hartnell's first episodes.

Just make sure you understand how the episode arcs are structured or you might be tricked into thinking the show is a lot slower than it actually is.

Now that I think about it, Classic Who has a lot of weird barriers to entry for Whovians who want to try to get into it. :/ Still, I think it's totally worth it if you can get used to the Classic Who style and maybe sample at least a few different Doctors before deciding you don't like it. Lots of great moments to be seen in the Classic series - not to mention I feel it gives a whole new perspective to a lot of the things that go on in the new series, as well.

Edit: Besides, just look at how many characters have been in this series in the 50 years it's been around. Odds are you'll be able to connect with at least one of the Classic Doctors/companions.

Edit2: I'd be happy to recommend some episodes if you want to give the Classic series a second try.

The creepiest thing that ever happened to me

HollywoodMole said
I wish I could watch classic Who... but I just can't, could we have a screen cap?

I think the image Broby posted might also be correct since there is some variety in the Autons, but I only saw one Classic episode of them which I don't remember super well. These were definitely some of the creatures that I remember, though.

Also, just out of curiosity, why can't you watch Classic Who?

Something creepy that happened time ago.

HollywoodMole said
Why exclusives? IT'S JUST POKEMON!

I'm really not sure what you're trying to say with this comment.

Why wouldn't certain features be exclusive to certain games? And in particular, what's so weird about it coming up in a Pokemon game?

Making certain things version-exclusive was something Pokemon's been doing ever since Red and Blue (or Green). Some Pokemon could only be caught in one version, some could only be caught in the other. It kind of forced people to trade in order to catch all of them, thus encouraging the sale of more games as people convinced their friends to buy copies for that purpose (or people just bought more for themselves). Admittedly it's a bit gimmicky, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an established part of the franchise and it's something they've been doing with their dual-released games ever since.

And in this case, we're not even talking about things exclusive between two otherwise almost identical games. Platinum was kind of like an upgraded version of Diamond and Pearl, so of course there'll be things exclusive to Platinum that weren't in the first two games. That's common logic for virtually any video game - if I buy a remake or sequel of a game, it'll have things in it that I can only get in that game, and not the previous version. If there was nothing new added, then there'd be no point in an additional game even existing.

Besides, this is also another established "tradition" of the Pokemon franchise: release two games nearly identical but with small changes exclusive to each version, and then a couple years down the road, release a "sequel" of those first two games in which they not only clean up whatever small problems the first two games might've had, but also add a bunch of stuff and generally make the plot more interesting, too. Sure, in this case, the only "Platinum-exclusive" things mentioned would be minor changes, but that's to be expected from the formula that Pokemon has followed pretty closely for almost every Generation. And, even if we weren't talking about Pokemon - it makes sense that a game advertised as being a better version of an older game would feature some things that the first game didn't. There's nothing at all surprising about it.

So please, tell me why some things can't be exclusive between different Pokemon games. Because I don't understand that logic at all.

Edit: Sorry for snapping. I'm in a weird mood tonight.

I do really wanna know what you meant, though.

The creepiest thing that ever happened to me

To add to the topic of creepy Doctor Who aliens (if we're still on that) :

Autons.

Yeah, you remember the Autons - those living mannequins that were in the first episode of the 2005 series?

Except, I'm not talking about the 2005 series.

Because they were also in Classic Who. And they were soooo much worse in Classic Who. Why? Because they were cheap.

Now I know that sounds weird - ordinarily Classic Who's low budget and occasionally laughable effects should, if anything, make the monsters look less scary, right?

But unlike most of the other monsters in the series, the Autons were supposed to look like plastic. And in their case, they looked like really really cheap, ugly plastic.

Just imagine, for a moment, an army of creatures that look as if they spawned from the dirtiest, grungiest Chinese factory you can imagine - made with sloppy, uneven molds that leave their faces lopsided and unnatural-looking, a sort of weird shine to their skin that only makes you think of the grime that must most likely be covering them, and paint jobs that leave horrifying, straight-out-of-Nat's-sig expressions plastered onto their faces. Just... AAAUGH!!



Fucking Autons, man.

Something creepy that happened time ago.

pitwhousedtodopokemon said
Bulbapedia never mentioned anything about them.But that does makes me feel better.

According to Bulbapedia, the only thing Platinum-exclusive about the Old Chateau would be some text in readable books on the floor and the like, which are minor details anyway. The ghosts are implied to be in all Sinnoh games.

So about those scary stories

I got like halfway through typing a story about a possible ghost encounter when I was 13 or 14 and then accidentally refreshed and lost it all.

Yeah that's not going up tonight. Tomorrow, maybe.

Something creepy that happened time ago.

...Who told you they were only in Platinum? I saw those ghost things in Pearl, too, so yeah. Part of the game, dude.