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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2019 19:31:28 GMT
Hello again. And that Sir Wearer of Hats is why The Happiness Patrol is so bittersweet. Thank you for posting that. A universal truth that was also explored in Pixar's Inside Out, joy and sadness are both part of the human experience. I originally saw this story in black and white so the colour version was a bit of a shock. The cast were excellent, my favourite being Sheila Hancock.Her experience added the necessary bite and at the end pathos to the character Helen A. The story was full of memorable moments. Beneath the painted smiley faces was a brutal suppressive regime. A candy-coated monster sat at the centre of Helen A's utopian ideals. It demonstrates the need for a system of checks and balances upon those who run our country. Graeme Curry wrote a Who Classic, I just wish we could have seen more of his imagination let loose in the Whoniverse. I don't think it has been mentioned, but apparently the original intention had been to transmit The Happiness Patrol in a black and white, film-noir-ish style, with appropriately disorientating camera angles. It was decided not to because viewers would probably complain about paying for a colour TV license. But for my money, I think it would have looked incredible.
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Post by doctorkernow on Mar 30, 2019 19:39:24 GMT
Hello again.
It did Paz. It made the whole thing more creepy because you weren't distracted by all the bright colours. I couldn't believe the difference it made when I watched the colour version on the January twitch marathon.
The first thing that struck me was the Happiness Patrol guns and the costumes and thick makeup even on the men! It was certainly a very different viewing experience.
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Mar 30, 2019 21:12:36 GMT
I’ll have to watch the DVD in greyscale to get an impression of that....
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2019 21:23:18 GMT
I wish they had gone ahead with their original intention, although the Kandyman wouldn't look half so resplendent without his garish colour scheme!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2019 4:45:37 GMT
I wish they had gone ahead with their original intention, although the Kandyman wouldn't look half so resplendent without his garish colour scheme! The Happiness Patrol is one of those stories that I think would have excelled under modern colour grading. You could drop everything in the streets and the buildings with windows to a lunar grey. Try to draw out the German expressionist patterns of light and dark. Something where you get the barest whisper of colour. Then, when you get to the Kandy Kitchen, narrow the contrast and boost the colours so they almost glow. Handled with care, the story's denouncement could even have the colour slowly come back in time for the Doctor and Ace to leave.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2019 10:56:03 GMT
I wish they had gone ahead with their original intention, although the Kandyman wouldn't look half so resplendent without his garish colour scheme! The Happiness Patrol is one of those stories that I think would have excelled under modern colour grading. You could drop everything in the streets and the buildings with windows to a lunar grey. Try to draw out the German expressionist patterns of light and dark. Something where you get the barest whisper of colour. Then, when you get to the Kandy Kitchen, narrow the contrast and boost the colours so they almost glow. Handled with care, the story's denouncement could even have the colour slowly come back in time for the Doctor and Ace to leave. I would love to see that. The only thing that couldn't be achieved is rearranging the camera angles into a more eccentric, noir-ish feel. How wonderful that would be!
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Post by pazzer on Mar 31, 2019 11:05:18 GMT
Before the recent rewatch on Twitch the main things I remembered were the Kandyman who is great and the Tardis been painted pink. But there is so much more to this story. The blues soundtrack does a great job setting the atmosphere. While the scene with the Doctor talking down the sniper is one of sevens best.
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