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Loose
Cannon Production 28 |
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Please note that this digital teaser trailer is purely to whet your appetite, recons are ONLY available on VHS quality. |
BBC
Production Details
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| Production Code: | YY | |
| Original Transmission (UK): | Saturday 08th
March 1969 - Saturday 12th April 1969 |
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| Season: | 6 | |
| Number of Episodes: | 6 | |
| Writers: | Robert Holmes | |
| Producer: | Peter Bryant | |
| Director: | Michael Hart | |
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Loose
Cannon Production Details
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| Production Release Date: | December 2007 | |
| Episode(s) Reconstructed: | Episodes 1,3,4,5,6 | |
| Source Material: | No telesnaps exist for this story | |
| Audio recorded by Richard Landen | ||
| Surviving clips | ||
| Other authentic pictures | ||
| CGI (Computer Generated Images) | ||
| Pictures from other stories / sources | ||
| Specially Created Material | ||
| Tape length required: | UK
/ Australia: E180 USA / Canada: T160 |
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Making the Reconstructions: |
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Bonus
Material
As well as the reconstruction we are able to bring you the following goodies… |
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Celebrity Introduction Dean's usual
networking skills had put us in touch with actor Donald Gee, who had starred
as Major Ian Warne in the serial; Donald was very busy at the time and
we had to wait over a year but he was happy to provide us with an interview
and voiceover and was an interesting guest when we visited him. |
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Production Featurette We also include a mini documentary about the making of The Space Pirates, narrated by Donald Gee. |
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Celebrity Interview Also included
is an interview with actor Donald Gee who shares his memories of his time
as an actor. |
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Celebrity Chat As a bonus
feature we managed to catch a quick chat backstage at the Flight Through
Eternity Event with actor George Layton, who also recounted his memories
of The Space Pirates and his acting career. |
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| Special Note: | ||
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Let's be
clear about this. The BBC have released a wonderful DVD called "Doctor
Who: Lost in Time" which features the surviving episode of this story
lovingly restored. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY we will be issuing copies
of these with the recon, nor (whilst we're at it) will we ever make the
recon episodes available in any format other than VHS. Support The BBC Video Releases. |
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Request
a copy here LOOSE CANNON WILL NOT, AND NEVER WILL, SUPPLY RECONS FOR DOWNLOAD IN DVD OR VCD QUALITY OR EVEN ON TICKER TAPE!!!!!! |
| Loose Cannon Says: |
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Following our recent remake of The Myth Makers we realised that the original version of Space Pirates was looking similarly dated, the original relied very heavily on a few repetitive pictures of the Pirates along with screen caps from Episode 2 and full screen text passages. These pictures are now only used in their correct place in Episode 1 and are supplemented throughout the serial with CGI, the recently discovered Episode 1 film inserts, specially created material, 2D animations and many many composites to create a far more polished and accurate production. We are very happy with the new version and think it gives a new lease of life to a much maligned story. Donald Gee, who played Major Warne, certainly thought so and spared us an afternoon to film an interview which accompanies the recon. |
| Synopsis: |
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Far into
the future and far out into the black depths of the galaxy, the TARDIS
materialises. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe discover the space pioneers of
the future, the adventurers and guardians of planets. But lurking also
in the emptiness of space is the evil - the evil of the Space Pirates. |
| Reviews: |
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Review by Matthew Kresal Whilst I can't say that The Space Pirates is my favorite story by any means, I will say that it makes for one of the Loose Cannon teams finest reconstructions yet. I give a lot of credit to the absolutely fantastic recreations of the serial's incredible model shots which fit in, in my mind at least, are virtually indistinguishable from the surviving model footage. As with many of the other reconstructions it's the little things that make it all work such as images on TV screens and the like which make still images seemingly come alive. Speaking of which, considering the amount of visual material used in the reconstruction I was surprised to read that there actually was very little material surviving and that most of it was newly done composite images! That fact alone should speak volumes to the quality of this reconstruction which proves that, while I might not be a huge fan of the particular story, it is still a fantastic piece of work none the less. |
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Review by Nick Mellish I'm one of those rare beasts that actually enjoys 'The Space Pirates', in a sincere way. Not in a 'well, it's an early Robert Holmes piece, so we'll forgive it' way, or a 'it's harmless' way, but in an actively-enjoy-it way. Sure, it's not the best script ever penned, nor is it the quickest, but it's far, far better than its reputation would suggest and I'd rate it above many other stories that normally get greater attention and praise despite their mediocrity. As for the Loose Cannon reconstruction, the first thing to note is how much of an improvement this new version is over the original reconstruction from way back when: the pictures are clearer, and more varied, and this makes the viewing experience both far easier and far more enjoyable. Stuart Palmer's CGI once again shines, and the various constructed pictures work very well. One especially lovely touch is the use of moving footage merged with still images, which helps to bring the Recon to life. Overall, this is yet another triumph for Loose Cannon productions; one which I hope will prompt ambivalent fans to discover 'The Space Pirates' for themselves, free themselves of the received wisdom of its lacklustre nature, and make up their own minds. 'The Space Pirates': try it, you might like it. |
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Review by Chris Longhurst
I really tried to like the Space Pirates - the LC reconstruction is fabulous
- clear pictures, great add-ins/model effects and crisp sound. Highly
recommended is the 'Making of' feature on the Loose Cannon web site. |
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Review by David Burns
Once again, a beautiful job by the Loose Cannon team. A great improvement
on the original reconstruction, With nice animated model work and clear
pictures. As the credits roll for episode six, I think to myself, "Boy
I can't wait to see the next one." |
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Review by Rob Hansen This is by far the sharpest, crispest Loose Cannon recon I've seen, possibly because it's brand new and all the others I've seen have been dubbed from tapes produced years earlier and presumably run through dubbing machines many times since. Anyway, a top notch recon, which I assume drew heavily on the surviving episode. I'd always heard bad things about this story, and having previously only viewed the surviving episode in isolation I had no reason to think better of it, however this recon is a revelation. I found 'Space Pirates' much better than its reputation, which I'm sure owes a lot to the character of Milo Clancey and his prominence in the surviving episode. Taken in the context of the whole story, however, I found him a lot less grating and actually grew quite fond of him by the end. Yes, writer Robert Holmes would go on to pen more highly regarded stories, but this wasn't at all bad. |
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Review by Brian S Muehl (Toxicspurge) I
found the original LC Recon of The Space Pirates to be wonderful. It was
my first experience with this fantastic Robert Holmes script. However,
many of the pictures were a bit too blurry to be clear. In addition, the
audio was had so much static I had often had difficulty making out the
dialogue. I was thus delighted to see the light-year improvements in the
second version. The picture quality is AMAZING!! The audio is much, much
clearer as well. |
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Review by Trevor Ruppe I first discovered the Loose Cannon recons by accident, while searching for "Space Pirates" telesnaps. (I later found out, of course, there are none.) For numerous reasons I won't go into here, I have always hoped "Space Pirates" would be found more than any other missing Troughton story, which is why I chose this as my first LC recon. I was expecting little more than a slide show of still images synched with the audio recordings. (Actually, that's what I expected to accompany the audio-only episodes on the Lost In Time DVDs, rather than the single photograph we were given!) It is not an exaggeration to say I was completely blown away by this production. The amount of work put into the compositing and editing is phenomenal. No offense to the animators of the two episodes on the official DVD of "The Invasion," but I feel more like I've seen the full "Space Pirates" than I have the full "Invasion," especially with all the effort put into adding photo-realistic movement to the scenes (background computers, flickering TV screens, even having characters just walk from one part of the room to the other). Little details like this make a world of difference to the final presentation. I'm sure this has set a high watermark that earlier recons aren't going to live up to when I get around to seeing them, but my hope is that after LC have done at least one recon of each story, they'll continue to go back and "revamp" the older recons to match the extremely high quality of the revised "Space Pirates." I definitely encourage everyone who has dismissed "Space Pirates" to view this recon, as it proves this story does not deserve its lowly reputation. When you compare this recon to the single-photo audio episodes and cartoon-animated episodes on the official BBC releases, it's easy to see who is putting forth the most effort toward "preventing lost classics from becoming forgotten ones." This is truly an accomplishment to be very proud of. |
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