Downtime (1995)

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Movie
Original title Downtime
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1995
length 70 minutes
Rod
Director Christopher Barry
script Marc Platt
production Keith Barnfather
music Erwin Keiles, Ian Levine, Nigel Stock
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The Abominable Snowmen

Successor  →
Dæmos Rising

Downtime is a British film and an offshoot of the British television series Doctor Who from 1995. It is about friends and companions of the doctor ( Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart , Sarah Jane Smith , Victoria Waterfield , Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Professor Travers) who have to assert themselves against the machinations of the Great Intelligence.

background

Downtime is an offshoot of the Doctor Who television series that was filmed in 1995. The film adaptation is based on the occurrences of the Doctor Who episodes The Abominable Snowmen and The Invasion . So the doctor's companions are confronted again with the Great Intelligence. Nicholas Courtney , Elisabeth Sladen , Deborah Watling and Jack Watling are reviving their familiar roles from the series. Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart's daughter Kate also appears for the first time. Years later, it became part of the regular Doctor Who series. Known as the voice of the robot dog K9, John Leeson can also be seen in downtime. He plays a DJ here.

The film was produced by Reeltime Pictures. Many Doctor Who crew members took part in the production, including director Christopher Barry and screenwriter Marc Platt . However, the BBC did not allow them to use the character of the Doctor in the film or to name him directly.

The Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures Author Gary Russell explained that the team of Sarah Jane Adventures wanted to use a clip from the film for the series. The clip was supposed to be shown as a brief review of the shared adventures of Sarah Jane Smith and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, but this was not allowed by the downtime team.

The story from the film Downtime is continued in the film Dæmos Rising .

action

Victoria Waterfield, a former second doctor's companion , heads New World University. Like her students, Victoria is controlled by the Great Intelligence. This is an alien power that wants to conquer the earth. To reach full size, Great Intelligence needs a small Yeti figure owned by Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Since this has withdrawn and can no longer be found by the Great Intelligence, the Great Intelligence tries to get to him via Sarah Jane Smith and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart's daughter Kate. Kate and Sarah Jane contact Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, and he comes to town. Victoria Waterfield can now evade the influence of the Great Intelligence. With the support of the student Daniel Hinton, Alistair Gordon, Kate, Sarah Jane and Victoria manage to defeat the Great Intelligence.

publication

Downtime appeared on video in 1995. The film was so popular that Virgin Publishing brought out a novel about the film. In addition, Silva Screen Records released a soundtrack for the film composed by Ian Levine, Nigel Stock, and Erwin Keiles. The film was first released on DVD in 2015.

Downtime Redux

At the time of filming, the producers were not given rights to show the doctor . In 2011, Doctor Who fan Ian Levine shot a few additional scenes with Sylvester McCoy as the seventh doctor. Ian Levine and Sylvester McCoy were pursuing several projects in connection with Doctor Who at the time, completing unfinished productions or producing unfilmed works, such as the special for the 30th birthday of Doctor Who ( Lost in the Dark Dimension ) in cartoon version. In the new version of Downtime , the Doctor gets an opponent named Padmasambavah (known from the Doctor Who episode The Abominable Snowmen ). This one is played by Steven O'Donnell. Ian Levine named the new version of the film Ian Levine: Downtime Redux . However, this reconstruction of the film could not be published because Ian Levine lacks the rights to show the doctor. So Downtime Redux has so far only been made available to a private audience.

criticism

Entertainment Focus' Greg James praised the performances by Elisabeth Sladen , Nicholas Courtney , Jack Watling , Geoffrey Beevers and John Leeson . However, many of the other actors could not keep up with these and delivered rather poor performances. In addition, the script is a bit misleading and unconvincing. The production also lacks the budget. However, the production still has its charm and the extras on the DVD are very interesting.

SciFi Pulse, on the other hand, praised the good performances and the strong narrative style of the film.

Warped Factor commends the director and the production of the film. The film does justice to the characters known from Doctor Who and gives the feeling of the classic Doctor Who series.

Author Gary Russell thinks Downtime , along with Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans , is the best unofficial Doctor Who offshoot. The two film adaptations would particularly stand out, even if you would tell them that they were not professional television productions.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rich Johnston: On Its Twentieth Anniversary, Doctor Who Spinoff Downtime Gets A DVD Release . In: Bleeding Cool . October 16, 2015. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  2. ↑ Caroline Frost: 'Doctor Who' Spin-Off 'Downtime' Finally Makes Its Way To DVD Two Decades After Creation (EXCLUSIVE CLIP) . In: The Huffington Post UK . November 13, 2015. Accessed March 13, 2016.
  3. ^ Greg Jameson: Doctor Who spin-off Downtime comes to DVD . In: Entertainment Focus . November 10, 2015. Accessed March 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ Robin Burks: Doctor Who: Downtime spin-off DVD trailer lands . In: Den of Geek . November 9, 2015. Accessed March 13, 2016.
  5. ^ A b J. R. Southall: Interview: Gary Russell . In: Starbust Magazine . December 30, 2013. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  6. ^ Richard McGinlay: DVD. Daemos Rising . In: SCI FI Online . Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  7. ↑ Robin Burks: 'Doctor Who' Spin-Off 'Downtime' Celebrates 20th Anniversary With DVD Release . In: Techtimes . October 16, 2015. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  8. ↑ Downtime - Original Soundtrack Recording @ The TARDIS Library (Doctor Who books, DVDs, videos & audios) . In: Timelash.com . Retrieved October 6, 2017.
  9. ^ Gary Collinson: New DVD trailer for Doctor Who spinoff Downtime . In: Flickeringmyth . November 8, 2015. Accessed March 13, 2016.
  10. ^ A b Martin Anderson: PIC: Sylvester McCoy playing The Doctor last week . In: Shadowlocked . March 16, 2011. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved on March 14, 2016.
  11. ↑ Martin Anderson: Interview: Sylvester McCoy on Hobbit, Minister of Chance, Who . In: Shadowlocked . March 11, 2011. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  12. ^ Ian Levine: Downtime Redux . In: IMDb . Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  13. ↑ DenValdron: Fan Film Reviews: Ian Levine's Exquisite Corpse, Part Three . In: The Doctor Who Forum . October 29, 2015. Accessed March 14, 2016.
  14. ^ Greg Jameson: Downtime DVD review . In: Entertainment Focus . November 13, 2015. Accessed March 13, 2016.
  15. ↑ Ian Cullonn: In Review: Down Time (DVD) . In: SciFi Pulse . November 5, 2015. Accessed March 13, 2016.
  16. ↑ Doctor Who - Revisiting DOWN TIME. . In: SciFi Pulse . October 17, 2015. Retrieved March 13, 2016.