Doctor Who: Shada

2017

Action / Adventure / Animation / Drama / Sci-Fi

Plot summary

The Doctor visits his old Time Lord friend Chronotis in Cambridge, 1979. But the ruthless Skagra has also arrived to retrieve a book that will help unlock one of the Time Lords' greatest secrets: what is Shada? Filming for this story was never finished, and in this version the unfilmed material is completed via animation.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
February 10, 2018 at 09:07 PM

Director

Top cast

Mary Tamm as Romana
Tom Baker as The Doctor
Mark Strickson as Turlough
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1014.53 MB
924*720
English 2.0
NR
50 fps
2 hr 18 min
Seeds 3
2.1 GB
1376*1072
English 2.0
NR
50 fps
2 hr 18 min
Seeds 10

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by dormesher-21565 8 / 10

Classic Doctor Who Revisited

Shada was an episode that was supposed to be released during Tom Bakers era in Season 17 but was cancelled and most of the footage shot was missing which has been finished using animation with the old footage merged together.

This story is very interesting and a great story for 70s Doctor Who. The ideas about the book that came Gallifrey which immense power was very interesting and made for some really cool moments in the story especially the scene where it blows up an XRay machine. And this book also has secret codes to find Shada which turns out is a prison build by the Time Lords which they forgotten about,

The villain Skagra was a very cool villain to add to Doctor Who law with an interesting goal of taking peoples thoughts and memory and eventually finding an old Time Lord criminal called Salyavin so that he can control minds without the machine he uses and start a new universe under his control is pure 70s Doctor Who and works for Tom Bakers era.

There is a brilliant twist in this story when the professor and old Time Lord friend of the Doctor who left Gallifrey to live in peace actually turns out to be Salyavin who has escaped from Shada and used his powers to make everyone forget about it so he could be good but he took this book by mistake which kicks of the whole story such a great twist that i didnt see coming and had me shocked love it.

Tom Baker is always a pleasure to watch in Doctor Who he plays the part so well and always looks like hes having fun in he has a line in this episode which i just love and its pure Tom the Professor offers the Doctor him some Crackers by saying "Crackers" and The Doctors response is "Well Sometimes" thats just pure Tom Baker right there and always makes me laugh a joy to watch him.

Romana 2 is also in this episode she was the companion during this time and she is brilliant in this episode she still remains my favourite classic Who companion and i love Lalla Ward in the role she is beautiful actress and plays this role perfectly i love her scenes K9 who is also a fun character to see in Doctor Who.

The animation to complete the scenes that where missing is really well done. Completed by the same people who did Power of the Daleks this adds alot to this episode because we can finally see these scenes in action and the style of the animation still makes it feel like a 70s produced episode of the show giving it that authentic feel.

My favourite scene in the story is the climax battle between Skagra and The Doctor which is a battle of the minds such a great scene and really animated and acted shows how powerful the Doctors mind can be. i Also love the scene when The Doctor takes control of Skagras ship by confusing it to believe he is dead so if he is dead he is no longer a threat and the ship and give him information such a great moment for the 4th Doctor and a joy Tom Baker me silly but incharge of the situation which a great part of his character during this era.

The creatures that Skagra creates the Krargs are really interesting creatures made out of diamonds very interesting design. However they look way better in the animation parts which a bit annoying because they look really silly in the actual footage and its very distracting but still a very interesting design and see K9 fight them was very fun.

Verdict 8/10 a great Doctor Who that is finally been released always a joy to watch Tom Bakers era of Doctor Who he plays part really well and the animation adds to the story really well still feeling like a 70s story of Doctor Who.

Reviewed by / 10

Reviewed by A_Kind_Of_CineMagic 10 / 10

About Time (in more ways than one)

This story was not completed during its original recording for season 17 of the classic series due to industrial dispute interfering with the schedule. It has since been released as an audio version, as a reconstruction with narration for missing parts, as an audio and animated remake with the 8th Doctor instead of the 4th Doctor and finally this reconstruction with restored original footage and animation for the previously missing portions (which also has an added scene at the end with Tom Baker reappearing as his much older self.) In my opinion this most recent animated reconstruction gives the best depiction of the original story despite limitations with the animation. It allows us to fully appreciate Shada in all its glory.

The story involves the Doctor and Romana arriving at Cambridge in order to see the Doctor's friend and fellow Time Lord Professor Chronotis just as evil scientist Skagra is also looking for him in order to acquire a stolen Gallifreyan book which has the power to release Time Lord criminal Salyavin who has the power to implant his mind into others. Skagra who already has the means to extract people's minds intends using Salyavin's powers for himself.

The adventure is thoroughly absorbing, intelligent and fun. There is very funny humour, quite dark moments and loads of charm throughout. Denis Carey is magnificent as Professor Chronotis, one of the great guest characters both in the idea behind the character and the performance. It is a pity he never appeared again. Other guest characters are all good and Romana is a great companion but above all that is Tom Baker who is at his magical best as the 4th Doctor. He is electrifying to watch and listen to. So funny, so intriguing and so entertaining. This story lets him have a real showcase and that is one of the reasons it is an absolute classic. It is awful that it was not finished and released at the time. Fans were denied this for so long.

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