Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E06 Shada: Difference between revisions

[[File:romanaboat_9888.jpg|framethumb|300px|1979]]

Filming on ''Shada'' ("SHAH-duh"), which was interrupted by the 1979 BBC strike, was never completed. It remains the only story of Classic Who that has never aired. But [[Douglas Adams]] scripts aren't so common that they can be discarded so easily, and eventually ''threefour'' official versions saw the light of day: a 1992 filmed version cobbled together out of the existing bits, with linking narration provided by [[Tom Baker]]; a 2003 [[Big Finish]]-produced audio/web-animation [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shada/ version] with Eighth Doctor Paul McGann as the story's Doctor; and a 2012 novelisation by Gareth Roberts, based on the final versions of the scripts; and at last a 2017 direct-to-video release of the original story with animation filling in the missing pieces and a bonus scene at the very end. Clips from this episode were also used in "[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/20th AS the Five Doctors/Recap|The Five Doctors]]".

For extra credit, spot the plot elements that Adams recycled into ''[[Dirk GentlysGently's Holistic Detective Agency]]''.

Unfortunately, Chronotis has already forgotten that he'd just that morning lent it out to physics student Chris Parsons--whoParsons—who's taken his new toy over to the lab to examine it, with baffled fascination, and even asked his girlfriend Claire to come have a look.

Even ''more'' unfortunately, someone else is after the book, too: a guy named Skagra, and with a name like that he's ''got'' to be evil. Skagra's putting the finishing touches on a brain-inna-jar--actuallyjar—actually, a collection of great minds, whom he'd lured into working with him under false pretenses and then mind-napped--andnapped—and just needs one more mind. Specifically, he wants the mind of legendary Time Lord criminal Salyavin, who was said to have the power to project his own mind into other minds; with this power in Skagra's brain jar, he'd be able to control the rest of the universe. Salyavin is imprisoned on the prison planet of Shada, whose location has been lost for centuries, but Skagra is convinced that the directions are in Chronotis' book.

By the time Chronotis remembers Chris Parsons' name, Skagra has parked his spaceship outside town and gotten a lift to St Cedd's. The Doctor's just left, though--hethough—he's borrowed a bike and gone off to fetch Chris from the physics lab, little realizing that the guy he nearly crashed into on the way was Chris himself, on ''his'' way to see Chronotis to ask about the book.

The Doctor does meet Claire at the lab; with her in tow, and in possession of the book, they return to Chronotis' flat--toflat—to find the old professor dead, killed by Skagra while Romana was in the TARDIS looking for milk for the tea.

* [[Actually, I Am Him]]

* [[BraininaBrain In a Jar]]

* [[Ham -to -Ham Combat]]: Paul McGann vs Andrew Sachs, in the [[Big Finish]] audio version. It's rather [[Crowning Moment of Funny|rather magnificent]].

* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: The Doctor convincing the ship's computer that he is dead "in a fabulous display of illogic logic" in order to get it to release Chris and K-9.

* [[Literal -Minded]]: Neither rhetorical questions nor expletives are a particularly good idea around K-9.

* [[Silicon -Based Life]]: The Kraags, probably.

* [[What We Now Know to Be True]]:

{{quote| '''The Doctor''': What? Do you understand Einstein?<br />

'''Parsons''': Yes.<br />

'''The Doctor''': What? And quantum theory?<br />

'''Parsons''': Yes.<br />

'''The Doctor''': What? And Planck?<br />

'''Parsons''': Yes.<br />

'''The Doctor''': What? And Newton?<br />

'''Parsons''': Yes.<br />