The Rise, Mystique, and Re-Release of “Shada.”
In Season 17 of the series, which would have been the 6thyear with Tom Baker starring as the traveling Time Lord, there was a plan to conclude that particular round of episodes with another Douglas Adams story (who had already penned a number of episodes, the two most popular being “The Pirate Planet” and “City Of Death”) that would deal with a Time Lord criminal (apart from the Master) with a secret. He knows where a high security prison constructed by the Time Lords, called Shada, is located and an insane genius named Skagra also wants to know where Shada is. All he doesn’t know is where this criminal Time Lord is hiding. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana appear to be enjoying a brief holiday on Earth at present day Cambridge (much of this initial photography was used in the 20thAnniversary episode “The Five Doctors”), and he’s there because a professor friend of his named Chronotis summoned him. Meanwhile, Chronotis has loaned out a very special book to one of his students by mistake, and now the professor wants it back because it turns out he is that Time Lord that Skagra is looking for, and the book cannot fall into the wrong hands.
That is the synopsis of “Shada,” but unfortunately it was never completed due to a strike at the BBC. Even after the strike was resolved the filming logistics never allowed for this story to be completed, and given Douglas Adams’ popularity as a writer, fans had been clamoring to see this episode in its entirety. The sheer fact that it had not been finished gave this episode an almost legendary status, only to have that fire fueled when Tom Baker’s and Lalla Ward’s opening sequence in the episode was used elsewhere. Die-hard fans wanted to see this story done. What resulted were a series of attempts at the completed telling of “Shada,” ranging from just narration over production stills to fill in the missing gaps, to a video of Tom Baker actually telling the story intermixed with the still existing footage. There was even an oddly animated version by Big Finish that used Flash imagery, with additional scenery using Paul McGann as the Doctor as he visits the Time Lord home world of Gallifrey, and Romana (Lalla Ward) is now the President of the High Council, and together they must discover what happened to the Doctor’s memory during his time on Earth involving Chronotis.
If you are a Doctor Who completist, but have not cared for the previous “Shada” releases, then get this one. While the voices may have aged for the animation sequences, the energy levels are still there, especially on the part of both Baker and Ward. They easily fell back into their classic roles (no doubt having played them for Big Finish audio over the last several years has helped) and to see it blend in with the surviving footage makes this re-release of “Shada” a worthy piece to be added to the Doctor Who collection!
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