The Season-o-Specials for 2009 begins with the fun, interesting, but all-too-forgettable Planet of the Dead. By now, at least during the RTD era, the pattern for 'Holiday' Specials should be very clear. Big, expansive entertainments have been the norm, although it must be said the plots don't always hang to well upon reflection.
The update to the site this time around confines itself solely to Planet of the Dead, and we should apologize somewhat for the lateness in getting images related to the story up on the site as there we've been experiencing some significant server issues inconveniently coalescing around the weekend premiere. We wanted to wait until everything was pulled back together before announcing the update.
One thing the THT Brain Wizards are particularly excited about is the move to HD production for the show which in turn means the introduction of higher-quality HD caps (resized down slightly to conform to the necessities of managing the site),
Images and caps for Planet of the Dead are now online.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. It had been planned to move to this new shiny spot on March 1st, but after our previous host (sincere thanx to Phenominet for many years of selfless serving of the front end of this site from near-infancy to the leviathan stage) unexpectedly went belly up, we've moved the front end of the site here a little early. Please forgive the rough edges as we're still working out the kinks. Some page index navigation is occasionally wonky and we're still coming to grips with this overdue overhual of the site. Don't be surprised if the layout changes completely once or twice more as we're still doing plenty of experimentation. But behind the front door, all of the Tour content continues where it has been. The new site will be updated with more regularity, and we look forward to more interaction with all of the Tour faithful.
The Tour getting smaller? Yes, and that's a good thing. One of the challenges for managing an image database this big is duplicate-looking images. Try as we might, dupes get into the Tour and are hard to root out. But now we've found a great new tool for finding these images and the result is an overall image reduction of over 300 images. Now that we've cleaned up our act so to speak, we're poised for a new phase of growth. And for that the Tour will need you help. An announcement pertaining to that will follow.
Well the BBC certainly knows how to gin up interest in the program don't they? It has to be said that the interim period between learning of the impending announcement of Friday to the unveiling Saturday was one of delicious anticipation for the THT Brain Trust. This was truly the first 'Next Doctor' announcement for the internet age. Tennant was named just after the 2005 started rolling and we learned Eccleston was leaving. Eccleston's surprise casting was made without terrific fanfare, and McGann was cast in the formative days of the net. So now Mr .Smith goes to Gallifrey, He brings the relative anonymity of Tom Baker and the exaggerated youth of Davison. It has to be said, at least for this fan–who started watching Doctor Who in 1981–that Matt Smith hadn't even been born! I suspect that says more about me than him. In Moffat We Trust. Matt Smith also poses a bit of a challenge for internet scavengers, at least initially. Not much of a web presence. Still we've begun that process of building out the Matt Smith portion of the Tour
The Season of Specials kicks off in fine style with