Doctor Who: Enlightenment Effects Comparison 

I've never seen the finished version of this. It was pretty much the biggest and last project I did besides virtual backgrounds and things for the special features. My favorite bit is the light dip in the sun at 2:37 when it goes behind the mast of the ship. Too many Easter eggs to list here. But the window view out of the shadow was based on the view from the Titanic's window in the Christmas special. Same with the ship starting to burn up in Venus' atmosphere. Please keep in mind the total budget for all the FX shots on the 3 DVDs in the box set was around $5000. There were about 1200 effect shots to replace and do for the whole set. and something like 6 months.

'Enlightenment wasn't the diamond, enlightenment was the choice.'

Some of the cgi is good and others are alright. But what spoiled it is the cropping from 4:3 screen ratio to 16:9 screen ratio which they had to enlarge the picture and lose some of the surroundings of the sets. That is totally unforgivable.

I appreciate the new edit and the new effects, but do think this is an example of the original model shots of the ships being some of the best in the series. Some of the new CGI is just too bright or too static to make it an adequate replacement. There's also that one shot where you can see where it was comped into the existing footage, I like this cut but I feel the story held up regardless.

While I'm all for the inclusion of special editions with retouched and/or improved fx work, I can't say that I'm a fan of changing the aspect ratio. Losing part of the original composition just to artificially create a widescreen presentation seems a poor choice.

I must say this has to be my favourite episode from 20. The original effects look fine but it does look amazing with the added special effects. Must have been a pain putting these all together so a big thank you for your incredible efforts. I do perfer the original version and the model shots are some of the best in the classic series. But do wish they put the original in wide-screen like they did in the updated version. Me being a classic doctor who oriented fan I perfer the classic SFX w and music though. However, I do find the updated effects decent.

I’m not a fan of converting 4:3 to 16:9. I have a 65” tv, black bars on the side doesn’t bother me.

Hoping for a video comparing all three versions like you did recently with five doctors!

The cgi improvements are amazing. Gotta track this one down!!

2:09 -- That's outright offensive. The whole point of that scene was to have a quiet awed intake of breath, not a g/d gigantic deafening orchestra swell. Most of it is fine, but I beg of you, not that editing choice. It ruins the whole atmosphere of the scene.

I've never watched the special editions of this or Planet of Fire, simply because I don't agree with cropping shots that were directed and filmed in 4:3. But having seen this, I'm glad I didn't watch them. Oh the effects are nice but I'm really not a fan of adding effects at the loss of existing footage.

I really wish they’d do a digital update of Frontier in Space.

It is me or I heard at 5:28 a soundtrack from 2001: A Space Odyssey or something similar ?

5:28 looks horrible in the re-edit, you can literally just see it's a black box

...What did they do to Malcolm Clarke’s score?! 😡

5:28 - Effects goof? 😆

Is the 2023 effects different from 2009?

Red jellybean

Did this air in the States? I don't remember this one at all.

At some point will we get a comparison of the 2023 version as well?

I quite like a lot of those old space scenes. Feels more spacey to me, I guess because growing up that's how I commonly saw it done in film and T.V.

these edits are okay... But im glad they replaced turlough in the net as that was just..... Bad..

Dang the director cropped the picture. Thats a travesty. But i love the additional clipper scenes. Did 2023 version have this?

Some of it seems like just slapping particle effects over a shot and hoping for the best.

Very nice but I wonder about some of the choices of stories for these new fx. This one had pretty reasonable fx for the time, especially the model work. There are far worse candidates...

This story was a scripting and filming casualty from a season that dumped Doctor Who's flavor for trendy and kitschy. It was a sad season indeed, and this story had so much promise. Though the special effects edition isn't special, it did enhance the visual storytelling of the original in most places--especially with the ships. The greatest special effect needed in this era was switching out JNT for a better, new producer.

I didn’t like this story but I like the effects.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. With all of the cropping and sacrificing parts of every minute of this story it now feels like missing episodes. Imagery lost and never to be seen again. Why oh why did they have to convert to the different ratio to get the otherwise good new effects. One of my favorite Doctor Who stories slashed to bits. The directors careful composing of each scene is destroyed. Its like how the Mona Lisa no longer has the pillars on the sides of the painting, cut out by a hack and lost forever.

I prefer the original. I think the point of classic Who is you appreciated all it did on a small budget. If that means more story and less visuals, well that's what made it classic IMO. Nearly every new visual shown I prefer the old on Enlightenment. I felt if you had a smaller budget if forced you to be more creative. The essence of old Who.

...I do not like these changes...

This is so ugly, trimming the top and bottom off an image originally shot on video makes it look terrible and grainy as heck, and destroys the original shot composition. Absolute shame that the effects were enhanced only to make it unwatchable. If viewers want to do this to their 4:3 scale media any modern widescreen telly has a zoom and crop feature without having to destroy it for everyone else.