“Much in the same way as children in your day made crystal sets.” I played with one in my 1960’s youth, fiddling with the cat’s whisker in an attempt to get a semi-decent signal. How many kids today even know what a crystal set is?!
Did you teach any of your kids about them? Or any of your friends' kids? We're about the same age and I don't know a single peer who did so with their spawn, and as a lifelong bachelor who's been careful not to breed with any of my temporary partners I've had neither the opportunity nor interest in doing so. If the older generation doesn't teach this stuff, or at least try to instill some interest in it, most kids won't ever stumble into it. Sure, the internet could teach them easily enough, but it's also full of billions of other things to learn or experience, many of them of more practical use to a child in the 2020s.
@@edwinsalisbury83 Interesting. Not, I notice, a parent or other relative. My grandfather taught me about them way back in the Sixties, but he was also an electrical engineer by trade and had a fantastic collection of tools and gadgets, some for work, some just for tinkering.
I always take this as an explanation of the Fourth Wall break in Feast if Steven. He knew The Time Lords were spying on him so decided to wish them a Merry Christmas
Also explains Tom and Capaldi’s fourth-wall breaks. I love it! This is now my personal head-canon! Makes me giggle just thinking about the Timelords seeing that on their screen. I imagine they probably wiped the tape of that adventure... 😉
The Viziscope privacy issue was the focus of a story by either Issac Asimov or Ray Bradbury. It was based around a historian wanting access to the machine (which was closely controlled) and after a lot of issues the historian makes his own and it’s pointed out by the government that “when does history actually start” (so a millisecond after something has happened, it’s “history”) and boom… there goes all privacy.
@@solarpenguin1 An absolutely brilliant episode, very sad and moving. There are links to the ancient deity Moloch to whom children were sacrificed by fire, and the protagonist wants to see the past to find out if he accidentally killed their child in a cigarette-ignited house fire. I think it has one of the actors from Seeds of Doom in it, who was also in similarly poignant time travel tale The Flip Side of Dominick Hyde, and Jackson off Underworld?
the Viziscope privacy issue reminded me of another (similar?) story by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke called The Light of Other Days. Its a story about the development of wormhole technology that eliminates privacy in the present, and later in the story it's adapted into a viewer into the past.
There's another story called "E for Effort" where two inventors accidentally invent a Viziscope like device. They use it to make hyper-realistic historical films, but that's just to get enough capital for their real plan: exposing the corruption in the government. It...doesn't end well.
The ending of this story clears up a line from The Sarah Jane Adventures story: "Death of the Doctor". Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor tells Jo Grant that he never came back for her, because he couldn't find her as she travelled all over the world all the time. Then he lists things she has done, but how would he know if he wasn't able to find her. I believe now that he tracked down Jo on the space time visualizer and saw her achievements that way.
@@williammitchell4417 Why would the Doctor randomly sneak into Sarah Jane's attic to figure out through Mr. Smith what a completely different companion is up to? That makes no sense.
@@timrob12 I mean have you met the doctor he rather went to lagaffe less than simply popping back up to Gallifrey to fix the Chameleon Circuit I mean it's after the three doctors of The Deadly Assassin so he's no longer wanted criminal and even in the war games they didn't care about him stealing the Tardis that cared more about him interfering
@@timrob12 yeah but I'm talking about specifically when the fourth doctor was trying to fix the Chameleon Circuit he wasn't on the best terms of Gallifrey I don't think but it wasn't like he would have been dragged to jail like the first two they don't care that he stole the Tardis probably because it was already about to be junked it is old and he has been all but pardoned for his interference why didn't he just go to Gallifrey and say hey can you help me fix my Chameleon Circuit they would probably do it as that would probably prevent some of his interference have a bunch of caveman seen a big ass blue box with glowing orbs on it
Finally, ive been waiting for so long, recently been rewatching your stuff recently, and its all as infinitely funny, gripping and impressive as i remember, welcome back
Great to see the series return and I think this is one of the best episodes yet. I particularly liked how you were able to move from discussing fine details of the prop’s design and construction, to how those aspects relate to the series’ mythology.
Thanks for another fascinating episode. I do think we can all get over-obsessed with internal consistency at times, even though those moments of seeing behind the curtain when it breaks down are fascinating and instructive. With assorted writers on a long-running TV series it's difficult to achieve internal consistency even on the most mundane soap opera level. As soon as you introduce Science Fiction it becomes almost impossible. It would have required a concerted central effort and the willingness to ditch great story ideas simply because they contradicted a throw-away line of dialogue from an episode broadcast months previously. We would all be the poorer if that had happened. We also always have to remember that the average viewer of the 1960s was expected to see an episode once and probably never again. The chances of them being able to pick up inconsistencies with an episode they saw weeks ago was slight and the chances of them being able to check their recollection even more remote. As with the wiping of tapes, unless we try to understand the position of the people concerned at the time then we are selling them, and us, short. No one at the time conceived that people would want, or be able, to pore over populist TV episodes over half a century in the future. They were simply trying to produce a well-crafted, intriguing and entertaining diversion for a Saturday evening. I appreciate the fact that you are always reminding us of that human factor. The fact that we still find such TV productions fascinating and worthy of study is a tribute to the maker's skill and imagination but, for them, an entirely unexpected side-effect.
clearly ian and barbara's fascination came from the fact that Dr. Who built a time-travel-related device that actually can find its intended destination for a change :P
I’m happy to see another of these amazing videos! Also I Love The Chase Clips giving a beautiful 1080p up scale treatment that deserve to be part of the Season 2 Collection Boxset when it comes out. Amazing work from You and TheMindRobber. Also *Banana!*
Excellent. Glad to see you back on great form. Especially with the detailed explanation about the difficulties of visualising the past. No wonder the Doctor in early years could barely steer the TARDIS if you use the same premise. Banana.
I’m so glad to have another video on this great channel! Terry Nation is such an amazing writer I’d have loved to see how he would’ve written stories with the bigger budgets!
It's possible that the STV was connected into the TARDIS 's systems, which would then, in turn be, connected into the Matrix. Therefore it is quite possible that the TARDIS's telepathic circuits were used to guide the STV to the exact point in space-time the user wanted to see. OK, this idea might seem slightly "Banana"s at first sight, but it does make sense.
There's an episode of classic sci-fi anthology series Out of the Unknown that covers the issues raised by having something like the Space-Time Visualiser. The episode is "The Dead Past", based on an Isaac Asimov short story of the same name, and it's about a group of people trying to figure out why the government is so obstructive when it comes to the use of a device called the Chronoscope, which allows viewing of any past event. It's only towards the end that the characters truly realise what it means to even have such a device, and that the government was genuinely working in everyone's best interests by suppressing it. But it's too late: guides on how to make it have been sent out into the wild and now anyone can build one, effectively destroying privacy forever now that anyone can view anybody at any time. Another interesting couple of links back to Doctor Who: Terry Nation wrote an episode for it, adapting The Fox and the Forest by Ray Bradbury. Sadly it's now deleted. Another story mentioned in this video, The Naked Sun, also got adapted into an Out of the Unknown episode. Oh, and BANANA.
Also, thank you for the fascinating information between The Chase and Asimov's Caves of Steel series. They're some of my favorites and I never new Nation wrote adaptations of them or that they were shown on the BBC. It would be amazing to see those if they hadn't been lost. Who knows, maybe some day more lost footage will be found.
Great Video! I wouldn't get too confused about our solar planets on the outer ring of the Visualiser, its most likely the Visualiser operative controls work on many levels and that the doctor only placed them as main dials as a tribute to his human companions.
Amazing to see your return! I was literally rewatching your Cushing movie videos yesterday! I hope this is the start of a new run of your one of a kind content.
The Time and Space Visualiser was given to the Doc at the end of The Space Museum, yeah he was repairing it and should have asked Vicki for help. But what's interesting is, it's never mentioned again (as far as I know, Classic Who is tricky to check, as so much is still missing), but oddly a Time Scanner was mentioned in The Moonbase leading into The Macra Terror, so maybe the TASV was incorporated into the console some how, as it wasn't seen again (as far as I know, again) in The Time Meddler. (If anyone has a 'spare' copy of the Program Guide from around 1990, I would like to see it, as I no longer have access to my own one, or the updated version either). Pictures on the scanner to temp the travellers outside also happened earlier in The Edge of Destruction and then were followed by a visual representation of the journey due to the fast return switch.
I have missed this channel. Welcome back to youtube. I had assumed in the Doctor Who universe there was extensive use of telepathic interfaces. So things like the time viewer (and TARDIS controls) were merely props to allow for people to concentrate their thoughts on but the real control was done with their minds. This allowed untrained people to control complex items based on technology beyond their understanding, such as steering the TARDIS. This also allowed for a form of AI to interpret the requests of the time viewer to get the correct vision based on what the user was thinking.
The voyeuristic aspect of the Time Lords is kind of implied by their having a Panopticon with a big Eye at its centre, too. It's their viewing gallery to keep an eye on all creation, isn't it?
Maybe Ian was so impressed with seeing Lincoln because he knew the odds of seeing him in person due to fact The Tardis never goes where they want it to go.
No wonder the Doctor’s so worried about browser history with all the snooping he’s been doing. Glad to see one of my favourite series on RU-vid back, long live the Terry Nation Army!
Maybe the labels as per Terry Nations original design are written in psychic ink, so you always see a button that has what you need. Also, if the scope is (possibly) reading the person’s mind, it knows exactly what they are interested in. (Shades of “the moment” because it can see your thoughts).
14:45 - so the Doctor invented “What Three Words”… (Or perhaps he should call it “What Three Worlds”). Thanks for the upload, great insights as always. 🙂
4:23: Yeah, that is a creepy thought in more ways than one! A few years back, I read this book, _The Light of Other Days,_ written by Stephen Baxter with Arthur C. Clarke-and yeah, the inventors do get personal with it! And in response, so does civilization: if privacy is dead, why bother hide _any_ activity? But the scary part of the notion is if young Time Lords consider putting together something like this device as child’s play, and if the device works the same way as the device in the Baxter/Clarke novel via the controlled use of wormholes, then the universe is in trouble indeed!
Another story worth a read is John Wyndham's "Pawley's Peepholes" (originally "Operation Peep"), with time tourists starting to appear to check up on their ancestors - us. They're intangible, so sit on coach-style seats that can pass through your walls. I think they're initially inaudible but later can be heard offering a running on commentary on what they're watching you do! There is a backlash (a surprise in the story I won't spoil). The narrator posits later they might have discovered invisibility, so are still watching, but why worry... Frank Bellamy of Dr Who illustrations fame has a link to it: www.frankbellamy.co.uk/2007/05/pawleys-peepholes-by-john-wyndham.html
Absolutely superb and really makes you think more about the mind of the writer(s) and what they were thinking about when they wrote the initial draft of stories. Thank you and wow I can't believe it's been two years since your last video.
In "The Light of Other Days" by Arthur C Clarke, the implicaions of a Time Visualiser are clearly explored. I would suggest that reading this bookwould give considerable food for thought.
I have often thought a lot of this - glad it wasn't just me :) - I did wonder why the planets of OUR solar system were listed around the screen.... SO good to have you back... great video, as always, really interesting and rewatchable :)
Well, that was an absolute delight - and the discussion of privacy issues related to viewing past events have me seeking out a copy of "Other Days Other Eyes" by Bob Shaw. Also, banana.
I was always confused about the use of "Mars", "Pluto" etc on the visualiser. Regarding the accuracy of the views of Shakespeare and Lincoln I would rationalise it by suggesting that the visualiser had a telepathic component that was able to work on what the viewer was interested in seeing.
The little "plectrum shaped" dials for each planet look adjustable, and since this device was developed on Earth, is it possible that these are directions settings from each planet? You'd know where you are at any particular time, where the planets are, and thus it would be a big triangulation (or nine-ulation) to anywhere in the universe to get the chronon-gathering beams to intersect... Or maybe it's a joke about astrology.
A TV that allows you to see any point in time would certainly come in handy when confronting an enemy? To see what they do to defeat you and then confront them with that knowledge by going back in time would guarantee you a victory.
Came back for a rewatch to spot some of the extra little details. Nice touch for the original Visualiser concept having a mix of classic and nuwho planets. Also, banana.
Very enjoyable! I spotted this in my youtube recommendations, and presumed it must be an old one. How wrong I was. Glad to see you're back (even if only for a bit...).
Banana. Another excellent video, and well worth the wait! One thing: about the time space visualiser making a mockery of The Deadly Assassin, the Doctor points out in Brain of Morbius that a Time Lord could place a barrier around their mind, so perhaps it's useless on Gallifrey? I know this doesn't fully account for The Trial of a Timelord but whatever.
The irony of explaining the use on the prop of planet names from only our solar system (excluding Mercury) as the designers getting them from a textbook, using a clip from Red Dwarf with Holly reading space facts from a textbook where only one planet is actually named (Mercury) :D
Having recently listened to the Big Finish audio story ”The Fourth Wall” this video felt oddly topical to me. In said audio story the sixth doctor uses the time-space visualiser to watch a cricket match from 2006. It’s probably one of those things you just shouldn’t think too much about, but then again if it is supposed to exist and work as it does in the Chase there are unavoidably a lot of questions that could be raised.
I really like how your last video was "Don't worry about Doctor Who canon", and this one is basically "And that's why the Space-Time Visualiser breaks Doctor Who lore".