The Invasion - Sales Info

[Anthony Williams]

I think whole animated stories are also unlikely at this stage.

Likewise. There are easily enough stories with half or more episodes surviving for them to do first.

Ant x

[Larry]

I think whole animated stories are also unlikely at this stage.

.

agreed - and I have to say as much as I enjoyed watching the two animated episodes on Invasion i'm not that sure I'd want to sit and watch a whole 6 episodes of animation.

[Si Hunt]

More Sales Info.

The first week sales were excellent for a black and white story - 13,000 copies, then a further 3000 copies in week two. This is still less than 'Genesis of the Daleks' though, which had about 17,000 copies in week one and was well over 30,000 copies within about three weeks.

So, 'Invasion' sold really well for a black and white, but not spectacularly overall.

So will further stories be animated? Sadly...

it doesn't look likely, considering the costs involved.

[Perry Vale]

Maybe they'll animate Genesis Of The Daleks?

[SiHart]

Well it would be sad if they didn't animate any more stories, but I won't be too upset. It was a nice side venture, if nothing else, but if the costs aren't recouped by the sales then it's not going to be worth their while from a business point of view doing any more.

Still it will ultimately spare us two dull episodes of The Ice Warriors being animated!

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

That's true, what actual stories did we have to look forward to? "Tenth Planet", "Ice Warriors", heckythump maybe even "The Reign of Terror"! I'm not being ungrateful, they would have been nice, but the project would never have reached the stage where they were doing "The Celestial Toymaker" and "Marco Polo" for us, let's face it. All the stories in the offing were dull!

Si.

[Larry]

I think Invasion was all ways going to sell more than a normal b/w episode because of the curiosity factor but in truth because it was a b/w story it was never going to brake any records.

but if the costs aren't recouped by the sales then it's not going to be worth their while from a business point of view doing any more.

Not sure about that I very much doubt that either Cosgrove or the BBC were expecting to make a profit on this project and I personally would be supprised if they have closed the door on the possibility of making any more.

Though I have to say i'd rather they spend the money on re-colouring the b/w Pertwee episodes rather than more animated episodes..

[SiHart]

What we also have to remember is that BBCi funded this release, not 2/Entertain, and it's possible 2/Entertain have a different set of priorities.

Si xx

[Larry]

What we also have to remember is that BBCi funded this release, not 2/Entertain, and it's possible 2/Entertain have a different set of priorities.

Si xx

but do 2/Entertain have the final say on what will be released..

[SiHart]

Since they're in charge of the releases, I'd say so.

Si xx

[Captain Tancredi]

Also may be worth bearing in mind that the costs for another release would be slightly lower because you're not starting from scratch- the basic animation templates for Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines have been set up and are presumably on somebody's hard drive at Cosgrove Hall, so wouldn't need to be done again. But the only stories where I think it'd be realistically worthwhile would be 'The Ice Warriors' and 'The Tenth Planet', where the majority of the story already exists and the animation would complement that, rather than taking on a missing story where the animation could give a false impression of what the story was like when first transmitted.

[Larry]

also I believe that unlike episodes 1 & 4 of the Invasion the tele snaps still exist for Tenth Planet, Ice Warriors and several other possible stories which might also help with costs as the animaters will have some thing to work on.

[Perry Vale]

I'd be very surprised if any of that would make any difference to the price, it seems like clutching at straws, imo. BBCi wanted Cosgrove Hall to make the animation, I'd guess that any quote from Cosgrove Hall would have not been x amount, plus extra for making some templates. And why should having some telesnaps as reference make it any cheaper than having six similar episodes on VT?

[Si Hunt]

Also may be worth bearing in mind that the costs for another release would be slightly lower because you're not starting from scratch- the basic animation templates for Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines have been set up and are presumably on somebody's hard drive at Cosgrove Hall, so wouldn't need to be done again. But the only stories where I think it'd be realistically worthwhile would be 'The Ice Warriors' and 'The Tenth Planet', where the majority of the story already exists and the animation would complement that

Can some dramatic license be deployed to reduce costs? Can't we pretend Frazer Hines was in "The Tenth Planet" instead of Ben and re-use the animation?

Si.

[Larry]

Can some dramatic license be deployed to reduce costs? Can't we pretend Frazer Hines was in "The Tenth Planet" instead of Ben and re-use the animation?

Si.

can't we just pretend Ben, was never in any thing..

[Raston]

All this talk of 2|E but what about BBCi they will obviously view the eventual DVD release of the invasion episodes as a success.

Perhaps they will consider funding ice warriors and tenth planet for a webcast that could then be on a DVD?

[Perry Vale]

All this talk of 2|E but what about BBCi they will obviously view the eventual DVD release of the invasion episodes as a success.

Perhaps they will consider funding ice warriors and tenth planet for a webcast that could then be on a DVD?

Will they? They haven't made a profit out of it, so why would they?

[Pip Madeley]

Did they make a profit out of Shalka?

[Si Hunt]

Shalka wasn't designed to make a profit surely, as it was made for the purposes of being available free. The aim with that was... well actually I've no idea! But I doubt they would have expected to have made money if it was being offered for free.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

So who's to say they won't get Cosgrove Hall to animate further missing episodes for the website?

2|e might not be able to afford to pay for the whole shebang, but they might put up some money if there was a possibility of it making the jump to DVD at some point (after all, there were plans to release a Shalka DVD at one point).

[Raston]

The BBC don't make a profit from anything the broadcast in any form. 2|E make a profit from sales-a slice of which goes into the BBC comercial arm-but it in no way has any bearing on any BBC programme, except that it may encourage restoration work (like doctor who or dads army).

BBCi make things for webcast, they did that with shalka, shada, real time and Death comes to time. They could in theory do it with Who episodes like those two invasion ones, which could then be featured on DVD, like on the invasion.

BBCi are the people that we need to find the money for the animations.

[SiHart]

I wonder if they'll bother now that the emphasis is on the new series?
Lets face it, the only reason The Invasion episodes got animated was because they had the money available because they weren't going to make another Richard E. Grant story (thank goodness).

Si xx

[Perry Vale]

So who's to say they won't get Cosgrove Hall to animate further missing episodes for the website?

I'd say the fact that even the two Invasion episodes haven't appeared on the website, suggests they won't. I don't see what they have to gain? Let's not forget that The Invasion only came about because they had a big wad of dosh left over from the Shalka project.

[Si Hunt]

You could see it possibly happening if James Goss got behind it, then again you could see it being a one-off. We just don't know, so there's not much point in speculating.

Si.

[Larry]

So who's to say they won't get Cosgrove Hall to animate further missing episodes for the website?

I don't think any body has actualy come out and make any kind of firm announcment on weather or not there will or will not be any more animated episodes and i'm sure in the documentory on Cosgrove they did say they wanted to make more..