SilverWook said:

ATMachine said:

True. But at least it could be edited. Didn't the BBC have ludicrously antiquated cameras that only allowed you to halt filming four times or so per setup?

Stopping tape doesn't require turning the cameras off. I imagine they could overheat if you ran them all day, but in the range of a normal studio session they shouldn't be a problem.

I had the misfortune of using 1970's tube cameras in college, (because the studio was built in 1975, and not used until the mid 80's) and they did require "warming up" and a lot of tweaking. They were replaced with modern chip sensor cameras the moment I graduated of course. ;)

I may have misremembered the bit about the cameras having to be halted, I confess.

They still could barely edit the program, however., since unlike with Star Trek, the Beeb filmed Doctor Who on videotape. The tape editing equipment then was so primitive that they had to film virtually every scene in sequence.

So the editing team had very little ability to go back and re-shoot sequences that "didn't work" or in which somebody flubbed a line. That stuff tended to get left in.

This also bespeaks a larger "show must go on" mentality -- the legacy of the BBC's origins in radio and stage drama (vs. the American TV networks which mainly grew out of Hollywood.)