Which Dr Who Light?

I've already asked this question on another thread but it didn't get enough exposure, or nobody knows. Anyway it didn't get answered.

OK. The lastest incarnation of Dr Who, the one starring Matt Smith but watched more for Karen Gillan, just started airing on this side of the Atlantic. In one of the premiere episodes, specifically the two parter called I believe 'In The Eleventh Hour', Dr Who, acting in the present day and in the UK, brings out some sort of weird British light-producing flashlight-head lamped torch-thing with about the size and shape of a stereo receiver- and spins a crank to make it work. A crank??

Since Dr Who is not exactly a series known for its special effects budgets and also since this thing was taken out of a normal British setting of some sort, I assumed this was a device actually in use in Great Britian. So can anyone say what the thing was? And if so, what the heck is it normally used for?

Why was my flashlight question moved here I wonder?

Mr Bigglow said:

can anyone say what the thing was? And if so, what the heck is it normally used for?

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They're real. Google for "Crank Light".

Ken_McE said:

They're real. Google for "Crank Light".

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When I do that, I get the little hand dynamo lights I'm already familiar with. Dr Who's thing was comparatively HUGE, half the size of a breadbox, and it sat on the floor not in the hand. With this thread exiled to the Cafe here, I may have to wait for a repeat, or to write to the producers or something, to find out what it was. But I've been observing the British scene for decades now and this device has never turned up before- perhaps it was a special effect device after all- what I remember is that it was pulled out of the modern British environment; if that was wrong all bets are off.

I've seen this episode - only a one part story over here - I cannot remember such a device - any chance of relating when in the episode it occured?

The Eleventh Hour was the first one in the new series and was a bit longer than the usual 45mins. 1hour 5 mins to be precise. Don't forget that we get it on BBC without any adverts. I'm guessing that in the US with their 5 min add break every 10 minutes ( or so ) they probably had to split it into a 2 parter.
Having said that. The only torch I can see in the whole episode is the plastic 2D cell light held by the little girl at the start.

Jay R said:

The only torch I can see in the whole episode is the plastic 2D cell light held by the little girl at the start.

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Yep, that's a Ever Ready 2D from about early nineteen seventies or so - I still have one of these since my childhood.

Thing is, Amy is supposed to be 22 in 2010, so what's she doing with a 25 year old torch when she's 8 (it should be 1996)??? Maybe she's a flashaholic???

Jay - glad I'm not the only one who failed to spot the 'crank' torch in this ep...

Wait for the reply. Perhaps 1h5mins wasn't enough to cover two episodes and they filled it out with some extra footage for the US market…

Or perhaps he is talking about a different episode altogether. ( Though I can't remember a foot crank light in any of the other ones.)

I'd suggest that Mr Bigglow looks at the episode on BBC I player but I don't think they can access it over there.

Dr Who, The Eleventh Hour, latest new series with the lovely Scots companion, was indeed split into 2 one hour episodes here in Canada- this means there would have been 44 minutes of show (including intro, credits etc) in each hour with commercials for floor cleaners etc filling in the remaining time. So even if I knew when it happened here it wouldn't mean much in the UK. Unfortunately I didn't record the show so will have to wait for a repeat- could take a while.

Darn! I hate waiting for trivia answers!

I love how the English government makes its subjects have to have a licence to watch television.

But on the other hand, a 45 min program takes us 45 min to watch and not an hour. Let's assume we both watch one program a day, that's 15 min a day less for me.
Add that up over a year and I've watched the same TV program as you but it tool me over 90 HOURS LESS TIME.
That's the same as a two and a half week holiday from work.


Ahha ! Not so funny now is it.

Ah yes, but wihtout those breaks how would I find time to put more wood on the fire, go to the toilet, pat the dog, make a cup of tea, check my battery charger, click on my email, read the paper, do the dishes or any of the other hundred things I have to do during an evening?

There's no way I could sit for forty five minutes in one stint watching television. I even pause DVD's to do other things.

And who says watching too much commercial television doesn't cause attention deficit disorder.

JaguarDave-in-Oz said:

I love how the English government makes its subjects have to have a licence to watch television.

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I'm pretty sure it's more along the lines of "if you want TV service, you have to pay for public television." I think I'd prefer that in the USA as well, though admittedly it's one of few UK nanny-state laws that wouldn't drive me crazy in short order.

JaguarDave-in-Oz said:

Ah yes, but wihtout those breaks how would I find time to put more wood on the fire, go to the toilet, pat the dog, make a cup of tea, check my battery charger, click on my email, read the paper, do the dishes or any of the other hundred things I have to do during an evening?

There's no way I could sit for forty five minutes in one stint watching television. I even pause DVD's to do other things.

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So buy a DVR and pause the show while you nip off to the larder for your spot of tea. I'd still rather pay up-front for television service rather than have to endure hours upon hours of ever-more-irritating adverts for products I have no interest in, at 2-3x the volume of the program I'm trying to watch.

fyrstormer said:

So buy a DVR and pause the show while you nip off to the larder for your spot of tea. I'd still rather pay up-front for television service rather than have to endure hours upon hours of ever-more-irritating adverts for products I have no interest in, at 2-3x the volume of the program I'm trying to watch.

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nah, I think I'd rather have cup of tea than watch the television. Not really interested in sitting in front of it unabated, there is nothing on it that warrants my undivided attention. For me most programmes aren't worth sitting through. From what I see even the nightly news only has about six minutes of its content that's worthwhile seeing.

Whatever else happens, I've learned that in North America we get the EP version of Dr Who, but with floormops. And what I personally find remarkable (aside from Dr Who's previously mentioned crank light) is that in decades of personal interaction with people from the UK, and with Dr Who coming up surprisingly often, really, considering, this time disparity thing has never come up before. Obviously the BBC is either holding out to promote DVD sales in the UK or is doubling their sales profits abroad. Or both.

Well on the same subject I watched a Dr Who episode last night entitled "The Time of Angels". Basically about ten characters were traipsing around in dark catacombs below a templed infested with Weaping Angels. They were all carrying the same flashlight which was about the size and configuration as a 2D black Maglite with a few additional bits. I would guess they were driven with a single LED emitter. They were quite spotty and had a relatively artifact free beam. Anyone know what light they were using? Either way it proves once again the versatility of the hand torch, verily into the 51 century.

On my rather smallish personal TV I thought they were Mags but I guess I missed the nuances so perhaps not.