I just watched the webcast “PROBE Case Files Vol. 2”, and I really don’t have a clue what that was all about.
Can someone explain PROBE to me, and let me know why it’s so… bad?
I just watched the webcast “PROBE Case Files Vol. 2”, and I really don’t have a clue what that was all about.
Can someone explain PROBE to me, and let me know why it’s so… bad?
PROBE is originally some films from the wilderness years. I have watched 1.5 and was not a fan. You should probably watch them before the case files.
Liz Shaw’s in it though (and she smokes a pipe)
This contradicts the question in the topic
You do need to watch the original films The Zero Imperative through to Ghosts of Winterbourne, to get a proper understanding of PROBE. The films aren’t terrible but are very 90s straight to video in their aesthetic.
The Case Files stuff is a blatant cash in on the part of the Bill Baggs trying to cling on to the fringes of the Whoniverse (see also some of the audio weirdness like B.E.S. and stuff with the ‘I’). Production values are…low.
I have been trying to watch the second film for about half a year but have not seen more than 30 minutes. I think that it is really bad.
You can think what you like.
Because I am always right!!!
From what I know, PROBE is a UNIT ripoff
So, here’s the thing, PROBE isn’t bad (until is really really is)
During the wilderness years, Bill Baggs created BBV (Bill & Ben Video) (‘Ben’ being a nickname for his then wife). With how the licensing arrangements for Classic Who worked, BBV was able to license characters, monsters, etc, directly from their creators, without involving the BBC at all.
They made direct-to-video releases, starting with ‘The Stranger’, a series that doesn’t feature any licensed elements, but does feature Colin Baker as ‘The Stranger’, and Nicola Bryant as ‘Miss Brown’, so it’s pretty clear what they were trying to do.
After the success of The Stranger, they were able to acquire the license to the character of Liz Shaw and created PROBE. They were also able to get a fair few actors from the TV show to make appearances in the first of the series: Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Louise Jameson, and Peter Davison, and of course, Caroline John making a return as Liz Shaw herself.
Also notable is that all four of these films featured Mark Gatiss as the writer, Louise Jameson and Peter Davison also make repeat appearances in the later films.
The final of these four films was released in 1996, and then the series was gone for nearly 20 years. In the meantime BBV released the Auton trilogy, Cyberon, until they kinda stopped in 2002 (with the exception of the infamous Zygon film in 2008).
In 2015, Bill Baggs wanted a comeback, Caroline John had died in 2015, and Baggs’ reputation was… less than great, so he started back up recasting Liz and featuring no other actors or writers, in fact Baggs’ did the writing for this new story himself.
When to Die is bad. Like, really bad. Just read my review, it doesn’t have any spoilers.
After this, Baggs then made the ‘Probe Case Files’, which are basically him talking into a camera and telling a story about something PROBE have done. It’s all framed as Giles (his character who took over PROBE after Liz decided she didn’t want to anymore) doing ‘case files’ on what’s happened to the PROBE team, sometimes he goes outside or there’s a bit of editing, but mostly they’re just him talking to camera and Baggs just can’t act to save his life.
They’re also often almost just ads for other things BBV is doing or has done, one case file has Giles talking about the main character from Cyberon/Zygon joining the team, one is about The Stranger, one’s about their Brigadier series of stories they did, it’s just a lazy cashgrab.
They then also released ‘Portents of Doom’ last year, which is them getting back into making something that actually slightly resembles a film and it’s hillarious. Not intentionally to be clear, it’s just so so bad it’s funny.
Any questions I’m more than happy to answer, I’ve watched all of PROBE (bar four of the case files)
This film is much better than people give it credit for.
Such a great post @jaypea - I couldn’t even decide on the best reaction to it!
Oooo thinking about it, kinda want to do a PROBE guide for the guide
I would read that! And you get a badge for making guides!
The concept of it is great. The film itself, I’d say, is neither a good showing for the Zygons, or for the adult entertainment world. Would be nice if it was at least a superb example for either side of that coin.