Loose Cannon Productions
Loose Cannon Productions is a British video production company known for its many reconstructions of missing episodes using 16mm telerecordings, telesnaps, and audio recordings.
Eternal Links
The Team Icludes
About Loose Cannon Reconstructions The reconstructions project was started in December 1997 by Rick Brindell. The chosen story was Patrick Troughton story "The Macra Terror" not because it's the best, or hadn't been done before, but simply because it was the only set of telesnaps that Rick had!
The project was actually a lot harder, and took a lot longer than expected. Each of the telesnaps had to be rescanned, sometimes several times, and the video editing was extremely tedious and painstaking. Rick laboured almost every night and weekend for 3 months before the project was completed.
The result (although poor by the standard of today's recons) was so well received that Rick was persuaded to do another, then another...
In late 1998, Dean Rose and Derek Handley joined the LC team, and the production standards of the team have greatly improved over the years, leading to several early reconstructions being remade using new techniques and taking advantage of new technology
In 2003 Stuart Palmer added his ability in CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) to the team and in 2006 Russ Port was recruited to add his skills to the group which continues to go from strength to strength in filling the gaps in many a fans video collection.
Meet The Team
Rick Brindell
Rick Brindell was the founder of Loose Cannon Productions.
Back in 1997 Rick produced the first of his own style of reconstructions with 'The Macra Terror' using scans from Doctor Who Magazine and a fan audio. It seemed a pity to keep this reconstruction for his own enjoyment and soon a large following of reconstruction fans and a support network started to grow up around him.
Over recent years, Rick's interest in the reconstructions has declined and with other interests taking over he now prefers to take a back seat at let the other members of the team take the lead.
See Some UK Vacation Photos
Dean Rose
Dean joined the Loose Cannon team for the production of the original Myth Makers recon and, before the advent of CGI was mostly involved with the production of props and models. More recently Dean has become the main reconstructor of the team. His diplomatic approach is responsible for most of the celebrity introductions accompanying the reconstructions.
Dean's interests are not limited to reconstructing missing episodes; his real interest is in actually turning himself into our favourite Timelord, even to the extent of completing a PhD just so people would call him "Doctor". In order to enhance his alternate persona he recently built a replica of Bessie, the Third Doctor's car, and is now responsible for most of the traffic jams in Essex.
Russ Port
The newest member of the Loose Cannon team is Russ Port. His introduction to Doctor Who was through the Target novelisation's which created a fascination with the early years of the series, although, he could never quite understand why he could never find the videos of novelisation's he clearly remembered such as "The Cybermen" and "The Tenth Planet". Being the youngest member of the team Russ's earliest memory of the TV series is Terror of the Zygons, resulting a childhood conviction the Doctor was Scottish!
Russ's involvement with Loose Cannon started when he helped create video covers for the recons. This expanded to helping with source material and the occasional composite, then Russ was introduced to the video editing software and took to recon making like a duck to water.
Russ is now a fully fledged member of the Loose Cannon team and his enthusiasm helps to keep the team rolling along.
Stuart Palmer
Stuart Palmer is a self-taught specialist in computer generated imaging (CGI) and animation. He first assisted the Loose Cannon team with the mammoth Daleks' Master Plan recon. His Dalek models and sets were the first time that CGI had ever been used in a reconstruction and they certainly raised the standard and opened up new possibilities for the reconstructions.
Since the Daleks' Master Plan Stuart has remained a significant contributor to the reconstructions producing CGI sets, models and people for most of the subsequent productions. His help has proved to be invaluable for productions that have little or no surviving material or telesnaps. His animated models also add a new dimension to the latest reconstructions and really do help to bring them to life.
Stuart also makes his own Doctor Who related CGI productions, under the Altered Vistas banner .
Steve England
Although he does not contribute directly to the making of the recons, Steve is responsible for the web site design and maintenance and typos and we would be lost without him. He updates the recon pages with new reviews and handles all the new material that appears when a recon is released despite not getting a copy himself until after most of the dubsites :-( He handles many of the behind the scenes functions such as updating contact details for the dubsites.
Steve laments the demise of The Whonatics (remember them?) for whom he set up the London arm.
Steve has a wife, daughter and a half-finished dalek and K9.
Derek Handley
Derek was a member of the Loose Cannon team between the first production of Myth Makers in 1998 and the last production of Myth Makers in 2006 (There must be something about Trojans...), During that time he was jointly responsible for many of the advances in reconstruction technique that typify Loose Cannon productions.
Derek left the team in 2006 to allow him to work on the BBC range of Doctor Who DVD's, of which his first production was the short recon of Marco Polo to feature on the Beginning box set. He has also been responsible for many of the Photo galleries on the BBC discs and his massive Doctor Who photo collection has been a primary source of material for many recons. Although no longer and active member of the team, Derek still supports the recons.
