Julia's Lack of curiosity about Barnabas' ORIGIN

> the wax museum look

 That's the perfect way to describe the DS sets!  They do have a creepy wax museum feel to them. 

By the way, is is just me, or when I see the show, with what look more like stage-like (or for that matter, the wax museum look and lit) studio sets, its more real to me than the movies or '91 when they were shot on locations?

It's not just you. I attribute it to video vs film. Video is much more intimate/real. That's my take on it. Of course you are talking about the sets, for me it's the over-all look of the show (sets, people, etc.).

Do you think that might be it?

Very much agreed. Video tape captures objects under lighting much as the eye actually sees them. Film gives more the impression of having been created with an artist's brush (which isn't that far off, when you look at how intricate the setup of lighting effects can be to achieve a desired look, with all the proper highlights, shadows, and colors).

A recent review of the Doctor Who DVDs briefly references how both that series and DS were shot on video: Doctorin' the Tardis: "Doctor Who" on DVD, Part One However, the reviewer seems to look on the situation as a bad thing, which I have to say I disagree with - well, at least in the case of DS. Like dom and Mark, I think videotape gives the original DS an intimacy/realism that film often lacks.