Doctor Who: Shada returns!

For those who aren't aware, Shada was set to be the final serial of Doctor Who's 17th season, starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Lala Ward as Romana II and John Lesson as K9 in a big, six-part sprawling epic written by Douglas Adams - of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently fame, who'd also written The Pirate Planet and City of Death for the series, in addition to being a script editor. The story would have followed a sinister new foe in the form of Skagra, who together with a malevolent mind-stealing sphere attempts to enter Shada - the prison planet of the Time Lords. To do this, however, he must steal a Gallifreyan book from retired Time Lord Professor Chronotis, who has sought the Doctor and Romana's help to hide it. For those who have, like myself, read Gareth Roberts' wonderful adaptation of Adams' scripts, you'll know just how witty and bonkers Shada is. Or was. Or could have been. It's a little complicated.
The novelization is one of many versions of the story, following a DVD/Video release of the filmed footage inter-woven with narration from the one and only Tom Baker, as well as a Big Finish version starring Paul McGann (which was also animated for the BBC website in 2003), and excerpts included in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors in 1983. The serial's surviving footage isn't too impressive, but the novel certainly gives a better idea of Douglas Adams' vision for the story, and with the adaptation in mind, the footage actually works much better. Context is everything.
Seemingly with this in mind, BBC Worldwide are now releasing a new version of Shada, featuring the original filmed footage together with specially-animated excerpts of the un-filmed scenes featuring the original cast in voice form. An idea like this is....complicated for sure, and together with the various other versions seems a little superfluous, especially given that when watching this version it would essentially transition from live action to animation at the flick of a dime, but a definitive version of the serial is no bad thing.
Which is why I'm so disappointed with the result.
Having seen the teaser trailer for this new Shada release prior to it's November / December release (depending on whether you get the digital download, DVD, Blu-ray or steelbook), I found it a real let-down. Apparently this is from the same team who brought us the Power of the Daleks reconstruction last year, but the excerpts depicted just look poor. The likenesses aren't really there, there is very poor and limited movement, and the animation style looks off to me. For some, this is forgivable, and while I was disappointed with the work on Power of the Daleks, it was satisfying to at least get to see what the story would have looked like. The problem is that we already know what Shada would have looked like - we have the filmed segments. We also know the story because its been told multiple times in multiple formats - and even found its way into Adams' own Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
So why do we need this exactly? I'm not sure. A DVD of Shada has been released, so collectors can comfortably fit it onto their shelves. There's no real gap in anyone's collection here - unlike with Power. Put simply, this seems to be a waste of the BBC's time - an attempt to cash-in on fans, but also make a double-dip with the most popular and iconic Doctor, not to mention one of the show's most prolific writers. Shada seems so much like a cash-in that it does irritate me. We could be seeing an animated Fury From the Deep, or Marco Polo, or The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, or The Daleks' Masterplan, or Evil of the Daleks, or The Wheel In Space, or The Macra Terror, or any one of those missing Doctor Who stories. Instead we get what feels like a cheap reissue of one fans are interested in, but few actually praise. I mean, aside from my earlier comments, who actually loves Shada?
What I'm trying to say isn't that I'm ungrateful for this new animated Shada, but that I was hoping for much more from this release after a barren year of no classic Who. Doctor Who is a big brand now, and yet the BBC don't seem to be quite on the ball when it comes to recognizing ways of exploiting the show's popularity to the benefit of both themselves and their fans. Given the Power of the Daleks steelbook is still listed on Amazon for a semi-reasonable price, it's clearly not sold as well as intended. Doctor Who's success is waning, and this doesn't feel like the right way of saving it.
Casting Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor in a Chris Chibnall-run series featuring 10, hour long episodes, however...well, that sounds pretty good to me.