What's sad is when the crew makes a huge effort, but the editing and post-production team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Way back I did some work as an extra on a lamentable BBC costume drama, By the Sword Divided, starring Tim Bentinck (better known to most of as as David Archer).
We were brought in because we knew how to do musketry drill - firing by introduction and extraction etc - and gunnery drill, which they needed for the battle scenes. (which was nice because, as specialist extras, we got far more than the usual Equity rate for odd-jobbers and crowd fillers).
The wardrobe, props and make-up people went to extraordinary lengths for authenticity (I've never seen so much fake grime aerosolled over people before, or been given so much black powder to play with).
The make-up people were particularly keen. For one of the battle scenes a bunch of us had to be mercilessly mown down in a point-blank fusillade from the gateway of Rockingham castle, and thus we were given the most wonderful wounds - almost as convincing as in Saving Private Ryan, inspired by the most gory post-mortem and scenes of crime photographs pinned up beside the mirrors in the make-up trucks. But, being the BBC, everything was done by the book.
Thus, at noon precisely, we stopped in mid make-up to queue for lunch (the catering was phenomenal - vast quantities provided in an operation that would shame the Army). I remember standing behind a friend whose brain was tumbling down the back of his neck (or at least a very convincing sponge, latex and goo version of it), while others had various bits falling off or in states of disarray.
And, during all external scenes, a crew of about 15 - linked by radios and working with the Notts police - would stop all traffic on two tiny roads about a mile away which could be seen from the castle. Must have made the locals far from gruntled, but the crew wanted authenticity.
We all did our best - and the finished programme, when broadcast on Sunday nights on BBC1, was complete pants. There were the most awful howlers in the studio-shot interior scenes, and the exterior battle scenes shot and cut dreadfully. And I never even got to see the full gamut of wounds, eviscerations and amputations...