Rating: 
Summary: Doctor Who in London
Review: There are those who consider Doctor Who to be at its very best when the errant Time Lord is visiting Earth and dealing with alien threats that are Earthbound. Doctor #3 himself, the late Jon Pertwee, often stated this story genre to be his favorite, and judging by the number of Earthbound stories from the show's lengthy history, many agreed. The latest two releases on DVD from the BBC archives are united in their "Earth invasion" theme, but both have taken an interesting and indeed unique slant on the alien invasion of London twist. The "Dalek invasion of Earth" was the last adventure made in the first season production block, way back in 1964, albeit held over and broadcast as the second story in season two. The adventure is significant for many reasons, mainly because it featured the departure of one of the original Tardis crew, and also because it was the first "sequel" to feature in the show, featuring the return of the enormously popular Daleks, created by Terry Nation. Set almost 200 years in the future, the adventure mainly takes place in central London, allowing for much location filming around familiar sights, which adds to the realism of the story. It was the first real use of extensive location filming in the show's history and was well worth the effort to take the show out of the studio and bring a more epic quality to the production. The closing sequence featuring the Doctor (as played by William Hartnell) bidding farewell to his granddaughter Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford, may also be one of the entire series most poignant scenes. All six of the original black and white episodes have been painstakingly restored to almost their original broadcast quality, with many enhancements to some of the laughable special effects added as an option. Potentially, it's the other bonus material that may prove the most interesting to fans and casual viewers alike. The commentary from the surviving cast (Carole Ann Ford and William Russell) together with the producer and director is first class. The on-screen captions also go a long way to fleshing out the background to the production. Almost the entire guest cast appear in newly shot interviews airing their reminiscences, plus there are all sorts of behind the scenes programme's, trailers and other goodies gathered onto a 2nd disc. The same is true of the companion release, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang." Made twelve years later, in glorious colour, this six part series took another twist on the Earth invader theme by taking the Doctor, this time played by Tom Baker, and his companion Leela back into Victorian London to deal with a sinister alien menace. For many, this story is often regarded as one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) story of the Doctor Who canon. And I'm not going to disagree. The production values alone would be enough to set it apart, but the wonderful script, incredible design and superlative acting by the entire cast adds a special magic to the show that few other Who adventures have ever matched. Like the earlier Dalek story, it also marks the end of an era, since this was the last adventure produced by Philip Hinchcliffe. Quite honestly - the show was never the same again! Again, there are all sorts of goodies available on a 2nd disc to accompany the restored six-part adventure. A documentary on the history of Doctor Who televised at the conclusion of the serial is just one bonus worth having; the commentary from the cast and crew is another. It's great to hear Louise Jameson (Leela) making her DVD debut, and it's a real shame Tom Baker himself did not take part. Both stories are excellent additions to the growing Doctor Who library, clearly demonstrating the changing production values and story making not only of this particular show, but also British TV drama in general. I'd highly recommend them and look forward to the next two releases in 2004.
Rating: 
Summary: It is Forbidden to Dump Bodies into the River ...
Review: This creepy phrase, appearing on a large poster along the Thames, along with stunning location shoots all over London, sticks with you long after watching "The Dalek Invasion of Earth." Almost forty years later, this show retains its darkness, showing a slow degradation of hope and humanity among a scattered group of survivors. After the pepper pot-shaped Daleks take over Earth, turning most humans into worker slaves, and an unlucky few into lobomotized overseers, the Doctor and his friends (Susan, Barbara, and Ian) land on Earth and join the resistance. Location shoots are used to great effect, even if you're not a Londoner - from a disquieting scene of a berserk Roboman drowning himself in the Thames, to a road devoid of cars, where two women try to escape in an antique truck. Keeping in mind that Doctor Who, particularly during the 1960s, was first and foremost a children's TV series, it's surprising that no punches were pulled here. The character of Jenny, originally developed as a new companion for the Doctor, has seen so much death that it no longer fazes her; three other characters are traitorous, willing to sell out the Doctor and his friends for food or money. The DVD here has great features, well worth the price of admission. Using the "angle" control on your DVD player, you may switch between the CGI-animation and original animation of the Dalek ship and other special effects, even as you're viewing the episodes. There are several documentaries covering this animation, design and other aspects of the show. There's also the half hour radio drama, "Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?" and detailed captions, or "info text" which can be watched by using the subtitle command. As with all incarnations of the Doctor, eventually the companions leave and change - much like the Doctor himself. This was the first show to feature the departure of a companion, in a touching scene with just the right note of sentiment. The loving speech the Doctor gives to his departing granddaughter, refusing to let her back into the TARDIS, is one of William Hartnell's great moments, sure to raise a sad pang in the heart of Whovians everywhere. However, while "Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?", also featured on this DVD, is well-written and gets in a few French jokes, its farcical tone seems inappropriate. It would have you believe Susan became a snide, career-minded bureaucrat on Earth and that another Hartnell-era companion, one of the strongest-minded, went mad. The same Susan who declares "I love the twentieth century" in "An Unearthly Child" begins moaning about how boring the early 1960s were and longs to return to Gallifrey? Humor has always been a big part of Doctor Who's appeal, but no one would buy Jo Grant becoming Prime Minister, or Liz Shaw the afternoon host of a cooking show (now, vice-versa...). The silly premise is better suited to fan fiction. Most of all, the one-joke play neuters the terrific, emotional ending of this serial - as well as the interesting relationship developing between Susan and David, a resistance fighter. Instead, Doctor Who fans might be better off watching this as a chaser with "Genesis of the Daleks". Of course, both stories are a bit gloomy, so you might want to wait until a cheerful morning to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Added features (2nd disk) jacks up price, but great show
Review: This is a fun and lengthy story from the early days of Dr. Who and any fan will enjoy it. It was also clearly the basis for the second of the Peter Cushing Dr. Who theatrical films. The show is enjoyable and filled with the kind of costumes, premises and acting that would be common in Dr. Who for years to come. If you enjoy the goofy fun of the Daleks ("exterminate!") or if you've never seen Dr. Who and were looking for something fun to watch with your kids and wanted to try out a "typical" Dr. Who episode, then this show will not disappoint. However, I believe some of the extra features could have been trimmed to keep this to a one-disk set with a lower price. Some of the extra features are not that interesting and seem like they were included just to pad the length and justify the 2nd disk and much higher price. One extra feature I did like was the 40th anniversary montage of all the Doctors from various episodes. Another was the footage showing the London locations for the show as they looked then and as they look now. A thoroughly enjoyable program overall.
Rating:
Summary: Doctor Who is alway fun
Review: This is a really great episode with original Doctor Bill Hartnell. He is always one of the quirkiest doctors and I always enjoy watching him. It's old black and white and sometimes the picture quality and sound aren't so great. It is always worth it though. Recently, I saw the Peter Cushing version. I admit that audio and video quality was better, but the story is not so rushed as it was with the Peter Cushing version. I really liked this. The other was okay. This is a great addition to any Doctor Who collection. >Mike
Rating:
Summary: A Doctor Who classic
Review: This is a superb DVD presentation of this classic Doctor Who story. The excellent restoration work done on the sound and audio ensures that this is probably the best the story has looked since it was originally broadcast. The addition of the optional CGI feature where you can watch the story with some effects shots replaced with updated versions is a definite plus (as is the fact that purists can still watch with the original effects intact). There are also featurettes and an informative audio commentary, as well as an interesting trivia subtitle track. It's great to see such care taken with the release of vintage stories like this on DVD. Sure, it'd be great to have season boxed sets or more frequent releases of single stories per year, but with top shelf releases this like, there's less reason for fans to complain.
Rating:
Summary: Eerie, dark and inspiring
Review: This is one of my favorite Dr. Who episodes. I don't believe the dark reality depicted in this unsettling and suspensful episode would have run as well in color as it does in stark black and white. The scene opens with a man, dressed in rags and wearing head gear, scrambling onto an embankment, tearing at his head and then throwing himself into the Thames to drown. The TARDIS then materializes under the same bridge where the first thing the viewer (but not the TARDIS crew) sees is a large sign forbidding the dumping of bodies into the river. A temporarily relieved Ian and Barbara are soon unnerved by the utter silence; the bridge is decrepit, there is garbage and overgrown weeds, and the river is dead. The Daleks have invaded -- London is now inhabited only by resistence fighters, fugitives and Robomen drones who have been surgically altered by the Daleks to be their slaves, useful until such time as they are driven mad by the cranial butchery and begin to bash their heads against a wall or...throw themselves into the river. Through this blasted, surreal landscape, deserted and dead, move Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor, their ears assaulted by the grinding voices of the Daleks chanting their orders through loudspeakers that echo through the deserted streets and houses, hunted and hiding from the Daleks moving deadly silent and seemingly ubliquitously. There is an aura of decay and desperation overhanging this entire episode, with its relics of a happy, free society plastered over everywhere with "vetoed" signs. Barbara has an excellent part, particularly when she joins the resistence fighters and, with one of the other fighters, begins her flight toward her old home town, or what is left of it -- it's tough for women of this era to make a strong impression (the character of Susan is a very uneven example), and she is one of my favorite companions, growing from a nervous, self-admittedly unadventuresome woman in the early stages of her tenure with Dr. Who, to the spirited, enterprising and warm individual in Invasion. Unfortunately, this excellent episode is rather unfortunately and sloppily ended -- tsk tsk...I'm a writer, and even sweating a deadline it could have been done a bit better. Carol Ann Ford wished to leave the series and so Susan, still depicted as a rather neurotic waif, is summarily dumped from one man onto another like a bit of unwanted baggage -- the only time that scaaaary word "woman" rather than the usual dismissive "girl" is used is in the doctor's heartless and, in this case, glaringly uncharacteristic speech (Hartnell couldn't have liked it much). A sentence or two here and there throughout the episode to make Susan a bit less childish would have given her a cogent leadup to her leaving, and made it a truly sad departure rather than a merely exasperating one. But that's just a bit of nonsense at the end that needn't detract (more than one star, that is) from the excellence of this great Dalek adventure. I have only one question, though. What on earth was that Dalek doing rising from the depths of Thames?
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: This is one of those titles I looked forward to long before I knew of any definite plans to release it on DVD. I've always felt that, along with the Patrick Troughton story "The Seeds of Death", this is probably the best-photographed story of the entire 26 year history of the show; this is despite the fact that the cameraman's shadow can be seen drifting in and out of certain shots, but this can be forgiven since it is only the vastly improved DVD resolution that makes it visible at all, a problem that didn't exist when it was originally broadcast.
It was the first Doctor Who story to contain a significant amount of location footage, which enhanced its credibility; to see Daleks swarming around familiar monuments and landmarks leant the story authenticity, and the exterior lighting conditions throughout are flawless, and contribute greatly to creating a tense atmosphere of apprehensive foreboding.
I would also like to say that I have always been outspokenly opposed to the modification of old films and TV shows for any reason, so when I learned that some of the special effects had been replaced with newly-created CGI images, I was a little disturbed. But when I saw the results, I was floored: the new sequences are integrated so seamlessly and applied with such restraint that I have been forced to reconsider my objections. Furthermore, this DVD allows the viewer to choose between the original special effects sequence originally broadcast and the new updated CGI sequences.
This terrific feature, along with the high quality of the transfer, is an excellent example of the extreme care the BBC has taken in presenting these stories on DVD. They have taken an almost reverential approach in presenting this beloved British national icon to the rest of the world, and this is yet one more reason to buy this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: This is one of those titles I looked forward to long before I knew of any definite plans to release it on DVD. I've always felt that, along with the Patrick Troughton story "The Seeds of Death", this is probably the best-photographed story of the entire 26 year history of the show; this is despite the fact that the cameraman's shadow can be seen drifting in and out of certain shots, but this can be forgiven since it is only the vastly improved DVD resolution that makes it visible at all, a problem that didn't exist when it was originally broadcast.
It was the first Doctor Who story to contain a significant amount of location footage, which enhanced its credibility; to see Daleks swarming around familiar monuments and landmarks leant the story authenticity, and the exterior lighting conditions throughout are flawless, and contribute greatly to creating a tense atmosphere of apprehensive foreboding.
I would also like to say that I have always been outspokenly opposed to the modification of old films and TV shows for any reason, so when I learned that some of the special effects had been replaced with newly-created CGI images, I was a little disturbed. But when I saw the results, I was floored: the new sequences are integrated so seamlessly and applied with such restraint that I have been forced to reconsider my objections. Furthermore, this DVD allows the viewer to choose between the original special effects sequence originally broadcast and the new updated CGI sequences.
This terrific feature, along with the high quality of the transfer, is an excellent example of the extreme care the BBC has taken in presenting these stories on DVD. They have taken an almost reverential approach in presenting this beloved British national icon to the rest of the world, and this is yet one more reason to buy this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: This is one of those titles I looked forward to long before I knew of any definite plans to release it on DVD. I've always felt that, along with the Patrick Troughton story "The Seeds of Death", this is probably the best-photographed story of the entire 26 year history of the show; this is despite the fact that the cameraman's shadow can be seen drifting in and out of certain shots, but this can be forgiven since it is only the vastly improved DVD resolution that makes it visible at all, a problem that didn't exist when it was originally broadcast.
It was the first Doctor Who story to contain a significant amount of location footage, which enhanced its credibility; to see Daleks swarming around familiar monuments and landmarks leant the story authenticity, and the exterior lighting conditions throughout are flawless, and contribute greatly to creating a tense atmosphere of apprehensive foreboding.
I would also like to say that I have always been outspokenly opposed to the modification of old films and TV shows for any reason, so when I learned that some of the special effects had been replaced with newly-created CGI images, I was a little disturbed. But when I saw the results, I was floored: the new sequences are integrated so seamlessly and applied with such restraint that I have been forced to reconsider my objections. Furthermore, this DVD allows the viewer to choose between the original special effects sequence originally broadcast and the new updated CGI sequences.
This terrific feature, along with the high quality of the transfer, is an excellent example of the extreme care the BBC has taken in presenting these stories on DVD. They have taken an almost reverential approach in presenting this beloved British national icon to the rest of the world, and this is yet one more reason to buy this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: The first companion to leave Dr Who
Review: This was well worth the wait! Some of the "running through deserted London" scenes drug on a bit, but for the most part, the action flowed at a good pace. The scene where Susan is left behind and the speech the Doctor makes at the end are classic!
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