The Doctors- 30 Years Of Time Travel And Beyond

Rating:
Summary: The worst DVD release ever?
Review: Grainy, distorted images still haunt my memories of attempting to sit through this DVD... It sickens the stomach so much, I could not finish it. This is bad. So bad I was afraid my DVD player was not working properly. I inserted a different DVD... *WHEW,* it was just this worthless disc.

The amazing thing is, I have the VHS version of this, and upon viewing the DVD I noticed that the field of vision is actually smaller on the DVD than on the video. The top inch of a person's head is suddenly cut off, where on the VHS version, it is not. And the VHS is nowhere as bad as this...something is DEFINITELY wrong with this product!

You could purchase this title to put it in your DVD collection, but I would only do so if it cost less than 5 US dollars and you are the rabid Doctor Who fan. SERIOUSLY. THIS PRODUCT NEEDS A DISCLAIMER!!! If monkeys were not involved in the production of this "DVD," then it was only because they could not be budgeted in. AVOID AT ALL COSTS AND DEMAND BETTER PRODUCT IN THE FUTURE.

Rating:
Summary: Introspective approach serves a particular audience well
Review: Other reviews have tended to emphasize the lack of production value this piece offers--and on that point I can hardly argue. I could improve "The Doctors" a hundred-fold with an hour on an old iMac. Still, all the editing in the world isn't going to help some fairly basic flaws with the source material: microphones are obviously in frame for many of the interviews, there's been no attempt to color balance shots, and there's really no narrative thread stringing the interviews together. To call this a "documentary" would make Ken Burns embarrassed of his craft.

But, to me, all that's hardly the point.

THE DOCTORS works because it answers a question I've had for two decades: "What the hell happened to DOCTOR WHO?" In the early 80s I actively watched the show on my local PBS station. I was thus very much a child of the Baker/Davison years. By the mid 80s, it was only sporadically shown on my local PBS station. Eventually word came through that the show had been cancelled. By the late 80s-even before the show was cancelled in Britain-it simply became too much work trying to find a station that still broadcast it. DOCTOR WHO faded as a memory of childhood.

But I had always wondered what happened to the show. How could the longest-running science fiction show ever made-indeed one of the longest-lived shows of any kind-simply whimper out of existence without so much as a farewell episode? Given the furor over "final" episodes of much shorter American series like CHEERS and M*A*S*H, it seemed utterly incomprehensible that a show well-loved around the world could just fade away.

This DVD-which doubtless would be better-reviewed were it more properly called, "Death of a Time Lord: Reflections on the End of DOCTOR WHO"--goes a long way to giving candid answers to that nagging question. While I can well imagine that hard-core fans would be unsurprised by most of the content of this disk, I found it fascinating stuff. Far from being disillusioned by the lack of technical sophistication involved in the production of the piece, I found it evocative of its source material. The raw, low budget nature of the footage is vintage DOCTOR WHO. I especially enjoyed seeing actors returned to locations where they'd filmed particular episodes, as if they were being sent to "holy ground" on some sort of nostalgic pilgrimage. Yet the places are barely distinguishable from one another. For Americans, this was always one of the great charms of the show. It was always delightful seeing the British delude themselves into believing that one part of their country looked sufficiently different from another so as to masquerade as completely different planets. THE DOCTORS succeeds with its low-budget approach because it's exactly what the producers of DOCTOR WHO would do if they were asked to film a series of interviews in the style of DOCTOR WHO.

More importantly, though, THE DOCTORS gains much from its "unofficial" status. Sure, being able to have access to the copyrighted material of the BBC would have given them clips from the series, and maybe interviews with the upper echelons of BBC management, but the price would have been a BBC-paid editor. It's unclear how different these interviews would have been had they been conducted by the participants' former paymasters-but one can well imagine that the bits most critical of the BBC would not have survived. Nevertheless, material from the upper BBC management-even a summary from contemporary news articles--would have neatly balanced the interviews present here, and indeed SHOULD have been present to give the piece more journalistic balance.

In the end, the limitations of the piece make it usable by only a particular segment of DOCTOR WHO fandom-and perhaps not at all to the general public. I liked it simply because it succinctly answered a lot of questions about the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy years. While I learned something from almost every participant, I was literally taken aback by the demeanor of the now-late John Nathan Turner. Far from being the egotistical producer I had always imagined, he came across as sympathetic, willing to admit his mistakes, and protective of the actors he'd cast as Doctor. While tighter editing and a more "controlled" interviewing environment might have made for a technically better show, the "raw" format of the show allows personality and tone to emerge from the interviewees in a way that a more "polished" production might have failed to elicit.

Thus I consider THE DOCTORS a useful addition to my collection-even if I'm glad I got it at a bargain basement price. Whether you'll find it valuable really depends on how much or how little you know about the Doctor's travels. It's not at all a place to start for an overview of the series. Nor is it a place to come if you're well-versed in DOCTOR WHO lore. But for that middle range of fans-who either ignored or couldn't follow DOCTOR WHO in the 1980s-you'll doubtless find something here you didn't know. It would be fascinating to return to this video after the new DOCTOR WHO series starts in 2005 to see if any of the nostalgic warnings given here were heeded by the new production team.

Rating:
Summary: Introspective approach serves a particular audience well
Review: Other reviews have tended to emphasize the lack of production value this piece offers--and on that point I can hardly argue. I could improve "The Doctors" a hundred-fold with an hour on an old iMac. Still, all the editing in the world isn't going to help some fairly basic flaws with the source material: microphones are obviously in frame for many of the interviews, there's been no attempt to color balance shots, and there's really no narrative thread stringing the interviews together. To call this a "documentary" would make Ken Burns embarrassed of his craft.

But, to me, all that's hardly the point.

THE DOCTORS works because it answers a question I've had for two decades: "What the hell happened to DOCTOR WHO?" In the early 80s I actively watched the show on my local PBS station. I was thus very much a child of the Baker/Davison years. By the mid 80s, it was only sporadically shown on my local PBS station. Eventually word came through that the show had been cancelled. By the late 80s-even before the show was cancelled in Britain-it simply became too much work trying to find a station that still broadcast it. DOCTOR WHO faded as a memory of childhood.

But I had always wondered what happened to the show. How could the longest-running science fiction show ever made-indeed one of the longest-lived shows of any kind-simply whimper out of existence without so much as a farewell episode? Given the furor over "final" episodes of much shorter American series like CHEERS and M*A*S*H, it seemed utterly incomprehensible that a show well-loved around the world could just fade away.

This DVD-which doubtless would be better-reviewed were it more properly called, "Death of a Time Lord: Reflections on the End of DOCTOR WHO"--goes a long way to giving candid answers to that nagging question. While I can well imagine that hard-core fans would be unsurprised by most of the content of this disk, I found it fascinating stuff. Far from being disillusioned by the lack of technical sophistication involved in the production of the piece, I found it evocative of its source material. The raw, low budget nature of the footage is vintage DOCTOR WHO. I especially enjoyed seeing actors returned to locations where they'd filmed particular episodes, as if they were being sent to "holy ground" on some sort of nostalgic pilgrimage. Yet the places are barely distinguishable from one another. For Americans, this was always one of the great charms of the show. It was always delightful seeing the British delude themselves into believing that one part of their country looked sufficiently different from another so as to masquerade as completely different planets. THE DOCTORS succeeds with its low-budget approach because it's exactly what the producers of DOCTOR WHO would do if they were asked to film a series of interviews in the style of DOCTOR WHO.

More importantly, though, THE DOCTORS gains much from its "unofficial" status. Sure, being able to have access to the copyrighted material of the BBC would have given them clips from the series, and maybe interviews with the upper echelons of BBC management, but the price would have been a BBC-paid editor. It's unclear how different these interviews would have been had they been conducted by the participants' former paymasters-but one can well imagine that the bits most critical of the BBC would not have survived. Nevertheless, material from the upper BBC management-even a summary from contemporary news articles--would have neatly balanced the interviews present here, and indeed SHOULD have been present to give the piece more journalistic balance.

In the end, the limitations of the piece make it usable by only a particular segment of DOCTOR WHO fandom-and perhaps not at all to the general public. I liked it simply because it succinctly answered a lot of questions about the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy years. While I learned something from almost every participant, I was literally taken aback by the demeanor of the now-late John Nathan Turner. Far from being the egotistical producer I had always imagined, he came across as sympathetic, willing to admit his mistakes, and protective of the actors he'd cast as Doctor. While tighter editing and a more "controlled" interviewing environment might have made for a technically better show, the "raw" format of the show allows personality and tone to emerge from the interviewees in a way that a more "polished" production might have failed to elicit.

Thus I consider THE DOCTORS a useful addition to my collection-even if I'm glad I got it at a bargain basement price. Whether you'll find it valuable really depends on how much or how little you know about the Doctor's travels. It's not at all a place to start for an overview of the series. Nor is it a place to come if you're well-versed in DOCTOR WHO lore. But for that middle range of fans-who either ignored or couldn't follow DOCTOR WHO in the 1980s-you'll doubtless find something here you didn't know. It would be fascinating to return to this video after the new DOCTOR WHO series starts in 2005 to see if any of the nostalgic warnings given here were heeded by the new production team.

Rating:
Summary: I've seen better quality film in a bathtub!!!
Review: The quality on this DVD looks like one of those multi-generation VHS dubs you find bootlegged at a convention! This is probably the WORST quality DVD I've ever seen! The 8mm home movie footage actually sometimes looks BETTER than the interviews shot back in 1993! Simply HORRIBLE!!!

Rating:
Summary: Worse than VHS -- green doctors!
Review: This is all material previously released on other VHS tapes. Most of the DVD is decidedly green-tinted. My VHS of copies of the interviews are clearly better overall in picture quality and color balance. I am an avid collector and this tape is not necessary if you've bought the other tapes, such as Longleat '83 and The Stranger episodes with the Doctors interviews. I don't recommend this DVD for anybody because if you're a fan, you already have the interviews, probably in better quality, and if you're new to DW, you'll be lost, totally lost.

Rating:
Summary: For Dr. Who fanatics, not casual fans
Review: This is NOT the fantastic official documentary that came out on video a few years ago called "More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS." That is the best documentary ever produced on the longest running sci-fi series of all time, Doctor Who. This DVD is a 1993/1994 British documentary not affiliated with the BBC, hence the title "The Doctors" rather than "Doctor Who." Prior to this release, it was a VHS tape available mainly through fan clubs or sci-fi publications. Yes, it is not bad, a low-budget labor of love in most places and it does feature interviews with Doctors 2, 5, 6, and 7 and a host of others. Still, there are NO clips from the show (apart from grainy home movie footage from the set) and very few stills. If you LOVE Doctor Who, then you already know what this is and have probably already purchased it. If you are a casual fan, buy it only if you don't mind a lot of talking heads (albeit interesting talking heads) and want a few snippets of rare home movies from the Troughton and Pertwee years. Overall, I would wait for the DVD release of the BBC-produced "More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS." I have heard that it's on its way!!

Rating:
Summary: For Dr. Who fanatics, not casual fans
Review: This is NOT the fantastic official documentary that came out on video a few years ago called "More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS." That is the best documentary ever produced on the longest running sci-fi series of all time, Doctor Who. This DVD is a 1993/1994 British documentary not affiliated with the BBC, hence the title "The Doctors" rather than "Doctor Who." Prior to this release, it was a VHS tape available mainly through fan clubs or sci-fi publications. Yes, it is not bad, a low-budget labor of love in most places and it does feature interviews with Doctors 2, 5, 6, and 7 and a host of others. Still, there are NO clips from the show (apart from grainy home movie footage from the set) and very few stills. If you LOVE Doctor Who, then you already know what this is and have probably already purchased it. If you are a casual fan, buy it only if you don't mind a lot of talking heads (albeit interesting talking heads) and want a few snippets of rare home movies from the Troughton and Pertwee years. Overall, I would wait for the DVD release of the BBC-produced "More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS." I have heard that it's on its way!!