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“There’s only one thing Mary Whitehouse hated more than sex, and that was Doctor Who,” Terrance Dicks cheerfully offers in one of this DVD’s bonus segments, and that really sets the tone for the presentation of the all-time Tom Baker era classic Genesis Of The Daleks on DVD. With an unusual gestation of its own, this story spanned two production teams, and may well stand as a signpost of where producer Philip Hinchcliffe’s era really began: with Robert Holmes as his script editor, Hinchcliffe sought to darken the series considerably, introducing elements of gothic horror and showing violence that had real, tangible effects…all of which served to repeatedly bring their era of Doctor Who into the crosshairs of self-appointed TV crusader Mary Whitehouse.

Genesis was one of the earliest Doctor Who adventures to merit her attention, though with its not-that-stylized moments of WWII-style violence (admittedly, we’re not talking Saving Private Ryan here, but it was a good deal more explicit in its treatment of violence than Jon Pertwee’s last couple of seasons), it may be easy to see why. (more…)

A largely comedic four-parter which benefits greatly from the comic timing of both series star William Hartnell and guest star Peter Butterworth (later of the Carry On films), The Time Meddler is an interesting choice for a DVD release. This story, aired in 1965, was the first to show us that there were other people in the universe who had a TARDIS - and therefore presumably other people who came from the same place as the Doctor…wherever that happened to be (Gallifrey and its Time Lords wouldn’t be invented until the very last story of the 1960s). In that respect, The Time Meddler is important to the mythology of Doctor Who. It was also the last story to be produced by Verity Lambert, who had overseen the series since its launch. She was handing the reins over to a successor who she felt would bring new life into the show, and heading off to pastures new. She participated in the commentary for this DVD release of The Time Meddler, though of course there was no way to know that she would pass away before that DVD hit the shelves. (more…)