Doctor Who - The Visitation
In the retrospective 1990s, when the only new Doctor Who coming out was in print, fandom took advantage of the lull in the proceedings to take stock of the Doctor’s time travels thus far. One argument that emerged in the ensuing discussion was “rad vs. trad,” or, in English, radical vs. traditional storytelling. Stories in which the Doctor and friends landed in the middle of something, got captured, escaped, meddled, sorted things out and ran up and down corridors a lot in between were considered “traditional” - this was the sort of storytelling that went all the way back to 1963. “Radical” stories were those that defied such categorization, often using novel storytelling devices such as flashbacks, flashforwards, bucketloads of internal dialogue, and so forth; anything with a postmodern flavor to it tended to fall into the “rad” category.
Without getting into any of the debates that sprung up about the merits of “rad” and “trad” Who, it’s funny that Eric Saward, the 1980s script editor who helped to push Doctor Who, kicking and screaming, out of the 70s, got in the door with The Visitation, a script that is decidedly “trad.” One of the last historical, or more properly pseudo-historical stories of Doctor Who’s first 26 years on television, The Visitation sees the crowded early-Peter Davison-era TARDIS team tackling terrible Terileptils in a sequence of events that will lead to the Great Fire of London. There’s a lot of running around, being captured, and escaping to fight again. In short, it’s nothing that couldn’t have been done in the Jon Pertwee era. Not that this makes it less entertaining - it’s quite a fun, uncomplicated romp.
In the Writing A Final Visitation featurette, which focuses on how Eric Saward came to work on the series, and the inspirations behind The Visitation, the writer-turned-script-editor fesses up that he hadn’t seen Doctor Who since the early 70s, and was simply writing what he remembered the show to be when he penned this story. But in a way, that’s what makes it so effective. Running after the decidedly “rad” Kinda, and buffered from Saward’s fast-paced, much-more-with-the-times Earthshock only by a short historical story (the 2-part Black Orchid), The Visitation is actually a much-needed dose of old-school Doctor Who in a season where a new Doctor and a relatively new producer were trying to change the direction and feel of the show.
Another featurette, the low-key but very entertaining Directing Who, revolves around prolific 80s Doctor Who director Peter Moffatt. Director of such pivotal stories as The Five Doctors, Mawdryn Undead, The Two Doctors and even The Visitation, Moffatt is gentlemanly in his criticisms and plaudits for the show as a whole. He also talks about the style he employed through all of his Doctor Who directing gigs, and hearing him give that background in a featurette with ample clips from the relevant shows, I realize why producer John Nathan-Turner asked Moffatt back to direct so often.
The commentary this time around features Moffatt along with series stars Peter Davison, Matthew “Adric” Waterhouse, Sarah “Nyssa” Sutton and Janet “Tegan” Fielding, with the actors ganging up on all four episodes as they did with the previous Davison-era release, Earthshock. My feelings on this particular grouping of commentators remains the same as it did with that story, too - they’re lively and entertaining, but Janet Fielding can occasionally be a bit grating. Given that her post-Who years were full of (often quite justifiable) comments about the show’s less-than-emancipated attitude toward its female regulars, I’m still stunned to listen to her DVD commentaries going on and on about how dated the hair and makeup are. Maybe she’d do better off with just Davison, or Davison and, say, a writer or director - perhaps without an audience of old friends things would stay on course a little better. I keep looking forward to her insights about her years of making Doctor Who, and I keep feeling a bit let down.
The Visitation features an isolated music soundtrack, presented in its original mono mix, as well as an unusual featurette focusing on Paddy Kingsland, who composed music for many an episode of Doctor Who around this time, as well as the second radio series and the TV version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Fellow composer Mark Ayres (who we’ve interviewed for ourselves, incidentally) chats informally with Kingsland about the unique challenges of creating a musical sound with synthesizers that would wind up butting heads with equally synthesized sound effects in the final mix. If you’re a music or sound afficionado, it’s interesting stuff.
It’s a nice package for a sometimes easily-overlooked adventure, and while it represents a slight step down in the depth of features from the BBC’s 2003 DVD releases commemorating Doctor Who’s 40th anniversary, that step down is still a big step above what you’d see for most TV DVD releases, especially releases that essentially encompass only four episodes out of a given season. And that’s why the Doctor Who DVDs are some of the best deals - with some of the best content - on the market.