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Documentaries & Early Video Spinoffs
Daleks: The Early Years
What a neat item! I've been watching Daleks - The Early Years, and
I'm very much impressed. Not only are the clips good, but the
interviews are very interesting - I imagine the interviewees have
probably cultivated quite a good memory of these things having been
asked much the same questions for years and years. John Scott Martin
was particularly funny where he said that his Dalek would either "say
'Exterminate'...or 'Exterminate!'" And I've always been curious as to
what Terry Nation looks like these days.
Other good things - the trailers and promos from the BBC for Dalek
Invasion of Earth were both interesting and downright hilarious. And
I'm always a sucker for just about anything Peter Davison shows up in.
Even talking about Daleks destroying the universe, he can't help but be
a relaxing presence somehow! I'd be all too happy if the BBC started
releasing tapes of which only one episode out of four or so still exists
if Peter would sit there and narrate the missing parts. He's still tied
with Sylvester McCoy as my favorite Doctor, needless to say!
The two episodes from Dalek Master Plan were interesting as well -
these being the first actual orphan episodes I'd seen, I can now firmly
say that I'm truly peeved at the Beeb for having lost the rest of the
show. "Counter-Plot" was quite good, and the other episode was rather
funny with the Monk and all, though I can't believe the Daleks could be
stealthy enough to sneak up on Steven and Sara. Some very good camera
work in both of these - well, it was Douglas Camfield after all -
especially the interesting fade from the "sun" into a Dalek's "speaking
light." And the Doctor had an interesting hat he was wearing in Egypt -
I'd never seen Hartnell's Doctor wearing a hat before. Looked a bit
like the one the fifth Doctor usually wore. Anyway, trivialities aside,
both of the surviving episodes were good examples of how good DW can
always transcend any preceived limitations on its effects.
Evil of the Daleks part 2 is fascinating too - again, it's a crime
that the rest of it is missing. Could've done without "I'm Going To
Spend My Christmas with a Dalek," though...
All in all, quite neat, but recommended only for serious Dalek fans!
Cybermen: The Early Years
Just finished up Cybermen - The Early Years a few minutes ago.
Considering that the Cybermen have had more stories to develop in, I
guess it's natural that they get several minutes more tape time than the
Daleks did in their video.
Still, I am again impressed. JNT did a dandy job on these
documentaries, and I'm looking forward to the Tom Baker Years tapes
in a few days with great anticipation! The interviews were again
interesting, and the clips were wonderful, especially the stuff from
Tenth Planet and The Invasion. The orphan episodes from The
Moonbase and The Wheel in Space were great - for film that I'd always
rather figured wouldn't be in the best of shape, the episodes were in
pretty good condition, especially the very sharp Wheel part 6.
I almost have to say that the Cybermen of old were more menacing than
anything since. The costumes and the masks and all looked far more
"solidly metallic" for lack of a better phrase, much stronger and more
dangerous than, say, the 80s Cybermen, even though the recent models are
no teddy bears themselves. But the atmosphere of it was more menacing.
The Cybermen would take someone out with a savage chop to the neck
instead of shooting them - as they say, "oh, the horror!"
Amazing, the Doctor's speech in Moonbase part 2 about how evil must
be fought and so forth. The look on his face, and the sound of his
voice, I could swear it was Hartnell saying it. I don't know if Patrick
Troughton did that intentionally or not, but it was a masterful touch
either way.
Again, the clips and episodes included demonstrate that no budget can
limit a well-written and well-thought-out Doctor Who story. The simple
animation of the virus spreading down the crewman's hand in Moonbase 2
was a fair sight better and scarier than, say, the chromakey blue paint
used to try a variation on the same effect in Full Circle in 1980.
As far as companions go, I rather liked what little I saw of Ben.
Polly seemed like a typical female companion, but Ben had quite a bit
more spunk to him.
Overall, another good tape - rather enjoying these "Doctormentaries."
Colin Baker didn't make as good a presenter as Peter Davison, but I felt
this was more due to his having to flatten himself against the MOMI
wall-o'-Cyber-heads than any fault of Colin's, more of a directing
problem. The only problem I have with either this or the Daleks tape is
the title montage and music. It'd be an amazing thing to see this style
of title in the mid 80s, but one glimpse at such things as Red Dwarf
will show you that there's better effects technology available; perhaps
these tapes didn't take a really high priority. Still, that's a minor
peeve. Overall, the Early Years videos impressed me greatly - the Cyber
tape is more entertaining than most of David Banks' Cyber-history book.
The Tom Baker Years (1993)
I admit to having had some trepidation when I pulled this one out of the box.
Any double tape is going to take a formidable amount of time to watch, naturally,
but more than that, I was unsure of the content. Having become a Doctor Who fan
in the early 80s when the Tom Baker episodes ran on Arkansas public television, I
sat through nearly every Sunday morning showing until the final airing of the show
in 1988. I'm sure I'm not alone in being a victim of Tom Baker burnout. To so many
fans, Tom is the Doctor, accept no substitutes. Sure, his style and offbeat
mannerisms are the stuff of legend, but having watched his many stories in the role
of the Doctor over and over again, I was frankly relieved when other packages from
both earlier and later in the show's history were purchased by PBS. But I digress.
The upshot of all this is that, given the choice of watching Tom Baker or any
other Doctor, I usually chose the latter, having seen almost more of Tom than I
could stomach for so many years. So, with some reservation, I popped tape #1 of
The Tom Baker Years into my VCR and braced myself. My fears turned out to
be unfounded.
Instead of the expected pre-written monologue of memoirs and anecdotes which
would lead into clips of stories which are "also available on BBC Video..."
we get to sit in the living room with Tom himself - now wrinkled and grey-haired,
looking much more like predecessor Jon Pertwee than the familiar scarf-entangled
hero of the 70s - and watch his reactions as clips from every one of his adventures
are played to him on a TV. The clips were chosen by someone else, and he has not
been told what to expect. In many cases, the results are wonderful, and dedicated
fans will delight as the trademark toothy grin spreads across Baker's face as the
memories come flooding back (well, most of the time, anyway). He recalls most of the
time who else was acting in the sampled story, his memories of the making of that
show, and so forth. There are several cases where he can't remember a thing about
the story frm which the excerpt is taken, and this is occasionally attributable
to the curious choice of clips, many of which don't feature Tom himself in action!
His profuse apologies at these lapses of memory aren't really necessary, because
the novelty of seeing his reactions keeps the entire nearly-three-hour exercise
fascinating for even the most jaded of Doctor Who fans - including myself.
This tape served to remind me that it was Tom Baker who originally made me want
to watch more Doctor Who in the beginning. Highly recommended.
Reviewed in the November 1994 issue of LogBook
More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS
I have in past reviews waxed rhapsodic about the various Early Years
and [insert actor here] Years tapes, and while they are great fun, they
seem almost clinical and flat next to the gleefully uninhibited nostalgia of
this 1993 30th anniversary special. Not only does this special admit to many of
the show's faults, mysteries and various fads...this special, in fact, revels in
them! From the ridiculous premise that the Daleks, the most powerful enemies in
the universe, can be outrun with the help of a technological advancement known
to us as stairs...to the show's legendary but seldom-openly-spoken-of implicit
sexism...to the decades-old charges against the increasing amount of violence
brought against the show by alarmist watchdog groups...this show tackles it not
only with unusual frankness (even Mary Whitehouse, whose anti-violence lobbying
alarmed the BBC into reshaping the series' standards for violence in the 1970s,
is given a fair forum to state her case), but even with a sense of humor.
Add to that an almost overwhelming number of appearances by past stars of the
show and the show's mock-episodic format, and you've got a winner of a show.
Some of the longest-serving members of British fandom don the guises of their
favorite monsters and tag along with the surviving Doctors (sans Tom Baker and
Peter Davison, who do not appear) as they recall their favorite and least
favorite aspects of making the show. Nicholas "The Brigadier" Courtney
narrates the three-part, 90 minute show, and former companions Sophie Aldred,
Lis Sladen, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Nicola Bryant and Carole Ann Ford
also appear, along with ex-producers Verity Lambert (who launched the show),
Barry Letts, Philip Hinchcliffe and John Nathan-Turner, and past script editors
Terrance Dicks, Eric Saward and Douglas Adams. Many delightful clips of old
interviews are unearthed, taking you into the show's past much more effectively
than any previous Doctormentaries or even anniversary episodes.
But let's be frank - one of the best things More Than Thirty Years has
going for it is the recreations. Daleks patrol London Bridge anew, Cybermen
descend the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral, and Sontarans lurk in dark corners
waiting for their next unsuspecting victims. And best of all, the little boy
who the audience has followed throughout the show happens across a police box,
opens the door in curiosity, and discovers that he's stumbled upon the TARDIS.
All recreated with the greatest of care, vintage sound effects and authentic
"period" musical scores.
For anyone who's ever gotten the pure enjoyment of Doctor Who that comes from
watching it and not overanalyzing it, this is a must-see. It won't tell you
everything there is to know about Doctor Who, but it might just conjure up some
of those vibes that will take you back to the first time you stumbled upon the
TARDIS yourself.
The Airzone Solution (1993)
What's this, you say, he's reviewing a tape that has no connection to Doctor
Who whatsoever? Not quite. Actually, The Airzone Solution was the only
original dramatic production to emerge from 1993 celebrating the 30th anniversary
of Doctor Who (which went almost completely unsung, unlike the 20th and 25th
anniversaries of the show), and it did so in a nicely atypical way. Bill Baggs,
who had created and directed The Stranger movies for BBC Video starring
Colin Baker and numerous fan favorite guest stars from over the years, brought
together more Who luminaries in a gathering worthy of 1983's The Five Doctors.
The story follows the journalistic snoopings of independent TV reporter Al
Dunbar (Peter Davison - and since when are there freelance TV reporters?), who is
trying to find out exactly what measures the Airzone Corporation is taking in its
effort to live up to a government mandate to solve the pollution problem hovering
over Britain. To this end, Dunbar needs the assistance and the connections of
environmental activist Anthony Stanwick (Sylvester McCoy), but when he manages to
sneak into the Airzone plant he makes a horrifying discovery and pays for it with
his life. Visions of his death and other subsequent ghostly appearances are
experienced by both Stanwick and happy-go-lucky TV weatherman Arnie Davies (Colin
Baker), placing a severe strain on Arnie's relationship with his co-worker, reporter
Elenya Brown (Nicola Bryant). Stanwick and Davies reluctantly join forces - as
advised by Dunbar's mentor Oliver Trethewey (Jon Pertwee) - and manage to claw
through a web of murderous deception to find the truth: Airzone's not going to be
able to do anything about the pollution problem, so their solution is to
change human biology itself so the effects of pollution are not felt so adversely.
Is it Doctor Who? Not by a long shot. The story's Blade Runner/Soylent
Green-esque sci-fi underpinnings are darker than anything Who ever would have
attempted prior to going off the air and evolving into the more adult New Adventures
novels, mainly because it's not too far-fetched an idea; the political maneuvers
needed to make the story a reality are well within the broad ethical grasp of
today's elected officials. The successful but downbeat ending, along with the
occasional bursts of profanity and love scenes, would earn The Airzone Solution
at least a PG-13 rating in American-speak. The cast does a marvelous job with
the well-written story, though those who know them only from their Doctor Who
roles will be surprised, but hopefully pleased. They had some fun making this
one, though there are thankfully no obvious Doctor Who in-jokes to slow it down
too much. Peter Davison - who spews the worst language and is perhaps playing
the role furthest removed from his Doctor Who character - and the always
wonderfully eccentric Sylvester McCoy are sadly underused, with Pertwee making
but a tiny cameo appearance. The one problem is the sound mix, which doesn't
bring up hushed words loud enough to hear them; you have to turn up the TV and
listen close in several scenes, and then run away, run away as the next scene is
suddenly louder!
Still, it's a good show, commendable for its unusual dark climax (you don't
really know in the end whose side Trethewey is on), and it's the only original
production to pull this many Doctor Who favorites together. It's not for
everyone, but for those like myself who grew up with the good Doctor(s) and are
now all grown up without him, it's an hour well spent.
Reviewed in the January 1995 issue of LogBook
DOCTOR WHO and all related characters and placenames
are the property of the British Broadcasting Corporation. This document is not
intended to infringe upon the BBC's copyright in any way. The author(s)
make no attempt - in using the names described herein - to supercede the
copyrights of the copyright holders, nor are these files officially sanctioned,
licensed, or endorsed by the shows' creators or producers.
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