Reissued not too long ago in a new VHS package with supplemental material, Wartime is the granddaddy of them all: the first fan-made Doctor Who spinoff video to ascend beyond the realm, or budget, of home movies. As Doctor Who was still in production at the time, producer/director Keith Barnfather made the decision to focus on a fan-favorite secondary character instead. John Levene, who played recurring UNIT troop Benton in the 1960s and 70s, had actually retired from acting when he was approached to do Wartime. As it so happens, he was impressed with the script, was eager to work with Michael Wisher, and couldn't pass up a project that would be focused entirely on him. The rest, as they say, is history.

Though exceedingly short and somewhat simplistic, Wartime still manages to parallel the era of Doctor Who during which it was made: the production values are decent, the acting is top-notch, and it's a bit of a head trip. All in all, actually rather enjoyable, and if you're not that fascinated by it, fear not - it clocks in at under 40 minutes. Still, when so much of modern-day Doctor Who is now in the fans' hands - the novels, the audio plays, and an ongoing stream of video spinoffs - it's hard to overstate the importance of Wartime. This production really set the ball rolling in terms of the fans paying for permission to use characters from Doctor Who, and then turning around and making a bit of a profit from the results.

This is a point repeatedly hammered home in the Making Of Wartime documentary, which actually far exceeds the running time of the program it documents (a recurring phenomenon with Doctor Who video spinoffs). Many of the show's participants are interviewed at length, including Barnfather and Levene himself (who now resides in Los Angeles under the name of John Anthony Blake), and there's also a lengthy before-and-after section discussing the amateur fan films that preceded Wartime - and the much glossier efforts that came in its wake. Sometimes it gets a bit too self-back-patting for my taste, but considering that the people involved in the late 80s/early 90s cottage industry of Doctor Who spinoffs are now keeping the entire property going, I suppose they've earned it.

Easily my favorite Doctor Who fan video spinoff ever, Shakedown truly captures the elements that made its inspiration great: the budget doesn't matter. The actors and the dialogue (from a suspenseful and, quite frankly, very funny Terrance Dicks script) will carry the show. Shakedown demonstrates that atmosphere is not a quantifiable commodity that can only be purchased with a seven-digit budget - atmosphere is instead generated by the story and the performances. That said, the production values aren't too shabby. Some very nice, Red Dwarf-ish model work shows off the delicate, lovely Tiger Moth, and whoever did the lighting deserves a medal, as it often disguises the telltale modern-day signs of the location (the redressed bowels of an actual ocean- faring ship). And finally, Mark Ayres gives the whole show a tremendous boost with what may be his second-best score to date (next only to The Innocent Sleep).

Blake's 7 veterans Jan "Cally" Chappell (starring as Lisa Deranne) and Brian "Travis II" Croucher (as rogue-ish crew member Kurt) are easily the two most appealing members of the cast. Carole Ann Ford, who sharp-eyed Doctor Who fans will remember as the Doctor's first companion when the series launched in 1963, hams things up to an annoying degree - but her character is meant to be an irritating vamp, so it's not a violation of anyone's suspension of disbelief. Sohpie Aldred, the queen of Doctor Who fan videos, plays about as un-Ace-like a part as she could ask for.

Fortunately, there isn't much guesswork involved for those who aren't lifelong Doctor Who fans. Along with the late Robert Holmes, writer Terrance Dicks was one of the architects of the Sontaran/Rutan mythology in Doctor Who, and was able to insert several pieces of backstory for the uninitiated. A good test of this was whether or not my wife would be able to watch it without me pausing to fill in more details of Who mythology. I did have to explain a couple of things, but to my surprise, the script did most of that explaining for me.

What quality really stands out for me that makes Shakedown my favorite among the many fan-produced dramas? What puts Shakedown in the top bracket, above such decent productions like Downtime and big missteps like Mindgame? The humor. The script is laced with several moments of laugh-out-loud verbal comedy, and the cast frequently does us a great service by not playing it too tongue-in-cheek. The thought of Carole Ann Ford slapping a Sontaran's head lightly and referring to him as a "potato head" is still amusing even after the tape has stopped, and other touches - namely Kurt mentioning that his knowledge of the Sontarans comes from some old fellow he met on Metebelis 3 named "the Dentist, or the Physician, or something" - are equally amusing. Shakedown has many moments of high drama, but doesn't insult the audience by taking itself so dreadfully seriously. To give another example, Downtime was a decent story, told with a great cast and decent production values, but took itself so seriously and relied so heavily on past Who continuity as to be terribly dreary to watch.

I highly recommend Shakedown to any Doctor Who fans out there who are looking for the cream of the fan-produced-spinoff crop. The show's ending has a distinctly series-pilot-ish feel to it, and it's a shame that no one seemed to seriously consider extending Shakedown in such a manner.

Delayed in its production and release, Downtime was originally intended for a 1993 debut to coincide with Doctor Who's 30th anniversary, but when it looked like an official BBC direct-to-video TV movie called The Dark Dimension might actually be produced (with all of the surviving TV Doctors, no less), the fans backing the production of Downtime let the schedule slide. It's a pity, as the only member of their cast who would've had a conflicted schedule was Nicholas Courtney (aka Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), and in the end, Dark Dimension never got off the ground. Downtime made for a better anniversary reunion anyway, concentrating on the series' well-loved stable of favorite guest stars rather than the Doctor himself.

In some ways, Downtime is also hopelessly fannish, with insider continuity references galore that no Doctor Who neophyte could ever hope to comprehend. It's a joy to see the actors return in roles both old and new (look for John "voice of K-9" Leeson in the role of NeWorld's paranoid campus disc jockey), and if this is the last televised appearance of Nick Courtney in the role of the Brigadier - and I suspect that it may well be - it's a fine coda for the character and Courtney's portrayal of him. Here we see the former head of UNIT in retirement, having even left the teaching job that was added to the character's resumè in the 1980s, but still very sharp and suspicious. It almost makes one wish that perhaps during the Pertwee years, Doctor Who's producer and script editor could have broken format and given the Brigadier and UNIT a Doctor-less adventure of their own. (It's since been done in the novels.) Elisabeth Sladen does a fine reprise of Sarah Jane Smith, but somehow it seems a bit manipulative to have Victoria (Deborah Watling) as the villain of the piece, even under mind control. It's not Watling's fault, mind you, but this source of tension really only has meaning to longtime Doctor Who fans who know the significance of that character to the series. Deborah's father Jack Watling reprises his role as Professor Travers from the late 60s Yeti episodes The Abominable Snowmen and Web Of Fear, but that character also suffers from the mind-control ploy.

I've already griped about the soundtrack CD before, and while the music works marginally better with a visual context, it still grates on me. On the visual end, the effects are at least up to par with the final season of Doctor Who on BBC-TV, which isn't bad for a fan-made video released just six years later. The new Yeti costumes are every bit as menacing as the original, and the matte painting effects are exceptional. The visual flair of Downtime really kicks into high gear with the Brigadier's spooky dream sequences, shot in black & white with layers of dreamy video echo effects. The video was directed by Christopher Barry, a veteran BBC director whose Doctor Who experience stretches all the way back to 1963's The Daleks.

Yes, it's got a bit of a low-budget look, but Downtime makes for enjoyable viewing - if you're already a fan.

Oh, my. I really had higher expectations of this Reeltime independent video. The script, after all, was written by Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who's script editor for much of the late sixties and early seventies. The alien makeups were some of the more credible and well-crafted work I've yet seen in what is, essentially, a fan production. And the cast featured Sophie "Ace" Aldred and Miles Richardson (who has made the odd appearance on such shows as Highlander). How could they go wrong?

Terry Dicks unfortunately steered the whole ship into an iceberg by falling back on a clichèd, overused, predictable, and nauseatingly Trekkian plot device. Not that the "two people from clashing cultures must cooperate to battle a mutual enemy" plot was originated with Star Trek - I believe that honor goes to, if not The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, then at least Enemy Mine. But the various Star Trek series have recycled this basic storytelling staple so often, one could be forgiven for thinking that it originates in Roddenberry's universe.

Doctor Who itself is guilty of borrowing some of the most famous plotlines in science fiction and horror history: huge chunks of the series' now-missing golden years of the late 1960s were lifted liberally from classic Universal monster movies. But at least there were uniquely Who-ish touches that justified the near-plagarism. Not so here. The story is utterly unoriginal, who little in the way of style to distinguish it from similar stories.

And that's not the final insult. The actual program itself is terribly short - not even an hour. The run time of the program is dwarfed by the mammoth-length special on the making of Mindgame, which, while it's nice, is a very lopsided way to get the fans' money. Maybe the tape should've been advertised as "The Making of Mindgame - featuring the exclusive bonus movie, Mindgame!" instead of the other way around. From a purely financial standpoint, I felt cheated. I don't mind behind-the-scenes specials...but when they're longer (and even more boring) than the actual meat of the proceedings, I have to object.

Astoundingly, there's a sequel...about which more another time.

An interesting and somewhat surprising follow-up to the rather well-produced (if chlichèd) fan-made video project Mindgame, Mindgame Trilogy suffers a great deal in comparison because it alternates between being a total bummer (as Sophie Aldred's doomed space pilot slowly rationalizes her way toward suicide) and rather annoyingly dull (the Draconian's dilemma, something which could have been much more interesting). It's presented as three "episodes," each written by a different author, to smooth the transition a bit; each episode focuses on only one character. If any of the three original characters fares best, it's the Sontaran (now played by John Wadmore), who winds up in what may be the most action-packed fight scene ever to be populated by only one character. But in many ways, the Sontaran's plight smells familiar - his duty and honor diatribes could have been lifted from any Klingon-centric episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Sophie Aldred goes an excellent job of portraying her character's agonizing psychological death dive, but it's that segment which is the most downbeat, depressing, and hard to watch. It's also the most compelling, emotionally speaking. I have to make a special mention of the use of CGI to place Aldred's character in the cockpit of a drifting space vessel; rather like the Starfury cockpits in early episodes of Babylon 5, it doesn't afford the camera any leeway in terms of movement, but it's still an effective device, especially considering that the fan-made videos turned out by BBV and Reeltime Pictures had acquired a bit of a reputation for doing things on the cheap.

This leaves us, finally, with the Shakespeare-spouting Draconian. Not only does this part of the video barely make sense, it's not even remotely entertaining, which is sad given that they had a decent actor to work with...but perhaps it was a bad judgement call to let him write his own piece. While Mindgame Trilogy is a fascinating study of each of these characters in isolation, perhaps the mold should have been broken for the final chapter involving the Draconian character, and perhaps he should have had someone to interact with, even if it was a sentient computer that needed only a voice. As it is, he spends his hour on the stage fretting and strutting...ahem, at least it sure feels like an hour. The running time of the video is again padded out with a making-of program, much like the original Mindgame.

An interesting and worthwhile (if flawed) experiment, Mindgame Trilogy at least has good performances to commend it. This video may well be an actor's delight, but perhaps not a viewer's delight.