Reviews (9)

Two great stories!
With this double tape set, viewers are treated to two stories with similar themes. Both are historical in context and both deal with monsters, of a sort. In The Visitation, the Doctor must stop the evil Terrileptals from overrunning a 17th century earth with a massive plague that would wipe out the entire population. In Black Orchid, we are treated to the first purely historical story since te days of Patrick Troughton's Doctor. Here, the Doctor discovers murder in the home of the Cranleighs. What dark secret is Lady Cranleigh trying to hide and how does it relate to Nyssa? Both stories are well paced, well acted stories, worthy of being included in anyone's video collection.

Great adventures from 1666 and 1925 Britain
Two historical adventures, one quasi-, the other a period adventure set in 1920's Britain. The first, The Visitation, has the Doctor and his companions landing in the England of 1666, where they are mistaken for plague carriers and nearly killed if not for the intervention of Richard Mace, an itinerant thespian who has been taking refuge in a barn. Mace saw a comet as the sign of things to come. However, according to the Doctor, Earth isn't due for a comet for a couple years. And the discovery of higher technology pinpoints to aliens on Earth, and thus to the manor where the barn's owner lives. However, the manor is under control of the Terileptils, (inspired by the words territorial reptiles), whose leader becomes interested in the Doctor as he sees the Time Lord foil his servants, villagers controlled by a crude form of mental control.

At first, Richard Mace is skeptical at the Doctor's explanations for the strange occurrences, but he comes to trust the unconventional Time Lord. The representation of manners and customs of 17th century England is accurately shown in Mace, who tells the Time Lord that one should be humble and respectful of the gentry, particularly the owners of the barn the Doctor wants information on. The Doctor ripostes with "I've met kings, emperors, megalomaniacs in my time." And Mace's shock at Nyssa and the Doctor's breaking into the barn owner's house is again 17th century protocol. But Michael Robbins' plummy robust voice as well as his likeable character nearly makes him steal the show as Mace.

One reason why Tegan's among my least favourite companions is her bad temper. When the Doctor misses her own time by a good three centuries, she yells "Call yourself a Time Lord? A broken clock keeps better time than you! At least it's accurate twice a day which is more than you ever are!" Later, he gets his own back when in response to how she's feeling, Tegan says "Groggy, sore, and bad-tempered." He says, "Good. Almost your old self."

The Terileptils justify their plans of conquest thus: "It's survival. Just as these primitive kill lesser species to protect themselves, so I kill them." They also like war and say "War is honorable...even on this planet it is considered so." The Doctor counters with "Yet by your own admission, these people are still primitive. What's your excuse?" eliciting an angry growl from the Terileptil. Designing the Terileptil marked the first use of animatronics in the series, used in making the mouth, lips and gills move.

The Visitation's always been a favourite of mine due to the way the story gradually unfolds. One of Nyssa's more heroic moments come in during her task to convert the TARDIS's sonic booster coupled with a frequency accelerator to destroy the android. And the story ends with an event Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary. Look at the year: 1666. What happened in London then? (Rating: 5).

Black Orchid has the Doctor being mistaken for a doctor at nearby Guy's Hospital and expected at the manor of the Cranleighs for a cricket match, giving a "perfectly ripping performance." Hey, the Doctor isn't wearing that cricketing outfit for nothing, and the montage that shows him batting, pitching no-hitters, and cries of "Howzat?" is a triumph. However, who is the unknown man in beige trousers and brown shoes and guttural hiss who strangles a man at the beginning and who later infiltrates the Doctor's room?

A further surprise is that Nyssa is an identical twin of Ann Talbot, fiancee to Lord Cranleigh. Sarah Sutton plays both Nyssa and Ann, and the latter's clever idea of having identical purple butterfly costumes at the masked charity. However, the Cranleighs have a dark secret which blows open and sunders the festive atmosphere when Doctor is accused of murder by Ann.

One observation of the aristocracy arises when the Cranleighs try to figure out where Nyssa's from. They think Worcestershire, and the identification of class to region, when they say Nyssa's lack of knowledge of Esher shows good taste is telling of the snobbery they exhibit. The implied trust given to the aristocracy by the police is shown as the Doctor is disbelieved and Ann believed in her accusation.

One flaw is how the British police of 1925 know of police boxes when none existed back then.

Despite being a two-parter, Black Orchid works better than expected. Adric and Nyssa's lack of understanding Earth culture is accompanied by Tegan feeling right at home, and in a good mood for once, even doing the Charleston at the ball. (Rating: 4) Overall rating, 4.5, rounded to 5.

A Different Doctor Who
"Black Orchid" is a different kind of Doctor Who story: no malevolent alien influence, no reversing the polarity of the neutron flow, no sonic screwdriver to save the day... With the distinct feel of a British murder mystery, "Black Orchid" offers a brief (only two parts) and refreshing change of pace. As if seeing Tegan and Nyssa do the Charleston and watching Adric pig out at a buffet table isn't entertaining enough, we're treated to the Doctor tramping about, lost and befuddled, in his bathrobe. That alone is worth the purchase price.

With "The Visitation", we're back to the old "stranded alien creatures take over the earth" plot, reminiscent of Tom Baker's "Terror of the Zygons", and "the *real* cause behind that famous historical happening" twist, which we've seen umpteen times before. Still, an agreeable episode to be enjoyed for what it is.

Two excellent examples from 1980's Doctor Who
"The Visitation" A first rate adventure for the TARDIS crew finds the Doctor (portrayed with excellence by Peter Davison)discovering an alien presence at a sensitive time in English history. Will our favorite Time Lord, along with his compantions and an open-minded actor/highwayman, be able to stop this menace? Collector's Note: This story features the last use of the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver until the 1996 TV Movie! "Black Orchid" The Doctor remains in England, only travelling to the 1920's. While the Doctor enjoys a game of cricket, there are strange goings-on at Cranleigh House. A murder mystery ensues and the Doctor is the prime suspect!

Both of these episodes show the range of the Doctor Who series. While both utilize historical background, they have radically different approaches. One includes sci-fi elements, while another is a period costume drama. Neither suffers from these limitations and are suitable for the whole family.

The acting in the Doctor Who series is typically very good. The producers had to hire talented actors in order to detract from the occasionally rough special effects. Peter Davison brought an enthusiam and joy to the role of the Doctor that had been missing for a few years. Sarah Sutton is an excellent addition to the cast, playing a young scientist who is the last survivor of her world. She shows great range in "Black Orchid" where she takes on a second role. Janet Fielding offers her role of Tegan with great gusto, demonstrating a strength that is missing from many women's roles in family drama of the 80's. Matthew Waterhouse as the much-maligned Adric shows improvement, though he is certainly not adding much to the procedings. Watch for his amusing turn at the buffet in "Black Orchid."

These were two of my favorites growing up. I am glad to call them part of my home video collection. - CCH

Two stories for the price of....er, two. Both great though.
'The Visitation', with its historical setting, well-thought-out plot and strong characters, is well worth seeing. The aliens are interesting, the robot is well-designed and the explanation for the Fire of London is a nice touch. 'Black Orchid', the first truly historical Dr Who story since the sixties, is filled with lavish sets, there is a genuine sense of mystery and suspense, and the idea of Nyssa's double is a good one. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Doctor Who: Earthshock finds Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor nicely settling into the role, initially displaying some crotchety short temper which harks back to William Hartnell's incarnation of the Doctor, effectively setting up the most emotionally powerful finale in the show's 26-year run.In this, the penultimate adventure of Doctor Who's 19th season, a scientific expedition in a cave system on 25th-century Earth is wiped out. An army rescue unit led by Lieutenant Scott (James Warwick) and including the one woman, Professor Kyle (Claire Clifford) who survived the original massacre, goes in to recover the bodies. The scenario deliberately evokes Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), and uncannily foreshadows James Cameron's Aliens (1986), developing into a tense actioner on a space freighter bound for Earth carrying a very deadly cargo of Cybermen.

Tightly paced, refreshingly free of the camp humor that sometimes blighted the show in the 1980s, and with a notable guest turn from Beryl Reid as the ship's captain, Earthshock is one of the Doctor's finest adventures. Overlook a few gaping plot holes and by the end they simply won't matter; when the final credits roll in silence the effect is as powerful now as it was shocking to audiences back in 1981. If only Star Trek: The Next Generation had done the same to Wesley Crusher! --Gary S. Dalkin ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Exciting Cyber-Adventure
The return of the Cybermen after their misuse in Revenge of theCybermen is a moody, exciting adventure that contains moment aftermoment of brilliance. The acting is sound on all levels, with special credit due Peter Davison, whose performance raises the tension level as his realization of the true purpose of certain events adds to the overall mood of the piece. The redesign of the Cybermen was criticized by some, but the see-through mouthpiece adds to the effect of the Cybermen's menace, rather than detracting, by allowing us to see the transformed humanity within the outfit. This is one of the best ones to show to new Doctor Who viewers, as it is accessible to those who've never seen a Cyberman adventure, and has high emotional moments -- especially the ending, which works on every level. One of Davison's best by far, and definitely one of the best Cyber-Adventures. A must-own. Now if only they'd get rid of that ridiculous vunerability to gold, everything would be fine. It works here as a plot point, but nowhere else. Enjoy!

"What are they?" "Cybermen!"
A great return for these foes of the Doctor. Emotionless, relentless and determined to destroy all life on Earth (surprise, they succeed). Yes, you need to get over the bad effects and sometimes horrific acting-- much like the old serials of the 30s and 40s, your imagination does a lot of work. This is a fast-paced and exciting story with a lot of memorable moments-- the Cybermen revealed, Cyber Leader in the Tardis, the race to save Adric. Best line: "It might interest you to know we've traveled backwards in time some 65 million years. Think about it."

Man and the Cyberman
This serial of Dr. Who brought back my favorite menace - the Cybermen. Not seen for years since "Revenge of the Cybermen" (1975, during the Tom Baker years), the Cybermen have a new look and a new plan. Using a bomb set deep within Earth, they will destroy the planet as its government is prepared to host an interplanetary summit aimed at - among other things - an alliance against evils like the Cybermen. Unfortunately for them, their plan is discovered by The Doctor who luckily (for us) materializes on the scene in his space-time ship (the "TARDIS"). With their initial plan foiled, the Cybermen switch gears and hit on a new idea. They hijack a huge cargo spaceship carrying a veritable army of Cybermen (originally intended to hold what's left of Earth when the bomb explodes), and aim it at Earth like a bomb. Tracing the source of the signal, the Doctor lands on the freighter and battles the Cybermen alongside a pitiful band of human soldiers and the ship's crew. With his companions - the boy genius Adric, the young but wise Nyssa and the tough but lovely Tegan Jovanka - the Doctor fights a seeming losing battle against the horde of Cybermen holding the ship.

This was a great episode on so many levels. The redesigned Cybermen - see-through mouth-grille and all - are an improvement over the silver-wetsuits of "Revenge", and the script plays up on their strengths: their numbers and seemingly boundless cool and aggression. Cheesy camera work exaggerates their numbers by having the image of a single column of Cybermen "multiplied" within a single shot - but we get the point. ("Who" fans who can't appreciate the "see-through mouth" because we now know that there are people behind the masks, are missing the point - the Cybermen aren't machines, they are mechanized people, the prototypes for the Borg. We always knew that there was a person behind the mask, but the grille still hides what that person must look like after being "assimilated". Also, individual Cybermen are more vulnerable here than they were in "Revenge" (their huge numbers wouldn't be as important if they were as bulletproof as they were in that story). The scene introducing the Cybermen is perfect - with the cold invaders huddled like a coven of witches around a holographic viewer. (They don't recognize the Doctor at first, but his spaceship tips them off) Of course the biggest thing about this story is the end of Adric - there are hints of his leaving from the start of the serial, but the final moments are unforgettable anyway.

IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN AN EPISODE OF DOCTOR WHO none of the above will make much sense (a man - a "timelord" actually - who changes his appearance every few years, traveling across space and time in a ship looking on the outside like a London police call box, accompanied by a constantly changing cast of companions and battling a wide array of menaces both alien and human). Still, some episodes embody a sort of humanity that rises above the kooky continuity of the show, and this is one of them, so it's worth a look. The tragic ending underscores the entire series - times runs out, even for timelords.

CLASSIC! Considering who wrote it, this one really is good.
Episode 1 alone is overall terrific. Mysterious caves being guarded for some important reason, Adric bickering, the androids' way of killing people, this is a very taut and exciting episode. There is some rubbish technobabble about the device used to track the people in the caves, but otherwise this episode hangs together extremely well. As for the cliffhanger, it was a jaw-dropper in 1982 and still holds up exceptionally well.

Episode 2 isn't quite as tense, but still easily manages to retain excitement and interest despite a silly claim about the TARDIS' capabilities and how the main enemies in this story can see into the future where they go over the Doctor's bio/history record. But that is a small point. The moment leading to the cliffhanger is reasonably excellent as well.

Episode 3 is now a full shift away from the wonderful claustrophobia of the caves of the first 1.5 episodes. The freighter's interior is extremely well realized considering the show's budget (or even on a big movie budget, they got everything RIGHT) and provides some great tension for more than one gripping scene. The cliffhanger, despite using a prismatic lens to make one row of enemies look like 3 rows, packs a decent punch as well. I won't mention how kewl it was to see how the Doctor deals with the enemy force about to break into the freighter's bridge... So far, the story is worth all of the praise it gets.

Episode 4 is awesome, though the ending is flaky. The ending involves the freighter entering time travel, which seems to be cheaply written in as an afterthought. The reasons behind the ability of the freighter to do this don't cut it and they could have used some flimsy technobabble about the warp engines being the cause instead of the enemy machinery locking the ship's directional control panel. But that's one small point.

Episode 4 does end with another big surprise that you, depending on your point of view, will like...

The story was augmented with modern computer effects. I prefer the original effects, even if they are different than what was intended to be (for example, a spaceship exploding instead of crashing, though it can be said the spaceship exploded in the planet's atmosphere...).

I expect that the video and audio quality will be comparable to the other Dr Who releases (except "The Key to Time", which the UK Restoration Team did not work on). I gather the soundtrack is isolated, which is another BIG plus.

One of my big problems with 80s Dr Who is not as much JNT but Saward. Even from his earliest penned story "The Visitation", Saward loves using gore. Indeed, in "The Visitation" he wanted to have the remains of the smouldering murdered family to be shown, but the director had enough guts to show well orchestrated fade-in clips of the empty house's interior that was far more effective... Fortunately, we're still in the 5th Doctor's early run so it's not so pronounced (by Davison's final year, Saward - both as writer and script editor - went out his way to ensure pointless gore was used. But that's another story...) The only real gore in this episode is how the androids kill people (the people turn into a liquified state which is horrific yet doesn't go out of its way to be shock value. In other words, it's appropriate and maturely handled and properly tells us that the androids doing the killing shouldn't be reckoned with... (in later years (Davison's final year and to an extent Colin Baker's first year), the gore was haphazardly thrown in, with any true atmosphere chucked out the window in name of sleazy shock value. Colin's era did match gore with a coherent intent, but the purpose seemed to be excessive, resulting in the gore being just as pointless as in the prior season...)

But I digress. This is a WONDERFUL story, worthy of 5 stars and is ideal for showing to any potential fan. Also, the enemy I spoke of is the Cybermen. They were created in 1966 and had been disused since 1974. As the story was made 7 years later, it was deemed that they should be re-introduced with as little fanfare as possible. And it worked. and it worked so well that subsequent viewings don't wear the concept down. For a producer maligned with the stigma that he loved using continuity, the continuity works well in this story as it reminds of previous Cybermen history to whet our appetites (later stories merely use continuity to bury storylines, but Earthshock tells a story and uses references in a way that expands one's interest to become a fan, and doesn't pander to fans (who'd only nitpick any inaccuracies in continuity).

The Cybermen were organic creatures who replaced more of their limbs and organs with technology. They're like the Borg, only they'd been around long before the Borg were. And "Earthshock" is possibly the best story they're used in, apart from "The Tomb of the Cybermen". ("Tomb"'s plot is superlative but I don't think it was carried out well, apart from episodes 1 and 4. There are some great performances, but the technobabble is grating, episode 3 is pure pointless padding, and the inclusion of Toberman as an indentured servant of all things is boggling, why couldn't he be an equal? On the other hand, his contributions to the end of that story prove he is the most human of them all... and as "Tomb" had also been released on DVD, it's worthy of pick-up as well.)

Why did it take so long to get to US? WB or BBC problem?
I don't know why it took so long to get to the US but it's been out in Region 2 format (PAL) since last year. At any rate, this is the best Doctor Who DVD made to date. Its has full cast commentary by the stars as well as a well made documentary on the makings of "Earthshock" 20 odd years later. This is a must have for all Peter Davison fans. Lastly, the Cybermen's recount of the past Doctors is a real treat. Five stars. Keep it coming BBC... ... Read more

Description

The Doctor and Ace are put to the ultimate test when the Tardis materializes in Second World War England at a top naval base. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Dark is good
For anyone who stopped watching the McCoy era because of a few mediocre episodes in the first 7th Doctor season, well I must say that they are missing some excellent stories. The Curse of Fenric is one of the best of the McCoy stories, if not the whole show.

The best aspect of this episode is perhaps the uncharacteristic dark atmosphere; when I first watched it, I wondered if this was a Doctor Who story at all. Everything in this story has dark aspects: the story, the minor characters, the main villian(he is the first Evil after all), and even the Doctor presents a hidden dark side.

All in all, dark is good. After thirty years of basically the same thing, I was happy to see Doctor Who embrace a different style. It is unfortunate that the BBC cancelled the program when it did; who knows where the story could have gone if allowed to continue.

I was thrilled and surprised at the quality of this story.
I was reluctant to purchase The Curse of Fenric, because I used to have a copy of it dubbed off of television, and I was never a huge fan of the McCoy years. His era started off with a wimper, had a glorious but extremely short second season, and then finished with lots of mythological- fantasy mumbo-jumbo aimed at the level of a five year old. I bought this video because I was reading a few reviews of it on Doctor Who fan web sites and thought that my memory of it was perhaps mistaken. I had enjoyed it originally, but thought that it could never compare to some earlier programs I loved dearly. I watched Fenric again yesterday, for the first time in about 3 or four years, and was blown away by it! First of all, McCoy is absolutely brilliant as the Doctor - I say this as a veteran Who fan of 21 years. He has the uncanny ability to act bemused and whimsical one minute and serious and stern the next. The entire beginning sequence in which he and Ace infiltrate the military base is wonderfully carried out and illustrates Ian Briggs' skills as a writer and his sensitivity to the characters of the Doctor and Ace. The minister in the story is basically a good man. Much like the rest of us, he tries to understand the world, all the while knowing it might be horrific in the last analysis. His underplayed performance is really an asset to the production because it shows us how empty and drained he is by his experience of so-called Christendom, an emotional state that prefigures the very real evil awaiting all of the characters. I loved the use of Norse mythology in this story. The scene where the writings in the crypt are created through the control of one of the character's voices is chilling and reminds one of the traditional identification between being and speech, e.g. God said "Let there be light," and there was light. The added footage creates new dimensions to the story, illustrating that perhaps it would have worked even better as a 5 or even a six parter. The special effects were superb - some of the best ever in Doctor Who. I was amazed that this was the same season that produced Survival, an interesting but horribly enacted story with daft plot devices and vacuous characterizations. Now I can see more clearly than ever what John Nathan Turner was trying to do to salvage the program and make it more competitive with other higher budget programs. The script for Fenric is top-notch, and I cannot believe that the B.B.C. would have killed off such a lucrative show, especially considering Fenric was the penultimate show of the original program's run. Now we can only wonder about what might have been. I recommend this video to anyone who craves a good action adventure with an intelligent pen behind all the actions.

Hi! I MAKE NO SENSE!!...
That's what this DVD with a SPECIAL EDITION of THE CURSE OF FENRIC should be called...
CHEESY...OVERWRITTEN...BORING...and why is the sound so bad?

ACE is the best thing about the SYLVESTOR MCCOY episodes...cuz he certainly isn't...just DREADFUL and so re-written that the character of DOCTOR WHO becomes CONTRIVED and conventional which was something it never was before. The SYLVESTOR MCCOY years took all the fun out of DOCTOR WHO and turn it into drivel. This episode is TERRIBLE.

It makes no sense...is badly edited and ridiculously over plotted. WHO CARES?!! Even DOCTOR WHO himself would not watch this eyesore!!

A fatal Curse for Two Doctors...
BBC Video continues to turn out the quarterly releases of the Doctor Who back catalogue on DVD and the latest pairing brings two stories from the latter years of the series lengthy broadcast run. Although technically featuring stories from two different eras of Doctors (and featuring a third in a guest role) both The Two Doctors and The Curse of Fenric come from the very troubled final years of the show's 26 year run when even the fans found it hard to find favor with their hero's antics and the general viewing public made it clear that they could care less!

The Two Doctors was unfortunate enough to be on air when the show was famously cancelled by the BBC, albeit to return 18 months later in a revised and truncated format. Perhaps it is for this reason that this story is not that highly rated, but in all honesty it's more likely to be that the adventure was typically symptomatic of everything that seemed to be wrong with the production at this time.

The first six part adventure to be made and broadcast since 1978, this lengthy story was in fact broadcast in three double-length episodes at the beginning of 1985 in the first full season to feature the controversial sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker. I've always believed that Colin had the personality and charisma to be a very, very fine Doctor indeed and had he followed Tom Baker and not Peter Davison, things could have been very different for him. As it is, his characterization was horribly misconceived, as was his truly appalling costume and he successfully alienated the very loyal and devoted fans of the show and the general public alike. By the time The Two Doctors was on air, one third of the audience had switched off from the start of the season and the BBC was naturally looking to see why. They blamed the violence enveloping the show and watching this story, they wouldn't be far wrong.

Written by probably the greatest writer ever associated with the show, the late, great former script editor Robert Holmes, this story had so many elements that could have made it a success, but was completely let down by some gratuitous violence, grisly, unnecessary deaths and far too complex a plot. Even the return of one of the show's most popular incumbents, second Doctor Patrick Troughton and his popular sidekick Jamie were unable to save the show. More's the pity since Troughton died the following year and this is hardly a fitting tribute to his contribution to the show.

When the program did make it back on to air in 1986 it was a shadow of its former greatness and although it staggered onwards for another four seasons, the death knell was never far away. The Curse of Fenric comes from the very end of the show's run and is possibly the greatest example of everything that was wrong with the production at the time. Essentially, from the very beginning of the series in 1963, the production team had always worked with their backs to the wall, with never enough time or budget to achieve what they were striving for, and yet, in 26 years, they'd always managed to find entertaining and popular stories that generally worked against all the odds. The Curse of Fenric was simply an unworkable mess. A good mess; a promising mess; but a mess nonetheless. It's staggering to think that a professional TV producer would pull together a script that was so incredibly complex and essentially unworkable under the show's format and then be surprised that the material couldn't be worked into the show's slot. It's only thanks to home video and DVD that we can now see the show how it was intended, which rather ignores the fact that it is a TV show intended for a much wider audience and not the select fans who will buy the DVD or Video.

The DVD set contains the four episodes as they were transmitted (itself a first for home video) plus a (second) attempt to restore all the deleted material and re-order the scenes to make more sense. Certainly it does just that, but I'm still baffled 15 years after it was made and I doubt it will ever truly make sense! Thankfully the writer has recorded a long explanation of how his story was meant to be. Thanks, but that doesn't and didn't help the viewers of BBC1 back in 1989! But as always with the Doctor Who DVD's, it's the extras that make these releases so worthwhile, regardless of the quality of the stories themselves. With the Two Doctors there are all sorts of goodies, including a great commentary from the main cast and director and all sorts of out-takes, behind the scenes information and (perhaps unwisely) a lengthy piece by the producer's ex-partner explaining at length how they unnecessarily set the story in Spain so as to get some fabulous vacation time for themselves. Oops! The Curse of Fenric commentary from Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Nicholas Parsons is also highly entertaining and the extras on this two-disc set certainly prove most interesting, even it is all a bit long winded.

Doctor Who was never very good when it took itself too seriously. The fans love all the in-jokes and references to the past. But it hardly works for the general viewer who simply is baffled because they didn't see the story from last season that ties into this, or can't remember something from 10 years ago that drives the whole plot. Sadly, that's what Doctor Who in its final years was all about. At least these discs go someway to making it a little clearer!

McCoy DOES try but.....
I feel sorry for Sylvester McCoy. Because of bad management decisions at the BBC, he didn't get a proper regeneration sequence, his first season was horrible AND short since it wasn't written for him. He was saddled with two companions, one, Mel, who was an unbelievable annoyance and then Ace who eventually had some good moments but also had a mush-mouth and it was often hard to hear what she was actually saying. He only had 12 adventures to play the Doctor on TV at the time and about 8 of them were pretty bad. "Fenric" is one of his better shows but unfortunately that's not saying much. Sometimes, things are not clear in this story, such as the badguy being an old enemy of the Doctor and this really does seem to come out of nowhere. McCoy's Doctor being very secretive and manipulative? Never quite worked for me and I felt the show was at it's worst during his era. He did have some good shows, though, the best being 'Remembrance of the Daleks', 'Happiness Patrol' and 'Battlefield'. Fenric runs in place right after. Keep in mind, I don't blame McCoy but pretty much everybody ELSE involved at the time, right down to the sound man who apparently didn't know what he was doing either when you can't understand a lot of the incidental dialogue spoken by your two lead actors. Go buy ANYTHING form Tom Bakers 12th, 13th and 14th season or Colin Bakers 22nd season for the very best in "Who". Edited to add: the whole "must use voting button to EARN a voting button" is silly and I DID vote on another review so I don't know why they're not recognizing that. Goofy system. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Scotland's Loch Ness is the setting of this very traditional 1975Doctor Who monster story--though it was actuallyfilmed in southern England, with local atmosphere provided byScottish character actor Angus Lennie (The Great Escape). The Doctor (TomBaker) is called in to investigate a mystery involving the destruction ofseveral oil rigs, and it's not too longbefore the Loch Ness monster is revealed as the culprit. But it'sactually just a biomechanical weapon being manipulated by the evilZygons, who have been living at the bottom of Loch Ness and plotting worlddomination. The organically designed sets and monsters are verystriking, as are the visual effects, with one notable exception: reallybig creatures have always been difficult for the series, with its limitedbudget, to pull off, and this story's reliance on an obvious puppetmonster, especially during the climax, diminishes its impact. Butthere is still much to relish, particularly the dialogue of writer RobertBanks Stewart (who would go on to create the long-running BBCseries Bergerac), which provides a number of gems,including the Doctor admonishing the Zygons that if they succeed intheir plans, "You'll have to come out on the balcony sometimes andwave a tentacle." With much derring-do, the Doctor saves the day asusual, but not before four exciting episodes of fun and action. --Ryan K. Johnson ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Terror Of The Zygons
This is a re-release of a serial that was previously in omnibus format It's a very fast paced story that featuresTom Baker at his best also thelast serial to feature U.N.I.Tand the Harry Sullivan companion. The Location work was great making it seem that it was filmed in Scotland when really filmed in some fabulous locations in the U.K."One of Tom Baker's best and in original episodic format alsohas a one minute Disney into where the Brigadier calls the Doctor back! A Must for any Doctor Who fan!

Zygons?...A name humans will learn to fear!
This story has be rated as one of the best ever. Not only are the monsters among the series most convincing (by 1970's Dr Who standards), but the overall atmosphere generated by the direction and production is extremely powerful. Adding to this wonderfully eerie feel, is a superb score by Geoffrey Burgon - the tension created by his music is incredible. For me John Woodnutt steals the show, playing two parts as the lead monster 'Broton', and the 'Duke'. His whispering delivery of the aliens' threat to the world ranks as one of the series most remarkable performances. Some feel that the story is let down by some badly executed animation used for the 'Skarasen' (The Loch Ness Monster). But for me, this only further enhances the appeal of the story: It's not Hollywood special effects that make it work, it's a superb mix of deep characterisation, thoughtful direction and above all, spine-tingling performances from all involved.

"I loathe this abomination of a body...."
The Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive back on Earth after the Doctor receives a message from the Brigadier that things aren't right at Loch Ness. An incredibly inventive story that has the feel of a Troughton adventure, possibly due to Camfield's careful direction and camera angles. And it looks as though the production team is still trying to feel their way around(as well as Baker) in establishing the Doctor's fourth incarnation. The Zygons themselves are presented to the audience very well, and the story has some effectively scary moments. There is some overblown dialogue here and there, but certainly doesn't distract the viewer. The special effects are "night and day", and shouldn't take away from the enjoyment of this adventure. And even though the bonus video at the beginning isn't as long as "The Face of Evil" or "The War Machines" release, it's still enjoyable, especially in its episodic format.

"THE ULTIMATE WEAPON!"
Apart from one of the cheesiest monsters ever invented(except Godzilla in Japan, of course!), this is a vast improvement on Revenge Of The Cybermen and has atmospheric aliens, brilliant dialogue, nice location shooting, great special effects and Geoffrey Holder's music rises high above Dudley Simpson's very un-spectacular music around that time that slowed some of Baker's adventures to a walking pace. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In the early 1970s, the BBC shamefully erased most of their master tapesof black-and-white Doctor Who episodes from the 1960s, with only a fewrandom episodes here and there surviving the purge. Hence the appearance of thiscompilation tape of two Patrick Troughton stories featuring the Cybermen--sortof low-tech versions of Star Trek's Borg--where fewer than half theepisodes still exist. Hosted by the sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, and interspersedwith interviews with series contributors at the time, there are two episodes(out of four) from "The Moonbase" from 1967, and two episodes (out of six) from1968's "The Wheel in Space." The final episode of "The Wheel in Space" is anarchivist's delight, perhaps the cleanest copy of a '60s episode that stillexists (the rest rely on sometimes murky kinescopes).

Short excerpts are also included from "The Tenth Planet" (featuring theCybermen's first-ever appearance), "Tomb of the Cybermen," and "The Invasion."What remains of the stories is still effective because it exploits the bleakblack-and-white photography of the time, and the Cybermen's penchant for takingon isolated near-defenseless humans on futuristic outposts. It was a simplertime when monsters could still threaten without irony, "Resistance is useless"and "You will be destroyed!" But it has to be said that these partialrepresentations are probably for die-hard completists only; casual fans would bebetter served by the excellent novelizations of the missing stories, or the fewremaining (near) complete Cybermen stories like "Tomb of the Cybermen" and "TheInvasion" also available on home video. --Ryan K. Johnson ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Cyberman History 101 for Whovians
This special documentary was done in the same vein as the Dalek-The Early Years special. This time, Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, is the host, who like Davison, presented this in the Museum of the Moving Image, next to some Cybermen heads.

The Cybermen, the second most popular Dr. Who monsters after the Daleks, basically came about because then-producer Innes Lloyd wanted some new monsters. Enter Dr. Kit Pedler, whose scientific knowhow combined with storywriter Gerry Davis, and together they created the Cybermen, who were humans who replaced their bodies with mechanical parts, but at the cost of losing their human qualities. Roy Skelton again was assigned to do the Cyberman voices and the vocal talents of this man, who did the Dalek voices, cannot be understated. Other commentary comes from Morris Barry, director of the Cyber stories The Moonbase and Tomb Of The Cybermen.

The real treat is of course the episodes from incomplete stories. They are Episodes 2 and 4 from The Moonbase and Episodes 3 and 6 from The Wheel In Space. Judging from these stories, they seem to be among the best in the series. The Moonbase is about a weather station on the moon whose personnel are suffering from an unknown disease. These people then vanish! The station director Hobson suspects the Doctor and his companions, Jamie, Ben, and Polly. The Doctor is given 24 hours to find out what's going on. One of his best lines here: "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, things that act against everything we believe in. They must be fought." In Episode 4, the Cybermen attack from the lunar surface and from Moonbase personnel they control. The Cyber march music, consisting of booming kettle drums and staccato horns, makes its appearance at the beginning of this episode.

The Cybermen attack a space station, the "Wheel In Space" via Cybermats. It also sees the debut of the diminutive, super-smart astrophysicist, pure math major with honours, cute-as-a-button Zoe Herriot, played by Wendy Padbury. She is even criticized by the communications officer on that second attribute: "just like a computer, facts and figures... proper little brain child. All brain and no heart." The Doctor says it more gently: "Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority." Other interesting characters include a pretty Russian, Tanya, going on about her nose, and a practical doctor, Gemma Corwyn, who kind of resembles Glenda Jackson. The Cybermen's voices sound like Daleks with severe bronchitis, while their Coordinator Sphere maintains the Cyber voice heard in Tomb Of The Cybermen.

The personable Wendy Padbury gives her recollections and I don't know when this was taken, but she still has her looks, and is a remarkable contrast without the Zoe-style bangs and pear-shaped hairdo.

Despite being the second most famous Who monsters, the Cybermen did established their reputations in five adventures in less than three years--(1966-1968)--something to think about.

Evolution of the Cybermen
Praise to the BBC for giving us this long awaited glimpse into the long lost tombs of the Cybermen. With so little of Patrick Troughton's episodes still in existence, this video offers an exciting chance to turn back the hands of time and enjoy Doctor Who at its finest, battling his creepiest cyborg foes in four wonderfully retro episodes culled from the missing serials "The Moonbase" and "The Wheel of Space". Although the storylines are incomplete, it does not take long figure out what's going on. It's like watching "The Empire Strikes Back" without the benefit of having seen "Star Wars" or "Return of the Jedi". You may miss some of the details but you'll be thoroughly entertained.

Behind the sofa again...
Even in a fragmentary state, the four episodes (from 'The Moonbase' - episodes 2 and 4 - and 'The Wheel in Space' - episodes 3 and 6) on this tape represent two of the most genuinely eerie stories ever made. Don't believe me? Try watching in a darkened house at about 11pm with your suspension of disbelief lurking somewhere in the corner behind the cat. Still some of my all-time favourites, and something no fan of the early days of Doctor Who should miss. And after you've finished with Cybermen, go find 'Daleks: the Early Years' and 'the Troughton Years'. Well worth the time.

(by the bye, if you really enjoy these, search the web for 'doctor who telesnap reconstructions' if you'd like a taste of what the full stories were like...)

Support the BBC releases!

Gravity of the Cybermen
The Cybermen first appeared in the last story of William Hartnell of the "Tenth Planet" which is not included in this video except in excerpts and may make it to video for only one episode of it is missing from the BBC but its the final episode thats missing and may be the reason why so little of the "Tenth Planet" is on this Cybermen video. A rumour of a private collector had the last mising episode of "The Tenth Planet" existed when this video came out which didn't pan out. So instead the remains of "The Moon Base" and "The Wheel In Space" are seen. "The Moon Base" is disease and cybermen missing the episode when the disease first starts as well as the episode where the Cybermen become the known enemy of the moon base . Episode 1 and 3 are missing in this 4 episode story of "The Moon Base" and is one of the few remaining episodes with Polly and Ben companions. "The Wheel In Space" also has only two remaining episodes from this 6 episode story which episodes 1,2, 4, and 5 are missing which the missing first two episodes has the Doctor's bout with a robot on a spaceship and his being taken to the space station missing and the end missing episodes the rise of the Cybermen's attack on the space station missiing. But what is not missing is sabatoge and Cybermats and the end battle between the space station with the Cybermen. "The Wheel In Space" is also the first story of one of the more liked campanions of Zoe. These incomplete stories are good stories and its good they survived partially for both are better than the worse episode of the Seventh Doctor that didn't suffer from such lost of work like the Second Doctor which is featured in both these stories. This is a good video but its incomplete.

If you like Troughton and the Cybermen (and who doesn't?...)
The BBC were very shortsighted when they methodically erased a great number of old Doctor Who episodes one by one. But what's done is done, and until unknown copies rear their heads (just happened a couple months ago) this is a wonderful way to see incomplete stories. There is unfortunately nothing more than a couple clips from "The Tenth Planet", but what remains of "The Moonbase" and "The Wheel in Space" is very fun to watch. The Cybermen truly blossomed in the Troughton years and this documentary/compilation truly expresses that. This is a good video to ahve, particularly if you are one of the many who loves "Tomb of the Cybermen", "The Invasion" and the Cybermen in general. ... Read more

Reviews (42)

Classic sci-fi TV survives because of excellent scripting...
A great segment from TV's longest running sci-fi series. Due to lack of budget these episodes of Tom Baker's second story have the typical cheesy effects and limited set designs, however the tight script and fascinating premise will keep any true sci-fi fan riveted. Note how this 1974 TV show had similar aspects to 1979's ALIEN movie by Ridley Scott (Insects in space that germinate in the human form aboard a craft of cryogenic sleepers resulting in the aliens being destroyed aboard an escape craft). Coincidence? Anyway you slice it, the gorey deaths, cool rubbery aliens, cliff hangers, snazzy dialogue and glimpses of future cultures keep the eyes watching and the mind whirling. This is a must for any Doctor Who fan's collection.

Excellent Tom Baker Episode
The second of Tom Baker's many episodes as the Fourth Doctor, the Ark in Space is an excellent example of a well-written and well-executed Doctor Who story.

The basic plot: the TARDIS materializes on a space station soon found to be filled with human beings in suspended animation. The Doctor quickly surmises that the station and its contents represent the whole of the human race and its knowledge, preserved to weather some terrible catastrophe. Due to sabotage, the station's inhabitants have overslept by many thousand years.

The sabotage was carried out by one of the Wyrrn, a race of space-dwelling giant insects who visit planets only to reproduce. The Wyrrn have decided to use the last humans as incubators for their young, and the Doctor, long-time favorite companion Sarah, and the reluctant Harry must prevent the Wyrrn from wiping out all humankind.

Whereas many episodes degenerated into camp (though at times very successfully), the Ark in Space does an excellent job at remaining true to its science fiction roots. The episode does still offer plenty of wit as only Tom Baker could deliver it, yet it never lets the humor dominate the story. The plot is tightly-done without side trips and tangents; the Doctor and crew are concerned with the Wyrrn and saving humanity, and that is the task they take on and accomplish.

The special effects (or defects) are suitably cheesily done as befitting the Dr. Who franchise, including the use og green bubble-wrap to create monsters. But that's part of the charm of the series, and a point in Ark in Space's favor that the bad effects didn't lead to pure camp.

The DVD includes commentary (albeit somewhat disjointed due to the fact of its recording over twenty years after the airing of the actual episode); said commentary is interesting and gives a look at those who created the series. The other features of the disc are decent but not spectacular on the whole.

I highly recommend this episode for any fan of Dr. Who.

beginning of an amazing era...
After the Tom Baker intro story, "The Giant Robot", "The Ark in Space" really cemented Tom Baker in the role of the Doctor and was re-written by Robert Holmes who had become the script editor for the next three seasons under the command of Phillip Hinchcliffe. This was the beginning of the three most popular and well crafted seasons of Doctor Who for most fans and the gothic horror style of the next three seasons raise the show to a popularity never before seen in many many countries. This mystery in space lets us get to know Bakers Doctor and we get better acquainted with Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan as well. Look for the stirring, inspired speech the Doctor makes about mankind, just one of the many treats in this fun adventure.

"DOCTOR WHO" - "ALIEN" STYLE!
"The Ark in Space," the second "Doctor Who" adventure starring Tom Baker, in an exciting tale of aliens using humans to live, an adventure preceding "Alien" by four years. It has all the humour, excitement and cheezy visual effects and costumes that make "Doctor Who" the cult classic that it is! The DVD offers very good special features, including an amusing commentary track with Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and producer Philip Hinchcliffe. Any fan of "Doctor Who" will want this adventure in their DVD collection! Prorgram/DVD Grade: A+

An undisputed classic.
"The Ark in Space" is an excellent, spellbinding tale from Doctor Who's gothic Hinchcliffe era, set on a spaceship many thousands of years in our future. It's also the first really great story to feature the wonderful Tom Baker in the title role, and is, for me at least, a better introduction to his time on Doctor Who than his own debut story, "Robot".

Thousands of years have passed since the present day, and ecological disasters have forced humanity to go into hibernation. While civilization crumbled and decayed on the surface of our world, out in orbit around it was constructed a safe haven for the slumbering human race. With the selected few meant to carry on the species in suspended animation, they were helpless to do anything when something else decided to make its own nest there too ... The Doctor arrives just as that something is beginning to reawaken, and is about to become a threat to the sleeping humans.

"The Ark in Space" would have been dubbed an "Alien" clone had it come out a few years later: while it was safely produced in 1974, its story has a lot of things in common with the Ridley Scott film. Luckily for this story, "Alien" didn't have the Doctor, but that's not the only reason to watch it now. Sure, this doesn't look as good ... the low budget is obviously apparant in most every scene you'll see here, but rather than make this a bad production it actually has the opposite effect. The production crew have done a splendid job here, constructing a sterile and utterly believeable environment for the story to take place in, from the white, empty corridors of the space station to the sleeping chambers where the humans reside. Apparantly they hadn't had a lot of material to work with, but with what they had they produced some real miracles. It's wonderful to look at. The aliens in this story, the Wirrn, are a wonderful as well... when I first caught a glance at them, I thought they looked terribly cheap, but that feeling went away after I'd really studied them. They're excellently insectoid ... even the transformation of one of the humans into a Wirrn, accomplished with green spray-painted bubble wrap, doesn't look terrible because of the fact that bubble wrap is used: insects seem to be able to create remarkable geometric structures (honeycombs, wasps nests, etc)... the use of bubble wrap, with its tiny, identical circles, is absolutely perfect and is therefore convincing.

I can't believe I've made such a big deal about the production values here, as I didn't really mean to, but they are obviously worth congratulating. But everything else is great here too: the premise of the story (pre-"Alien", I will say again), the excellent new Doctor and his companions, the setting, and the story that follows the Doctor's arrival, told over the course of four mesmerizing episodes ... You can't go wrong with this one. Of all the Tom Baker stories to be selected for a release on DVD, I am glad that this was among the first. The DVD contains a wonderful vintage interview with Tom Baker, by the way, filmed while he was still just settling into the part. Very interesting indeed.

Carry on Carry on,

MN ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Not the weakest Linx
Finally, a "Doctor Who" story told from the point of view of the bad guys. Through ten seasons we never saw an episode that spent more time behind enemy lines than with the Doctor. If "Power of the Daleks" or "Tomb of the Cybermen" had been turned inside out, this may have been the result.

Irongron is a struggling bottom-tier medieval war lord, squatting in someone else's castle. The food is scarce and the wine is sour. Linx, a potato-headed clone warrior from a distant galaxy, crash-lands in the fields, and allies himself with Irongron in exchange for shelter. Soon, Linx has kidnapped a team of fuzzy-headed 20th century rocket scientists, and Irongron has lawyers, guns, and money. Well, just guns. And a homicidal robot knight. Working together, Linx and Irongron cause serious headaches for that neighboring sissy, Edward of Wessex.

This is great stuff. Robert Holmes was the one "Doctor Who" writer who instinctively realized that it's fun to root for the bad guys. Terry Nation never learned this lesson with the Daleks; David Whitaker made Daleks scary, but he couldn't make them cool. Meanwhile, 20 years before Quentin Tarantino gave us smart, hip hit-men like Jules and Vincent, Robert Holmes gave Irongron about eleven of the niftiest put-downs you'll hear on TV. Every time the redhead in my life complains about some chain-smoking, underweight Manhattan girl in her office, I reply: "That narrow-hipped vixen!", and she has no idea I'm even quoting "Doctor Who". Now, I just need to find someone to call a "long-shanked rascal with a mighty nose". That would have been me, if I had longer shanks, but I don't.

Linx is pretty clever, for a clone warrior. I find it neat, too, that he's played by the same guy who would play Mild-Mannered Tibetan Monk in "Planet of the Spiders" that same season. He insults the Time Lords, he insults Irongron's men, he insults his slave scientists... and, when Irongron won't listen to his warnings, he suddenly gets philosophical: "By your dawn I shall be 700 million miles from here. Can I be concerned with the fate of primitives?". That's actually poignant. The only problem with this is that Linx has set the bar too high: the Sontarans showed up in three later DW stories, and a few largely unmemorable books, but were never again this compelling.

All this is not to say that Holmes achieved villainy goodness at the expense of the Doctor. In Pertwee's fifth season, Holmes writes him at perhaps his most Doctorish since "The Ambassadors of Death". This is the story with the quote about the straight line and the shortest distance between two points. I had forgotten which story that was in. Also another line, which I hadn't remembered, but which makes as good a credo as any for the Doctor (apart from "Never cruel or cowardly") is: "[I'm serious] about what I do, yes. Not necessarily the way I do it."

Sarah Jane gets off to a flying start as a companion. Even more so than Liz Shaw, or Ian and Barbara, this is truly the most reluctant companion of them all. Who else, in their debut, gets to raise an army against, and kidnap, that long-shanked rascal with the mighty nose? Not Turlough. Not Ace. Maybe Compassion, but let's not lose focus here.

Once the Doctor and Sarah join forces, they make serious with the merry. Is there a funnier scene, ever, than the one where they dress up as friars in order to walk right into Irongron's castle? The sentry, that most Holmesian of common men, gets the last laugh: "'Tis be hoped the two friars are fleet of foot, or the Church will have two new martyrs 'ere long."

Meanwhile, shades of "Caves of Androzani", the Part Three cliffhanger actually ends with the Doctor being shot in the face. The episode doesn't end on a gun barrel; it actually ends on the blast hitting the Doctor. Radical and funny, all in the same story. Could this have been by anyone else but Holmes? If you've had enough of Jon Pertwee, this is the story to get you back into it. And if you can't get enough of Jon Pertwee, this is the story to watch every day for a week.

Enter Sarah Jane Smith!
The Time Warrior develops an earlier Doctor Who plot of the Time Meddler but in a slightly different fashion. We are introduced to the fearsome Sontarans who have a squat stony appearance made worse by their disgusting habit of sticking their tongues out a little which clearly adds to the costume.

Time is threatened when the Sontaran commander makes a forced landing on medieval earth and uses a primitive time travel device to secure staff and components to repair his ship. While stranded he introduces modern weaponry to the local ruffians who then threaten the existing social order already weakened by the king is away fighting wars abroad.

The Doctor travels back in time to discover the source of the temporal disturbances and unknowingly takes with him a young journalist who suspects him of being up to no good, Sarah jane Smith. Her suspicions are apparently confirmed through a series of events which occur shortly after their arrival but she is soon disabused of the notion that the Doctor is at the centre of the problem.

There is a plenty of action and scientific mumbo jumbo in this story which also establishes Sarah Jane as an action orientated companion who is also more than a little prone to screaming. There are some gaping holes in the plot too such as the failure to take into account effects in the future by changes in the past as well as the problem of the basic premise of the Sontarans having acces to time altering devices which they clearly have not made use of before in their millenia long war with the Rutans.

Having said that it is not a bad little romp through time with the loose ends being tied up at the end.

Good Dr Who video
The 3rd Foctor is my favorite Doctor, this was one of the first videos I had purchased from his series of videos & DVDs. Pretty entertaining story. If you are 3doc fan, this would be a good one for you. The Three Doctors is my favorite video with him in it.

"My people are quick to stop unwarranted time travel!"
This is such a great episode. This marks the beginning of Jon Pertwee's last season as Doctor Who. He gets new opening and closing credits which to me are the best of the series. Tom BAker followed with a similar opening. Now in his 5th year as the Doctor Jon Pertwee is at his best. A sontaran warrior has crashed in midevil England an to repair his ship is stealing scientists from the future . The Doctor sets out to find these scientists. When he discovers where they are he jumps in his TARDIS and heads back in time not knowing he has a stowaway in Sarh Jane Smith. Sarah cant believe what is happening and thus thinks the Doctor is a bad guy. Meanwhile Linx is helping Irongron by making him weapons well ahead of there time. The Doctor after convincing Sarah of his good intenions sets out to stop both linx and Irongron in his attempt to take over Sir Edwards castle. In this episode we hear the name of the Doctors home planet Gallifrey for the first time. The Doctor defeats both Linx and Irongron and returns Sarah and the scientists to there own time. An outstanding episode.

Doctor vs Sontaran in Merry Olde England
The first story of Jon Pertwee's final season involves the mysterious disappearance of scientists and equipment. The Brigadier asks the Doctor to investigate the cause, and he does. It takes him back to medieval England, and has him encountering a barbaric warlord, a besieged good lord, and a troll-like alien in space armour, a Sontaran named Linx. Stowing away with him is journalist Sarah Jane Smith, who was originally investigating the case of the scientists while assuming the name of her famous aunt, virologist Lavinia Smith.

The medieval setting, the castles, costumes, and the woods of merry olde England provide a charm in this story.

The Doctor's defense of his circuitous trip to Metebelis 3 is something I take to heart when considering my life. He tells the Brigadier: "A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting." Right on! And speaking of the Brigadier, he steals one of the Second Doctor's lines: "Oh my giddy aunt!"

David Daker has the best lines as Irongron, the savage warlord sheltering Linx in return for flintlocks and robot warriors, and his over the top performance makes The Time Warrior lively. He refers to the Doctor as "a long-shanked rascal with a mighty nose" and Lady Eleanor as "that narrow-hipped vixen." He isn't afraid to call Linx "toadface." And he describes the robot warrior he decapitates as "a tin tadpole. Cut off its head and it still wriggles." And referring to the captured Hal the archer, he tells his men. "We'll deal with him sharply."

However, in one exchange, his second-in-command Bloodaxe gets in a good line by telling him "Yours is a towering intelligence." Irongron nods in acknowledgment, then turns to Bloodaxe with a confused frown.

The Doctor's in full form as the hero, for moral reasons and is true to his Time Lord origins, acting like a responsible "galactic ticket inspector." He tells Linx, "Give them [man] breechloading guns now, they'll have atomic weapons by the 17th century. They'll have the capability to destroy their own planet before they've civilized enoughn to handle it." Here, we also learn for the first time the name of the Doctor's home planet--Gallifrey.

This would be the first of three full seasons and two stories of a fourth for Elizabeth Sladen, who makes her mark as Sarah Jane. She's impulsive, quick to judge, very pushy, and a definite advocate of woman's lib, topical during the mid-1970's.

One confusing aspect of this story comes out in the later story, The Sontaran Experiment. There, Sarah Jane refers to meeting Linx in the 13th century, but with mention of the king at the Crusades, it seems like the reign of Richard I (1189-1199).

This is the first appearance of one of the show's most popular monsters after the Daleks and Cybermen, the Sontarans. They would only come out in three more Who stories and in the spin-offs Shakedown and Mindgame.

Also, the opening sequences were redone in the famous blue time-tunnel style that would be retained in most of the Tom Baker era. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Another man against machine Who story
The ying-yang like halves opening in the wall of the Gond people's teaching hall foreshadows a fight between good and bad. Two students, Abu and Vana, have been given the highest honour, to become companions of the Krotons. Yet Thara, the hot-headed son of Council leader Selris, adamantly tries to stop his girlfriend from going. "Why do we take their orders? We don't even know if they exist."

Landing on a rocky planet that "looks dead, smells dead," the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe, encounter a machine and rescue Vana from certain death from it. Companions of the Krotons, huh?

When Selris learns the truth, the enormity of it sinks in. "The Krotons have been our benefactors. ... Our two best students join the Krotons. They can't all have been murdered!" He also fears that if other Gonds learn the truth, they will rise up against the Krotons, only to be slaughtered. That is being planned under Selris's deputy Eelek. Yet the Gonds' main problem is that they are dependent on the Krotons, especially the teaching machines. Consider this exchange:

Doctor: And everyone uses these machines?
Selris: When they are young, yes. That is the law.
Doctor: Whose law, Selris?
Selris: Our laws--the Gonds'.
Doctor: But I thought you said all your law was given to you by the Krotons?
Selris: Yes, all our science, all our culture, everything we have has come from the machines.
Doctor: I see. A sort of self-perpetuating slavery.

Things heat up, when in the course of their investigation, Zoe unwittingly submits herself to a Kroton teaching machine, reaches one of the highest scores ever, and is selected to become a companion for the Krotons. The Doctor also takes the test to be with her. There's humorous mention about Zoe's intelligence: "Yes, well, Zoe is something of a genius, of course. It can be very irritating at times," to which she shows her cute smile and lets out a small laugh. In other words, a Hermione Granger nearly thirty years before Harry Potter. Zoe later says cheekily, "The Doctor is almost as clever as I am." Almost? Well, actually, Zoe... But this is a great story for Zoe, showing off her math skills as well as a cute miniskirt. Jamie has a good hand-to-hand combat moment in Episode 1.

Beta the controller of Science, like Selris, wants to be free, but is rational about it. "We only know what the Krotons tell us. We don't think. We obey.", and "I'm tired of being fed information like a dog like scraps." The key though, as the Doctor and Zoe notice, are certain gaps in the Gonds' education, which may be significant.

There is a bit of a goof, as it's clear that the bottom of the Krotons are cloth and not metal.

Gilbery Wynne, who kind of resembles Dick Gephardt (D-NE), does a good job as Thara, as does James Copeland as Selris. Phil Madoc plays Eelek with a menacing understatedness. He would later appear in three Who stories: The War Games (1969), The Brain Of Morbius (1976), The Power Of Kroll (1979). And Roy Skeleton, who did voices for the Daleks and early Cybermen, provides voices for the Krotons.

Not a bad story, considering how the sixth season of Dr. Who is the most complete Patrick Troughton season.

Another Great Troughton Who episode
I've been buying loads of Doctor Who videos and DVDs recently, most of which I have never seen. Being a fan of the series, I knew who Patrick Troughton was, but never saw any of his episodes. His appearance in The Five Doctors was just a glimps into what the second Doctor was like and "Who" he was. Needless to say I wanted more. Tomb of the Cybermen was my first Troughton episode...I'm convinced he is one of the best Doctors ever. The Krotons is another excellent episode. An interesting story, cold, creepy and truly alien aliens with bizarre technology and a solid cast. The Kroton's accent made me laugh a few times (don't always sound so bright) but somehow that just added to the charm of this episode. Is it just me, or does black and white seem more believable? I pity the latter generations who may never see anything broadcasted black and white on the TV... Another quality episode recommended for any fan of Dr Who or Sci-fi.

It's all in the mind
This is a clever Doctor Who story ostensibly about crystalline aliens who are dissolved in solvent and who can be restored by brainpower which can also drive their spaceship. The indigenous population are reared like sheep and educated in the learning halls to develop the intellect that the Krotons need whereupon they will leave the p;anet. Of course, the Doctor and his companions arrive and upset the applecart in their usual manner.

Why is this a clever story? Well the thrust of the plot is about the technologically superior aliens, crystalline based and susceptible to acid attack. However, the sub-plot revolves around the servile and passive Gonds who serve up their best and their brightest to be dispersed by the Krotons after they have been tested for brainpower. The interest lies in the revolutionary feelings of some of the younger members of the group, the staid conservatism of the leader and the almost complete disinterest in intellectual advancement. What occurs leads into revolt and betrayal, of the whole group and of the Doctor . There is a further side to this story of the intellectual arrogance of the Doctor and Zoe and the observation of the lack of common sense attached to high academic and intellectual ability.

All in all a very deep and complex story which operates on many levels. There is a comic side too of the many travels like a merry-go-round when the humanoids pass in, through and out of the Krotons ship and the surreal moment when the Kroton, travelling outside of the spaceship gets lost and cannot locate his position.

Lots of meat in this one originally broadcast 28 December 1968 through 18 January 1969.

Enjoyable for Troughton fans
The existing Troughton episodes pose a dilemma for Troughton fans. Some of the surviving Troughton serials (such as The Krotons) are below par; but we have to make do with what's available. Much of PT's work as Dr. Who was destroyed in the BBC's "housecleaning" of its video vaults in the 1970s. Anything that still survives has to be treasured accordingly. Thus, Troughton completists will want to acquire "The Krotons"; but my sense is that "The Tomb of the Cybermen" is still the best memorial for Troughton. "Tomb" is a little gem of a serial -- Dr. Who's dialogue with Victoria (in one of the quieter scenes) is especially memorable. "Tomb" was also very nearly destroyed.

Good Troughton
This is a decent Second Doctor adventure, a little run of the mill but enjoyable. Worth the money, time and effort! For any Who enthusiast, almost any Troughton adventure is a delight in SOME way. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Dr Who at it's atypical best
Ghost Light is a brilliantly dark, slightly humourous concoction, full of literary delights. Sylvester McCoy is brilliant as the Doctor, portraying a manipulative, scheming but likeable Timelord. Sophie Aldred excells also as the troubled companion Ace, revisting her greatest fear. The supporting cast is well above average for Dr Who, and a superb atmosphere is generated via the brilliant Victorian sets, dialogue and haunting incidental music.

ACE: Don't you have things you hate? THE DOCTOR: I can't stand burnt toast. I loathe bus stations, terrible places full of lost luggage and lost souls. And then there's unrequited love, and tyranny and cruelty... We all have a universe of our own terrors to face.

Ghost Light is clearly a very inventive, evocative story, hardly typical of Dr Who, but definately one of it's crowning glories. A MUST-SEE.

eerie... i wouldn't stay in this house after dark!
This is a really good story. We find out some of Ace's past and also get some quirky haunted house story going on. Sylvester McCoy is a really excellent Doctor. Ace is pretty cool, too. If you like bizarre stories, this is one you will love.

This is True Doctor Who
Dont let those one star reviews fool you. What is so great about Doctor Who is that each new actor gives his own "expression" to the main title role. Each new Doctor has his own quirks, his own shadows, his own mystery about him. Think about it, there have been eight Doctors and that is wonderful.

While Tom Baker was a great Doctor, for example, he was only one of many Doctors. I have to give Sylvester McCoy a standing ovation. While I loved the Colin Baker stories, all of them, and I hated to see him end before he could truly shine, S MyCoy gives a new additive and a new dimension to the role of the Doctor.

The Doctor by now has returned to his mystery. Just who is the Doctor? Just what is the Doctor? Yes we think we know where he comes from, we think we know why he left his world. But do we? Do we indeed? That's what's so great about Sylvester. He's awesome as the Doctor. He's funny and yet he can be almost terrifying at the same time. Think, for example, how comical he acts at first in the Greatest Show in the Galaxy, and yet suddenly he shows that he knows just what is happening and why.

Ghost Light is a wonderful additive to any and all Doctor Who collections. The story is rich, it is advanced. The story is haunting and so fast pace at times. While I dont agree with the Evolution lauding of the storyline (as a Christian I am a Creationist), as a fiction story, I love how it is produced in the story.

Good Science fiction with strong elements of reality!
I would have given it more stars if I could. This story makes you wonder why Ace is feeling so troubled. This show has a psychological element, which is hard to describe. Sort of like the movie "Panic Room", only better. I found myself so fascinated watching it, that I went back and viewed it several more times. There is something about this show that sort of defies explanation yet viewing it brings to light understanding.

A classic.
Watch this once, and you might not work it all out. But this really is video generation Dr Who, one of the most densely-plotted and sophisticated episodes ever made. Virtually every line of dialogue has some kind of significance or deeper meaning. McCoy's Doctor and Sophie Aldred's Ace continue to prove they are one of the strongest Doctor-and-companion duos in the series' history, the Doctor taking his unsuspecting sidekick back into Victorian Perivale to confront childhood demons. The Victorian house looks like it could have been designed for an expensive period drama, there are strong performances from all the cast, the soundtrack is one of the most moodily atmospheric ever written for the series. Well worth watching. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

"You're a very brave person."
"Terminus" is a little dull, enjoyable, but dull. There's a nice creepy feeling when the crew of the TARDIS locks on to the Terminus ship. The Black Guardian/Turlough/"Kill the Doctor" sub-plot is a little intrusive , as it deserves to be its own story. Turlough and Tegan are left crawling through airducts most of the story, while Sara Sutton shines, she has a great send off(and some pretty panties). The Garm isn't that bad, but he moves too slow. The Direction and acting is a little lazy at times, but overall, an enjoyable and interesting script. There is one real hilarious scene, The Black Guardian: "Why have you not killed the Doctor?!" Turlough: "I haven't found him yet!" The Black Guardian gives him a stiff jolt of pain. Great design, love the Viking names.

Look closer, it is GREAT!
I too felt that this story was a dreary dissapointment for a long time, but when I bought the video and took a much closer look, I realised it is actually a subtle but very, very good story that is a vital part of season 20, which, after Arc of Infinity, becomes one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, atmospheric and mature seasons of Dr.Who ever made, rivalling Pertwee's Season Seven and Tom Baker's season 14.
Here, there is a truly exciting first episode as the Tardis almost gets destroyed by Turlough and his evil master, the Black Guardian and then arrives on a ship full of space-plague sufferers! Scary!
The next three episodes are then very low key and build up slowly to a truly amazing climax. As Turlough agonizes over whether or not to kill the Doctor and gets told by Tegan that he is "weird" (haha!), Nyssa sucumbs to the illness and is taken by the alien Garm, only to be cured. Meanwhile, the Doctor investigates the central mystery, that star charts indicate the ancient, ramshackle vessel of Terminus is at the very center of what the Doctor calls "the known universe".
With the help of a woman Space Pirate, the Doctor locates the dark, rusted and decayed control deck with a giant, long dead alien pilot at the helm. Here the Doctor theorizes that Terminus dumped a malfunctioning engine through a time warp and triggered the Big Bang which created the Universe. Suddenly, he finds himself faced with an ancient, out of control machine which is preparing to jettison a second engine, which may possibly cause a second chain reaction that could destroy the cosmos!
Far fetched? Yes! Mind bogglingly imaginative? Defintely! And it takes the help of a slave to stop the destruction of everything the Doctor knows and holds dear.
The final episode is truly gripping and there's a very moving farewell to Nyssa, before the evil Black Guardian tries one last time to pressure Turlough to "Kill the Doctor!"
No dodgy CSO, the Garm is not great, but only has a small role, and the whole thing has great atmosphere. Considering Mary Ridge directed this during a strike which reduced her shooting time to a bare minimum, the acting still convinces. All in all, damn good!

Nyssa is at her worst in her last story
This isn't the worst of the worst(that dishonor goes to all of McCoy's episodes combined) but it is pretty darn close. It is the worst of the Guardian Trilogy which have two other very good stories. This story is stupid, plain and simple. The sets are Ok in some places, but the acting and characters are stupid and the story lame. Even Davison, who usually does a good job was lacking in performance. The worst part of this whole Who disastar was Nyssa. And it was her finale too, she must've gotten tired. Her voice whined like an old woman through most of this. She was not her usual wise and collected self. The two worst were her and that Adric look-a-like guy with the gun(too lazy to go look at the tape for his name). He whined worse than Adric himself! This was not a good ending for Nyssa, and not a good center story to the Guardian Trilogy. The Center of the Universe being a dumpy base ship with Lazzars and the "engine" creating the Universe is probably the lamest, and lowest point in Dr. Who. If you want realism, sweep a floor and yell at teenagers in a department store all day,(reality TV) I want fantasy! The Doctor himself says the line "The Center of the Universe.." followed by a cut-scene of a grey corridor.(golly gee ma!) Warrior's Gate or Enlightenment being surreal and mysterious and more like I would have t