Reviews (2)

Poor lack-luster offering
Jon Pertwee was easily the most 'beleivable'
Doctor, and as such, is my favorite. So I
was really disappointed by this 'effort' from
the bbc. Most of this tape consists of whole
episodes taken from three of Pertwee's best - there
is little from the Man himself, unfortunately, and
one can't help feeling it was a waste of time when
all is said and done.
No interviews, and very little in terms of 'best
memories' from Jon. Perhaps it was Mt. Pertwee
himself who wasn't in a mind to go all out for this,
I don't know, but I can only recommend this to the
diehard Pertwee fan. There is an alternative take
on the theme which is interesting (and kinda scarey,
and a few minutes of Pertwee showing off the Whomobile).
Pertwee deserved a better tribute than this....

fan fodder plus.
This 1992 release contains, among other things, interesting unused title sequences and three episodes that exemplify the Pertwee era nicely. Episode 6 of the magnificent "Frontier in Space" is likely the best of those, although episode 7 of the overrated "Inferno" is more popular. I have a few quibbles, though. One, no color print of "The Ambassadors of Death" episode 1? Also, the other episode contained herein, "The Daemons" episode 5, is the B/W print, even though it had been recolorized in 1989. Mainly for diehard Pertwee fans; for the curious, try "Doctor Who and the Silurians." Or "The Daemons." Or "Spearhead from Space." Or... ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Dark and Powerful
Although a bit plot heavy (too much going on for a 4 parter to satisfy), this is a powerful Dalek story, and a very well acted morality tale, that stands out at the darkest tale of the Peter Davison era. Tegan, inarguably one of the best female Dr. Who companions, is given quite the swan song, with Rula Lenska as a cynical space doctor, Terry Molloy proving himself to be the most excellent portrayal of Davros since "Genesis" (the guy in "Destiny" just didn't cut it), and Maurice Coulbourne making an a nice impression as the amoral, self-serving Lytton. It seemed as though the story could have used some paring down; some of the plotlines were superfluous and/or simply uninteresting. In the end, however, the Davros-engineered Dalek mutiny, the Movellan virus, the duplicates on earth, and some really nice battle sequences definitely make this a highlight of Peter Davison's last, and best, season. Followed by the excellent "Planet of Fire" and the unsurpassed "Caves of Androzani," this is a must have for the Peter Davison/Dr. Who fan. Ending with Tegan's insistence that the violence that surrounds the Doctor has become too much for her, and the Doctor reflecting that he may need to mend his ways, was incredibly poignant for me both when I was a kid, and during my frequent re-viewings of this episode.

"Brave Heart Teegan!"
Throughout all of the travels of our beloved (beleagured, bewildered) Doctor, the companions seem to come and go. Each one bearing their own special trademarks and carrying with them pieces of the single (and sometimes double or triple) Doctor that they knew. Each chance meeting with peril or death slowly altering all of them for good. In "Resurrection" the DALEKS, Davros, Doctor, Turlough & Teegan as well as many of the the supportive cast seem to mirror in their acting the surrounding bleakness of the London Southern Warehousing district. At points,a bit over the top with the melodrama RESURRECTION has many wonderful pieces to offer up for value in the continuity of Doctor Who. Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor truly shines as the man with too much to do and not enough time or help. Much of the plot becomes murky due to the interweaving of many sublots being worked all at once and not being clarified. The relationship between the Doctor and Teegan seems quite tenuous and when she has had "enough of all the murder & mayhem" you truly believe the sadness & frustration that she expresses. Overall, the shoddy special effects & the underacting work together and produce a darker 5th Doctor than you would expect. IT IS GOOD! If you are a fan of the companion introductions and goodbyes, the scenes of Teegans goddbye are reminscent of the feeling I got of Sarah. Truly worth your time spent!!

Beginning of end of the Peter Davison era
Resurrection of the Daleks is the beginning of a phasing out trilogy. In May 1983, Peter Davison (The Doctor) decided that the upcoming season would be his last one, so scripts were rewritten to phase out Tegan, Turlough, and the Doctor. When it happened, it took place in the last Peter Davison stories.

In 1984, a series of mysterious cylinders have been found in a London warehouse and are under investigation by Colonel Archer of the Bomb Disposal Squad. This was also the same scene where a pair of policemen gun down all but two of a group of escaping fugitives. The survivor, the cowardly and wounded Stien, meets the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough, who have been dragged down to Earth by a time corridor.

In space, a group of commandos led by Lytton and some Daleks lead an attack on a space station holding Davros prisoner. It's not too difficult, as the low morale and a lackadaisical attitude observed by recently-arrived Lieutenant Mercer lead to nearly all the crew being killed.

The seeds for the Dalek schism that would plague both remaining Dalek stories are set here, as Davros, who has been freed to help the Daleks develop an antidote to a virus that led to their defeat in a war against their foes the Movellans (q.v. Destiny Of The Daleks), has decided to create some new Daleks obedient to him and not to the Supreme Dalek. He gains followers in his circle, including human troops, whom he conditions. Yet, he rants and raves throughout most of this story, and at times, his dialogue is unintelligible, maybe because of microphone troubles beneath the mask or it being drowned by the music.

Interesting effects in this story is a scary scene of someone's whose face is rotting away, and the way the Daleks succumb to the virus.

Maurice Colbourne (Lytton) and his two bodyguards would reappear in Attack of the Cybermen where they would be killed off. The character of Lytton, the ruthless and no-nonsense mercenary unafraid to tell the Daleks off, is one of the few interesting ones. Same with Stien, a cowardly, uncertain, and later on, divided personality, and Rodney Bewes does a good portrayal to that effect. All the other characters seem unimportant, as many are unnamed or unidentified until later episodes.

As this is Tegan's departure story, Janet Fielding has a good emotional leaving scene, where her character is sickened by the carnage that has taken place. Indeed, only three humanoid characters survive in this extremely high body count story.

This story has been compared to Earthshock, which was also written by Eric Saward and featured the Cybermen, and has been criticized for being all gloss and no substance. While the action sequences and regular characters are good, the lack of strong characters, and maybe too many characters who just fill up the story and get killed off.

"I'm not coming with you."
"Resurrection of the Daleks" is the first of the stories available on DVD that I saw as a fan. I was only eleven years old and had only been watching the show (aired nightly on PBS) for a month. It made a huge impact on me and led, indirectly, to my sitting here on a perfectly pleasant September evening 19 years later, writing this review.

A lot of "Resurrection" is still effective today. I saw this story first the year that it debuted -- 1984 -- and, of course, a lot of the acting and special effects seem woefully dated today. What I like is the air of actual *menace* around these Daleks, as opposed to a string of predictable, less-than-memorable 1970s outings. These Daleks actually instill horror in their victims. They shoot on sight and play fast and loose with biological weapons. "Resurrection" is a violent, gruesome story whose impact is only slightly dulled by the two dozen badly-acted death scenes of random extras. One of the extras, referred to on the commentary track only as "the Geek", looks a lot like David Letterman. For what it's worth.

The DVD extras make this package the better of the two "DW" stories released in the US this summer. The obligatory text commentary, full of location filming dates and guest actor credits, also describes in detail the evolution of the story's script over the three years it took to get to screen. We learn how actor Terry Molloy (the third and final "Davros") spent hours practicing the voice, to make the character sound like Michael Wisher, the original (and best) Davros. Molloy truly is excellent playing a ranting wheelchair-bound villain in a latex mask (which, we learn, caused "lakes of sweat" to pool inside the oversized rubber chin), and would go on to play the role right up through the end of "Doctor Who" as a series.

The audio track is also a winner. Peter Davison (the Doctor) is back for his third DVD and is, as always, hilarious. Janet Fielding (Tegan, who makes her emotional departure at the end of "Resurrection") puts in her first DVD performance. She's done her homework, giving a lot of convincing detail, and still finds time to count the many furtive glances that co-star Mark Strickson (Turlough) shot to the camera as he strived to get more face time. Story director Matthew Robinson seems to remember the setup for every camera angle and every shot in the story, and lets us know it. Still, it's the level of detail and humor that puts this in the "above average" range of DW audio commentaries, after a rather dull recent run by actors and directors with distressingly porous memories.

Another good extra is the lengthy "on location" segment, which returns to the narrow, dank Thames waterfront alleys where the story was filmed. It's all gone upscale now. Robinson re-enacts old scenes by lurking in alcoves that have since become pastry shop windows. Also interspersed here is an interview with producer John Nathan-Turner, evidently the last interview he gave before his death last year. Also in the "deleted scenes" is the alternative cliffhanger to Part Two... which was actually the cliffhanger used when I first saw this story in the US in 1984. I like this "alternate" version better than the "official" one, as it ends a couple of menacing beats later.

The ultimate goal, I think, is to get as much of Davison's Season 21 output on DVD as possible. We have two of his six stories out now, and that's just not enough.

WB could come out with BETTER stories...
I love the Fifth Doctor, but this was not one of the better stories if his era.

In this DVD, some visual and audio fx are missing in part 4 where people are apparently shot by Daleks yet make pitiful sounding screams, no audio or visual for the blast. It looks like a total farce when it should be a disturbing slaughtering.

The plot is also way too contrived, also pointlessly featuring an eventual invasion of Gallifrey (ugh) and throwing in a pointless clipshow of all the Doctor's previous companions, except for Leela of course. (ugh)

Also, they shove a Dalek out of the second floor of the warehouse where it crashes outside. For the rest of the warehouse scenes, the Dalek's bits are scattered throughout the INSIDE of the warehouse, nor suggesting anybody was stupid enough to move the wreckage inside...

And did the Supreme Dalek really have duplicates of all the world's major leaders in place to cause the destablization of Earth?!

Why does Stein do any number of things to help the Doctor when he apparently was a Dalek Duplicate ordered to capture the Doctor?!

Tegan's leaving scene almost makes up for this rubbish, but she claimed her travels stopped being fun. If you looked at a handful of adventures (threatened with rape, mind taken over by a malevolent entity - TWICE, threatened to be killed, interrogated by a lizard after watching "The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy" thinking the Doctor - like Ford Prefect - came from Guildford, always complaining about the Doctor's inability to get her home, and so on, it didn't come across as being fun...)

This also has a 5.1 remix for the audio. While the DVD menu is nothing less than brilliant, the re-mix for the story itself is an embarrassment. Which is sad as the 5.1 remix for "The Five Doctors" special edition was superb by comparison.

If Warner Bros would release the following stories, I'd be a happier customer:

THE TWO DOCTORS (whose features alone will make it an instant purchase for me, but the story is very good too!)
THE SEEDS OF DEATH (an excellent story)
EARTHSHOCK (another excellent story)
THE THREE DOCTORS (may as well finish up the ___ Doctors stories but this one is entertaining)

and

THE CURSE OF FENRIC (which I originally hated but has grown on me since)

I know other fans will be happy over "The Talons of Weng Chiang" which is about to be released, but that one always bored me. As for "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", it's got nice outdoor location work but the plot and the final two episodes are so slapdashed and haphazerdly written that I can't ignore them, forget the part that the Daleks want to turn the Earth into a mobile spacecraft when they can already make their own. (ugh) ... Read more

Reviews (23)

Where it all began
Viewers back in 1963 would have never expected that the Doctor was actually a Time Lord from Gallifrey with the ability to regenerate. And at that point neither did the writers. All saga's must have a starting point and "Unearthly Child" is where it all began for Doctor Who. I remember watching this episode all wide eyed back when they were rerunning all of the old episodes of Doctor Who back in the mid 1980's on the local PBS station. Despite getting increasingly boring after episode one, this video is well worth getting just to see the first ever episode. I'm not a paticular fan of the William Hartnell era of Who, but I think that it's very interesting how despite that the character of the Doctor was suppose to be the hero, he had a very cunning and manipulative side to him. Manipulative to the point where he endangers his unwilling companions. This video is great for new fans out there who only know about Tom Bakers stay as the Doctor who are curious to see the beginning of what would become a great cult classic in television.

The dawn of a new age of television
I remember seeing this pilot episode of Dr. Who when it was first transmitted - in fact, seeing it twice because the first showing preceded the assassination of John Kennedy by a matter of hours, and fearing that the series might get overlooked, the BBC repeated episode 1 the following Saturday (30th November 1963) immediately prior to episode 2.
The idea of a cranky time traveller captured the imagine in a way that is impossible to understand today. Dr. Who (in fact, it was meant to be "Dr. Who?" because no one knew the name of this strange old man) emerged at a time - it is so hard to avoid making a pun, however unintentionally - when most television in the U.K. was banal in the extreme (alas, most of it still is in America).
Dr. Who helped to fire my young imagination, and that of many other kids growing up in England in the early 1960s. I always look back on this pilot story with great affection, and thoroughly recommend it as a true landmark in science fiction on the silver screen.

For those who are already Doctor Who fans
Yes, the plot is full of holes, the biggest one being, of course, that cave-men speak and understand English. But for anyone who is a fan of the series, this is a must have, if for the historical record alone. Just to be able to see the first episode of a show that ran for over 20 years. And to be able to see the first doctor, William Hartnell, and get a sense of what the character was originally intended to be is a treat. The doctor as written here is crusty and arrogant, not the cuddly, loveable and occasionally (but amusingly) smug doctor you will know if you've only seen the Tom Baker episodes. Taken on its own merits, without the historical significance, this would rate only 2 stars. It's definitely not for the first time Doctor Who viewer, at least not if you want to know why this show is such a cult classic. But it did make me want to own more Hartnell episodes and to fill in the holes in my Doctor Who viewing experience.

That's not his name. Who is he? Doctor who?
23 November 1963. One day after the assassination of President Kennedy, something earthshattering took place across the Atlantic. At 5:15 PM, Greenwich Time, a legend was born on BBC1.

"Have you ever wondered what it's like to be travelers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet without friends or protection, but one day, we shall get back. Yes, one day..."

That's what two teachers at Coal Hill School, Ian Chesterton (science) and Barbara Wright (history) discover when an extraordinary student, Susan Foreman, piques their curiosity. She is brilliant in some things, outdoing even them, but not in others--she is eight years behind Britain's decimal currency conversion, for example. Also, she flips through a book of the French Revolution Barbara loans her, peers closely at a page, and says, "But that's not right!" Ian and Barbara become curious and follow their mysterious pupil home.

They meet Susan and her grandfather, an eccentric, Edwardian-looking gentlemen wearing a long coat and Astrakhan hat, who whisk them away in a time machine shaped like a police box. Naturally, Ian and Barbara are befuddled, as the space within appears larger than the box. However, it becomes clear when Susan explains the name of the machine, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space).

The travellers then land during the dawn of man and become embroiled in power politics within a primitive tribe who have lost the secret of fire with the death of the firemaker, father of the current leader Za. The problem is simple. Without meat, they go hungry. Without fire, they freeze to death. And the leader is the one who makes fire. Kal, a newcomer the Za's tribe took in, vies for the leadership. And Hur, a woman of the tribe, is to be given to whoever will become leader, although she clearly favours Za. Then there's the Old Mother, a pyrophobic ancient who believes fire will bring about evil. She is played by Eileen Way, who would later play Karela, Lady Adrasta's vizier, in the 1979 Who story, The Creature From The Pit.

One will observe that the cavemen speak English and that the travellers understand them. We learn why this is in The Masque Of Mandragora (1976), where it's a Time Lord gift that is shared by the Doctor to whoever else is part of the TARDIS crew.

Having seen the first story so late since I first got into the show, it's interesting to see Ian and Barbara's personalities. Ian is initially skeptical about time travel and the TARDIS, yet Barbara's mind is more open. And the Doctor is shown as a tetchy anti-hero, but who can blame him? After all, Ian and Barbara barged their way into the TARDIS and blew his cover.
And for those not in the know, the title of my review is the line spoken by Ian to Barbara, when the latter calls him Dr. Foreman, after the name on the junkyard where they found the TARDIS, and explains the name of the show. Funny thing is, the Time Lord was never called Doctor Who, except for a goof in The War Machines and in the Peter Cushing movies, but always simply the Doctor.

The beginning of a legend in TV history. I'll conclude with something the Doctor tells Ian, who demands proof they have landed back in time. "If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cry of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?" All I can say is, if the Doctor landed that TARDIS and asked me if I wanted to go places, I wouldn't wait to pack my bags. To tweak a well-known bumper sticker, I'd say "Dematerialize, Doctor. This planet sucks!" And I wouldn't want to return!

Necessary for Collection
I write here to review to the initiated. "An Unearthly Child" is more historic in what it is than in its content. The first episode of the storyline is great, tense television, but the caveman storyline is lacking. For the initiated this is absolute essential Doctor Who, but despite the fact this is the first story, I don't believe this is a good starting point. This is a show taking its baby steps and toying with its format. Even the Doctor was originally a pretty mean and hateful guy who is more than willing to let a caveman die in one scene. It's Ian and Barbara that are the righteous ones and the heroes in these early episodes. Hmmm, maybe the character of the Doctor owes everything he would become to these two cardigan loving schoolteachers. An exciting start to the greatest series of all time. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Dominating the Doctor
Great little story with Troughton displaying his inimmitable style.

Troughton is the best Dr and this is an entertaining 5 parter that shows Troughton off as a mixed bag of fun and fear.

The story sees dastardly dominators who aim to destroy a planet with a nuclear bomb in order to fuel their star fleet.

The Doctor, with Jamie and new recruit Zoe manage to thwart their plans but not without a great deal of team work and action. With Jamie out and about exploding Quarks the Dominators is an entertaining tale to the end.

Just a simple tale of peace vs. war?
First transmitted August 10 through September 7 1968 in England, this is a traditional Doctor Who quarry story. Actually they spend more time in this particular quarry than in practically every other Doctor Who story.

The tale is a relatively simple one, a spacecraft lands accidentally on a planet thought to be uninhabited. The lifeforms, Dominators, are in need of an unknown fuel source with the aid of the robot QUARKS and that would be that except for the fact that the planet is not uninhabited, there are humanoids who are a peace loving race in the aftermath of an atomic debacle and then there is the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe.

To all intents and purposes it is a standard story of peace versus war with the Doctor forced tom act to free the Dulcians from evil and oppression. Nothing is quite so simple. The Dominators are cast as evil but in fact there is a trainee, a cold blooded, rash killer of everything he sees. His mentor, although a believer of the mental and physical superiority of the Dominators, is a different creature with a more 'noble' purpose. His consideration for life is more of a calculation than an emotional atttachment and the quest for domination of the universe is to bring order to all things. The destruction of the Dominators is more of a tragedy to be mourned rather than a triumph of good over evil.

The Dulcians are foppish and cowardly unlike the Thals of the Dead Planet and do not have the stomach to fight even for themselves. Science has resulted in an indifference to real new knowledge and has been replaced with a Disneyesque view of the world.

Patrick Troughton is admirable throughout and Zoe, despite the high intellect for which she is renowned as a Doctor companion, is again more of a visual aspect rather than a contributor. The story could have done with some tougher editing too.

"Just act stupid, do you think you could manage that?"
The majority of Patrick Troughton's stories as Dr Who are either incomplete or missing entirely from the BBC Archives. After watching "The Dominators" I can only conclude what a tragedy it is that this survives while others are lost. It is tedious all the way through. The Dominators are unconvincing and unengaging aliens/villains who look like a cross between Quasimodo and Humpty Dumpty - if their feuding between themselves is meant to be an interesting plot device, it doesn't work. (Ronald Allen, who plays Rago, is much better as Ralph Cormish in the Jon Pertwee story "The Ambassadors of Death".) The Quarks are laughable. They are meant to be killer robots, but their slow, comic movements and high pitched shrill voices make them more cute than anything else. All the Dulcian characters are uninteresting, one dimensional, bland and irritating. The pace of the story drags from the opening moments and lumbers its way through five ponderous episodes. Not Dr Who at its best.

Excellent sci-fi.
Dr Who deals with the then-topical subject of the atom bomb, a group of people on an alien planet visiting an atomic testing island but finding that the radiation has somehow disappeared. It transpires that a spacecraft inhabited by two war-like beings and their robots is powered by radiation and his absorbed it all. Before long the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie have arrived on the scene and uncoverda plot to turn the whole planet into a radio-active mass to fuel an invasion fleet.

One of the best Troughton stories I've seen. The Doctor himself is at his best. The two Dominators (an experienced navigator and his over-enthusiastic probationer) are memorable characters, the cold-eyed navigator especially effective. The fact that they have individual and differing characters leads to some excellent confrontational scenes between them. The robotic Quarks are eerily effective with their bizarre crystaline heads and creepy voices and the sound-effects and special-effects are mostly good. A story which is truly worthy of that over-used term 'classic'. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

A mess, but at least it's entertaining in a mindless way.
There seemed to be a trend in 'post-modern' stories during thelate eighties of Dr Who. Whilst 'Trial of a Time Lord' and 'GreatestShow in the Galaxy' tried out this approach and were classics, the same cannot be said for the 'official silver anniversary story'.

'Silver Nemesis' takes the post-modern approach too far... The plot is a steal from the far superior 'Remembrance of the Daleks' (the Doctor tricks an old enemy into gaining control of a powerful weapon from Gallifrey's past which then destroys them). It's all very muddled, with neo-Nazis, medieval time-travellers, living metal all thrown in. Not to mention 'hints' that the Doctor is not who we thought he was, done with all the subtlety of cyanide mouthwash. Added to that is the fact that the idea of an asteroid circling the Earth once every 25 years simply doesn't work - the asteroid, being in a decaying orbit, would surely take less and less time to circle the Earth. And the business involving Cybermen and gold is completely ridiculous. Gold dust can clog up a Cyberman's breathing unit and suffocate it, yes, but how can gold-headed arrows penetrate a Cyberman's armour when machine-gun bullets fail to do so? Gold is, as has been pointed out, a soft metal, something which was actually mentioned in an older Cyberman story.

True, 'Nemesis' is at least entertaining. It all looks and sounds very nice with plenty of special effects, gripping action scenes, marvellous camerawork and a good soundtrack. Just don't start to think about the plot. And some of the 'missing scenes' should have stayed missing as, far from adding to the adventure's appeal, they positively detract from it.

The 'Making of Silver Nemesis' makes this video a worthwhile purchase if you want to get an idea about how a Dr Who story comes into being.

Well worth tracking down.
I'd say from reviews of this story that Silver Nemesis is one of those Dr Who tales you either love or hate. For the record, the story involves a living metal which was sent into orbit by the Doctor, but which crashes to Earth in the late twentieth century. Its arrival heralds the appearance of the Fourth Reich, the time-travelling medieval Lady Peinforte, and the Cybermen. Okay, so this episode has some pretty silly concepts (anything orbitting the Earth with a decaying orbit would not take 25 years to go round, the Cybermen are too weedy for words - military weapons fail to penetrate their armour, yet a gold-headed arrow can do so easily (gold being a soft metal) and the way the Doctor escapes the guards in the castle just defies camp comedy). But why can't people just enjoy this for what it is - three episodes of entertaining, sci-fi escapism. The action is fast-paced, the story is filled with interesting characters, there are plenty of humorous touches and the music is great. This video also contains the making of Silver Nemesis, which is a bonus.

The Plot Thickens
"Silver Nemesis" is "Doctor Who"'s 25th anniversary story only in the sense that Part One aired 25 years to the night after the first episode of "An Unearthly Child". It wasn't even the season premiere, and there wasn't a whole lot of celebrating going on. Most of the nods to "Unearthly", in fact, came in the Season 25 opener, "Remembrance of the Daleks". What made "Silver Nemesis" the anniversary -- apart from the token appearance of classic "Who" adversary the Cybermen -- was the plot, which purported to reveal great secrets about the Time Lord's true origin.

As an actual story, "Silver Nemesis" never got off the ground. Most of the best material was left on the cutting room floor, as evidenced when the extended VHS release added nearly half an episode's worth of extra scenes.

Each of the three parts of "Nemesis" contains one utterly pointless extended sequence that adds nothing to the ongoing story, except lame laughs. In Part Two, 17th century villainness Lady Peinforte is stalked through the streets of 1988 Windsor by a couple of skinheads, who repeatedly berate her as a "social worker". What the heck is that about? In Part Three, Peinforte takes a long car ride with a tourist from Virginia, who speaks in the most inflated Southern accent since the movie "Steel Magnolias". All right, this actually gets funnier in retrospect, but it sure wasn't amusing in 1988. In Part One there is some promise, as "Doctor Who" veteran Nick Courtney makes an unbilled, dialogue-free cameo as a tourist at Windsor Castle. A stand-in for the Queen also shows up, walking her dogs.

The best version of "Nemesis" that exists is neither of the "official" ones (broadcast or VHS). A "lite" edit circulated around the Internet a couple of years ago, which eliminated all of the go-nowhere scenes listed above, and replaced them with the most interesting extra bits from the VHS release. The story is made markedly tighter by this substitution, while still coming in at a manageable three parts. The most interesting alteration is the change of cliffhangers: Part Two no longer ends with the non-terrifying revelation that "thousands" of Cybermen spaceships are orbiting the Moon. Instead, it concludes with a screech as the story's Nemesis -- the living Gallifreyan statue forged as the ultimate weapon of mass destruction -- comes to life in a shower of impressively digitized sparks. As the story is really about the Nemesis (not the Cybermen) and what she knows about the Doctor, "Silver Nemesis" takes sharper focus when she's given center stage.

But "Silver Nemesis" ultimately cannot deliver on any meaningful level. It asserts that the Doctor has "secrets", about "the old time, the time of Chaos". However, no matter how you edit the story, those secrets will never be revealed. Oh, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred still have terrific by-play together. You'll find out a little more about the Doctor's ongoing chess game with the shadows in Lady Peinforte's study, solved in the following season's "Curse of Fenric". However, it will still end with Ace asking the Doctor, "Who ARE you?", and will still end with Sylvester shushing her. That's not an anniversary. That's just par for the course.

This one is destined to be a classic.
It's hard to believe that "Silver Nemesis" got less than 5 stars average rating. This is an exceptionally good show, especially when you consider that it comes from the Sylvester McCoy era, where most shows were real stinkers! The lovely and attractive Ace is certainly a welcome addition, and the contrasting dialog between her and the Silver Nemesis sent chills up my spine. When Ace says, "Catch you later" to the Silver Nemesis, it's both funny and scary because we know Ace didn't know what to say. If you were faced with the Silver Nemesis you wouldn't know what to say either. It gives us a sense that these characters are very much out of time from each other, and have come together to do what they are suppose to do. Not everyone enjoys this form of entertainment, but don't shoot it down just because you don't get it, or if it seems a little weird or strange. This is not "I Love Lucy". Doctor Who is a very different show.

Happy 25th anniversary, Doctor!
In an untelevised adventure in 1638, the Second Doctor launched an asteroid containing a statue made of the living metal (yes, living metal) validium into space, but got the sums wrong, so that its decaying orbit would lead it back to Earth on 23 November 1988 (read, Doctor Who's silver jubilee).

Three parties are striving to control the statue, named Nemesis: Herr De Flores, leader of a band of neo-Nazis, Lady Peinforte and her servant Richard, and that silver menace whom De Flores calls the Giants (q.v. Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen), the Cybermen. The Doctor and Ace get involved in this when the former's alarm sounds at a Courtney Pine concert. They jet back and forth from 1988 to 1638 to discover answers, answers that the Doctor already knows but is keeping from Ace.

Our heroes must gain possession of the Nemesis to correct the Doctor's mistake, and it ends triumphantly when the everybody in the other three parties perish, save one.

Dolores Gray has a pleasant moment as a kindhearted Virginian tourist who gives Lady Peinforte and Richard a lift in her limo, replete with accent.

And the pair of skinheads mistaking Lady Peinforte and Richard for social workers is cause for a chuckle or eye rolling.

The concept of a comet causing events on Earth with its arrival every 25 years is interesting, as evidenced by the eve of the Great War (1913), the Anschluss of Austria (1938), Kennedy's assassination (1963), and the Cybermen invasion of Earth (1988). What other events did the Nemesis influence? The eve of the War of the Ausberg League (1688), the eve of the French Revolution (1788), the Battle of Gettysburg (1863)? Maybe.

A few questionable aspects to this story is the use of the Gregorian calendar (1752) in England re the Doctor's calculations, the motives of the Cybernized people shooting at the Doctor and Ace after the concert (maybe they also hated people whose alarms went off at concerts), and the existence in 1638 of Roundheads. Still, this doesn't detract from the story.

The Cybermen outfits must be brand spanking new compared to Attack Of The Cybermen, as they are polished and glittering, and as such, are a sight to behold. Still, glitter does not obscure the fact that they are still easily killed by gold coins, unless they were made with sharpened edges--who knows?

This is the second of what I call the "Ace Enigma Trilogy," the first being Dragonfire, the third being The Curse Of Fenric. For those who don't know what's going on, think--who moved the chess pieces after the Doctor's first visit to Lady Peinforte's house? And why does he bother playing the game in the first place.

Pity the series ended with Survival, otherwise we might have seen the story where Gainsborough did his painting of Ace.

Following the story are outtakes and a making of documentary, where the viewer gets to see the use of glowing paint for the Nemesis bow, Cyberleader David Banks demonstrating his new Cyber costume, rehearsal sessions in the BBC studio, the importance of first showing actors firing guns the safety catch, and other things.

As a silver anniversary celebration, Silver Nemesis, and its companion documentary has its hearts in the right places. ... Read more

Description

After an attack by the evil Rani, the TARDIS crash-lands on the desolate planet of Lakertya. On the floor of the console room, the Doctor begins his sixth regeneration? In his post-regenerative confusion, the Doctor is separated from his young companion Mel and tricked into assisting the Rani in her megalomanic scheme to construct a giant time manipulator. Lost on the barren surface of the planet, Mel has to avoid the Rani?s ingenious traps and her monstrous, bat like servants, the Tetraps. She joins forces with a rebel faction among the Lakertyans, desperate to end the Rani?s control of their planet. The Doctor must recover his wits in time to avoid becoming a permanent part of the Rani?s insane plan to drain the genius of the greatest scientific minds in the universe. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

"Two wrongs don't make a left turn....Right!"
As Mr. Pilato wrote in his review, "Time and the Rani" might be one of the most underrated Who stories. Certainly, this adventure is no "Spearhead From Space" or "Castrovalva", but compared to "The Twin Dilemma", it's a masterpiece! What's great about this story, is that it jumps into the teeth of the storm. It doesn't give us any explanation about the Sixth Doctor's injuries leading to his regeneration. But when has a Who story been forthcoming about certain elements of the a story? Romana's regeneration comes to mind. But it's Sylvester McCoy's portrayal of the Time Lord in a state of confusion and Kate O'Mara's impersonation of Mel that really help the flow of the plot. Even Mel, although some may not agree, is very good in this one, Pip and Jane Baker, being the only writers to give her anything decent to say. The Tetraps are also the fastest moving aliens in the JNT era, they are realised VERY well. And why do fans and critics have a problem with the Lakertyians? Great make up! Some wonderfully overblown dialogue, great design, impressive special effects, and incredibly different and innovative soundtrack by Keff McCulloch! McCoy's misquotes throughout the story is a nice touch. Love the ending...."I'll grow on you, Mel!"

Debut of 7th Doctor isn't too good, but not all that bad
Following the unceremonious dismissal of Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, the BBC appointed Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy as the new Doctor, and presumably to gain viewers, brought back Kate O'Mara as the deadly Rani, the cold scientific Time Lord from the Mark Of The Rani story two seasons back.

In the pre-title sequence, the Rani hijacks the TARDIS. It crash lands, knocking both Mel and the Doctor unconscious and triggering the latter's regeneration, done by McCoy donning a blonde wig while some special effects complete the regeneration.

"The Rani always dabbles on a grand scale" the Doctor tells Mel, and this involves an asteroid made of a super-dense "strange matter." However, the Rani needs the Doctor to repair something faulty in one of her machines. To that end, she has commandeered the planet Lakertya, inhabited by yellow-skinned humanoids with reptilian influences and wild hairdos at home on members of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and taken hostage Beyus, the leader. There isn't much resistance because the Lakertyans are an indolent race. The exception is the young Ikona, who survives on the surface avoiding the Tetraps, the Rani's alien servants. And in a moment that stretches credibility and might even make the Rani retch at doing something so undignified, the Rani disguises herself as Mel, down to her clothing and red wig.

In The Mark of the Rani, the Rani laid some ingenious mines in the forest. Here, she has more deadly traps, requiring special effects, which involves an energy bubble that traps the victim and sends it flying until it hits a solid surface and then...BOOM! Pretty devious.

Ikona takes Mel hostage, thinking she is in league with the Rani, but is convinced that she is good and helps her get into the Rani's citadel in search of the Doctor.

The new snazzy title sequence by CAL video used computer graphics for the first time, along with a souped-up keyboard synth version of the theme tune. The animation of the sequence also used a digital editing system and the Quantel Paintbox colouring system.

Sylvester McCoy has the misfortune of being the Doctor with the worst debut story, but that's not his fault, as his acting of someone in the throes of artificially-induced memory loss, and his rapid-fire delivery is superb. It's more the plausibility of the story. I And the first two episodes seem to consist of the Rani leading the Doctor to her damaged machine and the Doctor getting distracted and wandering around the lab, only to have the Rani lead him back to the machine. However, he does have a funny time misquoting sayings: "Fit as a trombone," "drawing the short plank", and my favourite, "absence makes the nose grow longer," to the exasperation of the Rani. Oh, and he has fun playing the spoons.

Another debit is the Tetraps. Furry dog-faced creatures with bat-like wings, they have four eyes, one on either side of their head, so why does one have to turn around when it can see in all directions? Their leader Urak seems very impressed with the Rani, though.

Bonnie Langford does good as the vivacious Mel, but I wonder if she outdoes Deborah Watling (Victoria in the Patrick Troughton series) as being the queen screamer, as she exercises her lungs a couple of times upon seeing a Tetraps.

Kate O'Mara shines again as the Rani, even more ruthless than in her debut role two seasons before. A new hairstyle, maroon outfit, and some makeup are further assets. Her indifference to the Lakertyans are enhanced by her cold scientifically progressive approach: "Am I to abandon my research because of the side effects on inferior species? Are you prepared to abandon walking in case you squash an insect underfoot?" she asks the Doctor.

Wanda Ventham, who plays Faroon, Beyus's wife, appeared in the Doctor Who story Image of the Fendahl as Thea Ransome.

Apart from the aforementioned debits, Time of the Rani isn't as bad as its reputation, but could've been better.

Better than its reputation
Except for "Silver Nemesis," this is probably the least popular McCoy episode. Personally, though, I've always liked it. Even if the regeneration was poorly explained, I was very glad to be rid of the obnoxious sixth doctor. I thought the strange matter asteroid and the chronon manipulating device were clever uses of physics concepts (the McCoy era would later drift more and more toward mysticism, something rather at odds with most of Who history). The Rani herself is a fun character who should have been used more (she was dispassionately amoral rather than actively cruel like the Master). And I must admit to being greatly amused by the silly closing bit with the Doctor rescuing history's scientists and returning them home in the TARDIS, with Einstein giving a baffled glance at the TARDIS control panel.

McCoy's characterization as a manipulator and pacifist had not been established yet, but I think that's forgiveable in a regeneration episode, the gist of which must always be the new Doctor trying to determine just what his new persona will be like. I'm fond of the scene where, after being misled by the Rani concerning his past, the Doctor comments that he's afraid that he may not like himself very much.

Lastly--and this point must be emphasized--this episode taught me that absolutely any story can be improved by the inclusion of a giant disembodied brain as a plot point. Giant disembodied brains are simply cool. The Brain of Morbius was on the right track, I suppose, but the Rani's synthetic gestalt brain is the size of a Volkswagon, and in my opinion, that makes all the difference in the world. (For the record, other plot points which improve almost any story in which they appear are meditations on the relationship of the soul to physical reality, magnetic railguns, bellbottom trousers, and elephants).

This was a good episode, a return to older styles of storytelling with a modest, comprehensible plot, a sense of humor, and a welcome departure from the violence and bullroar of the 6th Doctor's era.

Has its moments, though there aren't too many of them
It has been said that anyone writing the first story for a new Doctor is in trouble, as they're not yet certain how the still-to-be-cast actor will adopt in the role of the series' central character.

But that is hardly an excuse for coming up with a story which is uninspired and uninspiring. Despite the flashy special effects, nice-looking sets and imaginative design, this story gets off to a bad start and never really improves. After a pathetic regeneration sequence (though I suppose we should be thankful there was one at all), the whole thing descends into farce as the Doctor blunders about. The story just seems to consist of characters running about.

You get the feeling it was all written with Colin Baker in mind. The Doctor's arrogance, brutality (showing a Tetrap to its death) and general carrying-on throughout this story is totally at odds with McCoy's more psychological, sophisticated incarnation. It makes me really furious when people base their views on the McCoy era on episodes such as this. Most of the stories in his era are strong and well-written, especially during Seasons 25 and 26. Meanwhile, Time and the Rani gets two stars for at least being mindly entertaining, if hardly a classic.

Doesn't boad well for the seventh personna
What a waste. Colin Baker's unceremonious firing as the (sixth)Doctor the preveous season dooms this one from the very begining and we have a chessy regeneration scene. The story (written by the horrible Pip & Jane Baker)is bad, the cliffhangers are awful and while there are some decent special effects, the make-up and costumes are hideous. It only gets two stars becuase it is Dr. Who and I don't have the heart to give it only one. ... Read more

Reviews (30)

The Best
Logopolis is my second favorite Doctor Who episode. The Doctor decides to repair the TARDIS's chameleon circuit so the TARDIS will be able to change its shape again. He goes to the planet Logopolis but on the way he is chased by the watcher, a ghost figure. The Doctor is also being chased by the Master. The Master plans to take over Logopolis but his plan backfires and he and the Doctor half to team up to save Logopolis. The Doctor and the Master return to Earth, to the Pharos Tower to save Logpolis. But to put a long story short, The Master tricks the Doctor, and the Doctor falls from the Pharos Tower and hits the ground. The Watcher appears, and Adric, Nyssa and Tegan realize that the watcher is the Doctor's fifth body. This four part episode is Tom Baker's last episode in Doctor Who. The next episode is Castrovalva with Peter Davison as the new Doctor. This is a tape worth buying if you are a big Baker fan

Entropy increases
Contrary to the last reviewer, I cannot stop watching Logopolis! I'm already on my third viewing after buying it only a week ago. Tom Baker's final story as the Doctor was a very good one to go out on - it's a dark, ominous tale with good performances all round! Anthony Ainley makes his first full-fledged appearance as the Master (if you don't count his brief debut as the character in The Keeper of Traken), and he doesn't even laugh too often as he begins to do later in the series. Janet Fielding stumbles into the TARDIS as Tegan in a way reminiscent of Ian and Barbara in An Unearthly Child, the very first Dr. Who story - although it bothers me a bit that Tegan seems to accept the TARDIS's time travel abilities virtually without question. Tom Baker shows a great range of emotion, particularly when he must tell Tegan about the fate of her Aunt Vanessa. The closing scenes are good, giving us a final curtain call for not only the Fourth Doctor but also all of the companions of his era, and many of the enemies. And the incidental music maintains the story's ominous atmosphere admirably. Not one to be missed. The moment has been prepared for.

thank god he's finally gone!
I thought Baker would NEVER leave...his era is interminable, it just goes on and on and on and on....argh!
With this story, second in the brilliant Master trilogy (the first really deacent thing in Tom Baker's era in four years!!!)
we finally get rid of him. The story is so cool and does such a good job that we actually almost feel sad for a minute there, but its a massive releif when the sod fianlly pisses off once and for all so a good era can begin and the brilliant Peter Davison takes over. No more pulling faces, forced grins, bad puns, unfunny attempts at humor "Don't wana lose my arm, rather attached to it, so handy!" (yeah, right!) just a cool hero with real emotional depth and an occasional dangerous edge (shoots door open with flintlock and says "I never miss.."). And no more shouting at Leela and K-9 to "shut up" every five minutes to remind us that he has "authority". Yup, authority! "Leela, tell your friend to shut up!" "Leela, order K-9 to tell you to shut up" "No, shut up, K-9, listen... we'll finish that game of chess now." Yeah, I'm glad to see the back of him, good bye Thomas, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out! Peter Davsion has finally arrived, long live Peter Davsion, the real King of Dr.Who!

"'Standing on their heads', is an expression!"
OK, I've watched this episode a million times and love it! However, I still have a number of unanswered questions... Did "The Watcher" arrive in a third TARDIS that materialzed around the London Policebox, and simultaneously, the Master's TARDIS, causing the gravity bubble and an almost infinite regression of time machines? Or, was "The Watcher", simply a projection of the Doctor's future self? If the latter, was indeed the case, why did he look so freaky? OK, back to the infinite regression deal... How in the world could the Doctor enter into the last TARDIS and then be on the outside of the Policebox? Now, I could see, if the TARDIS he was in, dematerialized back around the original Policebox, subsequently, allowing the him to exit the main doors back to the outside. Some have speculated, the Doctor exited through another door, but that would've only brought him out the other side of the TARDIS Adric was standing outside of. And, even if that were possible, how could Adric possibly heard everything that was going on? Then, to top it all off, Adric goes inside the last TARDIS, leading him to the outside of the Policebox, where, upon re-entering with the Doctor, the last TARDIS has dematerialized and the Doctor's is there instead!! What the heck kind of circular reasoning is that?? But, as for the stuff I can fathom... I really like this episode, because it gives a peak at other areas of the TARDIS, such as the cloister room. I did, however, think the one in the 1996 Telemovie was way more cool! Of, course, being that they weren't on BBC's shoe-string budget helped out, I'm sure. So, I hope they release this one on dvd, with updated special effects. And, by that, I don't mean the McDonald's, soft, icecream effect in "The Five Doctors". C'mon guys, get real! We're in the 21st century, here! I hope, too, the audio will be remixed into 5.1!

Singing the Language of Numbers
Most regeneration stories are specifically meant to wrap up their era. It had to be in "The Caves of Androzani", for example, that we learn why Peter Davison wears celery on the lapel of his blazer. It's why we could only learn of the Doctor's origins in "The War Games". However, for my all-time favorite "Doctor Who" story, I make the argument that "Logopolis" worked just as well as the pilot for a new series of Tom Baker adventures.

If you had to isolate one image to explain "Doctor Who"'s fall from grace in the 1980s, it's Anthony Ainley. The final actor to play the Master on the BBC also held on to the role the longest, dragging his hammy character kicking and screaming alongside four different Doctors, until he was fat and possessed by the spirit of the Cheetah People. Although this may have been a fitting end for the character, some of us preferred Roger Delgado, all dignity and cigars.

In 1981, though, Anthony Ainley was magically new. In "The Keeper of Traken", he played the Doctor's friend, good guy Tremas, whose body was stolen by the decaying Geoffrey Beevers. A rejuvenated Master sneaks away into his TARDIS, chuckling, whispering, "A new body, at last. A new body. At last". That disembodied chuckle is all that remains, fading into the electronic scream of the end credits. More, please!

Director Peter Grimwade, who showed up with a zillion directorial flourishes, wisely kept the Master off-screen for more than half of Tom Baker's swan song. Menace is restored to the character for the first time, since, oh, "The Mind of Evil", because we can't see him, just hear him off-camera, as another character dies, shrunken to a corpse. Music composer Paddy Kingsland, the best there was in 26 years, punctuates the revelation of each doll-sized body with another mini-electronic scream.

When the Master finally does appear, in Part Three, we learn he's been working to a plan even since before Part One: follow the Doctor to Earth, leave deadly calling-cards, and then stow away on board to Logopolis to steal the Monitor's secrets for himself. But it's there the Master is beaten: for Logopolis is the keystone of the Universe, holding the moment of heat death at bay through sheer force of chanted numbers. And the Master's technological interference has caused the city to crumble to dust, unleashing an entropy field that will reduce the Universe to ash within hours. It's the Doctor's utterance that the Master is "mad... utterly mad" that finally convinces us this is the most dangerous Master we've seen in years.

But Ainley's not the only revelation in this story. There's Tom Baker. Just listen to his dialogue, especially in the early TARDIS scenes alone with Adric It's so dense, and delivered so rapid-fire, so naturally. We are now a million light years away from the Tom Baker who worked with Louise Jameson and Mary Tamm, trampling all over the script, clearly bored with proceedings. This Baker loves the script, giving the dialogue all sorts of inflections, loaning the Doctor a whole new scared dimension. "Nothing like this has ever happened before." It's something to say that a man could so compellingly reinvent the character in his final hour, when he could well have gone through the motions as if this were "The Power of Kroll".

The sense of newness is also borrowed from the supporting cast. Matthew Waterhouse, surprise of surprises, is compelling; witness his constant questioning of the Doctor in Parts One and Two. He even pulls an audience, getting thoroughly confused by the script: "We're going to measure Logopolis too?. When Tegan and then Nyssa arrive in Part Two, Adric starts to exhibit the bossy I'm-in-charge nature that made him so unbearable for most of Season 19, but one senses that Baker would have kept him in line. Even working with Janet Fielding, an actress he really didn't need to know at all, Baker planted the convincing seeds of a Doctor who really wanted to time-travel with this young flight attendant. It's a shame he never worked with either of them again.

And then there's the script. Chris Bidmead, with his emphasis on hard-sounding science, helped mold the "Doctor Who" of not just the 1980s, but the '90s as well. But his script in "Logopolis" far exceeds in quality any book out of the technobabble-drenched Simon Bucher-Jones oeuvre. Not only is "Logopolis" full of phrases like "unraveling the causal nexus" and "my biomechanisms are unaffected", but it's also got poetry: "And now the world I grew up in, blotted out forever"; "We are beyond recriminations... beyond everything", and my understated favorite: "Time has changed little for either of us, Doctor. You continue to roam the Universe, while we persist in our humble existence on this planet."

Special praise must be reserved for John Fraser, who, as the Monitor, played quite possibly the smartest, least hammy character in 26 years of "Doctor Who" guest turns. He has no rants, no over-the-top bursts of comedy. He's just a smart guy who knows more about what's going on than the Doctor, and actually saves the day with his computer code: he just has the good graces to die early in Part Four. That's done so Tom Baker can save the Universe and then fall to his death. Just when we were looking forward to at least another season of this exciting new Doctor. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Servalan gone to Moloch while Tarrant brother goes to war
The next vol. of Blake's 7 entitled MOLOCH and DEATH-WATCH

In the epsidoe entitled Moloch
Servalan has recived a transmission from the planet Sardos. A planet that is on the outer fingess of the universe. Avon has tapped that tranmission as well and wonders why she is going so far out into space. Avon begins to wonder if Servalan has some other plans for that planet? Servalan herself wonders why Federation soldiers are still on this planet and are acting like they control the Federation?
In the next epsidoe entitled DEATH-WATCH
The United Planets of Teal and the Vandor Confederacy are at war. Two champions will settle this war in a special enviromental dome. A panel of arbiters from each side will watch and judge with a third neutral party. Avon and the others are overjoyed that a war has started. They can relax and watch the duel and not worry about the Federation. What they don't know is that Tarrant brother is the champion of Teal and even worse the neutral judge is no other then Servalan. Will Avon figure out why Servalan is here and can Tarrant brother win for Teal as cahmpion? Or could this war end with only one lost?

Classic Blake without Blake.
"Moloch" the crew of the Liberator secretly follows their archenemy Servalan to the outer rim of known space, to a planet where Servalan has powerful friends, or so she thinks. Watch Tarrant, Avon, and Servalan fight for their lives.

In "Death-Watch" come with Avon and crew on vacation to a war between two planets, a war fought by only two champions in dual to the death. Don't worry each of the warring parties will protect you even from the evil Federation. But watch out, the warring parties have pick Servalan to act as referee over the dual, the fools.

"Moloch" disappoints; "Death Watch" average
Both of these episodes begin with an interesting premise but disappoint with their endings. "Moloch" is particularly disappointing and rates two stars at best. One noteworthy point in this episode is that some of Servalan's Federation soldiers finally turn the tables on her. In "Death Watch," author Chris Boucher returns to his disappointing ways. Boucher often comes up with interesting plots, but is sometimes unable to come up with a satisfying ending. Plus, for some reason Boucher is determined to develop some sort of sexual tension between Avon and Servalan and the scene with the two of them together is almost laughable. The principle plot focuses on Tarrant's brother who represents his people as "First Champion" in a duel to the death that will determine the outcome of a war. Of course, Servalan figures out a way to meddle in this event to her advantage and the crew of the Liberator works to foil her plot. (Is this beginning to sound familiar? Seeing less of Servalan makes her a more menacing, mysterious figure. She has been incredibly overused in Season Three, much to the show's detriment.) ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Outer space? No, more from inner time.
The 100th story of Doctor Who and the third part in the Key To Time sextet is The Stones Of Blood, which is also the only story in that canon to take place on Earth. Makes sense--why should more than one of the Key segments be on Earth?

The Doctor and Romana journey to contemporary Earth (1978) and encounter Professor Amelia Rumford and her assistant/neighbor Vivien Fay, who are researching a Gorsedd (stone circle) named the Nine Travellers, whose number has mysteriously changed from six or seven over the centuries. The Doctor investigates a nearby British Institute of Druidic Studies run by the unpleasant Dr. De Vries and is nearly sacrificed to the Celtic goddess Cailleach. Fortunately, he is saved by Rumford. However, in returning to the Institute, he finds DeFries and his assistant Martha killed and the place in a shambles. Both have been attacked by a colossal silicon-based creature, an Ogri.

The Doctor realizes that something is really amiss when he discovers paintings of certain woman painted over the ages in the Institute's basement. They are all of Vivien Fay! However, Vivien captures Romana and whisks her off to a spaceship existing in a hyperspatial dimension.

Beatrix Lehmann makes Professor Amelia Rumford quite an adorable and tenacious character. In the scene when she and the Doctor and pursued by an Ogri, she pulls out a truncheon and says that in the name of science, it's their duty to try and capture it. The Doctor simply pulls her away. Rumford's tenacity is further demonstrated when Vivien explains that while giving a lecture in NYC, Rumford carried the truncheon with her for fear of being mugged, and was arrested for carrying an offensive weapon (!) She also takes the Doctor's obvious alien origins in stride: "Are you from outer space?" Doctor: "I'm more from what you inner time." Rumford: "Ahh." She makes a wonderful partner and foil, as she is paired at various times with the Doctor, Romana, and K9.

Great dialogue: the Doctor has a bit of fun of the Druids at De Vries' expense, saying that John Aubrey invented them as a joke, and later, when he is about to be sacrificed, he rattles on about the knife at his throat: "I hope that knife's been sterilized. ...You can catch all sorts of things from a dirty knife." And when Rumford tells the Doctor that it's impossible for silicon-based creatures to exist, he tells her, "Maybe it doesn't know that."

Mary Tamm's fashionable yet again, wearing salmon-coloured blouse, slacks, heels, and cap, and later, in a long red dress.

The first two episodes work well as a light horror-mystery, but the subsequent plot of the alien spaceship hovering over the stone circle, the Megara, and the Doctor's trial causes the story to go awry. The Doctor pulling out a cake from a fridge celebrating the show's 100th story, as Tom Baker once suggested, would have improved the story a lot more. Naturally, that idea was nixed.

A Theortical Absurdity!!
This is a terrific episode of Dr. Who. It's the 3rd installment of the Key to Time series and brings the Dr. and Romana to Earth at an ancient stone circle, the 9 Travellers. During their investigation, they uncover a spaceship trapped in hyperspace hovering over the circle. The stones are a silicon-based organisn that need gobulin to live, hence the blood sacrifice. These Orgi (ogres) serve Vivian Fey, actually an alien outlaw from Delos. Fey is stranded (?) on Earth and has used the circle for 4,000 years to control the surrounding lands as a deity/goddess.
Fey captures Romana and travels to hyperspace, followed by the Dr. who releases the Magara, justice machines that condemn the Dr. to death for releasing them. The trial is humorous and ends up with Fey being recognized as the outlaw that the Magara were after and condemned to perpetual confinement at a Traveller.
A fun episode but it leaves so many questions unanswered.
Who pushed Romana off the cliff? If the circle were built to mark the place of the hyperspace ship and Fey's coming and going, what about the other stone circles? Was Vivian Fey also Morgana leFey of Arthurian legend? Why do the number of Travellers keep changing? What happened to the Magara? Dr. Who just snapped his fingers and they disappeared.
The Key to Time series is an excellent series because it reminds the Time Lords that they are not the supreme powers in the universe.
This episode marks the 100th time that Tom Baker played Dr. Who and everything shows it. The dialogue is witty, the characters are protrayed wonderfully and there is a familiarity about the entire set that makes watching it a pleasure.

Wow! I am suprised.
I got this with the key to time dvd set, knowing I would get it on dvd I had only bought some key to time stories on vhs. Ofcouse I went with the Douglas Adams stuff first, but now I am shocked, I think this is a good script. Even the name "Stones of Blood" thru me off, I thought it would be your basic on earth monster story. Not so, we in end up in hyperspace with cool aliens and a very clever script. I am on the hunt now for other David Fisher work. Commentary was good too.

Cheesy and silly, even for Doctor Who
One of the joys of Doctor Who or, at least, one of the things you come to overlook being a Doctor Who fan, is the cheesy specials effects. It's also easy to overlook holes in the plot and weak science when the story is good and involving. Unfortunately, this episode is not a particularly good or involving one, especially when viewed between the second and fourth adventures in the Key to Time series (The Pirate Planet and The Androids of Tara, respectively), both of which are far superior.

This episode offers the Doctor Who explanation of Stonehenge. Without giving anything away, the adventure begins with the Doctor and Romana searching for the third segment of the Key to Time. (Don't worry if you're not watching this as part of the overall Key to Time series -- the search for the key is really just an excuse to lead the Doctor and Romana into a series of different adventures and environments. The overall view isn't necessary to watch this series). They stumble onto a group of Goddess worshipers and an unsuspected secret which, of course, leads them into jeopardy.

The only episode of the four that make up this series that really crackles is the last one, where the goddess is revealed for what she really is and the Doctor ends up once again in serious jeopardy. The three episodes leading up to it are pretty monotonous, not really disclosing anything interesting about stone circles or goddess worship, and containing the one of the cheesiest looking and silliest "monsters" in all of Whodom. Although I did love the older woman who plays the archaeologist who helps out the Doctor and Romana. The British have never been stuck on pretty, young things, and Mary Tamm (who plays Romana) is, in any event, pretty enough and young enough to carry that aspect on her own, and can act to boot. Also, in this series, the doctor's sarcastic wit seems somewhat out of place, and the broader implications of the story just aren't as interesting as those in the other episodes of the Key to Time Series, where the fate of entire worlds depends on the Doctor's actions.

In short, this is really one to watch as part of the Key to Time season, or if you're really into Stonehenge and Goddess Worship. Or if you've already seen all the really good episodes and are ready to start on the second tier

"A great lawyer you turned out to be!"
Ever since I was 12, watching the Tom Baker era of "Doctor Who" for the first time, "The Stones of Blood" has been one of my favorite stories. It was the combination, I think, of the Earth locale (particularly the echoes of Stonehenge) which dominate the first two parts of the story, and the literal-minded justice machines, the Megara, which dominate the final two. I won't say that the Megara influenced my choice of career in any way, any more than the barrister's wig that Baker wears while on trial, but .....

"Stones of Blood" is indeed the only Earth-bound story in the year-long Key To Time arc. It benefits from well-developed chemistry between the three lead actors (Tom Baker, Mary Tamm's Romana, and the robotic K9), and a terrific guest spot by the 75 year-old Beatrix Lehmann, as the eccentric archaeologist Professor Amelia Rumford. For a story which is about... well, an alien immortal and erstwhile Celtic goddess who's moonlighting on Earth as a research assistant, and her private army of killer styrofoam rocks, and the for-laughs computerized prosecutors who have been tracking her down for 4,000 years (while locked in a small room which can only be opened on penalty of death) ... for all that, the script is very funny, detailed and believable. As with most 1970s era "Doctor Who", there's a mix of outright comedy and horrific violence, and it all hangs together well, even on repeated viewings. Well, that is, once you've learned to ignore the wobbly styrofoam boulders and the barely-concealed PAs who push them.

The DVD release of "Stones of Blood" is the least elaborate disc yet released for the "Doctor Who" market. Oh, it's got the same pretty animated menus and format as previous discs, but... there's very little else on it. The text commentary is terrific, revealing as it does much of behind-the-scenes info about David Fisher's script (which, unusually for DW, had three major female roles) and the material that didn't make it to screen (a cake celebrating the Doctor's 751st birthday).

The audio commentary is recorded by Tamm, and one-time-only "Who" director Darrol Blake, whose claim to fame is that he once shared an apartment with Ridley Scott. Blake's voice is distinctly grating, but he has eerily precise recall -- noticing a tall patch of grass in the midst of an open field, he spontaneously shouts, "That's where we hid the boards!". Tamm's recall is excellent as well, although most the stories they tell are also located in the (quieter) text commentary. Tamm shows herself to be more of a ham(m) than she ever was in her year on DW, affecting all sorts of English accents and calling Blake "Darling" every few scenes.

If you can bother scrolling all the way through the photo gallery, there are two really neat stills of Tom Baker clowning around with the eponymous styrofoam boulders. Good luck getting there, though! ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Two Great adventures with our favorite enemy
This package is a must for any serious collector of the show. The Chase is a very nostalgic episode from the classic sixties era. The plot is rather simplistic, the Doctor and companions are chased throughout time and space by the infamous Daleks. However, the scenarios the Doctor and friends face more than make up for the simplicity of the plot. The Empire State Building scene and the Mary Celeste scene are worth seeing this classic by themselves. Remembrance has always been second favorite Dalek episode next to Genesis of the Daleks. The plot is very intricate with the Doctor returning to 1963 to recover the Hand of Omega that he left in his First regeneration. The two Dalek factions also add much excitement to the plot of the story. I complimented Mr. McCoy personally for this episode many years ago when he visited Macon, GA in 1988.

"You squashed my favorite Beatle!"
"The Chase" has to be one of the strangest Who adventures ever! It almost seems to be a variation of "The Keys of Marinus", with six unconnecting episodes of the TARDIS crew being "Chased" throughout the Universe and Time. It's very silly, but at the same time extremely enjoyable. The Daleks themselves come off very well(nice to see the intro to the Supreme Dalek). Peter Purves play a great American tourist, and even better as Steven. The Haunted House episode is the nadir of the adventure, and Maureen O'Brien proves that she might be worse than Dodo(she is given some of the worst lines and the worst deliveries in this story). Hartnell is excellent as he shows his emotions when Ian and Barbara decide to leave. There is posssibly the silliest Dalek line in this one:"Am Totally Immobilised!" And as for the Mechanoids......

Excellent Who!
I have a confession to make here,I didnt really watch the chase!I watched a bit of it,but i just cant watch the old black and white stories!The real reason for buying this is remembrance!This has to be one of the best dalek stories ever!Mc Coy shines in what should have been the 25th anniversary story...and the daleks aren't bad either!Actually,the effects in this are some of the best in Doctor Who,the dalek battle sequences are excellent,as are the "hand of omega" effects at the end!And is there a better cliffhanger than that at the end of the 1st episode?Pity it isn't resolved a bit better!
This is an excellent addition to any fan's collection,remembrance harks back to the old days when Doctor Who was truely excellent,although if you have a multiregion dvd player ... buy the remembrance dvd,although it doesnt come in a snazzy tin,it does have a lot of extra features!

"The Chase Drawn Out" and "The Daleks Failed Again"
THE CHASE--Like many Hartnell episodes, this six-parter could have been a four-parter. It was drawn out and exedingly boring.

Why was a Dalek beneath the sand? It's like Nation had this compelling need to have a Dalek rise out of something to reveal themselves.

And my God! Did they really have to make that many stops on so many planets. Why did they have to have a haunted house scene? All I can say is, "Oh, my God! Why?"

REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS--After watching "The Chase" I was hoping to being at least mildly entertained but wasn't. Oh well! At least I got to see a Dalek on a staircase!

I have to say that seeing a Dalek shuttle land was actually impressive! But besides that and a Dalek climbing stairs, there isn't much else to see. It's another story about the Daleks' being beat by the Doctor.

And ... if Skaro was destroyed in 1963 then how could the Hartnell serial "The Daleks" have taken place many years into the future if their planets was destroyed so long ago? Answer that one for me ...

The Chase a funny story, the second dalek story OK!
If you want to see a funny Dalek story watch the Chase! It has some many funny moemnts and lines!

The second Dalek story was OK , but I dont have a favorite story between the two! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A Devilish Tale courtesy of Quatermass and Wheatley
One of my favourite Jon Pertwee era stories originall broadcast May 22 through June 19 1971, this adventure was extremely controversial in the UK at the time with campaigner Mary Whitehouse calling for it not to be broadcast.

Full of references to withcraft and mysticism the story combines ancient English practices of Morris Dancing and the Maypole with Dridic and Celtic legends. Throw in some witchcraft, black and white and Satanism and you have all the makings of a good science fiction story.

Actually the story links the magical elements more with superior science than with devil worship and clearly attempts to show that the representations of the horned demons owes more to early visits from aliens than satanism. The rites and rituals thus evolved as ways of communication with the aliens and ways to cope with their powers.

This story owes a lot to the earlier Quatermass movie where a strange spaceship is discovered in a London Undergound station in an area dominated by streets with devilish names. It is soon discovered to contain elements of Martian life which have a devilish appearance and which cause the local inhabitants to indulge in group killing and other alien behaviours.

There is also a strong undercurrent of the writings of Dennis Wheatly in the script as the devil worshipping practices are measure and correspondent to Christian ones, with the Master assuming the role of the High Priest.

Towards the end of the story the portrayal of the Daemon as being intelligent armed with superior science but with a simplistic moral code is a dramatic scary affair but which makes a good point.

Highly recommended.

Quiet fun
This one is a good example of why dr who is so good. One thing i like about it is it strays a bit. usually toward the end of every episode te doctor is in danger. Well in this one our old frind the Master ends up on the short end of the stick at the end off one. I thought that was neat as the master almost always has everything under control. Good show even if the brigadier wasnt in the action like you know he would like to be.

One of the best for Pertwee, Manning, and UNIT
The final story to Season Eight has its detractors, who consider it a load of rubbish, and its supporters, who declare it as one of the best in the series. I'm happy to say I belong to the latter group.

The plot: Professor Horner, an archaelogist is digging into a barrow at Devil's End that he claims contains treasure by a Bronze Age chieftain. Local resident and white witch Olive Hawthorne is against the dig, as she claims Satan will appear. After all, it is Beltane, 30 April. Something clicks in the Doctor's mind and he and Jo rush over to Devil's End. He is too late, and powerful forces send the Doctor and kills Horner.

The forces have been unleashed by the Master, masquerading as the local reverend, and he intends to invoke Azal, the last Daemon, so he can rule the world with the power given by the Daemon. The Dæmons were an alien race who gave mankind knowledge to evolve, but amorally. To make matters worse, the Master has Azal create a heat barrier encircling Devil's End, trapping the local inhabitants in, and locking everyone else out, so the Doctor and his friends are left to fend for themselves.

Here is one story where the fan/viewer can see the entire UNIT team at work, not only professionally, but in a family sort of way, where everyone looks after each other and shows genuine concern. Yates and Benton are akin to the big brothers to Jo's little sister, the Doctor is the grandfather, and the Brigadier is the uncle of the family. Jo's concern for the Doctor is all so apparent here.

In the confrontation scene between the Doctor, the Master, and Azal, who is a fearsome, satyr-like creature standing 30' tall, the Time Lord launches effective arguments for why Azal should just leave and let mankind grow up, at their own pace. "Thanks to you, he can blow up the world and he probably will. He can poison the river, the land and the air he breathes, he's already started." When the Master says that he alone possesses the strong leadership needed, the Doctor retorts with "I seem to remember someone else talking like that. Who was the bounder? Hitler. Yes, Adolf Hitler. Or was it Genghis Khan?" The Doctor's moral character in the confrontation distinguishes him as a champion for Earth and its people.

One of the best cliffhangers of the series comes at the end of Episode