Reviews (10)

"It's rather like making a film, isn't it, sir?"
"The Mind of Evil" is the story that perhaps best represents this era of Doctor Who. The last season had firmly established the new direction for the show. The Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee, would be earthbound and unable to pilot the TARDIS. This would see more "Earth in danger" stories, set in the present day, with UNIT playing a major role. This story encapsulates all that - it is also one of the best portrayals of the "UNIT family" - the Doctor, Jo, the Master, the Brigadier, Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton. On top of all this, it is a very fine story, well written (by Don Houghton, who also wrote the excellent "Inferno") and directed (Timothy Combe). The story has great moments of suspense complemented by moments of action, with terrific stuntwork courtesy of Havoc, who had contributed to earlier Pertwee stories, making them look more big budget and less like cheap sci-fi. The hijacking of the Thunderbolt missile and the UNIT raid on the prison are the two biggest and most lavish of these scenes. The story is perhaps a little long - perhaps it could have been one episode shorter, and the first four cliffhangers are almost all identical, all involving the parasite machine in some way. But these are minor gripes - "The Mind of Evil" has excellent acting (especially William Marlowe as the desperate convict Mailer) and sometimes feels very much like a James Bond film. All the UNIT regulars have moments in which they shine (this is the fortunate period before UNIT became a mockery of itself) and it is good to see the Master's presence hidden until the second episode. Upon its original screening he would still be fresh in the viewer's memory from the previous story - they would possibly be wondering if he is behind all this, but the decision not to reveal him until the second episode is a clever one. It could just throw the discerning viewer off before surpising him/her. Also, being in black and white makes the story even more atmospheric. It takes nothing away. For once in Doctor Who, the climax is not rushed and the ending is very satisfying. A fine story!

"...while I'm stuck here on earth...with YOU, Brigadier!"
"The Mind of Evil" has a lot of great things to recommend about it. Pertwee excels with Delgado, fleshing out their relationship. UNIT also has their hands full with a peace conference, a gas-nuclear missle and the recapturing of Stagmoor Prison. Although it is never really explained what or where the "Mind of Evil" came from, except that the Master brought it to earth. Some nice stunts and action, some fun UNIT humor("Chesire cat, Captain Yates, chesire cat"). Katy Manning is much better in this story than her debut(as with Mike Yates). Some interesting views on politics and prison reform. "Mind" stands up very well on its own, showing that Pertwee's second season was in full swing of success!

Good story but a little too long and a bit messy.
Sadly this third Doctor story is only available in black and white as all of the colour copies were lost. ...P>The central theme of this story is the Master once again trying to bring chaos to the earth in a plot to destry a major peace conference. Roger Delgado, again someone no longer with us, is evil incarnate but you have to love him nevertheless. His portrayal as the Master as a foil to the Doctor was a highlight of the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who years although it has always puzzled me why the timelords should act against the Doctor yet allow the Master's interventions.

The story once again involves outside broadcasts on location and casts the British Prison Service in a poor light suggesting that experiments should be allowed on prisoners in order to achieve a compliant and co-operative prison population.

As the story develops from the focus of the prison and the Keller machine for removing eveil impulses to incorporate the wider focus of the world peace conference, the show attempts to demonise the Chinese under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung as the protagonists in a plot to create war, firstly through the use of a female Chinese official as a murderer of one of her own delegation and then through an attack on the American delegate. Reflecting the cold war realities of the time it's use is limited by the existance of the Master who merely uses his alien technology to manipulate people and alien life forms to achieve his own ends.

A strong story the main weaknesses of the 'Mind of Evil' for me involve the poor set for the prison scenes, the drawn out sections of the Keller machine and the length. There certainly was a tendency in the Pertwee years for six part stories but to my mind a number of them could have been considerably shorter including this one.

The strengths of the story are greater than the weaknesses including a strong plot with sub-plots and it's contemporary relevance. It is hard to imagine a world on the brink of war but that was a possibility more than once in the period between 1960 and 1980. Topicality too given Richard Nixon's visit to China and the continuing conflict in Vietnam...

Action, Adventure, Humor, Drama. A Must Have Story!
This may be my favorite Pertwee (3rd Doctor) story. The era of the 3rd Doctor is typified in this story. The typical 3rd Doc story involves the Doctor, Jo, UNIT (the Brigadier etc) and situations that quickly get out of control. The Doctor and Jo go to Stangmore prison to observe the use of the Keller Machine that supposedly removes the evil impulses from the brains of convicts and makes them useful members of society again. The Doctor doubts the machines abilities and thinks the machine should be destroyed. He is correct but destroying the machine is easier said then done. While the Doctor investigates the Keller machine, the Brig has to manage the security for a world peace conference which quickly becomes very complicated. And transport an illegal missile. The Keller Machine runs amucks at Stangmore Prison and riots ensue, a diplomat is murdered during the peace conference and the missile is stolen. The Master is involved in all of this. The Doctor is great as usual. The Master is as devious and dangerous as ever. And scenes where the Master and the Doctor are forced to work together are amazing. The Master even saying something like "What can I do to help?" This was such a un-Master like thing to say and mean that it was a shock. But it was perfectly plausible because of the circumstances. Jo who has been considered a bit of a ditz and a bit wimpy by some is excellent here, helping to quell a prison riot. The story was filmed on location somewhere in England and it is absolutely wonderful. UNIT was excellent in this story, perhaps one of the stories that show them off best. They appeared to be a well-oiled, professional group and not the stooges they are accused by some of being in later stories. The Brigadier is excellent with his Trojan Horse tactic. Benton and Yates were ideal. Yates, heroic and triumphant. Benton getting shot and getting a concussion but perservering. The other characters were also good. Mailor the inmate was sufficiently thug-like and Barnham was well done. This is a great story. If you have never watched a 3rd Doctor story before, or only seen a few, or never seen any Doctor Who at all. This is an excellent video! A must have!

Stunning, even in Black and White!
There is no way that anyone can say that this one is bad! This one has got good acting, a nightmarish monster, a down to earth(Gallifrey!) villain(The Master!) and genuine humour instead of those awful science based jokes. Don't want to give the story away, just lay back and enjoy the ride! ... Read more

Amazon.com

One of the most popular of Colin (the sixth Doctor) Baker's adventures,"Vengeance on Varos" finds the Doctor and Peri (Nicola Bryant) involved withrebels on a 1984-like planet, Varos, where televised torture is used tosupport and enforce the ruling regime. When first broadcast, the episode arousedcondemnation over the violence shown--particularly two men falling into a vat ofacid--as well as the implied horror and moral corruption. However, thesecomplaints missed the satiric subtext of a world in which reality-TV sufferingpacifies the masses while big business exploits them. While there is too muchrunning about in corridors, the surreal terrors of the Punishment Dome make forgood Doctor Who, and the adventure develops ideas from both "The SunMakers" (1977) and "The Caves of Androzani" (1984) with considerable low-budgetaplomb. Filled with bizarre touches, such as Peri's transformation into a birdcreature, the show also marked Jason Connery's TV debut as a rebelleader. --Gary S. Dalkin ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Terror on Tape
The 22nd season of "Doctor Who" wasn't well liked by the public. Probably because it was so violent. And that is what "Vengeance on Varos" is, a take off on TV violence, to the grimmest extent. Philip Martin's gruesome plot is surely funny in a repulsive way. Cannibals, acid baths, etc. all broadcasted on an alien world, and in turn broadcasted into your home! Watch out for that economic slug Sil (Nabil Shaban) in one of Colin Baker's most determined performances.

It's a pity there's only two episodes...

One of the best Sixth Doctor stories
The sixth Doctor era is one that is often criticised by Doctor Who fans, and this criticism is justified in my opinion. The majority of the stories starring Colin Baker ranged from mediocre to poor, with the exception of Revelation Of The Daleks and this story.

Vengeance On Varos is a story that is more relevant now than it was when it was first broadcast due to the current glut of reality tv shows that clog the airwaves. These two episodes show a populace that gets to vote on government policy through interactive television broadcasts. Rather than a simple yes or no vote, the voting involves torture of the Governor which the population gets to watch. They also get to see public torturing and executions of "terrorists" as part of their daily intake of television "entertainment". This satire of television and government rings all the more true as time goes by.

The sixth Doctor is still rather an unlikeable character here at times, only a few stories into his era which was cut abruptly short when Colin Baker was sacked after his final story, The Trial Of A Time Lord. At the beginning of the story, he is still exhibiting the mood swings seen in his first story which makes it difficult for the audience to be won over by this particular incarnation of the Time Lord. Tom Bakers Doctor was also prone to black moods, but the sixth Doctor comes across at times as a petulant and whiny child. This is not a fault that can be levelled solely at the actor as the character was shaped by the producer, script editor (who was later quite vocal about his dislike of this era of the program) and writers.

The DVD itself is another excellent piece of work from the Restoration Team. The picture and sound are excellent. The various special features are entertaining and informative, especially the commentary track by Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Nabil Shaban who plays the stories villain Sil. It's a very funny and cheeky chat that's well worth a listen.

Apparently this is the lowest selling Doctor Who DVD in the UK, but it's certainly a story that stands the test of time and definitely worth your time and money. If nothing else, the story may make you think more about the society we live in and that's no bad thing.

Story taking on voting, governments, and corporations
Having run out of a vital component for the TARDIS, the Doctor and Peri are forced to land on Varos and replenish it with Zeiton 7. Unfortunately for the Doctor, he has landed during the period where Varos is a "prison planet, a colony for the criminally insane, [where] the descendants of the original officers still rule by fear." The rest of the people live in poverty, toiling without hope.

They interrupt the execution of the rebel leader Jondar, rescuing him, and joining his wife Areta through a labryinth of passages beset by mental booby traps in order to find a safe exit. The Doctor is able to maneuvre through some of the traps, and evades capture longer than the other three.

Varos has a dysfunctional totalitarian system, where the referendum system has the governor submitting any proposals to the voters. If they approve, fine, but if not, he is subjected to a human cell disintegrator. Four losing votes generally kills the governor, and then there's a new candidate. The reason for this is that the planet isn't prosperous, its Zeiton 7 being the only asset, and that is ruthlessly exploited by the Galatron Mining Corporation through its representative, a tiny cackling seaweed-coloured reptilian slug named Sil. The governor wants to further rationing of food in order to hold out for a better price per unit on Zeiton ore, but men vote with their stomachs despite the fact that Sil is trying to buy Zeiton ore for less money, cheating them.

We meet a typical Varosian couple, Arak and his wife Etta, the former who hates the governor, the latter an ardent supporter. They, like others, have a TV screen with a set of voting buttons (yes, no) per person. They are bored and dissatisfied with their life, but kept entertained by scenes of execution and torture on TV, which also serve to deter subversive activities. The interesting thing here is that voting is mandatory, and Etta isn't above reporting her husband. But more than that, they are a society dominated by TV and must keep themselves apprised of special announcements.

The concept of forced voting is interesting. Less than 50% of eligible voters turned out for the 2000 election in contrast to over 90% in Saddam's Iraq. Voting is supposed to be a privilege, but do governments have a right to force people to participate in order to eliminate apathy? Even more is the referendum system of Varos. What if we had a setup like this, where the president was forced to directly appeal to the people and get his proposals accepted or defeated, with four strikes meaning the end for the president? Makes one think, eh?

It's not a good system for the Varosian governor, who tells Peri that "the theory [is] that a man scared for his life will find solutions to this planet's problem... except that the poor unfortunate will discover that there are no popular solutions to the difficulties he will find."

When the series was temporarily put on hold, one of the excuses was of the violence in the series. Possible targets include the acid-bath deaths of two characters, the Doctor showing little remorse for the acid-bath casualties, and resorting to killing rather than trying to talk sense to the villains. And a guard slaps Peri's face for tricking him early in the story. Nasty characters include the scientist Qwillam, who says of the rebels "I want them to scream till I'm deaf with pleasure, to see their limbs twist in excruciating agony, ultimately their blood will flow down the gutters of Varos."

Jondar is played by Jason Connery, son of you-know-who and clearly not as good an actor as his famous father. Nabil Shaban would return as Sil in part two of Trial of a Timelord, Mindwarp. The marsh minnows he eats are sliced peaches dyed green, BTW. The actors portaying the villains do a better job here, but Martin Jarvis plays the governor and does a good job conveying a well-meaning politician wanting the best for his people but trapped by the political system.

A cross between 1984 and futuristic sci-fi movies of rebellion against an oppressive regime, Vengeance In Varos succeeds despite it being totally studio-bound due to the thought-provoking ideas derived from it.

"Tried reading that once." **thump**
In a word, classic. Season 22 of Doctor Who was off to an excellent start... it's debut story, "Attack of the Cybermen" was great, if not perfect (I took the liberty of giving it four stars out of five in my review for it here), and the following tale, Philip Martin's "Vengeance on Varos" builds up from that. Unfortunately, this trend was not to continue (the story after this one, "Mark of the Rani", is a couple pegs down even from "Attack", at least in my opinion, though still not bad). But if I had been both British and old enough to cleary remember 1984 (I fail on both counts), I know I would have been impressed by the way the series was going. True, both this story and its preceeding one were rather violent, but... well, evil has to be evil, right? To paraphrase the Doctor himself, Colin Baker says on the "Colin Baker Years" tape that the "villains should be able to do more than just say 'boo' and then run away." Heartily agree.

Some find Baker's brash, arrogant, selfish, mean, and sometimes cowardly Doctor too different from the hero the character had been in the past, through the portrayals of actors like Jon Pertwee or Peter Davison, which is why Colin Baker is not as popular of a Doctor among most fans as some of the others. But really... compare the First Doctor with the Sixth... I think that Colin Baker's take on the character is actually more accurate to William Hartnell's original portrayal than those that came after him, making Colin Baker really a more traditional Doctor! It reinforces the mysterious, alien qualities of the character. We know that deep down, in spite of all the negative qualities that form our first impression of him, the Sixth Doctor is good and kind at heart, for we see the transformation from one to the other occur in most of his stories. Colin Baker is my favorite Doctor, but he's not the only reason why I think this was a great story.

Varos is a very believeable world (the whole concept of reality TV featured in the story was definitely ahead of its time), gritty and industrialized. The governor, played by Martin Jarvis, was a wonderful, reluctant weary character who does what he has to do (marvelous performance), as was the alien creature Sil (is it just me, or does Nabil Shaban bear an uncanny resemblance, both in his appearance and in the sound of his voice, to the late David Rappaport? The first time I saw Sil, I thought it WAS Rappaport!). Wonderful, slimy character, in more ways than one. The story is intruiging, as the Doctor arrives on Varos to refuel his TARDIS (why do so many people hate this element of the story? I mean, why not?) and things don't go quite as smoothly as he thought they might (but do they ever?).

Nicola Bryant remains wonderful as Peri, who for me had her best run of stories from her first in "Planet of Fire" (in spite of her accent, which I'm willing to overlook... it improved drastically with the next story, "Caves of Androzani") up to this one. I didn't feel like the character felt quite the same after this one, which is really more the fault of the scripts than it is Bryant's performance. Up until the next story, Peri was just an American college student... spoiled and thrust somewhat unwillingly into a completely bizarre new direction in life. Once the writers seemed to think she'd settled into the routine of things, the character for me didn't work as well. They added the whole botany thing for reasons I've never been able to figure out (not that she couldn't be a botany student, but... well why should she be?). But I'm deviating from THIS story, where Peri remains wonderfully realized as just what she's supposed to be, a student who still hasn't gotten used to time and space travel and being the constant, frustrated companion of a man that half the time seems to forget that she is just as alive and as important as he is. Love the bit where she tries to convince the Doctor to read the TARDIS operations manuel, while he tries to ask her what the point is, as she'll be dead in sixty years or so anyway?

Before I finish, let me offer up my compliments to the director/writer for the brilliant cliffhanger! Rather than describe it, just see it for yourself. I recall thinking, immediately before episode one ended, "wouldn't it be great if they put the cliffhanger HERE?", and then they did.

"Vengeance on Varos" is probably my second favorite story from the Colin Baker era (my first favorite, which I've already reviewed here at Amazon, is the incredible "Revelation of the Daleks". Of the mere eleven stories he starred in, both this one and that one are both definitely five-star efforts. Give them a shot! (the DVD commentary and deleted scenes are a nice couple of extras too, but the only two that really interested me). Give "Varos" a chance, and I don't think you'll be sorry.

Carry on Carry on,

MN

One of the Great Acts of Froggi Time Meddling
Like numerous other episodes of Doctor Who, this is an act of time meddling itself: the prison industrial complex, the society of people whose minds are distorted by mandatory TV watching, the encouraging of people to spy no their friends and neighbors, the blanket labeling of enemies of the state as "terrorists", the true and disturbing nature of reality-TV, the exploitation by mining companies, and a "Governor" who is tortured in referendum after referendum. See the amazing likeness of the "Governor" to Governor Gray Davis. It doesn't stop there. See if you can spot all of the messages which were sent back just this morning on September 26, 2003. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Ignore 'professional' reviewers who rarely get things right.
The Doctor and Mel arrive in the supposedly-tranquil paradise towers but find the place infested with rats, not to mention warring gangs, out-of-control robots and cuddly old ladies who are more than they seem. There is also something sinister going on involving the Chief Caretaker and his 'pet'.

This adventure has been written off as a turkey many times, but personally I think that's unfair. The story is an interesting, well-thought-out one which can be viewed either as straight sci-fi or as a parody/commentry on life in an inncer-city 20th century tower block. McCoy has settled well into his role as the Doctor in an adventure which is certainly a dramatic improvement over his first outing.

The only things wrong with it all is that often it gets too pantomime-like with people overacting. There are also a few illogical moments - a killer robot (which must, realistically speaking, have been somehow inside a waste-disposal chute), pulls people through an impossibly small gap. And Mel somehow fails to notice a huge bright yellow robot with glowing eyes floating in the swimming pool.

Those few points aside, this is a good story. I don't find the portrayal of the possessed Chief Caretaker 'embaressng' at all. If somebody had existed as no more than a mind in a computer for many years then returning to a human body would naturally take some getting-used-to.

Not one of the best McCoy stories by any means, but neither is it one of the worst.

Entertaining in a tacky kind of way.
After the dreadful 'Time and the Rani' things could only get better. Thankfully this second McCoy story is an improvement with its imaginative vocabulary (ice-hot, etc) and its well-thought-out charicature of an inner city tower block.

In fact 'Paradise Towers' has the potential to be a classic. But where the whole thing falls down is in its on-screen execution. For a start, most of the actors involved go way over the top - Richard Briers is especially awful, putting on the most feeble impersonation of Hitler I've ever seen. The garish sets, idiotic action scenes and far-too-colourful costumes make the whole thing look like its taking place in a 60's sci-fi comic book. The rhythmic, upbeat music is often completely out of place and the awful Mel does little but wander about with a stereotype hardman (well, he's more of a kids TV would-be-hero to be bluntly honest). The story itself is, admittedly, not without its flaws. How, for example, does Mel fail to notice a giant bright-yellow robot on the surface of a clear swimming pool? And why are people pulled through an impossibly small hole by a cleaner robot which is apparently inside a waste disposal pipe?

There are some good points. The 'cowardly cutlet' Pex being the only person in the entire towers with the guts to stand up to Kroagnon provides first-rate pathos and a nice ironic twist, and the scenes in which the Doctor outwits his caretaker guards are clever.

Overall this story is entertaining in an undemanding way, but you can't help feeling it could have been so much better if only a few more people had taken it just that little bit more seriously.

Ok story, but one nasty visual
This story is pretty decent for a McCoy story. But one thing that it didn't need to portray is the homosexual undertones of the Rezzies, two elderly women who seem to possess a culinary appetite for Cannibalism! Nice play on words; Rezzies short for "Residents". And Rezzies' hidden meaning, Lezzies with a bad chinese accent. Frankly, two rugmunching harpies was a visual this show could have done without. Otherwise, not a bad story, with pretty good Miami Vice-like electronic background music.

Build High For Happiness!
"Welcome to Paradise Towers, which will be your new home for a good few years to come. Some of you will understandably feel nervous at leaving everything you know for a strange new environment. However, we believe once you've tasted the Paradise Towers experience you won't want to change it for any other. Our motto is Build High For Happiness." --prospectus of Paradise Towers. Additional prospectus follows:

Ground level: the main materials for this story is J.G. Ballard's High Rise, with supporting structures Monty Python's Architect Sketch, Lord of the Flies, and A Clockwork Orange. However, include a wandering Time Lord and his red-haired companion Mel, the former who wants to explore, the latter who wants to enjoy the swimming pool at the top of the 304 story building, only to find the Towers littered and graffitied.

Level 42: Now, meet the Kangs, Red Kangs, who are a gang of crossbow wielding, graffiti-spraying girls in red outfits and rinsed red hair, led by Bin Liner and Fire Escape, who take to the Doctor's "ice hot" clothes, but not to Mel. And to stir things up a bit later, some Blue Kangs, who are a gang of crossbow-wielding, graffiti-spraying girls in blue outfits and... you get the idea. Unfortunately, we only see one Yellow Kang, who like many others in this story, become, in a phrase used by the Kangs, "taken to the cleaners" or "made unalive." Some of their lingo seems taken from Orwell's Newspeak from 1984.

Level 68: Here, we have the Caretakers, the authority wearing Fascist Germany-style grey uniforms who are after the "wall scrawlers" or Kangs. Their officious bureaucratic-ness will make the most hidebound Dickensian clerk blush with shame. However, some of the Caretakers are being "made unalive" as well. And observe their funny salute, hands held under noses and the chant "All hail the Great Architect!" Very Pythonish, yes? Oh, there is a Chief Caretaker who does have a funny mustache akin to the leader of the Third Reich, and a hidden agenda of his own.

Level 100: The Rezzies or Residents who appear here are elderly, and seem overly kind and generous with tea and cakes, such as Tilda and Tabby, but beware their other eating habits. When Maddy tells of a Caretaker's disappearance and says "There's always something left behind," Tabby surreptitiously covers her full plate with her napkin. Hmmm...

Level 125: This is Pex, a self-appointed "musclebrain" who "is here to set Paradise Towers to rights" and is eager to help Mel find the Doctor, while at the same time hiding a dark secret, for which the Kangs have a taunting nickname for him. However, he is useful at breaking doors down.

Level 205: Three special appearances here: Richard Briers (Good Neighbors) does a job as the Chief Caretaker, who's quite a psychotic maniac. Judy Cornwell (Maddy) is best known as Hyacinth's sister Daisy in Keeping Up Appearances. Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby) would later appear as the Fat Lady in the first Harry Potter movie.

Level 244: Extra "ice-hot" performances: Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner), Julie Brennon (Fire Escape), and Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang Leader, named Drinking Fountain in the novelization), who is the youngest daughter of Irish actor Cyril Cusack. All are attractive young ladies who add life to and are the best things in this story and have lots of fun with the Doctor.

Level 304: Despite having a closeted studio setting, and its criticism of adopting a more stagey pantomime style, the lighting is good, and indicate a new style for Doctor Who. Enjoying the Doctor dancing with the Red Kangs in Episode 1 depends upon how light a mood one is in. We hope this ice hot video will make you unsad. Thank you, and Build High For Happiness.

Red Kangs, Red Kangs, Red Kangs' the Best!!!
I love this film. It is really neat that the people in Paradise Towers have lived there all of their lives. With acceptions to the elderly people; who used to live on earth, all of them are being ruled by an Villianous evil robot that lives at the bottom of the building.

It is up to the Doctor to destroy the evil robot that rules the tower. The robot has so many enemies around, especially those garbage collecting machines, that roam around killing people.

There is even three girl gangs that themsleves "Kangs". There is the red, blue and yellow. The yellow Kangs were killed off by the Villian's army, so the only Kangs left are the red and blues. They both hlep to destroy the Villian and save Paradies Towers, before they all die.

This video is pure fun, and is a must have for all, Sylvestor McCoy fans. I love his sidekick, she is so cool. You've got to have this one! ... Read more

Amazon.com

For all the Whos in Whoville (sorry, wrong "Dr."), this vintage Doctor Who adventure from the venerable British series' inaugural season is a must-own collectible. For the uninitiated, Dr. Who is television's longest-running science fiction series and it has gained a cult following that rivals those of Star Trek and Star Wars. Dr. Who, portrayed here in his first incarnation by William Hartnell, is a Time Lord who travels the cosmos in a spacecraft called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), whose exterior looks like a police call box.

Originally broadcast in 1964, The Keys of Marinus is a six-episode arc that features the doctor's original traveling companions, science teacher Ian Chesterton, history teacher Barbara Wright, and the doctor's granddaughter, Susan, who is given to screaming at the first sign of peril. Hartnell's doctor is a sprightly curmudgeon who relishes adventure and mystery, which he finds after the group lands on Marinus, an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. Doctor and company are compelled to retrieve four microcircuits that are the keys to the Conscience of Marinus, a computer that has eliminated evil from the minds of men (except apparently the evil Yartek and his web-suited Voords, who want to seize the machine). Their quest takes them most memorably to "a planet of the most contented people" (beware the brainwashing powers of the "mesmerent"), another world overrun by plants, and finally a city where Chesterton, framed for murder, is considered guilty until proven innocent--by the doctor, of course.As is characteristic of this series, the special effects are a hokey hoot and the actors sometimes step on each others' lines. Hartnell vacationed during production and is absent for two episodes. But this is a surprisingly prophetic cautionary tale: it may be good to heed the doctor's prescient observation that "man was not made to be controlled by machines." If you have yet to make an appointment with the doctor, perhaps the episodes featuring Tom Baker--the fourth and most popular of the doctors--are a more accessible introduction. --Donald Liebenson ... Read more

Reviews (13)

A very entertaining First Doctor Story
When I was a senior in high school, my parents tried to ban me from watching Dr. Who, which at the time one of my local PBS stations was showing the B&W episodes at 11:00 PM Monday-Thursday-one episode per night in addition to their saturday afternoon broadcasts and the saturday night ones on my other local PBS network. Not to be outdone tho, I snuck an old portable B & W TV into an attic room and watched most of the old episodes. I found "The Keys of Marinus" to be a much more entertaining story than I expected or remembered. The Acting was good for the most part, and except for some rather bad models in the begining, the effects and costumes were very good. You can definatly see the hand of writer Terry Nation in this one (true Brit- Sci-Fi fans should notice the travel dials are very similar to the transport devices used in Terry Nation's later creation "Blakes 7"). I'm looking forward to my next purchses, which will bring me even closer to finally catching up on my collection.

"Sumptuous and decadent, but rather pleasant!"
"The Keys of Marinus", the first Dr Who story written by Terry Nation after "The Daleks", is pure B-grade adventure/quest style entertainment. It is not taxing on the brain and has a certain trashy but endearing quality. I first read the novelisation of this adventure and loved it! I remember suspense, action and constantly wondering where the travellers would end up next. Years later I finally see the story. It is still enjoyable, but the televised version certainly loses something. It's the type of story that is better realised as a novel, for the shoestring budget of the programme, especially in the '60s, simply cannot deliver. But, all this aside, it is entertaining. Dividing the story into different locations makes the story less padded, especially for a six parter, but sometimes the individual stories go on for too long. However, the atmosphere generated by the novel is fairly well maintained in certain episodes. "The Velvet Web", which could have been a treatise on consumerism if the rest of the story was more of an intellectually stimulating one, retains the sense of paranoia felt by Barbara when she sees everything differently. "The Screaming Jungle" has a similar feel - a creeping terror of the unknown. I always remember "The Snows of Terror" as being wonderful - the televised version is acceptable (thank goodness for stock footage of wolves!), but the demons in the caves were a bit of a letdown. The final one and a half episodes, a courtroom drama in the city of Millennnius, tends to be a bit too long winded, but the ending is nice and satisfying. Some dramatic elements I remember as being particularly punchy and effective from the novel unfortunately don't come across that well on screen. The best example I can think of is Arbitan's murder at the end of episode one - on screen it looks like bad Shakespeare! However, the Voord are an interesting alien species - it's a pity they only appear in the first and last episodes, and the non-appearance of William Hartnell in episodes three and four allows the story to focus on the other members of the TARDIS crew - Ian and Barbara in particular. "The Keys of Marinus" is bubblegum Dr Who - enjoyable, but don't treat it as anything grand or deep.

Wonderful precursor to future Who stories
Landing on the planet Marinus, with acid seas, and a glassy beach, the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan, are forced by Arbitan, the sole inhabitant nearby, to go on a mission to hunt down four keys that will help him redress the power of good on the planet. The Conscience of Marinus was a machine built to "eliminate evil from all men. Robbery, fear, hate, violence was unknown." Then came Yartek and his Voords, who overcame conditioning and are out to take over the Conscience.

Using travel dials, wrist teleporters, they go to where the four microcircuit keys are, first to the luxurious city of Morphoton, "sensuous, decadent, but pleasant" with kind hospitable people. Yet is all this luxury real?

Accompanied by Sabetha, Arbitan's daughter, and Altos, her love interest, the Doctor has the brilliant idea of splitting up. He goes to the civilized city of Millennius, while Ian and Barbara search a place where the vegetation is very dense and "when the whispering stars, it's death." Altos and Sabetha land on an icy area where they encounter a trapper Vasor, who isn't all he seems. On Millennius, Ian is falsely accused of murder and the Doctor becomes Sherlock Holmes in order to save Ian. A city where one is guilty before proven innocent cannot be all that civilized.

Ian shines the best in this story, as he comes out as reliable, trustworthy, and brave. One of his best hours. The interplay between Barbara and Susan remains. Susan trusts Barbara to tell her what she heard in the forest in the same way she tells her of the hand that touched on in the petrified forest in The Daleks. Barbara's her usual reassuring self here.

George Coulouris (Arbitan) is best known as the man who takes Kane from his parents in Citizen Kane and as the doctor in Murder On The Orient Express. Fiona Walker (Kala) would reappear in Who's 25th anniversary story, Silver Nemesis as Lady Peinforte.

The ultimate theme of this story is given in Doctor's final piece of advice to Sabetha: "I don't believe that man was meant to be controlled by machines. Machines can make laws, but they cannot be made to preserve justice. Only human beings can do that."

William Hartnell did not appear in Episodes 3 and 4 so he could take his holiday, yet he was credited for both episodes per his contract. A similar thing would also happen to Jacqueline Wright in The Web Planet a season later.

The Keys Of Marinus is interesting in that many concepts of the show later found its way to future Who stories. For example, the search for the four keys was expanded in the six Key To Time stories of 1978-79. The concept of the Conscience as a machine that bars evil, plus the five microkeys with a permutations of numbers and symbols was revisited in The Keeper Of Traken. An acid pool is also encountered in The Web Planet. Vegetation tha attacks appeared in The Seeds Of Doom. And it was written by the Chief Dalek himself, Terry Nation. Thank goodness this Hartnell story survived the BBC purge, because it's well worth it.

Around The Planet in 6 Episodes
It is quite difficult to write an adequate review for this particular adventure, considering that it is a wonderful adventure, but the TARDIS crew are constantly moving from one place to another within the confines of these 6 episodes. But it is definitely a very ambitious quest type of adventure, with the Doctor and company being blackmailed into helping Arbitan retrieve the four micro circuit keys that would reactivate the Conscience of Marinus, in order to stop a group of alien terrorists, the Voords, from subjegating the planetary populace with the machine. Their first stop takes them to Morphiton, a place where people seem to be the most friendly and content in the universe. But it is soon revealed to be a charade, as it is clear that strange disembodied brains have subjegated the people into slavery. But soon they are defeated, retrieve the key and are joined up with Altoss and Sabetha, a young couple that were on the same quest, but came under the influence of the powerful brain creatures. Their travels take them to a living jungle, and to an artic landscape, then to the city of Millenius, where their laws are that a person is guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around. And soon Ian is framed for a crime of murder and theft, in which the good Doctor comes to his aid to solve the mystery, in true detective like style. I like this particular portion as it displays a brief courtroom drama type scenario, which is always a good thing. Finally, their adventure brings them back to the island, where they find Arbitan dead, and the Voords in charge. But they soon trick the creatures into destroying the machine that would have allowed them to conquer Marinus, just before the Doctor and company travel on to their next adventure. I definitely recommend this to any and all Dr. Who fans.

Great Fun
The concept of this story is pretty huge (even for Doctor Who). The quest concept is exciting and fun, but the 5-in-1 storyline suffers from very little development of the 5 in exchange for the overall story of the 1. Still great fun from the innocent family Hartnell era. The Doctor and his companions then were unwilling adventurers and in this particular story, the Doctor himself is absent in two full episodes. I must say I do get frustrated at this early episodes in that I find myself becoming very anbnoyed with the supporting cast... "No you idiot, look out behind you!" or "Now they'll never get back to the TARDIS." WHere in the later episodes, the doctor is a willing adventurer, in these early stories there is always a major plot device keeping them from just packing up and heading back to the TARDIS. And this one keeps your head spinning. I'd recommend the 1970's as the best Doctor Who, but a fan is no fan without the Hartnell era fully represented. ... 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

Reviews (11)

The start of Tom Baker's last season!A new look for the show
The Leisure Hive starts the beginning of Tom Baker's last season as Doctor Who.The Doctor and Romana are still running from the Black Guradian.K9 appears brief and becomes waterlogged.The Doctor then goes to Argolis, a planet of recreation.The Doctor ages several hundred years during this episode. The Doctor saves the planet from the cute Foamsi. This episode also marks the start of a new opening and ending for each episode.A semi confusing story for the start of Tom Baker's last season! Also Romana wears an annoying sailor outfit the whole time! Overall, a new season and new refeshing beginning for the series!

Not the best, but still underappreciated
Traditionally, although season 18 of the programme is oft-loved by fans (and deservedly so), "The Leisure Hive" is judged to be a story of merely 'okay' merits. I disagree - in the context of the series, it was a groundbreaking new look and feel for the show, taking it forcefully out of the 1970s and slamming it into the 1980s. Tom Baker, many fans' favorite Doctor, thankfully turns down the humor that made some of season 17's stories so annoying, and his new burgundy outfit is absolutely gorgeous. Joined by Lalla Ward as Romana, this is possibly the best Doctor/companion team ever seen on "Doctor Who". And I must say that Peter Howell's remix of the theme tune will forever be my favorite...it fills me with a sort of excitement I never get with the other versions.

All these points aside, "Leisure" itself isn't that bad. Sure, the plot is nothing terribly new, but the acting is credible and the special effects a definite step up from the previous year. Both the Argolin and the Foamasi are well-conceived aliens, even if the latter are somewhat ungainly. The incidental music deserves special note for being, in my opinion, some of the best heard throughout the 1980s era of the programme.

Although these factors don't all add up to make a classic story, they do make a solidly entertaining one; "Leisure Hive" definitely deserves re-evaluation. Even if you want to pick on a season 18 story (and IMO, none of them are really bad), this isn't the one to choose.

The Dawn of the New Argolis! And the 18th season.
Romana on Argolis: "It's the first of the leisure planets. In relative Earth Date 2250, there's a hideous war against some reptile people called the Foamasi. Most of the planet gets wiped out by two thousand interplanetary missiles, but the survivors build a recreation center called a Leisure Hive. And there's something called an experiential grid. Cells of different environments designed to produce physical, psychic, and intellectual regeneration."

After not only missing the opening of the Brighton Pavilion but also getting the century and season wrong, the Doctor and Romana go to Argolis in 2290, forty years after that terrible war, and become involved in the intrigues of the native Argolins. Bookings to their hive are disastrous, as other leisure planets have anti-gravity swimming pools and speed learning. Brock, the initially pessimistic Earth agent who advises the Argolins to do something about their cash flow, accepts the position on the Board, but recommends they sell the planet and hive to the Foamasi, their ancient enemies, of which the Argolin survivors still have bitter memories. After all, selling them their own planet would be the ultimate defeat. Things have a chance when Hardin, an Earth scientist and lover of Argolin Chairwoman Mena, claims to have found a better use of tachyonics--to manipulate time.

The main attraction of the hive is the Tachyonic Recreational Grid, run by the youthful Pangol. The science of tachyonics, the manipulation of faster-than-light particles, involves temporary duplication of any physical object, and the manipulation of the duplicate object without harming the original, demonstrated by Pangol going into the TRG and his tachyon duplicate's arms and head coming detached while it's talking. Soon, the TRG becomes the site of sabotage, accidents, and later murder, as Hardin's assistant Stimson is found strangled by the Doctor's scarf. And guess who's suspected?

There's wonderful exchange when the Doctor, Romana, and Mena are gazing at the glowing red sands of Argolis. "Radon 222 decays rapidly." says the Doctor. Mena says, "But not the heavy metal dust. It won't be habitable for three centuries. ... Now you understand the purpose of the Hive. ... to promote understanding between life forms of all cultures and genetic type. There must be no more such wars. Each race learns to understand what it is like to be a foreigner." And the Argolins have the helmet of Theron, a golden hooded helmet resembling a curved KKK hood as a reminder of what happened to them.

Adrienne Corri (Mena) is best known in Clockwork Orange as the ill-fated Ms. Alexander, the author's wife. David Haig does a good job as Pangol, being charming presenter, scientist, and Argolin patriot at the same time.

The first story of John Nathan-Turner's turn at producer heralded some changes that had some great consequences. He toned down the silliness of his predecessor, Graham Williams, and tried to rein in Tom Baker, whose hat, long coat and scarf are red instead of the familiar brown. In trying to get a Star Wars-style image to Dr. Who, he had the new digital Quantel special effects used, as well as an electronic revamping of the theme music. And he even recruited Barry Letts, who had produced Who in the Jon Pertwee era, as Executive Producer for Season 18.

The opening titles are changed, where instead of the bluish time tunnel, there was a galaxy of stars coming towards the viewer, with some in the center gradually forming the Doctor's face. The diamond logo was changed as well.

A story on the horrors of nuclear war and the necessity for cultural understanding between races, with stylish designs (the Argolins' beehive hairdo, flowing yellow robes, goatees for men, and plastic statues) and concepts, how Argolins turn from green to human colour when they grow older. A pity that this and the final season story, Logopolis, are the two best stories in Tom Baker's last season as the Doctor.

Not just the scarf changed.
The start of Tom Baker's season was interesting, but poorly written.

The basic plot was cool but I didn't think it was pulled off properly. The first and last parts of the story were entertaining. (I particularly liked the Beach Sequence.) Loosing the Randomiser was a good call. But something just didn't feel right here.

This was also the season where we saw a less physical Tom Baker, I don't know if it was a specific decision by the writers or just the way it worked out.

Lala Ward continues to grow in the role of Romana here. One would think they were preparing her for her own series.

Not the best of the Bakers by far, but still a good watch.

Tom Baker AND special effects
That's what makes this season so cool. Tom Baker who always steals the show(unlike his sucessors) and good flashy special effects to boot. There is only one setting throughout the whole show and it is the hive which can get boring(like a lot of so-called sci-fi shows nowadays which are single setting soap opras). But thier was that bit about the Doctor growing old which I thought was very well done. He appeared 103 but acted like a wize old 1250 year-old traveler of the universe. This wasn't Tom's best show(excellent acting though on his part) but it wasn't bad either and I had a feeling when I first watched it that things were only going to get better. I still think this season got progressively better, especilally the E-space Trilogy(another story). ... Read more

Amazon.com

"The Tomb of the Cybermen" brought the Doctor, Patrick Troughton, into conflict with his silver cyborg nemesis for a third time, following "The Tenth Planet" (1966) and "The Moonbase" (1967). The Doctor, Jamie (Frazer Hines), and Victoria (Deborah Watling) join an archaeological expedition to explore the planet Telos, where they encounter death traps, betrayal, and a waiting army of frozen Cybermen. Scripted by Kit Pedlar and Gerry Davis, who would later write Doomwatch (1970-72), many of the essentials of the plot anticipate James Cameron's blockbuster Aliens (1986): the barren planet with abandoned city, the tense wait for a rescue ship, the human traitors, the implacable, more powerful enemy. There are a few flaws, but this is a superior Doctor Who adventure of its time and a thoroughly entertaining piece of classic television. --Gary S.Dalkin ... Read more

Reviews (36)

Classic Who
I sat down the other day to watch this story for the first time, all ready to dispute its "classic" status. Once it was over, however, I felt like I might have to amend my all-time top ten list of Doctor Who stories. There were some notably poor elements (the "american" captain was just begging to be made fun of and the cybermats were used one too many times), but aside from these relatively small complaints there weren't very many problems. My favorite scene happened in the last episode when the Doctor pretends to agree with Klieg's plans, just to determine for sure that Klieg was mad. This was a very well realized episode and definitely deserves it's status as "classic" Who.

"Who'd be a woman?"
Landing on the Planet Telos, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria run into an expedition searching for the last remains of the Cybermen. The Troughton classic is finally released on DVD, fully restored by the DWRT(Doctor Who Restoration Team), with loads of bonuses and extras. The story itself happens to be one of the BEST Cybermen serials. Although, there are some iffy accents, ridiculous dialogue and OTT acting, it's mainly a lot of fun. The enjoyment and fun level in this Who outing ranks among the best. It may not be for most of Today's Sci-Fi audience, but revelers' of B-movies and old TV programs will applaud.

Not sure if I understand all that symbolic logic, though...

One of the strongest Cybermen - and Troughton - episodes!
American fans of "Doctor Who" were usually introduced to the series through Tom Baker, the "Doctor with the floppy hat and long scarf" -- and rarely if ever got to see William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton in their roles as the first and second Doctors. Troughton's Doctor, although he remains one of the most loved actors in the role, has the least amount of surviving episodes, since the BBC thoughtlessly destroyed several stories in the 1970s. Ironically, since Troughton's great portrayal cemented "Doctor Who" as a continuing series. If he had failed in his role as the second Doctor, we wouldn't have forty years of the series to look back upon.

Ten years ago, I remember when word first leaked out about the discovery of more Patrick Troughton episodes. "Tomb" was considered a treasure, but if you held out for the DVD instead of buying it then, it was well worth the wait. This story has been lovingly restored, looking beautiful and not muddy, as the 1993 VHS release did.

And what a story - opened up tremendously by the restoration. The stop animation of the Tomb manages to be suitably creepy thirty-odd years later, and there's great acting all around, from Troughton to the supporting cast. The spaceship crew is a team of overeager Americans, which is the first time I'd ever seen "colonists", so to speak, on "Doctor Who". The creature Cybermats are also introduced, which are darling and just a bit menacing - although they didn't manage to storm the UK, and become as popular with children as the Daleks had. (My older brother had his own toy Daleks in the mid 1960s - too bad none of them made it into his adulthood.)

The extras on the DVD are also stellar, namely a short with background music, featuring snippets from lost story "Evil of the Daleks," and a fascinating convention discussion with the surviving cast and crew. Comments from Deborah Watling (Victoria) are particularly interesting - she was one of the companions least seen, as most of her episodes had been destroyed. Watling, nicknamed "Leatherlungs" by Troughton and costar Fraser Hines (Jamie), because of all the screaming she did throughout the serial, turns out to be an loyal and fairly smart companion, not the dainty dips*** she had been previously remembered as.
A wonderful scene between her and Troughton show the world-weariness of the renegade Doctor, and how both he and Victoria miss their home and families. Hines, as always, retains his roguish charm both in the story and in the documentary.

Only two teeny drawbacks. One, the Cybermen costumes aren't quite as scary as in future stories, although the white goop coming from a flailing Cyberman in death throes apparently got the Mrs. Mary Whitehead types very upset. Two, this DVD would be even better if it showcased the fab vocal stylings of Frazer Hines, singing a dippy and jangly guitar-ridden "Who is Doctor Who", a la William Shatner and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

THE DOCTOR, CYBERMEN...CLASSIC WHO ON DVD!
Thanks to a discovery in Hong Kong in 1992, "The Tomb of the Cybermen" is now the earliest "Doctor Who" of the Patrick Troughton era to remain completely intact. And it is a great adventure. The scenes with the Cybermen are quite frightening, but Troughton's humour keeps it from becoming too scary. With a great supporting cast and some fairly decent visual effects, "The Tomb of the Cybeermen" is a treasure that belongs in anyone's collection of "Who" episodes. The extras on this disc are little, but totally worthwhile!
Program Grade: A+
DVD Grade: A-
Overall Grade: A

Action, silly costumes, melodrama: Dr Who at its best
This is one of the best Dr. Who episodes I've seen and children and adults alike will enjoy the mystery, action and drama encountered in The Tomb Of The Cybermen. The story is entertaining as are the costumes, performances and FX (such as they are). This one is fun to watch repeatedly and is a good introduction for anyone who wants to see what Dr. Who is about. For fans, you've got to have this one! ... Read more

Description

In the heart of a Victorian house lies a dormant alien spaceship whose cargo rekindles a terrible fear in Ace's past. ... 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

Description

London, 1966. The TARDIS materialises in the shadow of the newly-completed Post Office Tower, and the Doctor senses a strange energy in the air. He instinctively knows that evil is at work nearby. Posing as a scientist, the Doctor and his 'secretary' Dodo gain access to a suite at the top of the tower and meet the driven Professor Brett. His life's work, the thinking computer WOTAN, is about to be linked up in a problem-solving network with many other machines around the world. But the Doctor is concerned. How can WOTAN possibly know the meaning of the word 'TARDIS' and about the Doctor's travels through time and space? What is the strange control that WOTAN can exert over humans via a mere telephone call? And what is the computer's link with the deadly robots being assembled in Covent Garden warehouse? ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Doctor Who grows up
Plenty of outdoor scenes instead of cardboard sets. Inept government officials, military men with assault rifles, the Doctor tampering with electronics, present-day London in danger. With this story Doctor Who entered a new age. Although starring Hartnell, it is much more like Throughton or early Pertwee. I prefer this style to the less mature, if likeable, stories with Susan, Ian, Barbara & co.
Sure, War Machines has it's silly and naive moments, but that applies to almost every Doctor Who story. It is scientifically less ridicilous than The Tenth Planet. The machines themselves are like much more crude and clumsy Daleks, but i like them. People who like swinging London-stuff like Adam Adamant could enjoy this. Also those who prefer later doctors to Hartnell might find War Machines a positive surprise. I did, this is my favorite first doctor story.

Doctor Who finally Becomes Doctor Who
This is the first story that really brings the formula of the series until its demise into play. The focus is on the Doctor, who is now a willing adventurer and hero basically, and also brings up a more adult appraoch to the companions. The story is pretty good and very ahead of its time, but the War Machines are totally impractical killing machines and not frightening in a context except maybe if you were the poor chap operating it! As for the characters of Ben and Polly, they are excellent and it is a shame this is the only complete story in the BBC archives that feature the two of them. Also, it is a shame the magnificent Hartnell didn't stick around longer to try on this new modern Doctor Who on for size. A good one from the Hartnell era and a big turning point for the show... all that's missing is Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier.

The story that influenced the Terminator? Perhaps.
This story is one of many examples of an intelligent concept being utilized in a very exceptional way in the Doctor Who format. This adventure has the good Doctor and Dodo arriving in London of 1966, and soon they would become involved in a very insidious plot put forth WOTAN, the very first example of a thinking computer, otherwise known as A.I., artificial intelligence, and the subsequent construction of an army of robots known as War Machines.

This adventure is something that I believed may have had a hand in influencing the Terminator movies, for in both cases, there is the talk of a super artificial intelligent computer system that has come to the realization that mankind's time is up, and the age of the machines must begin.

However, there is are differences, in the Terminator, the fact that once SkyNet was brought online, it launched nukes that practically destroyed half the world's population and brought about a dismal, dystopia, where there is nothing but wars and fighting, between the human resistance, and the robotic warriors of SkyNet.

In this adventure, the events build up slowly, first learning that WOTAN is a highly advanced computerized problem solver that was envisioned to assist humanity in it's global progress. But as it is connected, in a gothic sort of manner in various thrillers, as the menace is not quite made apparent, but slowly builds up as people of significant importance are brought under WOTAN's control, as more and more people are brought under its control, more of the War Machines are constructed and brought online.

This adventure is also notable for the somewhat abrupt departure of Dodo, and the introduction of two new companions for the good Doctor, Polly and Ben. In addition, there are some rather humorous scenes having the Doctor and his friends in the hottest nightclub in the area, 'The Inferno', as a display of the youthful exuberance of the Swinging Sixties.

In addition, what I thought was great was for the Doctor to be working alongside the military, lending his intelligence to their militaristic strategies, something that served as the first prototype story format that would be utilized during a majority of the 3rd Doctor era. I found this adventure to be very satisfying on an intellectual level, for it serves as an allegorical warning to not allow technology to dominate mankind. A must have for any Dr. Who fan.

Nice Predection Of Networking
This episode of Doctor Who isn't that great. Basically, you have a super computer who has a bunch of killer robots (the "War Machines") and it wants to take over the earth. Blah, blah, blah.

What made this episode interesting to me was the then almost unknown concept of networking computers. The idea for the super computer villian was that it had other computers that all linked to it and each other. The result made the super computer smarter. While that was laughable, today we do have corporate networks that span the globe and enable people to do more than ever.

Bottom line, a mostly dull episode with an close prediction of the future of computing in the 1960's. That part makes it worth having (IMO).

Dare I say...'Internet'
This story is built on the proposition that computers networked together will have a much gretaer capacity. Having a super computer, in this case WOTAN, at the heart of the network allows for the subjugation of mankind by computer. These days we could liken that to the internet.

As others have pointed out this is a thought provoking drama on the dangers of the over-reliance on cold calculationg computers. Recent movies such as Bicentennial Man and AI have sought to couter much of this type of propaganda which is still prevelant throughout the world. Once again, the good old BBC has brought a thorny scientific issue to the fore in the guise of a children's television show.

This is one of the most fab, with it, hip of the shows which was originally broadcast between June 25 to July 16 1966. Polly's fashionable dress and make-up together with the symbols of the swinging 60s, the Post Office Tower, the mini, among others are the touchstones of the new generation that was emerging. This was the year of the Beatles being awarded the MBE by the queen and once again the BBC pays lip service to social developments while helping the British tourist industry with their pictures of London. If you have an attractive outdoor location use it I say!

It's not the best of Doctor Who stories monster wise as others have said but it was a pretty novel idea at the time which certainly is one of the most endearing features of Doctor Who. The scary thing about the mobiles is that their construction was relatively simple and thus could be replicated quickly and easily. An enemy that could grow as fast as you can say 'production line' is scary indeed. ... Read more

Description

Gateway Collection. In one of the most popular episodes, an archeological dig revives Sutekh, an ancient Egyptian god of destruction. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

"There are other humans within these walls...."
"Pyramids of Mars" might contain the most chilling and powerful enemy the Doctor has ever come across in his travels. Instant classic comes to my mind when this adventure is mentioned in casual company. The story itself is outstanding. Wonderful writing from Robert Holmes, even Sarah gets some great one-liners("Your shoes need repairing", "Must've sneezed" and "Must've been a nasty accident"). Baker, of course, is zany, dramatic and unhuman, but humane. All guest actors provide their all, but it's Sutekh who steals the show in an unforgettable performance. The mummies are great! And Clements the poacher's death is not to be missed. Great location work help seal its fate in Who masterpieces, along with its creepy soundtrac, and flawless design and execution. Simply astounding, not to be missed. Probably one of Whos all time greats!

The very best DW ever!
I'll make no pretense - this is my favorite Doctor Who adventure of all time. It is moody and intense, with brilliant performances by Tom Baker, Lis Sladen, and Gabriel Woolf. No other DW villain has really been so imposing - we never see Sutekh's face (unless that mask -is- Sutekh's face) or see his lips move, but his voice is so powerful and resonant it sends chills down the spine; more than a worthy adversary for the tall and deep-voiced Tom Baker.

The story is nicely claustrophobic, mostly taking place in and around a mansion, with the marvelous sense of a horror movie. The script is another real gem by Robert Holmes (despite the writer's credit, he wrote almost all of what appeared onscreen), and no actor is off-par.

The only downside about this video is that it was one of the first DW videos released, so the four 25-minute episodes have been truncated into a long 95-minute "movie". Still, in lieu of an unedited video or DVD release, this is a fine purchase and should be in anyone's Doctor Who collection.

Good stor