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DVD
FEATURES:
Editorial Review:
The sad fact faced by all fans of the BBC's long-running science
fiction series Doctor Who is that nearly half of the 200+ episodes
are considered lost or incomplete due to improper storage. However,
episodes and tantalizing glimpses of "orphaned" stories from the
reign of the first Doctor, William Hartnell (1963-66) have been
culled together from 16 and 35mm prints and restored for this set.
The most noteworthy treasure is "Day of Armageddon," the second
episode in the epic 12-part story from season 3, "The Daleks' Master
Plan," which has been unseen by the public since its initial airing
in 1965. Also among the recently recovered is "The Lion," the first
episode of season's 2's "The Crusade." The only other surviving
episodes from these stories--episodes 5 and 10 from "The Daleks'
Master Plan," and episode 3 from "The Crusade" (audio tracks and
narrative links for the second and fourth episodes of this story are
also included), as well as the sole remaining episode (#4, "The
Final Test") from "The Celestial Toymaker" (featuring veteran actor
Michael Gough) round out the disc. The DVD extras include fragments
from the lost episodes of "The Daleks' Master Plan" and season 4's
"The Smugglers" and "The Tenth Planet," all rescued from a variety
of far-flung places; also included is commentary by actor Julian
Glover for episode 3 of "The Crusade" and actors Peter Purves and
Kevin Stoney, along with designer Raymond Cusick for "Day of
Armaggedon," and some 8mm off-screen footage from the Hartnell era.
Viewers can also access introductions to and an afterword for "The
Crusade" (taken from the original VHS release) by accessing the
"Play All" option on the main menu.
As with the First Doctor, a number of episodes and stories from
Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor tenure (1966-69) are also
incomplete or missing altogether, so The Patrick Troughton Years
attempts to reconstruct the "orphaned" stories through episodes and
clips culled from a variety of sources. For Who historians, the most
important footage here is from Troughton's first appearance as the
Doctor in season 5's "The Power of the Daleks," which is missing in
its entirety; a rough glimpse of the transition from actor William
Hartnell to Troughton is included, along with other surviving
fragments. The complete episodes offered here are the sole remaining
episode from season 4's "The Underwater Menace" (fragments from this
story are included in the extras), episodes 2 and 4 from "The
Moonbase," which features the return of the Cybermen (audio from
episodes 1 and 3 is featured in the extras), episodes 1 and 3 from
"The Faceless Ones," and episode 2 from "The Evil of the Daleks"
(which includes commentary by actress Deborah Watling, who played
the Doctor's companion, Victoria). Disc 2 marks the only episode
from the Yetis' debut in "The Abominable Snowmen" (Watling again
provides commentary), two episodes from "The Wheel in Space" (with
commentary by director Tristan de Vere Cole and story editor Derrick
Sherwin) and just one apiece for "The Web of Fear," "The Space
Pirates," and "The Enemy of the World." Chief among the extras is
the 1998 documentary The Missing Years, which interviews several of
the film collectors responsible for rescuing these lost episodes and
fragments (the doc has been updated to reflect the 2004 discovery of
two William Hartnell episodes); the supplemental features offer
fragments and behind-the-scenes footage from "The Macra Terror"
(with a rare clip of the monsters), "Fury from the Deep" (which
includes a scene reconstruction), "The Highlanders," and the
aforementioned stories.
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Cast List:
William Hartnell - The First Doctor (eps. 1-29)
Patrick Troughton - The Second Doctor (eps. 30-50)
- Encoding: Region 2 PAL
- Format: Colour
- Rated: NR
- Studio: BBC
- DVD Release Date: November 2,
2004
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DVD Reviews:
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The William Hartnell
Years 1963-1966
Lost in time... but worth the find!,
Reviewer: JKO (San Francisco, CA USA)
As most Doctor Who fans know, there are
huge gaps in the archives for the black and white era of the
show that featured the first two actors to play the role,
William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Due to a total disregard
for archiving material and, criminally, as a cost cutting
exercise, there was a systematic junking policy for `expired' TV
shows across many broadcast networks through to the 1970's. In
many ways, Doctor Who fared better than most with many complete
stories surviving either in private hands or more often by happy
accidents.
Although anything to have survived is miraculous, in many cases,
irritatingly, stories were left incomplete on the archive
shelves. Pretty much useless to any broadcaster and indeed
seemingly for home DVD or video release. But the bright guys at
the BBC have spotted a way to gather up all this stray material
and package it together on a collection of three discs featuring
not only eighteen complete episodes but a whole myriad of other
snippets and gems from the vaults.
As a huge Doctor Who fan, I was thrilled to see all these
homeless relics gathered together, but from a wider commercial
viewpoint, I don't think it's a particularly interesting
project. But isn't it wonderful for fans to be indulged in this
way? I'd never seen either episodes of The Faceless Ones before,
so this was a real treat, as it was to see the newly discovered
gem from The Daleks' Master Plan.
The problem for me is that alone, or even where two or more
episodes exist, it's exceptionally frustrating to watch what
remains of these stories. If you're watching episode one for
example, you're completely hooked by the end and then hugely
disappointed that there is no more! For stories that just have
the odd episode from the middle of the story, it's enough to
drive you barmy. My biggest irritation came from watching
episode 4 of The Celestial Toymaker. What on earth is going on?
It would have been so, so much better had the DVD contained a
synopsis of what was missing to help flesh out some of the
material and put things into context. Definitely an opportunity
missed. In a step towards this, there are soundtracks included
for two missing episodes from The Crusade and The Moonbase,
which does help complete those stories, but since photos exist
of both missing episodes, why weren't they included? When all
there is to hear is music or sound effects, it leaves you
bewildered as to what might be happening. A photo or a subtitle
would have been so much more effective.
Also gathered from the cutting room floor are many, many short
clips (in some cases, don't blink or you'll miss them) from
other completely deleted episodes. It's sad that in so many
cases these split second clips are all that have remained.
There's also a lot of home movie footage, which is really
interesting. I believe this to be the only color examples of
footage from the era and although short, they are wonderful to
see.
We can but hope that as time goes on, some of the missing
material will turn up. No one would have thought the complete
Tomb of the Cybermen would suddenly reappear in 1992. So hope
springs eternal. Until then, here's some classic Who,
brilliantly restored and remastered to enjoy. |
The Patrick Troughton
Years 1966-1969
Great
rare gems from early Doctor Who!
Reviewer: Stephen Wall (Raleigh, NC USA)
What a treat this DVD set is! 12
rarely-seen episodes from the Troughton era of Doctor Who, on a
2 DVD set. In fact, these have never been aired on US
television. The sad reality about Doctor Who, is that a fair
number of the earliest episodes of the program have not
survived, so we are left with certain early stories which only
have the occasional episode in existence.
Thank heavens that the powers-that-be felt there might be
interest in a collection such as this. To be fair, these odds
and ends may not be to everyone's taste, as they don't consist
of complete stories, but they are interesting in their own
right, and provide a nice sampling of the remarkable series that
is Doctor Who:
THE UNDERWATER MENACE 3 - Originally a four-part story, only the
third part exists, but it does provide the earliest existing
episode to feature Patrick Troughton's unique take on the
Doctor, accompanied by his companions Ben, Polly and Jamie. The
episode is rather bizarre, featuring an adventure in Atlantis
with fish-people and a mad scientist, but it is unlike anything
else ever seen in the series.
THE MOONBASE 2 & 4 - Enter the Cybermen for this adventure, in
only their second appearance on Doctor Who. This time the action
takes place on the moon itself, and as an added bonus, the two
missing episodes (1 & 3) are included in audio-only format, so
one can follow the entire story. Find out how Polly's tea-making
skills save the day!
THE FACELESS ONES 1 & 3 - Two existing episodes from the six-parter
in which chameleon-like aliens are hijacking airline passengers
for their own nefarious plot. Features location footage at
Gatwick Airport in London, and is also the last story to feature
Ben and Polly as the Doctor's companions.
EVIL OF THE DALEKS 2 - The final appearance of the Daleks in the
1960's, this existing episode from the 7-parter, offers a unique
look at a story many consider to be one of the all-time
classics. Also, features the debut of Victoria. Commentary track
is available for this episode.
THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN 2 - The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria
encounter the deadly Yeti in the Himalayans in this surviving
episode from the 6-parter. This episode also has an optional
commentary track.
THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD 3 - A taste of espionage in this
thriller, in which Patrick Troughton doubles as the villanous
Salamander. The only surviving episode from the 6-parter.
THE WEB OF FEAR 1 - The Yeti return, this time in the
Underground System of a deserted London. This is the existing
first part of the 6-part story. There is an optional commentary
track for this episode.
THE WHEEL IN SPACE 3 & 6 - The Cybermen return in this adventure
set on a space station. Zoe makes her first appearance in the
series, and episode 6 features an optional commentary.
Originally a six-part story.
THE SPACE PIRATES 2 - This sole survivor of the six-part story
puts the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe in the midst of a grand space
adventure.
As if these 12 episodes weren't enough, also included are an
insane number of clips from other 1960's Doctor Who adventures,
plus a meaty documentary about The Missing Years.
Again, these odds and ends may not be for everyone, but they are
a unique collection of episodes that are quite rare, and they
have all been cleaned up and have never looked better. A
worthwhile investment for any Doctor Who fan. |
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