DVD Review: Doctor Who - Day of the Daleks

I must admit that like many fans who saw Day of the Daleks as a kid I was rather let down by the battle scene at the end. I think it was the second video I ever bought after Death to the Daleks - which I think is still awesome and under-rated to this day! So, when I heard that the DVD release was coming up, and that new CGI effects, footage and Dalek voices (by Nick Briggs) were to be added I was quite excited.

I must admit (and I hope my bosses don't read this!) that I took the day off work to watch this in one sitting. And being older I can appreciate the complex storyline a lot more than I ever could have as a seven year old. This pre-dates Terminator by over a decade and there is a similar complex script from Louis Marks revolving around time-travel paradoxes with complex characters from the 22nd Century attempting to alter the course of history. It is a bleak and dystopian vision of the future and it made all the more richer by the wonderful new CGI effects shots that blend in seamlessly with the original '70s ones.

I think that the new Dalek voices are excellent, more on par with the new series' ones. The original voices for this story were downright awful in my opinion - although some might disagree. I also think the new CGI work done for the battle scenes at the end are superb, and I ought to say a big 'well done' to all the team involved in bringing them to life. Barry Letts would've been proud!

For all it's original production faults, Day of the Daleks has been glossed up here and given a new lease of life. It means a whole new generation of fans can look back to it and discover the magic of the classic series again.

I must say that it's worth purchasing just to see the wonderful scene with Jon Pertwee as the Doctor drinking wine and eating cheese! A real gem, it gets a big thumbs up from me. One of the best DVD releases so far!

Let's just hope that Death to the Daleks gets equal treatment, it's long overdue... ;-)

DVD Review: Doctor Who - The Mind Robber

This one stands out in my mind, not just because it was the first black & white Doctor Who story I saw during a BBC2 repeat as a child in 1992, but because it has some really far out ideas in it. Far out ideas, even for a show like this, and brilliant performances by the lead cast - Patrick Troughton shines as the Doctor! I watched the DVD again this week and it still looks as fresh as ever thanks to the Restoration Team cleaning up the fuzzy old film print (you'll notice this if you've seen the VHS release) and the bonus material on the DVD is excellent too.

So what's the score? At the end of the previous story The Dominators the TARDIS is stuck in lava from a volcanic eruption... Of course, the Doctor panics and hits a switch on the TARDIS console and the travellers are transported out of time and space to a void where an alien intelligence has made a fantasy world out of people's imaginations. Episode 1 stands out on it's own as a masterpiece, even though it was rushed together by the production team because there wasn't enough in the script to pad out over the five episodes of this story. I won't spoil it too much but in this episode we do get that lovely infamous scene of Zoe draped across the TARDIS console...

This episode is pure 1960s' psychedelia. Peter Ling (the story's writer) pushes the boundaries of the show, and this story stands out from the rest of Troughton's other ones. Whereas most of his stories are famous for being monster mash-ups, we don't actually see the main baddie or alien in this story. We never learn who created the fictional world that the TARDIS crew find themselves in. And that makes it even more mysterious and eerie. (All the great science fiction and horror writers know that keeping your enemy hidden adds to the atmosphere of the story!)

This story leads directly into the next serial, The Invasion which is to be reviewed another time...