In future I hope they aren't so stupid as to release anything else at this time of year in future. It was previewed in October in DWM and with a screening of The Time Meddler at the NFT in November, so should have been released then.
The delayed arrival, and having nine packed discs to work through, mean that this review is a little late.
None of the above has any bearing on the quality of the new Collection box set. This is the largest release so far - with nine separate stories on their own individual discs - and it is the first of the 1960's monochrome seasons. As not one of them is complete, it also means it is the first to feature gaps. Luckily only two episodes are missing - Parts 2 and 4 of The Crusade. It makes this the most complete season in the archives, so was an obvious starting place for these older seasons to be released.
Sadly, the missing instalments have not been animated. These have always suffered the problem of having far too many speaking parts, locations and costumes - making them too expensive to animate. (A lot of people still don't comprehend the logistics of animating lost TV. You need a good enough soundtrack for a start, then there needs to be smaller numbers of speaking characters and sets than these episodes offer. Finally, there has to be a market for the end product, and B&W Historical material simply isn't ranked as high as Daleks, Cybermen and sci-fi adventures in general).
What we do get is the soundtracks for the two episodes, accompanied by the telesnaps. Fortunately, they have added the option of narration from the audio CD releases (as on the Lost in Time set they failed to provide any explanation for the sounds in lengthy speechless sections). There are also production text subtitles).
Naturally cost has put some people off buying these special editions, especially with the cost of living crisis and power-boosted, open-ended energy bills. They are also (very slowly) reissuing sets with more basic packaging for about a tenner less.
Another criticism I keep seeing is the business that you simply can't upscale such archive material. Season 2 was broadcast not on the 625 line format of the 1970's and '80's stories. It went out on 405 line TV, so very low definition. Thankfully, technology has already shown that these old recordings can be enhanced. The DVD releases were a marked improvement on the VHS releases, and now the Blu-ray release has brought us a startling improvement to picture quality. This is as good as these episodes have ever been. With The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the soundtrack, whilst still in dual mono, has also been enhanced. The first episode of The Crusade does have some damage - too severe to get rid of entirely - but it is still a much better version that the one we got on the Lost in Time DVD set.
I, for one, don't care if it's proper HD or not. It looks fantastic, and that's all that matters.
No new additional CGI this time. That for Dalek Invasion was already on the DVD release and, apart from a new shot of Battersea Power Station, is confined to the fancy Dalek saucers. I was a little disappointed that they hadn't done anything to visually improve the story's climax. On screen it is simply some old volcanic stock footage. If you're used to the Peter Cushing movie version, you'll be especially disappointed.
I would also have loved to see them get rid of the TARDIS / DARDIS chase sequences in The Chase, which are very amateurishly realised.
Before we look at the extras, a word about the packaging and artwork. 9 discs places a lot of strain on the plastic tray unit, and you may find it has come away from the main packaging. I have also found it necessary to use scissors or some other sharp implement to flip the discs over, as you certainly can't fit your fingers between the trays and the box.
The booklet has an illustration for each story, and these have always been in colour. I assumed this would also be the case here, as the booklet has a colour cover and the folding pocket in which it sits has a colour image. However, what we get are monochrome images, which I was disappointed with.
With the stories spread over 9 discs, there isn't any separate 'Extras' one this time. The VAM is spread over the other discs. Planet of Giants is unusual in that it is the very first story not to feature a "Behind The Sofa" feature. This means that Carole Ann Ford only gets to sit down and watch one of her stories from this season. Also on this first disc is the first of the Matthew Sweet interviews - with William Russell. Most interesting are his memories of his time in the RAF in the Middle East. All the other Extras are pre-existing ones.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth sees the first "Behind the Sofa", but no other new Extras. There are three sets of viewers - Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves and Carole Ann Ford making one set, Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred forming another, and finally Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Wendy Padbury. I really think they need to include Fielding less on these. She never pays attention to what's going on, is usually uncomplimentary about what she does see, and dominates the others. The producers seem more interested in watching her and Padbury spark off each other - despite this having no relevance whatsoever to the episodes under consideration.
The Rescue has a "Behind the Sofa" which almost covers the entire story. The main new Extra here is the other Matthew Sweet interview with O'Brien. This is much longer than the Russell one, and is interesting for her memories of a Liverpool childhood and her stage acting. She finds it incredibly difficult to be positive about her work, other than her detective novels.
The Romans only has a "Behind the Sofa" beyond what was on the original DVD release - likewise The Web Planet.
With only two surviving episodes, The Crusade allows for a couple of new Extras - but doesn't get a "Behind the Sofa".
The missing episodes 2 and 4 get fine reconstructions, using soundtrack and telesnaps, which can also be viewed with additional narration and subtitles. This disc also features Toby Hadoke's latest documentary, in which he goes on a mission to find out all he can about David Whitaker. Sadly the series' first story editor was living in Australia when organised fandom got underway, then died from cancer on his return to the UK - so not a huge amount is known about him. Hadoke discovers a lot of information, some of it quite surprising so I won't go into detail here.
Another highlight is the archive interview material. Each set has included convention interview panel material, of variable quality. Here we get a quartet of Hartnell era companions at a 1985 DWASocial event - Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford, Adrienne Hill and Michael Craze - three of whom are no longer with us, and who died long before the DVD range began. Fortunately this time round they have elected to include the audience questions as subtitles. Previously it has been impossible to hear these and you've had to play "guess the question" from the various answers.
The final items of note are Sylvester McCoy's original introduction to The Wheel of Fortune from The Hartnell Years VHS release, and William Russell's links for the missing episodes from the story's individual VHS release. He does these in character as Ian, who apparently lives in a castle these days. These links were actually recorded in uber-fan Ian Levine's rather tacky mock-Medieval house.
I was very surprised to find that The Space Museum is also denied a "Behind the Sofa" feature. It would have been nice to have seen this being considered. That means three of the nine stories have no "Behind the Sofa", whereas in the past every story has been given one. The only new item here is a documentary about Doctor Who memorabilia collectors, presented by Emily Cook, who used to work for DWM. Naturally, it tends to be dominated by Dalek merchandise. At only 22 minutes, this is lightweight and disposable. As an instalment of a wider series on merchandising it might have worked better.
The Chase had been a double disc DVD, with lots of Extras anyway, so apart from the "Behind the Sofa" there isn't much new here. We get a 14 minute "Wayne & Shuster" comedy sketch (whom I've never heard of) in which a Dalek appears briefly at the end. Prior to this, a laboratory scene has a distinctive piece of Dalek machinery - but from Season 3's Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan - so I don't know why they've included it here on a Season 2 boxset. Not new, but shifted from another release, is a short feature on maritime mysteries. This was originally included on the Carnival of Monsters Special Edition, but probably fits better here due to its inclusion of the Mary Celeste.
Finally, The Time Meddler disc has its "Behind the Sofa", but the main big Extra is a new season overview documentary. Nice to see Richard Martin interviewed for this, as it is as much his season as anyone else's - he directed 18 of the 39 episodes.
These big overview documentaries only really started to appear towards the end of the DVD range, so I'm looking forward to more of them in these Blu-ray sets.
This last disc has one final surprise to offer. The fourth episode of The Time Meddler has always had 12 seconds of footage missing - the final moments of the two Viking raiders. Only the sound has existed, as this film was cut by an overseas censor and is the only copy ever retrieved. Here, they have reinstated the sound, with accompanying images. We get a close-up of someone pulling out a short sword, then shots - again in close-up to avoid faces - of the two men being stabbed. It's quite gruesome stuff.
And what of the next Collection? The man who makes documentaries for the range said on Twitter today that he has made a documentary for the range... Are we supposed to be impressed by this Earth-shattering news? If you don't have anything interesting to say, it might be an idea to say nothing.
Hopefully we will get a Troughton set sometime soon, and a second Davison set (Season 20 has been rumoured for ages).
No comments:
Post a Comment