I must admit that I wasn't looking forward to this set quite as much as others might have been. I've always thought Season 20 a weak one - something I share with Peter Davison, so I'm not alone in this. His views were coloured by the chaotic conditions in which the series were made, whilst I just have qualms about the stories themselves.
First up is Arc of Infinity by Johnny Byrne. Overseas filming in Amsterdam, Time Lords on Gallifrey, and the return of Omega. On paper this ought to have been a classic, but it fails on several levels.
If you're going to bring something back, then bring it back. If you're going to change it so much it looks nothing like it did originally then you have to ask yourself what the point was. Just create something new of your own, why don't you. Omega gets a nice new outfit - but what was the point of changing it so radically?
Gallifrey was once a dark Gothic pile, like something out of Mervyn Peake. Here, it's more like an airport departure lounge, furnished by a well known Swedish home design store. The High Council costumes may be reused ones from earlier stories - but they've been horribly blinged up. The guy playing Zorac thinks he's doing a Noel Coward play.
Going to Paris back in 1979 proved germane to the script. Here, Amsterdam provides a pretty backdrop but nothing else. They needn't have bothered leaving West London.
The least said about the Ergon, the better...
Snakedance is another sequel, but whilst Omega went back a whole decade, the Mara were last seen just the previous year. It's superior in some ways, but lacks some of the imaginative direction of Kinda. Compare the nightmare sequences. Episode 4 has the option to replace the rubber snake with a CGI version, as they did with Chris Bailey's earlier story.
Mawdryn Undead is one of the better stories of the season. It sees the introduction of Turlough - a good idea to do something different with a companion, but one that simply can't be sustained. Big news was the rather clumsy return of the Brigadier as a school teacher (he was third choice after all). A highlight is the flashback sequence in the second episode - but you need to see it in the special edition version. All three Black Guardian Trilogy stories came with optional CGI upgrades on DVD.
If there's one big problem with Mawdryn, it's that bloody awful Terry & June music in the car stealing scenes.
Terminus certainly benefits from the new CGI due to the number of space-bound scenes. The titular space station especially benefits. Unfortunately, the first couple of episodes appear to have some fault, with noticeable lines running vertically down the sides of some sequences. This story sees the departure of Nyssa, who has matured this season. Thankfully Tegan is not quite as annoying this year.
She and Turlough get stuck in a ventilation shaft for two and a half episodes, and Nyssa takes her clothes off for no apparent reason - though it's all done in the best possible taste... Certainly the weakest story of the trilogy.
The trilogy ended with Enlightenment, and there are three versions to choose from. You can stick with the original broadcast version; opt for the 75 minute omnibus Special Edition with CGI FX which featured on the DVD release; or you can go with the full broadcast version with 2023 VFX. No doubt you'll want to watch this once, then settle for your favourite version for subsequent rewatches.
The season limped to a close with the two part The King's Demons. The Doctor sums this up when he talks of how this represents a very low level of villainy for the Master. It's a disposable tale, and harmless, mostly. This is now the only story of 1983 which hasn't got optional CGI FX.
The season was plagued by industrial action, which almost lead to four whole stories being junked or deferred. This was one of the reasons why Davison opted not to commit to a fourth year.
Season 20 should have ended with a Dalek story - "The Return", AKA "Warhead". This was pushed back to Season 21 when it became Resurrection of the Daleks. Something which didn't help this year was the Black Guardian Trilogy smack in the middle of the season. Ordinarily, a Dalek story would have taken precedence over a stand-alone one, but the need to complete the Trilogy meant that finishing Terminus and remounting Enlightenment had to take priority. JNT would ditch trilogies after this year, although future events would render them unworkable anyway.
The year wasn't done, however, as in November we got the special episode The Five Doctors. This now exists in a number of formats, and you can view three of them here. There's the original broadcast version, the extended Special Edition, or a new 40th anniversary one. This is basically the broadcast version with brand new CGI FX. Depending on which version you watch, there are four different commentary tracks - three old ones and a new one for the 40th anniversary one.
It's a fun story which you really can't complain about too much as it simply had a job to do - fitting in as many Doctors, companions and monsters as possible into its 90 minute runtime.
Richard Hurndall does a decent job of essaying the First Doctor, though this is hampered somewhat by having Hartnell appear in the opening shot. Nice to include him, but maybe they should have saved it for the close.
And so to the Extras, of which there are far more than on any previous box set - though some may be relatively brief archive TV spots. These VAM items are another reason I wasn't hugely looking forward to this box-set, because Janet Fielding is all over them and I often find her presence irritating in the extreme. Negative, argumentative, and domineering pretty much sum up her contributions, and she doesn't seem to be mellowing with age...
All the stories have "Behind the Sofa" features. There are three panels: The "Season 20" team of Davison, Fielding, Sutton and Strickson; a "Doctors" team of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy; and a "Companions" team of Katy Manning and Sophie Aldred.
Most entertaining are McCoy and Baker. Most respectful are Manning and Aldred. Which says a lot about the contributions of the contemporary panel. Despite actually being there at the time, they contribute the least in terms of information or entertainment value.
I will only mention the new extras for each disc here, as all the previously released material gets ported over (unless moved to feature on a more appropriate season box-set).
Disc 1: Not a lot to see here. Additional studio footage. Small item from a BBC Christmas tape of Davison visiting the set of children's series Captain Zep.
Disc 2: The trailer - "The Passenger" - is to be found here, with a short BTS featurette. Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse are interviewed at the 50th Anniversary Celebration event (better placed on the Season 19 set surely?). Main new item is an entertaining interview with Martin Clunes, conducted by Fielding. Venue is Freud's house in North London - tying in with the "dream" theme of the Mara story.
Disc 3: An interesting half hour PBS documentary, made by a Denver channel. Basically a set of interviews with actors, JNT and fans at a Chicago convention in 1982, it's designed as an introduction for people new to the programme.
Disc 4: This set's big Matthew Sweet interview. Unfortunately it's with both Fielding and Sutton together, conducted at Jodrell Bank - so presumably originally intended for the Season 18 Collection. Some interesting perspectives on Anthony Ainley, and the outtakes of their attempts at a trailer for a cinema screening of Logopolis are funny.
I say "Unfortunately" as I think Sutton deserved an interview of her own. Fielding dominates, as usual.
Disc 5: Nothing we haven't seen before. The Breakfast Time item with Davison and Troughton is a good 15 minutes long. Even if you've seen the archive TV items on other releases, some may be fuller versions.
Disc 6: With only two episodes and no CGI option, this disc has a lot of extra material - though only one new item concerns the story itself. The King's Demons finally gets a proper making-of documentary, filmed at its location of Bodiam Castle. The piece is dedicated to the late Frank Windsor, who was interviewed shortly before his death.
The archive TV spots deal with Longleat, Davison's departure, or Colin Baker's arrival. There is footage of the Longleat event itself. Fielding also features in some Australian convention material. The Longleat stuff is a bit if a mixed bag, due to much if it being recorded by fans. There's some general material, and some Q&A panels.
Disc 7: The Five Doctors spans the last three discs. This one has the original broadcast version of the story plus "Behind the Sofa", along with all the archive material from the DVD release.
(Here I'll break my "new features only" rule to mention The Ties That Bind. Narrated by Paul McGann, it highlights all the references to past - and some future - stories contained in the 20th anniversary episode. The last few minutes comprise a number of well-selected clips set to music, which is simply magical).
Disc 8: More convention material, from Australia (Fielding in '83) and the UK (Doctors in '93 - of little relevance to the set. Too chaotic to enjoy). This disc has the new 40th anniversary version of the story. One VFX of note is the black monolith, which now looks more solid. Laser effects are upgraded, along with various computer screens. The Dark Tower sits more solidly in the landscape - and Rassilon's tomb chamber is a lot more impressive. The Raston Warrior Robot now (dis)appears in a flash of light - except on a couple of occasions when the effect is missing.
Disc 9: The final disc has the big new features for this set, alongside the Special Edition version of the story. The Season 20 team visit Amsterdam and discuss the season, with trips to some of the locations featured in Arc of Infinity. A nice touch is them surprising a group of cosplaying Dutch fans on a locations walking tour.
We then have Davison, Fielding and Sutton on a European road trip, as they drive to a convention in Germany. At times this seems utterly pointless, but there's one big bust-up they have that's actually rather funny.
When you see archive material of Fielding and Davison, you get the impression that the constant bickering is very much an act developed later, which they now feel compelled to keep going in public. The fact they could switch this off - but don't - can be very annoying.
Not the greatest season of Doctor Who. Not even the greatest Davison season, but a couple of good stories nonetheless. This set will probably be best remembered for the wealth of additional material. I haven't even mentioned the thousands of pages of pdf material spread over the nine discs.
Thoughts naturally turn to what comes next - we fans are never happy unless we have something to look forward to (preferably something we can also complain about). It all depends on whether or not they are going to release another set to coincide with the 60th Anniversary, still two whole months away. If yes, then Season One has to be a possibility, though we had a Hartnell set already this year.
If no new set until 2024, then it will either be another Tom Baker set (15 or 16), or Troughton's final year, Season Six. More than half way, and we still haven't had one of his, which is disgraceful.
(There is a rumour, based on comments from an actor involved, that Season 15 is planned for February. Time will tell...).
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