Manufacturer: BBC DVD / 2|Entertain

Written By: John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch

RRP: £19.99

Release Date: 10th January 2011

Reviewed by: Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 19th January 2011

Meglos, despite some of its negative points, is, in essence, a Doctor Who story that was before its time. It is a story that, at its heart, deals with the struggle between religion and science.

As a viewer, you can't help feeling a struggle off-screen as well. You almost feel the tug of war between the writers, the script editor and the director, as they fight it out to gain their own narrative. And what we're left with, through sheer luck, is a melding of the three, that essentially benefits the story in a way that no single party could have done on their own.

Once you get past the dodgy wigs, and the tiresome time loop scenes, there are many elements that make this a rather enjoyable story.

Tom Baker, nearing the end of his tenure as The Doctor, puts in a sterling performance as Meglos, not to mention the welcome return of Jacqueline Hill as Lexa who bookends her Doctor Who career here. 

Then there is the truly fantastic make-up which makes the characterisation of Meglos even more villainous and believable. There are also some great FX shots in the story, combined with highly detailed models, that work together using the new Scene Sync technology - yet another example of the story being ahead of its time.

The DVD is rounded off with some excellent features that compliment the story.

The 'Commentary' features Lalla Ward (Romana II), John Flanagan (Writer), Christopher Owen (Earthling / Meglos) and Paddy Kingsland (Composer). John and Lalla seem to take turns guiding, but understandably, Christopher Owen tends to get lost in the background, and doesn't really seem to contribute much until the final episode. Peter Howell (Composer) joins the commentary for Episode Three and offers an insight into some of his cues, as well as providing a refreshing critique to his own work. All in all, a fairly run of the mill commentary, that could have really benefited from Tom Baker's presence.

'Meglos Men'  is an 18-minute documentary that follows Writers; Andy McCulloch and John Flanagan as they retrace their steps into the past, into the genesis of Meglos. Checking out their old haunts, through to a modern-day meeting with Script Editor; Christopher H. Bidmead.

It's a fantastic little feature that is written, produced and directed by the fabulous Chris Chapman, who has risen the calibre of Doctor Who DVD documentaries to a whole new level.

'The Scene Sync Story' looks at how the pitfalls and limitations of Chroma Key gave way to research into the newly discovered Scene Sync technology - a process that ties two cameras together to pan in unison. 

The eye-opening documentary shows us how Meglos was a test run for the process, which has evolved and can now be seen in many modern day film and television productions. The feature includes Interviews with Peter Leverick and Roger Bunce (Cameramen) and Stephen Drewett (Visual Effects Designer).

'Jacqueline Hill: A Life in Pictures' looks at the life of Doctor Who Actress, Jacqueline Hill (Barbara, Lexa). It's a wonderful tribute to the woman whom we all know from Doctor Who, but paints the wider, and to most of us, unknown picture of her life through to her untimely death. It was surprising to learn that Jacqueline was responsible for Sean Connery getting his first leading role, thanks to a suggestion to her Director husband, Alvin Rakoff. The feature includes interviews with William Russell (Actor), Verity Lambert (Producer), Alvin Rakoff (Director / Husband) and Ann Davies (Friend / Actress).

'Entropy Explained' is presented by Dr. Phillip Trowoga from the University of Westminster, and takes a scientific look at the running theme through Season 18 of Doctor Who - Entropy; the measure of disorder of a system. Picking through the laws of thermodynamics, it breaks down the technical speech into easy to understand explanations and situations.

The 'Coming Soon Trailer' features The Mutants, and isn't as well put together as previous trailers, too many fast cuts and no real energy behind the trailer music leads to it failing to really sell the story.

As with previous releases, there are the usual 'Radio Times Billings', 'Photo Gallery' and 'Production Information Subtitles', as well as an 'Easter Egg' that gives us a clean version of the final Fourth Doctor title sequence.

The extra content that we have here, is certainly of a high quality, but going on past form, it does feel a little feature-light. It was surprising to find no feature on the stunning make-up that gave this story such a visual impact, and Tom Baker's involvement, apart from the story itself is non-existent - despite being a Baker-heavy serial.

It is most definitely worth its retail price, with both 'Meglos Men' and 'Jacqueline Hill: A Life in Pictures' taking the main stage.

2|Entertain have confirmed all the Doctor Who DVD titles they will be releasing in 2011, along with a few extras to tantalise us in the meantime.

Meglos - Out Now

The Mutants - 31st January

Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Race Against Time documentary on race

-  Mutt Mad ('making-of' documentary)

The Ark - 14th February

Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Riverside Studios documentary

-  All's Wells that Ends Wells documentary

-  One Hit Wonder documentary

Mara Tales (Contains: Kinda & Snakedance) - 7th March

Kinda - Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Optional CGI Effects

-  Feature on director, Peter Grimwade

-  Original studio footage

-  Dreamtime ('making-of' documentary)

-  Matthew Waterhouse on Top of the Pops

Snakedance - Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Snake Charmer ('making-of' documentary

-  Deleted and Extended Scenes

-  Part Four alternative ending

-  Original studio footage

Revisitations 2 (Contains: Carnival of Monsters, Resurrection of the Daleks & The Seeds of Death) - 28th March

Carnival of Monsters - Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Destroy all Monsters ('making-of' documentary)

-  The Mary Celeste Mystery documentary

-  Early edit of Episode 2

-  The A-Z of Gadgets documentary

-  On Target With... Ian Marter

-  Includes other VAM as previously released

Resurrection of the Daleks - Special Features:

-  New Commentary on UK two-part transmission version

-  UK two-part transmission version

-  New 5.1 mix for two-part transmission version

-  Isolated score for two-part transmission version

-  Casting Far and Wide

-  Come In Number Five (era documentary, presented by David Tennant)

-  Easter Egg

-  Tomorrow's Times: The Fifth Doctor

-  Includes other VAM as previously released

The Seeds of Death - Special Features:

-  Audio Trailer

-  Lords of the Red Planet documentary

-  Monsters Who Came Back for More documentary

-  Monster Masterclass

-  Includes other VAM as previously released

Planet of the Spiders - Release Date TBA

Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  90-minute compilation version

-  Jon Pertwee on Wogan

-  John Kane Remembers

-  The Final Curtain documentary

-  Directing Who: Barry Letts

-  Now and Then locations documentary

Mannequin Mania (Contains: Spearhead from Space & Terror of the Autons) - Release Date TBA

Spearhead from Space - Special Features:

-  New Commentary

-  Regenerations; From Black and White To Colour

-  UNIT Recruitment Film

-  Down To Earth ('making-of' documentary)

-  All four episodes newly restored from high definition telecine transfer

Terror of the Autons - Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Nestle Comic Strip

-  Additional footage from Episode One

-  Plastic Fantastic documentary

-  Isolated Score

-  Down to Distraction ('making-of' documentary)

Frontios - Release Date TBA

Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Isolated Score

-  Driven To Distraction ('making-of' documentary)

EarthStory (Contains: The Awakening & The Gunfighters) - Release Date TBA

The Awakening - Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  'Horse destroys gate' outtake

-  On The Cutting Room Floor

-  Kamelion deleted scene

-  Barry Newbery: Designer documentary

-  Back to Little Hodcombe documentary

-  Location footage compilation

-  Now and Then locations documentary

The Gunfighters - Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  End of the Line? documentary

-  Tomorrow's Times: The First Doctor

Paradise Towers - Release Date TBA

Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Girls Girls Girls: 1980s

-  Horror on the High-Rise ('making-of' documentary)

-  All four episodes with original, rejected score by David Snell

-  Jigsaw

Revisitations 3 (Contains: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Robots of Death & The Three Doctors) - Release Date TBA

The Tomb of the Cybermen - Special Features:

-  New Commentary

-  Tomb and the Magic of VidFIRE documentary

-  All four episodes VidFIREd for the first time

-  Sky Ray promotional TV spot

-  Lost Giants documentary

-  Curse of the Cybermen's Tomb documentary

-  Cybermen (extended edition of the documentary that appeared on a box-set of more recent episodes)

-  Includes other VAM as previously released

The Robots of Death - Special Features:

-  New Commentary

-  Sandmine Murders ('making-of' documentary)

-  Robophobia documentary

-  Girls Girls Girls: 1970s

-  Includes other VAM as previously released

The Three Doctors - Special Features:

-  'Making-of' documentary

-  When Doctor Who Was Uncool documentary

-  Episode encoding/authoring errors on original release fixed

-  Includes other VAM as previously released

The Solar System (Contains: The Ambassadors of Death & The Sun Makers) - Release Date TBA

The Ambassadors of Death - Special Features:

-  Commentary

-  Battle for Mars Probe 7 ('making-of' documentary

-  Tomorrow's Times: The Third Doctor

The Sun Makers - Special Features:

-  TX Trail

-  Running From the Tax Man ('making-of' documentary)

-  Doctor's Composer: Dudley Simpson

Day of the Daleks - Release Date TBA

Special Features:

-  Special Edition with new visual & audio FX, and new Dalek voices from Nicholas Briggs

-  Blasting Past documentary

-  Blue Peter

-  Cheating Memory documentary

-  Nationwide: Win A Dalek

-  UNIT: Dating Conundrum

-  View From the Gallery

-  New FX - Making-Of

-  Day of the Daleks Teaser Trailer cut exclusively for 'Now and Then' DWAS Event

-  Online teaser promo

As dates are confirmed, full details and covers will be added to the DWO Release Guide.

 Post a Question to 2|Entertain in the DWO Forums.

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[Source: Doctor Who Magazine - Issue #430]

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, have launched a Classic Doctor Who Channel on YouTube.

The new channel, featuring a mixture of classic clips and exclusive previews from forthcoming Doctor Who DVD releases, will appeal to existing fans and give new viewers an opportunity to sample some classic Doctor Who.  The channel will complement the Classic Doctor Who Twitter account @classicdw run by 2|Entertain. 

Jo Warren, Head of UK & Ireland Sales says ‘We’re really looking forward to giving Classic Doctor Who its own home on YouTube.  It will be a great space for fans to discuss Classic Who - we’re launching with some fantastic clips and we’ll be regularly adding to the collection!’

Classic Doctor Who Brand Manager Dan Hall comments, “I’m delighted to join forces with our digital team and YouTube.  This is an exciting, new way to deliver content for our net-hungry market.”

Classic Doctor Who will launch on YouTube with over 45 clips dating from the first episode, along with new Meglos clips and an exclusive clip previewing the new Doctor Who Meglos DVD boxset which will be released by 2Entertain on 10th January.  Meglos stars Tom Baker and was originally broadcast in 1980.

Compare Prices for the Meglos DVD on CompareTheDalek.com.

[Source: BBC Worldwide]