Manufacturer: BBC Worldwide Consumer Products

Written By: John Lucarotti

RRP: £20.42

Release Date: 11th March 2013

Reviewed By: Dale Who for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 7th March 2013

The TARDIS arrives in fifteenth century Mexico inside the tomb of Aztec High Priest Yetaxa. The travellers become cut off from the ship after the tomb door closes behind them and Barbara is proclaimed as Yetaxa's divine reincarnation.

However, she incurs the enmity of the High Priest of Sacrifice, when - against the Doctor's advice - she attempts to use her new-found authority to put an end to the Aztec practice of human sacrifice.

* * *

It's time for a history lesson, courtesy of a time travelling Police Box and her crew. However, you may also get a strong feeling of "deja-Who"; that strange feeling that you've seen this DVD before. This is another of the BBC's 'Special Edition' releases, aka the same release with an extra disc of new stuff tacked onto the end. In the case of The Aztecs: Special Edition, it's that second disc that provides the excitement... However, here's a rundown of the extras on Disc One - the original release:

Disc One

Commentary - William Russell (Ian), Carole Ann Ford (Susan) and original series showrunner Verity Lambert (now sadly in the great hereafter) come together to discuss their memories of the story, with many anecdotes and stories along the way.

Arabic Soundtrack - Episode Four only features an alternate audio experience that can be selected via the Audio Options section, with the soundtrack dubbed into Arabic.  An interesting curio!

Remembering The Aztecs - The making of the story, with Ian Cullen, John Ringham and Walter Randall (all Aztecs in the serial itself) discuss the early days of television, and changing from theatre to television. William Hartnell's moods are discussed in somewhat less than glowing terms by Ringham and Randall.  Mostly it seems to be a somewhat vitriolic wander down memory lane for them, but thankfully Ian Cullen keeps the featurette light.

Designing The Aztecs - Barry Newbery (who's name is now ever associated with the second TARDIS prop, called "The Newbery Box") talks about how he designed the story; with a glorious wealth of production drawings and photographs - most of which have never been seen as they're from Barry's personal collection.  Newbery is very interesting to listen to, and it's obvious frm the outset that this man knows his craft inside out.  An informative and gentle look back, and suitably entertaining.

Cortez and Montezuma - It's Blue Peter! A wonderfully vintage and aged piece of BBC educational children's programming. Valerie Singleton narrates the story of the fall of the Aztec Empire. It's actually really rather good, and explained very nicely for kids - although Singleton mentioning on more than one occasion about cannons "blowing people to bits" is perhaps more gruesomely amusing than it should be!

Restoring The Aztecs - A regeneration that a Time Lord would be proud of. The restoration and cleaning up of the original film, shown in several before and after examples, that makes the antique material suitable for release onto DVD.  Short, and with no voiceover or real explanations, but still fascinating. It's not just The Aztecs on display here, Jo Grant and the Third Doctor put in a brief cameo appearance too, from 'Terror of the Autons', and The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe turn up in a clip from The Krotons. Oh, and there's a web address for more information in the end titles!

Making Cocoa - A woeful sub-par South Park rip-off on how to make cocoa the Aztec way. Simply dire.

TARDIS Cam 3 - Another brief look at the TARDIS, this time sitting in the middle of a sandstorm on an alien planet.  Again, from the 2002 BBC Fictionlab team. Short, but pretty.

Intro Sequences - A random selection of introductions to the story via the three actors playing the main Aztec roles in the story. There are six in total, and it plays a random message when "Play All" is selected from the main menu. Fairly pointless.

Adding on the Photo Gallery, Subtitles, Audio Description and new Info Text rounds off the original release - and that's just disc one!

Disc Two

Galaxy Four - Or to be more accurate: Galaxy Four the telesnap archive and episode three. Using a little CGI, remaining video footage, lots of telesnaps and the audio recordings of the original transmissions, here's a rather fabulous tale from later on in the Hartnell era. We've got Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) and the wonderful William Hartnell as The Doctor.

Episode Three was recently discovered and recovered, and that's the main reason for this condensed version of the story. It is, however, completely wonderful to see any part of this Classic adventure. It's a very strong and well told story, and a complete joy to watch. Worth the re-release by itself!

Chronicle - The BBC Radiophonic Workshop lends its expertise to this 1969 telling of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. It's rather dated, and to be completely honest, the Blue Peter version was much more interesting and accessible. It's very pretty to look at, the filming is really rather exquisite, but it's very old school BBC. It is amusing however that the presenter, John Julius Norwich bears more than a passing resemblance to George Reeves' portrayal of Clark Kent in the 1950s Adventures of Suprerman TV series in the US. Norwich's voice though is pure 1950s BBC, with perfect ennunciation and a very plummy tone.

Doctor Forever: The Celestial Toyroom - The series continues with a look at Doctor Who toys over the last 50 years. From the birth of BBC Licensing. From Daleks in the 1960s to Tom Baker dollies to Dapol and onwards into the present day. Presented in a very flippant and jokey manner, this really doesn't take itself seriously, but is presented with enough love and affection to keep it funny and the right side of ridicule. Rather brilliant, very silly indeed, and insane fun.

It's A Square World - A very brief glimpse of the first ever Doctor Who skit during the farewell to BBC TV Centre programme in 2012, gave the world a clue that this little gem still existed. Clive Dunn is Doctor Fortheringown (Doctor Who?) in a full Hartnell outfit, talking to Michael Bentine here. With cameos from Patrick Moore and er... Albert Steptoe... The Doctor's newest invention goes a tad wrong and takes the BBC TV Centre for a spin in space.

A Whole Scene Going - An excerpt from the 1960s magazine show featuring some cranky dustbins from the second movie, and a brief interview with the director of Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD, Gordon Flemyng. Short and very dated, but Gordon's an interesting man, and certainly knew his stuff.

Coming Soon Trailer - SPOILER WARNING!!! In a release that's not at all an obvious tie in to a forthcoming reappearance, Patrick Troughton's Doctor faces off with some reptilian Martians. Also features the *other* instance of the Police Box TARDIS doors opening outwards. The Ice Warriors are coming soon to DVD.

As with disc one, all the features come with Subtitles and Audio Description, and Disc Two features the Radio Times cuttings in the usual PDF format for viewing on a computer.

This is all about disc two, really. The first release of The Aztecs (and a fine Hartnell story it is) was fairly packed with extras already, so I'm not sure we needed another release of it with one or two additional references, to justify the inclusion of Galaxy Four.

However it's that condensed story that's now the undeniable star of this special edition. It's such a rare treat to see a rediscovered Classic episode of the show, especially from the Hartnell era, that it completely negates any misgivings about most of the release being money for stuff we've already seen. Therefore this very special Special Edition can only really have one rating, even if it is almost entirely for Galaxy Four.

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BBC Consumer Products have confirmed the majority of the 2013 Classic Series Doctor Who DVD releases.

February 25th - The Ark in Space: Special Edition

March 11th - The Aztecs: Special Edition (plus Galaxy 4 reconstruction)

May 6th - The Visitation: Special Edition

May 27th - Inferno: Special Edition

June 3rd - The Mind of Evil

June 24th - Terror of the Zygons

July 15th - Spearhead from Space (Blu-Ray)

August 5th - The Green Death: Special Edition

August 26th - The Ice Warriors

September 16th - Scream of the Shalka

+  Discuss all the Doctor Who DVD releases in the DWO Forums.

[Source: BBC Consumer Products]

BBC Consumer Products have sent DWO the cover and details for the Doctor Who DVD release of The Aztecs: Special Edition.

The Aztecs: Special Edition
Featuring: The 1st Doctor

The TARDIS arrives in fifteenth century Mexico inside the tomb of Aztec High Priest Yetaxa. The travellers become cut off from the ship after the tomb door closes behind them and Barbara is proclaimed as Yetaxa's divine reincarnation.

However, she incurs the enmity of the High Priest of Sacrifice, when - against the Doctor's advice - she attempts to use her new-found authority to put an end to the Aztec practice of human sacrifice.

Special Features:

Disc One: 

•  4 x 25 mins approx monochrome episodes with mono audio. Optional Arabic soundtrack for episode four only.
•  Commentary - stereo. With actors William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, producer Verity Lambert OBE.
•  Remembering The Aztecs - Actors John Ringham, Ian Cullen and Walter Randall recall the production of the story and of television production in the sixties in general.
•  Designing The Aztecs - Designer Barry Newbery talks about his work on the story, illustrated with many never-before-seen production drawings and photographs from his personal collection.
•  Cortez and Monezuma - An extract from a 1970 Blue Peter, introduced by Valerie Singleton on location in Mexico, giving historical background to the Aztec belief in human sacrifice.
•  Restoring The Aztecs - A short featurette demonstrating the restoration and videoisation effects used for the release. With subtitles.
•  Making Cocoa - An animated guide to making cocoa the Aztec way, voiced in character by John Ringham as Tlotoxl and Walter Randall as Tonila, with both characters animated and presented in South Park style.
•  TARDIS-Cam no.3 - The third of BBCi’s TARDIS-Cam shots.
•  Photo Gallery - production, design and publicity photos from the story.
•  Easter Egg - An animated BBC Enterprises logo recovered from the end of one of the prints sold overseas.
•  Intro Sequences - The umbrella story title The Aztecs does not appear on any of the episodes, so for (outdated now) BBFC compliance a caption card with the title has been provided. To add interest, six versions have been provided, each with a different voiceover, in character, from three of the actors involved in the production. The intention is that the disc will randomly select one of these six sequences and play it out at the appropriate point.
•  PDF Material – Radio Times listings in Adobe PDF format for viewing on PC or Mac.
•  Programme subtitles.

Disc Two:

•  Galaxy 4 (dur. 64’ 43”) – a shortened reconstruction of the missing story Galaxy 4, using off-screen stills, audio recordings and animation plus the recently recovered complete episode three to tell the story.
•  Chronicle – The Realms of Gold – John Julius Norwich’s superlative 1969 retelling of the story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico and the Aztecs, which also features music by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
•  Dr. Forever! – Celestial Toyroom – the first of a new five-part series introduced by Ayesha Antoine looks at Doctor Who toys. With original series producer Verity Lambert, new series creator Russell T Davies, writers Mark Gatiss, Rob Shearman, Paul Cornell and Joseph Lidster, BBC Worldwide product licensing executive Richard Hollis, product approval executive Dave Turbitt and ex- range editor Steve Cole, AudioGO commissioning editor Michael Stevens, Character Options’ Alasdair Dewar, DWM’s toy reviewer Jim Sangster and last, but by no means least, Doctor Who’s very own Winston Churchill, actor Ian McNiece.
•  It’s a Square World – the very first Doctor Who skit (as far as we can ascertain), with Clive Dunn in full First Doctor costume as a scientist demonstrating his new space rocket to Michael Bentine, resulting in Television Centre being launched into space! Features cameo appearances by Patrick Moore and Albert Steptoe.
•  A Whole Scene Going – an excerpt from a recently recovered edition of the sixties music and arts programme, featuring an interview with director Gordon Flemyng and a behind the scenes look at filming of his movie Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 AD.
•  Coming Soon - a trailer for a forthcoming DVD release.
•  Radio Times Listings in Adobe PDF format.
•  Programme subtitles.

+  The Aztecs: Special Edition is released on 11th March 2013, priced £20.42.

+  Compare Prices for this product on CompareTheDalek.com.

[Source: BBC Consumer Products]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty: The Day Of Darkness (The Aztecs, Episode Four)

Dear diary,

The Aztecs is something of an odd one, morally. There's a moment in this episode where Autloc - the time traveller's only supporter among the Aztecs for some time now - declares that Ian and Susan 'serve a false goddess', and out heart really sinks. Their final friend has turned against them, and joined sides with the evil Tlotoxl.

Except… well… he's only stating the truth! Barbara is a false God! She is deceiving Autloc, and trying to deceive the rest of the Aztecs for her own reasons, however 'right' she may believe her reasons to be. It's an interesting stance for a Doctor Who story, when villains are often painted as far more black and white.

During Marco Polo, I commented on how Tegana was almost a pantomime villain. He was evil for his own reasons, planning to steal the TARDIS and use it to help wage war. The only reason that he was a part of Polo's caravan was so that he could assassinate Kublai Kahn. He was just pure evil, in the same way that the Daleks, or the Voord have been in this season, too.

Tlotoxl, on the other hand, while still being prone to a few pantomime outbursts, is only trying to seek the truth. He knows that Barbara is lying to them (even more so after yesterday's episode, where she specifically tells him she's fake!), and seeks only to prove this to the others. Oh, sure, he goes about it in something of a devious way (trying to get them all killed on more than one occasion is one way to deal with your problems!), but it's hard to dislike him entirely.

What's interesting is that the character's painted throughout as truly believing in sacrifice. After an attempt to halt one earlier in the story sees the intended victim throw himself from the temple, Tlotoxl claims that his death is still the cause of godly intervention. During this episode, though, it's made much more clear that he knows it's all a farce, commenting that 'the darkness will come and go! A sacrifice must be made!'.

While on the subject of Tlotoxl, I've been waiting until now to praise John Ringham's performance. He's simply fantastic throughout this story. He's genuinely chilling when he wants to be - never more so than during his stare to camera during the story's first cliffhanger - and great fun throughout. I'm going to miss him as we move on to a new time and place.

It's nice, too, to see the Doctor gently supporting Barbara, as he tells Cameca that the gods really do want sacrifice to stop. He knows it's all fruitless, but it's nice to see him siding with his companion when he knows how strongly she feels about it.

As the story's rating will attest, I've really rather enjoyed The Aztecs. I've always known that it's quite a good one, somewhere in the back of my mind, since the first time I saw it, but it's nice to have that confirmed here.

I won't go into much detail about the story as a whole, as I've done that through the various entries on the four episodes. It's lovely to see Barbara given a story that is so totally 'hers'; the series at this stage is still very much an ensemble piece, and it works so well as a result of it.

Next Episode: Strangers in Space

 Day Twenty-Nine: The Bride of Sacrifice (The Aztecs, Episode Three)

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Twenty-Nine: The Bride of Sacrifice (The Aztecs, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

There's some fabulously elaborate hats in this story, aren't there? Barbara's, Tlotoxl's, even Autloc's. If you're something of a hat fan, this really is the story for you.

But actually, the design of this story on the whole is really rather good. I spent a lot of time during the last story praising the design and the thought that had gone into the world, especially during the later episodes. A similar praise can be given to this story, as well. The temple, in particular, is a wonderful design, and there's a lot of great detail involved - occasionally, the camera follows characters as they roam from the inside to the out, and you can see the 3D effect on the patterns carved into the surface - it's all really effective.

Less attractive is the school they've got Susan shut away in. During the last episode I wondered why they'd shot Carole Ann Ford's scenes on film, when there were no fights or stunts involved. It was only today that I realised she must be on a holiday (and a quick check confirms that, yes, she was away for these two weeks, her scenes in the school being filmed alongside Episode Five of The Keys of Marinus), and so only just involved in the plot.

It's to the story's credit that I've never noticed this before. Just as the Doctor's absence was successfully explained away in the last story, they've managed to keep disruption to a minimum here. This feels much more like the 'Doctor-lite' episodes of the 21st century incarnation of the show - I'm thinking in particular of Midnight, in which Donna appears for a couple of minutes at the top and tail of the story, but you never realise she's not there.

What surprised me, when we cut to a pre-filmed insert of Susan during this episode was that I actually smiled to myself. I was pleased to see her! I stated a few weeks ago that I wasn't the biggest fan of Susan, and that I'd likely spend a lot of time complaining about her, but actually, she's nowhere near as bad as I recall. Oh, sure, there's a few moments of over-reaction and one or two instances where I'm less-than-keen, but I've warmed to her more than I'd expected. I like that.

The downside to all this, though, is that while I was glad to see her, I hadn't actively missed her from the plot. If you'd asked me before her scene what was missing from the story, 'Susan' wouldn't have been my first thought. I sung praises yesterday for Ian and Barbara as characters, and the pair of them with the Doctor is more than enough to keep me satisfied.

Speaking of which, we've another one of those moments where I praise how far the character of the Doctor has come! Oh, I know, I do it every few days, it seems, but we keep on getting these moments! I'll stop doing it at some point. Promise. Here, as he tells Ian of the secret tunnel into the tomb;

IAN

Where did you get hold of this?

THE DOCTOR

My fiancée.

IAN

I see. (beat. He realises.) Your What!?!

It's a great little moment, and it's beautifully played by both men. I couldn't let it pass without a mention…

Next Episode: The Day of Darkness

 Day Twenty-Eight: The Warriors of Death (The Aztecs, Episode Two)

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Twenty-Eight: The Warriors of Death (The Aztecs, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

There are several things about Doctor Who in the early days that are, quite simply, clever. The character of the Doctor, a mysterious old man from another world. That's clever. His bigger-on-the-inside time machine, that externally looks like a run-of-the-mill police telephone box. That's clever. A format that jumps back and forth between bug-eyed-monsters and historical tales. That's clever.

You know what my favourite bit of ingenuity is, though? It's the characters of Ian and Barbara. Two school teachers, one who specialises in history, to guide us through the stories set in the past, and the other learned in science, for the futuristic tales. Now that's clever.

And the magic of the pair is that they never feel like they've been shoe-horned in to satisfy those bits of the plot. Right from the moment that they first follow Susan home to the junkyard, they feel as though they're meant to be there. When they apply their respective areas of study to the situation they've found themselves in, it just works, because that's not their only function in the narrative.

No writer understands this quite as well as John Lucarotti. I commented on it more than once during the course of Marco Polo, but he takes the show's initial intention to be educational very seriously. He never makes it feel like a chore, but he's making you learn while you watch his episodes.

Here, it's being used by both the teachers in different ways. Barbara uses her knowledge of the Aztec period to answer questions put to her by Tlotoxl and Autloc, in an attempt to prove that she's really a reincarnation of their god. Ian uses his knowledge of pressure points on the body to win in a fight over his rival, Ixta. Well, he does the first time, anyway. By the time they get to heir big, climactic battle, he seems to have forgotten about that a bit…

Something else I enjoy is the way that the Doctor advised Ixta of ways to win in the fight, too. When the warrior first asked him for help, I thought the Doctor was going to show him the same trick that Ian had used, and in my head I was already thinking it a bit lazy that he'd have thought of the same way of winning. It's great, therefore, that he goes a completely different route, and uses scientific ideas in a completely different way, advising Ixta to drug Ian, while describing it as 'magic'.

Hartnell is on blazing form here - never more so than in his opening fight with Barbara. It's quite possibly the best performance he's given in the series to date (scrap that, I think it is the best), and he really goes for it. In many ways, this acts as a counter-balance to the argument they have during The Edge of Destruction, where Barbara berates him for not treating them with the respect they deserve.

I claimed that moment was one of the key turning points for the Doctor changing his character, becoming more affable, and closer to the character we watch in the series through to the twenty-first century. Here, we see an anger in him which isn't even close to the way he acted when we first met him. There, he was crotchety and unpleasant. Here, he's downright terrifying.

And yet, there's still hints of the more lovable Doctor we've started getting used to. Following the fight, he apologises to Babs, telling her he 'didn't mean to be so harsh'. People praise David Tennant and Matt Smith for the way their Doctor can go from 'Angry God' to 'Playful Child' in the blink of an eye, while forgetting that it's a part of the Doctor's character first developed by Hartnell, right back here toward the very beginning. It's a great moment, and one I've never appreciated quite so much before.

While I'm praising performances, I need to bring up Jackie Hill again. I've touched on her performance briefly in the past, but she's on top form here - as always. It's nice to see a story that gives her a chance to shine like this, because she really is a fantastic asset to the series. The highlight comes while she is being questioned by Tlotoxl - the way she delivers the lines is spot on. Casting her and William Russell as the teachers? That's another one of those clever things they did…

Next Episode: The Bride of Sacrifice

 Day Twenty-Seven: The Temple of Evil (The Aztecs, Episode One)

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Twenty-Seven: The Temple of Evil (The Aztecs, Episode One)

Dear diary;

Back in 2004, The Aztecs was the very first William Hartnell story I ever saw. I picked it up from what was then the BBC Shop in Norwich, along with a couple of other titles, excited to be delving right back to the very start of the series. At the time, this was the earliest Doctor Who story available on DVD. Shamefully (Fair warning, I'm about to make myself sound stupid), I completely mis-read the back cover of the DVD case, and mistakenly believed that the character mistaken for a God was an Aztec called 'Bar-Bara'. No, I don't really know how I managed it, either.

Now, I've not seen The Aztecs since that first occasion (all previous attempts at a marathon had fizzled out by around now), so I've been greatly looking forward to getting round to it this time. Especially now that I can watch it in context, knowing that the last John Lucarotti story was something of a gem. After a couple of off-putting episodes of The Keys of Marinus, it's nice to be back in history again.

The one downside is that, as I write this, we're about six weeks away from a shiny new 'Revisitation' of the story on DVD. Much as I'd have loved to wait and see it cleaned up to the standards seen on some recent DVDs, I'll be making do with my original copy. It's so old, there's not even artwork on the disc. Just a logo. Crikey, it seems like a lifetime back!

Right then! Where to start? You can tell instantly that we're back to the series trying to be educational again; we're treated to a couple of history lessons fresh out of the TARDIS, about the Aztecs and their way of life. Susan even not-so-subtly brings up the dates that the Spanish first came into contact with them, while taking an extremely one-sided view of the situation. I'm not going to go massively into the history of the period here (Aztecs for me are, like Barbara, an area of interest!), but I'll likely return to it before the story is over.

There's some great design work on display, here. The Aztec temple and the garden are both very well realised, and only serve to make me wonder what it would have been like had we seen the episodes of Marco Polo moving. I've seen people complain about the studio backdrops in some of the Hartnell stories, but actually, I think that they work quite well here. Certainly, it helps that the story isn't as polished as some of the ones I've seen lately (for the time being, at least).

You can't discuss this episode without bringing up another one of those lines that's become famous from the series' past - arguably one of the most famous from this early period; 'You can't rewrite history! Not one line!'. I think it's fair to say that this has become such a famous line because of how wonderful it is, and the way Hartnell performs it. The show has changed its stance on this matter over the years - especially since the Eleventh Doctor has been in the TARDIS! - but it's a great way of looking at the series here.

It also helps to highlight the difference between this story and Marco Polo. There, our heroes were caught up in events, with little opportunity to change things around them. Here, thanks to Barbara's position as a 'reincarnated God', they've got a chance to tell a very different story, and it's one that's caught my attention right from the word 'go'.

Next Episode: The Warriors of Death

(Incidentally, I understand that The Aztecs is being repeated today on BBC America. Do check it out if you've not seen it before - based on this first episode alone, it's a corker!)

BBC Consumer Products have been in touch with some 2013 Doctor Who DVD release confirmations:

The Legacy Box-Set - Featuring The 4th Doctor - Shada & More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS Documentary. - 7th January 2013 - £TBA.

The Reign of Terror - Featuring The 1st Doctor - 28th January 2013 - £TBA.

The Ark in Space: Special Edition - Featuring The 4th Doctor - 18th February 2013 - £TBA.

The Aztecs: Special Edition - Featuring The 1st Doctor - With recently discovered episode of Galaxy 4. - 11th March 2013 - £TBA.

Terror of the Zygons - Featuring The 4th Doctor - 25th June 2013 - £TBA.

Spearhead from Space (Blu-ray) - Featuring The 3rd Doctor - High Def New Restoration from 16mm print + extensive Pertwee bio and Caroline John obit documentaries, exclusive to this release. - Date: TBA - £TBA.

Further details are coming soon, together with a full breakdown of the special features.

[Source: BBC Worldwide Consumer Products]