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

Day 244: The Seeds of Death, Episode Six

Dear diary,

As has often been the case with stories like this, I've been making a note for several days now to mention the titles for the episodes. In The Seeds of Death, the title captions for sac episode are shown against a backdrop of the Earth and the Moon, hanging in space as the camera moves slowly across the scene to show us this view from a few angles. It's a lovely little shot, but it's the music that accompanies it which I've really liked.

The music to the entire serial is quite good, on the whole, although on occasion it feels a little out of place. There's a moment today when Troughton is creeping around with his new solar weapon and something causes him to jump. You assume that the (loud!) music will follow the same cue and perk up at this moment, but it's actually going through a more subdues phase at that precise moment.

It's only a minor niggle, though, as on the whole the work being down on this story has been rather good. I've already called out Michael Ferguson's direction for praise a few times, but I have to add that today he produces one of my absolute favourite shots, as Troughton stares down the Ice Lord (they're not actually called this on screen in this story. I'm assuming that it gets brought up in one of the Pertwee stories, or I've just made it up…) during their final confrontation. 'You have destroyed our entire fleet!' the Ice Lord (I'm sticking with it) hisses, to which the Doctor's reply is simple - 'You tried to destroy an entire world'.

In a story that's given Troughton a fair amount of chances to play his more comical side of the Doctor, this is a great moment, and it's one that I'm surprised doesn't get mentioned all that often. Maybe it's because his sideburns are still trying to take control of the programme?

Despite me just assigning names to the Ice Warriors that seem to sit right in my head, I'm rather impressed with the way that they're treated on screen in this story. The title 'Ice Warrior' was given to them by one of the humans back in, er, The Ice Warriors, and I worried that by this stage that's simply what everyone would be calling them. They actually only seem to gain this title amongst our new guest cast after the Doctor or Jamie has already used it, which is a lovely touch. I'm not sure if it's entirely intentional (Brian Hayles did create the creatures, after all, so you'd think if anyone would remember that the name was simply assigned to them, it would be him), but it works really well. Another one of those little things which makes me smile.

Speaking of which - Jamie manages to redeem himself with this episode! Hooray! Since somewhere around the start of The Krotons, Jamie has been the subject of a fair amount of abuse (yeah, yeah, including from me). His intelligence keeps being called into question, and he doesn't even seem to be the Doctor's favourite companion anymore. In Episode Five, the Doctor video conferences with his two companions at one point, but specifically only addresses Zoe. He doesn't even seem to notice Jamie stood there with him.

Much as I've started tiring of Jamie lately, I found it to be something of a 'punch the air' moment when he took Zoe to one side and asked her to send him up to the Moon to save the Doctor. Jamie may not be the smartest person currently travelling in the TARDIS, but he'd never let anything happen to the Doctor, and that's where his real strength lies. Fair enough, I guess he can stick around for now.

Right then! The next story should be interesting. The Space Pirates is the last Doctor Who tale with episodes missing, and was rated the worst of the 1960s stories during the Doctor Who Magazine 'Mighty 200' poll. To say that I'm not exactly thrilled to be synching the audio to my phone is putting it mildly…

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

Day 243: The Seeds of Death, Episode Five

Before we start, there's something that really does need to be addressed… just how big are Patrick Troughton's sideburns?! I know he's just had a week off, with plenty of time to grow them out and all, but come on! It doesn't help that we get lots of close up shots on the side of the Doctor's head (are there lots more than usual, or am I just noticing them because of the massive sideburns? Perhaps director Michael Ferguson was just really impressed by them, so kept trying to get them into shot?), and it's only highlighted by the fact that we cut very quickly from a side-on shot to one filmed several weeks earlier, in which the sideburns don't exist! Forget UNIT dating, surely this is the biggest controversy in the history of Doctor Who? The Time Lords' ability to grow huge sideburns at the drop of a hat!

Ahem. Anyway. Back to business…

Dear diary,

There was a time, way beck when, that I said I couldn't often spot the difference between film and video tape when it came to watching Doctor Who. Now, obviously, I'm not an idiot. I can see the difference between them in an instant, but I'd never really picked up on it before. It never impacted me when I sat down to watch a serial, it just happened to swap styles from time to time.

Watching through at the pace of an episode a day means that it's just become part of the visual language that I'm used to at the moment. Every so often, we'll cut to film and a little voice in the back of my head will note that an effect is about to take place. It's usually either that, or we've ventured outside. This has it's advantages, and one of them comes in today's episode.

We already know that the foam is spreading out across the world (or, since this episode seems to be playing on a smaller stage, we know that it's at least present in a park somewhere in England), and we've seen plenty of shots of a lone Ice Warrior walking through it as he makes his way through the trees to an unknown destination. Therefore, when we follow a sequence of the Warrior outside in a park and then the shot changes to him approaching a building, a little voice in my head told me that it was being filmed outdoors, just like the rest of the shots I've just seen.

It was only the more that I looked at the building, with its odd 'futuristic' twists on architecture that an alarm bell started to ring. Surely they hadn't gone and stuck bits onto a real building to make it look more 'space age'? Even if they had, surely they couldn't have done it so well, and made it look this good? But, by that same token, it's too big to have been built in the studio, and it's shot on film so it must be outside…

Having finished the episode, I immediately returned to the DVD menu and turned on the Production Subtitles, before finding that point in the episode again. Thankfully, the subtitles do draw attention to it, and confirm that the whole thing was shot on film at Ealing, as was our cliffhanger moment of Troughton turning into the foam (without his massive sideburns). It shouldn't impress me, but I like that my brain has become so accustomed to the way in which the programme is made in this era that it can so easily be tricked into thinking they've done an even better job on the design front!

Anyway, with Troughton back (and sporting those ginormous sideburns…), there is of course plenty that I could single out for praise. I'm only going to choose two, though, and neither of them are on the side of his head. The first is the way in which he comes around from his week off, rubbing his head and groaning slightly as he regains consciousness. As he tries to sit up, he mumbles briefly under his breath - 'Victoria…'. It's a lovely little call back, and so nice to see that she's not been completely forgotten. In many ways, we're deep into the era of 'revolving door' companions, so it's always good to have these tiny little references snuck in.

The other thing to notice is that Matt Smith must have watched this episode at some point in the past. It's well documented that he watched The Tomb of the Cybermen and, according to Steven Moffat in Doctor Who Magazine #450, spent '20 minutes on the phone just raving about how brilliant [it] was', but there's a moment in this episode which wouldn't feel at all out of place featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Crowding into the T-Mat booth on the Moon, the Doctor smiles and exclaims the he thinks it will be quite fun to experience this kind of travel. Arriving back on Earth, he steps out of the machine completely deflated, complaining that there was no sensation at all. I can completely see Matt Smith playing this scene, with the same sense of schoolboy excitement and the crushing sense of disappointment that follows.

In that same feature from Doctor Who Magazine, Moffat goes on to say that Matt falling in love with Troughton's portrayal of the Doctor is 'just as every actor [to have played the part] since Troughton has done.' It's wonderful, as I draw towards the Second Doctor's final couple of adventures, to think of his spirit being so alive and well in the programme right up to this day, almost a half a century later. It really hammers home just how brilliant this incarnation is.

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

Day 242: The Seeds of Death, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Over the course of the last 242 days, I've complained more than once about six-part serials, because you simply run out of things to actually say about the story somewhere around Episode Four. Often it simply falls to me to enjoy the story, through the cast and the direction, but as Terrance Dicks notes on the commentary for today's instalment: 'that's another disadvantage of this episode - it's Troughton-less'.

I think that the lack of the Doctor in this episode (conscious, at least) is actually really effective. It helps to sell the threat of the seed pods even more as they start exploding all across the Northern Hemisphere, because we've already seen it take out the Doctor. Anything that can incapacitate our hero in such a way is sure to be a real threat to the planet.

We've then got the threat of the Doctor being sent out into space between the Moon and the Earth, killing him well and truly. The problem I have with all this is that I just don't believe it. We're told that the system needs to be tinkered with in order to allow transmitting to somewhere other than another T-Mat capsule, but that seems like nonsense. If you can T-Mat things just to anywhere with only a few minutes tinkering, then why does everything have to be sent via the Moon in these capsules? It all seems a bit daft. Yes, in a story where the Moon has been taken over by giant reptiles sending seed pods to take over the Earth, this is the thing I find unbelievable.

Thankfully, the aftermath of the seeds pods arriving in London is fantastic. I'm glad that I hadn't been imagining these shots as for a few weeks now, whenever I pass through a small section of trees on the way into Cardiff, I've had images of an Ice Warrior roaming about among similar trees and i thought I might just be going mad. As it is, they form some fantastic shots of the creature roaming around the countryside, wading through the foam. It's another one of those instances where I'd really love to see these stories upgraded for Blu-Ray, with their film sequences rendered in HD. It's a beautifully shot few scenes, and I'd love to watch them crystal clear.

The Ice Warrior isn't so successful when it's still inside the T-Mat control room, sadly. I really liked the shot of him smashing the front of of the cubicle to break out into the room, and it's very effectively done, but then he just seems to stand around in a bit of a drunken haze for a minute, shooting his sonic weapon only at people who aren't part of our main guest cast, and then stumbles out of the room to kill a few more off screen. It's not the Ice Warriors' finest moment…

That said, the direction throughout the episode is fantastic on the whole, and special praise needs to be saved for the parallel zooms we cut between as we build up the the Doctor being teleported out of the T-Mat cubicle. It's so unlike anything I'm used to, and it looks brilliant.

A tricky episode to really say much about, as it's caught in an awkward point of the story, but with the Doctor back tomorrow (yes?) and the invasion of Earth well and truly underway, I've got high hopes…

6/10 

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

Day 241: The Seeds of Death, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Increasingly, it seems as though Doctor Who's Sixth Season has a very definite visual style, and it seems to be right at home with no end of other stuff that was being broadcast on TV at around the same time. The Mind Robber is obviously the famous one with a bit of a 'weird' vibe to it, what with the big white void, the exploding TARDIS, a companion being turned into a cardboard cutout, and a forest of letters, but since then, we're seeing more an more examples.

The Krotons was littered with them during the scenes of our heroes being subjected to the Krotons' machine, featuring shots distorted by a fisheye and cuts to bubbling tanks of liquid and images of our heroes in pain. Today, we get the Doctor picking up a seed pod and watching it expand until it breaks, showering him in a powder. We also get lots of sequences of him running through what appears to be a hall of mirrors (every Moonbase needs one!) creating some pretty unusual results.

None of this imagery would be out of place in something like The Avengers or The Prisoner, and it's making for an interesting experience. It's almost as if they knew the stories from this period would survive, so decided to do something a bit different with them.

And yet, despite all of this, I'm a little disappointed today. I was really excited to see the Doctor's reaction to discovering the Ice Warriors taking control on the Moon (indeed, the first time that he turns a corner and sees a pair of the creatures, he pulls a fantastic face as he scurries away to hide), but it happens off screen! We cut to the Doctor and his friends still in the rocket as Zoe sets up a good old exchange of exposition; 'Doctor, these creatures he described…' followed by 'Yes, Ice Warriors. Jamie and I have encountered them before…'.

The only positive to come out of it is that I know the Ice Warrior's motives nice and clearly - Mars is a dying world, so they want to colonise the Earth. Good-o, that's fine by be. The Ice Warriors left be a bit confused as to exactly what their plan was (Even now, I'm only pretty sure that it was about trying to get their ship out of the ice and go home), so it's nice to have it spelled out for me this time around! It does deprive us of seeing the actual reaction, though, and I'd have loved it to have taken place after we'd reached the Moon.

I also have to take issue with the entire T-Mat system. I can understand why it's become so vital to the world (heck, if you can send things from place to place right across the world almost instantaneously, of course it's going to have an impact), but we've seen it stated a few times over the last couple of episodes that the system isn't quite there yet. Oh, sure, they boast about it being infallible, but even the Professor mocks this fact when the problems occur.

Why then, in a system with no back up plan, and no way to keep things on the move when the Moon control goes down, is the entire planet so dependant on it? We're told towards the end of today's episode that all major cities are experiencing major food shortages! Does no one stock up anymore? The implication seems to be that all transmissions have to be relayed via the Moon, so surely people don't have food T-Matted to them for every meal? I could understand supermarkets perhaps not receiving deliveries (and, yes, I can stretch to believing that they might be running short on stock. If you've ever seen the way people panic buy in the shops when they know they're going to be closed for a single day over Easter, then I can imagine some pretty serious panic buying occurring when rumours leak out that the entire system has gone down!), but it seems a little far-fetched to think that we're on the brink of starvation so soon!

I can't complain too much, though, because the Doctor does get to take part today in one of my favourite moments from the entire series, as a pair of Ice Warriors bear down on him. 'Your leader will be angry if you kill me!' he declares, desperately grasping for something to save him before adding 'I'm a genius!' It's actually the moment after this that I love, as the Ice Warriors hiss 'Geeenniiuussss…' back at him. It's one of those odd scenes that always seems to be stuck in my head, and I find myself thinking about from time-to-time, completely out of the blue.

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

Day 240: The Seeds of Death, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I'm starting to feel a little bit sorry for Jamie. I've not been all that kind to him of late, and I've shifted very quickly from considering him to be a vital member of the TARDIS team and thinking that it's really about time that he should be off. Worse than that, though, is that the Doctor and Zoe almost seem to be thinking the same thing! There's a look the Doctor gives his companion when they're preparing for the rocket to take off in this episode that I think I can only describe as 'disdain'.

Add to that the way that the Doctor and Zoe are said to have been invaluable during a meeting about getting the rocket off the ground, and a comment that they seem to know more than our resident expert on the subject. It's not long before the same crew members are wondering if Jamie has the same kind of expertise, and the Doctor's not sure that he wants Jamie to come along with him when he blasts off for the Moon.

In some ways, it almost feels as though this could be Jamie's final story in the programme, and that he's being set up for a departure before we're finished. Having spent much of The Krotons separated from his companions, he's not being left out again, or at least he's only being included somewhat grudgingly. It's like they're trying to set up an on-going narrative thread, but I'm fairly sure it's not going to actually go anywhere.

Steven Moffat has said before in interviews that he likes the Doctor to be travelling with two (or more) companions, as this gives him characters who can go off together and talk about the Doctor, rather than simply being there to talk to him. I think this point can be clearly seen in this episode, when Jamie and Zoe spend some time together discussing their options for helping a group of people we've only just met. They discuss the idea of using the TARDIS to get up to the Moon, but decide that they'll probable overshoot their destination in either space or time. Or both, for that matter. The Doctor does go on to join them in the conversation, peering through a hole in the wall as he chips in.

It's just one example of the great direction we're seeing in this story. Lately, it feels as though I'm constantly praising the work of the directors in the series. I'm not sure if it's just a side effect of suddenly having so many existing episodes to watch, meaning that I've got a stronger connection to the visual aspects of the series, or if the direction has genuinely gotten better since we could last see it regularly. I'm pleased to say that I think it's the latter - it feels like they've got some real professionals in at the moment.

There's some lovely shots of an Ice Warrior searching the Moonbase's solar energy room for an escaped crew member, and it's shot from a high angle which really does show off the scope of the set. There's also some interesting choices being made with the music, too, switching from loud, bombastic noise while the Ice Warriors invade the base to absolute silence as we prepare for the rocket's take off.

It really helps to up the tension as our heroes strap themselves in, unsure what to expect when (or if) they reach their destination. I'm not entirely sure why they're so keen to dive in and help these people, as they've only met a few minutes before, and although there's hints that the whole world could come into some kind of trouble with the downfall of T-Mat, it all feels a bit quick to volunteer themselves for the first rocket launch in decades.

It's very topical, though. I always thought it was odd that the programme returned to the setting of a Moonbase so soon after the last visit (we're only about two years on from, er… The Moonbase), but actually it's quite topical at the moment. As this story went out, we were only a few months from that first small step for man as Neil Armstrong stepped out onto the Moon for real, and the fever for this kind of science fiction was ripe.

I'm finding it interesting that while we've known there's Ice Warriors pulling the strings for some time now, many of our major characters still don't. Our three regulars don't have a clue, and Miss Kelly, now up on the Moon herself, doesn't have a clue either. It's making for an interesting dynamic, as we don't always get to be this far ahead of the Doctor, and I'm looking forward to seeing his reaction, which I'd imagine will come pretty quickly once they've made it to the Moon.

One thing, though… how annoyed would you be to find out that after all that fuss, all the risk of the first rocket launch in all those years, the trouble with the systems crashing and the danger of drifting on forever through space, Miss Kelly has made it to the Moon in a matter of seconds anyway, 'cos they've fixed their teleport! It's typical, that!

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

Day 239: The Seeds of Death, Episode One

Dear diary,

I'm in two minds about The Seeds of Death. I know I've seen it before, but there seems to be conflicting memories fighting for space in my head. On the one side, I recall not really caring for it very much. On the other, I can remember really enjoying it. This one really could swing either way…

The thing that really stands out as we’re dropped into the new world for this story is how very familiar it all feels. You could quite easily mistake this for a story from Season Five – we’ve got the regulation high-tech base, with a crew wearing regulation ‘futuristic’ clothes, and then before you know it, we’ve been invaded by the regulation monster-of-the-week, and it’s even a monster from last season!

What’s quite clever about the introduction of the Ice Warriors to the story is just how they play it all. Obviously, coming to this story forty-something years later, I’m well aware that the Ice Warriors are the enemy this time around. As soon as we see the first member of the Moonbase killed, we can see quite clearly who our enemy is, as it’s the same effective ‘death’ effect that they had in their last appearance.

Just in case the effect of their sonic arm weapons didn’t give it away, you’ve then got that voice. The Ice Warrior’s way of speaking is one of the most distinctive of any alien from the programme’s history, to the point that when they returned in a story earlier this year I had work colleagues who don’t even watch the show mimicking their whispery tones in the build up to the episode.

And yet… they still try to build up the mystery. We get lots of Point-Of-View shots as the creatures lumber down the corridor towards the main control room, and our crew stare fearfully into the camera. Somewhere around the halfway point, we catch a glimpse of an arm, and then a few minutes later, we’re treated to the back of a shoulder, too. I have to admit that I was getting a bit frustrated by it all. It’s an Ice Warrior! We know it’s an Ice Warrior! Just show us!

The best thing is that when they do finally swing the camera round to show us the full creature, it’s not an Ice Warrior! Haha! The whole thing has been a game, tricking you into thinking you know what to expect, then completely pulling the rug out from underneath you. We do get the standard model of Warrior turning up within a couple of minutes to do some more killing, and to reassure you that you were right, to some extent, but it’s a great reveal.

The story isn’t afraid to set it’s cards out on the table early, either. The Doctor and his friends don’t actually appear for the first eight minutes of the episode, which gives us plenty of time in the company of our guest cast, getting used to the world in which we’ll be spending the next few weeks. It seems obvious that Osgood is being set up as one of the main characters for the story, and he heads off to the Moonbase and even blows Miss Kelly – another obvious main guest – a kiss from his T-Mat cubicle.

It feels like he’s going to be our point of reference for the group up on the Moon, but then he’s killed facing down one of our unseen Warriors before the Doctor has even shown his face in the tale. It’s quite brutal in a way, and perfectly in keeping with the kind of throwaway deaths we had in The Invasion, too.

It’s a good start for the story, and I’m actually quite excited top have the Ice Warriors back on the scene, which is always a good sign. It feels nice to have what I’m going to describe as a ‘traditional’ story (when what I really mean is that although the repetitive format of Season Five started to grow tired by the end, it’s nice to see it again after a bit of a break), and I’m eager to move on.

2|Entertain have sent DWO the cover & details for the upcoming DVD release of the Revisitations 2 Box-set.

The Seeds of Death

It is the 21st Century and Earth is totally dependent on T-Mat, a revolutionary form of instant travel. When the system breaks down the Doctor and friends make a hazardous journey to the relay station on the moon only to find that it has fallen into the hands of the Ice Warriors who plan to invade Earth. Can the Doctor outwit the evil Ice Warriors and destroy the fungus in time to save a dying world?

Special Features:

Disc 1:

• 6 x 25 min monochrome episodes with mono audio.

• Commentary – with actors Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, director Michael Ferguson and script editor Terrance Dicks.

• Audio Trailer (dur. 0’ 45”) – an off-air amateur recording of the original BBC1 trailer for the story. Suggest using this in the ‘Episode Selection’ menu, either as a background audio loop on the menu screen or as a selectable item.

• Coming Soon (dur. approx 1' 00") - a trail for a forthcoming DVD release.

• Programme Subtitles

• Subtitle Production Notes

Disc 2:

• Lords of the Red Planet (dur. 28’ 31”) – a look back at the creation of the Ice Warriors and their re-appearance in the ‘The Seeds of Death’. With actors Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines, director Michael Ferguson, script editor Terrance Dicks, costume designer Bobi Bartlett and TV historian Richard Bignell. Narrated by Katherine Mount.

• Sssowing the Ssseedsss – (dur. 24’ 05”) – Ice Warrior Sonny Caldinez, Ice Lord Alan Bennion and make-up designer Sylvia James recall their experiences of bringing the Martian warriors to life.

• Monster Masterclass (dur. 3’ 44”) – director Michael Ferguson talks about his experiences directing some of Doctor Who’s most famous monster stories.

• Monsters Who Came Back For More! (dur. 16’ 26”) – Nick ‘Voice of the Daleks’ Briggs and Doctor Who Magazine’s assistant editor Peter Ware take a look at the reasons why monsters often return for further adventures.

• Photo Gallery (dur. 4’ 30”) - a selection of design and production photographs from the story.

• TARDIS Cam no.6 (dur. 0’ 57”) – a model vignette created for the BBC’s Doctor Who website.

• PDF material - Radio Times listings in PDF format.

Carnival of Monsters

The Doctor and Jo take the TARDIS on a test flight and arrive on a cargo ship, the SS Bernice, that appears to be crossing the Indian Ocean in 1926 but is in fact trapped inside a miniscope — a banned peepshow of miniaturised life-forms — on the planet Inter Minor.

Special Features:

Disc 1:

• 4 x 25 min episodes with mono audio.

• Commentary 1 – with actress Katy Manning and director Barry Letts.

• Commentary 2 – with actors Peter Halliday, Cheryl Hall and Jenny McCracken, script editor Terrance Dicks, sound effects designer Brian Hodgson. Moderated by Toby Hadoke.

• Episode Two – Early Edit (dur. 29’ 44”) – a longer early edit of the second episode, featuring the subsequently rejected ‘Delaware’ version of the theme music. It is presented here completely un-restored.

• Behind the Scenes (dur 1’ 48”) – on the studio floor and inside the gallery during production of the story, courtesy of a film crew from the BBC’s ‘Looking In’ documentary.

• Visual Effects Models (dur. 8’ 41”) – an expanded version of this feature, including unused model shots, trims and tests.

• ‘Five Faces of Doctor Who’ Trailer (dur. 4’ 10”) – a trail for the 1981’s repeat season, which saw many of Doctor Who’s classic stories – including ‘Carnival of Monsters’ - repeated for the first time in many years.

• Director’s Amended Ending (dur. 1’ 18”) – for the ‘Five Faces’ repeat of the story, director Barry Lett’s took the opportunity to re-edit the ending to remove a shot of a very obvious ‘bald cap’ which he had always felt spoiled the show.

• CSO Demo (dur. 3’ 07”) – director Barry Letts was very keen on the possibilities offered by the use of Colour Separation Overlay to place actors into fantastical model sets. In this BBC training film, he demonstrates the technique for fellow directors.

• TARDIS Cam no.2 (dur. 0’ 45”) – a CGI model vignette created for the BBC’s Doctor Who website.

• Coming Soon (dur. approx 1' 00") - a trail for a forthcoming DVD release.

• PDF material - Radio Times listings in PDF format.

• Programme Subtitles

Disc 2:

• Destroy All Monsters! (dur. 23’ 11”) – cast and crew look back at the making of the story. With actors Katy Manning, Cheryl Hall and Peter Halliday, director Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks, assistant floor manager Karilyn Collier and visual effects assistant Colin Mapson. Narrated by Marc Silk.

• On Target with Ian Marter (dur. 16’ 08”) – actor Ian Marter played Andrews in this story before more famously playing companion Harry Sullivan in Tom Baker’s first stories. He was also a writer and novelised many previous Doctor Who adventures for the Target book range. With actors Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney and Nigel Plaskitt, script editors Terrance Dicks and Gary Russell.

• The A-Z of Gadgets and Gizmos (dur. 11’ 22”) – a tongue-in-cheek look at gadgets and gizmos in Doctor Who over the years. Narrated by Paul Jones.

• Mary Celeste (dur. 18’ 01”) – just as the SS Bernice disappeared from the Indian Ocean in the story, many real-life ships have mysteriously disappeared too. A trio of maritime experts discuss some of these events, including perhaps the most famous maritime mystery of all time, the strange case of the Mary Celeste. With the University of London’s Prof. Roger Luckhurst, Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Ian Murphy and the National Maritime Museum’s John McAleer.

• Photo Gallery (dur. 2’ 55”) - a selection of design and production photographs from the story, plus photos from the commentary session and Frank Bellamay’s Radio Times artwork.

Resurrection of the Daleks

The Doctor and his companions are captured in a Time Corridor, and are forced to land on 20th Century Earth, diverted by the Doctor's oldest enemy - the Daleks.

It is here that the true purpose of the Time Corridor becomes apparent: after 90 years of imprisonment, Davros, the ruthless creator of the Daleks, is to be liberated to assist in the resurrection of his army. But not even the Daleks forsee the poisonous threat presented by their creator. Indeed, who would suspect Davros of wanting to destroy his own Daleks - and why?

Only the Doctor knows the truth. But will he be capable of descending to Davros' level of evil in order to stop him?

Special Features:

Disc 1:

• 2 x 45 min colour episodes with original mono audio and optional Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

• Commentary with actor Terry Molloy, writer Eric Saward and visual effects designer Peter Wragg, moderated by Nick Pegg.

• Casting Far and Wide (dur. 32’ 16”) – Actor and comedian Toby Hadoke interviews five of the jobbing actors who worked on the story about their careers and their experiences on the show. With Roger Davenport, Del Henney, Leslie Grantham, Jim Findlay and William Sleigh.

• On Location (dur. 18’ 32”) – producer John Nathan-Turner, director Matthew Robinson and writer Eric Saward return to London’s Shad Thames to reminisce about the story in its major filming location .

• Extended and Deleted Scenes (dur. 7’ 03”) – extra material from early edits of the episodes.

• Breakfast Time (dur. 7’ 56”) – Janet Fielding and John Nathan-Turner interviewed on the BBC’s breakfast show, including an item about the show’s music and sound effects featuring Malcolm Clarke and Brian Hodgson.

• Trailer (dur. 0’ 31”) – a BBC1 trailer for the original transmission.

• The Last Dalek (dur. 8’ 33”) – a behind-the-scenes look at the Ealing studios filming for 1967’s epic Dalek story, ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, courtesy of an 8mm film shot by BBC designer Tony Cornell. With narration by BBC visual effects designers Michealjohn Harris and Peter Day.

• TARDIS Cam no.4 (dur. 0’ 41”) – a model vignette created for the BBC’s Doctor Who website.

• Isolated Music - option to view the episodes with isolated music scores.

• Coming Soon (dur. approx 1' 00") - a trail for a forthcoming DVD release.

• PDF material - Radio Times listings in PDF format.

• Programme Subtitles

• Subtitle Production Notes

Disc 2:

• 4 x 25 min colour episodes with original mono audio and optional Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

• Commentary with actors Peter Davison and Janet Fielding, director Matthew Robinson.

• Come In Number Five (dur. 56’ 27”) – a retrospective of Peter Davison’s tenure as the fifth Doctor. With actors Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson, producer John Nathan-Turner, executive producer Barry Letts, director Fiona Cumming, script editors Christopher H Bidmead, Eric Saward and Antony Root, BBC Head of Series and Serials David Reid and new series head writer Steven Moffat. Presented by David Tennant

• Tomorrow’s Times – The Fifth Doctor (dur. 12’ 17”) – the ongoing series looking at the press reaction to Doctor Who through the years reaches the fifth Doctor’s era. Presented by Frazer Hines

• Walrus (dur. 1’ 21”) – an oddity from the BBC’s archives. A Welsh woman comes face to face with a Dalek, who is determined to make her speak in a monotone…

• Photo Gallery (dur. 5’ 16”) - a selection of design and production photographs from the story.

• Coming Soon (dur. approx 1' 00") - a trail for a forthcoming DVD release.

• PDF material - Radio Times listings in PDF format.

• Programme Subtitles

• Subtitle Production Notes

[Source: 2|Entertain]

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.

 Compare Prices for the Doctor Who DVD range on CompareTheDalek.com.

[Source: Doctor Who Magazine - Issue #430]