KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO - THE REIGN OF TERROR' DVD

Tyranny and terror await the disguised first DOCTOR WHO (William Hartnell) in the latest classic DVD release: The Reign of Terror. Images: BBC

DOCTOR WHO: THE REIGN OF TERROR

Starring William Hartnell as the Doctor

Written by Dennis Spooner

Directed by Henric Hirsch

Available on DVD from January 28^th 2013 from BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS

The fifth dimension wandering figure of the cantankerous Doctor, his devoted granddaughter and the two at first unwilling and kidnapped Earth schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright find themselves trapped in the summer of blood and anarchy that is 1786: the most dangerous and perilous era of France’s rebellious past: the time of the great revolution as the blade of the guillotine strikes terror into the hearts of the elite aristocracy, their society and avarice now at the blunt end mercy of the disgruntled mob, in the latest classic monochrome William Hartnell six-part 1964 adventure emerging from the vaults, lovingly restored once again by those fine chaps and chapesses at BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS, and now with specially commissioned animated episodes filling in the vital gap left by two missing believed wiped episodes.

Starting the tale as a miserable figure annoyed by companions Ian and Barbara, who finally want to get back to the Earth of their 1963 time period, the Doctor, thinking himself master of his time travelling craft, believes he’s successfully achieved their wish, but what should be a parting of the waves amongst pleasant summer-time countryside surroundings quickly turns into a nightmare time caught on anxiety fuelled streets and inside candlelight dwellings, encountering opportunistic betrayal and dangerous liaisons. Where people sell each other out for a piece of stale bread or to avoid paying the ferryman his two gold pieces! There’s certainly no time to stop and smell the roses here, not with Madame Guillotine anxiously awaiting new guests!

As the journey intensifies for our team, there are traitors, spies and the cold reality of imprisonment along the tumultuous way, plus the maneuverings of an English agent at large, the mysterious and facially unknown James Stirling.

Trailer: Doctor Who - The Reign Of Terror (Coming Soon DVD Trailer) - YouTube

The Doctor and his companions meet a young French peasant child.

A strong introduction to the series from experienced film and TV scribe Dennis Spooner- a friend of WHO’s premiere script editor David Whitaker, and soon proving a natural replacement for him in what would be a vacant slot for Season Two- he had a natural skill in mixing character incident and trademark witty humour in equal measure. There’s a general note of subtle somberness about this particular Spooner script, too, but nothing violent or disturbing enough to linger in the minds of family viewers of the time.

The genuine violence and horror of the eighteenth century is mostly talked about rather than shown is this stagey but nonetheless well-written piece.

William Hartnell’s grouchy and intelligent figure, mixed with his child-like curiosity and the ever present streak of nobility, justice and decency, is on fine form, as his journey into the heart of Paris, 1789, sees him take on the role of a regional officer of the provinces-and looking striking in his period attire, too!- in an attempt to recue his incarcerated friends, of which he will also be brought before the great tyrant of French history: Robespierre (Keith Anderson). Clearly enjoying his apparent favourite era of Earth history, the Doctor’s also a bit of a bloodthirsty old codger at times here, bashing several supporting characters over the head at varying points with gusto enthusiasm!

Susan (Carole Ann Ford) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) on their way to the guillotine.

Jacqueline Hill as Barbara and William Russell as Ian also have some solid story material to work with, and prove highly resourceful in this dark time-very definitely continuing to prove themselves as being amongst the finest WHO companions of the monochrome era and the entire series overall, but Carole Ann Ford’s screamy and vulnerable Susan proves a little irritating, especially as her likeable character had once showed so much potential in the shows early days. On the plus side, the scenes where the ladies are separated from their male compatriots, first in prison and then ending up in a shelter of a spy house, are generally well-handled. Later, Barbara and Ian have an intriguing encounter with another famous figure from France’s past and future: warlord Napoleon Bonaparte (a fine cameo from Tony Wall).

The Doctor barters for some new clothes.

A noteworthy supporting cast includes Jack Cunningham in a fine comic turn as the prison jailer opposite Hartnell, a solid performance from James Cairncross as the mysterious Lemaitre, Donald Morley as the heroic Jules Renan, star on the rise Ronald Pickup and returning WHO guest stars Roy Herrick and Edward Brayshaw (later seen opposite Patrick Troughton as the enigmatic War Chief in THE WAR GAMES), long before he got stuck with Dobbin the Pantomime Horse in RENTAGHOST.

The Reign of Terror’s direction, from one time only Henric Hirsch, who suffered from exhaustion in it’s behind the scenes making and apparently had visualist help from an uncredited John Gorrie or Mervyn Pinfield on the third episode, is generally pleasing: its early sixties stagey, certainly, but also competent and brisk, and there’s some solid cliff-hangers. Top marks, too, for some wonderful period costume and set design by Roderick Laing, notably the Conciergerie prison- one of the main locales for the story- looking especially good in the film sequences. There’s also some notable model work early on with a burning farmhouse, whilst the story is equally remembered for showing some of the series earliest location filming.

Some of the fine animation work for the missing episodes.

Picture quality wise, episodes three and six of the tale are of a very high quality, and the Vidfire work is very effective. The new animated segments, the first for a BBC DVD release since its successful integration into live action experiment with another B/W story of the Patrick Troughton era, The Invasion, though basic, once again pays rich dividends in the way its used alongside the missing episode’s surviving audio tracks, all miraculously pulled together from a variety of outside recording sources. The overall essence of the missing episodes is nicely, and it’s nice to see Ronald Pickup’s character of the traitorous physician to Barbara and Susan getting some kind of visual reality.

Not a classic story by any means but certainly solid and enjoyable, The Reign of Terror would be regarded as a successful closure to a launch season that had proved a winning hit with the public, and which supremely mixed historical and sci-fi adventure to delight fans of all ages. The story’s closing scenes and overtrack final words from Hartnell send us back into the stars, promising many more time travelling tomorrows ahead…

One of the animation gallery pages in the Special Features area.

Its great to have the story in the best presentation possible, but no BBC WHO DVD would be the same without the accompanying dedicated extras. Thirty-two minutes of material comprise this worthy single-disc release, including a packed audio commentary from actors Ronald Pickup, Carole Anne Ford, Patrick Marley, Neville Smith, Geoffrey Wickham, Caroline Hunt and then Production Assistant Timothy Combe, moderated by Rory Kinnear lookalike Toby Hadoke. Then there’s Don’t Lose Your Head-The Making of The Reign of Terror:  Chris Chapman's enjoyable reflection of what had been a tense time for the show as it concluded its premiere season, with contributors Ford, William Russell and Combe amiably recalling the problems that relatively inexperienced director Henric Hirsch had in bringing the story to life: not used to the complex behind the scenes nature of this evolving series, his frictions with an irritated Hartnell, the limitations of the studio filming, and how Combe critically helped pull things together for the final episodes.

Looking at the animated episodes, there’s a Robespierre’s Domain Set Tour, which takes a fun look at the splendidly realized backgrounds for episodes four and five, and a separate character animation area. It’s a shame, though, that there’s no other behind the scenes documentary on the animators and their excellent work on the project. Perhaps the DVD Team thought that similar ground had been covered with the earlier The Invasion DVD?

Can our heroines be saved?

Plus, PDF materials, information text, an atmospheric colour and black and white episodic photo gallery up to the usual high standards, and then, heading into the seventies, there’s a striking trailer for the next Special Edition release: the exciting and innovative early Tom Baker adventure: The Ark in Space.

Originally one of the last monochrome VHS tape releases back in 2003, The Reign of Terror’s placement on DVD has also put it towards the end of this format’s series release schedule (specifically so that it could include the animation) and near enough to bringing the surviving Hartnell era stories to a close, too, aside from upcoming special editions with extra added value material. Here’s hoping that the First Doctor’s final story, The Tenth Planet, featuring the first appearance of the Cybermen, finally gets a DVD release with a fully animated final episode later in 2013: a fitting release for the Fiftieth Anniversary. If Reign proves another sales success, it must surely happen…

KOOL TV OVERALL STORY RATING: A Vive le Franceshouting 3 out of 5

KOOL TV OVERALL DISC RATING (WITH EXTRAS): A Sacre Bleu! 3.5 out of 5

Animation clips from the missing episodes: Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - Articles | Doctor Who

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