KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO - THE AZTECS' SPECIAL EDITION DVD

A perilous time in Earth history, as the Doctor (William Hartnell) encounters The Aztecs. Images: BBC.

DOCTOR WHO – THE AZTECS (SPECIAL EDITION)

A two-disc DVD set (incorporating the GALAXY FOUR reconstruction)

Starring William Hartnell as the Doctor

Written by John Lucarotti

Directed by John Crockett

Released by BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS

Reviewed by Scott Weller

“You can’t re-write history. Not one line!”

There’s beauty and horror, heartache and catastrophe in both the past and future for our original white haired, lapel clasped Time Lord hero and his brave companions in the latest supreme B/W Classic DOCTOR WHO story, The Aztecs, now available on DVD from the BBC.

Daleks, Voord and Sensorites from the outer space stories of William Hartnell’s first exciting year are probably the most well-remembered by viewers and fans, but the classy historical stories that alternated between them always proved a fine and worthy counterbalance, what with an epic journey to Cathay in Marco Polo, our heroes facing the unwilling advances of Madame Guillotine in The French Revolution and now here, arriving on thirteenth century Earth during the tumultuous and violent time of the Aztecs.

DVD release trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO-GfwO8NfI

Accidentally believed to be the reincarnation of a deceased god, Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) needs advice from the Doctor.

All of our time travelling heroes get a strong share of the limelight in John Lucarotti’s well plotted, tightly written story of honour, deceit and tragedy-an equally classy successor to his previous epic and highly acclaimed, now seemingly lost forever, Marco Polo. William Hartnell as the Doctor gives one of his very best performances- not yet the doddery old boy he’d be in years two and three-here he’s intelligent and captivating, certainly a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot! Our normally frosty champion of the cosmos even gets a chance to show some affectionate tenderness in his scenes with the mature Cameca (an understated but effective performance from Margot Van der Burgh) –and even a touch of comedy: the look on his face when he discovers that he’s unknowingly become engaged to her is priceless!

The Doctor spends some quality time with Cameca (Margot Van der Burgh)...

...whilst Ian (William Russell) becomes an Aztec Warrior.

Meanwhile beyond the Doctor’s necessary antics and investigations in the gardens of the elderly, his granddaughter Susan (as played by Carole Ann Ford) puts her foot down against an arranged marriage with a chosen sacrificial nobleman, whilst William Russell’s school teacher Ian Chesterton shows continued heroism and mettle when he is manipulated into becoming an elite Aztec warrior, facing competitive wrath from an ambitious and very dangerous rival, Ixta (Ian Cullen). But the character who truly captures our attention in this story is Barbara (as played by the late Jacqueline Hill), Ian’s fellow schoolteacher caught in the adventure of a lifetime, now literally within her specialized subject as a history teacher, accidentally declared by the Aztecs as a reincarnation of their late god Ytaxa, whose attempts to change their timeline, and stop the bloody ritual sacrifices they offer to their gods, incur not only the wrath of the Doctor but the fascination and fear of the noble high priest Autloc (a bewildered but warm performance from Keith Pyott) and the zealous machinations of Tltoxyl (John Ringham, excelling as one of the first genuinely nasty human baddies in the series at that point), convinced that Barbara is a fraud and dedicating himself in the pursuit of proving his claims, eager to sacrifice her friends in the most diabolical of plot machinations…

The cunning Tltoxl (John Ringham).

As the period of the next human sacrifice nears, and Tltoxyl’s final murderous plans take shape, our TARDIS heroes, previously separated from their craft, have to critically pull their resources to find a way back into the secret temple entrance from which they originally emerged…

Barbara confers with High Priest Autloc (Keith Pyott).

Egged on by Tltoxyl, Ixta (Ian Cullen) tries to kill Ian.

Showcasing some of TV and theatres then finest character actors, The Aztecs stagey atmosphere works in its favour. Not only one of the highlights of the early B/W years of the show, this is also a critical success for the BBC in general: a perfect fusion of writing, acting and production, strongly realized by the underrated actor’s director John Crockett, with some excellent production design from Barry Newbery (handling all the design work for WHO’s historicals that season). Special mention also to Richard Rodney Bennett’s subtle but memorable music score, presenting the nobility and tranquility of the Aztec people and their time period, mixed with the oncoming danger and duplicity of the dangerous Tlotoxl.

The Dhravin women encounter a Chumblie in Galaxy Four.

Getting just a newly restored version of this genuine classic story would normally be enough for this diner’s platter, but BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS have given us a second disc of equally polished work linked to the recently recovered “lost’ episode of the Hartnell era, Season Three’s intriguing sci-fi tale re-imagining the concepts of beauty and the beast: William Emm’s much under-rated GALAXY FOUR, of which its one and only existing episode (part three- Air Lock) glistens in Derek Handley’s well produced audio/visual remastering, within a special reconstruction of the original audio tracks, alongside animation, specially presented telesnaps and one previous surviving clip saved during the late seventies. Listening to the full surviving off-air audio tape recordings of the four-part story a few years back was all well and good, but there’s truly nothing like seeing what the show was supposed to visually look like, and Airlock proves a golden twenty five minutes in delivering such fascinating examples of its storytelling (I’m always been fascinated by the way the B/W series-WHO and others- then presented their sci-fi environs), backed up by some confident direction from Derek Martinus.

Maaga (Stephanie Bidmead, seated) with her soldiers.

There’s also some genuine girl power on display in this episode, too, with companion Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) firmly to the fore, having a lot more to do in this story in general as she faces up to her female adversaries, the clone warriors known as the Dhravin, who, on screen, come across much better than they appear in the early publicity photos for the story, of which so much of our interpretation of GALAXY FOUR had previously been based. Of the female guest stars, the late Stephanie Bidmead, in just Air Lock alone, gives a brilliant and powerful performance as their hate fuelled leader, Maaga-again another first for WHO-the series first true female villain, so desperate to leave her trapped planetary environs, now on the brink of destruction, unblinkingly prepared to kill off members of her own cloned kind in order to achieve her goal. In one monologue that Maaga gives to the camera and we the viewers, Bidmead is particularly chilling.

The alien Rills to whom Maaga has such a xenophobic hatred also prove an intriguing race of creatures for the series, whilst their little robot servants, the Chumblies-half sized anti-Daleks appealing to the kids- are well operated and look good in the studio and film sequences (one of them operated by the iconic butler servant to the mysterious Number Two, from THE PRISONER TV series: Angelo Muscat).

Beyond that golden twenty five minutes return to the archives in 2011, the rest of the reconstruction, utilizing screen grabs and animation, supervised by Derek Handley is well done and you can see that a lot of time and dedication has gone into the overall project both by him and his team. Splendid work.

Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_H4zbawleE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGCfLgsmR0

Another Ealing Studios publicity image for Galaxy Four.

On the supporting extras front of the set, disc one of THE AZTECS has all of the original supporting material from the 2001 release: the audio commentary by Russell, Ford and late producer Verity Lambert, a lengthy behind the scenes talk with gust actors John Ringham, Walter Randall and Ian Cullen, who talk about working on the early days of WHO, being opposite star Hartnell and the overall, often terrifying process of making “as live” early sixties television at the BBC. Another lengthy and equally interesting interview is had with Barry Newbery about the challenges of designing the story with very little research material then available on the Aztecs. Plus, an original BLUE PETER 1970 short on the real-life story of the Aztecs and their fateful encounter with the Spanish, in Cortez and Montezuma, a short and silly look at Making Cocoa, six character introductions to the story, an optional Arabic soundtrack for the show's fourth episode, a look at how several of the WHO range releases have been given top-notch restoration, a photo gallery of rare colour and B/W images, more PDFs, production subtitles of the always highest caliber, and a now pointless TARDIS-CAM ditty which shows our legendary space vehicle arrived on a sandstormed alien world.

A tense time for Barbara in The Aztecs.

Disc Two has all the new material, including the aforementioned GALAXY FOUR reconstruction, the latest Doctor Forever! documentary examining the evolving story of the shows merchandise beyond the success of the Daleks, more fun and encompassing production notes, PDF RADIO TIMES listings, and subtitles. Back to The Aztecs, there’s also a dated but reasonably watchable 1969 drama/documentary on the Spanish conquest of Mexico, most notable for its music, provided by the iconic Delia Derbyshire and the BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP.

Two other rare curios linked to the Hartnell era make for fine inclusion: the first being the earliest skit on the show with Dad's Army's Clive Dunn playing a Doctor-esque figure in the surreal Michael Bentine comedy series It’s a Square World. Then there’s A Whole Scene Going, magazine programme which presents brief but worthy behind the scenes footage from the making of the second colour Dalek film staring Peter Cushing and an interview with its popular director, Gordon Flemyng.

Finally, Coming Soon-wise, there’s a cold adventure on the horizon for Patrick Troughton’s incarnation, as the Ice Warriors make their resurrected Martian steps anew against Earth, in The Ice Warriors!

KOOL TV RATING: Enjoy William Hartnell’s DOCTOR WHO era at the top of its game-another splendid classic series release for the anniversary year. 5 out of 5

Purchase the DVD here: Doctor Who: The Aztecs (Special Edition) [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: William Hartnell, Carol Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill: Film & TV