KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO - THE DÆMONS' DVD

The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and the Master (Roger Delgado) lock horns with the alien Azal (Stephen Thorne) in the latest DOCTOR WHO classic DVD release. Images: BBC.

DOCTOR WHO – THE DÆMONS

Starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant.

Now available on DVD from 2ENTERTAIN/BBC WORLDWIDE

Reviewed by Scott Weller

Having previously experienced his first full colour intergalactic adventure with the Colony in Space, its back to Earth with a vengeance for our Time Lord hero, the Doctor (here in his Third Doctor persona, as played by Jon Pertwee), and his charming companion Jo Grant (the equally charming Katy Manning), as they fight sinister spectral and occult-based forces emerging from the no longer sleepy English village that soon lives up to its aptly titled moniker: Devil’s End. It’s a place where the Master, always the troublesome Jackanapes for our fine duo, plans to reawaken a dangerous alien force with designs on destroying their once scientific experiment called Earth. Suitably given a well deserved double-disc treatment, THE DÆMONS is finally unearthed and restored on DVD after nearly twenty years languishing on disintegrating VHS tape, and its an adventure widely regarded by the shows dedicated fan base as one of the greatest of all his escapist time travelling yarns.

DVD release trailer: Doctor Who - The Daemons DVD - Coming Soon Trailer (COPYRIGHT BBC AND 2 ENTERTAIN) - YouTube

Inspirationally born out of a brief audition piece originally developed for the casting sessions for Jo Grant, this is surely watered down Dennis Wheatley for kids and families to enjoy, full of the action, wit and charm that signified the early seventies WHO seasons, without offending any potential religious parties with its dark side trappings.

The Doctor and Jo (Katy Manning) pose for a publicity image.

Writer “Guy Leopald” (a pseudonym combination of Producer Barry Letts and long time writer/journalist friend Robert Sloman) knows how to make the most of the shows then strengths in story and production ability, crafting a tale that would capture the show at its best and win acclaim from audiences. It also presents some fine moments for the entire shows then Earthbound UNIT era ensemble to enjoy. Sergeant Benton and Captain Mike Yates, as played by John Levene and Richard Franklin, break into their civvie flairs and get the chance to spread their wings a bit in the story, running, thumping and shooting but with a few more choice moments of humour and military savvy, which is great to see-no wonder it’s the actors favourite story of their era. Stars Pertwee and Manning continue to be an audience friendly and formidable pairing as they dart to and from the action in their yellow roadster, Bessie (the vehicle even gets a few HERBIE-like moments, too!). It’s that moustached military wonder, the Brigadier (as personified by Nicholas Courtney), though, that easily has some of the story, and the series, best lines here, including the now legendary instructions to one of his UNIT soldiers when fighting a new foe: “Chap with wings, there. Five rounds rapid!”

Roger Delgado returns as the menacing Master.

There are some excellent supporting characters who make their mark, too, most notably Damaris Hayman as the quirky white witch/village protector Miss Hawthorne, whilst the much missed Roger Delgado’s Master is as irresistibly superb as always, looking more menacing than ever in his church vicars outfit and glasses, as well as later on as the head of a powerful sacrificial coven cult, resplendently nasty in his flowing red robes. At the time, many of the viewers were unhappy with an entire season comprising the Doctor’s Time Lord Moriarty as its main villain, but now, with the benefit of time and hindsight since his sad passing, Season Eight contains a veritable gold mine of great material for his character to be savored, especially in the actors always-terrific scenes opposite Pertwee.

The Doctor is held hostage by some mean country dancers!

After a deliberate few years break away from the series, Christopher Barry returns to the WHO directors chair for his first colour adventure and is clearly enjoying the material he’s working with: the first episodes atmosphere at the Devil’s End archaeological dig site and the build up to the cavern’s doomed opening is well generated (a special nod, too, to the character of the Dig’s Professor Horner, well realised by actor Robin Wentworth, who brings some fine biting edge to the character alongside his distaste for the news team from the fortuitously named BBC 3 channel!). Barry’s handling of the tales many action sequences are also generally good, against a fine backdrop of picturesque location filming in Aldbourne, Wiltshire (which take up at least two thirds of the story), that is first rate, and certainly giving the show a much glossier look than ever before.

Back in the studio, the director also makes the most of the new technology that has been developed in his absence, like the love it or hate it CSO (Colour Separation Overlay) techniques used so prominently in the Pertwee era. And, despite earlier criticism of the shows special effects by the press, some of the model work here would prove so realistic that, at the time of transmission, one viewer complained to the BBC over the corporation’s destruction of the village church at the end of the tale! Aw, bless!

The nasty little critter Bok the gargoyle (Stanley Mason) terrorises the Doctor and Jo.

So, you’ve got your story and characters, but a DOCTOR WHO story without its monsters just wouldn’t be the same, and THE DÆMONS presents us with several intriguing new creations to the shows legendary roster, including the menacing death delivering stone gargoyle come to life, Bok, played with menacing, death delivering impishness by dancer Stanley Mason, who makes his memorable mark in numerous effective moments throughout the tale, and also takes on the bazooka blasting boys of UNIT in the finale.

The Satan-like alien scientist, Azal (Stephen Thorne).

Sadly, the arrival of the much-anticipated DÆMON of the title, in the form of the mighty satanic-looking human with the bad chest hair problem-Azal- played with the immense I can take on Brian Blessed any day! vocal talent of Stephen Thorne (later to portray another equally mighty threat to the Doctor in the form of Omega, for the 10^th anniversary story THE THREE DOCTORS) is painfully underused in the tale: his major appearance in the fifth and final episode thwarted by poorly conceived writing when he quickly seems to go haywire on himself after Jo illogically, and as the best representative of humankind, places herself in harms way to protect the Doctor. The rushed ending dealt in the last five minutes made me wonder why the story wasn’t ultimately a six-parter-the extra episode could have made the story feel a whole lot rounder.

With regards to the overall picture quality of the story on DVD, the BBC, incredulously destroying so much of their WHO material in the seventies, sadly only kept the original part 4 in its original PAL master tape quality, so the rest of the episodes mix colour NTSC with black and white film. It’s an intriguing fusion from the BBC’s dedicated Restoration Team that is, expectedly, of varying quality, but this overall new regenerative attempt for the release is far superior to their original first efforts from 1992 for the VHS release-the opening two episodes of the DVD being particular standouts in comparison. My hat continues to be raised to the Restoration Team for their continued enthusiasm, dedication and fine work within limited time and resources.

Jon Pertwee and Damaris Hayman have fun on location.

Packed with super extras on a special second disc, Chris Chapman, who did a fine job with his prior documentary for THE FACE OF EVIL release, creates an interesting successor with The Devil Rides Out, his look at this 1971 tale, with vital contributions from script editor Terrance Dicks, Katy Manning, Richard Franklin, Damaris Hayman and the late Barry Letts, there’s also a short but sweet section of cinefootage from the time of the original filming, a look at the Restoration Team’s work in fusing the colour and black and white footage together from a 1992 TOMORROW’S WORLD programme (plus some other early test work), a photo gallery that feels a little incomplete (it doesn’t have much of the material that superfan Andrew Beech has in his private collection), a lively commentary from Terrance Dicks, Katy Manning, Richard Franklin and Damaris Hayman, PDFs and subtitled production notes. The discs icing on the cake has to be a lovely documentary tribute to the late Barry Letts, covering his behind the scenes work in and out of WHO, as an actor, writer, producer and director of note-with some lovely contributions from his sons Dominic and Crispin Letts and nice career footage. Remembering Barry Letts is a warm and deserving tribute to the much-liked man. Rounding the extras material off is a little bit of Mandrels monster mania, with a fun trailer for the next DVD release: Tom Baker’s lively NIGHTMARE OF EDEN.

DVD behind the scenes clip: Exclusive First Look - Aldbourne - Doctor Who: The Daemons - BBC - YouTube

With their having been a previous fan DVD –Return to Devil’s End-which saw many of the shows surviving cast travel back to the Aldbourne location and recall the shows making, I understand the BBC DVD team’s reasoning in not wanting to cover existing trod ground for their new release, but I feel that the use of a little bit of that archive material should have been included with regards to the late Jon Pertwee. The lack of Jon’s presence in any of the major behind the scenes related material (bar the cinefootage) is keenly felt-even if they hadn’t used any Return footage, its a shame that something from somewhere (an old talk/interview) couldn’t have been incorporated for the release, for what is such an important story of his five year TV reign as the Doctor.

There might some occasional tame moments here and there that date the production, within a genre type which could probably be explored again more effectively in the Modern WHO, but the vast majority of THE DÆMONS works very well after forty-one years. The general rushed nature of the show’s final episode, for me personally, robs it of its all-time classic status, and doesn’t get me country dancing around the veritable May pole, but, nonetheless, I can certainly see why it’s regarded so fondly. It triumphantly retains its position as one of the essential purchases of the DVD range: not only invocative of the Pertwee era but of Classic WHO, too!

KOOL TV RATINGS

STORY: A Beltane busting 4 out of 5

EXTRAS: 4.5 out of 5

Get THE DÆMONS on DVD here: Doctor Who: The Dæmons [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Rodger Delgardo, Nicholas Courtney: Film & TV

It's also available in a special, limited edition slipcase (shown above) here: 

Doctor Who: The Daemons (Convention Exclusive Edition) @ Forbidden Planet

KOOL TV REVIEW: "DOCTOR WHO: DAY OF THE DALEKS" SPECIAL EDITION DVD

Jon Pertwee's first battle as DOCTOR WHO against the dreaded Daleks - "Day of the Daleks" - arrives in a great new DVD Special Edition. Images: 2|ENTERTAIN and BBC TV.

DOCTOR WHO: “DAY OF THE DALEKS” – SPECIAL EDITION (2 DISC DVD)

Starring Jon Pertwee 

Released on September 12^th by 2|ENTERTAIN

Review by Scott Weller

Terrance Dicks is responsible for my disappointment with DAY OF THE DALEKS!

The skilled former script editor who masterminded some of the classic 1970’s and 80’s DOCTOR WHO TV stories, across three incarnations of the Time Lord, did such a terrific job in his exciting TARGET novel adaptation of Louis Marks intriguing and thought provoking 1972 televised four part story - which re-introduced the Doctor’s greatest nemesis, the Daleks, back to TV screens after five years, and finally on colour screens no less! - that, once I saw the original televised adventure for the first time in the mid-eighties (yes, I’m one of those people that still remembers, and has, VHS tapes!) it proved quite a let down in comparison. The production’s ambitious plot scenario, major action scenes and special effects, which had conjured up a heady and adrenalized brew on paper, and probably looked okay when watched in the early seventies pre-STAR WARS era (and hooking seven million people every week I might add to its defense) but, by the eighties, and indeed now, it felt pretty slow going and obviously not given the justice it deserved nor the production values it so desperately craved to make it as successful as it should have been.

The Daleks: now in 1970's colour!

And I was really upset by this as DAY OF THE DALEKS was one of the top stories that I had wanted to see on official release based on my memories of that book, and I was gutted at my frustrations with it, a feeling I’m sure being shared by many thousands of people in my age group, or fans older than myself who found that, in some ways, memory did cheat on the great things they saw in the past. With the passing of time, however, and fortunately for us to be living in an age of incredible technological advances within the film and TV industry (which looks unlikely to stop evolving anytime soon,) we are now in a great, if often controversial, situation where we can re-write visual history or tailor it to suit our own particular needs and desires. Even more fortunate, though, is that the Classic DOCTOR WHO series has often been at the pioneering forefront of so many of these innovations and benefited greatly from it, often used as a wonderful springboard or litmus paper in preserving and enhancing classic TV in general, with many of the young fans who watched and loved, and still love, the show in its original 26 year run now involved in its past, present and future on commercial DVD release, and bringing it to re-awakened life with the best available sound and picture quality possible. 2|ENTERTAIN’s new DAY OF THE DALEKS: THE SPECIAL EDITION two–disc DVD release gets the chance to show us both the original raw 1972 version of the story and a new, and even more enjoyable, enhanced directors cut which gloriously revitalizes the adventure, put together with love and talent by a team of people of “Superfans” now able to fix the majority of its period made flaws once and for all, and providing it with all-new special effects and sequences that make it not only a superior entry in the Jon Pertwee Doctor era cannon but within the very best pantheon of Classic WHO, too!

Jon Pertwee poses for a special publicity photograph with the Gold Dalek.

Watching sci-fi and fantasy in DOCTOR WHO at that time in the seventies was always a rewarding and delightfully comfortable viewing experience, and DAY reinforces such childhood enjoyment once again, as our hero investigates weird goings on at Austerely House, the setting for a vital political conference which its hoped will save the world from the rapid approach of World War III. But, as with all good WHO, it soon turns out that forces outside of what we know and normally experience are converging on the British conference and its head, Sir Reginald Styles (Wilfred Carter), previously witnessing a ghostly, life threatening apparition who vanishes as mysteriously as he arrives. From then on in, its a race against time for the future of mankind as the Time Lord, encountering humans from the twenty second century, followed by his deadliest of old enemies, must do everything he can to protect Earth and its timeline from the grave threat of THE DAY OF THE DALEKS…

SPECIAL EDITION TRAILERS: DOCTOR WHO - DAY OF THE DALEKS COMING SOON DVD TRAILER - COPYRIGHT BBC AND 2 ENTERTAIN - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rlss3Krt7g

On a future Earth, the Doctor and Jo Grant (Katy Manning) team up with a small band of Resistance fighters. 

Beyond DAY’s overall storytelling, in our experience of watching it we are clearly reminded that, despite it’s dated elements, this truly was a golden age for audiences, not only within WHO but also early 1970’s television in general, where talented actors and behind the scenes people were really getting the chance to stretch their wings and show what they could do in the new arena of colour production in the UK. Where the new format was opening up the arena of storytelling and new special effects inventions like colour separation overlay, and where graphic design and photography were breaking boundaries all across the country and making their mark across all fields of life and mediums. And science fiction story telling on television shined brightly from this evolution. There was a seriousness to the future worlds being created that was very appealing and a still relative freshness to the genre that hadn’t yet been mined of its potential as it would by the late noughties. Time travel and the altering of history, and its possible futures, were fascinating concepts, alien invasions were cool and anything was still possible.

Katy Manning in her prime as companion Josephine "Jo" Grant.

DOCTOR WHO was also firmly at the top of its game in its first golden age, and the shows then stars, Team Pertwee (as I like to call them), at the peak of their popularity: a Renaissance Jon Pertwee looks totally comfortable in his role as the flamboyant James Bond-esque hero, dutifully delivering morality and karate blows to human and alien baddies with style, Katy Manning is both charming and at her scrumptious best as denim mini-skirted assistant Jo Grant, stalwart Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, played by the much missed Nicholas Courtney, is at his serious best here-there’s no bumbling fool quality about him, with his trusty officers, Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) and everyman Sergeant Benton (John Levene) close in tow with their trusty soldiers of UNIT, who in this new edition, finally come across as an effective fighting force ready to fight, even if possessing primitive weaponry, against impossible odds and superior technology from the likes of such populist alien menaces as Zygons, Cybermen, and, in this case, the colourful unstoppable metal meanies from Skaro, the Daleks, and their threatening, but also comedy value ape-like henchman, the Ogrons.

The Dalek force enters our time via an abandoned railway tunnel.

Intriguingly, in the original story concept for DAY conceived by Louis Marks, the Daleks weren’t actually the main antagonists- it was an altogether different enemy- with Terrance Dicks quickly seeing lots of potential in the story to recommended the story being adapted as a vehicle for the return of Terry Nation's beloved aliens. Watching the original transmitted version of DAY it does looks at times as if they’ve been shoe-horned into the plot, but with the SPECIAL EDITION the extra/revised scenes give them a far more central position in the tale which is most welcome (and this is even one of the few times they have the chance to capture and torture the Doctor, too!). Furthermore, with this SE there’s lots of Daleks. No longer an army of three trundling up the lawn with a few Ogrons as support, as seen in the closing minutes of the original version of the four parter, this new edition practically has an entire army on display in a scene giving the story’s closing moments the much needed oomph factor it desperately deserves.

In the future, the Doctor is interrogated by the Daleks.

They also sound impressive, too. Their whimpering 1971 shrieks of EXTERMINATE now replaced with the far superior vocal talent war cries of Nicholas Briggs, who’s been handling the voices of the Skaroan slime buckets since 2005’s new series. There’s also new CGI renderings of a planet Earth enslaved by the Daleks, and, as well as some nice new surprises that will delight fans (we won’t spoil them!), there are lots of explosions and laser blasts which, so badly missing from the electronic effects lacking original 72 creation, have been brilliantly added to it by 2|ENTERTAIN Producer Steve Broster (a fan of the story since he first saw it as a six year old on it's original transmission) and his dedicated team.

Beyond the Daleks, and amidst all the action and fireworks, the portrayals of the future time-travelling Earth Rebels are also overall pretty good, the stand out being Anna Barry as the female commander Anat, whilst other fine guest star support comes from Aubrey Woods as the future Earth’s human slave overseer, The Controller.

One of the many new visual effects that improve the original story greatly.

On the bonus features side, there’s the normal great stuff from the DVD production team backed up with even more cool retro material than usual over the two disc set, including cast commentaries (by Katy Manning, the late Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks, BBC Vision Mixer Mike Catherwood and the story’s two guest actors: Anna Barry and Jimmy Winston), a nice stills gallery showing some photos I’d never seen before and some old ones finally shown in their uncropped entirety, a featurette on what the job of the Vision Mixer was in the Golden Age of TV, which is basically a discussion between one of its experts, Mike Catherwood, and the late producer/director Barry Letts (who masterminded the four and a half years of Pertwee’s reign, creating a legacy that inspires New WHO even today), two behind the scenes documentaries (one on the making of the show in 1971 and the other on the special edition), a nice tribute to the shows on and off UNIT era and its time conundrums, a well compiled Coming Soon trailer for another Pertwee release: COLONY IN SPACE, some NATIONWIDE/BLUE PETER clips linked to the Daleks and the latter including ex-WHO/Hartnell companion Peter Purves talking about being in the series in the sixties.

As a nice round off of possible DVD restorations to come, fans of another classic Pertwee WHO, THE MIND OF EVIL, which resides in the BBC Archives for the main part only in Black and White, are also in for a nice surprise, too, during one of the documentaries...

The late producer Barry Letts with Pertwee and a gold friend.

Whilst the new series of WHO seems to get progressively worse and over the top with every episode, CLASSIC WHO gets better with age, and the nice thing about this new SPECIAL EDITION is that it not only supports the purists (with the original four part version) but also, with its respect to the material in its revised storytelling, helping to take the old show up a notch against the critics and the detractors who had in the past slated it for its wobbly sets and effects. When revised stories like DAY OF THE DALEKS look this good, such unfair criticisms - which really didn’t surface until after the original theatrical blockbuster STAR WARS releases began in cinemas in the late seventies! - are swiftly sunk (Intriguingly DAY’s UK DVD launch date of September 12^th also co-incides with the revised SPECIAL, SPECIAL editions launch of George Lucas’s classic films on Blu-ray, too. WHO and STAR WARS: great double entertainment for sci-fi fans of all ages!). Kudos much be given to the splendid work done by the DOCTOR WHO Restoration Team over the last eight years on the DVD range, with special mention of Mark Ayres, who does the usual fine job in restoring and correcting music, sound mistakes and omissions...

If Jon Pertwee were still with us today I know, despite his own personal disdain for the Daleks (the ultimate scene stealers!), that he would be very proud of this new release- a once rough jewel now polished up considerably to become a superior entry in the series- and would have been even happier to promote and enjoy it with the fans.

Specially commissioned charity art-for HELP THE HEROES- by Alister Pearson celebrating his, Chris Achellios and Andrew Skilleter's "Day of the Daleks" book covers work. Available to buy from www.dwasonline.co.uk

DAY OF THE DALEKS: THE SPECIAL EDITION is a must have DVD not only for CLASSIC WHO fans but also cult entertainment enthusiasts in general who want to get their hands on a top range slice of classic, and Kool, TV… It’s well worth the purchase.

Now, if only someone at the BBC could do some new effects re-imagining on classic BLAKE’S 7. If any other series deserves the kind of treatment that WHO’s proudly getting, it’s that one!

KOOL TV RATING: 5 out of 5

With thanks to the BBC and 2|ENTERTAIN.