KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO - THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH' DVD

Martian menace? The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) must discover the truth in the new Classic DOCTOR WHO DVD release: The Ambassadors of Death. Images: BBC.

DOCTOR WHO: THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH

Written by David Whitaker

Directed by Michael Ferguson

Starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Caroline John as Liz Shaw

Now available on DVD from BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS

Reviewed by Scott Weller

"I don't know what we brought down in Mars Probe Seven, but it certainly wasn't human"

The Doctor

There's traitors, gunfights, hijacks, and kidnapped aliens galore in this spirited and often thrilling third adventure for beaky nosed “light bulb” Jon Pertwee’s serious Time Lord incarnation, now trapped in exile on seventies Earth, in and encounter with The Ambassadors of Death, the latest highly entertaining release of the Classic DOCTOR WHO range from BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS.

The mystery of Mars Probe 7 and it's astronauts returned to Earth after months far away on the infamous Red Planet soon prove the stuff of nightmares, with potential ramifications for an all-out interplanetary war, as the Doctor and his army comrades at UNIT face a deadly earthbound foe whom seemingly know their moves before they make them, manipulating events towards likely Armageddon. And as violence and skulduggery grow, just who can be trusted, as our heroes ponder the very possible likelihood that a hidden enemy might be at work within their own organisation!

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg02eRHleEU

A solid and intriguing sci-fi plot with tense moments and good characters from David Whitaker, one of the very first script editors/genesis makers of the William Hartnell era, emerges from its heavily revised pre-production phase, courtesy of Script Editor Terrance Dicks and his buddy Malcolm Hulke. Some quite adult themes and violence in an epic, genre-crossing story of its time, make the most of the realism and scientific marvels of the modern space programme around them, linked to a complex British-based conspiracy involving an opportunist mercenary and a deranged and xenophobic former astronaut now general.

Amidst the warehouse fights, helicopter attacks and wandering aliens with the killer touch, there’s a wonderful romanticism to this particular story with its mix of science fiction and fact- the lovely idea, so far not to have happened in my lifetime but of which anything goes in DOCTOR WHO’s often skillful storytelling, that one day the UK would be a leading superpower in the exploration of space, celebrating the ambition and dedication of the men then landed on the Moon a year earlier, as the story effectively creates it’s own unique brand of realism, even down to the innovative for its time idea of having a news presenter character (played by Michael Wisher) talking to the camera, to us viewers, about what’s going on during a tense early part of the plot. Also, in an intriguing life is stranger than fiction moment of television history, one of these episodes would also transmission co-incide with the critical attempts being made in reality by NASA to rescue the space-stranded Apollo 13 mission!

The Doctor with early colour era companions Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) and Liz Shaw (Caroline John).

In the role that made him a TV legend, Pertwee’s exiled to Earth incarnation of the Third Doctor starts to hit his stride by the near end of his premiere season, shouting at bureaucrats, and laudably showing his skills as a scientist and adventurous action hero, alongside a much underrated at the time companion in scientist Liz Shaw, played with believability by the much-missed Caroline John. John's realistic breath of fresh air portrayal of Liz proves a much better companion/foil to the Doctor when watched in today's modern era of WHO storytelling, with its overall better developed female roles, rather than back in 1970, when behind the scenes the actress/character was seen to stand out uncomfortably with the other more popular screamy companions that would bookend her one year stint on the series.

Alongside the out of this world combo, those alien menace fighting army lads at UNIT are also a much more serious and determined investigative/ fighting force during this superior part of the Pertwee era, with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, as played by the late, great Nicholas Courtney, now emerging as one of the show’s true iconic figures, before his character changed to become an equally lovable, if not quite as effective, Colonel Blimp type. Ambassadors also witnesses the colour series introduction of faithful Sergeant Benton (cheery John Levene)- later a perfect companion to the Brigadier, and occasionally fun comedy foil in between shooting machine guns unsuccessfully at Daleks and Axons.

One of the frightening alien ambassadors of the title! 

Director Michael Ferguson makes fine use of the changing times of television film-making technology to give the story a touch of ambitious and gritty film quality action/adventure reminiscent of late sixties BOND (if on a lower budget than anything Broccoli and Saltzman would ever have been used to!), of which there’s a rawness to it that wouldn’t be out of place in some of the early SWEENEY’s, either, especially in it’s opening and closing episodes. Fists reach their intended impacts courtesy of the impressively staged for their time action sequence makers of HAVOC: a thrill providing stunt team worthily showing every penny of their screen time existence, including Derek Ware (look out for his excellent leap onto a helicopter!), Alan Chuntz, Roy Scammell and Terry Walsh.

One of the real Martians!

Regarded as one of the shows best directors of early colour WHO, Ferguson continues his ambitious work with clever angles and a spirited pace, plus some terrific episode cliffhangers (especially part two’s ominous “Right, cut it open!” finale). Most noticeable is the atmospheric and eerie way he film shoots the alien ambassadors in their outdoors scenes-a genius and scary idea where, with the sunlight behind them, you never see their faces under the astronaut suits until the finale episode. I also love the distinctive opening and ending stings that would become a part of WHO history, and the cliffhanger coming at ya titles-part of the charm of Pertwee’s experimental and exciting first season, and an idea of changing episode title/logo designs currently being paid tribute with similar experimentation by today’s WHO series era under the control of Steven Moffat. The early CSO work on this story is also of a very good standard alongside excellent filmed model shots from classic series effects veteran Ian Scoones.

The Doctor and friends in roadster Bessie, along with General Carrington (John Abineri).

Amongst the bangs and crashes, a fine cast adds weight to the adventure, including WHO stalwart John Abineri, who, with his mercenary army, brings menace and tangible occasional audience sadness to his role as deranged General Carrington. CROSSROADS veteran Ronald Allen is also fine as the British Space boss Ralph Cornish, but probably the best of the bunch, and making a lot out of a relatively thin role, is William Dysart, who impresses as the opportunistic and clever mercenary working with Carrington, Reegan. There’s a touch of the Connery Bond about him-sharp suitedly ruthless and edgy as he makes his own plans to manipulate the captured aliens.

Incidental music begins to make more of a mark on the series with the Pertwee era, and this tale has some of Dudley Simpson’s best music for early seventies WHO, no doubts about it, with the classic theme for UNIT making its debut, and a hauntingly melodic and mysteriously surreal theme for the alien ambassadors of the title as they are forced into doing Reegan’s dirty work.

The aliens often prove unstoppable.

As the story develops over seven episodes (part of a season where the stories were longer than usual so as to make the most of production budgets), Ambassadorsmanages to overall hold its duration, though there's a few plot holes and inconsistencies here and there if you look close enough (mostly due to the many script rewrites that occurred over a long period-it was originally commissioned as a story for the Patrick Troughton B/W era). Episode Five show a little bit of padding, but by the fast paced finale things are wrapped up pretty satisfactorily (notably with some more good UNIT action as the Brigadier gets stuck in with some hand to hand combat! Go Brig!).

Its original colour PAL masters wiped thirty plus years ago, of which only episode one escaped the purge, the colour restoration process to the surviving b/w film copies (courtesy of a colour Betamax tape from an American fan of the mid-seventies), has not been without difficulties. Until such time as WHO’s resident superfan Ian Levine can build a time machine (and I truly believe he has the resources to do it!) in order to go back and stop the stupid BBC executives of 1975 from junking the original colour PAL masters, these are the best quality colourized copies of the story we’re going to get with the current technology available to the dedicated Restoration Team, and they should be congratulated for their remarkable efforts both old and new with this release, especially noteworthy in sections of episodes five and seven. It’s a shame that there's no featurette tribute on the DVD about the Team’s long behind the scenes journey to complete the story, of which its previous official UK BBC VHS release had only been partially completed-a hybrid of colour and B/W.

In a lovely celebration of their careers on the show, the late Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney and guest star Peter Halliday contribute a warm and informative commentary, previously recorded for the eventual DVD release back in 2009. Their contributions pop up within in-depth themed talks from Terrance Dicks, Derek Ware, Roy Scammell and Derek Martin. It’s all well worth a listen.

Controlled by outside forces, the alien ambassadors are trapped on Earth.

Chris Chapman’s thirty minute documentary on the making of the serial concentrates on the story’s most successful elements: notably the quality visuals and stunt work, with contributions from Michael Ferguson and key members of the HAVOC team: Ware and Scammell. Later series Production Manager Margot Hayhoe and Terrance Dicks also add key contributions. The original next week’s new adventure trailer for the story is also given a fun colour restoration, there’s a nice stills gallery (with lots of rare B/W behind the scenes shots, though some classic episodic images seem to have gone AWOL and not made the selection), ever comprehensive production notes text (from walking WHO encyclopedia Martin Wiggins), and PDFs.

Wrapping things up, there’s the continuing featurette series of Tomorrow’s Timesfrom film-maker Marcus Hearn, hosted by Peter Purves, which looks back at the Pertwee era and how well received both the show and its star were at the time by audiences and critics, plus a colourful Coming Soon trailer for the next exciting Third Doctor invasion story, in a brand new Special Edition: The Claws of Axos.

Our UNIT heroes, with Derek Ware far right as a solider, communicate with the aliens.

For years a neglected, often forgotten story, The Ambassadors of Death is a truly under-rated little gem and easily one of the standouts of the Pertwee era, at a time when the show was starting a new life and a new colour Renaissance. Its great to see it fully restored and complete at last. So thanks BBC for the new essential purchase release: to mis-phrase a certain FERRERO ROCHER advert: “With these Ambassadors you are really spoiling us!”

KOOL TV RATING (overall story and extras): 4.5 out of 5

Get The new release here: Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney: Film & TV

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

The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) fight a strange new robot race in THE KROTONS, a new DVD release from the Classic DOCTOR WHO range. Images: BBC.

DOCTOR WHO – THE KROTONS

A four-part story by Robert Holmes

Directed by David Maloney

Starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, Frazer Hines as Jamie, and Wendy Padbury as Zoe

Released on DVD by BBC WORLDWIDE from July 2^nd, 2012

Reviewed by Scott Weller

I was there back in 1981 watching BBC 2’s glorious month long, four nights a week repeat season of THE FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO, and, like millions of other fans, was wondering why on Earth the channel hadn’t selected a more classic and representative story for the supreme horror/comedy era of Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor, like the hallowed TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN, than the one showing in the season’s second week: Robert Holmes then almost forgotten first story for the series, of mind draining robots enslaving a primitive humanoid race- THE KROTONS, which aired in the actors third and final season back in the monochrome years of 1968. It wasn’t until a short time later, however, reading the trusty words of fan supremo Jeremy Bentham in DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE, that the real truth behind the channel’s selection would come to disturbing light, and leave all WHO fans worldwide disheartened and gob- snacked by the news of the BBC’s unforgivable and widespread wiping of its classic black and white and early colour programming output, including Classic WHO!

Still, with the passage of time, and knowing of such losses as TOMB (which, thankfully, would return to the archives many years later and get a wonderful VHS, then DVD, release), in hindsight, THE KROTONS isn’t actually too bad a representation of the late Troughton era, in particular the fine camaraderie shown by the TARDIS trio of the Doctor, Scottish Culloden survivor Jamie McCrimmon and super-intelligent future girl Zoe Herriot.

It's quarry time again for the always amiable Patrick Troughton as the Doctor.

I especially remember how nice it was to finally see what Troughton was like in the flesh, so to speak, in his television reality as the Time Lord, after years looking at memorable and evocative black and white images and plot synopsis of his stories in magazines of the late seventies.

Yes, THE KROTONS is not a well regarded adventure by any means, by either the people who made it or by fandom in general, but it’s one that, at that time in its making, had to be filmed out of pure emergency and necessity, carefully nurtured by script editor and WHO legend Terrance Dicks and optioned for use when several stories fell through. Looking terrific in its DVD transfer, the story’s opening episode has lots going for it in its set-up, which is particularly moody and suspenseful.

Originally known as The Space Trap, its roots as a story originally submitted for the BBC’s sci-fi anthology series OUT OF THE UNKNOWN clearly show (but in a good way!). The story of self-perpetuating slavery by the mind draining crystalline headed aliens, the Krotons, seems a little lightweight by today's Steven Moffat overload modern series writing but overall it’s well paced and structured across its four episodes, though there is the occasional sense of repetition of ideas and moments within this mixed bag season, and this story certainly has examples of this, most notably with the Doctor coming under scan from another high powered alien race of which only two are seen onscreen, as seen a few stories earlier in THE DOMINATORS, and once again utilising our heroes skillful acting and bumbling antics to shield his crafty manipulations and ingenuity, all of which are realised all too late for the baddies to stop him. Parts of THE KROTONS even remind me of Classic STAR TREK (then not yet aired on British TV until 1969/70) in the way that out heroes arrive on an almost primitive world enslaved by a higher power. I could imagine Captain Kirk striding about, punching out primitive warriors, locking lips with any female in eye shot, and ignoring the prime directive (again!) to face off against the Krotons (Or “Croutons” as Frazer Hines likes to call them!), though colourful sixties TREK would have built the baddie robots a lot better than BILL KING’S TRADING POST effects company did for WHO!

The Doctor confers with Jamie (Frazer Hines),  Zoe (Wendy Padbury) and Selris (James Copeland) over the knowledge drained Vana (Madeleine Mills). 

The early hints of Robert Holmes classy teatime cruelty for children also begins to emerge, as do other examples of his trademark storytelling craft, like his perchance for eccentric characters, here represented by the repressed scientist, Beta (played by James Cairncross), who has a couple of fun double-act light comedy moments with Jamie towards story’s end.

No COUNTDOWN conundrums for the gifted Zoe!

Despite some general lasting off-screen woes about script problems that season, all three of our aforementioned main stars/characters get a chance to shine in their struggle against the Krotons. As I mentioned previously, Troughton as the Doctor would be a revelation to me-I remember in my first viewing how pleasantly surprised I was by his performance, and how he brought considerable and understated charisma to the part, as well as mixing high drama, intelligence and comedy in strong measure within a continuingly appealing and ingenious performance that would capture the hearts and minds of viewers of all ages. Frazer Hines as Jamie shows trademark bravery, die-hard loyalty to his comrades and reckless but fearless fighting skills, whilst Wendy Padbury’s Zoe’s puts her high intelligence to good use in both drama and comedy moments alongside Troughton and doesn’t come across as a stereotyped whiny screamer. Costume-wise, the kinky female baddies planned for the previously aborted Dick Sharples script THE PRISON IN SPACE may not have materialised but their almost presence seems to have thankfully lingered and transferred into the design of delectable Miss Padbury’s distinctive costume for the story: a red and black little number with boots and the very shortest of micro mini skirts-a runner up to Lalla Ward’s school girl outfit from CITY OF DEATH for the most memorable costume design seen in the series for boys and dads of a certain age to enjoy...

A solid guest cast helping the trio rise above the material includes the late, great Philip Madoc, always watchable as the ambitious and scheming power player Eelek, and stalwart Scottish TV actor James Copeland (and father of James Cosmo) as the enslaved Gond people's wise leader, Selris.

"Direction point!" The crystalline robots of the story title.

As for the Krotons- the ultimate student killers (no no university tuition fee payouts from them!)- well, they’re hardly one of the shows greatest baddies, but there have been poorer WHO monsters seen throughout the series. Their organic crystalline based visual appearance and design, from series regular Bobbi Bartlett, works okay from the middle up, though their voices (by Dalek talent/ RAINBOW’s Zippy, Roy Skelton, with Patrick Tull) seem more comedic than scary-at first I thought they were speaking in cockney accents but now I hear that they were South African based! (A blatant nod to the segregation troubles heightening in that country at the time.)

A Kroton tries to disperse the TARDIS!

Going further behind the scenes, designer Raymond London does his best with basic but satisfactory sets, making the most of the spaceship interior’s darkness (luckily the Krotons hate bright light!) where he can to help hide the shows very stretched and limited resources behind the scenes, with handy recycled props from the previous INVASION story, too. There’s also some noteworthy and effective sound design by Brian Hodgson that ably makes up for the lack of costly incidental music.

Patrick Troughton and his era's famous monsters are celebrated in the excellent DVD documentary Second Time Around. 

Onto the DVD extras now, and the highlight of the release, and easily one of the best of the entire range of any of the 2ENTERTAIN/BBC releases over the years, is Second Time Around, a lively, interesting, thought-provoking and nostalgic look back at the entire three year era of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor: the characters all-important first on-screen regeneration (or “renewal” as it was once called) and how it came about behind the scenes, the many classic stories, the iconic monsters and villains he fought, and the equally memorable companions who accompanied him on his journey’s through the time vortex. Excellently produced by Ed Stradling, linked to great behind the scenes materials and on-screen press clippings, as well as lots of great clips (especially from the recently recovered missing episode THE UNDERWATER MENACE episode 2), backed up with some terrific and fondly remembered contributions/anecdotes from all of Troughton’s surviving companions (as well as a choice clip of the late lead actor talking about early ideas for the part), it’s a wonderful celebration of a truly golden age for the series, and a special feature you’ll want to watch again and again. This easily makes the release an essential purchase for fans, as well as bringing the Second Doctor’s surviving story run on DVD to a satisfying close.

Additionally, there’s another Doctor Who Stories featurette, focusing on Fraser Hines for part one of his thoroughly enjoyable look back at his time working on the series in both its B/W and colour classic years, whilst representing THE KROTONS itself there’s no main documentary on the story (though it is covered briefly in Second Time Around), but look out for a fine audio commentary (involving actors Madoc, Richard Ireson and Gilbert Wynn, with behind the sceners Hodgson, Bartlett, David Tilley and Sylvia James), whilst Simon Guerrier and Joseph Lidster discuss the maligned story’s strengths and weakness in another looking back edition of the love it or hate it The Doctor’s Strange Love.

Finally, there’s some nice B/W photo selections, PDF materials, and an atmospheric trailer for Sylvester McCoy’s upcoming THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE GALAXY.

More a bronze medal winner than a gold in Olympics time, it’s nice to have THE KROTONS finally released regardless, and any complete Patrick Troughton story on DVD is always welcome in my book!

KOOL TV OVERALL RATINGS

STORY: 3 out of 5

DVD EXTRAS: 4 out of 5

Get THE KROTONS here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-The-Krotons-DVD/dp/B007Z10GUG

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