TV Gold

Second release of 2007 is the Sylvester McCoy story "Survival" now available for preorder from, amongst other places here:-

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3297198/Doctor_Who_Survival/Product.html

Details are slowly starting to come through and, as reported on the official BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2007/01/17/40013.shtml), this will, amazingly be a two disc release.

This is looking like it is emulating the same format that 'Curse of Fenric' was released in regarding how they've approached the content approach however great shame that Lisa Bowerman is not part of the commentary team

additional: a new entry on the Restoration Team website has put some further details to this complete with estimated running times for extras http://www.restoration-team.co.uk

release date slipped back a couple of weeks to 16th April!

Been reading today that May 28 will see the Tom Baker debut 'Robot' arrive which I guess is fair enough, coming as it does from the ratings success that was season twelve. However more mysteriously is the plan to release Colin Baker's tinsel-fest 'Timelash' on June 25th. If they had to once again plunder Colin's era why oh why can't we get 'Attack of the Cybermen'.

Further to my last post I'd just like to add:-

Following on from January?s three story/disc ?New Beginning? box set and April?s two disc ?Survival? release its just been announced that 28th May will see the Tom Baker debut story ?Robot? as the third DVD title for 2007.

In my opinion choosing ?Robot? is undoubtedly a bit of a no-brainer safe choice coming as it does from the immensely ratings successful twelfth season which features such previously released jewels as ?Genesis of the Daleks? and ?The Ark In Space? (I?d even be prepared to defend the arguably derided ?Revenge of the Cybermen? season finale if anyone challenges me!). The first episode with the newly regenerated Doctor, as it were, finding his feet, replete with much humour between him, the Brigadier and Harry Sullivan together with the brief ?choosing a new costume? is a classic fourth Doctor moment. As for the rest of the story, yeah it?s a good vehicle for investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith together with the ?King Kong? movie parallels in those scenes shared with Professor Kettlewell?s lumbering metallic creation. With the Restoration Team?s usual consummate skill in assembling a comprehensive range of enjoyable, informative and entertaining extras I?m sure this title will do well.

However words absolutely fail me as to why the next release on the schedule, tentatively targeted for 25th June is the Colin Baker tinselfest story ?Timelash?, a story so bad that it even makes the sixth Doctor?s debut ?The Twin Dilemma? look rather good by comparison. I mean when you consider that there are still undisputed classic gems like ?The Masque of Mandragora? (the wild staring eyes of fanatical Court Astrologer and Brothers of Demnos cult leader Hieronymous), ?The Image of Fendahl? (the mad experiments of maniacal scientist Doctor Fendelman) or even the Frankenstein inspired ?The Brain of Morbius? (with the sisterhood of Khan, mad scientist Solon, a lumbering creation and the sickly green sponge of the title) still languishing in the BBC archives it makes this choice all the more astonishing! Now I consider myself a rather keen fan of the ?classic series? but even I find it hard to defend such a 80s studio bound story whose central protagonist is a man in a floppy rubber suit. I?ll grudgingly give an acceptable nod towards story cast members Jean Anne Crowley (Vena) and David Chandler (Herbert George Wells) but can?t help feeling that both Dicken Ashworth (Kendron) and Blake?s Seven star Paul Darrow (Tekker) are rather underwhelming here with the material on offer. Now I realise that with these ?classic series? releases the BBC have to provide a broad range of titles so as to please fans of a particular era but when you consider just how few stories Colin Baker was able to make during his tenure and how many there are available particularly in both Jon Pertwee?s and Tom Baker?s era this choice does seem both baffling and in the long term largely self defeating. If this simply was not possible to select from further back in the ?classic series? run then why choose ?Timelash? over ?Attack of the Cybermen?, a story that although having its faults, mainly due to its series continuity led plot does at least the feature the series second favourite adversary.

Been going through odd cuttings I've kept from old TV Zone magazines and appropriately, in the run up to its DVD release in a few weeks time I came across this interview with Lisa Bowerman:-

?Lisa Bowerman ? Surviving Who?
TV Zone magazine mini interview with guest star

Lisa Bowerman?s dominant memory of playing Karra, the cat-like creature of the final Doctor Who story, Survival (out on video this month), is filming in a heat wave. ?It was a very uncomfortable time because the dust was getting under everybody?s contact lenses and the temperatures must have been up in the nineties,? she says. ?I know one of the extras had a terrible time and ripped off her costume and walked off the set because it was so hot!?

Lisa auditioned for the part at the last minute when the actress who was originally going to take on the role dropped out. She got on well in the interview because she already new Director Alan Wareing from working on Casualty. ?He said, ?Can you ride?? and I thought, ?Oh yes I can?, but I hadn?t ridden for years. So I said to Alan, ?I?ll be able to ride, no problem?. And then he said, ?How are you about riding in enclosed areas?? and ?Can you do lots of galloping?? and all this sort of thing. And typical actor talk, I said, ?Oh yes, absolutely!? On the way home I thought, ?Oh no, what on Earth have I said?? So I rang him up the next day and I said ?Alan, I?m a little bit worries about some of the riding?. He said, ?What do you mean? I was going to give you the part!??

Fortunately a quick riding lesson was arranged and Lisa was told she would have no trouble with the horses. ?Once that had been sorted out I was whisked off to every possible make-up department you could think of,? she remembers. ?It was contact lenses and dentures and I had to have a full head cast because there was piles of make-up. The problem with that was it was so hot that all the fur and everything used to drop off my face. But I had a really great time and the cast were fantastic.?

As Karra the Cheetah woman who entices Ace to become one of her race, she had to display feline characteristics. But she felt her performance was hindered once she was in the costume. ?What you didn?t realize, was under all that make-up every part of the performance disappears. I didn?t think it [the costume] was that successful. But then on the budgets that Doctor Who was given, there was nothing you could have really done because they were working on a shoestring the whole time. Unfortunately, what happened with the costume was they were trying to get rid of the human form ? they were saying, ?we?ve got to try and hide the shape of the shoulders? ? so I ended up with no head movements at all. I couldn?t actually turn my head right or left, I had to turn my whole body. In that sense it restricted the movements that I wanted to do. But at the same time you work with what you?ve got and there were no problems with that at the end of the day.?

IMO it's a real mixed bag coming up. Obviously 'Robot' from the immensly successful Season 12 is an excellent 'bound to do commercially well' title, however what comes next feels a bit disappointing. Colin Baker is on record as saying that "Timelash" is his least favourite from his era and its not hard to see well. August 2007 kicks off with a double of "Timeflight" and "Arc of Infinity", pleasing enough I guess but hardly memorable.

I'm much delighted to see the long overdue Season Eleven opener "The Time Warrior", I've always been a big fan of this Robert Holmes script which introduces the Sontarans. However joy of joys after many long years as only being available as an American Region One release we here in the UK will be treated to a Region 2 six disc release of the Season Sixteen "Key To Time" multistory adventure, probably with more extras than had featured previously.

Stick with the 'classic series' through its average stuff, there is some quality coming up later in the year!!!

To tie in with this weeks double story DVD set of “Time-Flight” and “Arc of Infinity” I came across a ‘press cutting’ I have from TV Zone Magazine where reviewer Gareth Thomas, speaking in issue 129 reviewed “Time-Flight” when this concluding Season Nineteen story was released on BBC VHS Video (on 3rd July 2000 to be precise).

In his fairly uncomplimentary article he said…

From the curate’s egg that is Peter Davison’s Doctor Who era is served this rancid piece of albumen which will prove unpalatable to all save the most undiscerning. The story concerns the disappearance of one Concorde, several Roger-Wilco-spouting crewmen, a feisty stewardess, a sinister psychology professor and some comatose passengers who wander around getting lost. Meanwhile the Doctor is promising his companions yet another of those pleasure-jaunts-which-always-go-wrong and, sure enough, they are soon detoured to the Eocene domain of a corpulent illusionist and his Fairy Liquid minions controlled by means of chanting gibberish into a crystal ball shaped like the World Cup.
Reasons not to buy this video must of necessity be selective in a concise review: but the inefficacy and irritancy of the main protagonists – Davison’s likeable Doctor apart – must surely feature. Predating the introduction of the excellent counter-irritant Turlough, this story allows Nyssa and Tegan full rein to annoy. At times their raison d’etre seems to be no more than to provide a continual pseudo-stereophonic bickering with one positioned at each of the Doctor’s ears.
Also worthy of inclusion is a plot of such pointless labyrinthine complexity that one abandons the trail some way during episode three (though its denouement seems to hinge upon the multiple personality disorder of a moulded orange jelly and a couple of tattooed slapheads). At some point Ainley’s Master is once again introduced, once again as a shock-horror cliff-hanger ending; and once again his defining trait is to wave a small tuberous appliance at people and cackle.
Lastly, one must not forget the execrable realization of the story’s scenario. Here we have stock aircraft footage transposed onto low-budget studio Eocene sets with all the finesse of a toddler’s collage – and we are somehow expected to accept that the story’s characters will take this for real. Unbelievable.
Were it not for Davison’s solid performance; and for some moments of genuine comic relief when the Doctor actually uses the expression ‘I’ll explain later’ to get out of yet more TARDIS bigger-on-the-inside exposition, this release might warrant no points at all. As it is I’m disposed to be generous.

continuing the 'press clippings you might have missed' theme I've prepped five articles connected with the forthcoming 'Key To Time' epic seven disc DVD box set. Here is the first...

In the latter portion of September the entire six story sixteenth season “The Key To Time” will be unleashed on an appreciative retail market place where, particularly in the UK, customers will no doubt be keen to get their hands on this interlinked run of stories with a wealth of extra features. I’ve been dipping back into my press cutting archives and, from the pages of TV Zone Magazine a few mini interviews featured to tie in with the six stories original VHS releases, at a rate of two per month from April 1995. To kick off Jane Killick had a brief conversation with ‘Pirate Captain’ Bruce Purchase and, for those of you whom might have missed it, it went like this…

The Doctor travels to Zanak in his search for the second segment of the key to time in this month’s Doctor Who video release, The Pirate Planet. He finds Zanak is being ruled by an outlandish Captain, played by Bruce Purchase, with a parrot on his shoulder.
“I remember enjoying it enormously,” says the actor. “It was really great fun. It was written by Douglas Adams and was an incredibly witty script. And Tom [Baker, the Doctor] – whom I knew as a friend, but hadn’t worked with – was great. I think, as I remember it, we had great rapport between us. I thoroughly enjoyed the wit of the piece.”
Bruce remembers the character having a big impact, as witnessed by a visit he made a few years afterwards to a convention in New York. “I walked up in front of about six or seven hundred people in the room, this woman stood up and screamed ‘The Pirate Captain!’, which was a wonderful response!”
The Captain was a high-tech version of his traditional sea-fairing counterparts. His eye-patch was a piece of machinery – “I think I could see out, but nobody could see me, so it wasn’t disturbing.” – and half his body was mechanical. “I was also wearing very high lifts, so I was enormously tall,” he says. “I am tall, anyway, but I think the lifts were about six inches. I tottered about the place quite securely, but very ‘tall-ly’. Andrew Robertson who played Mr Fibuli was considerably shorter than I was, which made it quite a nice comic visual gag.”
The Pirate Captain was, in Bruce’s words, “a real beastly baddie” who, like most villains, came to a sticky end. “They short-circuited the right-side of my brain and put a small charge of explosives on a metal plate against my skull and then blew the side of my head off,” he recalls “I said, ‘Ooh, can I watch that as it happens?’ so I had a monitor rigged so I could look skywards without being distracted… It didn’t actually feel of anything. Not being of a nervous disposition, when I was assured that I would hardly feel it I believed them, and it didn’t.”
The Pirate Captain may be dead in tv-land, but he lives on in the memories of those who watched him. “Someone came up to me only three or four years ago,” says Bruce. “I was standing in a food queue in a pub half way between Oxford, where I live, and Northampton. Somebody came up and stood very close to my right-hand side, rather closer than one would expect anyone to be. Finally I turned and I said ‘Can I help you?’ And he said ‘The Pirate Captain!’ I said ‘How did you recognize me?’ – because I had a beard which I didn’t have [in The Pirate Planet] – and he said ‘I recognized you by your right eye!’” Bruce chuckles. “Of course it was the only eye that I had in the part!”

more posts on this coming up!!!

Right time to come back to this with...

Slipping forward to the third story of the reason and again another mini article written by Jane Killick finds her speaking to “The Stones of Blood” guest star Susan Engel under the title ‘Getting Stoned!’

Again if you missed it this one read as follows…

Susan Engel’s dominant memory of filming Doctor Who’s The Stones of Blood (out on video this month) is of location filming at the Rollright Stones in Gloucestershire.
“It was unbelievably cold and very spooky,” she says. “We used to sometimes – partly as a lark and as young maniacs – get into our little cars in the Sixties and zoom from Stratford-Upon-Avon to these stones and have parties. So when we did Stones of Blood, I thought, ‘Good heavens we’re going to this haunt of mine that I went to when I was young’.”
Susan played Vivien Fay, a woman who wore a very scant costume”
“All I can remember is there was hardly anything to it! It felt like I was draped in a bit of chiffon or silk. I know that I had to wear a bald cap because my headdress was very stark and I had to wait while I wasn’t filming. That’s the worst part about filming, there aren’t any facilities there at all. We didn’t have things like heated caravans like you have for filming nowadays. There was a horrible little caretaker stone hut with a lot of bird droppings in it and that was where I was made up and it was below zero temperatures.”
Vivian Fay turns out to be an alien criminal being hunted by justice machines called the Megara. It wasn’t a role that impressed her daughter as much as she thought it might. “My daughter was about six or five at the time,” says Susan. “I thought I might be a bit of a heroine in her primary school because they were all such fans of Doctor Who. But because I was not a goodie and I was four thousand years old, nobody recognized me! So I didn’t actually achieve my aim in pleasing the local primary school.”
At the end Vivien is turned into part of the stone circle, a special effect which was put on after filming. “You had very little awareness of what things went on,” Susan says. “In the studio you now exactly where you are, but once you’re out on location you’re not your own engine, you’re just a tool. I had to keep very still for about three minutes shivering there and that was probably while they overlaid effects… There was lightning and thunder and suddenly I was one of those stones that I used to play around in the Sixties. I’m sure I shall feel very strange when I go and visit it another time in life, which I hope to do. I shall say, ‘My God, one of those stones it me!’”
Susan Engel appeared in a lot of television programmes around 1978 when The Stones of Blood was made and she never made a particular effort to watch any of them. So she has never seen the Doctor Who episodes she appeared in. “Perhaps my twenty-three year-old daughter will get the video out now and we can have a laugh,” she concludes.

Back soon for some more!

Time for another 'article you might have missed' posting from me with...

For fourth story “The Androids of Tara” I slip over to the then fledgling publication Cult Times and in the February 1996 fifth issue we find Peter Griffiths talking with guest star Lois Baxter (to coincide with a repeat showing on UK Gold under the heading ‘Lois Baxter has happy memories of a twiddly hair-style and androids’) and, again if you missed it this ran something like this…

Madam Lamia met an unhappy ending with a crossbow bolt in her stomach in the 1978 Doctor Who story The Androids of Tara. Despite her character’s sticky end, actress Lois Baxter enjoyed the whole process.
This story marked your only appearance in Doctor Who.
Indeed. I recall being a rather sad character, a surgeon and a bit of a villain. She was desperately in love with the main villain, who had rather rejected her, so she had a story to play. I’ve worked with Peter Jeffrey, who played the Count, again since. He was a lovely man, and a smashing actor too. Simon Lack was in it as well. Even then, Doctor Who was becoming a good thing to be in, with the episodes being sold abroad. I wanted to do one, and it was nice being contracted for four episodes, not just one or two. It came at a time when I was doing a lot of television so it fitted in well. The part has done me a lot of good and made me some money in repeat fees over the years.
Did you already know Michael Hayes, the director?
Yes. I did a Z-Cars and a Barlow at Large for him, playing Stratford Johns’ daughter. We also did a series called When The Boat Comes In together. He was a great big, bluff man, really convivial. He liked actors, and I always like directors who like actors. Things got done, but fun was had at the same time when Michael was in charge. Tom Baker I remember as very kind, wonderfully knowledgeable about almost everything. Was Mary Tamm the sidekick? Of course she was. She and I got quite friendly, though I envied her the riding she did in the story. I believe she later married someone very rich!
It must have been pleasant shooting at Leeds Castle in the height of summer.
Everything was lush and green. I live in Greenwich, so it was nice driving down to the castle. I’ve a feeling it was being used for top secret discussions at the time, so there were no planes going over, which was perfect for filming. I recall one wonderful moment on location when we were filming on the edge of the moat, and the boom operator was walking backwards with the microphone. He suddenly just disappeared – he’d fallen in the moat! I’m afraid I laughed.
Lamia’s ‘twiddly’ hair-style has been a cause for some comment. Do you remember it?
I do! There was some extraordinary make-up, and my hair was stuck to my face in corkscrews. The costumes were lovely – circa-1960s, really.
Your death scene was memorable, accidentally shot by one of the Count’s guards.
I had to be blown up, so I had an asbestos vest fitted with a wire dangling out. The very laconic special effects men showed me their tiny, tiny fire extinguisher, which didn’t exactly make me feel better! I had to run so many steps before the wire ran out and then they pressed the button and ‘bang’. It looked good, so we only did the one take. Doctor Who was so well produced that they’d virtually made it into an art form. There were also several wonderfully-arranged sword fights.
What are you presently working on?
I’m at the National for the foreseeable future, in a play called Rosencrantz and Gildensten Are Dead. It’s been a very successful production. The theatre has been a good friend. I like it because I’m in control; I’m not going to be cut out of anything. The whole television landscape has changed in England due to the recession and all that, and I’m also a woman getting older, so the parts get less and less.
Some closing thoughts on The Androids of Tara?
It was rather a nice thing to have been part of. I think most of the members of British Equity have done one at some time or other. Several friends were totally envious of me doing Doctor Who because they had never been asked – but then again, I’ve never been asked to do a blue movie, and I’m really put out about that! It was great fun, really smashing. I wish they’d bring the series back.

see you soon with more!

...and penultimate 'press clippings you might have missed' posting connected with the "Key To Time" DVD box set release with the following...

Returning to TV Zone Magazine and we next find actor John Woodvine talking with Jane Killick to coincide with the VHS release of “The Armageddon Factor”. Again if you’ve missed this small article it ran as follows…

John Woodvine plays the main villain in one of the two Doctor Who videos out this month, The Armageddon Factor. “I remember that I was getting messages from some galactic super power,” he says. “I was the head of my planet, and although I was a dictator, I was actually being dictated to.”
John’s character is the Marshal, a man concerned only with war and destroying the planet of Zeos, even if it means the destruction of his own world, Atrios. It would be fair to say that asking John Woodvine to play the Marshal was casting to type. By his own admission, he quite often plays a military man. “Military types or policemen,” he clarifies. “I’m too old to play policemen now. I play retired policemen!”
“What I principally remember is we all laughed quite a lot,” continues John. “I used to get messages via an implant in my neck from this higher galactic power and a certain amount of twitching used to go on as this thing was activated and the messages came through. It was difficult keeping a straight face. Of course you have to appear to believe every single moment of it. That’s the knack, do it with it complete sincerity, no matter how hilarious you may find rehearsals.”
Every Doctor Who story has its villain and it’s tempting for some actors to adopt an over-the-top pantomime style for the role, but John likes to think he played the part with a bit more subtlety. “I always try to do whatever the character is – whether he’s wicked or funny – to try and find the real man. It will be interesting to see whether I managed to get any other dimension other than just pure evil into the man. I’d like to think he was a bit more rounded, but of course that depends on the script. If the script makes him one-dimensional, then there’s not a lot the actor can do about it.”
In fact, the script for The Armageddon Factor was quite a good one, rounding off the Key to Time series with some superb twists. One of the most effective scenes is when the Doctor uses the Key to put the Marshal in a Time loop and prevent him from destroying both the planets. John Woodvine doesn’t have much recollection of this scene, or the story in general – he made it seventeen years ago, after all. But every so often he is assured that the Marshal is remembered by others. “I do a lot of theatre work and over the years people pop up at the stage door, the Doctor Who fans, with their albums and their books of reference and I find myself signing very specific pages in the annuals that refer to my character or my particular story. That’s very interesting because they’re real buffs.”

back soon with the last 'press clipping' transcript!

So happy to get my hands on a true 'classic series' gem today. Dropping through my letterbox this morning is my copy of "The Time Warrior". Briefly scanned over the contents, looks really excellent, interesting to see that clips used in the 'Beginning The End' feature are superimposed on Peckforton Castle walls.

Another true quality 'classic series' release well worth adding to your collection!

One last 'press clipping you might have missed' connected with the forthcoming (less than a couple of weeks away now! how exciting!) "The Key To Time" epic DVD box set...

Lastly on the subject of “The Armageddon Factor” (and infact the whole ‘Key to Time’ season) I return once more to another very early (and presumably now out of print) edition of Cult Times. In the March 1996 sixth issue of the magazine Peter Griffiths tracked down guest star Barry Jackson and under the heading ‘Cockney Time Lord Drax was brought to life by Barry Jackson’ the interview for those whom can’t lay their hands on a copy, went like this…

Barry Jackson joined the ranks of the Doctor’s fellow Time Lords when he played Drax in the 1979 Doctor Who story The Armageddon Factor. If the original idea had stuck, he may have been the only one with red hair…
The script described Drax somewhat differently to how he eventually appeared. Tell us about it.
Well, the Doctor and company were in a subterranean cavern or some such. They came across a gap in the wall, and the script described a shock of red hair suddenly appearing through it. This was Drax! I thought this was wonderful, as I have very little hair. Actors love to get into makeup and wigs, you see, and here was an opportunity to dress up and look a bit different. It was that description which sold me the part at the time.
I read on and liked the script, so I accepted the job. All the cast and crew then met up for the read-through, which can sometimes be quite frightening. Usually makeup and wardrobe gather around afterwards to take your measurements and all that, but at this meeting there seemed to be an absence of consultation. I asked Michael Hayes, the director, about it, and he said, “Ah, it’s alright, you’ll be fine as you are.” So I was disappointed I didn’t get a wig! But I got on with the job and was committed to it.
Did you enjoy working with Michael Hayes?
Absolutely. In those days he gave me lovely, different roles – a seas captain one time, a vicious prison warder the next. It’s difficult to know why directors cast you. If you read that description of a cockney with this great big mop of red hair, you certainly wouldn’t think of me. But I’ve always admired directors who can make that kind of leap in the dark. Many these days think simply in terms of lookalikes. I met Michael just recently at a reunion for a production we did in 1959 called Age of Kings, and he commented on how well the Doctor Who episodes had help up.
A lot of your scenes were two-handers with Tom Baker.
Tom was a very intelligent guy, with an intelligent approach to the job. He had a marvellous attitude to the work, straight in there with script, discussions and so forth. He was also one of these people who could look at a crossword for a few moments and rattle the answers straight off. I’ve met a number of actors who can do that, and it always amazes me because I’ve only managed to finish the Guardian crossword four or five time! Of the other Doctors, I worked with Hartnell in the early days, and also did a story with Pertwee although we never played a scene together. I’d always been an admirer of Patrick Troughton as well.
Draw and the Doctor were miniaturised during the story. Was this difficult to achieve?
We didn’t now much about it because it was all done in post production, I think using chromakey. It reminded me of a pantomime I did in 1956 where everyone was reduced by magic to six inches high, and the props were all made huge in a scene change. Miniaturization is a lovely concept.
Did you see the finished result?
No. I’ve never seen the episodes, which explains why I can’t remember a great deal. Those were the days when I didn’t watch my stuff on television – I got bored with it! I did watch the series when my kids were younger, though. I remember my daughter saying to me once, “You don’t like working on Doctor Who, do you, Daddy? You always get killed in the seams” – meaning scenes!
The writers of The Armageddon Factor, Bob Baker and Dave Martin, claim you are the only actor to whom they ever sent a letter of congratulations.
Really? That letter never go to me. If it had, it would be in my file. I’m really disappointed and rather cross that it never got through. It sometimes wish I could roll the clock back, because I would love to play Drax again.

Just noticed that the following extras have been cleared with the British Board of Film Classification regarding the forthcoming November 2007 Region 2 DVD release of "Destiny of the Daleks"

00:08:11:09 DESTINY OF THE DALEKS - PHOTO GALLERY
00:09:25:23 KEN GRIEVE
00:09:33:22 OPTIONAL CGI EFFECTS
00:43:15:08 DAVROS CONNECTIONS
00:03:05:07 PRIME COMPUTER ADVERTS
00:03:42:18 TRAILS & CONTINUITY
00:00:22:23 EASTER EGG

Well somehow I've managed to afford to get my hands on one of these marvellous "Key To Time" boxsets, strange to see that it is strictly limited to 15000 editions, mine by the way is number 6637.

Oh where to start to wade through the mountain of material featured within???

Well over the past couple of days I've been shifting through the contents of fourth story "The Androids of Tara", not one of favourites and for me at least the addition of the commentary did little to change my opinions.

Highlight for me of this particular disc is another one of those marvellous 'Now and Then' features, definitely my favourite extra whenever it features and with Swordsman Farrah aka actor Paul Lavers narrating its marvellous to see the virtually seamless blending of modern day shots with relevant extracts from the 1978 story. My only criticism about this extra is that the location map used to indicate the area of the Leeds Castle used in a particular shot is particularly poor as I feel it doesn't adequaitely give a sense of distance and general area to the location.

One disc down six too go ho hum, still mustn't grumble still delighted to get six complete interlinked stories with a wealth of extras in one albeit fairly pricy hit!