TV Gold

As pointed out today on Outpost Gallifrey Jon Pertwee's Season Seven 7-parter "...and the Silurians" is indeed moving ever closer to that DVD release in January 2008.

British Board of Film Classification has listed the following extras...

00:35:10:11 WHAT LIES BENEATH (DISC 1)
00:06:00:15 DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS - PHOTO GALLERY (DISC 2)
00:09:39:03 NOW & THEN - THE LOCATIONS OF DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS
00:19:06:15 GOING UNDERGROUND
00:01:03:04 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - THE TIME MEDDLER
00:13:51:12 MUSICAL SCALES - AN ERA OF EXPERIMENTATION
00:04:42:02 COLOUR SILURIAN OVERLAY

...out of which I thought it interesting that they figure that they can fit a 35 minute extra on Disc One alongside seven episodes of story.

Interesting to note a 'coming soon' item for William Hartnell's "Time Meddler" story especially considering that when it was previously released on VHS the restoration team felt that the material was in such a poor state that nothing would be gained by using VidFire technology to improve it. Although delighted to see another Hartnell tale finally arrive IMO overall it feels like a fairly weak first doctor story and its only redeeming charactistics are the opening moments where Steven attempts to get used to his new status as time traveller and the inclusion of the storys main guest star Peter Butterworth. For me at least this is not the story I would have chosen, I'd much rather of had "The War Machines" or possibly "The Chase", but mustn't grumble.

The word is that in March we will be seeing a special two disc release (or should that be re-release) of "The Five Doctors", not one of the greatest stories around but I guess its a good time to give it an extended 'spit and polish' considering that 2008 will mark the 25th anniversary of a) its recording (it apparently went on location/in the studio during March of 1983) and b) its transmission on either the day (in the US) or two days after (in the UK) the twentieth anniversary.

I was listening to the bonus interview with Nicholas Courtney at the end of the 'Doctor Who Companion Chronicles' story "Old Soldiers" the other day and he mentioned that he participated in the commentary for this release... well he didn't actually say "The Five Doctors" by name but we all knew that was the story to which he was refering to.

Firstly a very Happy New Year to one and all!

For my first post for 2008 regarding press clippings of reviews connected with 'classic series' DVD releases that you might not have seen I'd like to offer...

Although I’ve not got any press clippings from either the “Silurians” or “The Sea Devils” stories I have a mini-interview connected with “Warriors of the Deep”. In this TV Zone Magazine extract to coincide with the stories VHS video release interviewer Jane Killick chats with Sea Devil cast member Christopher Farries in a feature entitled “Warrior of the Deep”

”How we never caught double pneumonia I shall never ever now,” says Christopher Farries, remembering playing a Sea Devil in Warriors of the Deep, the Doctor Who story out on video this month.
The Sea Devils are revived from hibernation on Earth in 2084, a scene which was filmed in a tank of ice cold water at Shepperton Studios. “The expression ‘freeze your bollocks off’ is perfect!” says Chris who paradoxically suffered from the heat wearing the costume above the water. “You were cold from the bottom half and boiling hot at the top. We lost a stone during the shooting, most of us. I have never been so hot in my entire life! The moment they yelled ‘cut’ on a shot they would come out and put Cologne on the back of our necks… and they got ice packs and place them on your wrist on the pulse, and that totally lowers the body temperature within 30 seconds or so. Oh God, it was unbelievable! I’ve never forgotten it.”
Chris was Sauvix, the leader of a group of Sea Devils who team up with the Silurians to destroy Earth in this 1984 Peter Davison story. He had to wear a rubber suit and a remote-controlled monster head on top of his own head. “I had a gauze mingled in with the rubber where my actual face was and I had to have my face blacked-up underneath. I have some wonderful shots with me with a black face and a fag hanging out and half a costume on. And of course, you couldn’t hear a word [through the costume]. I yelled the dialogue out so that the other actors like Peter Davison could reply to my dialogue, then I had to dub it later using effects voice boxes.”
Despite the hardship, Chris enjoyed working in the studio. “Wonderful!” he says. “All the scenery used to wobble, but that’s the fun with Doctor Who! I [as Sauvix] took the men and invaded the place where the Doctor was, and as the men knocked down the great steel metal doors, they all shook. It used to make me fall about because they were made of polystyrene.”
As with all good villains, Sauvix comes to a timely end. But being shot in the last episode turned out to be a special effects nightmare. “They put these little green packs of blood all over you with small explosives in. Well, of course they never went off at all for the first time, and then they went off when we were in the middle of the dialogue. And the thuds! It didn’t burn me, but the impact of the explosion was unbelievable so you ended up bruised all over as if somebody had set about you.”
Chris Farries certainly found appearing in Doctor Who a memorable experience. “It’s entering a Fantasy world from the minute you set about those rehearsals to the minute you finish the shoot,” he says. “It’s cuckoo land, but great fun.”

I also have a page from an unspecified magazine laid out like some kind of newspaper front page headlined ‘UNIT Hotline’ with a figure with the likeness of Sergeant Benton talking into a walkie-talkie. At the bottom of this page there is a small ‘Know Your Enemy’ item which is headed ‘No.21 The Myrka’ the contents of which reads as follows…

SUBJECT: The Myrka
PLANET OF ORIGIN: Earth
WEAPONRY: Lethal webbed claws, and electric charge in tail equivalent to 50,000 volts.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE: Dull-witted marine sauropod subservient to the noble Silurian Triad.
HISTORY: Intelligence reports suggest that the Myrka is a creature of the inkiest depths, dating back to the Silurian era or the Eocene era or whatever. Its strength makes it a fearsome opponent – the Myrka is capable of crushing heavy bulkhead doors as if they were made of foam rubber, and its thick reptilian hide is impervious to blaster fire and kung fu. It also has the habit of exuding a noxious green paint-like substance which it smears on its enemies at will.

UNIT’s scientific advisor – code name, the Doctor – reports that the Myrka’s one weakness is light, which illuminates its shortcomings and, in sufficiently high ultraviolet doses, kills it stone dead. All UNIT members holidaying in coastal areas are urged to be on their guard and report any Myrka sightings immediately.

If anyone's interested the accurate rummour going round (supported by the bbfc website) is that after 'Beneath the Surface' box set we have...

February 2008 - "The Time Meddler" (1st Doctor 4-parter which ends season two)
March 2008 - "The Five Doctors" (special two disc set)

This will be followed by... although dates have not been confirmed, by...

"Black Orchid" (two part story Peter Davison from Season Nineteen)
"The Invasion of Time" (Tom Baker's Season fifteen six-part finale (probably featuring Louise Jameson in the commentary)

March 2008 will see the UK DVD release of “The Five Doctors” in a special two disc release marking its twenty-fifth anniversary since original transmission. However casting my mind back to 1995 when it originally was released on video TV Zone Magazine reporter Jane Killick had a chance to chat with special extended version creator Paul Vanezis. Possibly this is another interview (published under the heading ‘New (Ish) Who’ that might have passed unnoticed however from my press clipping the contents read as follows…

”This month’s Doctor Who video release is the exciting (or sacrilegious, depending on your point of view) new version of The Five Doctors with an extra 10 minutes 12 seconds of material. The project was the brainchild of Paul Vanezis, who discovered unseen footage when he was asked to remove some faults from the master videotape.
“The whole thing has been re-edited from scratch” says Paul, who is the producer of the new version. “We’ve re-ordered a lot of scenes into the original script order, but the most striking difference is with the opening of the programme. It previously started in the TARDIS control room, but I just thought that’s not a traditional opening to a drama like Doctor Who, which normally starts off with a teaser. So using the beginnings and ends of takes from the studio-recorded corridor, I created a little sequence showing the empty tower as a sort of calm before the storm.
“Then it’s little things rather than new chunks of material,” Paul continues. “So, for example, we see Peter Davison come out of the police box on the location which you never saw, and also the introduction of the Lord President entering the corridors of Gallifrey.”
One of the problems with adding new material is making the incidental music fit. For The Five Doctors, Paul went back to Peter Howell and asked him to adapt his original score. “I had more music created and also the original music has been re-edited to give a better flow in this new version. It’s designed for you to sit in front of a big tv with big speakers and turn the volume up. It’s mixed in Dolby surround sound, so it would be nice if people watched it in surround because we’ve put in lots of little tricks coming out of the speakers to frighten you.”
Visually, the biggest change is in the video effects, which were all re-done using 1990s technology. “I went back to the video effects workshop at Television Centre and David Chapman, who did the original effects, worked on it again. He said, ‘It’s nice to have a second crack at it with new technology’. For example, when the Cybermen get killed on the chessboard, bolts of lightning shoot down from the ceiling and destroy them, whereas previously it had been a video effect created on a BBC micro which looked very tacky.”
Paul Vanezis was not involved in the 1983 Doctor Who reunion special, but hopes his 1995 version will make fascinating viewing for Who fans and non-Who fans alike. “I wanted to make more of who the villain was, to make it more of a mystery,” he says. “Now there are more obvious clues because of the extra material we’ve put back, but you’re still not sure if those clues are [a red herring]. And the pace is generally a little bit slower, but because of the re-ordering of some of the scenes, it gives you a little bit more time to think about what’s going on.”

Apparently 32 minutes of extras have now been cleared by BBFC for the 'Invasion of Time' DVD release

00:07:03:13 THE INVASION OF TIME - PHOTO GALLERY
00:00:54:07 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - BLACK ORCHID
00:05:15:07 THE ELUSIVE DAVID AGNEW
00:09:56:21 THE RISE & FALL OF GALLIFREY
00:03:24:07 (CONTINUITY)
00:00:24:01 (DELETED SCENE 1 - EPISODE FIVE)
00:00:55:02 (DELETED SCENE 2 - EPISODE SIX)
00:01:16:03 (DELETED SCENE 3 - EPISODE SIX)
00:00:37:10 (DELETED SCENE 4 - EPISODE SIX)
00:02:22:14 (DELETED SCENE 5 - EPISODE SIX)

Other news I have heard is that we will be treated to forthcoming DVD releases of...

"The Brain of Morbius" (great as my VHS tape copy is unplayable!)

00:32:04:01 GETTING A HEAD
00:06:08:11 DESIGNS ON KARN
00:01:40:10 (EASTER EGG 1)
00:01:10:15 A LETTER TO ROBERT HOLMES (EASTER EGG 2)
00:02:20:19 SKETCH GALLERY
00:02:11:19 THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - SET TOUR
00:04:33:23 THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - PHOTO GALLERY
00:01:14:05 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - THE INVISIBLE ENEMY & K9 AND COMPANY

"The Invisible Enemy" (not a great story although its notable for K-9's introduction!)
plus the possible infamous solo spinoff 'K-9 And Company'

This recently appeared in the British Board of Film Classification website...

00:06:55:06 THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - COLLECTION 2 - PHOTO GALLERY
00:03:14:22 BBC CHILDREN IN NEED (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:04:33:16 DOCTOR WHO (LENNY HENRY SKETCH)
00:21:00:10 DOCTOR WHO - NOW AND THEN - ON THE TRAIL OF A TIME LORD (FEATURETTE)
00:03:29:22 UNTITLED (TRAILS AND CONTINUITIES)
00:05:34:11 TV TALKBACK (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:09:01:15 DOCTOR WHO - MINDWARP - DELETED AND EXTENDED SCENES
00:02:21:17 UNTITLED (A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH - FEATURETTE)
00:20:20:15 THE MAKING OF THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - PART TWO - MINDWARP

Naturally no word of when this might surface, lots more releases to come out before this but its certainly in the schedules... maybe it will be the January 2009 box set 'Season 23' release???

At the moment its very much a vague rumour currently circulating at present but this article from the 'Eastbourne Hearld' http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/seaford-news/Remember-the-Second-Doctor-at.3798813.jp seems to indicate the possibility of a release of the epic ten-part Patrick Troughton era finale "The War Games".

If I hear any more on this I'll pass it on here!

Oh my god! Just learnt that "The Invasion of Time" apparently will feature an incredible thirtythree CGI effects on offer for its DVD release.

Must try to contain my excitement... I'm starting to dribble!

Dear Sarah Tarrant - Might I respectfully ask you to amend the sentence "Sea Devil EXTRA....." viz the interview I gave to Jane Killick in 1995 for TV ZONE magazine. I have NEVER been an EXTRA in my entire career but have been a FULL BRITISH ACTOR'S EQUITY member since 1969 and played COMMANDER SAUVIX in the four episodes of WARRIORS OF THE DEEP in 1983 - as stated in the article. My website is http://www.christopherfarries.co.uk if you require further information.

Thank you -

Christopher Farries

Finally a new story coming up that I've got something on...

With its release on Region 2 DVD during May 2008 “The Invasion of Time” is a story that I have a couple of press clippings that possibly you might not have seen before and I would like take this opportunity to relate the contents.

The first takes us way back to the series transmission on UK Gold during January of 1996 and finds Cult TV Magazine journalist Peter Griffiths catching up with actor John Arnatt whom plays the second incarnation of the Time Lord Borusa.

John Arnatt has been working in television for almost fifty years, but the only role that ever impressed his son was the second, and perhaps best-remembered, incarnation of the Time Lord Chancellor Borusa, in 1978’s The Invasion of Time.

Tell us about your career.
I went to RADA, performed my first drama in 1936, and started in television in 1947. It was quite a low-budget business, but if you could start a programme and get through it, you were never out of work. I did about twelve a year, everyone did, because they couldn’t take a risk with someone who hadn’t worked in the medium. I’m probably best remembered for taking over from Alan Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1950s Robin Hood tv series, and I have had the rare distinction of appearing as the resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre, of which I am very proud. I suppose I am a survivor, but unfortunately the only things I was ever any good at were weekly rep and live television, and neither exist any more.

I though you were rather good in Doctor Who!
Thank you, I’d always wanted to get into Doctor Who. It was every actor’s ambition, and once you’d done it there was nothing to live for! It was a wonderful audition. Normally when you go to a casting, the chap looks at you quite blankly and says, “What have you done?” Not Gerald Blake, the director. This was the only time in sixty years I have been to an interview where the director said, “If you want the job, it’s yours”. Gerald was a marvellous chap, with tremendous enthusiasm. I remember at one point he had a slight altercation with Tom Baker, and he turned around and said, “Don’t you speak to me like that, I can remember when you were Patrick Troughton!” Typical Gerald. It was very sad that he died so young.

Borusa is quite an important character in Doctor Who’s history.
It was a lovely part, absolutely splendid. I would have liked to establish myself as a regular, but they didn’t ask me back. I don’t now why – I can’t believe there was anybody cheaper! I only ever did the one, but Milton Johns, who was also in the cast, had done three! The part I would love to have played was the Master.

Tom Baker was well into his stride as the Doctor.
Tom was awfully good as far as children were concerned. He was later splendid in The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil as well. Myself, Tom and John Leeson, who played the metal dog, used to combine crosswords during rehearsals. I brought The Telegraph, Tom would bring The Times and John, The Guardian. I have to say, I think Doctor Who suffered when Tom left and the Doctors got younger. William Hartnell did a remarkable job in the first episodes.

What do you remember of filming?
There were a couple of really quite impressive ceremonies, though the monsters were initially all light and shadows, as far as I remember. I recall the ending they had scripted didn’t work. It was something to do with a key and a gun, but it only came together in rehearsal. It was Louise Jameson’s last story running around in a loincloth with a knife, so we had a farewell party for her. Milton Johns was very interested in horse racing, as I recall, but he never bet. He was a splendid man, and the treasurer of Equity for a long time.

The Invasion of Time was disrupted by strikes, necessitating Outside Broadcast shooting in a disused psychiatric hospital. Did that cause any major problems?
The location was Red Hill, just near where I lived. There was a British Rail track nearby, and you can bet that the moment anyone called action, a train went past. It was very frustrating, but the tremendous OB people were used to all these interruptions, so no one got upset about it.

Did you keep track of the series afterwards?
I watched now and again, and the Doctor Who Appreciation Society once wrote to me and sent a long list of questions. I thoroughly enjoyed my little stint on Doctor Who.

...and secondly...

Next from the March 2000 VHS release the story is reviewed, within the pages of TV Zone magazine by Gareth Thomas and his rather unflattering thoughts went something like this…

This release, whilst ostensibly a single Doctor Who adventure, in fact comprises two separate stories that share the common setting of Gallifrey. Like the classic Deadly Assassin this expands the Time Lord mythos: it is now revealed that the Time Lords govern within a system of elective technocracy; that they store their personalities within an Amplified Panatropic Computer net and that they order their soft furnishings from the Habitat 1978 Range. The premise of the first four-part story is quite intriguing – the Doctor pretends to turn traitor and assist the invasion of Gallifrey by the alien Vardans – and it keeps one guessing until the final denouement. What scuppers it is the realization of the Vardans themselves. They are often described as being made of tinfoil, which I find a tad unfair (to me they look more like cling film) – but nevertheless they convey all the sinister presence of a child’s first attempt at making a mobile. What also scuppers it is the universally wooden acting – although John Arnatt’s Borusa is an exception and Tom Baker is terrific as ever.
After episode four it transpires that the Vardan invasion had in fact been masterminded by everyone’s favourite warlord asexuals – and what follows is a tack-on two-part story of consummate silliness of which a summary is – ‘A couple of Sontarans chase the Doctor around the TARDIS for a while before waling straight into a death-ray’. Like the first story, this one expands a mythos that of the Sontarans’ personal vulnerabilities. We already knew that they can be felled by a blow to the vent – but it is now revealed that they can be floored by a cleanly thrown sun-lounger, that they cannot thoroughly search a four-foot cubicle and that they will walk into carnivorous flora if you whistle at them.
Add to this yet a further expansion of the Who mythos – that Leela will marry any available wimp without wasting time with courtship – and you have a product that is thoroughly representative of the Graham Williams Doctor Who era. Not very good, in other words.

Just one new posting from me today...

Looking towards the June 2008 ‘K-9 tales’ and regarding ‘The Invisible Enemy’ looking back to issue 154 of TV Zone Magazine reviewer Tom Spilsbury said the following regarding the VHS video release…

A significant proportion of Doctor Who fans will tell you that The Invisible Enemy is the point when it all started to go wrong. Not that this is necessarily a surprise – some fans think that the series had been on the slide ever since they introduced that silly Dalek nonsense – but The Invisible Enemy’s most vile sin is that it introduced the Doctor’s robot dog companion K9. To some, at least, this was a step too far into self-parody and juvenility. Of course, there are just as many fans of a certain age who remember K9 to be the best thing about Doctor Who, and think that the dog perfectly epitomized the series, quirky humourous style.
It’s interesting, then, that to this reviewer at least. The Invisible Enemy seemed neither silly, nor particularly humourous. The early part of the story is taut and scary – if the Doctor can be ‘taken over’ by the alien and go bad, then what hope is there for everyone else? Themes of possession have been a mixed bag in Doctor Who. Played well by the actors concerned, the result is something rather unnerving. Overplayed – Richard Briers’s astonishing turn in Paradise Towers for one – and the result is laughable. Here, the possessed man, Lowe, is played to perfection by regular guest star Michael Sheard, best known as Grange Hill’s Mr Bronson. Sheard has admitted he found Lowe to be the most satisfying of his Who roles and it’s easy to see why.
Sadly, what The Invisible Enemy boasts in imagination cannot be matched by style. The scenes inside the Doctor’s mind are reasonably well realized, but the Nucleus monster is, frankly, pathetic, and there is no explanation why it changes its appearance between episodes. Presumably the costume wasn’t ready in time for the bulk of part three. Logic isn’t the story’s strong point either, and the Doctor’s solution is simply blow the Nucleus up is at odds with the show’s, and more importantly the character’s, usual style. Not as bad, and certainly not as silly, as its reputation suggests, The Invisible Enemy is interesting, if ultimately a little unsatisfying. 6

Something new from me for this thread...

Moved up in the DVD schedules for a provisional 25th August 2008 release the First Doctor tale “The War Machines” gained a VHS release way back in June of 1997. Around that time a review appeared in ‘TV Zone Magazine’ and, once again, if you missed it here is what reviewer Peter Griffiths had to say about this story…

The first story in ‘modern-day’ Earth and extrapolating contemporary concerns, The War Machines marked Doctor Who’s initial steps beyond its cod Sci-Fi/children’s drama origins. It remains a fairly intelligent and well-produced story, though not without problems.
This basic tale of a powerful computer, WOTAN, which decides to subjugate Humanity stands as one of the series’ earliest treatments of the idea, and scores highly for its serious approach, despite dodgy technical explanations, and for once examines the wider ramifications of a threat in central London through news reports and the reactions of locals and bystanders. On the other hand, the script is tied to children’s TV devices, relying on coincidence instead of deduction – a controlled Dodo gives vital information to the Doctor despite WOTAN’s failed attempt to hypnotize him. Perhaps as a result of William Hartnell’s obvious problems with dialogue, the Doctor is sidelined in his earliest role as military advisor and narrative weight instead given to likeable new companions Ben and Polly and, unusually, a supporting character, Major Green (Alan Curtis). The lengthy sequences in which Green supervises the construction and testing of WOTAN’s war machines, replete with carefully-positioned crates ready to be smashed, are doubtless meant to increase the menace of the lumbering contraptions, but they hamper the story’s pace.
The production fortunately plays to the script’s strengths with some reasonable performances (Sir Charles Summer, Professor Brett) and unusually slick direction. The deployment of the army and its hardware is more akin to the Troughton/Pertwee Earthbound episodes, while the slightly murky picture quality helps mask to joins between location filming and the rather impressive studio sets. Neither are the joins between the edited BBC prints and the recently discovered footage restored to the story particularly obvious, which is just how it should be and a credit to those involved.
A solid story, enjoyable enough on its own terms but more especially interested for the shift it precipitated in the Doctor Who canon. 7