Better than Average Dalek Tale

This really is one of the best Dalek stories of all. There is always a problem with returning adversaries, as there is often little for them to do but repeat what they did last time. There is some difference here, as the Daleks are rendered unable to Exterminate! And the fact clearly terrifies them, as well as providing the production team with some interesting challenges. Away from Earth, and the by-now-overused UNIT, Jon Pertwee is able to show just what an effective lead he could be. His relationship with Sarah Jane, the best companion by far, has developed into mutual trust which only helps the story along.

The Exxilon city is a brilliant creation, the traps clever and effective. My favourite part is the ritual in which Sarah Jane is to be sacrificed: the rhythmical chanting of the locals is a spooky and chilling sound.

As is often the case in Doctor Who, the visiting humans are a faceless, uninteresting bunch with no noticeable character traits apart from the ability to die horribly. Terry Nation's characterization skills were not his greatest assets. Nevertheless, this is an interesting and effective tale, and not a bad one with which to introduce a novice into the exciting world of Doctor Who.

TIMELASH

This is the worst dr who ever, i can not understand why the bbc and 2entertain spent their time and money in making this DVD. It has possibly the worst story line and 'not everones best dr' (colin baker). To sum up this story in word word it would be 'RUBBISH'. Do not buy this it is not worth it(if you have to RENT IT instead).

I rate this dvd overall 0.5 out of 10!!!!!

Historical Glare of the Zarbi DVD-O

If your a new fan or an old one returning The Web Planet isn't exactly the best place to start as it might turn you off 60's black and white stories or William Hartnell's Doctor in particular. The best thing to do is to start with The Beginning set and then maybe you'll be ready for this story because you really need to be a Doctor Who fan to see it (being a fan of past period TV shows is a help as well.)

It's very ambitious for it's time and so doesn't always hold together especially for a modern audience. The picture and sound are top notch as always on the DVD's and the extras are as strong as ever with a terrific documentary about the making of the story and an informative commentary by the people behind the story.

So I'd recommend this story but only after you have watched enough of the series that this story would intrigue you as a curio of a interesting if not always successful side-step early in the series history.

Daleks boxset of triumph

minus the 1st adventure this is basicaly the davros boxset all over again! which has some pritty good episodes! especialy genesis along with one of the other greats resurection! they are some of the best stories the daleks ever released and this boxset really is good value for money tho isnt possibly as good as the pertwee boxset! which was amazing value for money! The dalek invasion of earth is also a superb story marking the end of an era for hartnell as susan leaves!
Based on genesis alone this is worthy of buying but all these stories r fantastic! even revelation which in my opinion is a very different dalek story but definatley good!

Pertwee's first against the daleks

Jon Pertwee's first Doctor Who adventure against the Daleks is pretty standard stuff. it's neither totally bad nor totally good to be honest. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I have seen better. Still a worthy addition to anyone's Doctor Who collection.

Doctor Who- Terror of the Autons review by Benjamin Wood

This fantastic Doctor Who story got series 8 off to a great start. For instance, it introduces one of the best villians ever (the master) which is played deviously by Roger Delago, Jo Grant ( Jon Pertwee's second assistant) debuts in this episode and finally the return of the autons. This story has also been electronically restored into colour because in the 1970's BBC wiped a lot of Jon Pertwee's episodes and this story since only existed in black and white. But some NTSC(Amercain) colour version of this story were returned to the BBC in the early 90's. The BBC then combined both the b/w and colour signals to produce a colour image. Anyway. This is one of Jon Pertwee's best storys ever and I advise you to purchase this Video ASAP and enjoy some classic 70's Doctor Who

For Fans Only

I'm a big Doctor Who fan and i found myself screaming at myself when I watched this. Anytime the Doctor meets himself there are contradictions, and there are tons in this, one example is that the third doctor seems to know what he looks like before he meet himself. Confusing yes? The fact that Tom Baker doesnt show is greatly annoying considering he was the best of the old Doctors, in fact it's really a misleading title as it should be called The Four Doctors. Peter Davison is fine but the Second and Third Doctor really are the central charaters. Thank God Russell T Davies has said the Doctor will not meet himself in the new series. This is an ok story though, but for die-hard fans only.

Doctor Who The re-birth of a legend

For many of us Jon Pertwee's incarnation of the Doctor took the series in a new direction, with his Tardis license revoked by the Time Lords, he hardly ever left the earth. Whilst this made entertaining viewing and meant that UNIT and the Bridadier would be part of the series, many of us longed for the space and time adventures of old. In this his final appearance as the 'dandy' Doctor, Pertwee does get to travel thorugh time and space, he faces a race of intelligent spiders in order to free a world of humans from slavery, ultimately losing his life in the process.

This story is remarkable, for many reasons, mainly that it proves how good Pertwe was in the role and proves yet again that a series can go from strength to strength when the lead character returns with a new face, mannerisms and quirky demeanor.

For any new Who fan that is getting interested by the new series I reccomend reviewing titles like this to get a feel for the series and for any fans who don't already own this, get your credit card out and buy it. You won't be sorry.

Remnants of Pertwee era releases

With the release of this souvenir set of two Doctor Who adventures from the Pertwee era, all but 3 of his 24 adventures are now commercially available. Unfortunately, with the exception of Ambassadors of death (which is coming in May 2002), what was left on the shelf was left there for a reason! It's a neat idea to showcase the talents of the original Master as played by Roger Delgado, but sadly all his best stories are already available. Colony in space, the first Pertwee story to take place off the Earth, is the better of these two, and certainly holds up relatively well. Delgado is pretty slick as The Master, and Pertwee was still putting some effort into the role of the Doctor. It's a relatively good story, well acted by a supporting cast featuring Eastenders Tony Caunter and Coronation Street's Helen Worth, but like most six parters, does suffer from being a bit padded. That's nothing to the padding of the second tape The time monster. One of the worst examples of Doctor Who available. Cliche ridden, over long, badly acted and padded beyond belief. Episode 4 seems to exist for no other purpose than filling the story to the correct length, and does nothing to move the plot along. Also, the quality of this tape is somewhat dubious. Episode 3 is particularly weak, clearly being a poor NTSC master transfered into PAL. Episode 4 could be the same, but is better quality. Episode 2 has suffered in the transfer process, and the screen ripples almost constantly, whereas episode 6 has some serious sound problems. The tin itself is very nice, although the picture of Delgado is flat and not embossed as was the earlier Cybermen tin. Collectors will want to have this, but for general interest, I'd give it a miss.

A brilliant epic

What a great story , which thoroughly justifies its six episodes . The story involves an war between earth and an alien planet over the destruction of transporters, which has been deliberately started by the master for his own devious means.I love the ape like ogrons and Roger Delgado is utterly superb as the master. I advise any Who fan who has not seen this epic to do so soon. It is just a pity that the six parter that follows on from Frontier in space , Planet of the daleks , is not availiable on video.

terror of the zygons

the location filming is of great benefit, all the key performances are good (with the principals coming out especially well and the nurse and the gillie being quite effectively threatening), the rubber alien costumes and the model work are pretty good (even the skarasan is redeemed by being simply hilarious), but the clincher which puts it ahead of many dr who stories is a superb cliffhanger where... well, let's say you know it's going to happen, but it's still quite a shock. poor sarah.

it has to be said, on the downside, that the ending is flat, unimaginative, weak and - even for a story with rubber monsters - unbelievable.

Not an Irrelevant DVD set. Buy This or be Deleted!

Ok, so the Daleks might have returned to menace the Doctor and Rose once again in 'Doomsday', but its the Cybermen who have emerged as the second series of the New Doctor Who's crowning monsters. But long before they were metal monsters from a parallel Earth, they were metal monsters from the planet Telos...

The Cyberman set includes what are probably the two best 'Classic' Cybermen tales, 'Tomb of the Cybermen' and the latest classic release 'The Invasion', plus the very first appearance of those glass-jawed 80's Cybermen in 'Earthshock'. All are not only some of the best Cyber-Related tales in Who-History, but also shining points for the two featured Doctors, Patrick Troughton and Peter Davison.

Tomb was voted the best 2nd Doctor story in the 2003 UK Gold celebrations and with such an engrossing story it easy to see why - in fact, the story was completely missing from the archives until found in Hong Kong in the early 90's. The Doctor and Jamie take new travelling companion Victoria on her first trip to the planet Telos, but it seems trouble is brewing in the form of a logical genius and madman named Kreig, who intends to revive the frozen Cybermen in order to make them his leader. Its a battle against the clock as the Doctor faces both Kreig and the Cybermen's plans to kill them... or worse. The story is famous for the first appearance of the Cyber Controller, A infamous Cyberman who would crop up several more times in Doctor Who, most recently as the alter ego of John Lumic in 'The Age of Steel'.

Newly released this month 'The Invasion' is an equally important story not so much for the Cybermen but the very first UNIT adventure, with the Brigader making his second appearance after his encounter with the Yeti in 'The Web of Fear'. With two episodes missing from the full story they are reconstructed using a beautiful art render done by Cosgrave Hall, creators of the online Doctor Who 2003 adventure Scream of the Shalka. Patrick along with fellow companion actors Friaser Hines and Wendy Panbury as Jamie and Zoe are excellent, with the evil Tobias Vaughton as perhaps one of the best 60's Who villains ever, a twisted man allied with the Cybermen, but having goals of his own too....

Finally its off to the 80's for 'Earthshock', which was the first appearance of the Cybermen for 6 years. Now fully redesigned, the Cybermen of this era have often being criticised for being too emotional ('Excellent!') and moving away from the original ideas of them as interesting contrasts of ourselves to mere monsters. All the same their first outing was a blast, with their very appearance said to be 'the last great surprise in Doctor Who', and a equally surprsing conclusion, depending or not if you like or despise a certain character.... Top of the range here is Peter Davison, who creates sparks in a brilliant confrontation with the Cyberleader, played by the fan-loved David Banks. Also on hand is the witty Janet Fielding as 'the mouth on legs' Tegan, who really shines in this story over the slightly sloppier companions Adric and Nyssa.

All in all this is a (As Chris would say) fantastic set of Cyber-Related episodes, so if you don't have any of them be sure to pick this up, as its great for anyone who has enjoyed them in the new series and is curious about the original Cyberhordes. Don't forget, you can see more 60's Cybermen goodness with the 'Lost in Time' collection, featuring incomplete adventures 'The Moonbase' and 'The Wheel in Space'. And for those who still prefer the nazified pepperpots to the Cybermen, an Amazon Exclusive set featuring all the classic Dalek stories released so far should be out around January.

Delgado is THE Master!

This story from Jon Pertwee's second season as the Doctor, is the second story to feature his arch-nemesis the Master. In it, the Master attempts to hijack a nerve gas missile and blow up a peace conference. In his efforts to stop him, the Doctor must first figure out how to deal with a strange parasite creature which feeds on the evil thoughts of others, growing stronger all the time.
One disappointment in this story is the characterisation of UNIT, who, for a major military taskforce are picked off rather too easily by the prisoners who steal the missile. In addition, it can be argued that the plot is a little convoluted. The success of the Master's plan depends on him being able to get his hands on a missile at the exact time that a peace conference is taking place.
Nevertheless, the story works well in spite of these issues. The Master's debut story, `Terror of the Autons' introduced us to the character of the Master, and this story cements his reputation. Roger Delgado is excellent, playing the part as a Mafia-style boss, and the interaction between him and Pertwee is a delight to watch. There are also some wonderful tense moments each time the creature makes an attack. Check out the scene at the end of episode 3 when the Doctor is strapped into a chair and being haunted by many of his enemies from the past.
Only the black and white prints of this story remain. There are only a few minutes of colour footage surviving, and these are included at the end of the tape. Hopefully, they'll be able to colour this one in and get it out on DVD soon. Here we have a good piece of drama from the Seventies, which makes for entertaining viewing today.

THE DOMINATORS

This is not as good as the other surviving Troughton stories but its still not bad.If you can get it for cheap on Amazon then give it a try.The Quarks are interesting and although a little padded the story is fun.The main villain in this story is the Dominator Rago who while not riseing to the same level as villains like the Master,the Daleks and the Ice-Warriors is much better than the Invisible Enemy and Kroll probably with Taren Capel and Gavrok.Troughton is good but the Dulcians(aside Cully) are dull and boring.The action is resonable and I like the plan to turn Dulkis into a radioactive source of power.Give The Dominators a chance.

Leela's Debut? - NB!

Arriving in a marshy jungle on some distant alien world, the Doc is suprised when the savage natives, the Sevateem, recognise him as ''the Evil One'' despite the fact that he has never seen them before, nor set foot on this very planet. Or has he? On the run from the Sevateem, the Doctor finds that his only ally is Leela, an outcast from the tribe, and he begins to unravel a mystery inextricably linked to his own shady past...

A break from the gothic tales that populate Baker's early years, The Face Of Evil is blessed with an intelligent and thought-provoking, if somewhat slow, script and some brill performances. Baker's at his boyish best and Louise Jameson makes nice her debut as Leela, although she isn't as good as in her next story - bloody masterpiece The Robots Of Death. Speaking of that tale, it is worth mentioning that Face has often been overlooked in favour of Robots, Talons or The Deadly Assassin, but trust me, it's a worthy purchase.

James

An allegory of its own time and space

Although a long way from a highpoint of the series, this six-parter is interesting for the surprisingly political (and often overtly Socialist) slant the script takes. Whereas social revolutions have been a staple of science fiction even before H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine, it's rare for a film or television entry in the genre to focus on labour relations and class warfare so explicitly. Just as Frank Herbert's Dune saga was an allegory for the Middle East's political tensions during the oil boom, The Monster of Peladon is an allegory of its own time and place. 70s Britain is now almost ancient history, so many of the references will be lost on a new generation of viewers, but for those who lived through it, watching this show again brings it all back.

For Peladon, standing on the brink of great wealth or even greater disaster, read Britain, for its coveted rare minerals, read North Sea Oil. Joining the Federation (read the Common Market) has not improved the lot of the workers, only the rich; the miners striking for improved wages and conditions (read any of the militant trade unions of the early 70s) are dismissed as bolshie rebels by rulers who would rather confront them than negotiate; while outside enemies manipulate their divisions not so much for conquest as for profit (read the growing trade deficit that saw Britain hover on the verge of bankruptcy). Add a subplot where the Doctor's assistant urges the figurehead Queen of Peladon to seize power by explaining something they have on earth called Women's Lib, and you've got a perfect reflection for the concerns and paranoias facing 70s Britain - that dark, depressing time of strikes, power cuts, IRA bombing campaigns, the three-day week and inept government.

As drama, it works well enough, but as social history, it's positively fascinating.

"Nothing in the world can stop me now..."

Forget about the four Ice Warriors episodes, and put to one side the (admittedly excellent) documentary on the Missing Episodes; the reason you should buy this video is because it has the single best episode of Dr Who on it; The Underwater Menace episode 3.

It's a superb runaround escapade of an episode, with a witty script, and performances that capture the nature of the characters. Heck, it's worth the price just to see Joseph Furst cheiwing the scenery as the villainous Professor Zaroff. Watch him ham it up for all its worth, marvel at how he almost bursts out with laughter in the climactic scene. And of course, the episode contains the now legendary,"Nothing in the world can stop me now" line...

What more could you ask for...?

(Well, the other three episodes for a start...)

Davros Returns!

The opening scenes of Destiny of the Daleks get the new season off to a shaky start, Romana's regeneration - in which she 'tries on' a number of unsuitable bodies before settling on the Lalla Ward version - being played very much for laughs. 'The [regeneration] scene was handled abysmally but on a more positive note, Lalla Ward's debut performance as the new Romana is very promising. The scenes set on Skaro's surface are very effective,but it is admittedly very difficult to believe that the Daleks could ever have become locked in a logical stalemate with the Movellans unless they had evolved into robots, given that they are normally highly emotional creatures, but Terry Nation attempts to address this problem in a different way by suggesting that it is the races' respective battle computers that have led to this situation. In the end, the impression given is that Nation is simply struggling to come up with a plausible reason why the Daleks should need to go in search of their creator for assistance.This brings us to the nub of the story's problems. Davros was a character positively crying out not to be resurrected after his unbeatable debut in season twelve's Genesis of the Daleks. The plot device by way of which this is achieved in Destiny of the Daleks is frankly ludicrous, and the character in general is nowhere near as well-written or as subtle here as in the earlier story. It doesn't help matters, either, that Michael Wisher, whose wonderful performance in Genesis of the Daleks was such a crucial factor in Davros's success, proved to be unavailable in this story. David Gooderson's acting here is unfortunately not in the same league, and the net result is that this wonderful character is very much devalued.His somewhat humiliating fate reduced his evil stature greatly, though the possibility of his release by the Daleks is open... Even Davros's mask and chair, designed for an actor of a different build, are less effective this time around,but I found it was amusing to watch Davros - the evil genius, brilliant creator of the Daleks - bobbing up and down on his squeaky chair every time he moved about!Destiny of the Daleks ultimately manages to rise above all its undoubted failings and provides a fair degree of entertainment. After a couple of hit and miss seasons, the dreaded Daleks once more come to the aid of the Doctor in a most enjoyable, if not exactly vintage little story.

Great surreal sequel to the earlier 'Kinda'

This is my favourite story of Season 20 - generally rated the worst of Peter Davisons three as the Doctor. I love this stroy as it contains so many religious references (in particular Bhuddism). This may seem ironic coming from a firm agnostic, but these themes can also be interpreted as common. Regarding the script, the actual plot and storyline generated by the author, Christopher Bailey is not quite as sound as 'Kinda'. There seem to be a few to many plot holes but the superb production by Fiona Cumming distracts the viewer from this. The setting of the story is a direct contrast with its predecessor 'Kinda' as it shows a slightly more advanced civilisation (it reminds me of the Arab culture) and we see large, well-lit caves. I also particularly like the relativly short section being on film involving Dojjen as it brings an air of strangeness which perfectly fits the required atmosphere. The cliffhangers are great whilst Janet Fielding's acting as Tegan is easily among the best ever seen from a companion in Doctor Who. Finally, those who are not so interested in Dr Who are likely to find amusemant in this story as it contains one of Martin Clunes' earliest TV performaces (filmed in late 1982). He was of course to later find fame in 'Men Behaving Badly' amongst other things. The scenes of him being lazy and uncaring are a joy and that ever famous scene where he is possessed and orders the Doctor's execution is absaloutly brillaint. I can guarantee that everyone will find something in this story to like as it works on so many layers. Tim Graves

Low 5 / High 4

This one's on the brink of 5 stars. A perfect example of Doctor Who.
Some highlights include the Master watching the Clangers, the cliffhangers and the sword fight.
A couple of downers are that the sea devils are too weak and should not be killed by bullets. Another is that the incidental music can get on your nerves after six episodes. It actually sounds like the sea, but when this episode's released on dvd, which i'm surely it will be soon, it would be nice to have an alternative music score.
Otherwise a brilliant piece of televsion that could not be made with the modern day's perfect effects and pace.