Doctor Who - Dalek War Box Set (Frontier in Space / Planet of the Daleks) [DVD]

 

 

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This 4-disc set of two consecutive stories from 1973 is great. Frontier in Space, the first story (2 hrs 23 mins), is a complex tale of interplanetary intrigue and diplomacy, in which the Master is engineering a war between to powerful empires, Earth and the proud, honourable Draconians, who face each other distrustully across the eponymous boundary. If this sounds like Star Trek, it is - it was written a month after the first UK broadcast of the similarly-themed "Balance of Terror". You wouldn't get away with that nowadays! This story is probably best remembered for its aliens du jour, the Draconians, who are both well-written and well-realised, with even close-ups bearing close scrutiny. It's a high point of science fiction alien makeup. Another high point is Roger Delgado, in his final appearance as the Master. Here he is almost jovial as he schemes to destroy Earth's empire, apparently solely to humiliate the Doctor. It's a playful interpretation of the role we get from Delgado here, and he has a great rapport with both the principals. Sadly, after five and a half excellent episodes, the ending is a real botch job. It's hard to work out what's actually happening. The various extras explain what went wrong, and what should have happened. That aside, Frontier in Space was always one of my favourites, and this release confirms its place in my Who top ten.

Planet of the Daleks (2 hrs 20 mins) is a different kettle of fish, despite segueing directly from the previous story. Written by Dalek creator Terry Nation, it's basically a rehash of two of his previous stories - "The Daleks" (1963-4) and "The Daleks' Master Plan" (1965-6). Longtime Who fans may experience deja vu while watching. However, there's still much worth seeing. Where Frontier in Space explores the broad sweep of interplanetary diplomacy, Planet of the Daleks emphasises the personal struggles of survival in a hostile environment and the search for courage and leadership, as a small group of people attempt to prevent the Daleks from learning the secret of invisibility. It's slightly let down by some cheap-looking production values, but the story mostly gets away with it due to the conviction of the cast (Jon Pertwee and Bernard Horsfall especially, and even Prentis Hancock is much better here than his lacklustre performance in Planet of Evil). While nowhere near as good as either Frontier in Space, or Nation's later Genesis of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks is still a thoroughly entertaining adventure.

Extras (3 hours)
Frontier in Space:

Commentary with Katy Manning, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks, moderated by Clayton Hickman. A Thoroughly entertaining and informative soundtrack. *****

Perfect Scenario: Lost Frontier (30 mins) - This is an attempt to show how Frontier in Space drew on current affairs for inspiration. While there is much interesting material to illustrate the point, it's bizarrely framed in a pointless, distracting Matrix-themed science-fiction story where a future computer and student discuss the information. I'm going to sound like a Grumpy Old Man here, but do we really need a documentary to be jazzed up with a back-of-envelope framing story and look-what-i-can-do effects? No more please. **

The Space War (18 mins) - cast and crew recollect the making of the serial. Quite interesting. ****

Roger Delgado: The Master (33 mins) - a biography of actor Roger Delgado. An excellent tribute to one of the show's best regular actors, with many clips from his appearances in everything from Quatermass to a documentary. There are also many fond reminiscences from his colleagues, and a moving description by his widow Kismet in which she describes hearing the news of his death in a car accident. A worthy tribute to a fine actor. *****

Stripped for Action: The Third Doctor (16 mins) - The third Doctor's adventures in comics appear to have been an artistic high point, and this is well worth watching for the beautiful illustrations. *****

Photo Gallery ****
Production subtitles - all the production trivia, alternate scripts, trivia and asides you'll ever need. ****

There's meant to be an easter egg, but I'm blowed if I can find it.

Planet of the Daleks:

Commentary wth actors Katy Manning, Prentis Hancock and Tim Preece, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks. A good-natured and lively commentary track. ****

Perfect Scenario: The End of Dreams (30mins) - the second part of this effort loses its way, as Planet of the Daleks had less current-events context to make this feasible. This idea hasn't worked and I hope all involved are sent to bed without supper. *

The Rumble in the Jungle (17 mins) - cast and crew look back at the making of the story. Quite good but nothing amazing. ***

Multi-colourisation (11 mins) - How episode 3 had its colour restored. The highlight for me was that some of the software for this highly technical and complex process was written in BBC BASIC! Fascinating exploration of the restoration, which incidentally is now indistinguishable from the other episodes, it's a first-class job. ****

Stripped for Action: The Daleks (14 mins) - a reasonable exploration of the Daleks' appearances in comics, concentrating on the early seventies. ***

Blue Peter (13 mins) - two items from the childrens' magazine programme, featuring an appeal for any information on the theft of two Daleks from the BBC, and their subsequent return. OK but a bit too long, especially as some of this was on the Genesis of the Daleks DVD. ***

Photo gallery ****
Production subtitles ****

TL;DR - Frontier in Space is a classic of TV sci-fi, Planet of the Daleks is good entertainment, the extras are variable but plentiful. Buy it.

Frontier In Space & Planet Of The Daleks has always been my all-time favourite Dr Who stories than any other Classic/New Series adventure. For me, Planet Of The Daleks is better than any other Dalek Story ever made including the New Series of Dr Who. But that's just me. I just love everything about it. The two stories are completely different only inter-link in between, which is why both stories stand alone brilliantly on their own merits.

Planet of The Daleks is a solid Dalek story adventure that has elements of the early Dalek stories from the 60s and does not have Davros in it. The Dalek props used in them have such a metallic authenticity, that gleams. The Dalek Supreme truly excels on screen. There are so many memorable scenes, one of them is on location film where the Daleks are pushed into the pool of ice. The exotic jungle, has an alien planet feel to it, where the subdue lighting by director David Maloney is really effective, even more so in the Dalek Head Quarters and corridors and is now evident in the colour episode three.

I won't go into the storyline but focus on the DVD.

Firstly the dvd cover sleeve for each story is reversible. But why have the same picture? An alternative cover like `K9 & Company' dvd sleeve would have been great or an internal photo collage for each story.

Frontier In Space Disc 2:
Perfect Scenario: Lost Frontier: is a documentary dealing with social issues of 1972/73 around the World and some of it's reflection on `Frontier In Space'. The concept of a futuristic dreamers into discovering the similar social issues in this story is bizarre and padding, though very interesting.

The Space War: is the making of the story, with some great insights from Michael Hawkins (played General Williams).

Roger Delgado Biography: is well documented and strongly absorbing.

The Easter Egg: the experimental Dr Who theme for the opening/end credits to episode 5 at the time, that did not take off.

The photo gallery is really great. I remember pictures of Frontier in Space that featured in Dr Who Weekly, then Monthly and now called Magazine, well they are all featured in this gallery.

Planet of the Daleks Episode 3 was truly a visual experience. It looks fantastic in COLOUR! Though the texture is different to the other episodes just like in `The Sea Devils' and `Claws of Axos' DVDs. It must be said the colour match to the other five episodes are the same. Well done to the Dr Who Restoration Team!

The Easter egg is an original alternative commentary from 2007 for episode 3 before the colourisation restoration was considered.

I found the `Perfect Scenario: End of Dreams fared better than `Frontier In Space', this one focuses again on the social issues around the world in 1972 like the Vietnam War and how `Planet of the Daleks was conceived by Terry Nation. Though by now the two white coloured suited dreamers in the chairs and repeated scenes are a bit padding. But the contents and particularly the interviews are great. `Rumble in the Jungle' is a great look at the making of `Planet of the Daleks' with interviewed footage of the Director David Maloney.

The photo gallery is just simply brilliant! It has some stunning pictures of the Daleks on location as well as deep in the Dalek Headquarters. There's a wide selection of behind the scenes, particularly the Daleks on the Tardis set.

These are THE best Dr Who DVDs I have seen. The extras are a real treat. The Dalek War Box set has lived up to my expectation.

At last! Some more Pertwee on DVD! These two 6 parters that can be watched and enjoyed seperately or as one long epic are an excellent couple of adventures, from a time when the show was enjoying one it's most successful periods. It's also a refreshing change of style, as at the time most Pertwee stories were earthbound, aliens invade type scenarios, and outer spacey stuff was rare. Frontier In Space is one of the most ambitious stories of the 70's, with it's numerous different locations (Earth, Draconia, the Moon, the Ogron planet and outer space) and is all the better for it. The spaceship model work is very good (if a little wobbly at times, and you can occasionally see strings, particularly during the Doctor's 'space walk') but the story gets away with some remarkable feats through the visual effects team's creativity and imagination (I won't mention the Ogron monster though- woops. Think big orange carrier bag). The Draconians and the Ogrons are excellent creations. we'd seen the Ogron's earlier in the Pertwee era, and the Draconians (allegedly Pertwee's favourite 'monster') still look impressive today and are one the most believable alien 'cultures' seen in the programme. Pertwee is a little on auto-pilot, but still one of the best Doctor's ever, and he gets to be typically heroic. Sadly this was the last appearance of Roger Delgado as the Master, who dosen't really get a proper send-off, but is a delight to watch. Don't be expecting much Dalek action in this one though, they only make a little cameo at the end. Overall, Frontier In Space is a very enjoyable story that has a good plot, with lots of machinations, double-crossings and misunderstandings, great aliens, and a fast pace.
Planet of the Daleks, which picks up right where Frontier in Space left off, is perhaps not quite as good, but it's a great Dalek story, probably one of their best outings actually, and very very Doctor Who. The jungle planet of Spiridon is very memorable, there's plenty of action and excitement (the escape from the Daleks up the air shaft is a highlight) and while the plot does feel a litte cliched and derivative of many previous Dalek stories (especially the very first) it's at least never boring. And Pertwee wears a very nice purple velvet suit.
Overall, these are two great Doctor Who stories that no self-respecting fan should be without, and are a great example of some typical 70's Doctor Who.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Golden Daleks!
Frontier in Space - This is a great story with a brilliant twist. A good performance and sadly the last from Delgado's master, and probably one of the best twist's in the history... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Andrew50

5.0 out of 5 stars Feedback & Box Set Comments
Sorry i made an Error in the Feedback Section and had to remove it - would have preferred to edit it.
However i decided to include my Feedback in here. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Paul F

4.0 out of 5 stars Doctor Who: The Dalek War Collection
This is part of the original BBC Doctor Who Series concerning the Doctor's arch enemies the Daleks.
This is a must for all Dr. Who fans of the original series. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Oldie

5.0 out of 5 stars very good!
I realy like this, the quality of the two disks are very good and it played on my machine well. Thanks a lot!

Published 9 months ago by A. M. South

5.0 out of 5 stars TOP CLASS BOX SET
It is not very often a doctor who box set is worthy of 5 stars as many are designed to encompass a weaker story. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Matthew

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Service
Dr Who DVD Boxset arrived promptly, securely packaged & was as advertised. And doesn't Katy Manning look delicious...? Read more

Published 13 months ago by Supertone

5.0 out of 5 stars classic who
Classic Dr Who with Jon Pertwee. Two top stories with the original master, the daleks and even the ogrons. Great stuff!

Published 14 months ago by Mr. I. K. Willis

4.0 out of 5 stars The Master's Dalek Plan?
Originally concieved as a 12 part story to rival William Hartnell's 1965/6 Dalek epic, this 2 story box set is both rewarding and disappointing in equal measures. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Nyssa's Little Sister

4.0 out of 5 stars Draconians, Delgado and Daleks
The "epic" of the 10th anniversary season saw Frontier in Space shoehorned into Planet of the Daleks, and although it's not Doctor Who at it's prime, both stories have a lot to... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Azz McMahon

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr Who
My son is into Daleks in a big way and this item he thinks is brilliant. Therefore, I'm happy!

Published 21 months ago by Mrs. J. A. Hopes

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