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

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 Woman 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.

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.

Frontier in Space
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1973 heralded the 10th anniversary of Doctor Who and so Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks wanted to make the 10th series of the titular programme a bit special. Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks are to be viewed as 1 overall 12 part epic, the main plot being that the Daleks were bringing war to both Earth and Draconian empires. Now I will admit that I pretty much love all the Pertwee era serials but Frontier in Space just doesn't do it for me. I can't get in to it. For me there is little to love about this story. The locations used are bleak and uninteresting and as for the 70's version of 26th century earth, they are not even worth mentioning. This is a great shame as it was the very last appearance of Roger Delgado's Master. Having the Master accidentally shoot the Doctor and then just flee in to the corridors of the planet of the Ogrons was a woefully inadequate end for such an immense villain. That is most probably one of the main reasons why this serial does not agree with me.

Direction by Paul Bernard is standard, lacking any real originality and the script from stalwart Malcolm Hulke is not well realised. I think its a shame that the script never made it to screen. The plot was a fascinating one and really, this story should have been a classic. But in my eyes is not. On another matter, Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning put in extra special performances here, The Doctor and Jo showing that events are just as dangerous as portrayed. But nobody could shine more than Roger Delgado. The Master is very entertaining here, although his exit from Doctor who is the worst thing since unsliced bread, he still manages to captivate the audience with his pure genius and damn right evilness.

Overall then Frontier in Space is a very rainy day sort of story, it will never rank highly with me and as noted above, I think it's a shame as both Malcolm Hulke's script and Roger Delgado's Master should have been treated with a bit more respect. 6/10. Recommendable perhaps?

Planet of the Daleks
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Terry Nation returns to Doctor Who after a 6 year absence, and what do we get from the creator of the Daleks...A repeat. If Planet of the Daleks had been written by anybody other than Terry, the copyright police would be out in force. I mean we have such original ideas as the Thals {1963}, invisible creatures {1965}, dangerous vegetation {1965}, etc etc. I could go on but I feel sure most of you have busy lives and who am I to intrude. Generally speaking, you get the point, Planet of the Daleks is a rerun of 1965's The Chase and surrounding Dalek serials of the time.

However, this does not make Planet of the Daleks a bad story, far from it in fact. By no means a classic but nowhere near as bad as Day of the Daleks. The story has been lucky and unlucky in life, Episodes 1,2,4,5,6 all survive on their original broadcast videotapes but episode 3 does not, only surviving as a B&W telerecording. The VHS release in 1999 released the episode in black and white and I don't mind saying that it did spoil things slightly, mainly because this is such a colourful adventure. Thankfully episode 3 has been returned to full colour by the Doctor Who Restoration Team in cooperation with Legend Films and The Colour Recovery Working Group. Its not perfect but believe me its a vast improvement over monochrome.

The direction of Planet of the Daleks is much better than in "Frontier", as David Maloney returns to Doctor Who to shoot this Dalek escapade. The studio sets are amazing, it really is unbelievable what a show like Doctor Who can produce from such a limited budget. The jungle is easily as good as it was in "Planet of Evil", with special mention going to the evil plants. The special effects are brilliant here also, especially the character of Wester, his invisibility was very well portrayed by the C.S.O. and really adds believability to events. Overall I have to say that the design work done here was fantastic and a really beneficial part of the storyline. Casting is another reason why this story works so well, Bernard Horsfall is brilliant as the leader of the Thals Taron, such great acting is why he was such a regular face on Doctor Who. Future regular Prentis Hancock acts exceptionally well as dubious Thal Vaber also.

Overall, Planet of the Daleks is not a classic Pertwee yarn, but it is still a great story. The acting from the regulars and the quest cast is sublime and the design work is extraordinary. This is a brilliant example of why Doctor Who led the way in television entertainment in the 20th century. 9/10. Highly recommended.

Now then, the BBC DVD release of these two classic series adventures is worthy of its own paragraph. First off is Clayton Hickman's cover artwork, some of the most well put together of the entire range. Furthermore, the restoration work carried out on these two stories is excellent, special note going to the recoloured episode 3. The Doctor Who Restoration Team has done a beautiful job in restoring these classic adventures. The BBC have included some rather juicy and a rather odd batch of special features as well. We have a very strange 2 part hour long doco about some humans from the 26th century looking back and studying these two stories. The whole feel of these two doc's are very surreal. Most odd indeed. Further to those wacky extras we have the by now traditional making of features. Very informative and highly entertaining. There is a lovely documentary detailing the life of actor Roger Delgado, this is a very emotional doc and talks to a lot of Roger's best friends and his wife. Very moving at the end. Other bonus features litter these two DVD's and are of interest to most hard-core fans. As ever there are commentary's on both DVD's by the actors and production team, both are entertaining as ever. All in all a great addition to the range and highly recommended by this viewer. 10/10.

In summary, this boxed set is a fantastic way to enjoy these two adventures with the Third Doctor, we have the last appearance of the Master and Terry Nation's triumphant return to Doctor Who, although Frontier in Space was a disappointment for me, Planet of the Daleks saves the day with its recoloured episode 3. I very much enjoyed this BBC DVD box set from 2entertain and the BBC. Highly recommended, 10/10. The last thing I will say is,

Many thanks for your time as its greatly appreciated.

M.B.