Doctor Who: The Legacy Collection (Shada/More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS) [DVD]

Really nothing to get excited about here. This is definitely one for the die-hard collectors... People like me! I don't want to put people off buying this but, then I don't particularly have many positive things to say about it either. Those of you who are old enough to have watched and possibly collected the old Doctor Who VHS range and watched the sporadic 1990s celebrations and screenings on the BBC will know more or less what this product is. For the younger Doctor Who enthusiasts and the people who didn't get to buy these oddities the first time around, let me fill you in. 'Shada' is an incomplete Tom Baker story. Only location footage and a small amount of studio footage was shot for the story before production was cancelled due to a BBC strike. The story was never finished and left in the archives until the early 1990s when it was released on VHS with Tom Baker linking the significant gaps between scenes with on-screen narration. I never felt satisfied with this presentation. You do get an idea of what's supposed to be happening during the story but, there is very little to keep you engaged. After one viewing, it becomes something tedious and a bit of a disappointment. However, it does have historical interest in that you actually get to see a Doctor Who story that was never broadcast. Despite being revisited by the BBC last decade and remade as an audio adventure with a new cast and accompanying minimal animation for viewing and listening on the BBC web site only (which I believe is included here in DVD ROM format) the story is still - if not more confusing than ever.

'More Than 30 Years In The Tardis' is the 30th Anniversary BBC Celebration Documentary, broadcast on the BBC in 1993 but with additional material not included in the original broadcast which had the title '30 Years In The Tardis', hence the addition of 'More Than' to the title. Have you ever seen any of the special features on a classic Doctor Who DVD, particularly the more meaty and lengthy documentaries about the show? Yes? Well this documentary is a lot like those. No? Well basically it's a Doctor Who 'Memories of Greatest Moments with Recollections of "How It Was Made"' featuring lots of classic clips inter-cut with an enormous amount of 'Talking Heads', People who acted in the series, relatives of people who acted in the series, production crew and celebrity fans of the show (who were never in it)giving us plenty of memories of watching the show and how they felt about it at the time. That's all really. I think the documentary was only really produced to promote the fact that the BBC Videos were available to buy. It was basically a nostalgic look back at a TV programme that started production 30 years earlier, finished production in 1989 - leaving our screens without a bang, not even a whimper, just fading away and with every year, leaving fans becoming increasingly concerned that it was something that was never coming back to our TV screens. From recollection, I don't think anyone who has ever bought a classic Doctor Who DVD in the past 13 years will learn anything or much they didn't already know - or haven't heard several times already. 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, starting the year off with an out-dated 20 year-old documentary seems a bit odd. I really enjoyed this documentary for a few years, but that was 20 years ago. I have never seen any point in watching it over the past 10 years or more since the introduction of special feature documentaries on DVDs that deconstruct and analyze every aspect of the show right down the the very thought patterns in the heads and the glue in the hands of the people making and producing the show.

Basically, these two features deserve nothing more than 'Bonus Feature' status. Individually, they could (and should) have been tacked on to previous proper Doctor Who DVD releases. There you have it; and here it is... If you want it for the sake of being a completist or if you're such a fan of the show that you want every single piece of footage in existence that relates to the show in as high a quality as possible.

If you're a casual viewer who enjoys watching the occasional engaging and entertaining classic Doctor Who Story - best start looking for another title and give this one a miss for the time being.

If you're looking for a gift for a cash-strapped Doctor Who fan, best to ask first before buying this, it won't be appreciated by someone you don't know well enough. However, it would make an ideal gift for a fan that has possibly put it on their wish list but have more important things to spend their own money on until they can afford and be bothered to buy this. I've bought every classic Doctor who DVD release on the day of release for the past 13 years, but this time, for the first time, I think I'll just wait a while - it's really not a priority purchase right now, even as a long-time Doctor Who fan who buys every release.

January kicks off with the 1st of 2 long promised releases (the other being Reign of T) & yes I base my review on the VHS releases of Shada & More Than 30 Years in the Tardis, as barring remastering and extras, that is what we're getting. Will report back when I have my copy.
Shada was the legendary unfinished story with complete location footage but a strike halting the studio filiming before it ended. Written by Douglas Adams it's closer to his City of Death than to his Pirate Planet albeit not as successful.
He's got the plot based on the extraordianry consequences of a single action (an Adams preoccupation). Retired timelord Prof Chronotis living as a Cambridge Professor, loses a book which the Dr & Romana have come to collect. Villainous Sakgra also seeks it to locate prison planet Shada where outlaw Salayavin may be, to help his quest to become a universal mind. Perhaps this is a salutory lesson on the importance of returning your library books?
The badinage between Doc 4 & Romana 2 is quite like City and yes I'm thinking of the famous scene where they punt along the Cam, nicked for 5 Doctors. They name check famous Cambridge alumni ( Adams mentions a poet he wrote about for his degree Christopher Smart)& the doc adds a labourer to the poets & scientists. Adams wrote them almost like the romantic couple they were then in real life.
Not all the wit works, some is very indulgent. there's a tea joke and it deserves a smile once, but goes all ballad of the last chance saloon and gets repeated. Also the action is irritatingly stopped for the Doc to pin a decoration for valour onto Romana!
The location shoot works very well complimenting Adams' nostalgic script which recalls not only his time at Cambridge but also an England that never quite existed. It's set in the present day of 1979-80 but still everything stops for tea, even a man returning from the dead puts the kettle on! There's a chase involving a bycivle too. It leads to the celebrated moment where Tom rides past chorister and rings the bell in time with their singing!
It's got a good guest cast with a lovely Troughtonesque turn from Denis Carey as Chronotis, Daniel Hill & Victoria Burgoyne as believeably bemused students Chris & Claire (there's an interesting touch as Claire seems less uptight after hypnosis).
Gerald Campion is a head porter type.
Hardest job is for Christopher Neame who has to make Skagra, a villain written on 1 note who wears (initially) a Eurovision song contest costume and carries his weapon (a sphere of doom) in a handbag, menacing. The fact there's any credibility at all is due to his hard work. He's not helped by renta-monster the Kraags who look like Yeti made from reflective roofing tiles.
Generally production values are okay, Chronotis'rooms being an especially good set.
I can't really judge direction fairly as it's unfinished.

In 1992 producer JNT added for VHS release some basic effects, a score and narration from Tom Baker to fill in the unfilnmed gaps. Tom is enthusiatic & boggle eyed as he switches from Tom to Doctor and once you get used to the jarring sensation cutting from action to narration, it all works well. Greatest loss amongst the unfilmed scenes? Cybermen and daleks as old lags in Shada and the Doctor convincing a computer he's dead!

The boxset party game having returned it's been paired with More Than 30 Years in the Tardis which was the improved for VHS version of broadcast documentary 30 Years in the tardis for the 30th anniversary. It features interviews with Docs Pertwee, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy (with super 8 footage of Hartnell at an outdoor event as the Dr, plus archive soundbites from Tom baker and Mr Troughton), Interviews with producers/writers/script editors Verity Lambert, Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, Philip Hinchcliffe, JNT, Eric Saward & Ben Aaronovitch plus companions Carole Ann Ford, Fraser Hines, Deborah Watling, Nicholas Courtney (also the narrator), Elisabeth Sladen, Nicola Bryant and Sophie Aldred (plus the 60s films' Susan & Barbara- Roberta Tovey and Jennie Linden) and a few celebrity fans. Many interviews are shot at key locations or feature recreated monsters.
There are clips galore of Who onscreen and behind the scenes, who on Blue Peter and Who based sketches.
It's split into 3 episodes; Dr Who and the Daleks, Monsters and Companions plus Laughter and tears behind the Scenes. there are adverts between the parts of a who nature too.
It's pretty much the defnitive documentary for what was possible at the time, a time when the BEEB didn't really love their Police Box.

extras include;
The Big Finish version of Shada an audio play with Paul McGann and limited flash animation. Yes I admit I also would have preferred the animated version of missing scenes with much of the original cast recording voices that Ian Levine completed.
Taken out of time the much anticipated doc on the making and breaking of Shada complimented by Strike, Strike, Strike looking at the effect industrial action has had on Who and a Now and Then look at the locations.
Being a Girl looks at women in Who and Those Deadly Divas looks at strong female characters, & not as some speculated, actors who are hard to work with.
The second part of Verity Lambert's unedited interview for the Story of Doctor Who is included as is Peter Purves interview for the same show. there's a feature on the life and career of Nicholas Courtney utilising an interview he shot shortly before he passed on.

To be honest Shada & More then 30 sit a little oddly together. Shada is for big Tom Baker fans but More Than 30 has much wider appeal e.g. it could serve as an enjoyable primer for those who have come to Who since it's return. that said if you are interested in both, there's a pretty damn fine support package.

Now then, the debate of the century {not really but it feels like it at times} has been the un-inclusion of the £25,000 Ian Levine Shada animation. The forums and the fans that dwell within them have been set alight by this most gravest of tragedy's. But for all my salt as a fan of Doctor Who, I just could not care less. Having finally gotten fed up of peoples bias and frankly foolish opinions on the matter I finally went and read in detail the reasons behind it's non-inclusion. And in the end, it was never going to work so why on earth put so much effort into giving yourself a heart attack.

Shada is a story that I have never been enamoured with, it was a product of it's time, mainly the disastrous 17th season and final year of Graham Williams tenure. Nearly all the stories that year were below par, save for City of Death. Shada, for me anyway, would have just been the icing on the cake. I have viewed the VHS version {and thusly the DVD version because that's all that is included, yes, a VHS to DVD straight copy!!! {with restoration of course}} many times and it just never grabs me. I suppose that is in part due to the fact that it is only half complete, but even if it was complete, I would have never been one of it's supporters. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have seen Ian's complete version included on this DVD, if only for something new to try and tempt me towards liking this so called "lost classic". But hey, since it's not going to happen, I'll just have to stick to the VHS version and thusly my disagreeable opinion of it.

In a better world, I would have preferred it if JNT had kept his nose out of other peoples business and not put a preservation order on the half completed tapes. I hate the fact that the VHS version has Keff McColoughthdjs {whatever his surname is, it's too early to spell it correctly} music on it, I love Dudley Simpson's music and am pretty sure that the great Dudley could have saved this dreary tale. Maybe.

Either way, you are probably wondering why I have given this DVD review a 5 star rating. I can assure you Amazon reader that it is not because of my undying love of Shada, as you have probably gathered, but because of it's other lesser-known brother in this boxed set, More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS. What a great and self-indulgent documentary this is. A great piece, created way back in 1993/4 that had every fan reaching for the Video remote to record BBC2. I first saw this doco when I was still wet behind the ears concerning Doctor Who, and this doco made me think of Who as one of the greatest TV programmes of the era, if not ever. And how right was I to think thus so. Doctor Who from then on with the aid of Jon Pertwee repeats on UKGold was a mainstay in my TV viewing and that has not changed for more than 12 years. This doco was a small part of my destiny to become an avid viewer of Doctor Who.

The boxed set is rounded off with a series of documentaries and featurettes that evidently could not be fitted onto other DVD's coming out next year. Still, the oddness of their inclusion only adds to the enjoyment of this DVD and I think, it all makes for one hell of a start to next years fabulous release schedule and the end of the greatest collection of DVD's in the history of the world.

Many thanks for being patient with me, especially concerning my controversial view on Shada. It's greatly appreciated.

M.B.