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Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive [DVD] [1980]
 
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Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive [DVD] [1980]

DVD ~ Tom Baker
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.97 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive [DVD] [1980] + Doctor Who - City of Death [1979] [DVD] [2005] + Doctor Who - The Robots Of Death [1978] [DVD] [1963]
Total RRP: £59.97
Price For All Three: £18.93

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive [DVD] [1980]
66% buy the item featured on this page:
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Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang [1977] [DVD] [1963]
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Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang [1977] [DVD] [1963] 4.4 out of 5 stars (26)
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Product details

  • Actors: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson
  • Format: PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: 2 Entertain Video
  • DVD Release Date: 5 Jul 2004
  • Run Time: 87 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00022VMR6
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 14,959 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive [DVD] [1980]

Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive [DVD] [1980]

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

It's hardly surprising that the Beeb take so long releasing DVDs in the Doctor Who series when they're as highly polished and as carefully selected as The Leisure Hive. Particularly significant in terms of the series' history, this sequence marked an end to Who's descent into vaudeville, and heralded the entrance of hotshot, new-broom Series Producer, John Nathan-Turner.

The opening long, slow pan across a wintry beach, on which an autumnal Doctor sits slumped, immediately declares the show's serious intentions. The narrative itself is an erudite discussion on fascism and racism taking in regeneration, megalomania, cloning and a series of Agatha Christie-esque murders. It's the style, rather than the story, however, that's foregrounded in The Leisure Hive: along with his new sober approach, Nathan-Turner brought a new theme tune, a new logo, a new striking red costume and a new title sequence--one that, tellingly, moved away from the enclosed time tunnel to show the vastness of space opening up. Productions values are similarly high: the Quantel effects are impressive even now, and the performances are quite stunning, particularly Baker's as the prematurely aged, infirm Doctor.

By dispensing with the clowning and with what he termed "Douglas Adams' undergrad humour", Nathan-Turner reinvigorated a show that was becoming stale. The diegetic rebirth brought about by the Regeneration Drive at the show's denouement is an apposite motif, emblematic of the rebirth of the show itself--The Leisure Hive truly represented a new beginning for Who.

On the DVD: the images, colours and new 5.1 sound are all impressive, as are the abundance of extras. "A New Beginning" features a rare interview with Baker himself, and "From Avalon to Argolis" indulges in some very satisfying back-biting. There's also a nostalgia-inducing contemporaneous clip of an impossibly young Blue Peter presenter looking genuinely frightened by the exhibits of the then-great Longleat Doctor Who Exhibition. --Paul Eisinger



DVD Description

The Doctor and Romana visit the Leisure Hive on the planet Argolis, the surface of which is uninhabitable following a twenty minute nuclear war between the Argolins and their enemies, the Foamsi. The Argolins themselves are now sterile. Pangol, the youngest, was created by the Tachyon Recreation Generator, a machine that runs games in the Hive. He now secretly plans to use the Generator, modified by an Earth scientist named Hardin, to recreate himself many times over, forming an army of duplicates to destroy the Foamsi. Pangol's mother Mena, the controller of the Hive, is meanwhile coming under pressure from a supposedly human finanacier, Brock, to sell it to the Foamasi …

Starring Tom Baker as the Doctor.

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.4 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars- Now that's just not Fair!, 19 Aug 2007
By Calculus (4th Dimension) - See all my reviews
I will admit at once that The Leisure Hive comes from an era of Doctor Who with some decline and that, yes, it was JNT's first day. However, things need to be put right because I have a confession:
THE LEISURE HIVE IS EXCELLENT!

When I first watched this serial, I will confess to being dissapointed. I thought that in comparison to other serials, The Leisure Hive was mediocre at best, even bordering bad.
But that was the past and now, after many more watches, I say The Leisure Hive is brilliant. You appreciate this serial more with extra viewing, to fully appreciate the bigger picture of the plot and the interesting concepts. Don't be drawn in by first opinions. I understand if you are. But please, I have to say that The Lesiure Hive is a serial of good acting, good monsters, good twists (cliffhanger on part two is brilliant) and a good quality of dialogue.
Tom Baker is, at this stage, a dark and serious Doctor (far from the Douglas Adams days of slight silliness.) This is a Doctor who knows his time will be up soon... and it's very good. The bad point being the STUPID question marks on the costume which slightly ruin the mysterious effect.
Also, the extras covering the making of the new theme and opening titles are very informative and enjoyable.

If I still haven't convinced you, you get Lalla Ward's Romanna. (Yum-yum.)
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9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Waste Your Money. Really., 14 Jul 2007
By David Longhorn "Pilot of the Past" (Tyneside, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is tripe. I thought so then and I think so now. It was this story (I think) that led my adolescent self to stop watching DW on a weekly basis and start to dip into it now and again. Why? There had been bad Who before, but this one seemed to be deliberately lousy rather than simply rushed, cheap and inept. The story is twaddle, the effects are Seventies feeble, the dialogue is average to dire, and the sets are the usual plastic and cardboard alien corridors. Tom Baker is quite silly, some good supporting actors do their best, and the costume designer was clearly working (in her imagination) on a much better show. Don't even try to make sense of the science, because it's not - science, that is. So, no science and bad fiction. This one can't even be excused on the 'so bad it's good' principle. It falls under the much broader heading of 'so bad it's not worth watching'.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tom at thge Top?, 21 Oct 2004
By JA Fairhurst "johnfair" (Edgeley, Stockport) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is a superb story as far as the quality of the sets and costumes are concerned, particularly the way wrecked planet of Argolis is presented - very atmospheric. The scene where Pangol was producing his duplicates was aided by the fantastic marching theme too.

Tom Baker plays the Doctor and is probably at his best in the job. This is no doubt due to the fact that this is John Nathan-Turner's first story on Dr Who and the start of a new series allowing everyone to give fresh performances, though I did feel that Lala Ward's performance was a touch forced.

The only poor thing about this was the nature of the enemy - the Foamasi. not very well designed in my opinion. Also, the lack of suspicion that the Argolians had of Brock when he turned up on the heels of his message saying he was not interested in further investments in the Hive was almost laughable...

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars "All Change"
A fun if occasionally slow story. Author David Fisher once levelled at Douglas Adams the criticism of being too in love with ideas at the expense of story. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bob Marlowe

5.0 out of 5 stars Education for Leisure
Yes, this serial has its flaws: Tom Baker was getting on, was clearly tired in the role, and needed to move on. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Barney McGrew

2.0 out of 5 stars 14 year old fan speaking....
As said, I'm 14 and have been a Doctor Who fanatic for 10 years. All I can really say about this story is I got it as a video and never watched it again after the first time. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2007 by Ben Frost

1.0 out of 5 stars Enter John Nathan Turner..hear the coffin nails hammered in
This is the first of the stories in whcih John Nathan Turner took over the reigns of Doctor Who. In his charge, the programme went down hill, not fast, as it would have been a... Read more
Published on 31 Jul 2007 by Mr. C. J. Iredale

4.0 out of 5 stars 1980 - A new direction for Doctor Who
Story: 4/5 - Extras: 5/5

In story terms, David Fisher's "The Leisure Hive" is barely a footnote in "Doctor Who"'s extensive history. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2006 by M. Wilberforce

1.0 out of 5 stars There are far better Tom Baker adventures than this...
As a lifelong Tom Baker devotee, I can't over-emphasise how hugely disappointing this was. As other reviewers have noted, the transition from the Seventies to the Eighties was... Read more
Published on 12 April 2006 by Matt_K

5.0 out of 5 stars dr who at its best
compare this to the claptrap that masquerades as dr who one bbc1
at the moment and you will see why. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2005

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, yet disappointingly flawed...
I'll try to keep this brief:
- The story: Excellent. Always one of my favourites, despite some plot holes and a bit too much technobabble. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2004 by Paul Bristow

3.0 out of 5 stars JNT's first story
Not one of Tom's best but it is interesting in that it is John Nathan-Turner's first story as producer. Read more
Published on 5 Jul 2004 by D. J. Myers

5.0 out of 5 stars Unashamedly stylish!
'The Leisure Hive' blew me away when it was released on video a few years ago. One can only admire director , Lovett Bickford's audacity to cut about 5 minutes off the usual... Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2004 by Mr. S. Reed

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