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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Entropy increases.", 4 Feb 2007
Depending on how you approach the 3 serials in this box set, they're either tawdry relics of a cheaper, slower age of television; or they're pure gold. There are so many reasons to enjoy the release of NEW BEGINNINGS, but even fan boys like me can see that not everyone is going to be bowled over. So let's get the criticisms out of the way first.
Generally, there are a number of problems that beset all of the productions. Firstly of course: the effects, though not ALL of them fall flat. For instance, after the poorly staged struggle between the Doctor and the Master on the Pharos project gantry, the sequence at the climax of LOGOPOLIS where Tom Baker's Doctor regenerates into Peter Davison's version works extremely well. However, this is one of the few exceptions. The fake eyes painted on Kassia's lids when she's possessed in THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN, the risible model work in LOGOPOLIS and the cheesy visual representations of the recursive trap in the citadel in CASTROVALVA aren't exactly high points.
Secondly, despite what I'm going to say about the acting later, it has to be said not everyone deserves a BAFTA. For example, Sheila Ruskin is well cast as the zealous, obsessive Kassia in THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN. But for my money she overplays certain moments. Witness her stagey collapse after the murder of Seron in episode 2.
This though is nothing compared to Anthony Ainley's Master in CASTROVALVA. Either he or the director seemed to think that his commendable underplaying in the previous tales was a bad idea, and he often relishes his part just a little too much. Take a look at the moment in episode four when he cries out: "My web! MY WEB!" All seriousness instantly evaporates. OK granted, it's a dreadful line to which an Oscar winner might have difficulty supplying credibility. Certainly his earlier, well-judged performance as Tremas suggests that he was capable of better.
Matthew Waterhouse's Adric too is a liability. In the huge shadow of Tom Baker's stellar performances, we don't notice him so much and he's less irritating. But he has this odd bouncy walk that suggests he's not comfortable in front of a camera. Called on to have a big emotional moment he makes an absolute pig's ear of it. In CASTROVALVA, he and Ainley in the Master's TARDIS have a competition to see who can be the most appallingly OTT. It's hard to say who wins.
Despite all this, I confess I love these stories. TRAKEN's pace, fairy-tale and mythological resonances, its detailed, opulent set designs, Shakespearean characters (not to mention dialogue) and sting-in-the-tail ending make it the best of the set. Spellbinding.
LOGOPOLIS might look cheap, but there's no denying the grandeur of the ideas and the emotional power of the 4th Doctor's swansong. Ainley's Satanic Master is genuinely creepy here and he would only be this good again 8 years later in his final story, SURVIVAL. Tom Baker's moody, brooding performance is a haunting thing of beauty. Paddy Kingsland, my favourite of all the 1980's DR WHO composers provides a rich, funereal and melancholic score.
Peter Davison gives a likeable, well-acted debut in CASTROVALVA, though his Doctor is so fragile and unstable for much of the time, it's anyone's guess at this stage how he's going to turn out. Luckily, this allows Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding's companions to shine. Tegan is rarely more sympathetic than here, and one can see the unused potential of the practical Nyssa. The large multi-levelled sets of the citadel are effective, and there is much to admire in the production and script.
As usual, the extras on the discs are excellent and a massive selling point. Photo galleries, commentaries, contemporary trailers, interviews and news items are all present. Most fans will want to see BEING DOCTOR WHO in which a mostly enthusiastic Peter Davison discusses his approach to the role. But best of all are the moments in the documentary A NEW BODY AT LAST where Tom Baker is surprisingly candid about how difficult he had become to work with and how this led to his leaving the show. A lot of the studio footage from the time would seem to bear this out. Far from ruining one's image of the man, one has to admire his honesty and self-awareness! 26 years later, the man is still a hero.
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
From One Era To Another, 22 Mar 2007
These three stories form what the fans term 'The Master Trilogy' and is noticable for the goodbye of Tom Baker and hello from Peter Davison.
The use of the Master was an old technique used by previous production teams in surrounding the new Doctor with familiar things to allow him to find his feet.
The Keeper of Traken is usually the forgotten story in this trilogy being overshadowed by the huge events of the next two but is in many ways the best of the three, I'm not going to go into plot details but will attempt to review to discs themselves. 'Keeper' has one wonderful thing going for it, an absolutely first rate audio commentary, by actors Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, the late Anthony Ainley and writer Johnny Byrne.
This is such a refreshing change to hear Matthew voice his opinions without being constantly insulted and treated in a dismissive way by his fellow contributers as has happened on previous releases. Anthony Ainley gives his only contribution to a DVD in this commentary, recorded shortly before his death and has many points of interest to say.
There is also a 'making of' style documentary and Sarah Sutton's apperance on Swop Shop and a nice featurette on the return of the Master plus the usual PDF documents that appear on all three discs. It isn't often that I think that the audio commentary is so good as to be the best feature on the disc but it is here.
Logopolis is of course Tom Baker's final story and Doctor Who has never been as dark but again no plot reviews just the disc. The main feature, the episodes aside is the documentary 'A New Body At Last' which is not only a making of but also an overview of the events surronding the departure of Baker and the arrival of Davison, this was critical to get Tom Baker to participate and he does, now it is very rare for Baker to open up and actually talk about Doctor Who with it being tongue in cheek but here he does, he tells it like it is and there is genuine anger at effectively being removed from the part, some of his revelations are shocking and I watched in a sombre silence. A riveting documentary. The audio commentary is a little generic with only Tom Baker really having anthing interesting to say.
There are news items and appearances on Pebble Mill At One for Davison and quite extensive repairs to the episodes themselves in both picture and sound. Another great disc.
Castrovalva is Peter Davison's first story and is very nostalgic through the sense that this was a new beginning and direction for the show after the seven years of Baker's reign.
The extras are not quite as extensive as on the other two discs, with most of the important aspects being discussed on the Logopolis DVD these are more relaxed and easy going and are just there to fill space.
The main feature is a mini documentary by the director Fiona Cumming and is basically a behind the scenes type feature. The Crowded TARDIS is a look at the crew of the ship and is the most redundant feature in the set, it serves no function at all and just repeats facts mentioned in other features and commentaries. This commentary here is basically the same as Logopolis but with Davison replacing Baker and is nothing to shout about.
The most interesting feature is two deleted scenes, Peter Davison being interviewed on Blue Peter and Swop Shop and a music video put together featuring the title sequence. The whole disc is rounded off by a lovely little easter egg that features some really rare footage and is a delight.
So there we are three hugely important stories that took Doctor Who from one era to another and brought it firmly into the 1980's. Well worth a look.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nostalgia Overload, 12 Feb 2007
First of all, if you were born early 1970s, are a Doctor Who fan, and have a fair recollection of seeing these stories first time (I was 7/8 years old and a big fan) then this set of dvds will blow you away completely. The features, oh, the features. This is the kind of thing that makes you gasp at how good it is. My memories of watching the later Tom Baker stories was my family would go to my Nans on a Saturday evening and I would often be dismissed upstairs to watch the Doc on a portable in my Nans bedroom (in colour thankfully) because my Nan was scared of it(!) but I'm pretty sure I saw the regeneration on a 'proper' screen.
The biggest thing that impressed me (I impress easily maybe) was that one of the extra features on each disc, is the continuity announcements and the BBC trailers for EACH episode. This means you see the old BBC revolving globe, hear terribly posh announcers announcing the programme and also see "tonight on BBC1" trailers where the other Saturday night highlights were Tom & Jerry and The Kelly Monteith show (who?). Its all so scarey as it comes back to you when you watch it. Almost like being there again, in my Nan's living room.
The continuity announcements are shown as a seperate thing, to the actual episodes, so they show the lead in and lead out with a few seconds of the titles but you really get the feel of it. Its great.
On Logopolis on one of the end title announcements, you hear the announcer say, "for fans of Dr Who there will be a run of old doctor who stories on BBC2 called THE FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO" I got a shiver hearing that again, as that was almost certainly the point where, as a little kid I really signed up for watching the old episodes and getting interested in the series as a whole. I remember trying to get out of a fireworks display in 1981 to go home and watch one of the William Hartnell episodes from that very . Theres also a showing of the regular "Tom Baker is appearing at Madame Tusauds" clip that got shown at the end of some episodes. All well remembered by me.
We see the Swap Shop interviews done with Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Peter Davison, he's also shown on Blue Peter and Pebble Mill. Each clip appears to be the full interview, as well as a Nationwide interview with a very coy Tom Baker. In these clips the respective actors talk about the forthcoming events of Baker leaving, Davison taking over etc. All good stuff. I have a glimmer of memories for these, but I am sure I was watching these programmes in eager anticipation of the new series 26 years ago.
The main documentary on the Logopolis DVD is a real treat. Tom Baker is interviewed at length about his time on the show and admits he was a pain to work with, and his colleagues bear this out as they are interviewed back to back. The guy is a genius and has some brilliant one liners in his interview. Peter Davison says "Tom came up to say something to me in a bar after the regeneration scene was shot, I think he was wishing me luck but I couldn't hear him." Cuts to Tom Baker: "I think I was telling him to get the next round in." :)
Other highlights of said documentary, loads of rough cut footage of the regeneration scene, where we see Tom Baker bickering at the directors to hurry up and generally being miserable (fair enough though, he was leaving after all) and we see the layering of the regeneration as it happened (the watcher is shown walking into Tom Bakers body but the watcher is being filmed walking simultaneously with Tom Baker whilst being "overlayed" on his image (it is bizarre because I assumed the watcher was filmed later).
Speaking of the regeneration, due to the various interview clips such as Swap Shop, you get to see this scene replayed numerous times, and even after seeing the making of it, it doesn't lose its poignancy, because despite Bakers cantankerous nature between takes, he delivers the goods in what is essentially his death scene, and you can't argue with results.
As many people will admit, a lot of the special effects are embarrasing but easily ignored against the quality of the acting, with of course the exception of good old Adric, whose acting does get a bit better as things roll on, but its obvious now why he drew the short straw to leave. When it was originally shown though I had no problem with Adric, apart from the fact that I wanted to be him, travelling in that TARDIS. The bad acting I mistook at the time for Adrics naive manner, but, like the bad special effects, its hard to suspend disbelief as well as when you were 7.
I can't yet pass comment on the commentaries but I look forward to hearing them, particularly The Master himself commentating on The Keeper Of Traken, shortly before he sadly passed away in 2004.
All in all, you cannot go wrong with this if you fit the bill I described at the start of this review. Theres even the legendary 1981 Doctor Who annual in PDF format on DVD rom included amongst many other features I haven't even mentioned here. For the money, the word bargain, just doesn't cover it. This is a steal for what you get. Buy it.
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