Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks (Story 78) (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)In every sense of the word GENESIS OF THE DALEKS is a "classic".
It has classic scenes, classic lines, classic charcters, a classic setting and the classic of all classic DOCTOR WHO villains - THE DALEKS. How can you go wrong? With both eyes closed, it hardly seems you could... but even the most die hard fan must admit that while GENESIS aims high, it is often mired in a disjointed plot, long winded writing, and paced like a car wreck. It's all bits and pieces flying everywhere - and you can't take your eyes off it. GENESIS OF THE DALEKS is truly a mess - but a wonderful one.
Terry Nation takes us back to the origin of his most famous creations and manages to not only provide a crediable and interesting background story for the Daleks - but establish a new character, DAVROS, who has managed to last almost as long as the Daleks themselves. This is a high point in the story, and one of the main reason why you should own this collection - as for the rest, there are some problems. At six episodes GENESIS runs too long for the material - causing many charcters to reapeat actions, dialouge, plot and story over and over again. The Doctor, Sarah and Harry end up spending a lot of time walking (and running) in this story as well.
From one dome to the another. Above ground, underground, in corridors, under floors, up ladders and down trenches - they are always on the move and always just missing each other at every moment. This story also features one of the least classic monsters in DOCTOR WHO's history - the Giant Clam. It looks exactly like the plastic, spray painted and hand operated "monster" that it is - it's so bad, it's classic. Roger Corman would be proud. But, underneath all the studio cheek and filmed quarry sequences there lies a good story. What do you do when you're presented with the chance to rewrite history? To stop interstellar war, horror and genocide - and what do you do when it's your mission? The Doctor faces these facts and fails to come up with any answers - this is not a bad thing.
GENESIS OF THE DALEKS comes packed as a two disc special edtion and even casual fans will find a number of things here to entertain and inform them. But there are a few downsides - the largest of which is the commentary provided by Baker (the Doctor), Sladen (Sarah), Miles (Nyder) and Maloney (director) - there are a few sparks, but far too many gaps, pauses and long silences as everyone involved tries to remember something. Names pop up, production problems rear their heads and Baker and Sladen demonstrate that chemistry that made them the duo that they were on screen. In fact, it's Sladen that rescues a lot of this commentary - from her references to the new DOCTOR WHO series, and her role in it - to her personal asides and feelings on the production. The worst though has to be Peter Miles who plays Nyder - a dark, vile charcter in the story - but Miles has little next to nothing to say about it. Perhaps there is nothing to be said - Nyder is evil. While I love the ideas behind these commentaries - they are hit and miss. While a Peter Davison and Frazer Hines commentary is bound to leave you informed and laughing - others are trials. A moderator, someone in the know, with facts in hand and the ability to not only prompt, but interview as well, is really required to bring the experience to life.
Text commentary fills in a number of the gaps - but have your remote at the ready. There are times when whole passages of text appear on the screen for two seconds or less, causing you to rewind and pause to read. Also - there are a few errors in facts and some "duh" mistakes that you can't help but laugh at - but they can be forgiven.
GENESIS is a classic. It's one of my all time favorites - and for those new to the series, it's a must own. Look past the extras and just enjoy the show.

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The Time Lords send the Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah Jane and Harry on a daunting mission to the Daleks' home planet.

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Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Story 10) (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)There are those who consider Doctor Who to be at its very best when the errant Time Lord is visiting Earth and dealing with alien threats that are Earthbound. Doctor #3 himself, the late Jon Pertwee, often stated this story genre to be his favorite, and judging by the number of Earthbound stories from the show's lengthy history, many agreed. The latest two releases on DVD from the BBC archives are united in their "Earth invasion" theme, but both have taken an interesting and indeed unique slant on the alien invasion of London twist.
The "Dalek invasion of Earth" was the last adventure made in the first season production block, way back in 1964, albeit held over and broadcast as the second story in season two. The adventure is significant for many reasons, mainly because it featured the departure of one of the original Tardis crew, and also because it was the first "sequel" to feature in the show, featuring the return of the enormously popular Daleks, created by Terry Nation. Set almost 200 years in the future, the adventure mainly takes place in central London, allowing for much location filming around familiar sights, which adds to the realism of the story. It was the first real use of extensive location filming in the show's history and was well worth the effort to take the show out of the studio and bring a more epic quality to the production. The closing sequence featuring the Doctor (as played by William Hartnell) bidding farewell to his granddaughter Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford, may also be one of the entire series most poignant scenes.
All six of the original black and white episodes have been painstakingly restored to almost their original broadcast quality, with many enhancements to some of the laughable special effects added as an option. Potentially, it's the other bonus material that may prove the most interesting to fans and casual viewers alike. The commentary from the surviving cast (Carole Ann Ford and William Russell) together with the producer and director is first class. The on-screen captions also go a long way to fleshing out the background to the production. Almost the entire guest cast appear in newly shot interviews airing their reminiscences, plus there are all sorts of behind the scenes programme's, trailers and other goodies gathered onto a 2nd disc.
The same is true of the companion release, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang." Made twelve years later, in glorious colour, this six part series took another twist on the Earth invader theme by taking the Doctor, this time played by Tom Baker, and his companion Leela back into Victorian London to deal with a sinister alien menace. For many, this story is often regarded as one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) story of the Doctor Who canon. And I'm not going to disagree. The production values alone would be enough to set it apart, but the wonderful script, incredible design and superlative acting by the entire cast adds a special magic to the show that few other Who adventures have ever matched. Like the earlier Dalek story, it also marks the end of an era, since this was the last adventure produced by Philip Hinchcliffe. Quite honestly - the show was never the same again!
Again, there are all sorts of goodies available on a 2nd disc to accompany the restored six-part adventure. A documentary on the history of Doctor Who televised at the conclusion of the serial is just one bonus worth having; the commentary from the cast and crew is another. It's great to hear Louise Jameson (Leela) making her DVD debut, and it's a real shame Tom Baker himself did not take part.
Both stories are excellent additions to the growing Doctor Who library, clearly demonstrating the changing production values and story making not only of this particular show, but also British TV drama in general. I'd highly recommend them and look forward to the next two releases in 2004.

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DOCTOR WHO:DALEK INVASION OF EARTH - DVD Movie

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Doctor Who Dalek War: Frontier in Space & Planet of the Daleks (Stories 67 and 68) Review

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(More customer reviews)It was rare for Doctor Who in its original TV series to do something truly epic in scale. The two stories contained in this DVD box set, Frontier In Space and Planet Of The Daleks, is an example of when that happened. While two separate stories technically, these two linked stories make up a twelve part epic linked by the involvement of the Doctor's dreaded enemies the Daleks. While these two stories are by themselves a bit of a mixed bag, they are well presented here in this box set.
First off is Frontier In Space. While it is certainly true that it suffers from some of the padding evident in most six parters but, on the flip side, we get one of the most complete portraits of the future presented in any Who story. The result is that the story ahs a real epic feeling to it (albeit an low budget one) that travels across a large part of space including future Earth, a lunar penal colony and other places along the way. There's also the Draconians as well whose society might not be quite as fleshed out as the Human's but who remain one of the best designed of original series monsters (which makes one wonder why they never made any type of return at all). There's some nice moments from Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as companion Jo Grant plus Roger Delgado's final appearance as The Master as well. While a tad bit too long and with some occasionally iffy model work Frontier is still a fine Who adventure.
This epic is concluded in the six part Planet Of The Daleks. This story had been referred to elsewhere by Dalek voice actor/audio storywriter Nicholas Briggs as being akin to "the Dalek's greatest hits" and that is a fair assessment. Writer and Dalek creator Terry Nation writes a story that takes the elements of previous Dalek stories and combines them together into one story. The result is a story that is just too familiar for its own good. The result is that story is predictable to the pointing of being downright boring. This is despite the efforts of the cast and crew including some well designed sets and some fine direction from David Maloney. The result is a story with much potential but none really showing.
The special features are somewhat better then the stories themselves. The best special feature is actually the third episode of Planet Of The Daleks which has been restored to full color for the first time in over three decades. The restoration work is so good you'd never have known that the color version had been lost at some point! There are also some fine documentaries as well including making of docs for each of the two stories, a fine tribute to the career and life of actor Roger Delgado and two further installments for the Stripped For Action documentaries on the Doctor Who comics (one for the third Doctor and one for the 60's Dalek strips). Of special interest are the audio commentaries due to them ebbing the first ones released since the passing of Who producer Barry Letts late last year. The commentaries feature Letts who is still at the top of his game and it is as always interesting hearing his thoughts and memories on these two stories. The only real duds of the special features is the two-part Perfect Scenario sci-fi docu-drama which attempts to look at how the world of the early 1970's effected to and can be seen as sub-texts within the two stories. Unfortunately the drama bits are both filled with bad dialogue and bad acting but both the actors and the fictional talking heads, not to mention seemingly advocating genocide before it ends. Considering that the similarly done documentary Beneath The Surface on the Silurian's DVD back in 2008 covered much the same ground for that story in a pure documentary form so successfully, one wonders why this unsuccessful experiment was even attempted. That said, the majority of the special features are worth inclusion.
So how does the Dalek War box set rank then? Well there's the stories: Frontier In Space is a good story, though slow at times, while Planet Of The Daleks can be considered borderline boring with its over reliance on what had gone before it. The special features are overwhelmingly fine (especially the Planet Of The Daleks episode three restoration and the Delgado documentary) though the two-part Perfect Scenario is far from good. The result then is a good box set, though a bit of a mixed one to be honest.

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The Third Doctor and Jo Grant face the combined might of the Daleks and the Master in these two classic 1973 adventures! Frontier in Space--(6 eps, 143 mins) In the year 2450 the Doctor is arrested as a spy as the fragile peace between Earth and Draconia is threatened. Since the mid-1970s, episode three of Planet of the Daleks has only been available as a 16mm black-and-white recording, but for this DVD release it has been returned to full color!

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