|
-
News
- Features
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
Doctor Who: New Beginnings
01/11/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Region 2 DVD. pub: BBC BBCDVD 1331. 3 DVDs 292 minutes plus loads of extras. Price: about £ 12.00 (UK) if you know where to look) - stars: Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, Sarah Sutton, Anthony Ainley and Matthew Waterhouse - Buy Doctor Who: New Beginnings in the USA - or Buy Doctor Who: New Beginnings in the UK  check out website: www.bbcshop.com
This boxset contains three stories. The first, the penultimate Tom Baker, story is 'The Keeper Of Traken'. When I saw it back in 1981, I did think it a bit on the slow side. Seen collectively over a couple days, the story came off as being much more solid.
Traken is a planet of goodness under the control of a single Guardian who is coming to the end of his extended life-span and calls on the Doctor to help. A variety of evil people who come to Traken attempting to corrupt the place find themselves unable to move. It is left to the people there to tend to their bodies. Cassia looks after an apparent statue of the Mektor which corrupts and takes over her as she grows older. As the Keeper begins to die, the Mektor's power grows. When the Doctor and Adric arrive they have problems explaining who they are. The Keeper is called but is shot at by the Mektor who appears at the door to the chamber before returning to the garden when he is housed. The Doctor and Adric are given into the custody of Tremas and together with his daughter Nyssa attempt to work out what is going on. Cassia, meanwhile, manipulates herself into taking the Keeper's place but is instantly killed and replaced by the Mektor who begins to realise absolute power.
It shouldn't be a mystery after all these years that inside the Mektor is the Master and part of his plan is to acquire the Doctor's body. Although the Doctor thwarts getting this, the Master merges his essence with Tremas but more of that later. The Master in his last regeneration looks like he's soaked in chocolate. The audio commentary with writer Johnny Byrne and actors Mathew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton and Anthony Ainley suggest the Mektor itself is a TARDIS. I have to disagree. If you look at the final scene inside the Mektor, there is a grandfather clock which appears in the chamber a little later indicating it isn't. The extras cover behind the scenes of the story and one special on the return of the Master. Watch beyond the credits of the last episode for one final message from Anthony Ainley. As this audio commentary was recorded shortly before he died, it's a nice gesture to the second continuing regeneration of a Time Lord.
The middle story, 'Logopolis', is the last with Tom Baker as the Doctor. After leaving Traken, the Doctor is intent on getting the TARDIS repaired, especially its chameleon circuit that allows it to blend in with its surroundings when it materialises anywhere. To do this, he takes Adric (actor Mathew Waterhouse) to Earth with him to map the dimensions of a real police box. Unknown to him, the Master (actor Anthony Ainley) arrived a little earlier, materialising his own TARDIS around a real police box out on the motorway. The Doctor and Adric now have a situation of having one trans-dimensional TARDIS inside another and transversing across them as they cross between them. It also creates the time distortion that yields a ghostly white Watcher who...er...watches events from afar.
This story also introduces airline hostess Tegan Jovanka (actress Janet Fielding) on her way to her new job with her aunt. They break down near the police box and Tegan unwittingly enters and is whisked away when the Doctor decides they must go to Logopolis where they can reconfigure the TARDIS. There, they also meet Nyssa (actress Sarah Sutton) again who was delivered there by the Watcher to locate her father. Considering that the Watcher never talks to anyone, I suppose we must assume that conversation was done in sign language.
The Master kills several people there and damaging the code creating causing the TARDIS with the Doctor inside to shrink in size. Getting that resolved allows the Master to get the upper hand and turns off the Logopolis recreation of the Earth's Pharos Project designed to signal alien life-forms, which unwittingly raises the entropy of the universe and destroys Logopolis. The Doctor has no choice but to align himself with the Master to save the universe. For the rest, you need to buy the boxset. Why spoil all the surprises?
'Logopolis' is actually a very well thought-out story bringing a lot of ideas to the fore that have been queried but never been done before. Specific to this is having one TARDIS inside another and the repair of the chameleon circuit. The inhabitants of Logopolis are practically forgotten in the entire story ultimately and it does make one wonder what the Time Lords did to configure their own TARDISes after its demise.
It was long known at the time this was Tom Baker's final story which ended heroically as usual. The extras included on the DVD fill in a lot of the background together with the transition between actors and the regeneration into Peter Davison. The footage of which is included in one of the specials. The audio commentary divided between scriptwriter Christopher Bidmead, Tom Baker and Janet Fielding not only gives insight into some of the events at the time but various other bits about the acting profession as well. I actually liked the latter cos its equivalent to sitting around a log fire having a general chit-chat that tells more than expected and beats pregnant pauses where everyone is wondering what to say next.
The transition and regeneration between actors and Doctors are always an interesting event and its long over-due for 'The War Games' to be released on DVD. Considering this boxset also introduces the fifth Doctor and his first story makes this boxset a useful purchase.
Which neatly segues me into the third story, 'Castrovalva' and the introduction of actor Peter Davison as the new Doctor. Those familiar with the stories should be aware that it was filmed much later in the schedule allowing him to be better prepared in acting the role. I'm not exactly sure if that's a good idea but that's mostly from the point of view that there are similarities between an actor finding his feet in a new role and an unstable Time Lord adapting to the new persona that a reformed body gives. I do agree with Davison's comments in the audio commentary in that he was probably too young for the part at the time far more than being linked to 'All Creatures Great And Small'. Then again, it could also be acknowledged that he wasn't other-worldly enough as well.
The story follows the new Doctor adjusting to his new regeneration and him and his companions falling into another trap by the Master. Saying too much with this story is likely to give away too much of the plot. It's also an interesting situation that there have been three successive stories with no aliens as monsters although saying that, the Master's actions have their usual despicable taste. Boo! Hiss! From the audience please. This doesn't mean they aren't interesting stories but having them collected in a boxset brings it more home now than when they were shown back in the early 80s. If anything, the dynamic of the show, while intelligent, is more akin to a slow train ride than having any strong peaks and dynamism. This would have appealed to the adult audience but must have left the junior audience floundering. Then again, considering the show had been moved to 7.30pm twice weekdays, this might be seen as a necessary move to garner the adult audience.
From an historical point of view, the stories that revolve around the regenerations of the Doctor are a significant part of the series and an important part of any Who collection.
GF Willmetts
|
|
