Hey, hey, I'm back! Who knows for how long. Too much of me is too much of a good thing in my opinion...
Hey, hey, I'm back! Who knows for how long. Too much of me is too much of a good thing in my opinion. And that's what it's all about - opinions!
Member since:02.08.2000
Reviews:79
Members who trust:86
Well, after recent exertions of a trilogical nature, I felt I had to kick back and relax. I need something that I could review without the need for exhaustive research, something with which I was so familiar that I could write about it and actually enjoy myself. I could come up with only one subject. Broaching it would be a dangerous, some would say foolhardy, mission, opening myself to ridicule and loss of status. Then, upon resumption of normal functioning parameters within my neural pathways, I realised that I had no respect or status. This was a liberating piece of cognitive comprehension, I can tell you. Unfettered by social standards or mores, I can stand here, naked in the wind (metaphorically speaking, of course) and proudly proclaim the truth. You see, my friends, my name is Crazy-Christian, and I am...a Doctor Who fan!
Of course, I soon realised how stupid I looked and put my clothes back on (still metaphorically - well, it was a bit chilly after all.) It seemed to me that there must be a way to get round this. Some way I could let out the obsessive, fan-boy anorak side of me, and, at the same time, maintain the cool, reserved, mature man-about-town image that I’m sure you all associate with me. Then it came to me in a blinding flash: enlightenment. I bandaged my head where it had hit the shelf, and formulated my plan. My review would consist of two reviews: one for the casual viewer, who has fond memories of watching the show as a kid, from behind the sofa: and one for the aficionado, who understands that this was television’s finest moment. So, you pays your money and you makes your choice.
Nostalgia aint what it used to be
You remember Doctor Who, don’t you? That quaint, old black-and-white BBC science-fiction show. It started in the ‘60s, didn’t it, around the same time JFK was shot by that "magic" bullet in Dallas, so it must have been 1963. Remember that theme music? That discordant howl that presaged one of the scariest shows, ever. The Daleks, you must remember the Daleks. Those tin-plated pepperpots, with their sink-plungers and egg-whisk death rays! We all used to run about the playground shouting "EXTERMINATE!", didn’t
we? Hard to believe we were actually scared of those things at the time, but we were, terrified.
Or maybe it was the Cybermen, or the yeti, that frightened you? Or, if you’re a wee bit younger, maybe you remember the one with the giant maggots. Or maybe you were older and watched it with your kids, "so they won’t be scared" you said, but we both know it was so you could watch the Doctor’s young female companions, don’t we! And the TARDIS, what a wonderful idea that was. What did it stand for again? Oh yes, Time And Relative Dimension In Space. A battered old blue police-box, which actually disguised a sophisticated, if unreliable, space-time machine, if you can believe that, possible due to its being bigger on the inside than on the outside!
Whatever your memories of the series, and they’re probably fond ones, you gave all that up a long time ago, didn’t you, when you entered the wonderful world of relationships and pensions and taxes. Wouldn’t it be great to go back to those innocent, carefree days of youth again? Just for a little while. Well, now you can, courtesy of this DVD; just plonk it into your player and allow your own time machine of memories whisk you away...
The Five Doctors was the 20th Anniversary special, shown by the BBC in November 1983, as part of their Children In Need fund-raising evening. The idea was to get all five actors who had played the part, to come together in one epic adventure. There was a bit of a problem, though, as the first Doctor, William Hartnell, was deceased and the fourth, and arguably most popular Doctor, Tom Baker, declined to return to the part he had only relatively recently vacated. Unfazed, the BBC hired Richard Hurndall to play the original and used some footage from an uncompleted Tom Baker story and wrote his absence into the plot. But with Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison (Doctors 2,3 and 5, respectively) all on board, everything was set for a grand adventure.
Basically, everything is thrown into the pot in this story. It features the companions, Susan, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sarah Jane Smith, Turlough and Tegan, as well as cameos from Jamie and Zoe, Liz Shaw and Mike Yates, Romana, and, of course, K-9. Add some monsters; a Dalek, a yeti, loads of Cybermen; a villain, The Master, in a clever role reversal, and gallons of political intrigue on the Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey, and off we go.
Someone has re-activated the Death Zone, a relic from the Time Lord’s barbarian past, and has scooped various incarnations of the Doctor out of time, along with both friend and foe, depositing them all there for some nefarious purpose. The separate teams all make their way to the single, imposing landmark on the barren landscape; the Tower of Rassilon. The baddie of the piece is using the Doctor to search for the secret of immortality. Can even the combined power of the Doctors be enough to enable Good to overcome, well, insanity, actually.
This is a good yarn, providing you don’t take it too seriously. The actors settle well into their, relatively undemanding, roles, with the then incumbent Peter Davison stealing the honours. It’s a shame the locations for this other-worldly battle arena just look like typical windswept English moors, and while the sets don’t quite wobble like the way they used to, it’s clear that the Beeb has not increased the budget much over the years. The special effects are reasonable, considering that this is actually an updated version, specially edited for video release a few years back. Extra footage has been slotted in, too, for that extra value!
If this review has brought back some memories, or intrigued a younger audience who have absolutely no idea what I’m havering about, then good. Indulge yourself. What’s the point in being a grown-up if you can’t be childish sometimes?
SAD ANORAK ALERT!
Okay, so that’s the general public out of the way. They may never understand our devotion to this show, but that’s their problem, my friends, not ours. We all know that this was quite simply the best idea for a science-fiction series ever. We love the heroic ideals of the Doctor, the sense of adventure, the outright FUN of it all. We don’t care if it was cheaply made, was badly lit, had outrageous monsters, we could use our imaginations and get lost in the wonderful stories. Long may it be so.
The merits of this story have been debated in fandom for years, possibly coming down on the negative side. I have to confess I’m actually a big fan of this story. This might be down to an event in my childhood, though. My "best friend", who lived next-door to my Gran’s, knew about my interest in Dr. Who. One day he let me know that there was going to be a special episode of the programme, featuring all the Doctors and all the monsters, but only showing on Grampian TV, which was for the north of Scotland. My Gran’s house, for some freak reason, could just about pick up this station, albeit with the appearance of a blizzard, and I desperately tried to tune in all evening.
Of course, my friend was "teasing" me, but I was only 6 and I believed him! I can’t tell you how disappointed I was. Eventually, it dawned on me that he had been lying. So, you can imagine my reaction when I heard about The Five Doctors. It was basically a dream come true from my childhood! Perhaps this is why I am more forgiving of this story than most fans, but considering the constraints put upon the writer, Terrance Dicks, with the cast changing every few days, and the limited budget, and the restrictions placed upon the story by the demands of fitting everyone in, I thought they did a smashing job and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Okay, the visualisation of Rassilon was a bit naff, considering how we had built him up in our own minds, the direction was insipid (imagine how great it would have been had it been shot by Graeme Harper!) and bits of it are downright silly, confirming every stereotype the general audience has about this show, but it’s still good, honest fun. Entertaining in a way that Pokemon or Digimon will never be. And I still hope it comes back one day.
DVD FEATURES
I love to hear about the special features on DVD, because this really lets me know if it is one I might want to buy, rather than rent. I’m very disappointed when opinions skip over these. I’d love to go into great detail about the extras on this disc but there aren’t any! Oh, it has the usual subtitling, different languages, scene selection, but for me, these are necessities on a DVD, not extras. Thankfully, the Beeb has learned from their mistakes, and subsequent releases have been crammed full of extra goodies.
With a running time of 102 minutes, a specially adapted stereo soundtrack, a pamphlet giving you a brief rundown on the characters, and a nifty animated menu featuring the TARDIS console, it’s still good value for money, but really you’re buying it for the purest reason; the excellent picture that will never deteriorate. It has been rated "U" and I purchased it for £14.99 at Play247.com.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
I agree, the lack of extras is bad. I havn't a clue why I bought the thing - I have it twice on video already...
ClangerWrangler 15.08.2001 22:33
OK, you wrote this eons ago so you probably wont read the comment, but I just thought I'd congratulate you on the quality of this op (but then I'm biased). It has inspired me to watch this one again (I've got it on vid somewhere)....And I agree with you, it's a good story, might not make sense but its nonsensical fun nonetheless. Clanger
thedeadparrot 30.04.2001 02:14
A great op - really kept me entertained. I can tell you love the subject! Neil
very helpful by (100%):
