Doctor Who - The Two Doctors (DVD)

I'm a Doctor Who fan. I have been since I was little. I remember hiding behind the sofa the very first time the Daleks climbed the stairs! While I like the new series, the old series will forever hold a place in my affections.

For those who've somehow missed the phenomenon, Dr Who is the story of an alien known only as The Doctor. He travels around space and time in his machine, known as the TARDIS, which takes the shape of a police ...
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The Doctor also has the ability to change his entire physical appearance and personality. When he is about to die, he regenerates, which essentially means that the BBC hire a new actor to play the role. That may sound like a bit of a cheat, but it's come to work extremely well for them.

The Two Doctors is a story involving the meeting of two different regenerations of the Doctor. There had been previous team ups, The ... more

I'm a Doctor Who fan. I have been since I was little. I remember hiding behind the sofa the very first time the Daleks climbed the stairs! While I like the new series, the old series will forever hold a place in my affections.

For those who've somehow missed the phenomenon, Dr Who is the story of an alien known only as The Doctor. He travels around space and time in his machine, known as the TARDIS, which takes the shape of a police box and is larger inside than out. But the Doctor never travels alone. He always has at least one companion. Sometimes these companions are human, sometimes they're alien and sometimes they're robots.

The Doctor also has the ability to change his entire physical appearance and personality. When he is about to die, he regenerates, which essentially means that the BBC hire a new actor to play the role. That may sound like a bit of a cheat, but it's come to work extremely well for them.

The Two Doctors is a story involving the meeting of two different regenerations of the Doctor. There had been previous team ups, The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, both of which seemed to involve a lot of maneuvering to force the different versions of the Doctors to meet up. This story was different. It worked on the idea that with the Doctor living hundreds of years and traveling widely through time and space, sooner or later he'd cross paths with himself.

The Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, and his companion Jamie visit the space station Camera. A while later, the Sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker, and his companion Peri also visit the station. They arrive to find Jamie raving about how he'd seen the Doctor being killed. The Sixth Doctor must convince Jamie that he is also the Doctor and they must figure out where the Second is and how to rescue him from the vicious Androgums and the blood-thirsty Sontarans.

There is a vague explanation for why Six doesn't remember the events happening to Two but once that irregularity has been accepted, the story makes as much sense as any Doctor Who storyline ever can.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Jamie is one of my favourite Doctor Who characters. He was picked up by the Doctor in 1746 and therefore has little grasp of technology, meaning he's completely lost in most of the high-tech societies that the Doctor visits. He's neither the brightest of the Doctor's companions nor the bravest, but he greets the adventures with cheer and humour. There are lots of amusing moments and some great interactions between him and the Doctors. It was a pleasure to see him again and Frazer Hines played the character again with the same sense of fun as he did in the earlier seasons.

The plot of the story was sound, with unexpected twists and moments of excitement, as well as touches of humour. Loose ends were tied up by the finish, but it wasn't at all predictable.

The special effects... Well, the episodes were first on TV in 1985. You can't really expect much of the effects. I think one of the best things I can say about the effects is that they don't try too hard. If something would have been too hard to do using effects, they didn't do it. I think the plot and acting are plenty good enough to excuse the fact that they didn't have today's CGI technology available to them. They did the best they could with what was around at the time.

The acting was excellent. Both Doctors and both companions played their roles extremely well and the supporting characters were also acted brilliantly. The characters were strong, consistent and believable.

The DVD comes with loads of special features. Disc one includes a commentary by various cast members. This has some amusing anecdotes from the filming of the episode and the fun the actors had outside of filming. I doubt I'll listen to the commentary again, but it was amusing once.

The viewer also has the ability to watch the episode with only music on, so they can enjoy the score to full effect. Personally, I'm not that much into music, so I didn't think much of this option, so I didn't watch the full 2 hours and 15 minutes of the episodes with the only sound being the score.

There is also a feature called A Fix with the Sontarans. This is an extract from an episode of Jim'll Fix It. A young Dr Who fan wants to meet Colin Baker, so he gets the opportunity to play his part in a mini episode.

Disc 2 has four documentaries, a radio program and a photo gallery. You're certainly not short of special features. One of the documentaries were general Dr Who documentaries, not specifically designed to go on this DVD, but it was nonetheless very interesting. As a Dr Who fan, I enjoyed looking at the background of the writer's contributions to this and other episodes.

Overall, I thought the DVD was great. Colin Baker was not my favourite Doctor, but this was my favourite of his episodes. And it was great to see Jamie once again, this time in colour! If you enjoy the old series of Dr Who, go out and buy this DVD. If you're a fan of the new series, this would be a good place to start if you want to get into the old series. You don't need much background information to enjoy the episodes. I think any Dr Who fan should get this, but if you're not a Dr Who fan, then I guess my comments are unlikely to persuade you. 

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