Its amazing there are still Doctor Who episodes that have never made it to DVD before, as the BBC has been releasing discs regularly for over a decade now. Then again, seeing as the original series ran for over 35 years, perhaps it isnt that surprising. The Beeb hasnt been releasing the series chronologically, so you never know quite what youll get next, with this four-part serial coming from 1979, during the Tom Baker years.
The Doctor and his companion Romana respond to a distress signal coming from the planet Chloris. There they find a giant empty egg which seems to be the source of the signal. However before they can investigate further, Romana is arrested on the orders of the planets ruler, Lady Adrasta. Adrasta controls all the planets metal, which is in short supply, ensuring she can keep a tight rein on power. While Romana tries to deal with her predicament, especially with the locals fascination with, and fear, of the robot dog, K9, the Doctor investigates stories of a monster who lives in a deep pit. Although most say the creature is vicious and just wants to kill, the Doctor soon learns things are a bit more complicated than that.
One of the reasons this set of four episodes might have taken so long to reach DVD, is that the creature itself is legendary for its cheap and cheerful rubbishness. In fact theres an entire featurette on this disc devoted to the BBC Workshop and the monster, Erato, with its creators discussing why budget, time, technology and lack of communication meant it wasnt an animatronic marvel, and also why when we first see the creature he looks like a giant rubber slug with an erection, before morphing into a blob with weird pincers things (largely because even back them everyone thought it looked like a slug with an erection, and decided that wasnt suitable for family viewing). However to be honest, while it is a bit of a silly green slug thing, its far from the worst Doctor Who creature, and to mind actually quite effective.
It fits well into a story that might have a bit of a kids TV vibe to it, but is very enjoyable. Although theres an attempt to look at capitalist corruption, its largely just a fun little adventure, with the Doctor discovering the truth about the monster and then finding out the situation on the planet is a bit more serious than he first suspected, as hes not the only one whos heard the distress signal.
However as with so many Doctor Who releases, the real joy is the special features. Along with the lengthy and informative featurette about the creation of the creature, theres a brilliant documentary about director Christopher Barry, who was one of the longest serving Who helmers. He made episodes with all of the first four Doctors, with this being his last Who directorial effort. Barry is a real old school British film character, who started off at Ealing before moving into television. Its a great tribute to a fascinating guy.
Theres also a snippet of Tom Baker doing a piece from the Creature From The Pit set for Animal Magic, along with the usual trailers and PDFs, as well as a short and slightly pointless extended scene.
Overall Verdict: Fans of the original Doctor Who should be more than satisfied with this fun slice of late 70s sci-fi, which may be pretty lightweight but is very entertaining. The features are great too.
Special Features:
Christopher Barry: Director Featurette
Team Erato Featurette
Animal Magic Promo
Photo Gallery
Extended Scene
Reviewer: Tim Isaac