Seven discs, three doctors and three adventures. One story is the disastrous 1996 TV movie, while another is widely regarded as one of the best of the original Doctor Who stories ever made. To be honest, this box set might as well be called the Randomly Lumped Together Doctor Who boxset for all the stories inside have in common. Still, its nice to see them all the same. Each tale has been out on DVD before, but the idea behind the Revisitations box sets is to take previously released classic stories, remaster them, fill out the package with loads of new special features and release them in slightly random box sets.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang is first up, a six part Tom Baker adventure from 1977. Set in Victorian London, the Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) begin investigating a series of murders around the Thames. But this isnt Jack The Ripper. The resulting storyline ultimately turns out to involve a sinister Chinese theatre group and a group of giant sewer rats.
The extras on this one include the usual thorough documentary on the story entitled The Last Hurrah, a reference to the departure of producer Philip Hinchcliffe, while Moving On focuses on Hinchcliffes departure in more detail. More interesting are the making of The Foe From The Future featurette, a locations report in Now and Then, and some nostalgia with some clips from relevant 1970s episodes of Blue Peter and a regional news broadcast about the show. Theres also some historical stuff on Limehouse, the tradition of music hall and the literary backdrop to the tale (Victoriana and Chinoiserie). The 1977 documentary The Lively Arts amongst other things reveal Melvyn Braggs current hairstyle to be exactly the same as it was 33 years ago, while the anachronistic TARDIS-Cam No.6 short animation originates from the BBC website.
From 1984, the four part The Caves of Androzani is often rated as the best Who story of all time. Whether fans of the new series would agree remains to be seen, but its good and climaxes with Peter Davisons unintentionally horrific transformation into Colin Baker. Perhaps the only one of the original Who actors not to be primarily defined by the role, Peter Davison nevertheless admits to being distracted by his assistant Nicola Bryans cleavage throughout the filming of his genuinely moving death scene. And chances are so will you be.
Finally, 1996 saw something of a false dawn for Who fans with the long awaited Paul McGann TV movie, which turned out to be a massive flop. In truth, it has more in common with the new Russell T Davies version of Who than its reputation suggests. However its hard not to feel the San Francisco at the Millennium setting misses the point somewhat and, almost unforgivably, Eric Roberts is in it.
As with The Talons of Weng-Chiang, both The Caves of Androzani and the Doctor Who Movie have an absolute wealth of extras, detailed below.
Overall Verdict: An intriguing snapshot of Doctor Who through the 70s, 80s and 90s. And anyone planning to do their PhD on The Talons of Weng-Chiang story alone should find easily enough research material amongst the special features.
Special Features:
The Talons of Weng-Chiang:
Audio Commentary on The Talons of Weng-Chiang actors Louise Jameson, John Bennett and Christopher Benjamin, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and director David Maloney.
The Last Hurrah Feature
Moving On Featurette
The Foe from the Future Featurette
Now & Then Featurette
Look East Regional News Broadcast
Victoriana and Chinoiserie Featurette
Music Hall Featurette
Limehouse Featurette
The Lively Arts 1977 Documentary
Blue Peter Theatre
Behind the Scenes Featurette
Philip Hinchcliffe Interview
Trails and Continuity
Photo Gallery
TARDIS-Cam No.6 Animation
The Caves of Androzani:
Audio Commentary with actors Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant and director Graeme Harper.
Behind the Scenes – The Regeneration Featurette
Behind the Scenes – Creating Sharaz Jek Featurette
Extended Scenes
Vintage BBC Trailer
Vintage News Reports Compilation
Isolated Music – option to view the episodes with isolated music scores.
PDF material – Radio Times listings in PDF format.
Chain Reaction: Making of Feature
Directing Who: Then & Now Featurette
Russell Harty Show Featurette Including Peter Davison and Colin Baker
Photo Gallery
Doctor Who: The Movie:
2001 Audio Commentary original DVD release solo commentary by director Geoffrey Sax
2009 Audio Commentary new commentary with actors Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy, moderated by Nicholas Briggs
The Seven Year Hitch Feature
The Doctors Strange Love Featurette
Photo Gallery
Isolated Music – option to view the movie with isolated music score.
Music Tracks four music tracks from the production presented in full: In a Dream, All Dressed Up, Ride into the Moonlight and Auld Lang Syne.
PDF material – Radio Times listings in PDF format.
Paul McGann Audition Paul McGanns audition for the role.
VFX Tests June 1994 early video effects tests by Amblin Imaging in 1994, featuring the Spider Dalek design.
VFX March 1996 video effects build-ups presented as mute timecoded work in progress shots from the CGI effects department.
EPK the Electronic Press Kit put out by Fox in 1996 included a short documentary and interview segments to allow other broadcasters to put together their own packages about the movie.
Behind the Scenes Short Featurette
Philip Segals Tour of the TARDIS Set -executive producer Philip Segal shows us around the TARDIS control room set.
Alternate Takes – two alternate versions of scenes from the movie.
BBC television trails for the movie.
Who Peter 1989-2009 Feature
The Wilderness Years Feature
Stripped for Action The Eighth Doctor Featurette on the Doctors adventures in comic strip form
Tomorrows Times The Eighth Doctor Featurette on the Doctors coverage in newspapers through the years
Reviewer: Chris Hallam