Review of Doctor Who: The Five Doctors

Introduction

Ok, first up I am a Dr Who fan. Secondly, although this is not one of the best Dr Who stories, I`ve always liked it. I think it`s the combination of the Doctors that does it.

This is the "Special Edition" of the story - not quite the same as the one broadcast on TV (and still being repeated on UK Gold). Some of the scence have been moved around a bit and things added and removed here and there.

I won`t go into the plot, you can read that elsewhere if you are not a fan.

Video

The picture looks very good and I haven`t spotted any artefacts. The special effects have been updated from the original broadcast and look much better than the original ones.

The video was completely cleaned up by the Restoration Team and it really is top notch for a TV programme from the 1980s! The only bit that looks slightly ropey is the opening clip of William Hartnell, which is in black and white. Black and white TV recordings from the 1960s are not a DVD`s best friend.

There is quite a debate raging about the replacement of the old special effects with slightly newer ones. Some fans see this as heresy, but the old ones in this story really were a bit ropey and do benefit from being updated !

Audio

The sound is excellent, a full 5.1 remix was performed - plenty of explosions for your sub woofer (watch out for the cyber-bomb), a dalek firing in an enclosed space (sound bouncing all around) and lots of different locations with varying amounts of echo.

Without a doubt this sounds far better than when it was first broadcast. This was a job well done.

And the closing theme sounds great. It begins in mono and expands into full 5.1 halfway through - this was deliberate and is not a problem with the disc. You have to play this loud to appreciate it.

Features

The downside - no real extras to speak of ! A music only soundtrack is included, but unfortunately it runs at slightly the wrong speed and doesn`t sound right.

I suppose you could say that the main feature includes the extras as it does include scenes not originally broadcast.

Some extras would have been nice, but given the limited number of titles released by the BBC in the first batch of DVDs, it was just nice to see Dr Who included in it !

Conclusion

A good majority of Dr Who fans would say that Tom Baker is their favourite Doctor, and it`s a pity that he doesn`t appear very often here, except in clips from "Shada" - a story that was never completed due to a BBC strike. Having only recently left the show he wasn`t keen to be involved so soon.

In summary, this disc is definitely good for fans. It`s not likely to convince non-fans, but it is a good demonstration of what DVD can do for a 16 year old programme.

The forthcoming Dr Who releases will also be an improvement on this because there are (a) better stories and (b) more extras either already available or being specially commissioned !