Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani (UK)

I used to be a massive fan of Doctor Who, and still have a soft spot for the programme. I`ve watched a couple of the DVD before and was really looking forward to this, one of my all-time favourites. Great story, fantastic vilain and a regeneration.Class.

VIDEO
What can I say? I was absolutely APPALLED to see this transfer. Having read the review proper and been highly impressed with the work of the Restoration Team before I`m now under the impression I got a bad disc (or its a fault with the M5), but this was absoluely shocking. Being mainly set in dark and smoky caves there were an abysmal amount of artefacts - particularly in episode 1 - but even the outdoor and brighter scenes (scenes in Chelak`s green office being prime candidates) were riddled with blockiness. Very disappointing. At least the opening and closing credits were OK.

AUDIO
Better, all the dialogue was clear and quite crisp. A 5.1 remix wouldn`t have added a great deal to this one, apart from maybe the volcanic mud rushes, guns firing and ship noises. Love hearing that version of the theme tune.
:o)

FEATURES
Plenty to look through on this disc. The commentary was very informative and funny, everyone seems to still have a great deal of affection for this story. The onscreen production notes were really interesting too (and I thought I knew a lot about the story before!), and the BBC news spots and trailer were great 80s nostalgia. Nice wee photo gallery and the original episode 1 (jeez, was that wobbly!) plus an extended scene and a look behind the scenes at the regeneration give good value for money!
My personal favourite though was the short piece on Creating Sharaz Jek, one of my favourite villains. It was quite saddening to watch and listen to it without remembering Christopher Gable is no longer with us.

OVERALL
A great Doctor Who story, truly deserving of classic status. Good audio and some fine features are only marred by the terrible picture, which really lets the disc down overall. If it IS a bad disc and the Restoration Team have done their usual class job then Video gets a 9 and its a 9 overall.

Right, when`s Creature from the Pit coming out then? (kidding...)

Another good Doctor Who transfer to DVD. Especially as this story is one of my favourites to say the least. Peter Davison`s final epic is shown in bright colours. I agree with Darren Maccay because the newly versioned episode one was no big improvement as why didn`t the BBC keep the original version (As can be seen in special features) The extras are worth watching but why news articles??? The behind the scenes is interesting and I also give credit to the sharez jek documentary.
I have to say the BBC DR WHO DVD`S are improving with extras.

I wasn`t particularly fond of this story when I first watched it back in 1984, as I think it might have been a bit "adult" for my 13 year old viewpoint, so I was looking forward to seeing it again from an older viewpoint, and I wasn`t disappointed!!

The story concerns drugs, gun-runners, and copious amounts of death (The Doctor & Peri, being the only two main cast members who haven`t been killed, by the end, and even the Doctor has to regenerate!!) and it rightly deserves the "classic" tag.

The picture isn`t bad for such an old dark show, and the sound is also what you would expect, but the main praise must go to the lively and informative commentary and onscreen notes that accompany the story. The extras are worthy of a mention, and show how the regeneration was filmed and the commentary can also accompany this behind the scenes featurette.

If you`re new to Doctor Who, or an old fan, then I can wholly recommend this, as an indication as to how good the programme could be, there is little of the overdone continuity references that would alienate casual viewers of later stories and enough extras to satisfy hardened DVD fans.

A top notch disc for a top notch story!!