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Title:
Doctor Who: The Invasion Of Time: The Tom Baker Years 1974 – 1981
Region:
One
Genre:
British Sci-Fi Television Series
Stars:
Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Milton Johns, and John Leeson
Writer:
David Agnew
Director:
Gerald Blake
Producer:
Dudley Williams
Feature
length: 150 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary With Actress Louise Jameson and Voice Actor John Leeson, Writer
Anthony Read, and Visual Effects Designer Mat Irvine, Out Of Time Making
Of Documentary, The Rise And Fall Of Gallifrey Featurette, The Elusive
David Agnew Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Optional CGI Effects, Continuity,
Production Note Text Commentary, Photo Gallery, DVD-ROM PDF File With Radio
Times Listing
Languages:
English Two-Channel Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired
Packaging:
Single Size Two-Disc Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 6 Per Episode (36 Total)
Sound:
Two-Channel Monaural Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1978/DVD Release: 2008
Home
Video Distributor: BBC Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Despite
the limits in production design and visual effects due in part because of the
series budget at the time, Doctor Who: The Invasion Of Time starring fan
favorite Tom Baker, as The Fourth Doctor is a prime example of how good
storytelling can transcend budgetary limits as well as the available technology
at the time of production, which greatly effects a lot of genre film and
television over time. I feel it is almost a sin to give away plot elements even
though this six-part story is thirty years old because I can imagine how
intriguing the episode was for first time viewers who had no idea of the
surprises that were to come. Even the cover art gives away one of the major plot
elements, but even so in my humble opinion this is one of the best classic Doctor
Who episodes from the Tom Baker years.
The
Doctor returns to Gallifrey, but Leela (Louise Jameson) is concerned as he is
acting strangely and appears to have betrayed his people, The Time Lords, to the
Vardans – aliens that can travel across any broadcast wavelength and
materialize at the end of it. They can even read thoughts and encephalographic
patterns. Taking his right to serve as President of the Supreme Council of
Gallifrey, giving him access to the Matrix – the repository of all Time Lord
knowledge. Even K-9 (voiced by John Leeson) seems to offer no explanation as to
the Doctor’s actions until the Vardans finally materialize and the Doctor
defeats them. However the Vardans were pawns of the Sontarans who plan to invade
all time and space if they can get the Doctor to lower the planetary defenses
just enough to let in more than the small recon team that has arrived.
Besides
featuring fan favorite villains, the Sontarans, who made an appearance in the
fourth season of the new Doctor Who series, which aired on both sides of
the Atlantic this past spring, the episode gives the viewer a glimpse into the
politics and class structure of the Time Lords of Gallifrey, which in some ways
answers the question why the Doctor chooses his maverick ways by getting
directly involved while the majority of the Time Lords follow a policy of
detached observation. This aspect of Time Lord society is explored in retrospect
in the featurette The Rise And Fall Of Gallifrey (10 minutes), which
explores how the portrayal of the Time Lords changed from specifically the
Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) through the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison). Also
included among the extra value features on the second disc is a documentary on
the making of the episode (17 minutes), a featurette that reveals a kind of
“Alan Smithee” for Writers used in Doctor Who (5 minutes), some
deleted scenes from the fifth and sixth episodes of this adventure (6 minutes),
BBC One Continuity TV spots (3 minutes) and a motion photo gallery (7 minutes).
DVD-ROM users will have added access to six sheets from the Radio Times Billings
via a PDF file.
Doctor
Who: The Invasion Of Time is
presented in a 4 by 3 aspect ratio preserving the manner in which the episode
was originally broadcast. The picture quality is terrific considering this was
show shot on both video and film in the late 1970s and the Two-Channel English
Monaural Soundtrack is clear and free of any analogue background noise or
hissing. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired are encoded as an
option on both discs. Actress Louise Jameson and Voice Actor John Leeson, Writer
Anthony Read, and Visual Effects Designer Mat Irvine participate in a feature
length audio commentary for all six episodes, with Louise Jameson expressing
some regret for not returning to the series for a season during the Peter
Davison years after she saw the Children In Need sketch featuring the Fifth and
Tenth Doctors (David Tennant plays the Tenth Doctor) on the BBC in 2007. John
Leeson reveals that he came in second place in a K-9 sound alike contest because
the American audience had no idea what he looked like despite being a major
guest to appear at the event. A text commentary of production notes is also
available as a viewing option. I think the episodes defaults to the CGI enhanced
versions when the viewer places them in the player and when I watched the
episodes again choosing to have the CGI effects on or off, I saw no difference.
This could be an issue with the player used to screen and review this disc
however or simply the particular disc I used. The effects may also be subtle
enough to miss too.
A
terrific entry for anyone’s Doctor Who DVD collection, Doctor
Who: The Invasion Of Time: The Tom Baker Years 1974 – 1981
is available now at retailers on and offline courtesy of BBC Video.
©
Copyright 2008 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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