Recent viewings

I indulged myself in a variety of recent DVD releases over the weekend.

First up, the new Cyberman box set.

REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN - I hadn't seen this for 7 or 8 years, or however long it was since the last VHS reissue. Having fond memories of seeing it when originally released in the mid 80s, while it's not the best production ever to grace our screens, it's not a bad story and Tom Baker's Doctor is really at his barmiest best. Same goes for his entire first season actually. Must rank as one of my very favourite seasons.

Despite having nicked the Gallifreyan logo (actually it first appeared here), the Vogans haven't dated as badly as I had expected them to, and if anything, it's the poor old Cybermen that look a bit crap, with their smiley faces and rubber suits painted silver. At least the spark guns atop of their helmets still looked good.

The thing I love about this story is the fact it's set on the same Nerva Beacon on which the Ark in Space, a couple of stories earlier, was set, albeit in a different time. And I also came to appreciate what a good team harry and Sarah made. Ian Marter remains underrated.

So, to continue the fun and momentum, I followed this up with SILVER NEMESIS. Oh dear, what a waste of time that turned out to be. It was worse than I remember, with the Nemesis meteor looking more like the biggest jacket potato known to man.

In fact I got so bored, just half way through the first episode, I elected to watch it with the commentary on, which made it far more enjoyable.

After all the cyber-excitement, I got out my DALEK WAR box set. I hadn't seen the epic FRONTIER IN SPACE for ages, maybe a good decade ago, so I barely remembered it.

And it's brilliant! A great story, very ambitious and well cast, with Delgado's Master at his best, stealing the show. The sets were pretty good, the location work wasn't bad at all; everything about it worked for me, wrapped up in the typical early seventies charm of the Pertwee era.

And it's all go in the final episode, as the Ogrons are traumatised by a gigantic testicle sack on a cliff and the Daleks arrive for about 5 minutes - brilliant!

One of the bonus features worth a mention was the incredibly moving documentary on Roger Delgado. I felt genuinely emotional watching that. He laid down the blueprint for one of Doctor Who's most iconic and memorable villains.

A concluded my weekend Who marathon with PLANET OF THE DALEKS. It isn't that long since I last saw this on tape, but for the first time, here we have the entire thing n glorious technicolour, cleaned up and looking all the better for it.

Oddly, Planet works much better in black and white. The plastic Spiridon jungle and ice caves look all the more convincing, and in monochrome, the Dalek props looked less battered. But even so, it's nice to watch the whole thing in colour, and comical Dalek Supreme aside, it still stands up very well, and for once, even the Dalek ship looked quite good!

It is a shame, that despite everybody's best attempts, the studio-bound jungle just isn't convincing. The one quarry location shot where the Daleks are wheeled into the ice lake, looks superb, and I'm sure that if they'd had the budget to shoot the rest of the story in some woods somewhere, it would have been much better.

Still, a classic Pertwee Dalek story. Now, if only they'd hurry up and release DEATH and DAY....

Planet of Fire - feature length version

My copy arrived yesterday and even took priority over watching The Pandorica Opens.

Planet of Fire, for me, is one of the strongest stories of the 80s; a genuinely original and well-written story and a superb production. It is one of the many episodes I fondly remember watching as a young boy and being thrilled by, which, like many others from that period, still give me a great pleasure to enjoy today.

I hadn't seen it for some time, having decided to hold off watching the VHS until the DVD comes out.

Whilst I still intend to watch the original 4-part edit, I started off by watching the new feature-length version with new effects. Actually, I was surprised at how poor and corny some of the new CGI looked - yet in other places, it looked absolutely superb. Either way it brought the story right up to date and was an overall improvement.

I'm not so sure about some of the re-editing, and I'm sure they took the "Elton John" line out! It is interesting to compare Doctor Who (or any other TV) of this period to the fully-orchestrated, fast-paced show(s) we have today. Planet of Fire had many scenes with just dialogue and no music, which gave it a slight incomplete feel - however when the incidental music was used, it was so effective, being one of the programme's best incidental scores of that decade, by my book. Very atmospheric.

Planet of Fire may not be an all-action story, but it doesn't need to be. In addition, we have two significant events; the introduction of Peri, and the departure of Turlough, with his mysterious background finally explained.

Overall, I was pleased to find I still absolutely love Planet of Fire. There's also a short, but nice tribute to Anthony Ainley on the DVD, which sheds a little light on the elusive man behind the beard. I was lucky enough to meet him at his last convention appearance in 2003; as somebody terrified of his Master as a child, it was a genuine thrill, and I'm so glad I was able to have that moment. It's a great shame he's gone.

The great thing about the Kamelion Tales set, it I've still got loads more to watch! I've never seen The King's Demons since the original transmission, so I'm looking forward to that, and all the other superb value-for-money extras the BBC give us on these releases.

The Pandorica Opens...

...Well, as far as I'm concerned the Pandorica can close again. What a load of utter nonsense.

Why does Doctor Who need huge, overblown finalés? Can't we just have a good story?! Does it really need a story arc? In the end, what we have, is yet another one of those "let's bring everything together" waste-of-time stories.

For me this series has in most parts, totally lacked intellect and credibility, culminating in that silly episode. For the audience it's now aimed at, the show should be on at 4pm on a weekday.

Doctor Doom and Gloom

I'm actually starting to feel disillusioned with the new series. For me, it has 'lost' something.

On Saturday, I suddenly realised that I wouldn't be too bothered if I missed it. For the first time in over 25 years of viewing and loving the show!

Somehow, part of the enjoyment is watching it 'live' at the time of transmission. I suppose nowadays, knowing we have the iPlayer and BBC Three repeat, it's not the end of the world if I happen to miss it. But it was the fact that a certain feeling was gone that alarmed me.

And as such a dedicated and passionate fan, this is a very sorry thing to be saying.

I didn't dislike Saturday's episode, although it did remind me of the "Nannageddon" episode of The Mighty Boosh!!

Over the last 2 days I've spoken to 3 friends who watch the show. One hates it completely; can't stand Matt Smith. The other said he hasn't been as bothered about it and it isn't as good as it was, and the third echoes my own thoughts and feelings, in that the only good thing about the current series (and contrary to his initial misgivings), is Matt Smith.

Matt Smith IS the best thing about the show (luckily!). He is a superb Doctor. He manages to bring together aspects of previous Doctors, such as Tennant, Troughton and Davison yet make it his own. It's amazing how somebody of Matt's age can be both so old and so young at the same time!

I like Karen Gillan but somehow, Amy just isn't doing it for me. But the big disappointment I'm afraid, is Steven Moffat. And it is with huge irony I say this, as when I think about many of my favourite episodes from 2005 onwards - they're his. Some of the most original stories - again, the Moff. A self-confessed lifelong fan too - which in my book made him the perfect and ideal person to take over from RTD, who for me started off good, but slowly let things fall apart.

Now, The Eleventh Hour was brilliant. That really got the new season off to a good start, and The Beast Below, while a little odd, still worked; feeling new and original. But it's been a rapid downhill journey since then, with the utterly dreadful Gatiss travesty and horrendous new Dalek design. That as for me, the first warning sign.

I guess I'm disappointed in the decisions and choices the production team have made. For me it's stopped 'feeling' like Doctor Who, and that's what concerns me.

And I never thought I'd say that, but I am. Looking back, Series 1 with Christopher Eccleston was, for me personally (aside from the farting Slitheen), the best season of the revived show and most true to the spirit of the original show. I thought that was just how modern Doctor Who needed to be. Then he went and left...

So back to the present; and we're about half way through the season. I really hope that soon something is going to come along and change my state of mind.

Vampires of Venice

In short, boring and unoriginal. The same old kind of alien re-colonisation story that we've seen a thousand times over.

And aliens. Why not a genuine vampire story?

And Murray Gold's score - it's crap! In fact it's the same every week.

Shame really, since Matt Smith was again superb, and the episode looked fantastic... brilliant location work, great lighting, excellent costumes... and CGI monsters.

Sorry, it just didn't work.

Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone

It has to be said that the Weeping Angels, first seen in 2007's Blink are without doubt, one of the most scary and original enemies in Doctor Who's long history. So it was with great anticipation that we awaited their return. And they're back. Yet somehow for me, they just were not as effective a second time around. There's only so many times you can say "don't blink" for it to still have an air of tension about it. Time of the Angels was a superb first episode of the current series' first two-parter. It allowed tension to slowly build, and the story to be told at a steady pace. And the scene where the Angel suddenly appears from out of the screen was quite chilling, though highly predictable! However I found the plot and dialogue hard to follow, and I don't even remember what the cliffhanger was - all I do remember is the notorious Graham Norton animation that popped up at a crucial moment in the closing minutes of the episode! Cue 5,000 angry fans... Flesh and Stone proved to be an anticlimax. We still don't know who River Song is, or who she killed. I'd hedge my bets on her being a regenerated Rani. Or at least a Time Lady, given her understanding of ye olde Gallifreyan scripture. Overall I felt neutral about this episode. There was nothing exciting or original enough to make it memorable, although I found Matt Smith to be consistently good, and it's interesting to note, that this was the first story he filmed too. However, after the insult to my intelligence (and 29 years of being a fan) that was Victory of the Daleks, I found this two-parter relatively harmless, extremely well made, and it took itself seriously enough to be pleasantly enjoyable. And then... Amy Pond turns into a nymphomaniac! I'm sorry, am I still watching Doctor Who?!

Doctor Who and electronic music

Isn't it a lovely thing in life when your interests take a natural conversion? Last year, there was an excellent documentary on the rise of electronic music, Synth Britannia, on BBC Four. It featured artists emerged in the 1970s, such as Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, The Human League and John Foxx - basically many of my own favourite artists - and quite bizarrely, after watching it, I really fancied watching some late 70s Tom Baker-era Doctor Who!!

As a lover of Science-Fiction, with obviously, the good Doctor topping the list, I've always found that certain styles of electronic music somehow connect me back to the show. I fondly recall as a child, watching Peter Davison's episodes and listening to Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene". For me that was just a perfect combination! Still is!

Clearly, the original Delia Derbyshire theme tune arrangement is an electronic masterpiece; way ahead of its time, and something that still sounds unique and distinctive today. If they were to re-instate it, I'm sure it would work better than ever, not sounding at all dated. It is as well known and as big as the show itself!

Watching some of the old Hartnell episodes recently, I was impressed with the incidental music - in "The Daleks" for example, where in place of incidental music, we have a low, menacing and totally mysterious, haunting drone. For me this is far superior to any dramatic orchestral score.

And there's also the incidental music of the 70s and early 80s from Malcolm Clarke, Roger Limb and Peter Howell. Granted some of those analogue warbles sound a little dated today, yet still very appropriate and identifiable with Doctor Who.

Speaking of Peter Howell - his version of the theme tune still sounds absolutely superb today. It's probably my personal favourite version, being the one I grew up with. Yet its use on the intros of BBC DVDs, over the choice of the original, certainly says something. It just works. Totally appropriate - and, like the original, it hardly sounds dated today.

So in that sense, while the show has been updated with current trends and a modern take, I do miss the atmosphere of an electronic score, as for me, the two will forever go hand in hand.

Deconstruction of the Daleks

It has been quite surprising just how many angry, frustated and critical comments have literally flooded Doctor Who forums - particularly the DWM Facebook page, over the last week. I don't recall such a backlash in recent years, ever! All because they changed the Daleks!! Surely that proves that they are still the nation's favourite villain, and that they are still as popular today as they have ever been. They're still as big as the show itself.

And I do believe these comments are from long-time genuine fans - as I'm one of them! It's not a case of criticising for the sake of it, and nobody is deliberately being a "hater" (to coin a rather sad internet expression...). We love the Daleks and their legacy; they are as fundamental to the show as the TARDIS or the theme tune! So to see them changed in a way in which so many of us deem completely un-necessary is a bitter pill to swallow. In that case, the Doctor might as well become a transexual android!

But not liking the new Daleks doesn't mean we no longer like the show - that's just nonsense! I still believe SM is the right man for the job, and I don't miss RTD's overblown stories one jott. I applaud SM for casting Matt Smith, as for me, he feels like the most "Doctory" Doctor since McCoy or McGann. I applaud him for revamping the music, titles and TARDIS (whether for the better or not) - it's all part of the dynamism of change which has always driven the show forward.

Yet the Dalek change was one too many. In fact let me correct myself - the new colour schemes are good. The new detail, such as the guns and eyestalk, are good. What utterly ruins them and takes away the "Dalekyness" is the shape, and that dreadful hump back. Had the detail and colour simply been applied to the existing design, they would have looked superb. But start to tamper with that shape (the base isn't even as angular), and you're starting to loose the Daleks.

Despite that, I'm still excited about the rest of the series and seeing what SM has got in store for us. This was just one mistake (albeit a rather huge one). So far this series for me feels like the most true to the spirit of the show since series 1 in 2005, and I'm really looking forward to the rest.

But as a Dalek fan - this is simply unforgivable! I did meet them for real yesterday though, at a promotional event at Sheffield station for the new BBC computer game. Seeing them "in the fibreglass" did make me appreciate them a little more - but there's still nothing better than a classic Dalek; the original and best.

Victory of the Daleks

Well, something had to give somewhere. After two pretty good and original episodes for the revamped and regenerated new series of Doctor Who, the Mark Gatiss story Victory of the Daleks proved to be a huge disappointment. Although Gatiss is a lifelong fan, with numerous writing connections to the show, for me, both stories of his, have been rather crap. Victory of the Daleks was perhaps THE most rushed and fast-paced story in the show's history - blink, and you missed it. This made it difficult to follow and it spent no time at all building up any kind of tension. And not just that - the actual storyline was absolute rubbish too. The rehashed old tale of one race of Daleks beating another, all wrapped around a corny plot to get to the Doctor via implanting an android professor, claiming to have invented the Daleks, in Winston Churchill's war cabinet. I'm sorry, it just did not work. The Daleks deserve a genuinely original story - and not one that's necessarily earth-bound either. There are only so many ways you can re-tell The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and they've all been done twice over! But it gets worse. According to Steven Moffat, as just about everything else in the series has change, why not change the Daleks too? Because there's no need, that's why! The change in the Doctor, the companion and the TARDIS is all normal with a new Doctor, season and production team, but a design as genuinely classic as the Dalek? Surely people want to see Daleks which look like Daleks, not an oversized, hunchback obese Dalek. Despite some nice colour schemes and some interesting details, such as the eye-stalks, the new fat Daleks looked utterly stupid, more resembling the various mis-shapen Dalek toys that came out in the 60s, barely resembling a Dalek. This was one step too far in my book, which has undoubtedly raised my concerns for the rest of the series. I think at times the production team are so involved in the show, and wrapped up in their exclusive little Doctor Who bubble, that they easily lose focus and forget some of the most important things that just make the show work.

The Beast Below

The Beast Below was an original and unusual story for Doctor Who; more of a message about humanity and looking after endangered species than your usual villain on the loose romp, which made a change.

However I felt that there was perhaps too many things happening at once. The "Smilers" were very creepy indeed, although sadly underused. They could have made much more of them.

Starship UK was brilliantly realised though, making for not only one of the most original ideas in the revived series' history, but also one of the most stunning CGI visuals.

Only the second episode and the days of David Tennant's tenth Doctor seem an unusually long time ago, with Matt Smith perfectly settling into the role. I find it somewhat interesting that for a somebody of his age who grew up without the show on TV, has brought so much "Doctorishness" to the role. Hints of Peter Davison's Doctor came through in a few pleasing moments.

Just two episodes in and already this season feels much closer to the original spirit of the show, which had gradually gone away over the last couple of years. Although I'm unsure it was a wise move to bring the Daleks back (again), or stick cute little Union Jack flags on their domes, but I'm sure next week's Mark Gatiss story is going to be a interesting one...

The Eleventh Hour

The Eleventh Hour was, in short, a triumph. The success of modern day Doctor Who had over the last few years, perhaps taken the show to a level that was too difficult to handle, with the quality of the storytelling ultimately suffering, with David Tennant's last two seasons being both predictable and repetitive.

Any debut story for a new Doctor (and in many cases production team) have to deliver on many levels. It has to introduce a new Doctor; introduce a new companion; tell a story; and all usually wrapped up in new music, with a new title sequence at either end. The Eleventh Hour managed to hit all of those targets, despite the new theme tune arrangement being a huge mistake. But more of that later.

Matt Smith's Doctor is going to be brilliant. I may have had my doubts at the casting of a Doctor younger than myself, but he pulled it off. Matt has an interesting face, he oozes charisma, as any great Doctor should, and just as he can look like a fresh-faced 20-something year old, he can also look mysteriously older. Smith clearly has both the madness and other-worldlyness about him that defined such great Doctors as Tom Baker's and Jon Pertwee's takes on the time lord.

The story itself, focussed on introducing new companion Amy Pond, combined with some rather large eyeballs paying a visit to Earth, in search of "Prisoner Zero"; a CGI snake-like monster that transformed itself into coma patients or anybody else (including Pam Batchelor from Look Around You).

There was probably as much emphasis on the grown-up Amy, played by Karen Gillan, as there was on Matt Smith's Doctor. I found the character of Amy to be instantly likeable and absolutely ideal for the Eleventh Doctor's companion.

With the Doctor's visits to Amy as a child and his typically Doctor-ish lateness in returning as promised, there was a hint of Girl in the Fireplace to that aspect of the story, but it worked well regardless. The rest of the adventure was well-paced, well acted and well directed, for all of it's engaging 63 minutes. It may not have been the most original debut story, but it was for me, the most thrilling new Doctor adventure in a long while - dare I say since "Rose" in 2005.

With all the RTD campness and overblown storylines now a thing of the past, this felt like really solid Doctor Who.

I was thrilled to see that the tired title sequence had finally been re-designed, but sadly, it was rather rubbish, with tacky lightning bolts firing the TARDIS down what looked like a close-up of somebody's naval. This felt like a missed opportunity to do something original and bring back the dark and mysterious kind of distinctive title sequence the show boasted in the 1960s and 1970s. As it stands, it's a lightening fast zoom, almost like they can't be bothered to do anything spectacular, in favour of getting into the action. Fair enough, but for me, the title sequence has always been every bit as important as the story itself, and the same goes for the theme tune.

Again a big hurrah when a new drone swirled in, heralding the start of a new arrangement... Unfortunately, it was barely recognisable as the all-important Doctor Who theme tune, with the famous bassline lost underneath the cheesy orchestrations of the previous version of the theme.

The Doctor Who theme music is one of the most, if not THE most famous UK television series theme music, with the original electronic Delia Derbyshire version still sounding exciting today. There have been, in recent years, some superb and highly underrated new interpretations of the theme music from the likes of Orbital and David Arnold - yet instead we are faced with this new version which has almost completely lost its identity. Given that Mr Moffatt (which I still can't spell) is a lifelong fan, I'm surprised this got past his ears.

The new series has a much more fantastical and almost fairytale approach in parts, and I felt the incidental music should have reflected that. Instead, Murray Gold's incidental music just sounded like a repeat of the repetitive and predictable score that has been used for the last five years.

The final missed opportunity was the new TARDIS interior. Again, kudos to the production team for keeping to the tradition of change and revamping the inside, but quite frankly, it looks like a junkyard, with the console being the central pile of junk. And with the lighting so similar to the previous set, at a glance, it barely looked like anything had changed.

Although this has much more of the home-made time machine look that we saw in the two Peter Cushing films of the 1960s (not unlike Smith's bowtie and tweed jacket...), it does feel a little twee, and I was hoping for something very different. Maybe something more futuristic to nicely contrast the beautiful exterior of the new TARDIS prop.

But I suppose those are minor gripes. After all I don't watch the show to see what the inside of the TARDIS looks like or how the titles have changed - although for me, it's all part of the overall picture.

But The Eleventh Hour itself was overall, a brilliant episode. It felt new and refreshing, and revitalised, thanks to the new team behind it. And going by the look of the "coming soon" trailer, things are just going to get bigger and better from here.

Welcome back, Doctor...

The End of an Era (part 2)

For all it's highs and lows, I think it's fair to say, we all shared the experience over the weekend, in witnessing the end of a significant era for Doctor Who.

Throughout the 90s, I was one of the many fans who always remained optimistic, that one day, our beloved show would return. That of course, came with fears, that it could all go wrong too, especially following the disappointment of the TV movie. But I remember that first real glimmer of hope, when it was rumoured that Alan Yentob wanted to bring the show back, and I remember seeing some proposed GCI images in a magazine. Then, in 2001, at the "Resurrection" convention, somebody called Dan Freedman talked passionately about his ideas for how the show could be revitalised, and I was convinced he was the man for the job - but then all things went quiet.

In 2002, I launched my own website dedicated to the show, attended more conventions, and it really felt like things were moving again - not sure how, there was just a good feeling about things. Of course, we had to wait another couple of years - nicely timed with the show's 40th anniversary to hear the long-awaited (and hard to believe) news that a new series had been commissioned.

I remember the day I heard the news of Christopher Eccleston's casting - which was quite an unexpected choice, and the day the new Dalek pictures were leaked.. And finally, in the run-up to the show's broadcast, seeing huge, great billboard posters everywhere. Doctor Who was coming back.

For me, that first series remains the best, and most true to the show's heart (Slitheen and Love & Monsters aside!), and I loved the excitement and scale of everything in the show, and, as a Dalek obsessive, their return was a triumphant moment for me. And Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways was the most exciting and thrilling finalé to the series, with - and a regeneration scene, that genuinely touched me. I remember choking back the tears as he changed, not only realising that I'd grown to love the new Doctor, but that particular moment cemented the fact the show was back for good.

Although I like David Tennant as an actor and person, I was never truly blown away by his interpretation of the Doctor. However, there is no denying that the show's huge increase in popularity - worldwide - was largely down to the leading man. It has also been so wonderful to see endless rows of toys and merchandise back on the shelves, and I have even seen young children running around with arms outstretched, playing "Daleks" - and that was, as a lifelong Who fan, a genuinely special moment!

Overall, I found Russel T Davies to be more of an ideas man than a writer - I'll be the first to admit, I've strongly disliked most of his stories, but I remain in his debt for successfully reprising the show, and keeping its integrity in tact. He was clearly the right man, at the right time. However, when I look back at some of my favourite stories over the past five years, they were either directed by the ever-wonderful Graeme Harper (we salute you!), or were written by a certain Mr Moffat. So the day when the news came that he would be taking over as showrunner, I felt that its future was in very safe hands.

So over the weekend, this first "phase" of the revitalised show came to an end, with the departure of RTD, Julie Gardner and of course, David Tennant. With a regenerating Doctor hurtling towards Earth in a burning TARDIS, it's clear (especially from the new series trailer), that - just like the transition from Troughton to Pertwee, or Baker to Davison - the show is once again entering a brand new and exciting era, with a new team, new stories, new aliens and most importantly, a new Doctor (and hopefully a lot of other new things along the way)!

Whatever our taste or preference, good points, and bad, we can all say we've been on the same journey. For many fans, 'our' show returned, and at the same time, it has engaged brand new generations of fans, most of who I hope, not only enjoy the new series, but are in the lucky position where they still have the whole legacy of the original series to discover and relish.

The End of Time - and End of an Era

Part Two of The End of Time didn't disappoint. It fortunately wasn't an overblown over the top, too-many-things-happening-at-once typical Russel T Davies finalé. It was a joy to see the TimeLords back, although I had been hoping that they might be the Doctor's salvation, and him theirs, using the Immortality Gate to restore his allegedly beloved home planet and race. But no, that would have been too easy. At least they are back, and Gallifrey still exists, contrary to what we'd been previously led to believe.

Nice twist for the four knocks to be Bernard Cribbins'... although I was hoping to see the Doctor regenerate just after absorbing the radiation, rather than suddenly have enough life in him to clean up and go on a farewell tour!

In the past the excitement of the regeneration was in not knowing how it was going to happen - and sadly they used the same, boring visual effect, again, in the TARDIS, all of which proved to be quite a letdown. They missed a track with this one.

The episode was longer than usual - mainly to cater for RTD's overcrowded, un-necessary "farewell tour" and "let's bring everyone back right at the end" saga, which for me, diluted the excitement and anticipation of the regeneration, which almost felt like an afterthought after Davies' own swansong.

Will I miss David Tennant? No. I'm ready for a new Doctor. Will I miss Russel T Davies? Certainly not. The man can't write for toffee. Am I looking forward to next year? Definately, especially since having seen the trailer. And I shall wait for the new series to grace our screens before passing judgement on young Matt Smith.

Enlightenment

The Black Guardian Trilogy concluded with the rather impressive Enlightenment. The production itself is quite incredible for its time - a very adventurous and creative storyline, brilliantly realised by great, well-lit sets, and a superb cast.

I'm yet to go through the bonus features on the DVD - which includes a new, feature-length edit with new CGI effects, but even watching the original four parter, the original FX were quite good for the time, although I can only imagine how much better the whole thing will look, as per the previous two stories, with new visual effects.

Tegan's ample cleavage was one of the story's many highlights, along with the final showdown between the two bird-headed black and white guardians. Their costume designs were superb. Another thing, which stood out in for me, was the dimly-lit TARDIS interior - the red roundells looked superb, giving it so much more atmosphere. That was one of many fond memories of watching Enlightenment as a child.

Overall it probably ranks as one of the best Davison era stories, but I've only just scratched the surface with this new double-DVD set, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the voyage!