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....
