DVD Reviews 2017 and 2018
Movie Review: THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB
DVD review: MANDY
DVD Review: THE WITCH FILES
Blu-ray Review: DOCTOR WHO season 12 (1975)
Blu-ray review: ANOTHER WOLFCOP
Blu-ray Review: BLADE RUNNER 2049
DOCTOR WHO: TOM BAKER Complete Season One
Blu-ray review by David Blackwell
DETAILS: 480 minutes approx, (20 episodes on six discs), making-of documentaries, featurettes, TV movies version of two stories, Behind the Sofa, The Tom Baker Years, audio commentaries, production text tracks, PDF production material, opitional CGI material, Blue Peter clips, new Tom Baker interview, tunnel effect and title sequence footage, photo galleries, continuity announcements, trailers, time clocks, On Target featurettes
VIDEO: 1.33:1 1080i High Definition (episodes/ movie versions/ some extras)/ 1.78:1 (featurettes/ documentaries)/
AUDIO: English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (THE ARK IN SPACE/ GENESIS OF THE DALEKS), English 2.0 DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English SDH
STUDIO: BBC
DISC 1- ROBOT (four episodes)/ special features
DISC 2- THE ARK IN SPACE (four episodes)/ special features/ THE ARK IN SPACE omnibus version
DISC 3- THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT (two episodes)/ special features/ THE TOM BAKER YEARS PART 1 & 2
DISC 4- GENESIS OF THE DALEKS (six episodes)/ special features
DISC 5- REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN/ special features
DISC 6- TOM BAKER IN CONVERSATION/ GENESIS OF THE DALEKS omnibus version/ studio clocks
WHAT IS DOCTOR WHO ABOUT?
It is a sci-fi TV show about an alien (called the Doctor) with two hearts who can regenerate and change his appearance. He travels through time and space in a machine called the TARDIS which is bigger on the inside than the outside. He has traveling companions and often fights against alien foes with frequent trips to earth in the past, present, and future (in addition to other planets). The Fourth Doctor is played by Tom Baker and the last Doctor was played by Peter Capaldi. I will wait with baited breath whether the first female Doctor in the Fall of 2018 will work or not. The show is the longest running sci-fi TV series with Classic DOCTOR WHO which ran from 1963 to 1989, a TV movie in 1996, and the new series which started in 2005.
DOCTOR WHO Season 12 (1974) was the first season of the Tom Baker fourth Doctor stories. Tom Baker would go to play the role for seven seasons of the series and he was the most well known Doctor of the series until the show was revived back in 2005. Many old DOCTOR WHO fans in the USA were introduced to the show through PBS stations like I was. I first stumbled upon ARK IN SPACE PART ONE on one Monday in March 1983. I have been a fan of DOCTOR WHO since then and I have been a reader of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE since 1989 in addition to buying some of the Target book novelizations, buying some of the original DOCTOR WHO novels, buying a few stories on VHS, and buying quite a few stories on DVD (with most of the surviving First and Second Doctor stories, all of the Third Doctor seasons, and some of the Fourth doctor stories, and some of the rest of the Classic series with four releases from the new series. DOCTOR WHO: TOM BAKER Complete Season One is the first big scale attempt to release whole seasons of the classic series on blu-ray other than the blu-ray release of DOCTOR WHO: SPEARHEAD IN SPACE (because the first third Doctor story was filmed on 16mm while the rest of the classic series was shot on tape with location/ pre-filming sometimes shot on film before transfer to tape).
The blu-ray set of the first Tom Baker season as the Doctor carries over the majority of the original extras form the DVD releases of the individual stories from this season in addition to some new extras (an hour long interview with Tom Baker and BEHIND THE SOFA where actors Tom Baker (The Fourth Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Louise Jameson (Leela), and Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and Sadie Miller (the daughter of actress Elisabeth Sladen) react to the first Tom Baker season of shows and talk about the stories. This is a great selection of extras that offers wonderfully made making-of documentaries of each story and a variety of extensive extras. This set is a treat for any sci-fi fan and devoted DOCTOR WHO fan.
DISC 1-
ARE FRIENDS ELECTRIC?- Making of Documentary on ROBOT
BEHIND THE SOFA: ROBOT
TELEVISION DRAMA- raw documentary footage
Location footage
Blue Peter footage
The Tunnel Effect
Title Sequence Footage
ON TARGET: TERRANCE DICKS- a featurette on how Terrance dicks became involved in writing DOCTOR WHO novelizations and the things he did for the novelizations
Original BBC1 Continuity Announcements
Photo Gallery and DVD trailer for THE ARK IN SPACE
A NEW FRONTIER: Making of documentary on THE ARK IN APCE
BEHIND THE SOFA: THE ARK IN SPACE
THE ARK IN SPACE omnibus version
Model Effects and Update CGI Effects
3D Technical Schematics
BBC1 Trailer
ROGER MURRAY-LEACH interview about his production design work on various DOCTOR WHO stories
LIKE NOTHING ON EARTH: Making of THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT
BEHIND THE SOFA: THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT
Location Report
ON TARGET: IAN MARTER- an overview of how Ian Marter became a writer of the ten books and what he brought to those ten novelizations of DOCTOR WHO stories
BUILT FOR WAR
THE TOM BAKER YEARS PART 1 & 2- first time this VHS release has seen release on blu-ray (never released on DVD)
GENESIS OF A CLASSIC- Making-of documentary on THE GENESIS OF THE DALEKS
BEHIND THE SOFA: THE GENESIS OF THE DALEKS
Continuity Announcements
LIVE FROM THE TVC CANTEEN- audio interview recorded during the recording of THE GENESIS OF THE DALEKS
Optional Updated CGI Effects
THE TIN MEN AND THE WITCH: Making-of documentary on THE RVEENGE OF THE CYBERMEN
BEHIDN THE SOFA: THE REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN
CHEQUES LIES & VIDEOTAPE- a featurette on the tape trading and selling of DOCTOR WHO bootlegs onVHS before the BBC put out every available story on VHS and DVD
Location Report and photo Gallery
TOM BAKER IN CONVERSATION- a newly recorded hour long interview with Tom Baker on his time playing the Doctor
THE GENESIS OF THE DALEKS edited TV Movie omnibus
Season 12 Studio Clocks
FINAL ANALYSIS: The BBC has presented the original Tom Baker stories as looking better than they did on DVD in a way that isn't quite great as blu-ray, but it is better than DVD. The set is cheaper than the five stories combined on DVD (as various Classic DOCTOR WHO stories are allowed to go out of print in North America by BBC Worldwide Americas). The extras are impressive and extensive. Tom Baker's first season as the Doctor is great with classic like THE ARK OF SPACE and GENESIS OF THE DALEKS. Some of the duff stories like ROBOT are good to watch due to the performances of Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen (as traveling companion Sarah Jane Smith). I hope the BBC puts out more of the classic seasons on blu-ray, but I hope BBC Worldwide Americas offer a small insert booklet about the season and the dates the shows aired. Those two details are missing and you just get an insert of what is on each disc.
This review is (c)7-8-2018 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission (or sent out into the time vortex)
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