Review of Doctor Who: The Robots Of Death

Introduction

It`s finally here. The second Dr Who DVD arrives, just under a year after the first. But it seems like longer as this disc has been playing ping-pong around the schedules over the last couple of months for various reasons, including the fact that the master disc got broken! But it made it in the end.

Those of you who have read my review of "The Five Doctors" will know that I am a Dr Who fan, but not a fanatic. I don`t have a TARDIS console in my cellar, or a Dalek in my lounge. Actually, I don`t even have a cellar, but if I did it wouldn`t have a TARDIS console in it.

The Robots of Death is a good example of Dr Who, in that it has a proper story, it`s well-written (generous nods to Isaac Asimov and Agatha Christie), there`s not too much techno-babble and you don`t have to know much about the programme to enjoy it. So how does this DVD fare?

Video

This story is over 20 years old, so you might be forgiven for thinking that it will look like a 20 year old programme. And it some ways it does, mostly the production values, the model shots and the minimal special effects.

The video quality itself though is stunning given the age of the story. This is another story that has been cleaned up by the Dr Who Restoration Team, and a fantastic job has been done. It probably looks better now than it did when first broadcast. There are a couple of minor errors here and there, but you have to forgive this when you look at the quality overall. You probably won`t see it looking better.

Audio

A DD2.0 track is presented here, though it is just a mono track played through both channels. There are one or two slight flaws in the soundtrack, but these are only very brief. Again, it sounds good considering its age.

The Five Doctors had a full DD5.1 remix, and whilst it would have been nice to see this, it wasn`t possible to create one for this story. A shame as the theme alone sounds great in 5.1, but you`ll just have to get that Five Doctors disc out for another spin.

Features

Ok, so no 5.1 remix. But unlike The Five Doctors, we get some extras here.

First up we get a photo gallery with some good still photographs. There are also copies of the original studio floor plans. Whilst this is an interesting idea, it didn`t really work well, as they are difficult to read even on a 32" screen.

Most of the other features are packaged together under the heading "Featurette". This was actually an error as some were meant to be hidden "Easter Eggs". Under the heading we get some unused footage of the models, a pre-production scene (note the drop in sound quality), a BBC continuity announcment ("and now on BBC One") and a still used to advertise the programme on the BBC back in 1977.

The main feature has to be the commentary track though. This features the show`s producer at the time, Philip Hinchcliffe, and Chris Boucher, who wrote the story. The commentary track is very interesting, but is probably more suited to fans of the show. There`s lots of useful information here, background to the story, to some of the characters and to some of the actors.

They also end up discussing why Dr Who was so popular - the Saturday tea-time slot, dads watching after Grandstand, kids watching, the rest of the family waiting for the Generation Game. And that`s exactly how I remember the programme.

The commentary does move at a slow pace, as the two commentators seem to get engrossed in watching the show rather than talking about it, but this also leads to further revelations.

There is also a subtitle track for the commentary as well as the main feature. Interestingly these both go for white text on a dark grey background, the kind of subtitles you used to see on a foreign film on the TV. These work slightly better than the normal DVD subtitles of white text and no background.

Conclusion

This is pretty much an open and shut case. One of the best Dr Who stories made (far better than the previous release "The Five Doctors", even though that`s one of my favourites for other reasons), it should have some appeal to people who aren`t huge Dr Who fans.

For fans it`s a chance to see their favourite programme looking and sounding better than ever, with some bonus features and a commentary track that will definitely appeal to them. Definitely recommended.