Doctor Who: The Aztecs (UK)

When Doctor Who was concieved there was a loose plan that there should be three types of story. The first was contemporary (a "sideways" journey through time) - an example being "The War Machines" in series three. The second was the futuristic adventures such as "The Daleks". The third however, was that of the past and it was into this category that "The Aztecs" can be put.
The historical stories are notable for being phased out after the Hartnell era in favour of the other two types of story as they were thought to be unpopular, yet it is the historicals that tend to stand up best of all from the era. Whilst the likes of "The Web Planet" are now regarded as dated and slow, the historicals have retained much of their polish and tended to be maturely scripted and "The Aztecs" is no exception.
Its style is reputed to be that of Shakesperian tragedy with soliloquoys and dominating villains being very much the order of the day. Ringham portrays the villain Tlotoxl in a similar fashion to Olivier`s famous interpretation of Richard III which suits the piece well. Whilst not the most artistically brilliant, he achieves what he sets out to do; he becomes a figure that children can hate. Opposing Tlotoxl is the Doctor`s companion, Barbara, who attempts to use her position of influence (having been mistaken for a God) to end the practise of human sacrifice. Hill seems to revel in finally being centre stage and effectively portrays a principled person coming to realise that they cannot make a difference. It is touching and key to the story`s appeal. This style of story will probably not be for everyone however, as the pace is relatively pedestrian and the writing is theatrical.
The story has been restored for DVD by the Doctor Who Restoration Team (www.restoration-team.co.uk for details on the processes used) and looks better than ever with the revolutionary new vidFIRE technique applied to restore the fluidity of motion associated with video recordings. The picture is never sharp but this is very much because of the camera technology used in this period and the picture quality is certainly far superior to the VHS edition hence my high mark for `video`. Likewise the sound quality, while occassionally tinny, is still far above what most would have expected given the source materials.
It is really in the extra features however that this disc stands out. The commentary, whilst entertaining, is overwhelmingly artistic and occassionally suffers from periods of extended quiet as the artists struggle to find things to say or become absorbed in the story yet there is a sense of fun that certainly touched me when listening to it and the text commentary more than compensates for this (I found that using the two together gave me the best of both worlds).
Aside from the commentaries, there is a picture gallery that finally gets rid of the button-pressing system and switches to cycling through them. They are lovely to see presented so well. The optional episode 4 Arabic soundtrack is a nice novelty but entirely skipable, as is the Tardis-Cam.
More substantial are the featurettes on Designing "The Aztecs", Restoring it, and Remembering it. All three go into some depth with Barry Newbery describing how the sets and props were put together in an entertaining and substantial interview, whilst three of the guest stars reminisce about filming this story and how television was recorded in the 1960s. Both are fascinating insights into the making of black and white Doctor Who. Restoring is interesting, comparing the original film with the cleaned up edition presented on the DVD with unobtrusive text subtitles rather than voice-overs. There is also the bonus of seeing a short snippet of a Patrick Troughton story vidFIREd in this featurette that is sure to excite some fans.
The final two substantial extra features are a presentation of the Cortez and Montezuma story by Valerie Singleton as originally recorded for British children`s show, "Blue Peter", and a cartoonish explanation of how to make cocoa with Tlotoxl and Tonilla (save this one for after watching the main feature and make sure you keep watching until the start of the credits).
Oh - and there are some amusing voice-overs that are randomly played at the start of the story when you play all by Randall, Cullen, and Ringham (the three actors in the Remembering featurette).
While this story may not be to everyone`s tastes, the DVD is superbly presented and raises the standard of Doctor Who releases yet again.