| The final serial in Doctor Who's original run on the BBC (before it was revived in 2005), this three-episode story stars Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, who brings his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) back to Earth, only to discover that a race of feline aliens have turned the planet into their private hunting ground. The aliens, called Cheetah People, are traveling between their dying planet and Earth to kidnap humans for food--and lurking behind the whole scheme is none other than the Doctor's arch enemy, the Master (Anthony Ainsley in his final TV performance as the character). Despite the relative lack of quality of its video cinematography, Survival is a sold serial from the McCoy era, with some genuine suspense and an affectionate (if temporary) send-off for the venerable sci-fi hero. The two-disc set of Survival is typical of the impressive presentations that the Doctor's adventures have received on DVD. Two commentary tracks have been recorded--one featuring McCoy, Aldred, and script editor Andrew Cartmel, and the other by the winners of a contest sponsored by Doctor Who magazine (this appears only for episode 3). The hour-long, two-part Cat Flap (one of the original titles for the serial) covers the making of the serial from start to finish, and Endgame is an intriguing look at how the program might've continued after Survival had it not been cancelled in 1989. Little Girl Lost is a 15-minute exploration of Ace's character from her debut story until Survival, and Destiny of the Doctors features footage of Ainley as the Master taken from the 1997 computer game of the same name. The extras are rounded out by several deleted and extended scenes, a round of outtakes, the standard photo gallery, text-only commentary track, Radio Times listings (in DVD-ROM format), and a 20-minute episode of a U.K. educational program called Search Out Science, which features McCoy and Aldred as their characters in a discussion of (what else?) time and space. --Paul Gaita |
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 A nice package focusing on the classic show's final year |
| Review Date: August 24, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Jeffrey J. Lyons, Pembroke, NH United States |
As is well known, this was the last story from the classic series. Let's face it, it is not one the better stories from the classic series' 26-year run but it definitely dropped hints that the show was heading toward a more darker, mysterious direction. Some of that darker mystery is evident in the 21st Century series revival.
What I really liked about this 2-DVD set were the extras. Sure, deleted and extended scenes are fun but usually the story still holds up without those scenes. What I liked about those extras were the captions which described how the scene might have been used and how it was edited. Normally they just show the deleted or extended scenes and leave it at that.
There was a two-part "Making of..." documentary which I found to be quite fascinating. I truly enjoyed the documentary about the circumstances building up to the show's cancellation and the discussion about the proposed 27th season that never aired. The writers discussed their script ideas using illustrations depicting what might have been.
And although it was a bit odd seeing it in this fashion, it was a treat to see the late Anthony Ainley in his full Master regalia in the 1997 Terrance Dicks scripted continuity scenes from a video game. It probably would have made more sense if you were playing the game. Still it shows Anthony Ainley never lost his touch. |
Cat Flap Fever!
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| Review Date: June 22, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Kevin J. Loria, New Orleans, LA USA |
The last of the original series! Even though the makers were already in production when learning the show was to be the last. Thankfully Master meets the 7th Doctor played again by the late-great Anthony Ainley. "Survival" boasts a darker Doctor, facing a darker Master in the final battle with his evil Timelord nemisis (aleast until the Movie and ofcourse SEASON THREE of the new show!
The Doctor takes ACE home to the old neighborhood and many of her friends have gone missing. The two investigate, ultimately endding up on an alien world fighting for their lives and slowly becoming like the savage Cat-people who hunt there and on Earth.
A great show with some cool concepts and some funny animatronic moments. There is some great dialogue also, like the Doctor finishing the shopkeepers joke as a segue to the theme of survival of the fittest.
As is the words between the Timelords as they nearly destroy one another.
Drinking games for Survival. Drink whenever:
1.) someone shifts worlds
2.) a disturbingly fake cat hisses
3.) a real cat appears
4.) the man-cats break-into song
5.) the Doctor says..."if we fight like animals we die like animals"
6.) anyone runs inspite of advice to the contrary |
"Somewhere the tea is getting cold"
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| Review Date: September 22, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jacob, Virgina, USA |
Survival the final epsidoe of sci-fi longest running show in history comes to an end. The Doctor and Ace travel to 20th century earth to visit Ace's old home town. there they find young people like Ace gone, missing without a trace. Some say they seen a strange rider, others think its the cats that have started to appear others say something far more sinsiter has come to the town of Ace home. All to shorlty the Doctor and Ace have stumbled upon a "masterful" plan that would send them both to the brink of maddness and see them both destoried. Will the Doctor and Ace escape or has thier chances for survial run out?
Personally this episode has always made me a gbit sad. Not only was it a three parter but the way it ends always left room for more had the series stayed on. Of course we all know what happen nearly twenty years later in real life when the new series comes out. (of course for those of you out there I can't stand the made for tv movie of doctor who that fox did and I perosnally do not consider it part of the history) the dvd itself is full of great things to watch. The director in charge of cancelling Doctor who interview, the head writer and what he would have done with the character of Ace if another season had taken place. The cinema scenes from the doctor who game featuring the late Anthony Aliny. just to name a few. Doctor Who fans need this dvd to have for any collection. |
DR. WHO: SURVIVAL
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| Review Date: October 5, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Bembaron, ANAHEIM, CA. |
AS WITH ALL DR. WHO EPISODES, IT IS SUSPENSEFUL, AND VERY INTERESTING. AS ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE TO HAVE EVER MET THIS DOCTOR (McCOY) IN PERSON, IT WAS A DELIGHT TO SEE HIM IN ACTION.
THE ONLY OTHER TIME I HAD SEEN HIM IN AN EPISODE, WAS THE AMERICAN ATTEMPT AT RESURECTING THE DOCTOR WHO SERIES.
MR. McCOY WAS ONLY IN THAT FOR A FEW MINUTES, BEFORE BEING TRANSFORMED INTO THE NEXT DOCTOR, AND UP TO THEN I HAD NEVER SEEN ONE OF HIS EPISODES HERE IN THE STATES.
THIS IS FUN AND ENTERTAINING FOR ALL TO SEE. |
"If we fight like animals, we'll die like animals!"
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| Review Date: September 25, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Crazy Fox, Chicago, IL USA |
"Survival"--possibly one of the most unintentionally ironic titles in world television history, for it's with this storyline that "Doctor Who", TV's longest-running science fiction program, beloved by generation after generation across the English-speaking world, died. Not a spectacular death, either, but shot like a dog and left to expire like something the cat dragged in, a random casualty of beastly BBC infighting and survival-of-the-fittest competition with other programs. Of course, in those last months of 1989 when "Survival" originally aired, the viewing public couldn't know that this was to be the show's final breath or, as it turns out now, the beginning of its sixteen-year hibernation. Indeed, the storyline was not intended as such, and it strains unfairly under such a heavy retrospective burden. And yet as a fan I found it pretty much impossible to blinker my hindsight and just watch the story on its own terms.
I'll try to do so now, though. In and of itself "Survival" is a pretty standard example of "Doctor Who" at the time, neither a classic nor a clunker. More coherently plotted than "Ghost Light" but not as consistently interesting as "Remembrance of the Daleks", it still entertains as a reasonably sophisticated sci-fi adventure. In context, this story does fit right in with the two storylines preceding it ("Ghost Light" and "The Curse of Fenric") by focusing more on the character of the Doctor's human traveling companion Ace than on the kindly renegade Time Lord himself, here especially as this tale begins with their visit to her old home neighborhood in the run-down suburbs of London and follows her missing friends to the bizarre planet of the Cheetah People. The Doctor's almost just along for the ride here, a real role-reversal indeed. Also linking these last three stories of season 26 is the common theme of evolution, or Darwinism to be more exact--a complex link in which the ever-dynamic ever-changing burgeoning profusion of lifeforms postulated by that theory is celebrated in "Ghost Light" whereas here the moral consequences and ethical repercussions of the theory (the cold, hard law of the jungle) are roundly criticized and vilified implicitly and explicitly. Along with this there also continues a politically leftist emphasis in the show, for the writer clearly categorizes basic competitive capitalism and violence in self-defense as Darwinist negatives. Writer's prerogative, certainly, but traditionally "Doctor Who" had been so crafted as to appeal commonly to folks of various political orientations, which somehow seems a fairer and wiser policy in light of its wide viewing audience.
And the whole non-violence bit gets the writer in a double-bind at the story's climax, and in what constitutes the story's main flaw the writer can only extricate herself from this by cheating: the Doctor and the Master, both of them gradually devolving into more primitive forms, are locked in mortal combat hand to hand and tooth to claw when the Doctor finally takes the moral high ground and refuses to fight, teleporting away instead. Yeah right. This avoids both the option unpalatable to the writer of having the Doctor kill the Master in self-defense and the logical upshot of the writer's stance (unpalatable to us) in which the Doctor would passively allow the Master to kill him instead, but all at the cost of dealing the story itself a nasty wound indeed. For that matter, the ethics of leaving a guy behind and stranding him on a world that's about to explode and disintegrate seem just as questionable if not more so than a good man-to-man round of fisticuffs.
That aside, the story has a lot going for it all the same. The script is extremely well-written and some of the dialogue is positively inspired. The realistically contemporary setting adds grit and tension to the adventure and is a good contrast to the oddly surreal landscapes of the Cheetah Planet. The Cheetah People are interesting aliens though very imperfectly realized make-up-wise; something less ambitious may have been called for, since the transitional phase with the funny eyes, fangs, and claws works pretty well. But still, an unusual concept, and in "Doctor Who" it's the concepts rather than the effects that count in the final analysis. Furthermore, however one feels of Anthony Ainley's take on the Master (I'm not usually too keen myself) he gave the role his all for the better part of a decade and here managed one of his more subdued and convincing performances. And Sylvester McCoy is as dependable as ever as the Doctor. So "Survival" may not be a fitting end to the show or at least to the classic run of the show anyway, but it does afford a good few hours of speculative science fiction enjoyment and survives on that strength. |
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