 Second Doctor remastered |
| Review Date: August 14, 2002 |
| Reviewer: , |
| This is the first story featuring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor to make it on to DVD, and it's a classic! Unfortunately, very few of his stories have survived in the BBC archives, and indeed, this particular four part adventure, broadcast in the UK in the fall of 1967, was wiped and presumed lost after it's one and only UK transmission. Remarkably, prints of the tapes turned up in Hong Kong in 1992 and were returned to BBC Video, who cleaned them up and rush released them on home VHS. This edition has been digitally remastered and transformed once more, allowing for a very sharp picture and soundtrack which must be as good as the original ever was. A demonstration of the clean-up and results is included as an extra on the disc. The other extras are somewhat disappointing in certain respects. First of all, the commentary provided by Frazer Hines and (the irritatingly theatrical) Deborah Watling, who star alongside the second Doctor as his companions Jamie and Victoria. Newcomers to the show will doubtless be entertained by the warm and jovial chit-chat between the two, but those of us familiar with the world of Doctor Who will recognize their dialogue from numerous interviews the two have given over the years. Indeed the contrived "spontaneity" of their banter is now beginning to irritate me. This is highlighted by another extra on the disc, a taped panel discussion recorded in 1992, with virtually all the surviving cast and production team. Here Deborah and Frazer go through almost exactly the same "spontaneous" routine once more. This thirty minute background to the show is fascinating, if only to see how all the cast have aged over the years! Also here is an introduction from Director Morris Barry, a brief piece to camera originally recorded for the video tape release. There are a couple of fun "Easter Eggs" to find, one of which shows a scene from the show that has been restored to almost the original broadcast video quality. I'm confused as to why the entire story hasn't been restored in this way, since the picture is considerably better in this clip than the entire DVD. Test titles, a brief look at the visual effects modelling and a clip from the preceding story are also included. The story itself is very tense and well constructed, and the Cybermen very menacing. The technology of the day means that there are the inevitable fluffs and goofs, but that's almost what makes Doctor Who the cult classic that it is. The on screen captions and the commentary help to identify some of the biggest blunders. It's certainly the best Troughton story available in its entirety, which doesn't bode well for future DVD releases. |
Great Stuff
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| Review Date: June 24, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Garrett Fagan, PA, USA |
The second doctor is the least known, since all but 5 of his stories were destroyed or mutilated by a house-cleaning at the BBC in the 1970s (the other intact Troughton stories are: "The Seeds of Doom," "The War Games," "The Mind Robber," and "The Dominators"). Troughton's doctor is one of the most appealing incarnations of the character. He's smart (of course), but also vaguely vulnerable and child-like. He has a good sense of humor and fun. And he handles all sorts of evil monsters with aplomb. It is a crying shame so many of his stories are gone completely, or mostly gone.
I was only a kid when this aired, and I can't recall it all (but I do remember the Ice Warriors from "The Seeds of Doom"). Now I have 6-year-old myself,and he *loves* Dr. Who, esp. this doctor, despite the fact that it's in black and white. Also, the title music during this phase of the show was at its very best. My son rocks out to it when it comes on!
Don't listen to the nay-sayers who complain about lack of production values. This is 40 years old, for f**** sake! What matters in Dr. Who is not set-design or the tiny budgets, but the active use of your imagination, great writing, appealing characters, thorougly evil monsters, and solid acting. "Tomb" has all of these traits in abundance. I love this version of the Cybermen, with their metallic voices and three fingers. They may be the best yet (though I've not seen the newest version of them yet).
All in all, an unreserved recommendation. I've watched it (with my lad, and a second who is approaching Who-worthy age) at least three times and loved every minute of it. |
When I say "run"... oh, you know the rest
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| Review Date: June 9, 2007 |
| Reviewer: C. R. Swanson, Phoenix |
One of the great tragedies of "Doctor Who" is the dearth of Second Doctor episodes caused by the BBC purging their archives back in the 1970's. The Second Doctor was clearly one of the best. His "comsic tramp" persona masking a cunning individual who was always willing to use his brains over any brawn. Further he had an amazingly good chemistry with his companions (most notably Jamie and Zoe), as well as having some very good, well-writen stories.
Thankfully, though there are, if I recall, only about six complete stories from the Second Doctor's era, one of those is "Tomb of the Cybermen". Yes, boys and girls, before the Cybermen were creatures from another dimension designed in part by Rose's dad, they were aliens from Mondas, here to do nasty things to you.
For reasons unclear to me, the Daleks have always been the popular advesary. I like them fine, but I think they're overrated and, especially with the new series, very overused. The Cybermen were like the Borg precursors. Plus they not only managed to kill one of the Doctor's companions, albiet indirectly, but they were also the cause of death for the First Doctor! Not too shabby.
"Tomb of the Cybermen" features an archeological team that's attempting to explore... well... a tomb... of Cybermen. Uhm. Anyhow, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria appear just in time to get involved (interestingly, someone apparently spots the TARDIS "landing", which I think is the only time that's happened).
The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, and the archeologists get into the tomb. By the time the story is over, we've met the Cyber Leader, seen a cybermat, watched a lot of people die (yes, this is one of those "fun" stories where, Les Mis-style, just about everyone dies), seen the Doctor advise Jamie to run when he says so, and gotten the impression that our heroes didn't gain any sort of lasting victory; they just got away by the skin of their teeth.
The story is very excellent, and really does stand up well to the test of time, even if the SFX don't (not that they're bad. Actually, they're pretty decent). The acting is decent all around. The music is a little jarring, but not too bad.
Like usual, there's plenty of extras on the DVD, including information about the recovery of the tapes for this episode back in the early 1990's (so long ago... yet I remember seeing PBS up in Seattle broadcast this episode not long after they found the tapes... now I feel old...). Also of note is the wonderfully entertaing commentary.
This is the best of the existing Second Doctor stories, at least of the ones I've seen, which ain't many, and a must-have for any "Doctor Who" fan. |
Saved from oblivion!
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| Review Date: February 8, 2000 |
| Reviewer: Neil L. Inglis, Bethesda, Maryland USA |
| The BBC's destruction of its own archives ranks as one of the monumental acts of idiocy of all time, on a par with the destruction of the Babylonian Library. Among the actors hardest hit was the dearly beloved Patrick Troughton, whom I adored with all my heart -- his Dr. Who episodes were decimated! "Tomb" was thought lost as well, but a copy was found, by some miracle. It is a perfect gem of a serial. The Doctor's dialogue with Victoria is a heart-warming interlude; and -- who cares about the low budgets -- the scene in which the Cybermen emerge from their sepulchre is one of the most chilling moments in TV history. This is a great classic. Enjoy! |
Classic Who
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| Review Date: May 19, 1999 |
| Reviewer: Joel Kathrens, Cheney, WA USA |
| I sat down the other day to watch this story for the first time, all ready to dispute its "classic" status. Once it was over, however, I felt like I might have to amend my all-time top ten list of Doctor Who stories. There were some notably poor elements (the "american" captain was just begging to be made fun of and the cybermats were used one too many times), but aside from these relatively small complaints there weren't very many problems. My favorite scene happened in the last episode when the Doctor pretends to agree with Klieg's plans, just to determine for sure that Klieg was mad. This was a very well realized episode and definitely deserves it's status as "classic" Who. |
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