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Horror of Fang Rock opens Leela’s second season. It is a classic tale of mismatched people trapped in a small place while one by one they all die. The killer is eventually revealed as an evil Rutan Scout planning to take Earth, one lighthouse at a time, presumably, in order to establish a base for the endless war with the Sontarans. 8/10
Commentary Commentary is by Louise Jameson, John Abbott who played Vince and Terrance Dicks. It is a quite enjoyable commentary. The most interesting detail is Terrance’s explanation of how Fang Rock was drafted in when a story about vampires was vetoed by the BBC at the same time as their lavish Dracula adaptation – it later became State of Decay. This story is an eye-opener once, told here. Unfortunately, it gets repeated in both of the extra documentaries and starts to get annoying at that point. Louise speaks well about the making of the episode. So does John Abbott, who was very new to TV when he made Fang Rock and talks about the advice and help he got from older actors. 10/10
Extras Terrance Dicks: Fact and Fiction is a documentary about Terrance Dicks as a writer. Most of it is in the form of a friendly drink in a BBC bar with the late Barry Letts, with Barry and Terrance talking over old times. There are also film inserts and interviews with others who worked with him all the way up to Paul Cornell who wrote the New Adventures with him. 10/10
10/10 The Antique Doctor Who Show is a very short look at some Doctor Who memorabilia and its value. It includes a collection of 1970s sweet wrappers and an original script from the 1960s. 8/10 Photo Gallery is a bit dull and unimaginative. 4/10
The two documentaries about key figures in Doctor Who production history make the DVD worth having.
8 out of 10.
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Paddy
Russell: A Life in Television is a celebration of one of the few women
to be a TV producer in the 1970s. there aren’t very many more
even now, and several of the most notable work on Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Paddy was very much a pioneer in her day and she and others talk about
her career. Both this and the Terrance Dicks retrospective seem at
times a bit like obituaries, despite them both being alive and well.
But time marches on and one of these days there will be a DVD paying
tribute to them both. Getting this while they’re alive is a
bonus.
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