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The Seeds of Doom is one of those classic episodes that everyone remembers. The Krinoids are iconic. Harrison Chase is a brilliantly overplayed villain. The plot is a little bit uneven, but in the end The Doctor and friends come out victorious and the bad guy gets mulched in his own composter. What more can you ask for? 10/10
Commentary Commentary is by Tom Baker (The Doctor, of course), John Challis (Scorby) Kenneth Gilbert (Dunbar), Michael McStay (Moberley), Phillip Hinchcliffe (Producer), Robert Banks Stewart (Writer), Roger-Murray-Leach (Designer) and Joggs Camfield (son of Douglas Camfield, Director). This is WAY too many people for one commentary, so it is are relief to find that they aren’t all in the studio together. It is a relay race with them taking turns to talk about their part in the episode, or in the case of Joggs, his late father’s role in the production. There are flashes of humour and fun, but largely it’s a technical commentary about the making of the story. That’s ok. It’s what Doctor Who fans want to hear. Watching this DVD the week after the death of Lis Sladen, it actually is a bit strange and sad listening to them all talking about how great she was, and IS, having reprised her role in Sarah Jane Adventures. Just a sad coincidence. 10/10
Extras The extras are all on the second disc in the box. Podshock is the ‘making of’ documentary. A lot of the anecdotes were covered in the commentary, but it is interesting to put faces to voices. Graeme Harper, who was a production assistant for this story and went on to be a regular Director of the new Doctor Who has a lot of anecdotes on this documentary. Phillip Hinchcliffe enjoys talking about his time on Doctor Who, too. The problems of special effects stunt effects, including John Challis drowning in the pond weed, and the design of Antarctica are all covered. 10/10
8/10 Playing the Green Cathedral is a documentary about Geoffrey Burgeon, the composer of the music for Seeds of Doom. He has a nice speaking voice and is tolerable even to those not interested in music. He is enthusiastic about his work on Doctor Who, which he describes as a ‘big thing’ to be asked to work on. He talks about his use of antique instruments in his compositions which are a contrast to the electronic music associated with Doctor Who and other aspects of the composition. 8/10
9/10 Stripped For Action focuses on the comic strip adventures of the Fourth Doctor. These Stripped For… documentaries have the coolest variation of the Who theme ever, which is the only reason I put up with them, personally. I’m not especially interested in comic strips. There is a heavy feeling with all of these documentaries that they are made by and for single men over forty who live in their parent’s basement and never have girlfriends. The Fourth Doctor era of comic strip production wasn’t even that inspiring, with strips copied from the Third Doctor and other still ideas. It was the start of Doctor Who Weekly, the forerunner of Doctor Who Magazine, which is something at least. 6/10 Trails and Continuity are a total waste of disc space. 0/10 Photo Gallery had very little I haven’t seen before, but at least it was nice crisp copies of the stills and screen caps. The set design images were dull. More of Chase’s house ands less of the boring Antarctica base would have been nice. 7/10 Coming Soon is a very mixed up selection of images from Meglos. PDF materials include the boring Radio Times billing and a selection of pages of script notes by the late Douglas Camfield 5/10
Easter Eggs, both on the second disc, are an outtake involving Sarah Jane, Scorby and a locked door that wasn’t locked and John Challis telling a funny story about himself and Tom Baker meeting for a drink in Soho. Not bad, but not as good as a sketch from the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets as seen on two other recent DVDs. We need more Socks. 7/10 Overall, this is a run of the mill package which doesn’t really justify being on two discs. They could possibly have done a bit more for one of the iconic 70s episodes. Enjoyable, all the same. 8 out of 10
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Now
and Then takes us to the locations of Seeds of Doom. Athelhampton
House features heavily, of course. This would be interesting stuff
if the person doing the narration didn’t have the most boring,
flat, uninspiring voice on television. It is a beautiful house both
now and in the 1970s. The sandpit where they filmed Antarctica is
considerably less interesting. The pit is now partially filled with
water and going back to nature. The other location used in the story
is a side entrance to Television Centre itself!
So
What Do You Do Exactly is Graeme Harper talking about his career as
a floor manager and production assistant on Doctor Who in his younger
days. Graeme is the only crew member to make the transition to the
new Doctor Who so anything he has to say has to be interesting. He
has a lot of responsibility for the episodes and talks about planning
the locations, studio, budget, and so on.
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