|
Survival was the last story of the Classic series. The 27th series was not commissioned for 1990. Many reasons were given, some true, some untrue. They had nothing to do with the quality of this episode, which is well made and an unusual but engaging story. It has an intriguing variation on teenage runaways – they fall through a gap in reality and end up on a terrifying planet where the Cheetah people hunt them for food. The contrast between the mundanely real urban Perivale and the wilderness planet of the Cheetah people is stark. The suspense built up by the disappearances and the attacks on ordinary domestic cats is well realised. The cameo appearance by Hale and Pace as the pair of shopkeepers who sell cat food to The Doctor is funny yet in keeping with the story. 
The Cheetah People are very good creatures. Not evil as such, simply following an animal instinct. The Master, who turns out to be using them for his own ends, is wonderfully villainous. The finale when he and The Doctor fight on a dying world has been compared with the finale of Star Trek, Search for Spock in which Kirk fights the Klingon captain. But it’s not really the same thing at all. With The Doctor and The Master, fights to the death are a recurring feature. Only somehow they never WERE to the death in the classic series. In the movie, we finally saw The Master apparently destroyed for good. But he managed to come back to life to torment the Tenth Doctor once more, and that’s another story entirely! The end of Survival was less final and quite ambiguous. The Doctor was thrown back to Earth while The Master was left on the dying planet. Would he escape or would he not? We would, presumably, have found out, but fate had a hand. Anthony Ainley, of course, died not long afterwards. And the programme was put on ‘hiatus’ – an ambiguous term in itself. It meant that Doctor Who was never ACTUALLY cancelled. There were always plans to revive it. The 1996 film, made by the Fox Network on licence from the BBC was one idea for doing so. But it was another ten years before it happened, finally, in the last place anyone would have expected back then – Cardiff. 10/10
Extras. Another two disc set with a variety of items on offer. Disc One Commentary by Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Andrew Cartmel (director) informative about the episode, especially about the necessity of wearing yellow contact lenses for the special effect eyes. A lot of talk about the fact that it was the last episode and their personal feelings about that. 10/10 Cat Flap – the making of Survival. Catflap was going to be the original title. They changed it to something more heroic sounding. The documentary is in two parts, but no harm for that. Interviews and contributions from all the major players and crew. 10/10 Deleted and Extended Scenes – some of these give added information that makes the plot clearer. 10/10 Outtakes – fluffed lines and fun on set. 10/10 Continuities – trailers and announcements! Save us from this perennial and dull DVD add on! 6/10 Music only option – A soundtrack with heavy electric guitar and atmospheric sounds, many of which are taken for granted until you listen to them in isolation. 9/10 Production Subtitles and Photo Gallery as standard 10/10 Radio Times Billings (DVD ROM) Nostalgia Value. 8/10 Disc Two Endgame. Introduced by Peter Cregeen, the BBC Head
of Series who decided to put 10/10 Search out Science – a BBC Education programme teaching basic science for junior school level using The Doctor, Ace and K9 to engage the children’s interest. A little nugget of TV history that gets boring for adults after a bit. 9/10 Little Girl Lost – focussing on the development of Ace’s character and where she might have gone next. 10/10 Destiny of the Doctors Anthony Ainley’s last appearance as The Master in a 1997 computer game. The filmed inserts for the game are shown here in sequence. Worth a look once, but really not worth going back to. Does anyone HAVE the game??? 6/10 Overall, the several serious documentaries among the extras outweigh the fill in “rubbish” and make it a worthwhile DVD. 9 out of 10
|
Doctor Who on ‘hiatus’ this is an intelligent documentary
about WHY the programme was ‘cancelled’ by any word you
want to use. It is painfully honest about the reasoning and much easier
to bear in hindsight with the new series going strong than it might
have been in the past. There is a very interesting sequence about
where the series might have gone in terms of a new assistant, with
Ace bowing out, a new doctor, new console room and so on. Some of
the ideas may, I hope, have been rejected before actual filming as
they were a little too far from the original notion of Doctor Who.
But it shows there WERE ideas there. 
 |