|
One of the big Doctor Who 'treats' of 2009 was the box set pairing of the two William Hartnell episodes The Rescue and The Romans, the first two stories featuring Vicki.
The Rescue is a rather odd, slightly dull story which is fortunately only two episodes long. The plot is so thin it couldn’t stretch any further. The whole thing with Bennett and the Koquillion is very obvious. The way the characters were split up for very contrived separate adventures was a device that may have worked then but looks tired now. The Rescue doesn’t stand the test of time very well. But it is still classic Doctor Who. 6/10
Commentary 8/10
Extras
9/10 Radio Times Listings – I still don’t know what they’re
for! 2/10 Raymond Cusick Designs – on DVD Rom for PC in PDF file, these are actually quite interesting. But might have been easier as a slide show like the picture gallery. 7/10 Photo gallery – mostly black and white, many of them of the sets rather than action. 7/10 Coming soon is a trailer for Attack of the Cybermen. 8/10
The Romans is a slightly silly, historically inaccurate and yet at the same time, rather charming episode. The costumes and sets are lavish and it is fondly remembered as the one where The Doctor helps to burn Rome – something he later claims wasn’t his fault, at all. It has some genuine moments of humour, some heroism and some drama. The bits that fall down are the big spectacles which needed a set and budget more fitting to Spartacus than Doctor Who. 8/10
Commentary Commentary is by William Russell, Nick Evans (didius), Barry Jackson (Ascaris) and Director Christopher Barry, moderated by Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf comedian, Toby Hadoke. Again, as with The Rescue, there is a fair bit of a bunch of old fogies dissing the new way of doing things and rambling on about the good old days. There are also some great nuggets of information such as that one of the actors was William Hartnell’s double in the Massacre when he had to play two characters at once. 9/10
Extras What has The Romans ever done for us is a combination of a quite serious documentary about the Roman Empire and the making of The Romans. The usual suspects like William Russell discuss issues like the comedy elements of the episode and the juxtaposition of humour and the dark side of the degenerate Nero’s reign over Rome. Two particularly cruel and apparently random murders, of Tigilinus and a centurion, are put in context with the comedy, and the curious fact that this is, after all, a children’s programme!
Then there is the whole question of the historical accuracy and educational point of the history episodes. It concludes that The Romans is accurate in its themes, its set and costumes. In fact, the only inaccuracy pulled up especially is the complaint that the banquet was at tables with chairs, instead of on sofas. But this was a constraint of design and space, not an inaccuracy because of bad research. Again, Mr McLachlan has some interesting points to make. His inclusion in the two documentaries on the Rescue/Romans box set is actually more useful than it might appear. 10/10 Roma Parva is the title of a short documentary about the use of a model of the studio set to plan camera angles. Director Christopher Barry is enthusiastic about the idea. But honestly, it is hard to stay interested. The whole thing is just terribly dull. 7/10 Dennis Spooner – Wanna Write A Television Series is a look at the life and works of Dennis Spooner, who wrote The Romans. Dennis was a former Leyton Orient football player and a stand up comedian before becoming a writer. Two things I never knew before! He is also responsible for almost everything I can remember seeing on TV in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But it is mostly about his Doctor Who career from The Reign of Terror through Keys of Marinus, the Romans and on to The Time Meddler and Power of The Daleks. 10/10
0/10 Girls, Girls, Girls – the 1960s is a documentary about the girls The Doctor shared the TARDIS with in the 1960s. Despite obvious efforts to be entertaining it falls short of satisfaction because each piece about the succession of girls is too short and too vague. 7/10 Radio Times Billings – why? 2/10 Photo Gallery is dull and unimaginative considering how visual the episode actually is. 3/10 Coming Soon has the same trailer for Attack of the Cybermen as The Rescue 8/10
Overall the box set release of the two stories that introduced Vicki as a character has the feeling of something rushed out onto the Doctor Who DVD market. A little more thought to the Extras that make up the package would have been appreciated. 8 out of 10
|
Commentary
is by William Russell, Christopher Barry, director, and Raymond Cusick,
the designer responsible for the TARDIS console room, the Daleks,
and the space ship in this episode among other achievements. They
are moderated by Toby Hadoke who wrote the comedy play “Moths
Ate My Doctor Who Scarf”. Sadly the three stalwarts of the classic
series do come across as a bunch of old fogies sometimes, harping
on about the good old days, and they have a tendency to wander off
on tangents about old actors they worked with in rep. They pay a nice
tribute to William Hartnell, saying that he was a much better actor
than he was ever given credit for – which I have to agree with.
Cusick talks quite a lot about the design issues, of course. Christopher
Barry has a lot to say about production. William Russell is mostly
the raconteur with anecdotes about working on the show. They are competent
speakers, but their dismissal of how the ‘young folk do it these
days’ gets annoying. 
Mounting
the Rescue is a retrospective on the making of The Rescue, but also
looking back on the departure of Carole Ann Ford and the introduction
of Mareen O’Brien as Vicki. The development of Vicki as a character
is an important focus. The commentators also talk about where The
Rescue stands in the history of Doctor Who. These commentators, incidentally,
include William Russell, Maureen O’Brien and the late Ray Barrett,
as well as Christopher Barry and Raymond Cusick and Ian McLachlan,
who is, apparently, an ‘expert viewer’ who has specialised
in these 60s episodes. He talked very nicely, anyway, though it seems
odd to have somebody almost random like that in a documentary. The
usual problem, of course, is that some of the stories from William,
Christopher and Raymond had been done in the commentary already.
The
documentary goes on to look at Nero n The Romans in context with other
portrayals of Nero on movies from Quo Vadis through I Claudius and
A.D. 
Blue
Peter giving a Roman dinner is a stupidly loose connection with Doctor
Who’s The Romans. It is a complete waste of DVD space!
 |