Doctor Who-The Aztecs (1964)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Remembering The Aztecs Featurette-Cortez & Montezuma Featurette-Restoring The Aztecs Featurette-TARDIS-Cam No. 3 Featurette-Intro Sequences (6) Easter Egg-Distributed by BBC Enterprises Informational Subtitles Featurette-Designing The Aztecs Featurette-Making Cocoa Audio Commentary Gallery
Rating
Year Of Production	1964
Running Time	98:48 (Case: 200)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Crockett
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	William Hartnell William Russell Jacqueline Hill Carole Ann Ford
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Richard Rodney Bennett Ron Grainer

• The Doctor: The rather elderly, Darwinian one, also known as the First Doctor (William Hartnell).
• The companions: The Doctor's granddaughter, Susan (Carole Ann Ford), as well as two of her schoolteachers: Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).
• The setting: Mexico, before the arrival of the Conquistadors.
• The serial's main nemesis: Technically speaking, this serial doesn't have a main nemesis as such. I will explain that in more detail shortly, but suffice it to say that the superstition, ignorance, and paranoia of the Aztecs gives the Doctor and his companions more than enough to deal with already.

    Those of us who have been blessed with seeing early episodes of Doctor Who, be it as repeats on the ABC or even during the original runs, will recall that the original intention of the show's producer, Verity Lambert, was to present a semi-educational programme based around adventures in various parts of Earth's history. However, from the second serial onwards, a very imaginative, but very credible science-fiction element was introduced, which the historical serials were jettisoned in favour of once Lambert left the show. Part of the reason for this can be seen in The Aztecs' ratings figures, which were comparatively poor in light of such serials as The Daleks. However, the fact remains that the tenure of the First Doctor, and particularly when he was accompanied by these three original companions, contains some of the best acting the series has ever seen. In order, the four episodes that make up this serial are:

• The Temple Of Evil (23:52)
  After the TARDIS lands on Earth, in the Mexico of the Middle Ages, Barbara and Susan go exploring with the former putting an ornament on her arm that causes some Aztecs they meet to mistake her for a goddess. Soon, all four of them are caught up in a game of pretending to be figures of Aztec mythology, and Barbara becomes determined to change this civilisation's ways.
• The Warriors Of Death (24:07)
  Ian is roped into a contest with an Aztec warrior while the Doctor is taken to the gardens of leisure and left among the elder Aztecs and Susan is trained to be a housemaid. The three of them play various parts in an attempt to find a way back into the tomb where the TARDIS is sealed, while Barbara manages to get them all into trouble with her objections to various Aztec rituals.
• The Bride Of Sacrifice (25:24)
  Susan is provoked into speaking out against the Aztec form of arranged marriages, and is sentenced to a rather severe form of punishment as a result. The Doctor continues his efforts to find a way back to the TARDIS while Ian deals with the chicanery of his rival for the position of a military leader. Barbara finally realises the futility of trying to interfere with the Aztecs' brutal traditions, but she is still shocked to learn what is in store for Susan.
• The Day Of Darkness (25:25)
  Our heroes finally find a way back into the tomb, so once Ian, Barbara, and the Doctor catch up, and they make plans to rescue Susan before spiriting off in the TARDIS. However, the leader of the less friendly Aztec faction, Tlotoxl (John Ringham), has his own plans that will make this as difficult as possible. Since the series continued for a good twenty-six years after this one ended, I'm sure you can guess how it all turns out.

    It's funny to see members of an ancient civilisation being played by actors who sound like upper-class Britons, but the BBC standard of spending six pennies per episode is very much in force here, so that's hardly surprising. This serial is unique among all those so far released on DVD, as it features the only known relative of the Doctor (Susan is his granddaughter, which leads one to ponder the immense overpopulation of Gallifrey given the length of time Time Lords live for). We also get to see a rare glimpse of the human side of the Doctor (although the alien race he represents had yet to be invented by the BBC at the time). This serial is also in the same class as The Tomb Of The Cybermen in terms of requiring an absurd amount of restoration work. However, the strength of Doctor Who has always been in the story and the acting, so sit back, relax, and enjoy one of the few programmes that really is suitable for audiences of all ages.

Video

    Apparently, quite a number of video faults had to be corrected in order to get The Aztecs into presentable shape. I mention this because I would hate to see how it looked before the restoration was performed. By modern standards, this transfer looks terrible, but considering the production budget and the BBC's notorious lack of respect for its archival materials, I'm surprised it looks this good. It probably won't look any better, even when HD-DVD becomes a reality.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    The sharpness of this transfer is not particularly good, and almost comparable to that of How To Irritate People, which is pretty much the worst transfer I have seen to date in this regard. This is not to say it is a bad transfer - PAL televisions in the early 1960s only displayed 405 lines according to one of the featurettes, and the video source for this serial reflects this. Shadow detail is rarely an issue, but it is fairly poor when needed. Low-level noise is apparent in the title sequences, and occasionally during the feature proper, but it is within acceptable limits.

Addendum January 19, 2003: Actually, I have just been contacted by Steve Roberts again, who has advised me that the original 405-line videotapes of this serial no longer exist. The source element for this serial was in fact a 16mm film recording, taken literally by a film camera pointed at a television displaying the original videotape!

    MPEG artefacts were not a major problem in this transfer - some posterization is occasionally found in skin tones, but the monochrome colour scheme, and the general lack of resolution, makes this hard to discern most of the time. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of minor aliasing on such lines as Carole Ann Ford's eyebrows, and some horizontal wobble at 12:45 during The Temple Of Evil. Film artefacts occasionally appear in outdoor sequences, but they were extremely minor and restrained, given the age of the serial.

    The subtitles on this disc are well-timed, and very accurate to the spoken dialogue, although there are frequent, minor variations.

    This disc is dual-layered, with the layer change taking place between episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Two soundtracks are provided on all four episodes: the original English dialogue, and an English Audio Commentary, both of which are encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 kilobits per second. I would believe that the original English dialogue is monaural, as that is how it was broadcast and possibly even recorded. An additional Arabic soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 kilobits per second is provided for The Day Of Darkness as a special feature.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times. Some mild distortion is apparent whenever any S-sound is used, but I believe this is inherent in the source material. There were no visible problems with audio sync.

    The music in this serial consists of the Doctor Who theme written by Ron Grainer, with incidental music written by Richard Rodney Bennett. The music does a lot to enhance the mood of this serial, without being obtrusive or distracting.

    The surround channels were not used in this soundtrack.

    The subwoofer was also not used in this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    All of the extras here are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio unless otherwise noted.

Menu

    The menu is animated, with an introduction in the typical Doctor Who style before settling into menus based on animated scenes from the serial, with the usual Dolby Digital 2.0 accompaniment. The menu is not 16x9 Enhanced, but that is fine considering the fact that almost all of the rest of the material is in a 4x3 shape.

Audio Commentary - Verity Lambert (Producer), Carole Ann Ford (Actor), and William Russell (Actor)

    Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, with different voices coming from different channels, this audio commentary takes a little while to get going, but once they get going, the commentators provide a lot of insight into the making of this and other Doctor Who serials. A minor glitch was heard about 30:50 into this track.

Informational Subtitles

    The third subtitle stream on this disc provides information about the historical details upon which this serial is based, as well as the production values or what sort of challenges the production team were put through.

Arabic Soundtrack

    The fourth episode in the serial has the unusual feature of an Arabic dub, which the viewer can listen to for a good laugh. The most amusing part is probably the voiceovers provided for the titles.

Featurette - Remembering The Aztecs

    This twenty-eight minute and nineteen second featurette, which was only shot last year, contains interviews with three members of the surviving cast who discuss such things as William Hartnell's reputation as a cantankerous type, as well as how the rest of the cast performed.

Featurette - Cortez & Montezuma

    This five minute and fifty-five second featurette is a documentary about the downfall of the Aztec civilisation, and it appears to be quite old (the end credits state that it was first shown in September of 1970).

Featurette - Restoring The Aztecs

    This eight minute and eight second featurette details all of the work that went into restoring The Aztecs, something that the brave lads in the restoration team deserve a medal for. Of particular interest is the VidFIRE process that was used to correct faults caused by the different framerates in the conversions that the source material went through. It is not as comprehensive as the restoration featurette for The Tomb Of The Cybermen, but still very informative.

Featurette - Tardis Cam No. 3

    This one minute and five second featurette is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Introductions

    When the Play All feature is selected, one hears a randomly selected introductory message from the characters of Tlotoxl, Tonila, or Ixta. In all, there are six of these introductions.

Easter Egg - BBC TV Enterprises Ad

    To the left of the Intro Sequences option is a hidden Doctor Who logo. Clicking on it will bring up this extra credit logo that was probably used for foreign television stations.

Featurette - Designing The Aztecs

    This twenty-four minute and thirty-three second featurette consists of interviews with Barry Newberry, the production designer who worked on The Aztecs, giving an insight into some of the work that goes on behind the camera.

Featurette - Making Cocoa

    This two minute and twenty-nine second featurette uses South Park-style animation to instruct the viewer in the fine art of making Aztec cocoa.

Photo Gallery

    This video stream gallery shows images in colour and monochrome to show the sets that were used in The Aztecs, as well as some of the actors doing their thing. It is worth a look just to see William Hartnell's costume in colour. The total running time is three minutes and fifty-one seconds.

    Information about other Regions' versions of this disc is hard to come by. The Region 1 version will apparently be released on March 4, 2003, but the fact that it will be a PAL to NTSC conversion rules out that version. It appears that the Region 1, 2, and 4 versions will all be pretty much identical to one another, from the limited specifications one can find online.

    There is a good reason why Doctor Who still attracts a massive cult following some forty years after the first serial was broadcast, and The Aztecs is quite a fine example of it. With ingenuity rather than money being used to solve creative problems, and some fascinating stories to be told, the greatest tragedy is not that it has been "on hiatus" for fourteen years, but rather that modern children's television doesn't have a tenth of the brainpower required to replace it.

    The video transfer is quite good considering the source materials.

    The audio transfer is also good when the source materials are taken into account.

    The extras are comprehensive and interesting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall