Doctor Who-The Two Doctors (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Isolated Musical Score Informational Subtitles-Production Subtitles Audio Commentary-Actors And Director Featurette-A Fix With Sontarans Featurette-Behind The Sofa: Robert Holmes And Doctor Who Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Beneath The Lights Featurette-Beneath The Sun Gallery-Montage - 40th Anniversary Celebration Featurette-Adventures In Time And Spain Audio-Only Track-Wavelength - Radio4 Schools Programme Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	130:32 (Case: 133)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (19:39) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Peter Moffat
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Colin Baker Nicola Bryant Frazer Hines Jacqueline Pearce Patrick Troughton John Stratton
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$49.95	Music	Peter Howell

" Jamie: 'Look at the size of that thing, Doctor.'  - Doctor: 'Yes, Jamie, that is a big one.'"

    Plans for The Two Doctors gelled in producer John Nathan-Turner's mind after the fun and success with the preceding Five Doctors saga. What better way of illustrating the inter-dimensional fabric of the space-time continuum than by bringing together the same doctor in multiple forms at the same time? Bring on the jelly babies! The Two Doctors features Doctor Number 2 (1966-69), Patrick Troughton, and Doctor Number 6 (1984-86), Colin Baker, and was transmitted in 3 episodes from 16th February 1985. Not only had 3 intervening manifestations of the Doctors appeared between the two featured in this story, but also 15 years had passed. The TARDIS had long been upgraded and we were privileged to watch the adventures of the time traveller in glorious UHF 625 line colour rather than the distinctly scan-ridden 405 lines of the old VHF black & white. A nice touch at the beginning of this episode is the morphing of the black and white Patrick Troughton to the more up-to-date glorious colour of the mid 80s. I'm pleased to say that Patrick Troughton appeared not to have aged a bit and Jamie (Fraser Hines) seemed as naive and staid as ever. Colin Baker's Doctor, however, was distinctly more trendy in garb and a lot more proactive in sorting out the baddies. Doctor Number 6's assistant and companion has also been brought bang up-to-date with the Baby Boomers philosophy by featuring the tasty babe Peri, Nicola Bryant, replete with headband, cleavage-revealing halter blouse and short pants. Oh, how times have changed - William Hartnell would be rolling in his grave (or not)!

    Anyway, enough historical drivel. On with the plot. Those clever Third Zone scientists huddled together in pure research on the Camera space station have come perilously close to cracking the secrets of time travel and the 'exiled' Doctor Who Two is despatched by the Time Lords to issue a friendly directive to stop dabbling with time travel immediately. At least 3 parties are not happy with the idea; lead scientist Dastari (anagram of a tardis), ruthless and power-hungry augmented Androgum Chessene, and Group Marshal Stike of the Ninth Sontaran Battle Group - this unholy alliance conspires together to prise the vital last remaining information and technology needed to perfect time travel, which involves securing a vital part of the anatomy of a Time Lord...and that's basically the story - not really a strong plot to garnish Patrick Troughton's last appearance in the show or to justify the Spanish location of Seville for the outdoor scenes. We have some nice characterisation by John Stratton who plays Shockeye, the Androgum who could be likened to a cross between Baron Harkonnen and Fat B****** with an unhealthy appetite for human and rodent flesh. We also have Jacqueline Pearce as Chessene, pretty well reprising  the delicious black-widow character role she revelled in in 28 episodes of Blakes 7, where she played Supreme Commander Servalan. On the down side, the acting is a little hammy, even for Doctor Who, and we have some unnecessary violence which doesn't really enhance the show. There is, however, a good gel of the two Doctors and their companions with plenty of typical Doctor techno-speak and an above average sprinkling of innuendo and double entendre, some of which had to be removed - it is no longer appropriate to "have a quick scout round the back!"

    The purists and those inclined to deep intellectual analysis of the 'Doctor' series tend to agree that this wasn't the strongest of the Doctor stories by a long chalk and there are some continuity problems (neatly resolved by the Season 6 B theory - for those in the know or who care). I thought it was a nicely put together story and the scenery was great - Sontaran spaceships really fit into the olive grove vista. Peri was delightful and provided 'something for the dads' and Jamie was equally easy going - 'something for some dads!' For those of us whose life revolved around 5-15pm every Saturday night as we grew up, this DVD provides a nostalgic glimpse back into the past and for those not acquainted, it's certainly worth a peek just for a glimpse back in history to see what could be done with no CGI and just an ingenious special effects teams and a plastic washing up bottle. Judging by the reaction of my 5 year old son - who loved it - there may yet be more generations of Dr Who fans to come.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 as per the original TV series in full frame.

     The feature is of detail typical of that found in broadcast quality productions of 20 years ago, namely sharp enough for the smaller domestic TV but looking a little soft when viewed on the larger screening devices of today. Shadow detail is quite satisfactory and there is no level noise.

    The colours were natural and well rendered without significant transfer artefacts - the outside footage is a little washed-out due, no doubt, to the harsh Spanish summer sun.

    There is very fine pixelization throughout most of the picture evident on plain surfaces such as the river bank at 9:54. Aliasing is very hard to find, but if you're very sharp eyed you can spot it on Jamie's shoulder at 14:06. There are moire patterns on the grille over Jamie's face at 15:35 and the Doctor's trousers at 11:49. There is also mild edge enhancement throughout, as can be seen on the edge of the Doctor's  coat at 17:45, but it is rarely intrusive. The transfer was very clean and I couldn't spot any film artefacts.

    The subtitles were excellent and there were three streams available - the dialogue and effects titling which were accurate, the audio commentary and a third stream of production notes which were very detailed and informative.

    The disc is an RSDL disc with a transition point between the 4th and 5th Chapters of the 2nd Episode at 19:39. This is not intrusive - note the episodes are authored as separate Titles on the disc so that time elapsed on the DVD player's display is episode time, not cumulative time.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio tracks were clean and clear and well up to the job of dialogue and occasional low budget special effects.

    There are three audio tracks, all in Dolby Digital 2.0. The first is the film soundtrack, the second is the commentary from Colin Baker, Peter Moffat, Nicola Bryant, and Fraser Hines. Jacqueline Pearce joins the crew for a while.

   The dialogue was very clear throughout whether it was humanoid, Androgum or rasping Sontaran sweltering in a rubber mask. I couldn't see any out-of-sync sequences.

    The incidental music is credited to Peter Howell and as well as the usual radiophonic effects has some rather nice Spanish guitar music to accompany the Seville sets. The third audio stream is of the isolated music score - be warned there are long gaps of silence!

    This is strictly 2 channel Dolby Digital folks, so there is no subwoofer or surround activity on these audio streams - the Sontaran spaceship explosion could probably have benefited from a little modern day LFE augmentation.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

A Fix With Sontarans

    From the Jimmy Saville BBC series where Jim fixes the wishes of viewers who write in. In this case, 12 year old Gareth Jenkins wanted to have an episode with the Doctor to fix those evil Sontarans. 9:18 in length and nice to see some of James Saville OBE.

Behind the Sofa: Robert Homes and Doctor Who

    A 45:29 appreciation of principal scriptwriter Robert Holmes who wrote The Two Doctors story and died shortly after its production. Anecdotes and remembrances from scriptwriters Terrance Dicks, Chris Bouchier and Eric Saward and producers Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe. Excellent snippets from other Holmes' scripts such as Carnival of Monsters and features from the Autons and Krotons.

Beneath The Lights

    27:56 of takes from the studio under the direction of Gary Holmes, who looked very stuffy and schoolroomish - I thought Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant showed great patience with the endless retakes.

Beneath The Sun

40th Anniversary

    Excellent 3:00 montage of a wide range of Doctor Who snippets set to music from the Radiophonic Workshop.

Adventures in Time and Spain

    Excellent and amusing 29:26 mini-doco from production manager Gary Holmes who returns to the location 18 years on to explain some of the trials and tribulations of filming in an overseas location.

Wavelength

    30 minute Radio 4 production hosted by Andy Peebles interviewing the two doctors, Nicola Bryant and a host of the crew and production team.

Sleeve Notes

    There is no booklet as such, but the sleeve notes are very comprehensive detailing Episode Chapters and notes on the Extras.

    The video quality is good without being outstanding and shows only minor transfer artefacts.

    The audio quality is uninspiring but up to the job.

    The extras take up over a disc and are of great interest for Dr Who fans - the subtitle footnotes and the cast commentary are probably the most relevant but I also hugely enjoyed the brief 40th Birthday montage.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall