Doctor Who-Time-Flight/Arc of Infinity (1982)

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An excellent-value double dose of Doctor Who that bridges Peter Davison's first and second full seasons as the Doctor.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Doctor Who-Time-Flight (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Mouth on Legs Featurette-Jurassic Larks Featurette-Peter Grimwade Interview Deleted Scenes Outtakes DVD-ROM Extras-1983 Doctor Who Annual DVD-ROM Extras-Radio Times Billings Gallery-Photo Trailer Audio Commentary-Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Eric Saward Informational Subtitles
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	98:09 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (73:34)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ron Jones
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Peter Davison Sarah Sutton Janet Fielding Richard Easton Keith Drinkel Michael Cashman Peter Dahlsen Brian McDermott John Flint Peter Cellier Judith Byfield Anthony Ainley
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    As fans everywhere celebrated the loss of Adric, the Doctor (Peter Davison), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan (Janet Fielding) are in mourning. To cheer themselves up, the Doctor plots a course for a great science fair in Victorian England. Alas the TARDIS nearly collides en-route with a tear in the space-time continuum, avoiding it only by materialising at modern day Heathrow Airport (well, modern day if you were watching in 1982). There they find that a Concorde has gone missing just prior to landing and the Doctor rightfully predicts it has been sucked into the tear in space-time. At the request of UNIT, the Doctor packs his TARDIS in the cargo hold of the next available Concorde and has the plane piloted along the same trajectory in order to find out where the first ship may have gone.

    The tear in space-time is in fact a wormhole back in time, though to the same place, some 140 million year earlier. Alas, this isn't clear to the Concorde's crew at first as a rather unscrupulous fellow name Kalid (who looks like a misplaced henchman from The Talons of Weng-Chiang) has used the power of a mysterious device to hypnotise them into believing they are at modern day Heathrow. Kalid has enslaved the crew of the original Concorde using the same mind control and has them working at digging up a mysterious ancient power source. Nyssa forms a psychic bond with the ancient power source and may prove the key to rescuing the enslaved passengers and crew and repairing the tear in space-time, but an old foe of the Doctors is determined to see that isn't the case.

    Time-Flight is a half-decent finalé to Peter Davison's first season as the Doctor but, like much of that season, it is far from a classic. The story starts out quite strongly, but runs out of steam about two thirds of the way through and ultimately finishes up in a bit of a mess of contrivances. The highlight of the story really is Davison's Doctor, who has formed a distinct and charismatic personality by this point.

    Time-Flight is certainly recommended for fans.

Video

    The video looks very good for a show that is 25 years old. It is not quite up to the standard of the best Doctor Who restorations, but certainly not far behind.

    The episodes are presented in their original 1.29:1 full frame aspect ratio.

    The episodes are sourced from a mix of 16mm and video and scenes from both different sources look surprisingly consistent and reasonably sharp. A moderate degree of low level noise is present throughout the video-sourced scenes and a similar level of film grain is visible in the 16mm scenes. Contrast levels and black levels are both excellent and very true to their intended source. The colour is very consistent, though a touch pale throughout.

    There are no significant MPEG compression related artefacts visible. A number of analogue video artefacts are noticeable, however, but none are terribly distracting (particularly to anyone used to the standard typically found in Doctor Who releases). The most noticeable being occasional comet trails and mild cross-colouration during those scenes that were shot on video (typically the in-studio scenes). Some of the blue-screen shots have noticeable edge enhancement, but it does not really look out of place for the rather dated effects.

    This restoration also features a couple of entirely redone effects sequences which were produced to replace a couple of shots for which the original video had deteriorated considerably. The new effects blend seamlessly into the mix and are would be very difficult to detect without having them pointed out.

    The English subtitles are white with a black border. Based on the section I sampled, they appear accurate and well-timed.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer change occurs between episodes 3 and 4, at 73:34.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    An English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kbps) audio track is available.

    The dialogue is clearly audible throughout and at a good level in the mix.

    The score is fairly typical Doctor Who fare. The score is clear and well mixed.

    There is modest pro-logic surround use throughout the episodes, mostly around music balance. Very little bottom end makes its way to subwoofer level however, though that's not much of a surprise.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This set features a reasonably diverse set of extras.

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    Fairly standard animation with clips and audio form the show.

Audio Commentary with Peter Davison (Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Eric Saward (script editor)

    The four commentators provide a very interesting and rather chatty commentary. The anecdotes are reasonably well focussed to the story and its production.

Mouth on Legs Featurette (13:39)

    A featurette on Tegan, the fifth Doctor's feisty Australian companion and Janet Fielding's experiences with the character (both within the context of the show and in the years since). Fielding is a particularly good sport, which makes this featurette a good watch.

Jurassic Larks Featurette (19:34)

    A sort of "Making Of" style featurette that has been assembled from production footage and outtakes. A basic narrative set of subtitles explains what is going on throughout. The featurette does a great job of laying bare how the special effects came together and the clever use of props to produce larger than life effects. This really is riveting stuff for Who fans!

Peter Grimwade Interview Featurette (4:13)

    A 1987 interview conducted by Nicholas Briggs with the writer/director of Time-Flight. A very focussed interview on the production and development of this story as well as the process of developing for the television medium.

Deleted Scenes (3:45)

    A handful of relatively un-interesting extended takes.

Outtakes (13:53)

    A grab bag of outtakes that vary from hilarious down to pure padding. Worth a look, but this lot could have used a trim.

Photo Gallery (8:23)

    A fairly run-of-the-mill set of production stills done as a slideshow and backed by one of the better passages of music from the episodes.

DVD-ROM Extras - 1983 Doctor Who Annual

    A PDF copy of the 1983 Doctor Who annual, faithfully re-produced. Featuring stories, comics (with giant ants!) and behind the scenes snippets. This feature is also found on the Arc of Infinity disc.

DVD-ROM Extras - Radio Times Billings

    Four small snippets from the Radio Times, Britain's TV magazine, advertising the episodes' original airing.

Trailer

    A trailer for the upcoming release of The Time Warrior.

Informational Subtitles

    A set of subtitles with production notes and other trivia about the episodes.

    This disc is currently only available in a double-pack with Arc of Infinity in Regions 2 and 4 (although it comes in its own amaray case and features a separate barcode to the double-pack and Arc of Infinity, indicating that it will probably be released separately at some point), but is available separately in Region 1. The discs available in each region are identical, save for NTSC formatting of the Region 1 disc (converted from the original PAL found on the Region 2 and 4 discs).

    An entertaining and reasonably original (at least for the first two thirds) Doctor Who story.

    The extras are quite worthwhile as well as numerous. The video looks very good for its age. The sound is above average for an older show.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Doctor Who-Arc of Infinity (1983)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Animation Featurette-Anti-Matter from Amsterdam Featurette-Under Arc Lights Seamless Branching-CGI Effects Featurette-The Omega Factor Deleted Scenes DVD-ROM Extras-1983 Doctor Who Annual DVD-ROM Extras-Radio Times Billings Informational Subtitles Audio Commentary Isolated Musical Score Trailer Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1983
Running Time	98:35 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (24:45)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ron Jones
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Peter Davison Sarah Sutton Leonard Sachs Michael Gough Ian Collier Colin Baker Paul Jerrico Neil Daglish Elspet Gray Max Harvey Andrew Boxer Alastair Cumming John D. Collins
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Roger Limb Bernard Ashby Graham Hutchings

    While meandering through space in the TARDIS with Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), a strange thing happens to the Doctor (Peter Davison). A sinister entity from another universe tries to take possession of the Doctor's body so that he may have corporeal form in our universe. The attempt fails, but it is enough to trigger the warning bells on Gallifrey, the home world of the Time Lords, and the Doctor's TARDIS is recalled to chambers of the High Council of Gallifrey. Treachery is afoot, as the only way the being could have made its attempt to control the Doctor would be if one of the 5 high councillors had secretly sent a precise DNA fingerprint of the Doctor to that other universe. Regardless, the damage is done and extreme measures are needed to prevent the creature's efforts - the Doctor must be destroyed!

    Ordinarily, a being travelling between dimensions would not cause so much fuss but this being is made of anti-matter and its presence may cause matter and anti-matter to collide, resulting in the obliteration of a part of the our universe. Unusually for a being from so far away, it also possesses great knowledge of the operation of Gallifrey and the corridors of time.

    Nyssa and some of the Doctors remaining allies on Gallifrey aren't too happy with their friend's predicament and lend a hand in his aid, only to be pursued by a trigger-happy Commander of the Gallifrean guard named Maxil (played by none other than Colin Baker, who would go on to succeed Peter Davison as the Doctor barely than a year later).

    Meanwhile, back on Earth, Tegan (Janet Fielding) has decided to visit her cousin Colin who is backpacking through Amsterdam. Having recently been left behind by the Doctor, Tegan arrives to find out that Colin has been enslaved by a strange creature that looks like a bit like a humanoid Pteradon. With a fresh set of clothes (finally), Tegan sets about investigating and it's not long before a rendezvous with the Doctor.

    Arc of Infinity is a great Doctor Who story, save for the final episode. Having built a sinister and rather involving story, the whole thing devolves into a ridiculous foot-race around Amsterdam (which really smacks of long time producer John Nathan Turner's meddling - "lets plonk in a rather pointless foreign setting and waste an episode justifying the cost").

    Forgetting its final bungle, Arc of Infinity does an excellent job of combining its own engaging story with wider Gallifrean folklore. The story gives a great insight into the affairs of the Time Lords society and history and isn't as heavy going in the back story department as many of the other Doctor Who stories set on Gallifrey. Anybody that can bear the cringe-worthy end will thoroughly enjoy Arc of Infinity, particularly existing fans who are hungry for a look into Time Lord lore.

Video

    The video looks very good for a show that is nearly 25 years old. A commendable effort has been put in to the restoration.

    The episodes are presented in their original 1.29:1 full frame aspect ratio.

    The episodes are sourced from a mix of 16mm and video. The video scenes are reasonably sharp. The 16mm scenes are a little soft in comparison, particularly for shots at any real distance, and a bit grainy. A moderate degree of low level noise is present throughout the video-sourced scenes. Contrast levels and black levels are both good.

    The colour palette is a touch pale by modern standards, but fairly consistent for each source.

    There are no significant MPEG compression related artefacts visible. A number of analogue video artefacts are noticeable, however, none are terribly distracting (particularly to anyone used to the standard typically found in Doctor Who releases). The most noticeable are occasional comet trails and mild cross-colouration during those scenes that were shot on video (typically the in-studio scenes). The video-sourced shots also feature noticeable edge enhancement in a lot of the scenes, although this is fairly common in video of this age.

    The English subtitles are white with a black border. Based on the section I sampled, they appear accurate and well-timed.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer change occurs between episodes 3 and 4.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    An English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) audio track and an isolated score in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) are available.

    The dialogue is clearly audible throughout and at a good level in the mix.

    The score is fairly typical Doctor Who fare, although a little sparse. The score is clear and well mixed. The isolated score track sounds crystal clear.

    There is very modest pro-logic surround use throughout the episodes, mostly around music balance. Very little bottom end makes its way to subwoofer level, however.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    Standard animation with clips and audio form the show.

Audio Commentary with Peter Davison (Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Colin Baker (Maxil)

    The four commentators provide a reasonably interesting and very chatty commentary. The obvious bases are covered (ho-ho we were both the Doctor) in due course and the four seem to be enjoying themselves more than anybody who gives it a listen will - not that it is a bad commentary track, the commentators just seem to be having a ball.

Anti-Matter from Amsterdam Making Of Featurette (34:57)

    A fairly slow "Making Of" featurette presented by, for no apparent reason, by Sophie Aldred (who played Ace in the last couple of series of the show's original run). This featurette mostly comprises interviews with various cast and crew, set in either a TARDIS backdrop or Amsterdam. This one is sporadically interesting, but not really worth your full attention.

The Omega Factor Featurette (14:57)

    A fairly pensive featurette on the character of Omega, the maniacal father of the Time Lords knowledge of space and time who was banished to the universe of anti-matter.

Under Arc Lights Featurette (11:33)

    Raw, pre-effects, production footage laid together to show a lot of the more interesting effects shots, stage direction and a few bloopers.

Continuities Clips (3:14)

    A series of clips of the continuity announcements bookending the episodes during their numerous broadcasts in the UK.

Seamless Branching to New CGI Effects

    A number of the effects shots in this story had not survived as well as the rest of the video and looked a little dated. 18 of the effects in the episode were re-done with CGI for this DVD release. The new effects have been designed to fit in with the age of the show and blend seamlessly into the existing video.

    Purists may be a little miffed that these new effects are on by default, although most people will much prefer the tidied up effects. It is possible to revert to the original footage using a seamless branching feature on this disc.

Deleted Scenes (2:55)

    A handful of relatively un-interesting extended takes, mostly padding out the Amsterdam involvement in the episode.

Photo Gallery (7:48)

    A fairly run-of-the-mill set of production stills done as a slideshow and backed by a passage of music from one of the episodes of the story.

DVD-ROM Extras - 1983 Doctor Who Annual

    A PDF copy of the 1983 Doctor Who annual, faithfully re-produced. Featuring stories, comics (with giant ants!) and behind the scenes snippets. This feature is also found on the Time-Flight disc.

DVD-ROM Extras - Radio Times Billings

    Five small snippets from the Radio Times, Britain's TV magazine, advertising the episodes' original airing, including an accompanying print image advertising an episode.

Trailer

    A trailer for the upcoming release of The Time Warrior.

Informational Subtitles

    A set of subtitles with production notes and other trivia about the episodes.

Isolated Score

    This disc is currently only available in a double-pack with Time-Flight in Regions 2 and 4 (although it comes in its own amaray case and features a separate barcode to the double-pack and Time-Flight, indicating that it will probably be released separately at some point), but is available separately in Region 1. The discs available in each region are identical, save for NTSC formatting of the Region 1 disc (converted from the original PAL found on the Region 2 and 4 discs).

    An excellent start to Peter Davison's second season as the Doctor, save for an awkward final episode.

    There are abundant extras, although some are a little dull. The video is very good for its age. The audio is quite basic, but good for its age.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall