DOCTOR WHO

With seven episodes spread over two tapes, THE REIGN OF TERROR boxed set brings together the final seven "ophaned" episodes from incomplete 1960s stories.

As the title of the set implies, the main feature here is the four remaining episodes (1-3 and 6) from season one's final story, but there are also three Patrick Troughton episodes - the first and third parts of THE FACELESS ONES and part one of THE WEB OF FEAR.

While the series' first two historicals - and indeed, most of season one - were serious affairs, Dennis Spooner's THE REIGN OF TERROR sees the first real attempts to inject some humour into DOCTOR WHO.

The French Revolution setting could have resulted in a bloody and grisly story, so it's probably just as well that Spooner opted to place a SCARLET PIMPERNEL-style escape ring at the heart of the action. Real-life characters such as Robespierre and Napoleon are included, but major events such as Robespierre getting shot in the jaw happen off-screen.

Instead, the action concentrates on the identity of James Stirling, Jules and Jean's escape organisation and events at the Conciergerie Prison where Ian, Barbara and Susan are all locked up.

There's plenty to enjoy in the first three episodes. The scenes at the house where the TARDIS travellers meet escapees Rouvray and d'Argenson are good, and William Hartnell gets an opportunity to show off his comedic talents.

Sadly, episodes four and five are missing and with no telesnaps available, the Restoration Team have used Carole Ann Ford's linking material (recorded back in 1993) to bridge the gaps. Admittedly it has been augmented by sound clips and some 8mm off-air recordings, but it's still a bit of a shame that the Team had to make do with links that had already been recorded. It's also disappointing that the BBC haven't seen fit to include the two episodes on CD, rather than expecting us to buy a separate Radio Collection release.

Fortunately we're back on video for the final episode as the story - and the first season - head towards their climax.

The episodes themselves have been cleaned up and although not perfect, the murkiness of VHS often helps disguise some of the faults.

The second tape has the three remaining extant episodes from the Patrick Troughton era.

THE FACELESS ONES was only the second time that the series had returned to contemporary Earth. The first time had been in THE WAR MACHINES and while that had seen the introduction of Ben and Polly, this story sees their departure. Sadly they didn't get to go out on a high as they're absent from episodes 3-5 and only make a fleeting appearance in episode 6.

Of course, we've only got episodes 1 and 3 here, but the first installment sets things up nicely. There's a decent amount of location filming and the murder of Inspector Gascoigne suggests that something's going on at Chameleon Tours.

Skipping at episode, we pick things up in episode three. By now, the Doctor and Jamie have been joined by Liverpudlian Samantha Briggs, although Pauline Collins declined to join the programme on a permanent basis and we got Victoria Waterfield instead.

For years it was said that this episode couldn't be released due to numerous short cuts, so all credit to the Restoration Team for managing to overcome these problems. It is rather obvious where they've used cutaways to get around the edits, but they deserve credit for making the episode this good.

Finally, we have the opening episode of THE WEB OF FEAR. I've had an off-air copy from the 1990 BSB weekend, but it's great to have a decent copy. The story might be rather repetitive, but this gets the story of to a great start. The Underground sets are superb, the Yeti look suitably menacing and there are some strong performances as well.

Actually, that's not quite it as there are some censored clips recovered from New Zealand tagged on after the credits.

It already seems difficult to get hold of THE REIGN OF TERROR, but it's well worth making the effort to find it. The episodes are all fine examples of sixties WHO and full marks to the RT for cleaning them up. BACK TO THE TOP

THE REIGN OFF TERROR BOXED SET

Written by DENNIS SPOONER,
DAVID ELLIS & MALCOLM HULKE,
MERVYN HAISMAN & HENRY LINCOLN

Directed by HENRIC HIRSCH,
GERRY MILL, DOUGLAS CAMFIELD

Produced by VERITY LAMBERT,
INNES LLOYD, PETER BRYANT

Starring WILLIAM HARTNELL,
PATRICK TROUGHTON

BBC VHS (PAL)

RATING: 8/10