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The BBC's policy of giving us one story from each Doctor sees the first Jon Pertwee story cleaned up and released on DVD. Although I'm no fan of the Pertwee era as a whole, season seven has always been one of my favourite seasons. Perhaps the three seven-parters are a little overlong, but SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE certainly gets the season off to a cracking start. Robert Holmes' third script for the programme has a lot to do - including introducing the new Doctor and the exiled to Earth format and bringing back the Brigadier and UNIT. SPEARHEAD also marks the first appearance of Liz Shaw who like all good scientists has degrees in a ton of subjects and wears some great short skirts. Definitely an underrated companion in my opinion, especially when compared to her overrated successor. The Doctor's regeneration means that he keeps a low profile during the first half of the story, allowing UNIT, the Brigadier and Liz to take centre-stage. UNIT might have degenerated into little more than a joke towards the end of the Pertwee era, but here they're a credible defence force (although I'm not sure about the uniforms). SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE is also unique (well, apart from the TVM) in that was shot entirely on film due to a BBC strike. The Restoration Team have done a good job cleaning up the picture and it looks very impressive for something that's over 30 years old. Those who bought the VHS release will notice that the Fleetwood Mac track Oh Well - Part 1 is absent from the assembly line scene. Some have taken this as an excuse to slag off the RT, but given the clearance problems they should be applauded for making the effort to remake the scene using the original sound effects rather than merely cutting the scene entirely. As usual, there's a commentary and gallery, while SPEARHEAD was also the first WHO disc to feature production notes available via the subtitles option. With Jon Pertwee no longer with us, the commentary is supplied by Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John and to be honest, justifies the Restoration Team's subsequent decision to use different commentators on different episodes. Courtney, probably because of his autobiography and years of doing the convention circuit has plenty of comments to make, but although John starts off well she tails off in the second half of the story. Sadly after her comments about the photos that helped get her the job, it's a shame to see that the gallery consists mostly of a caped Jon Pertwee in various poses. Other extras include some trailers for the 1999 repeats, one for BBC2's DOCTOR WHO and the UNIT Recruitment film from 1993, as well as an Easter Egg in the form of an alternate title sequence, which are all worth a look. So the first Third Doctor DVD serves up a cracking story, although the extras are a slight disappointment. BACK TO THE TOP |
SPEARHEAD FROM
SPACE |
