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| PLANET
SF HOME | DOCTOR
WHO HOME | BIG FINISH AUDIOS
| 8TH DOCTOR NOVELS | EPISODES
| MISC REVIEWS |
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Having already bought THE FIVE DOCTORS twice on video, I'm loathe to buy it again on DVD, especially after the cock-up over the soundtrack. Fortunately, the second region 2 WHO DVD was one I'd only previously had on an off-air copy and since there weren't any reported problems, THE ROBOTS OF DEATH becomes the first WHO DVD in my collection. Story-wise, ROBOTS is a classic, helped by a strong script, some great performances, the excellent design - of both the set and the robots themselves - and Michael Briant's direction. Like many classic WHO stories, ROBOTS takes place in a confined setting - in this case a sandminer - but this time there's no outside force attempting to take over. Instead the threat comes from within, as someone onboard the sandminer is a killer. Obviously a reworking in part of TEN LITTLE INDIANS, ROBOTS is helped enormously by the performances, both from the regulars (and since Chris Boucher created Leela, you'd expect him to give Louise Jameson some decent material) as well as the guest cast, notably CALLAN's Russell Hunter as Uvanov and Pamela Salem as Toos. The look of the story helps Salem look particularly great, and Philip Hinchcliffe and Chris Boucher do spend a fair amount of time discussing her! So no problems at all with the story itself, what about the extras? ROBOTS was only the second DOCTOR WHO DVD the BBC released so its worth remembering that the DVD market was relatively small so it's understandable that the disc is hardly brimming with extras. The major extra is, of course, the commentary by Philip Hinchcliffe and Chris Boucher. There isn't really too much here that fans won't have heard before and the discussion does tend to wander off-topic a fair amount. Sometimes it's directly related to what's on-screen (e.g. Hinchcliffe praising an impressive shot) but on others it's more about the television industry in the mid-1970s than what's happening on-screen. Interesting, but perhaps it could have done with a moderator who'd seen the episodes recently and could steer the conversation a little more. A couple of presentation extras are included on the disc - but even a hardened presentation fanatic will probably only bother with the continuity announcement and continuity slide a couple of times. There's also some unused model footage and a scene with a different robot voice, but as with the studio floor pans, some sort of commentary would have made it worth watching more than once. But while the extras are a little disappointing, the story itself is the main reason for buying this disc, and here, ROBOTS doesn't disappoint at all. BACK TO THE TOP |
THE ROBOTS
OF DEATH |
