Lost In Time

NOVEMBER 2004

(18 EPISODES)

Lost in Time is the perfect DVD release for November 2004. With Doctor Who on the verge of an exciting new era, it seems only fitting that we are given the chance to look back at the show’s humble beginnings – humble beginnings that exist as mismatch of complete stories, orphaned episodes, audio recordings, and telesnap reconstructions. As the head writer of the new series, Russell T Davies, put it, “…how romantic is that?”

As the sticker on the DVD’s cover proudly boasts, this three-disc set contains over seven hours of rare 1960s episodes and footage, including the recently discovered Day of Armageddon from 1965. The set contains eighteen episodes from incomplete stories - six episodes featuring William Hartnell as the Doctor, and twelve from the more heavily-hit Patrick Troughton era.

The design of the DVD discs marks a departure from previous DVD releases – we are treated to a beautifully illustrated picture disc as opposed to just the name of the DVD being printed on it, however the sleeve design remains in synch with the style of previous releases.

Disc one contains all of the Hartnell material. The Crusade is presented in its entirety by virtue of audio recordings of The Knight of Jaffa and The Warlords, which saved me having to buy the Radio Collection CD.

Many people will have purchased the collection on the strength of the three existent

episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan included on the disc and I’m pleased to report that they do not disappoint. The newest discovery, Day of Armageddon, is presented remastered with the option of an audio commentary from Peter Purves (Steven); Kevin Stoney (Mavic Chen); and Raymond Cusick (Designer). The visual quality of the episode

(as well as that of both Counter Plot and Escape Switch, for that matter) is so good that you would think it was only shot yesterday with a monochrome filter. However, as much as I enjoyed watching these three episodes, it really is so sad to see. Such an epic, landmark story, and all that remains of it are three episodes, a handful of clips and a narrated soundtrack.

The final Hartnell episode included is The Final Test, the final episode of the 1966 Celestial Toymaker story. Michael Gough is absolutely excellent as the Toymaker, and William Hartnell is almost as good as his foil.

The first Doctor’s disc also contains a few other special features, though rather than giving us new offerings the Restoration Team has created a compendium of odds and ends from previous VHS releases. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticising them for this - as something of a completist, I’m quite pleased that I will be able to start junking my old VHS tapes now I have the content on DVD. Here they have included William Russell’s introduction to The Crusade, surviving clips from various episodes, and the famous colour film footage showing the making of The Smugglers on location.

The second disc in the collection presents the orphaned episodes from Season 4 featuring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. Ironically, the first episode on the disc is episode three of The Underwater Menace – in my opinion Troughton’s worst. The Moonbase is a cracking little story, and of all the missing stories, this story has such a wealth of photographic and audio material still existing one can still enjoy the story almost as it was originally intended. And as with The Crusade, the DVD contains both existing episodes as well as the sound-tracks to both the missing episodes, making the expensive life of a Doctor Who fan just that  little bit cheaper as purchase of the Radio Collection CD is made redundant. The Faceless Ones is another Patrick Troughton classic, Episodes 1 and 3 included on this DVD.

Above: The special features on offer on the third disc

When I purchased the DVD I had never seen any footage from The Evil of the Daleks other than that included on The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Seeds of Death DVDs (which incidentally is included on this disc too). Nevertheless, being familiar with both the novelisation and the soundtrack I was very excited at having the opportunity to see the only surviving episode. Much like The Power of the Daleks, this story is a positive triumph from David Whitaker and for me, it encapsulates the very best of 1960s Doctor Who. Big Finish supremo Gary Russell and Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield) also provide an insightful audio commentary for the episode on the DVD.

Disc three is just as good – if not better – than the first two as not only does it contain six absolutely classic episodes (every single one of them!) but also an updated version of the forty-minute Missing Years documentary with Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling. The documentary explains the process of junking that robbed us of 109 episodes of Doctor

Who, and features some lengthy clips of episodes that are still missing. The disc also contains colour film footage showing the making of The Abominable Snowmen on location and Fury From The Deep in the studio, as well as surviving clips from the Australian Censor’s office from various Season 5 and 6 stories.

Above: Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling in "The Missing Years" documentary

With the option of another commentary from Watling and Russell, the third disc begins with Episode 2 of The Abominable Snowmen. Though not as good as its moody sequel later in the season, this story is still one of Troughton’s best and is a fantastic introduction to the Great Intelligence and their monstrous servants. This is followed by the existing third

episode of The Enemy of the World - an entertaining Doctor Who adventure, reminiscent of many of the early James Bond films. The highlight of the disc though is The Web of Fear - without doubt the best story of Season 5, and all based on such a simple, disturbing image: Yeti loose in the London Underground. Rounding off the disc are the extant episodes of The Wheel In Space; a story too similar to The Moonbase to be compelling, even when commented on by then-script editor Derrick Sherwin and the serial’s director, Tristan de Vere Cole. Finally, only Episode 2 of Robert Holmes’ underrated gem The Space Pirates survives and is present as the final ‘orphaned’ episode in the collection - to hear the rest you will have to invest in the sound-track on CD from the BBC Radio Collection.

All in all, Lost in Time is a dream come true for a Doctor Who enthusiast. Somehow it feels like you are getting far more for your money than you actually are – there are just so many great stories in here, however little of them may be left. I would definitely recommend purchasing the relevant BBC Radio Collection soundtracks to accompany this release too; it is certainly the closest that you can get to experiencing these wonderful stories as they were originally intended (at least for now...)

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

Unless otherwise stated, all images on this site are copyrighted to the BBC and are used solely for promotional purposes.

‘Doctor Who’ is copyright © by the BBC. No copyright infringement is intended.