Having recently extolled the virtues of UNIT family in The Claws of Axos, it seems as good a time as any to watch the following story, Colony in Space ... which after several adventures is not only UNIT-absent but also Earth-invasion absent too!

Colony is one of those stories that has often been dismissed as plodding and uneventful, but actually there's quite a lot going on to maintain interest, if you accept the early 1970s style of dramatic story-telling. After what starts off as a seemingly simple base-attacked-by-monsters plot, it rapidly splits into a number of parallel subplots, with various IMC schemes to acquire the planet from the colonists, through the initial disguise of 'Charlie' the robot as a lizard, infiltration by Norton to cause disruption within the colonist camp, and then the capture of Jo and Winton to manipulate the Doctor into supporting their side of the story. The TARDIS is taken away for the Doctor to have to track down. There is the history of Exarius (or Uxaerius) and how the Doomsday Weapon brought a great culture to ruin. And, of course, the Master's plans to seize the weapon for himself!

Being that this is the first time the Doctor travels to an alien world since his exile on Earth began, there is a fair bit of exposition over what the TARDIS is and what it can do, as much to re-introduce the audience to the concept as well as Jo. However, as I mentioned in my Claws review, this actually conflicts with the running order of the series, with Jo already familiar with the TARDIS's ability to dematerialise and rematerialise elsewhere. Furthermore, the Brigadier's exchange with the Doctor over the Master's whereabouts clearly sounds like he's only just escaped Earth, with even the Doctor saying "his TARDIS is working now, he could be anywhere in space and time", tying in with the ending of The Mind of Evil. Agents are still looking for him, and that also ties in with Filer's arrival to discuss the 'master criminal' in Claws as well. having rewatched the So, I still think that the season eight running order should be Mind, Colony, Claws in spite of Terrance's recollections!

"A world where people can live as human beings and not battery hens"

This is also the first time the audience will see an alien planet in glorious colour, too ... so we get a lovely muddy gray clay pit in Cornwall to celebrate! This is typical Doctor Who territory, of course, alien planets always looked like that back then, though one has to wonder how any life manages to exist in these places at all?

This lack of food is a major plot element for the story, with the colonists that have settled on Exarius on the verge of complete starvation. It does seem odd that the Doctor needs to point this out to their leader Ashe (John Ringham), but then the colonists' leader does have a lot on his mind, especially with the recent lizard attacks. Mind you, the Doctor also points out about how could the "20 feet tall" lizards get through normal-sized doors, too, so maybe 25th Century IQ levels aren't as high - certainly, it sounds like Dent's wheeze works well on other colony worlds too. Imaginary giant lizards aside, though, how do the planet's natural inhabitants survive with the lack of a sustainable food source? Hmm, perhaps Jo should have been nominated for sacrifice a lot earlier for her indiscriminate picking of local flora upon arrival!

It is clear that Dent (Morris Perry) believes colonists are somewhat ignorant, and his initial attitude with the Doctor reflects that until he realises he is dealing with someone able to see through his version of what is happening on the planet - so he decides to arrange an accident straight away. Here is a man who clearly doesn't like anyone or anything that could potentially throw his plans into disarray, and it seems works for a company that is quite happy to look the other way too as long as profits are good, even paying off officials when they need to ...

... which leads us to the Master, who doesn't appear until the latter half of the story, turning up as an Adjudicator from Earth in a Joe 90 plane to (allegedly) resolve the colonists/IMC dispute over the rights to the planet. His appearance would perhaps have been more of a surprise had the story not opened with the Time Lord discussion over him stealing the Doomsday Weapon files in the first place - oh well!

You'd have thought by now the Master would think a little more carefully about his nefarious schemes. First he has to switch sides at the last minute as he realises the Nestenes have no use for him after their invasion succeeds. Then he bites off more than he can chew with the mind parasite becoming too powerful to control. And then he brings the Axons to Earth but nearly finds himself a victim as their insatiable appetite for time travel builds up. Here he goes after the greatest weapon to have been devised only to be judged "you're not fit to be a God" and have the weapon destroyed in front of him! What next, re-awaken ancient powers that could erradicate him with a thought in a bid to take control of a planet he isn't actually that bothered about?

In terms of other main characters, the IMC contingent are by far the most interesting. We have Caldwell (Bernard Kay), whose conscience finally catches up with him over his employers' activities (though one has to wonder why he hadn't come to this conclusion on previous missions). Norton (Roy Skelton in a rare on-screen role) excels in his role as the supposed sole survivor of a previous colony and causing dissent behind the scenes, though he got his comeuppance in the end as his duplicity is revealed. Then there's the rather nasty Morgan (Tony Caunter) who relishes in doing his duty in the innoble style of other henchmen like Packer (The Invasion) and Hinks (The Green Death). In comparison, the colonists are a bit wimpy really! Winton (Nicholas Pennell) is about the best of the bunch, portraying the physical half of the colonists, with the intellectual half being Ashe (which as I said earlier isn't quite as intellectual as he ought to be) - he does at least get to play "the noble sacrifice" role by flying the doomed spacecraft. Mary (Helen Worth) is 'nice', but that's about it, nobody else is really memorable - except for Alec Leeson (John Tordoff) who perhaps stands out for entirely the wrong reasons!

The primitives and the priests are well-realised, though the zips in the former's costumes are a bit obvious at times. It's hard to imagine quite how their society actually works though, and as I mentioned previously food must be quite an issue ... though it is possible that they had food dispensers as a regular power supply was in evidence! The guardian of the Weapon is also well-realised, and gives a good account of how their great invention brought their planet to ruin, but its logic as to why now is the time to destroy the weapon eluded me somewhat, especially as it didn't explain how this might restore life to the planet - and probably destroyed whatever the primitives were feeding upon as well!

"What have you got in there, a policeman?"

There's always been a bit of experimentation with how the TARDIS dematerialises, and here we have an immediate 'popping' dematerialisation - this ties in with the way in which we see the Time Lord that visits the Doctor in Terror of the Autons travel, so it isn't a precedent in that regard, being that the Time Lords are the ones navigating the TARDIS. (mind you, the Master's TARDIS also disappears the same way at the end of the story, so maybe we shouldn't rationalise it into continuity - especially as then new director Michael E Briant says on the documentary he made it up being he didn't know previous approaches!).

The Brigadier was taking a chance, standing in the very place the TARDIS was when he demands that the Doctor "come back at once". Though, would he have been squashed or would the TARDIS materialise around him as seen in a number of modern stories (not to mention Logopolis!).

Speaking of the Fourth Doctor, Christopher H Bidmead added a lot to the Doctor Who lore regarding the various TARDIS functions, but it is nice to see that Malcolm Hulke was 'first in the door' with the Doctor's home being "dimensionally transcendental"!

There's also a nice nod back to the early days of TARDIS travel, with the outside surface of wherever they landed being visible through the doors of the TARDIS when they open. It isn't used that often (even recently), so is a genuine thrill to see!

Another bit of ammunition in my Colony/Claws argument is when the subject of the Master's TARDIS comes up and Jo mentions she hadn't seen his horsebox around (from Terror of the Autons) - okay, so perhaps she wasn't quite aware of how its shape can be altered in Claws, but when the Doctor mentions the Master's key it still feels as if it should have been an earlier story. [Okay, I've hammered this theory enough, now!]

It's nice to see the Master's TARDIS is full of paraphenalia too, and I especially like row of cabinets he keeps handy for his files.

"Don't try and explain"

A few little factoids and observations during the story:

• At the beginning, the Doctor jokes about the the Spanish Ambassador being mistaken for the Master. At the time it was an 'in-joke' with regard to Roger Delgado's appearance and various roles he'd undertaken in the past, but would that ever be allowed now in our politically correct world?
• ... speaking of which, would Mary's 'in-joke' about Jim fixing it find itself excised in future releases after the recent scandal regarding that show's presenter - the production notes would most certainly get revised if nothing else (there's already been talk of a Jim'll Fix It clip with Tom Baker being dropped for The Ark in Space special edition, and A Fix With Sontarans might also fall foul of the censor should The Two Doctors also be re-released).
• Third-Doctor-Moments: The Doctor watches a video of apparent mindless violence, followed later by a propaganda report on overcrowding on Earth; this is something of a Hulke favourite, with the same method popping up in Frontier in Space and Invasion of the Dinosaurs too!
• A calendar shows Monday 2 March 2472, though this won't actually be a Monday it'll be a Wednesday [assuming we don't start adding Leap Days!]. The month happens to reflect the time the first episode was recorded, too, in March 1971 - but why 501 years into the future ...
• Geodesic domes - they might have been a good shape for futuristic (and Antarctic) habitats, but they made for great climbing frames in the 1970s too!
• Jon Pertwee's This Is Your Life was recorded during this story. It's strange to think that he had already had a long career by this point, but was yet to find even more fame a few years little bringing a tatty scarecrow to life.
• Third-Doctor-Moments: The Doctor's engages in conjuring tricks during episode four, and it's easy to see why Vorg thought him a showman in Carnival of Monsters - not to mention the flower-antics in The Three Doctors. About the only thing missing is the Doctor trying out something different to wear ... oh hang on, whose that new IMC recruit?!!
• During the 1980s we had no end of episode cliffhangers featuring a close-up of the Doctor or other star's face - it's nice to see that this isn't a 'crime' to be laid at JNT's feet, Michael E Briant is perfectly able to achieve this, too, with a very obliging Pertwee expression! He gets three of the five cliffhanger close-ups, with Katy Manning receiving the episode three treatment ... at least episode five is dedicated to the Master's finger!
• Speaking of which, this story marks only the third credit for "John Turner" in the series thus far, doing F.A. (floor assistant!) ... and the premiere production role of assistant floor manager for a chap called Graeme Harper, wonder what happened to him ...
• Third-Doctor-Moments: The Pertwee era is well known for 'some kind' of speech - and it isn't just an impediment of the Doctor, Caldwell uses it too!
• Third-Doctor-Moments: there's three stunt battles between IMC and the colonists to enjoy during the course of the story!
• Shame we lost the female Morgan, that would have been interesting character, if a bit daring for the time. It certainly would have evened things out a bit, stories of these times are very male-oriented - here we only have one main female role (Katy excepted) with Helen Worth's Mary Ashe, plus a couple of supporting colonists in episode one (Sheila Grant and Mitzi McKenzie), and thinking about it there's only Corporal Bell in Claws (unless you want to include the 'female' Axon of course!)
• There are female extras of course, including Antonia Moss who's grown up a bit since her other appearance right at the start of the series as a child from the Tribe of Gum ... not that you'd recognise her in her alien priest costume!

Hard to imagine now of course, but us midling-youngsters of the early eighties were well and truly Pertwee-starved, relying on dim and distant memories of the elegant Third Doctor, and of course the ever-increasing chronicles recorded by Target. Then JNT became a hero by bringing three full adventures to our screens! After the previous Five Faces outings for The Three Doctors and Carnival of Monsters, over the summer of 1982 we were then treated to a monster cornucopia in the form of The Curse of Peladon.

In the Black Scrolls of Fandom this story is categorised as "an Ice Warrior story", which - though of course being true - does do an injustice to the other memorable alien races we meet on Peladon. We have the Peladonians themselves with their distinctive hair styles (maybe the Golgafrinchans stopped off here at some point!), the big shaggy beastie Aggedor, the shrill-voiced, green-skinned, semi-phallic hermaphrodite hexapod delegate from Alpha Centauri, and the downright disturbing delegate from Arcturus. Having no memory of the story on original broadcast I had only my battered Target version of events to go by, and whilst Aggedor was perhaps a little more cuddly than intended (he worked well in the shadows), and Centauri overly 'feminine', Arcturus was just as creepy as his literary counterpart - the production team had a field day on that creation! Perhaps the only let-down was his laser weapon, which suffered from its seventies effects legacy (oh no, the red blob of doom again!).

It was my first remembered experience with the Martians, too, and they perhaps didn't come across as huge and looming as I had been led to believe. Having seen The Ice Warriors and The Seeds of Death now I can fully appreciate this image of them, but unfortunately the rather taller cast here kind of dilluted their presence a bit. Plus of course there's the twist in which they turn out to be goodies rather than baddies this time around, though the Doctor was still able to instill a sense of threat about them when relating his previous experiences, and Izlyr or Ssorg can still be intimidating in spite of their relative heights!

(An an aside - these days we have the likes of Dan Starkey and Neve McIntosh creating a consistent look to a race, but back in the classic series this seldom happened - we're introduced to Sontarans being a clone race, but with the Martians we're actually treated to creatures that seem to fit the bill more admirably, thanks to the Alan Bennion cornering the market in Ice Lords.)

"The ancient Curse of Peladon will be fulfilled"

The story itself could almost be a Shakespearian play in its opening moment, with the array of characters paraded in front of us and their roles ascertained, through it soon settles down into the more traditional sci-fi trappings of a Doctor Who story. Torbis and Hepesh sound it off in front of their young King, and then the former apparently falls foul of the "curse" as a sign of displeasure of the mythical beast of Peladon over the decision to join the Federation. Here the "mistaken identity" strategy is used to introduce the Doctor and Jo to events, and it doesn't take long to see how the pretty Earth 'princess' has caught the eye of the King (who seems to quickly forget that she was meant to be on a date with Mike Yates - as Katy says on the commentary, "there's something about a prince that is irresistable!"). Then the Martian delegates turn and up the next couple of episodes are spent trying to convince us (and the Doctor) that they are the good guys, only to turn out that they actually are, hoorah! The real villains turn out to be Arcturus in league with Hepesh, and the ensuing revolution looks set to be victorious until the Doctor turns up proving the mythical Aggedor beasts are real, and its representative in the Citadel promptly shows its displeasure on its 'master' Hepesh. Hmm, actually it could have been written by Shakespeare after all!

"Holy flaming cow!"

Lennie Mayne's directorial debut for the series provides us with a competent traversal through the script, ably maintaining the journey through the layers of intrigue and no dud casting to be seen (or under costume!). David Troughton handles his first leading role well, and Gordon Stothard continues to excel in his non-speaking roles, this time visible on-screen as the mute champion Grun (strangely with a name-change as if the actor didn't want people to realise it was him!); plus with barely a minute on-screen Wendy Danvers makes her formidable presence known as the real Earth delegate Amazonia, who had she arrived when she was supposed to might well have been able to take on Izlyr, Hepesh and Aggedor on her own with the fierceness on display!

The sets are well-designed, too, with the mountainous slopes of Peladon superbly realised at Ealing, seamlessly integrating with the excellent modelwork as the TARDIS seemingly plummets to its destruction early on. Stunt-work is also excellent, but you can still play the "see Terry Walsh as the Doctor" drinking game and have a good chance to get sloshed [and of course the Uncle Terry commentary drinking rules might well send you into a stupor at around 22:55 into episode one :)].

The story has some notable firsts and lasts: it's the first time we're told the TARDIS is indestructible (though that had been suggested in stories like The Chase - but then why would we need the HADS in The Krotons?); it's the first story to be shown out of production order, having swapped with The Sea Devils to make the season flow better (though I've always felt that The Claws of Axos/Colony in Space make better continuity when reversed); it's the first story since The Space Pirates to have no location filming (indeed it and Monster are the only Pertwee stories like that) - Barry Letts said on the commentary that this helped finanically with the location-heavier stories in the season; and it's the last time the TARDIS console room appears in this configuration (perhaps the drop down the mountain did more damage than initially thought!).

Probably the best 'fluff' to watch out for is Pertwee muffling his lines under the TARDIS console as a picture of a naked lady comes into his eyeline (*not* Katy Manning!).

In conclusion, a fun story with lots of intrigue, good acting and great sets, plenty of monsters (the biggest gathering of races since The Daleks' Master Plan!); being a four-parter, there's also little of the sluggishness that can occur in the longer stories of this era).

I'll leave you with this thought: how must poor Peladon have felt, having lost both of his father-figures in the space of a couple of days - one initiated by the other and both by his mythical Royal beast - and then having a beautiful woman first turn down his marriage proposal and then turn out to be an imposter!

Crikey it's been a while since I posted on here! Here's my review of Tomb of the Cybermen which I wrote today to kick this off a bit!

---

‎"50 pounds to the first person to open those doors"

Those who remember the days of video-craving that the documentary "Cheque Lies and Videotape" depicts would probably not be surprised to be offered £50 back then if they could open their door and produce "Tomb of the Cybermen". The 1980s were rife with rumours about this particular story still existing, fuelled by the audio soundtrack doing the fan rounds that sounded like it was off a badly tracked video recording! Enter 1991 and some naughty fans (ahem) tried a social experiment about how a rumour of how Season Five had been recovered and would be released one story at a time starting off with Tomb the following year ... only to have it announced that Tomb had been recovered and would be out that following year ...

I think one of the problems with Tomb was that is ended up being an extremely hyped story. Those who had been fortunate to see it on broadcast raved about how great it was, the novelisation was a reasonable effort by Davis, and the soundtrack was atmospheric so we were all geared up for it's release when announced. I remember sitting there at the Tombwatch premiere (now sadly removed from the Special Edition version) and still wondering if this was really real until after those titles ended and the action began (curiously I don't remember the opening scene with Victoria's introduction only from the Telos landscape but it must have been shown!). The anticipation of the audience was electric and it was great to watch ...

That first time. When I came to rewatch it on the video it seemed more lacking in some ways. Suddenly scenes seemed to be much slower, and the Cybermen didn't really seem to actually do anything. Quite boring really, in comparison to The Moonbase before it, and certainly not as good as Evil of the Daleks and The Web Of Fear looked. Fan attitudes were variable too, and of course emphasis shifted to wanting another "undoubted classic" to be recovered - Fury From The Deep. [this has of course not occured - yet - but would we lose our reverence for that too if seen again in all it's onscreen 'glory'?]

But that was the 20th Century. It's now some two decades since those heady days and we have a new fresh remastered DVD version to enjoy. And, as with many of the earlier stories (The Web Planet excepted), these adventures have a lot going for them. The atmosphere perceived on the old soundtrack *is* there on screen, the Cybermen *are* menacing even in their minimal participation in the tale, and the acting is very competent. I still wouldn't rate it a "classic", but it is a strong tale.

"I love to see the experts at work, don't you?"

The Doctor of Production Block Four is witty, intelligent, perceptive, and at times downright dangerous. This had been highlighted in the previous serial Evil of the Daleks as he manipulates his companion to achieve his (benevolent of course) aims [long before the 7th Doctor did so to some fan complaints!], and continues here as he deftly manipulates Parry's team into, well, doing his dirty work for him! A little hint here, a flick of a switch there, and they all progress further into the Tomb's mysterious depths. As he says, they couldn't leave as soon as "Cybermen" are mentioned, but then again if he hadn't have surrepticiously assisted then would there ever have been a threat (or indeed the death of most of the team by the end).

Similarly, the Block Four Jamie is still an intelligent of out-of-his-league Scots lad, perceptive enough to realise the Doctor's line about skirt lengths to reassure Victoria. Victoria herself demonstrates her own strengths: a particular exchange comes to mind when, as Hopper head into the caverns she remarks "Who'd be a woman?" and he responds "How would you know?", but later she gets to give him a cutting response in ""its comforting to know they we've got your superior stength to call on should we need it"!

The main cast excel throughout. Even though she's the new girl, Debbie Watling seems to settle in with the Pat'n'Frazer duo quickly, and they display a genuine affection to each other throughout the serial. As for the supporting cast, generally the acting is okay, if the accents are a little 'eccentric' at times. Also, a little consistency in pronunciation would be handy, e.g. Telos and Teelos, CYBERman and CyberMAN! (Ah well, Matthew Sweet doesn't do much better in the Cybermen documentary on disk two so should we worry?!).

Of particular note is Roy Stewart, who does wonders with Toberman considering the character is mainly treated as "the heavy" and gets about three lines in the entire story(!) - it seems at times that the Doctor is using subtle manipulation upon him (opening the Tomb doors, the Kaftan death aftermath), but there's a certain nuance that suggests there's more to him than meets the eye - quite literally later on with his cyber-arm! And let's not forget it's his sacrifice that wins the day (even if it was him opening the doors that caused the kerfuffle in the first place!).

Of the others, Shirley Cooklin and George Pastell play the Logician fanatics Kaftan and Klieg well, though their character's motivations seems a little woolly at times (why does Kaftan play with the cyberchamber controls, and why is Klieg's logic over the Cybermen's intentions so completely flawed?!?!). The others are unfortunately less memorable, though they have their moments.

"Symbolic logic"

Logic, in theory, is a matter of taking a particular pattern of event and being able to realiably predict what will occur next in that sequence, A will go to B will go to C etc. Here, we have the interesting discourse between the Doctor and the Cybercontroller over the latter knowing all about the former, and then he deducing what the latter was up to. It's quite a revelation to find out that the trap was for him, with the Cyber race logically concluding he'd eventually come to Telos and release them. Was the Doctor really so unwitting? If this was the 7th Doctor, of course, then we'd know it was all a collosal "chess game" of manipulation to achieve the desired result - but here it seems the 2nd was just as good at the game ... or was he? Things could have gone badly wrong if it hadn't been for his companions ... or did he know they would pull through for him? A debate for another time, perhaps!

In principle logic should have no alignment, but Tomb's event do suggest that it is more likely to lead you down the dark path than stay neutral. Being the opener for this series, it's quite poignant that the subject of logic returns in the finale with Zoe's slavish consideration of it in The Wheel in Space - and of course the Doctor's gentle mockery of her over that - how to be wrong with authority indeed!

But where does logic state you should let your enemy get into a recharger, activate it yourself and then wonder why a fully fit version then proceeds to trample over your apparent plan ...

"Now I know you are mad, I just wanted to make sure"

Of course in a production made "as-live" a number of mistakes can creep through. There are lines that would make the First Doctor proud: "curiously lacking in curiousity" and "open that opening mechanism" come to mind. The usual array of boom mike shadows and inadvertent crew in shot crop up (you can see someone inside the closed hatch at one point, though the production notes pointed that out to me!).

The "cyber-chatter" could be a little grating at times, too, making it difficult to understand what they are saying at times.

"Keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut"

It seems sometimes characters can hear the TARDIS arriving and other times they can't - guess it depends on what serves the story best!

The Cybermen look great in the story, even towering above the massive Toberman. I guess casting shorter actors/actresses helped immensely with that, but it is still awe-inspiring, especially with some of the camera angles employed by Morris Barry.

I don't know about you, but I feel the old classic Cybermen used to have some great quotable lines; you could imagine the chants around playgrounds as kids try out their monotone reproductions of "Now You Belong To Us", "We Will Survive" and "You Will Be Like Us" - no namby pamby "DELETE" going on here!

Why was the Cybercontroller doing a Brucie pose when his tomb was opened. And just what was the pow-wow between Parry and the other Cybermen about before they went to release the Controller?

What do sleeping Cybermen dream about? Would they be able to?

It's interesting that the Doctor has an entry on cybermats in his 500 Year Diary - when did he find that out being he only encountered them in The Tenth Planet (or did he? The First Doctor did know that the mysterious planet was Mondas ...). It's also a shame that the diary didn't continue beyond this block ... but then it won't be long before the sonic screwdriver arrived and things wouldn't be the same again!

"Archaeologist written all over him"

To conclude, overall the story does stand up well, more so to me now than it did upon it's recovery. Maybe that's because I'm 20 years older and appreciate the subtleties and nuances more than I did back then.

The story has some eminently quotable lines, too; as well as the ones mentioned throughout the review, there are also the lovely moments between the Doctor and Victoria to enjoy, too The bit when they talk about family memories is wonderful: "I have to really want to to bring them back in front of my eyes. the rest of the time they sleep in my mind and I forget". Similarly, when talking about their adventure: "our lives are different to anybody else's - that's the exciting thing, nobody in the universe can do what we're doing".

The Doctor's final comments are interesting, too; when asked about if this is the end of the Cybermen he cautiously adds: "on the other hand, I never like to make predictions" - but didn't he state that it was the final end of the Daleks just a story before? Considering their return later on perhaps he should have considered what he would say about the metal giants a little later (grin).

The final scene was cut, of course: as the TARDIS dematerialises and the lonely cybermat makes its way across the rocky surface, it is suddenly picked up, examined, and commented upon: "hello, sweetie ..."

We do like our lists, us fans. Being it was stated that all (complete) stories will be out on DVD by the time of the 50th anniversary, what have we got left to go? It's certainly getting short for some Doctors, and not including the known releases in the next few months we have left:

William Hartnell: The Sensorites, Planet of Giants, The Ark, The Gunfighters.
Patrick Troughton: The Krotons.
Jon Pertwee: The Ambassadors of Death, Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, The Dæmons, Day of the Daleks, The Mutants, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Death to the Daleks.
Tom Baker: Terror of the Zygons, The Android Invasion, The Face of Evil, The Sunmakers, Nightmare of Eden.
Peter Davison: The Awakening, Frontios.
Sylvester McCoy: Paradise Towers, Dragonfire, The Happiness Patrol, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

That's it, 26 to be scheduled. Assuming the The Dæmons comes out on the 50th anniversary itself as Steve Roberts intimated in an interview last year, then that means there are 30 other months to fill out 25 releases ... though of course with their penchant for boxed sets it seems 2Entertain will have some more of those, too. Jon Pertwee has the most to be released, and has likely candidates for a double release (e.g. Day of the Daleks/Death to the Daleks and Colony in Space/The Mutants). Also The Awakening/Frontios seems possible, too. So what will fill up the other gaps in the schedules, or will we simply see a slow-down in the release schedule?

All speculation, of course, but if The Revisitations set does the business then others seem likely to follow (Tomb of the Cybermen/Spearhead from Space/The Robots of Death have been doing the rumour rounds as the next set), so they may fill up the gaps until the anniversary - and if they are doing well then I wouldn't have thought the Doctor Who collection would end there.

There's also the incomplete stories to consider. It would be a real shame if we didn't get to see these, too (The Reign of Terror, The Tenth Planet, The Ice Warriors), even as another "Lost in Time" collection if 2Entertain really won't give us animated reconstructions as with The Invasion.

Such a shame the other stories seem unlikely to ever see the light of day as reconstructions - thank goodness for Loose Cannon!

The Doctor Who News Page has reported that fourth Doctor story Meglos is due to be released on DVD some time in the next few months, as evidenced by a "Coming Soon" trailer being cleared at the BBFC.

Now I know this story isn't exactly one of the classics of that era, and in my view the weakest of the excellent Season 18 stories, but it does hold significance to me in being one of the only stories I never got on VHS and so all I have is a UK Gold version from some early Sunday morning showing on an E240 alongside The Leisure Hive through to Warriors Gate!!!

So I am quite looking forward to this in so far as it is a story I haven't seen for quite a number of years (though not an enforced fast like The Twin Dilemma!). Mind you, we could always have had the prickly adversary back in The Lodger had Gareth Roberts got his way!

Incidentally, S18 fans could catch up with guests from Warriors Gate and The Keeper of Traken at Fantom Films's Fourth Dimension convention this weekend - only a couple of tickets left (and you get Jago and Litefoot, plus Sutekh into the bargain too!).

A friend just asked which commentaries he should listen to first. So I suggested:

• Earthshock. This is possibly the best commentary ever! Peter Davison is in fine form, as are his compatriots in arms! Actually, most Davision commentaries are worth a listen.
• The Brain of Morbius The commentators are in fine form in this one, with some real laugh-out-loud moments! This is one of those commentaries where they sound like they're having a great time, almost blokes-down-the-pub in style, unlike some that try to be too technical.
  
• The Five Doctors For those who don't know, the special edition has an easter egg commentary by David Tennant, Phil Collinson and Helen Raynor hiding on the original broadcast version. Unashamed fan-boy alert, and a great laugh.
• Spearhead from Space. If for nothing else, this was the first commentary to feature Nick Courtney!

In many ways this release was bound to cause a bit of a kerfuffle, with the extended version being the version of the story that many remember. There were times watching the story when I kept thinking "I'm sure there was another line there!", and of course it was from the extended cut. Unlike, say, Fenric, the cut plot wasn't quite so important in the grand scheme of things ... coming into the last scenes in the hangar I hadn't a faintest clue what Lady Peinforte was meant to be doing - I know she was insane, but still the whole ranting on and then throwing herself onto the statue - WTF? Even the Cyberleader looked surprised, quite a feat considering the faceless metal mask!

Ah yes, the Cybermen. Okay, so I get that it was a silver anniversary and they are, well, silver(ish), but this whole barfing at the mere sight of gold is just getting a bit on the silly side - especially as the boxed set with Revenge shows the other side to this plot point - Cybermen walking around the planet of gold with no real ill-effects whatsoever. The production notes indicate that in the original they weren't to "die" immediately they are hit by gold, so it's a shame this was changed.

Actually, having commented on the extended cut, there's still very little going on in the story, overall. A bit of to-ing and fro-ing through time, and then quite a lot of sitting about in episode two waiting for something to happen. "Social workers" ... Mrs Remington ... with 75 minutes-odd of screen estate this could all have been tightened a bit with a little more action. But then this was the 1980s style of production (yet again with Fenric it couldn't all fit into 100 minutes!).

Shame about the extras, really, too. In my mottley collection of off-air bits and pieces I had Andy Crane beating off a cyberman in the broom cupboard, Open Air's anniversary thoughts (with Jon Pertwee!), plus the Points of View segment which was mentioned in the production notes, all of which could have been included. Not so sure about Daytime Live, though, being "the other channel" 'n' all!

Money on another "Revisitations" release in the future ...

This is probably the most nostalgic featurette I've seen so far on the DVD releases! The 1980s were certainly a time of meagre pickings for us fans who couldn't afford the original official BBC releases, and after the excitement of The Five Faces and The Monsters series we only had a few repeats to enjoy, and even they dried up. Sigh. But then the wonders of Doctor Who local groups came along and suddenly there were people with ... old stuff!

My first experience with 'non-current' Who was to be ... Frontier in Space. It's hard to describe the mounting excitement of seeing another Jon Pertwee for the first time, and then the biting disappointment when finding out it didn't meet the expectations built from the novelisation The Space War! A certain producer once said "the memory cheats" (though saying it for the likes of Pyramids of Mars and The Talons of Weng-Chiang is still a bit silly!), and the imagination certainly does!

Over the next couple of years a collection expanded and appetite of older Doctors slowly sated; then the BBC videos became affordable, and once BSB's Galaxy channel started up (and later UK Gold), and these treasured ragged VHS copies were usurped. I still think of them fondly, but I'm not entirely sure I'd ever dig them out of the box and put them on again (the example of generation copying shown for Revenge really brought back the memories - shudder).

How did we put up with the quality back then? Well, it was Doctor Who!

Oh, I could have appeared in the featurette, but I chickened out :)