Search - Doctor Who Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The Patrick Troughton Years 1966-1969 on DVD

Great rare gems from early Doctor Who!

Stephen Wall | Raleigh, NC USA | 07/25/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"What a treat this DVD set is! 12 rarely-seen episodes from the Troughton era of Doctor Who, on a 2 DVD set. In fact, these have never been aired on US television. The sad reality about Doctor Who, is that a fair number of the earliest episodes of the program have not survived, so we are left with certain early stories which only have the occasional episode in existence.



Thank heavens that the powers-that-be felt there might be interest in a collection such as this. To be fair, these odds and ends may not be to everyone's taste, as they don't consist of complete stories, but they are interesting in their own right, and provide a nice sampling of the remarkable series that is Doctor Who:



THE UNDERWATER MENACE 3 - Originally a four-part story, only the third part exists, but it does provide the earliest existing episode to feature Patrick Troughton's unique take on the Doctor, accompanied by his companions Ben, Polly and Jamie. The episode is rather bizarre, featuring an adventure in Atlantis with fish-people and a mad scientist, but it is unlike anything else ever seen in the series.



THE MOONBASE 2 & 4 - Enter the Cybermen for this adventure, in only their second appearance on Doctor Who. This time the action takes place on the moon itself, and as an added bonus, the two missing episodes (1 & 3) are included in audio-only format, so one can follow the entire story. Find out how Polly's tea-making skills save the day!



THE FACELESS ONES 1 & 3 - Two existing episodes from the six-parter in which chameleon-like aliens are hijacking airline passengers for their own nefarious plot. Features location footage at Gatwick Airport in London, and is also the last story to feature Ben and Polly as the Doctor's companions.



EVIL OF THE DALEKS 2 - The final appearance of the Daleks in the 1960's, this existing episode from the 7-parter, offers a unique look at a story many consider to be one of the all-time classics. Also, features the debut of Victoria. Commentary track is available for this episode.



THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN 2 - The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria encounter the deadly Yeti in the Himalayans in this surviving episode from the 6-parter. This episode also has an optional commentary track.



THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD 3 - A taste of espionage in this thriller, in which Patrick Troughton doubles as the villanous Salamander. The only surviving episode from the 6-parter.



THE WEB OF FEAR 1 - The Yeti return, this time in the Underground System of a deserted London. This is the existing first part of the 6-part story. There is an optional commentary track for this episode.



THE WHEEL IN SPACE 3 & 6 - The Cybermen return in this adventure set on a space station. Zoe makes her first appearance in the series, and episode 6 features an optional commentary. Originally a six-part story.



THE SPACE PIRATES 2 - This sole survivor of the six-part story puts the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe in the midst of a grand space adventure.



As if these 12 episodes weren't enough, also included are an insane number of clips from other 1960's Doctor Who adventures, plus a meaty documentary about The Missing Years.



Again, these odds and ends may not be for everyone, but they are a unique collection of episodes that are quite rare, and they have all been cleaned up and have never looked better. A worthwhile investment for any Doctor Who fan. Please consider the companion DVD devoted to the Hartnell era as well.

"

Lost in time.... but worth the find!

JKO | New York, NY USA | 11/08/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As most Doctor Who fans know, there are huge gaps in the archives for the black and white era of the show that featured the first two actors to play the role, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Due to a total disregard for archiving material and, criminally, as a cost cutting exercise, there was a systematic junking policy for `expired' TV shows across many broadcast networks through to the 1970's. In many ways, Doctor Who fared better than most with many complete stories surviving either in private hands or more often by happy accidents.



Although anything to have survived is miraculous, in many cases, irritatingly, stories were left incomplete on the archive shelves. Pretty much useless to any broadcaster and indeed seemingly for home DVD or video release. But the bright guys at the BBC have spotted a way to gather up all this stray material and package it together on a collection of three discs featuring not only eighteen complete episodes but a whole myriad of other snippets and gems from the vaults.



As a huge Doctor Who fan, I was thrilled to see all these homeless relics gathered together, but from a wider commercial viewpoint, I don't think it's a particularly interesting project. But isn't it wonderful for fans to be indulged in this way? I'd never seen either episodes of The Faceless Ones before, so this was a real treat, as it was to see the newly discovered gem from The Daleks' Master Plan.



The problem for me is that alone, or even where two or more episodes exist, it's exceptionally frustrating to watch what remains of these stories. If you're watching episode one for example, you're completely hooked by the end and then hugely disappointed that there is no more! For stories that just have the odd episode from the middle of the story, it's enough to drive you barmy. My biggest irritation came from watching episode 4 of The Celestial Toymaker. What on earth is going on? It would have been so, so much better had the DVD contained a synopsis of what was missing to help flesh out some of the material and put things into context. Definitely an opportunity missed. In a step towards this, there are soundtracks included for two missing episodes from The Crusade and The Moonbase, which does help complete those stories, but since photos exist of both missing episodes, why weren't they included? When all there is to hear is music or sound effects, it leaves you bewildered as to what might be happening. A photo or a subtitle would have been so much more effective.



Also gathered from the cutting room floor are many, many short clips (in some cases, don't blink or you'll miss them) from other completely deleted episodes. It's sad that in so many cases these split second clips are all that have remained. There's also a lot of home movie footage, which is really interesting. I believe this to be the only color examples of footage from the era and although short, they are wonderful to see.



We can but hope that as time goes on, some of the missing material will turn up. No one would have thought the complete Tomb of the Cybermen would suddenly reappear in 1992. So hope springs eternal. Until then, here's some classic Who, brilliantly restored and remastered to enjoy."