Review by Craig Byrne
On July 6, Warner Home Video released not one, not two, but four DVD sets worth of classic Doctor Who. They seem to be set on releasing all of the episodes of the original series, and I truly appreciate that.
Instead of reviewing all four sets at once, I am going to start with one of the four – “Underworld,” the Doctor Who serial that aired between January 7-28, 1978.
Before now, “Underworld” held the distinction of being one of the Doctor Who stories that I had never seen a bit of. I can’t remember why we skipped it when I was watching the old episodes in order with my best friend; perhaps it was not available. Maybe he was embarrassed. (Why would he be? Keep reading…)
The DVD presentation of “Underworld” contains the usual production notes text and commentary by Tom Baker (The Doctor) and Louise Jameson (Leela) with one of the episode’s writers, Bob Baker. There’s a making-of documentary, a photo gallery, “in studio” video clips, and more. As for the story itself… well…
It started interestingly enough. There’s drama on a ship, and there’s a dodgy green screen for “windows” that probably would have been best not attempted. There are characters and situations with names that echo the story of Jason and the Argonauts. It’s very 70’s, and the actors are very 70’s, but it’s kind of fun. The best part, of course, is seeing Tom Baker and Louise Jameson giving fantastic performances despite a so-so script. Even when other parts of the story are flagging Baker and Jameson were great.
Unfortunately, Chapter 2 (of 4) is when it starts going downhill. Twenty years before George Lucas made virtual sets a thing of life with The Phantom Menace, the producers of Doctor Who, in attempt to stay on budget and not spend money on expensive sets, instead created virtual backgrounds. In 1978. Which means, there’s a lot of green-screen flicker, missing limbs, and people walking through things. It’s kind of awful, but an enjoyable kind of awful. But admittedly, it kind of loses the promise of Chapter 1, which really looked quite good, windows aside.
It’s really interesting to see, from an experimental point of view. It’s not successful, but then again, it was 1978. And I’d much rather see this than the attempts at effects the show gave us in the late 1980’s when more technology was available.
Fans of Tom Baker’s Doctor will still enjoy this. It’s not one of my “show it to a newcomer” recommendations, but if you’re curious to see how effects were done in the United Kingdom, this could work for you. I’d still give this a 4/5 because I found it to be interesting and fun, and it was great to see some old Doctor Who that I’d never seen before.
One final comment – I understand that a lot of our U.S. DVD releases are just region-changed versions of British releases. But would it really hurt BBC Video to change the promos at the start of the disc? I’m really growing tired of the Doctor Who Series Four “You seem to be drifting, love” promo trailer, especially now that it’s two years and one Doctor later. At the very least advertise Doctor Who: The Specials or something.
Come back later this week for more Doctor Who DVD reviews! If you’d like to purchase Doctor Who: Underworld, it is now available on Amazon.com. Order through KSiteTV and support this site!
5 Comments
None of my Classic Who DVDs have the Series 4 trailer, Craig. Maybe its just a US thing.
Really? I thought that was the reason we get outdated trailers…. that just makes it even more annoying, then.
Craig – I can confirm for you that BBC & 2entertain are going to release every complete classic “Doctor Who” story on DVD. Restoration work and work on their extras has already begun on all remaining unreleased stories in the line (per 2e’s classicDW tweet). Plans are to release the final DVDs in the range around November, 2013 (the show’s 50th anniversary).
You are correct in that the releases here are R1 converted but the content is the same as the discs in Britain per a BBC mandate. WB mandates that they must have the source material from the UK at least 6 months before it is released here. This may account for why the S4 ads are still being put on the disc or (more likely) WB may not have been given a new set of ads. Honestly, I’m not sure about the annoying ads but like you I want them gone. I’m sick & tired of the “one wants one’s BBC” and “Don’t pirate, mate” pre-menu ads and wish they’d change them. However, the “Coming Soon” trails may be deleted from the US releases as our schedules sometimes vary from the UK release schedules. Meanwhile, you know you can skip those ads, right?
As for ‘Underworld”s “dodgy green screen” it may help viewer appreciation if they keep in mind that this was being made in 1977 on a low television budget and the special effects were being pioneered by the BBC. A lot of what George Lucas used and improved was pioneered and developed by the BBC. “Doctor Who” has been ahead of its time in that regard for almost its entire run. Back then it was cutting edge.
Admittedly, this one is not one of the huge “fan favorites”, but that is why they originally released three of the four stories in a “Myths & Legends” boxset in the UK. With the boxset there’s a savings on having to buy three less-than-favorite stories. WB just releases them here as individual stories and, sadly, we have to pay for that.
Still, ‘Underworld’ has always been one of my favorites and I plan on getting it soon. Even better, there are plenty of “fan favorites” and strong releases to come from the classic series range.
I actually really do appreciate the “dodgy green screen,” and maybe I should have been clearer about that in my review. It’s a true sign of how far technology has come in these years. I grew up seeing cable-access TV… now those were bad effects on those programs, and that was 15+ years later. So I do totally understand.
I think “Underworld” is really fascinating from a production perspective, and I’m glad they’ve put it on DVD.
As for the other episodes that were recently released that I will be reviewing soon… “The Chase” specifically has always been one of my favorites, so I’m surprised it was released as part of a big clump like that. Still like it though.
‘The Space Museum’ and ‘The Chase’ were released over in the UK together in a boxset on March 1, 2010. Obviously, we’re just getting them here. The “Myths & Legends” boxset contained the other three stories (‘The Time Monster’, ‘Horns of Nimon’, and ‘Underworld’). It is odd that WB would release two boxsets worth of DVDs at the same time. Still, better for us. I’m looking forward to your review of ‘The Chase’.