Doctor Who - The E-Space Trilogy (DVD)

Season 18 is an odd beast in the classic Doctor Who series, as there is a huge sense of change throughout the entire season. But it is a progressive thing, and so it doesn't fit comfortably with the previous Graham Williams style scripts, despite opening with one that was obviously a leftover from that era. Nor does it fit the rest of the eighties - despite having the Peter Howell version of the theme, the starfield title sequence, the instantly recognisable 80's incidental music. Here it fails to fit in because script editor Christopher H Bidmead has a very different take on the programme, worlds apart from his predecessor Douglas Adams, and his successor Eric Saward. Oh, and of course, because it stars Tom Baker.

Poor old Tom clearly wasn't having a good time during this season. Having been accustomed to having everyone hang off his every word, and virtually dictating the direction of the show, regardless of what former producer Graham Williams thought, it must have been quite a shock when he walked into new producer John Nathan-Turner's office, and told him and Bidmead he felt it was time for him to go, and not get the response, oh, but Tom you must stay. And Nathan-Turner and Bidmead had a youthful arrogance that said this is OUR show, not yours, and we'll do what we want. For Tom, it was clear that he was now surplus to requirements. Lalla Ward had the same impression, and neither of them liked the scripts that were presented to them. As for their new co-star...well...

The E-Space Trilogy sees the Time Lords and their metal dog (once again voiced by John Leeson) crossing into another universe, smaller than ours, and apparently greener. Their mission - to return home. It's Star Trek Voyager, done over three stories, rather than seven years.

Full Circle sess the TARDIS materialise on the planet Alzarius, where the small group of people who live there are about to lock themselves away in the spaceship their ancestors arrived in because Mistfall is arriving and, aside from the mist killing everyone, spiders spring from the river fruit and monsters stalk out of the water. The Doctor gets involved with the settlers, discovering a bizarre secret about them, while Romana meets a group of rebels (against society of all things) including a young man called Adric, who will stow away at the end. The show is quite entertaining, and rather interestingly sees the Doctor and Romana swept up in events rather than being the catalyst for them. George Baker has an appearance in this programme, alongside James Bree (one gets the rather entertaining image of the two of them chatting about On Her Majesty's Secret Service in tea breaks), and the two are very, very good as the planet's leaders. The Marshmen are quite convincing, though better on location than in studio, and clearly inspired from the Creature From The Black Lagoon, but the marsh spiders are atrocious. Romana has little to do, while Adric is not as terrible as he could be. Meanwhile, Tom phones in his performance, except for one amazing scene where a young Marshman frees himself from experimentation, and then is killed as it tries to reach out to the Doctor through a video screen. Tom gives one of his brilliant righteous anger scenes which he is so amazing at.

State Of Decay, though second in order was actually filmed first, and this time the TARDIS lands on a planet where a small group of villagers are oppressed by the local lords who turn out to be vampires. The vampires' plan is to resurrect the great vampire who lays beneath the castle, and who is an ancient enemy of the Time Lords! This is my favourite story of the trilogy, because it's steeped in Gothic imagery which is wonderful, and, as Terrance Dicks points out on the commentary, has a number of "traditional" vampire movie scenes in it (Adric being warned against going up to the castle for instance). However, the cleverness of this is the science-fiction additions to it which, though Dicks moans bitterly about his problems with, are the result of Bidmead's work. Bidmead claims, on the documentary, that he thinks some great things can come from creative tension, and this would seem to prove his point. Meanwhile, on the acting front, the three lords are absolutely brilliant, with costumes out of a period drama, and makeup out of an 80s music video. Tom again phones in his performance, though to be fair he was very ill on this filming, while there the lack of love between Lalla Ward and Matthew Waterhouse makes the tension between Romana and Adric very real.
Warriors' Gate is the third of the trilogy, finally giving the TARDIS travellers their way back to the normal universe. They arrive in a strange no-place where a spaceship is also trying to get out, but their captain is at his wit's end, and his plans involved destroying the very place they are in. They are also trafficking time sensitives, but time being what it is, the slavery may soon come to end as all things do. Complex? Well, it is quite frankly. However, if ever a story was a triumph of style over content, this is it. The whole piece is beautifully acted and shot in a very atmospheric and moody way that you are content to just watch it. And then watch it again to see what you missed. And then watch it again to try to understand the story. Points go to the actors playing the Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern characters of Aldo and Royce, but in truth the entire cast is well and truly up to scratch. Sadly this is the final story for Romana, and though her exit is a little bit of a surprise, it is nicely played by Baker who finally manages to show some emotion in the story.

As for the extras...all three have commentaries; Waterhouse, Bidmead and writer Andrew Smith are very entertaining for Full Circle, while Waterhouse is pushed to the background as Dicks and Peter Moffatt bitch for State Of Decay, mostly about Bidmead. On Warriors' Gate, director Paul Joyce, SFX Mat Irvine, Bidmead, Leeson and Ward all provide a very interesting commentary, with level headed, but honest comments about their time on the show, their feelings about it, their feelings about the management and their experiences with Tom Baker. All three also have "making of" documentaries, the Warriors' Gate one being the best simply because of the difficulties in getting the production made. Sadly Tom Baker has no part in any of these documentaries which is something of a shame. Matthew Waterhouse talks about his time as Adric in another doco, while a variety of people, including Lalla Ward, discuss her costumes in the series.

Rather bizarrely there are a number of what can only be described as contextual documentaries as well; Full Circle has one about parallel universes, while State of Decay has a number, including ones on blood, vampires, and Sir Christopher Frayling discussing the story in relation to other vampire literature. These documentaries are a continuing trend of seeing material only peripherally related to the show, but trying to put it into a context. They are quite interesting, but sometimes they verge on the obscure...it's hard to see what a butcher could bring to a Doctor Who documentary, but it's there.

Overall this box set is a great release, with three stories that are really quite good, and the usual plethora of extra materials that show Doctor Who is really the only television programme that is getting value on the DVDs. Outstanding.