Doctor Who: The Beginning (An Unearthy Child / The Daleks / The Edge of Destruction)
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DVD details
Actor: Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill, William Hartnell, William RussellBrand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Verity Lambert
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Box set, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 311 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-03-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E2489
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- The Doctor is a renegade Time Lord: an eccentric, highly-intelligent scientist from a distant planet. He travels through time and space in the TARDIS, a curious device, larger on the inside than on the outside, which was designed to change its appearance to suit its surroundings. Unfortunately, the Doctor's TARDIS seems to be broken, and always appears as a blue British police box. The Doctor
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: The Beginning (An Unearthy Child / The Daleks / The Edge of Destruction)
DVD Review: The beginning of a phenomenon
Summary: 4 Stars
For those of you who may be considering buying this DVD set as the obvious introduction to "Doctor Who" but don't necessarily know much about it, here is some background to the series (those of you in the know can skip this if you want).
Made by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), "Doctor Who" is the world's longest-running science-fiction TV show, beginning in November 1963 and initially running until December 1989 when the show appeared to run out of both steam and significant viewing figures. A large and loyal global fan base kept the Doctor `alive' however through various alternative medias (such as books, audio CDs and video cassettes) until the triumphant return of the show to television in 2005 where it has once again become one of the BBC's most important, most talked about and most watched TV shows.
Although the program is called "Doctor Who", the main character is consistently known only as "The Doctor" ("Doctor Who" being nothing more than a simple reference to the mysterious lead character). Some of the mysteries surrounding the Doctor are revealed throughout the course of the series when it is established he is part of a race known as The Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey.
At one point in the show's history, it is suggested that the Doctor was bored with merely observing time and space on Gallifrey and decided to "borrow" a TARDIS (which stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) to explore the universe, taking his granddaughter, Susan with him. A TARDIS is a `capsule' engineered by the Time Lords with the ability to travel anywhere in time and space. Its interior is larger than its exterior because it is "dimensionally transcendental". Upon materializing, the exterior of a TARDIS normally blends in with its surroundings to `camouflage' itself. However, the Doctor's TARDIS has a fault in its `chameleon circuit' and so constantly appears as a 1960's British police telephone box, a fault that presumably occurs when the TARDIS leaves 1960's London at the end of the first episode of the very first story, "An Unearthly Child". The Doctor was originally played by William Hartnell but declining health forced him to give up the part after three years and he was replaced by Patrick Troughton. Thus, further "Who" folklore was established by introducing the concept of regeneration - a Time Lord's ability to "cheat death" by "renewing" all the cells in his body leaving him with a completely different physical make-up and personality. This ingenious idea enabled the show to continue without Hartnell and beyond Troughton, making the show somewhat unique in the sense that it is now almost expected to change its leading actor every once in a while.
The first three stories presented here in this DVD set show William Hartnell initially portraying the Doctor as something of an anti-hero. He is suspicious, cunning, patronizing and manipulative. In some cases we learn this is to protect his granddaughter Susan or simply to satisfy his own curiosity. Hartnell is in fine form as the mysterious time traveler, displaying some good alien qualities, particularly in the first story, "An Unearthly Child" in which he shows no sympathy to the plight of two London school teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, whom he feels he must `kidnap' to ensure his presence on earth is kept secret. Indeed, good acting performances are given from the entire main cast in these first three stories. Unfortunately, the captivating other-world qualities displayed by Susan (played by Carole Ann Ford) in the first couple of episodes of "An Unearthly Child" quickly evaporate and from then on she is reduced to playing a clichéd, whimpering, naïve teenage girl.
The epic second story, "The Daleks" turned the initial success of "Doctor Who" into a phenomenon almost overnight. Indeed, this story and it's follow-up, "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth" would later be made in color for the big-screen in two modestly successful films starring Peter Cushing as the Time Lord. "The Daleks" introduces the Doctor's now most famous nemesis on their home planet of Skaro, thousands of years after their war with a blonde-haired race called the Thals. The peaceful Thals live on the surface of Skaro while the emotionless Daleks are mutants who have survived only with the aid of mobile metal casings, confined to within a large city, their battle cry of "Exterminate! Exterminate!" now being a phrase cemented in British popular culture and mimicked in every school yard throughout the past 43 years. After more anti-hero displays from the Doctor at the beginning of this story, the Time Lord actually starts to show signs of a more friendly nature as "The Daleks" progresses.
However, he still retains enough mistrust to accuse Ian and Barbara of tampering with the TARDIS when, in the third story, "The Edge Of Destruction", a number of bizarre things start to happen to jeopardize the lives of all four time travelers. "The Edge Of Destruction" is a two-part story that simply acted as something of a "filler" to restrain budget costs and hence takes place completely within the confines of the TARDIS. The bizarre happenings prove to be a result of the TARDIS's warning system to its occupants that the ship is hurtling back in time to the beginning of the universe. The reason for this is actually rather ludicrous - a faulty spring in the TARDIS's control console being responsible for the near catastrophy! The theme of the TARDIS being an almost "living" entity within itself and capable of warning its inhabitants of potential danger is an interesting one but one that was sadly never really explored again until the new series in 2005. By the end of this story the Doctor actually comes very close to apologizing to Ian and Barbara for his behaviour and from now on the Doctor becomes a much more friendly and approachable character, although one that still maintains a temper when he wants to.
Sadly, the fourth "Doctor Who" story, "Marco Polo" is believed to be no longer in existence, all seven episodes being wiped by the BBC in the 1970's when it was customary to purge old shows once copies had been shipped to foreign TV companies and before home marketing possibilities were made available. However, the audio soundtrack for this story still exists, as do some off-screen telesnap photographs for all but one of the episodes. Presented on this DVD set is a condensed version of "Marco Polo" using the available soundtrack and telesnaps.
All in all this DVD set shows that "Doctor Who" got off to a compelling start with intelligent writing and some noteworthy acting performances and directing. With over 4 hours of bonus material. it is well worth a buy for good entertainment value to watch and enjoy over again.
More Doctor Who: The Beginning (An Unearthy Child / The Daleks / The Edge of Destruction) reviews:
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Description of Doctor Who: The Beginning (An Unearthy Child / The Daleks / The Edge of Destruction)
The Doctor is a renegade Time Lord: an eccentric, highly-intelligent scientist from a distant planet. He travels through time and space in the TARDIS, a curious device, larger on the inside than on the outside, which was designed to change its appearance to suit its surroundings. Unfortunately, the Doctor's TARDIS seems to be broken, and always appears as a blue British police box. The Doctor has a soft spot for the planet Earth, and often visits there, either to save it from various alien threats or to whisk a choice few inhabitants away to the distant parts of the galaxy to help him fight evil there. The Doctor has many foes, including Daleks (led by Davros), and The Master, another renegade Time Lord. Time Lord biology enables them to regenerate their bodies, and so both the Doctor and the Master appear evolve over the years...Bestsellers in DVD
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