Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord (Stories 144 - 147) (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)So far, all the reviews have been about the actual 14-episode story on this DVD. Let me start by quickly saying how much I love this season-long epic. I know, I know...it has its flaws, it was riddled with behind-the-scenes turmoil which kept the story from really coming together onscreen, some of the trial scenes simply don't make sense, etc.....but I still love everything about it. I've always loved Colin's portrayal of the Doctor and I think some of his best work is in this season. He was obviously VERY happy to be back to work on the show he loved after a long hiatus.
But "Trial of a Timelord" has been written about a great deal, and other reviewers here have already given you very good reviews of the actual story. My review, then, is about "the rest of the story"....the DVD packaging of "Trial".
Which, by the way, is excellent.
Even if you don't love this season, you have to admit that this is one of the strongest collections of special features on any Doctor Who DVD. What is most admirable here is that the team that puts together these DVDs did't shy away from the controversy that surrounded this season. These features aren't "Doctor Who Confidential" styled pats-on-the-back. The features show the good and the bad in equal measure.
Here are some of the highlights:
- There's a "making of" documentary for each of the four stories that make up "Trial". These are all really great, very entertaining and educational. But the highlights are seeing Tony Selby and Brian Blessed talk about their time on the show. They very obviously loved doing it.
- There's a 55 minute documentary on Colin's time as the Doctor. It goes into great details about the detioration of the relationship between John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward, the hiatus, the reasons behind the "Trial" story, Colin's firing....its really good. Its a very revealing, "cards on the table" type of discussion. Its amazing to see that even 25 years later, talking about this stuff is difficult for Colin. Its also great to see Eric Saward talk about his role in alienating people who had been his friends and co-workers.
- There's a short bit of commentary with Colin and Nicola watching the scene in Part 14 where the script, at JNT's urging, undoes Peri's death from Part 8 by saying she was living happily-ever-after with King Yrcanos. While Nicola was aware that they'd done that....she'd never seen the scene in question. Her reaction to it is pretty interesting.
- There's a great documentary on what would have been Season 23 had the hiatus not happened and they'd gone on to do Colin's second season as planned. Most of this is pretty well known, and three of the stories were later released as novels. But this is illustrated by new artwork, is narrated by Colin, and talks about each of the stories and the shape of the season. Very enlightening.
- There's a fun little half-hour piece on cliffhangers. Authors, editors and scriptwriters talking about the show's cliffhangers -- which ones were great, which ones didn't work, which ones could have been brillian but weren't, etc. A very fun piece.
- There's a fairly substantial clip from a talk show after the end of the season that has a group of people from one of the DW fan clubs talking about the "Trial" season, and what a mess it was, and if fans couldn't follow it how could the general public? So after a series of comments from each of them, the host says "Well, now lets hear from the producer and the writers of this season". John Nathan-Turner and Pip & Jane Baker seemed genuinely caught off guard to learn that these people didn't completely love their work! It's really interesting viewing.
All-in-all its a stellar package. The sound in particular is cleaned up very nicely. And the picture looks great. There seems to be more contrast in the opening courtroom scenes, where the set looks a bit more darkly lit and moodier. Even if I were't a fan of this season, I would probably give this DVD release of it 5 stars simply on the strength of the packaging, the extras, and the great lengths that the Restoration Team went to to bring us a very thorough and enlightening set. Very well worth the money. I highly recommend this set!

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Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen (Story 150) (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Delta and the Bannermen is definitely one of the most polarizing Doctor Who serials; either you love it or hate it. Its bad reputation probably comes from being sandwiched in the middle of Sylvester McCoy's first season in the lead role, which is universally written off as 14 episodes of childish, gaudy faffing about offset by hideous dialogue, cheap production values, and, of course, the rightly infamous "demo mode on Casio keyboard" music of Keff McCulloch used for all but one of the season's episodes.
Well, Delta is probably the best episode of the otherwise calamitous 24th season of the show. The first two serials of the McCoy era did not paint the character with a good quality brush; in Time and the Rani, the Doctor went way beyond his regular eccentricity and became just plain weird and often facetious; I submit the mixed metaphors he regularly spouts throughout that episode ("Time and tide melts the snowman," "Two wrongs don't make a left turn," et al.) as evidence. Paradise Towers was probably even more silly than the preceding serial, where the acting was at its absolute worst and Keff's music was channeling Speak and Spell-era Depeche Mode by way of Madonna.
Delta is different from those two. The Doctor doesn't act overly silly here (aside from the accidental sneeze that leads into part one's cliffhanger); McCoy's performance here is great, beginning to plan out the darker, moodier Seventh Doctor of the final two seasons. There's a great character moment for him towards the end, where he is seen cradling a Stratocaster and commenting, "Love has never been known for its rationality."
And the script? For a comedic episode, it's not bad. Doctor Who has always raised ire when trying to do comedy (see the late 70's disasterpiece of BBC Christmas pantomime, The Horns of Nimon, for more information), but the comedy is offset by a great deal of character scenes and some great production values for the period (this episode was almost entirely shot on location, which probably contributes to the polished look).
But the biggest subject of debate is the massive amount of 1950's rock music used throughout all three episodes, albeit in cover versions. I don't mind it so much as others; Keff's attempts at rock are better than the actual synthesized, non-diegetic music used for most of the episode, but not by much (on a side note, Keff himself makes an onscreen appearance in part one).
You've probably heard a lot of bad things about this one if you're a fan, but I suggest you give it a chance. As I said, you either love this episode or hate it; it's Doctor Who trying to be radically different, and whether it succeeds or not is entirely your perception. However, if you're someone who longs for the "good ol' days" of Jon Pertwee, complete with horrible CSO and rubber suit monsters, then go back to The Green Death and stay far, far away from this one.
As for the DVD, it includes an early edit of part one, with extended and rearranged scenes (and lacking music and sound effects), a documentary about Doctor Who comic strips, continuities from the original 1987 transmission, and the obligatory audio commentary, among other things; typical of the excellent DVD releases you've come to expect from the BBC.

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The Worst Week of My Life: The Complete First Season (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the first few minutes of the 2004 BBC television comedy, "The Worst Week of My Life", Howard Steele (Ben Miller) has a tender, morning bedroom moment with his beautiful, fiance', Mel (Sarah Alexander of "Coupling" fame). The phone rings and Mel's mother is on the line in hysterics over the wrong wedding furniture being delivered. So much for tender moments. The show chronicles the wickedly funny, horrible seven days (each episode represents one day) leading up to the couple's wedding ceremony. You know 'Murphy's Law', "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong." Well, just double that for poor, Howard. Wedding furniture is the least of his problems. The main crux of the matter is that Howard will do just about anything to try and please the well to do, 'blue blood' family, that he's marrying into. The family includes Mel's humorless, stuff-shirt father, Dick (Geoffrey Whitehead), hysterical mother, Angela (Alison Steadman) and sluttish younger sister, Sophie (Emma Pierson). Disaster seems to follow anytime Howard tries to please these people and help out. Trouble seems to grow exponentially as the poor man attempts to cover-up each previous mis-step. Just a couple of Howard's disasters include losing the family's priceless, heirloom ring in the sewer, destroying a painting of his father-in-law, crashing a car into a newly built brick wall, mistakenly giving condoms as a wedding gift, getting into bed and spooning his mother-law, killing the beloved, family dog with a cement mixer and accidentally putting the family's elderly, grandmum into a coma. Things finally come to a head, when the couple must deal with a psychotic, female stalker, who's been plagueing Howard throughout the series. Sounds pretty dark, right? Yup... but this is 'black' humor at its' best! By the end of the series, we seem to be witnessing more of an endurance test, than a wedding ceremony. Howard and Mel will do anything to get to the finish line. It's absolutely gutt-busting, hilarious! Hopefully the BBC will give us a second series, that includes more of the honeymoon. The last scene of the last episode hints, that there is more trouble to come! Highly recommended!

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The week before a wedding can be stressful at the best of times, but as hapless publisher Howard Steel (Ben Miller) prepares to marry the lovely Mel (Sarah Alexander), it becomes a nightmare of gargantuan proportions. Everything that can go wrong does. Howard's earnest attempts to do the right thing only seem to make matters worse and his situation isn't helped by his dad's new girlfriend, a besotted old flame and a family funeral. DVD Features:Interviews:Interviews with cast and writersOther:Sarah Alexander to star in I Could Never Be Your Woman (Theatrical release 2006), also starring Stacey Dash, Norm Macdonald, Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd and Tracy Ullman Outtakes

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