Product Details

• Actors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: September 19, 1995
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303631894
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #304,831 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Surprises abound for Doctor Who fans and the Time Lord himself in Arc of Infinity, a 20th season serial which pits the Doctor (Peter Davidson) against an ancient foe. The villain in question is Omega, a legendary Time Lord whose last appearance on Doctor Who came in the 10th anniversary serial The Three Doctors, and whose exile in an anti-matter universe has driven him mad. Omega wishes to return to the positive matter universe, and attempts to do so by accessing the Doctor's biological information via his home planet of Gallifrey. Fearing that Omega could access other Time Lords' bio-data, the Gallifreyan High Council sentences the Doctor to death. And if that wasn't enough tension, Tegan (Janet Fielding), who was left on Earth in the previous adventure (Time-Flight), uncovers a connection to the Doctor's predicament in Amsterdam while searching for her cousin. Arc of Infinity is a suspenseful and imaginative four-part serial for Davidson's Doctor, and longtime Doctor devotees will note the presence of past and future Who stars Michael Gough (The Celestial Toymaker himself), Paul Jerrico (the Castellan in The Five Doctors), and Colin Baker, who later became the Sixth Doctor. Arc of Infinity also offers the same wealth of informative extras featured on previous Doctor Who DVD releases. Chief among them is commentary by Davidson, Baker, Fielding, and Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), but there's plenty to enjoy in Anti-Matter from Amsterdam, a 35-minute making-of featurette that includes interviews with the principal cast and a look at the serial's on-location filming in Holland. A second featurette, The Omega Factor, looks at the continuing story of Omega in the Doctor Who universe, and there's a 13-minute look behind the scenes at the studio recording sessions for the serial. Three minutes of deleted scenes, a photo gallery, the standard text-only information track, PDFs from the 1983 Doctor Who Annual and Radio Times, and an interesting CGI Effects option, which allows viewers to enjoy eighteen scenes with the original special effects or with newer CGI elements, round out the extras. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE RETURN of OMEGA...TEGAN...and the TIMELORDS...should have been a set with TIMEFLIGHT..., August 2, 2007

By 

Kevin J. Loria (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity - Story 124 (DVD)

This was the 2nd season opener and tied up loose ends from Timeflight, in which unhappy Aussie Air Hostess Tegan finally makes it back home (a.k.a the airport)an complains when the 5th Doctor actually leaves her.

Arc of Infinity features many returns in addition to Tegan, it features the return of the TIMELORDS, absent from the series since Baker's Doctor returned home to claim the Presidency (ofcourse the Timelady Romana was with him for 2 1/2 seasons but this Time we get the homeworld again). Also returning, the mad lost architect of the Timelords, OMEGA, last defeated by the Doctor's first three incarnations simultaneously in the "Three Doctors." This return of the Timelords comes as a timely release following the events of the 3rd Season of the new series (watch for it). OMEGA last seen in the anti-matter universe, trapped a unliving paradox, his sacrifice giving the Doctor and the Timelords their power over time, space and death. This time the "Proto-Timelord's" plan again is to free himself using the Doctor. Ultimately, tragically he fails in a very sympathetic climax.

Eventually, due to inexplicable coincidence, Tegan reunites with the TARDIS crew. ARC serves as a vehicle for Peter Davidson to play both the Doctor and the newly embodied OMEGA in Doctor form, which he does in what becomes the story's best moments. Before his transformation the new costume for OMEGA is also standout cool as are the location shots throughout the story.

My one complaint is that the DVD would have made a nice set along with Timeflight instead of two singles.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doctor Who goes Dutch on this one, February 15, 2004

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doctor Who - Arc of Infinity [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Yes, this is the second of three stories where Doctor Who went abroad on-location, and this time it's Amsterdam. Two Australian students on holiday, Colin Frazer and Robin Stewart, spend the night in an abandoned crypt near a fountain, and before long, Colin vanishes, only to turn up a zombie under control of aliens, leaving Robin in a lurch. His only hope is to get help from Colin's cousin, scheduled to arrive at Schiphol Airport.

For the Doctor and Nyssa, they pass near an area in space that was called the Arc of Infinity because it's the gateway between the universes of matter and anti-matter. The Doctor is attacked by a strange alien, initially billed as the Renegade, but then things get worse. It's another return to Gallifrey, only this time, the Doctor is in danger of suffering the same fate as Morbius, (q.v. The Brain of Morbius). An alien from the realm of anti-matter has been partially successful in bonding with the Doctor to get his polarity reversed. However, for that to happen, someone had to have given this alien the Doctor's bio-data extract, and only members of the High Council of Timelords have that power. The Timelords, still led by President Borusa, don't have time for that--they prefer the Doctor's execution to retain control of the Space-Time Matrix and prevent billions from being killed.

The Doctor has a few allies, such as Damon, a Gallifreyan technician who was on duty when the Doctor's bio-data was being accessed. There's also his old instructor Councillor Hedin of the High Council, a kindly person who manages to get Damon and Nyssa to visit the Doctor even though the Doctor is denied visitors under orders from the meticulous Castellan and his lackey, an unpleasant and trigger-happy commander named Maxil. However, Episode 2 ends with the Doctor apparently being terminated. What then?

There's a lot more to Nyssa that comes out here. Apart from her sensitivity, she gets to shoot some guards in the story, all in aid to rescue the Doctor. After all, the Doctor is all she has since the murder of her parents and destruction of her planet. One of Sarah Sutton's best moments in the series.

The Renegade and his pterodactyl-like helper have interesting H.R. Giger-influenced designs. However, the on-location shooting is utilized quite well so the viewer sees quite a lot of the streets of Amsterdam, particularly in a climactic chase scene in the last episode, where the Doctor and his companions are chasing the decaying Renegade (also played by Peter Davison, who must've made quite an impression running down the streets with a mixture of green-dyed glued Rice Crispies on his hands and face).

Other performers: Elspet Gray (Thalia) also appeared in the first Black Adder series as the Queen. Colin Baker (Commander Maxil) makes his first appearance in the series, and it's ironic that he shoots the Doctor in Episode 1, because at the end of next season, Baker succeeds Peter Davison as the Doctor. Also interesting is that he was a candidate to play the Castellan, but lost out to Paul Jerricho, who also beat out Patrick Stewart. But guess who else was initially considered for Maxil? Pierce Brosnan!! I kid you not! And Hedin is played by Michael Gough (Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred in the Batman movies).

The 20th season was the most memorable season for me, because I was really starting to get into the series, and Arc of Infinity really stayed with me, because it was a Time Lord story, the scenes in Amsterdam, and Sarah Sutton's appealing performance. Enjoying this story does not require smoking cheap grass from Amsterdam.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peter Davison's second season begins, May 21, 2008

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Dark Star-The Other One (The Bus To Never Ever Land) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity - Story 124 (DVD)

I should say that I like this story and it's much better than the first season ending Doctor Who - Time-Flight (Episode 123). The story is quite nice and it's nice to see Colin Baker putting in a turn before he was hired to play the Doctor. Michael Gough who played the Toymaker in The Celestial ToymakerDoctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years and the Patrick Troughton Years as well as Paul Jerricho. This story also sees the return of OmegaDoctor Who - The Three Doctors.

The story sees someone trying to take over the Doctor's body and cross over using the Arc of Infinity which is a gateway to all dimentions. The Time Lords also aware of what's happened, recall the Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor is put on trial and it's decided that it's better to end his life than leave the door open to what could be the distruction of everything.