Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes, The Patrick Troughton Years 1966-1969

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What a treat this DVD set is! 12 rarely-seen episodes from the Troughton era of Doctor Who, on a 2 DVD set. In fact, these have never been aired on US television. The sad reality about Doctor Who, is that a fair number of the earliest episodes of the program have not survived, so we are left with certain early stories which only have the occasional episode in existence.

Thank heavens that the powers-that-be felt there might be interest in a collection such as this. To be fair, these odds and ends may not be to everyone's taste, as they don't consist of complete stories, but they are interesting in their own right, and provide a nice sampling of the remarkable series that is Doctor Who:

THE UNDERWATER MENACE 3 - Originally a four-part story, only the third part exists, but it does provide the earliest existing episode to feature Patrick Troughton's unique take on the Doctor, accompanied by his companions Ben, Polly and Jamie. The episode is rather bizarre, featuring an adventure in Atlantis with fish-people and a mad scientist, but it is unlike anything else ever seen in the series.

THE MOONBASE 2 & 4 - Enter the Cybermen for this adventure, in only their second appearance on Doctor Who. This time the action takes place on the moon itself, and as an added bonus, the two missing episodes (1 & 3) are included in audio-only format, so one can follow the entire story. Find out how Polly's tea-making skills save the day!

THE FACELESS ONES 1 & 3 - Two existing episodes from the six-parter in which chameleon-like aliens are hijacking airline passengers for their own nefarious plot. Features location footage at Gatwick Airport in London, and is also the last story to feature Ben and Polly as the Doctor's companions.

EVIL OF THE DALEKS 2 - The final appearance of the Daleks in the 1960's, this existing episode from the 7-parter, offers a unique look at a story many consider to be one of the all-time classics. Also, features the debut of Victoria. Commentary track is available for this episode.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN 2 - The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria encounter the deadly Yeti in the Himalayans in this surviving episode from the 6-parter. This episode also has an optional commentary track.

THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD 3 - A taste of espionage in this thriller, in which Patrick Troughton doubles as the villanous Salamander. The only surviving episode from the 6-parter.

THE WEB OF FEAR 1 - The Yeti return, this time in the Underground System of a deserted London. This is the existing first part of the 6-part story. There is an optional commentary track for this episode.

THE WHEEL IN SPACE 3 & 6 - The Cybermen return in this adventure set on a space station. Zoe makes her first appearance in the series, and episode 6 features an optional commentary. Originally a six-part story.

THE SPACE PIRATES 2 - This sole survivor of the six-part story puts the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe in the midst of a grand space adventure.

As if these 12 episodes weren't enough, also included are an insane number of clips from other 1960's Doctor Who adventures, plus a meaty documentary about The Missing Years.

Again, these odds and ends may not be for everyone, but they are a unique collection of episodes that are quite rare, and they have all been cleaned up and have never looked better. A worthwhile investment for any Doctor Who fan. Please consider the companion DVD devoted to the Hartnell era as well.

As most Doctor Who fans know, there are huge gaps in the archives for the black and white era of the show that featured the first two actors to play the role, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Due to a total disregard for archiving material and, criminally, as a cost cutting exercise, there was a systematic junking policy for `expired' TV shows across many broadcast networks through to the 1970's. In many ways, Doctor Who fared better than most with many complete stories surviving either in private hands or more often by happy accidents.

Although anything to have survived is miraculous, in many cases, irritatingly, stories were left incomplete on the archive shelves. Pretty much useless to any broadcaster and indeed seemingly for home DVD or video release. But the bright guys at the BBC have spotted a way to gather up all this stray material and package it together on a collection of three discs featuring not only eighteen complete episodes but a whole myriad of other snippets and gems from the vaults.

As a huge Doctor Who fan, I was thrilled to see all these homeless relics gathered together, but from a wider commercial viewpoint, I don't think it's a particularly interesting project. But isn't it wonderful for fans to be indulged in this way? I'd never seen either episodes of The Faceless Ones before, so this was a real treat, as it was to see the newly discovered gem from The Daleks' Master Plan.

The problem for me is that alone, or even where two or more episodes exist, it's exceptionally frustrating to watch what remains of these stories. If you're watching episode one for example, you're completely hooked by the end and then hugely disappointed that there is no more! For stories that just have the odd episode from the middle of the story, it's enough to drive you barmy. My biggest irritation came from watching episode 4 of The Celestial Toymaker. What on earth is going on? It would have been so, so much better had the DVD contained a synopsis of what was missing to help flesh out some of the material and put things into context. Definitely an opportunity missed. In a step towards this, there are soundtracks included for two missing episodes from The Crusade and The Moonbase, which does help complete those stories, but since photos exist of both missing episodes, why weren't they included? When all there is to hear is music or sound effects, it leaves you bewildered as to what might be happening. A photo or a subtitle would have been so much more effective.

Also gathered from the cutting room floor are many, many short clips (in some cases, don't blink or you'll miss them) from other completely deleted episodes. It's sad that in so many cases these split second clips are all that have remained. There's also a lot of home movie footage, which is really interesting. I believe this to be the only color examples of footage from the era and although short, they are wonderful to see.

We can but hope that as time goes on, some of the missing material will turn up. No one would have thought the complete Tomb of the Cybermen would suddenly reappear in 1992. So hope springs eternal. Until then, here's some classic Who, brilliantly restored and remastered to enjoy.

This collection is a must for true Doctor Who fans and especially those who like Patrick Troughton, the Second Doctor. As has been said in other reviews, so many of the Troughton and Hartnell episodes were either destroyed or lost. So what we have here is a hodgepodge of existing episodes, clips, and even audio tracks.

There's really only one full story here and that's "The Moonbase." All four parts exist but episodes #1 & #3 exist as audio tracks only. However all exisiting audio & video are presented here. I admire the BBC for putting out the audio tracks of this gem from Troughton's first year as the Doctor but it's a shame that they didn't utilize more of the exisiting photographs to give it a little bit of extra life. It was annoying listening to a 20 minute audio track with just a single picture of a Cyberman staring back from the TV screen.

Along with "The Moonbase," you're getting episodes from "The Faceless Ones," "The Underwater Menace," "The Evil of the Daleks," "The Enemy of the World," "The Abominable Snowman," "The Enemy of the World," "The Web of Fear," "the Wheel in Space," and "The Space Pirates."

You're also getting some BBC promotional clips, 10-15 second clips from scattered episodes, images shot off TV screens, and even a 10 minute 8mm documentary called "The Last Dalek," which showed some of the production techniques used to bring the famous metallic menaces to life.

By far this is a great DVD for fans and collectors but is of little value to the casual Doctor Who viewer.

I think I liked this because I knew what to expect after watching the Hartnell collection of lost episodes. And I must say, I like Doctor Who Two much better. He's more of what I think of as the Doctor with what Tennant and Smith have portrayed.

Now this isn't a good buy for someone who want actually stories. It's more like something you would show someone to see if they would be interested in the original Doctor Who; a taste test, so to speak.

It introduces the Cybermen--which haven't they come a long why in their costume design?!--with four [visual] episodes. Two from Story 33: The Moonbase (season 4, episodes 23-26)and two from Story 43: The Wheel in Space (season 5, episodes 35-40). Again, don't expect to get the whole story, or even just the beginning and end episodes. With Story 33, you get all the episodes, but only 2 and 3 have audio. And Story 43 you get episodes 3 and six.

And pretty much everything else is the same. Story 32: The Underwater Menace originally made -up from season 4 episodes 19-22 only gives you episode 21. Story 35: The Faceless Once, season 4, 31-36, and you get episodes 31 and 33. Story 36: The Evil of the Daleks', season 4, episodes 37-43, and you get episode 38. Story 38: The Abominable Snowmen, which revisits a Hartnell story that is not avaialbe, season 5, 5-10, and you have episode 6. Story 40: Enemy of the World, which looks like it would have been brilliant, only gives you episode 19, originally season 5, 17-22. Story 41: The Web of Fear, which related to Story 38, gives you the first episode out of a seven part story. And finally, Story 49: The space pirates gives you the second episode of a 6 part story from season 6.

What a great buy. I usually ignore the over priced dr. who dvd's and go for the used vhs editions instead. What little Troughton I've seen has been a joy to watch so this was a easy buy since it seemed to be a well packed 2 disc dvd set. I actually feel lucky to be able to view these gems, both video and audio. TO hear the old 'thud' they used for the Tardis landing and the original (reamstered?) theme is worth the price alone. WHen you see the strings attached to spaceships you know you've come home again :-)

The picture is B&W crystal clear (great job), the episodes are the sci-fi type (no historical stories, yeah!) and the sound is very good considering the time period it was shot. Who knows what condition these episodes were in before they got the treatment.

I think including the audio only for the remaining missing parts is genious. Just lay back n close your eyes and listen. Pray to the gods of Zena or the PTB more of the lost Troughton (and Hartnell) episodes will be discovered, restored, and released. Also I hope the new series is good enough to run a few seasons.

Note to the bbc: lower the prices of these dvd's, you'll get more fans. For what I paid for this set I could have got a complete season of Angel or Buffy.

I bought the box set, thinking I was getting what I got with the William Hartnell box set. What I did not know, is that some of the episodes are audio only. The ones that do have video, are all choppy. The DVD had starts and stops, in some parts I could not fast forward or rewind. On occasion the DVD would stop, and instead of continuing, it would go back 3-5 mins and you have to rewatch the part you just saw, and hope that it will continue.

If I am paying $20 I want either my money's worth, or at the least a disclosure from the BBC that the quality is low. I don't mind spending money for bad quality, if the quality is low because of the age and condition of the film. But I want to at least be warned, so that I am going into the deal with all the facts.

I was somewat disappointed by this patchwork as it has no complete story at all. While the Moonbase and the Crusade offer Audio for the missing episodes there is no commentary so you are left to wonder what is happening in the silences.

I expected more from the BBC

The episodes that are shown are captivating and do give an insight into the quality and occasional lack of quality that makes up Doctor Who.

The Underwater Menace with its string transported Fish People and exaggerated evil madman was quite amusing.

Yes the Show was great what a shame the DVD production is not.

This thing should be selling for about 15 bucks. You are getting about an hour and a half of damaged episodes.
The box and cover make it look like you are getting a complete compilation but the "collection of rare episodes" should say "a collection of footage from missing episodes". This again is NOT a box set of all Troughton episodes, and is VERY OVER PRICED.

If you want the entire doctor who collection go mortgage your home because it'll cost you over $5,000 to do it. Get every Trek episode from all shows and you'll run about $2,500 for twice the viewing time. I think the BBC needs to seriously rethink their pricing scheme.