Product Details

• Actors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: August 24, 1994
• Run Time: 121 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303145884
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,807 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Starring Patrick Thoughton. The Dominators, self-acclaimed masters of the ten galaxies, and their deadly robots the Quarks, arrive on Planet Dulkis with cruel and evil intentions as the Doctor and his friends touch down for a "peaceful holiday". Life is about to change dramatically for the pacifist Dulcians who, with no weapons on their planet, soon become enslaved to the Dominators. The fight is on! The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe join a handful of determined Dulcians bent on outwitting the Quarks and struggling to escape the violent brutality of the Dominators. But the whole planet is doomed to become a mass of radioactive material - fuel for the enemy's invasion fleet whose war mission will spread even to Earth unless the Doctor can devise an infallible plan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent sci-fi., June 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Doctor Who - The Dominators [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Dr Who deals with the then-topical subject of the atom bomb, a group of people on an alien planet visiting an atomic testing island but finding that the radiation has somehow disappeared. It transpires that a spacecraft inhabited by two war-like beings and their robots is powered by radiation and his absorbed it all. Before long the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie have arrived on the scene and uncoverda plot to turn the whole planet into a radio-active mass to fuel an invasion fleet.

One of the best Troughton stories I've seen. The Doctor himself is at his best. The two Dominators (an experienced navigator and his over-enthusiastic probationer) are memorable characters, the cold-eyed navigator especially effective. The fact that they have individual and differing characters leads to some excellent confrontational scenes between them. The robotic Quarks are eerily effective with their bizarre crystaline heads and creepy voices and the sound-effects and special-effects are mostly good. A story which is truly worthy of that over-used term 'classic'.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quark, Strangeness and Charm., September 25, 2010

By 

Armchair Pundit "Armchair Pundit." (Durham City, England.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctor Who: The Dominators (Story 44) (DVD)

Season Six. Original Airdate:~ 10/8/68-7/9/68.
On the planet of Dulkis lies the "Island of Death", the Island had until recently been a nuclear test site, before the Dulcians had embraced the doctrine of pacifism, and gave up all weapons.
Only a Dulcian survey team resides their now, checking the remaining levels of radioactivity.
It's upon this island a ship from the Dominator spacefleet lands to refuel, and very soon after this arrives Cully and his latest batch of paying thrill-seekers. Unfortunately for them, it turns out to be a very bad trip, man.
The Tardis crew, Cully and the survey team, have a fight on their hands to stop the Dominator's and their robot servants the Quarks, from turning Dulkis into an intergalactic fuel station!
~~~~
If ever a Who story were a product of it's time it was this one. Troughton has a Beatle haircut, and the, "Summer of Love" was but a fading memory in the minds of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln when they wrote this.
But the Hippy Ideal of Love, peace and pacifism had struck a chord, they summized, how would a society that had accepted those ideals as a way of life react if confronted by a militarilistic loving one.
Would they give up their lives to save their beliefs or give up their beliefs to save their lives?
Luckily for the Dulcians the Doctor and his party decide to resolve the problem for them.
It's also not surprising the young of Dulkis go in for adventure holidays that Cully provides, as never have I seen a more stilted, stifled and claustrophobic society ever portrayed on Who.
When confronted by a problem all the elders do is form a council meeting and have a mass debate! At times I was rooting for the Dominators.
~~~~
Troughton as usual, is excellent. The way he redirect's the "Flash Gordon" travel rocket that he and Jamie are travelling in whilst eating Jelly Babies, then falling head first into the circuitry always emits a chuckle from me.
Jamie is less of a comic character and a bit of a hero for once.
The gorgeous Wendy Padbury playing pixie featured Zoe, in some ways the Doctors intellectual equal, continues with her air of aloof intellectual detachment.
(I think she looked her best in The Krotons. But thats another story.)
I like this story very much as It is, but some fans mentioned four episodes would have been a more adequate lenght.
~~~~
Trivia:~ The Quark costume was so small the production team hired schoolboys to operate them.
Although the name of the writer was Norman Ashby it was really Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln (the Yeti creators.), they had become very disgruntled with the script editor making so many changes to their story so they insisted their names be taken off the credits.
Although I liked the Hartnell era very much, it was the Troughton era that grabbed me and made me a life long Whovian, especially this Tardis crew, their concern about each other comes across as genuine.
One of only three, five episode stories in the shows history. The others being The Mind Robber and The Daemons.
~~~~
DVD extras:-
Commentary
Recharge and Equalise - Featurette - 22'55"
Easter Egg - 2'34"
The Dominators - Photo Gallery - 5'46"
Tomorrow's Times - How the media reported on the Second Doctor - 13'12"
Don't let the fact it's in B&W put you off.
If you can't wait it's on sale now at amazon.co.uk

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, January 17, 2011

By 

Thomas E. O'Sullivan - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doctor Who: The Dominators (Story 44) (DVD)

Looking back on THE DOMINATORS it's not hard to see them as the precusor for the Sontarans. They have a similar war like nature, a similar sense of dress, a similar attitude and their interaction with people are often violent, dismissive and comic at the same time - where the Sontarans rose though and the Dominators fell is easy enough to understand in this story; the Sontarans were the enemy of the Doctor straight off, whereas the Dominators were the enemy of only themselves - how they bicker back and forth between each other, always arguing over orders, always arguing over the Quarks, always arguing, arguing, arguing - it's less DOCTOR WHO and more a Cambridge debate over which goes best with pork at dinner - Port or red wine?; who cares is really the answer here.

The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are reduced to merely running back and forth in ths story, falling into the hands of both the Dominators and the Quarks, only to be rescued or escape on their own only to end up back where they started doing nothing more than marking time until the Dominators end up, almost, destroying themselves. The fact that the Doctor is responsible for the death's of the Dominators isn't seen so much as murder here as more an emotional release - finally, at long last, the Dominators can agree on one thing - they're dead...or perhaps destroyed?...no, dead...surely, truly dead. What the Quarks felt is a matter perhaps best left unexplored.

The concept of a passive, totally peaceful society is interesting and the play between the Dominators and Dulcians does bear watching and discussing since each side makes up an aspect of the Doctor, who himself comes from (at the time of this story) a very peaceful, isolated world - the Doctor is more Dominator here, having stolen the TARDIS and getting into the middle of things at once saving the day while leaving death, destruction and disaster in his wake - compare the two and ask yourself, who really is more troublesome to the Dulcians?

The extras this time around are fairly tight and interesting. Commentary is lighter than usual, but there are moments that stand out (Wendy Padbury's history with Matt Smith being the biggest, most unexpected surprise) and as always Frazer Hines cracks wise and still has a good grasp of the making of series. Text commentary is tight and worth the time reading. I found the TOMMORROW'S TIMES to be oddly empty and in need of more content and the inclusion of Caroline John as narrator an odd choice as she had nothing to do with the 2nd Doctor's era.

In the end the question isn't will you or won't you buy THE DOMINATORS, with so few 2nd Doctor stories left to us, not owning this story to go along with the rest would be a crime - yes, the story is dull, yes the Dominators seemed to be reading from a different script, yes, the Doctor and his companions really simply do rush back and forth destroying Quarks and being yelled at by the Dominators or forced to wear curtains as clothes and yes, the Quarks come across as a chest of drawers crossed with a Twonky; but in the end it's the interaction between the 2nd Doctor and his companions that will win you over and draw you back again and again.

So, a truce - THE DOMINATORS is best served with Port.