Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - The Hartnell Years [VHS]

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On this tape are featured three episodes of classic Dr. Who one would never get to see otherwise. Sylvester McCoy (the 7th doctor) hosts this collection well, albeit with a glib tongue.

The first episode featured is the unaired pilot of "An Unearthly Child". The pilot is not radically different from the first aired episode, but it was clearly in need of being refilmed. There are a few embarrassing technical gaffs (Barbara's shoe gets stuck in a door for some time, a cameraman stumbles and clatters in the junkyard) and the doctor is portrayed, IMO, as far too cold and hateful. Also, a reference to Susan being born in the 49th century was thankfully removed after this filming. Also, the TARDIS sound effects were massively improved after this filming. Also included is after the episode is a short section of the "first take" TARDIS scene (the pilot on this tape uses the second take) which featured the infamous refusing to close TARDIS doors, which make the first take almost entirely unusable even for pilot purposes.

Second is "The Wheel of Fortune", which is episode 3 (of 4) of "The Crusades". This is the quintessential history story, and gives an interesting view of that sorry time period, without resorting to racism or blatant bigotry. For seeing an episode in the middle, most of the story is fairly clear. Unfortunately, Ian receives very little screen time and the viewer is left wondering what is going on with him.

Finally, the 4th and final episode ("The Final Test") of "The Celestial Toymaker" is shown. This is probably Dr. Who fantasy at its best, only matched in the 60's by "The Mind Robber" with Patrick Troughton. Peter and Dodo interact well and the Doctor's character plays off very well of that of the Toymaker's. The only possibly "bad" thing is the very, very misleading cliffhanger for the next story, "The Gunfighters." Watch it and you'll see what I mean.

All in all, a collection that must be had. Any Dr. Who collector would want this tape in his or her collection.

Who is the Doctor? Many viewers pondered this question on that November night in 1963. Now thirty years later fans still wonder. This wonderful video (the first in it's series) takes viewers back to explore the origins of Doctor Who. Introduced by Sylvester McCoy (the 7th Doctor) we get a chance to look at the original unaired pilot. Then we are taken back in time to episode 3 of "The Crusade" where we meet fantastic characters like Richard the Lion Hart. Then to top it off the tape includes episode four of "The Celestial Toymaker". This tape is a wonderful edition to any Doctor Who fans library.

...but others will probably want to give it a miss, not least because of the annoyingly fatuous commentary of Sylvester McCoy (a later Dr Who and about as far from William Hartnell as you can get).

The great interest of the tape is that it contains an alternate un-aired version of An Unearthly Child (the first Dr Who episode). Fans, or simply those who remember and love the episode, will be interested to compare it side-by-side with the aired version. See which you prefer!

A nice addition to a fan's collection; I'd put it no higher than that.