Product Details

• Actors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner/BBC
• VHS Release Date: May 8, 2001
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000053OSJ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,983 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Season 19 ends on a bit of a rum story, February 9, 2004

By 

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

Following Adric's death from the previous story, the Doctor decides to cheer Nyssa and Tegan by taking them to the Great London Exhibition of 1851, but something draws the TARDIS off course, forcing them to...of all places, Heathrow Airport in contemporary England, where Tegan wanted to return (q.v. The Visitation.) After using his UNIT credentials to get them out of trouble with airport security, he is then drawn into the strange disappearance of a Concorde Jet over the British Channel. To that end, he enlists the use of another Concorde to retrace the path of its twin. "The question is where but when" the plane has vanished, as he equates it with the TARDIS trouble they had earlier. The pilot, Captain Stapley, turns out to be a reliable and solid fellow throughout the adventure.

They find the answer in the Jurassic Period, which is where the time contour that hijacked them ends. The crew and passengers of the other flight are under some hypnotic influence, all that is except for a Professor Hayter, a university scientist specializing in hypnotism who was unaffected. He thinks that the plane was hijacked by the Soviets and that they are behind the iron curtain.

The sight of a crashed spaceship, a citadel, and a grotesque-looking Oriental magician named Kalid, leads the travellers to believe there's more to their predicament.

Nyssa plays a larger role by acting as a medium for some aliens divided into good and evil halves, and there's a kind of sixth sense about her, which may come from her being from Traken. And at least Tegan finally gets to be a stewardess, having worn her uniform all throughout the season.

I can't tell more without spoiling the rest. Paleontology seems to be a weak case in Doctor Who (q.v. The Silurians, The Sea Devils). 140 million years ago is indeed the close of the Jurassic Period, but then the Doctor says they must be near the Pleistocene Era. Two goofs: he must have meant the Cretaceous Era, and second, it should be the Pleistocene Epoch, which wouldn't occur for another 138 million years after.

Some credit should be given to British Airways giving producer John Nathan-Turner permission to feature the Concorde and airport authorities giving him the go-ahead to film at Heathrow.

Occasionally, the series has some stories that don't cut the mustard, and sadly, Timeflight is one of them. The regulars come out good as usual, with worthy performances from Richard Easton (Stapley) and Nigel Stock (Hayter). The main problem, though, is the concept of two Concordes being hijacked to the end of the Jurassic Period and the bad story idea and execution.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flight across time, June 1, 2001

By 

G.Spider - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctor Who - Time-Flight [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Doctor and his companions arrive at Heathrow and find Concorde has gone missing. Before long it transpires the aeroplane has been transported back to the Jurassic where the Doctor soon comes across his old enemy the Master.

This was a story which seemed doomed to disaster. The limited budget had to cope with finding a way of making two concordes crash-land (the season had already had problems with bringing a giant snake to life), the storyline is a little confusing (it isn't all that clear what the Master is trying to do, or why he bothers with a disguise when there's nobody there to see him), and the stock footage of concorde and the airport was no doubt seen by Heathrow as more a promotional gimmick than anything else.

Strange, therefore, that what we have here is 90 minutes of entertaining, interesting and highly enjoyable sci-fi. The concept of concorde flying through time is an inspired one, the characters are well-written and there are some genuinely haunting scenes. Well worth seeing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The end of season 19, October 19, 2008

By 

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: Time-Flight - Story 123 (DVD)

I should start be saying that for me the show began to go off kilter a bit during the JNT era. However, I really still like Peter Davison's first season but this one is the worst of them. It isn't really a bad story but it feels like a missed oppertunity which unfortunately would mark a bit of the JNT era. This is one of those episodes that you sit around, watch and can't really why you don't care more for it. I hadn't seen it in years and then I preordered it before it was released about a year ago. My thought was that it probably wasn't as bad as I had remembered and sat down prepared to give it a chance. The problem is that after watching it again, I haven't pulled it out since.