Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills, Deborah Watling
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Unknown)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Warner
• DVD Release Date: November 2, 2004
• Run Time: 288 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002OXVEQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #79,562 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Television > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Doctor Who

• This is item 8 in The Doctor Who: The Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton (1966-1969) Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
A number of episodes and stories from actor Patrick Troughton's turn as Doctor Who (1966-69) are either incomplete or missing altogether, much to the dismay of series fans. However, this two-disc set attempts to reconstruct the "orphaned" stories through episodes and clips culled from a variety of sources. For Who historians, the most important footage here is from Troughton's first appearance as the Doctor in season 5's "The Power of the Daleks," which is missing in its entirety; a rough glimpse of the transition from actor William Hartnell to Troughton is included, along with other surviving fragments. The complete episodes offered here are the sole remaining episode from season 4's "The Underwater Menace" (fragments from this story are included in the extras), episodes 2 and 4 from "The Moonbase," which features the return of the Cybermen (audio from episodes 1 and 3 is featured in the extras), episodes 1 and 3 from "The Faceless Ones," and episode 2 from "The Evil of the Daleks" (which includes commentary by actress Deborah Watling, who played the Doctor's companion, Victoria). Disc 2 marks the only episode from the Yetis' debut in "The Abominable Snowmen" (Watling again provides commentary), two episodes from "The Wheel in Space" (with commentary by director Tristan de Vere Cole and story editor Derrick Sherwin) and just one apiece for "The Web of Fear," "The Space Pirates," and "The Enemy of the World."

Chief among the extras is the 1998 documentary The Missing Years, which interviews several of the film collectors responsible for rescuing these lost episodes and fragments (the doc has been updated to reflect the 2004 discovery of two William Hartnell episodes); the supplemental features offer fragments and behind-the-scenes footage from "The Macra Terror" (with a rare clip of the monsters), "Fury from the Deep" (which includes a scene reconstruction), "The Highlanders," and the aforementioned stories. As with the William Hartnell disc, the Patrick Troughton Years is available for U.S. buyers as a stand-alone two-disc set and as part of a three-disc box with the Hartnell disc, while U.K. buyers will receive only the box; either scenario is sure to please the die-hard Doctor Who fan. --Paul Gaita

Product Description
Never broadcast in the US, these episodes offer an enticing glimpse into 'lost' stories that have achieved legendary status. Fans can relish rare appearances of the Daleks, Cybermen and Yeti, as well as an episode from the second Doctor Who story by Robert Holmes, the series' most influential writer. Includes episodes from: The Crusade, The Daleks' Masterplan, The Celestial Toymaker, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Faceless Ones, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowman, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Biographies
Deleted Scenes
Featurette
Photo gallery

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great rare gems from early Doctor Who!, July 25, 2004

By	Stephen Wall (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lost in time... but worth the find!, November 7, 2004

By	JKO "A Doctor Who Viewer" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous for collectors, December 13, 2004

By	Jeffrey J. Lyons (Pembroke, NH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.