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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
"RELEASES IN DETAIL's"
Amazon dose not give the "RELEASES IN DETAIL's" like they should. So from website of the go to man on all Doctor Who DVD's (and hell, even VHS)Steve Manfred. Here are the detail's for "Battlefield".
[...]
Doctor Who: Battlefield starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, and guest starring Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier...
Published 16 months ago by DJ PHILLY B?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The Brig saves the day!
I am not a big fan of the McCoy era of the Doctor. Practically everything about his portrayal annoys me, but this episode has so much going FOR it, that I actually liked it. How can you not like an episode featuring our beloved Brig! I'm also a sucker for mythology, and it is present in droves. This one is a fun episode, well worth watching
Published 13 months ago by A. Shapiro
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
"RELEASES IN DETAIL's", April 30, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
Amazon dose not give the "RELEASES IN DETAIL's" like they should. So from website of the go to man on all Doctor Who DVD's (and hell, even VHS)Steve Manfred. Here are the detail's for "Battlefield".
[...]
Doctor Who: Battlefield starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, and guest starring Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. 2 discs.
On Disc 1:
- All four 25-minute episodes (the original 1989 versions) with full restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors Sophie Aldred, Nicholas Courtney, and Angela Bruce(Brigadier Winifred Bambera), Writer Ben Aaronovitch, and Script Editor Andrew Cartmel.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production trivia throughout the story.
- Isolated Music option. Plays the story with only the music soundtrack playing by itself.
- "Storm Over Avallion" 23-minute featurette about the making of the story, featuring interviews with Actors Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Angela Bruce, Nicholas Courtney, and Jean Marsh (Morgaine), Writer Ben Aaronovitch, Script Editor Andrew Cartmel, and Director Michael Kerrigan.
- "Past and Future King" 12-minute featurette about the writing of this story, featuring interviews with Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Angela Bruce, and Michael Kerrigan.
- "Watertank" 7-minute featurette that goes into detail about the near-fatal accident that occurred during the scene of Ace trapped in the flooding spacecraft airlock when the glass in the tank she was in cracked open.
- Studio Recording. 19 minutes of raw footage from the studio floor during the original studio recording session for this story.
- "From Kingdom to Queen" 8-minute interview with Jean Marsh charting her 1965, 1966, and 1989 appearances in Doctor Who.
- Radio Times Listings. PDF files for your computer containing the original Radio Times TV listings for this story, as well as some contemporaneous articles about it they ran.
On Disc 2:
- Battlefield Special Edition.
A 95-minute movie-format version of the story, with numerous deleted scenes edited back into the action, other reediting of the action and the music, boosted CGI effects,and a Dolby 5.1 sound mix. Comes with graphical menus, scene selection menu,and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Season 26 Trailer A 1:30 trailer for the entire 26th season that was shown to the press in 1989.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Is the Doctor Merlyn?, May 7, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
I never did much care for most of Sylvester McCoy's stories. The only ones I thought were any good were "Time and the Rani", "Remembrance of the Daleks", "Ghost Light", and "The Curse of Fenric". But I had never seen this one before until it was released on DVD, and I loved it. "Remembrance of the Daleks" is still my favorite one, but now this is my second favorite. Written by the same writer who wrote "Remembrance", this has a very good plot. Futuristic knights from another dimension come to Earth to claim the legendary sword of King Author himself. With this sword in their power, their queen will be able to conquer the universe. Now the Doctor (A.K.A. - Merlyn), Ace, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (who has been recalled into UNIT) must stop them at all costs. Action-packed (like "Remembrance"), performances are good, and most of the special affects aren't that bad. The Destroyer was one of the most realistic creatures ever featured in the original series. Highly recommended!
P.S.
This DVD includes both the original four-part version and a new extended feature-length version with new and better effects.
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
At last!! One of my favorite Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who's Released, January 14, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
Of all of Sylvester McCoy's outings as Doctor Who, this is one of my favorites, right up there with Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis. Now, in reality, the storyline for this one is not that great and rather corny at times. Knights from an alternate dimension do battle with swords against UNIT. COME ON! Plus, the villainess in this episode, Morgaine, is so campy that you want to laugh every time she appears on screen. She's like the Wicked Witch of the West meets the Bridge of Dracula! In the scene where she tries to scare Ace into giving her something she wants, I half expected her to say "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too! Ha, ha, ha!"
So why do I love this episode? Answer: THE BRIG IS BACK AND KICKING A--! The Brigadier was one of my all time favorite Doctor Who characters, and he had not been seen in Doctor Who since the Five Doctors six years earlier.
In many ways, the Brigadier is closer to the Doctor than any of his companions because he is one of the few that knew him through most of his regenerations. In a way, this gives him a special bond with the Doctor, and although they came into conflict with one another at times regarding the Brig's tendency to turn to the artillery a little too quickly, they genuinely like and respect each other. And it shows in this story. Nicholas Courtney and Sylvester McCoy play the relationship between the Brigadier and the Doctor so well, and trully reflect their shared history.
Ace's reaction to this relationship is also perfectly played out. She recognizes that even though she and the Doctor are close, these two men share a bond and history that she never will have with him, and this makes her jealous beyond belief. However, she and the Brig bond when they get to blow stuff up!
I also love Courtney's portrayal of the Brigadier showing his age, but not having lost his spirit. As always, he is the hero willing to confront the alien menace head on with his primitive human weaponry backed by his virtue and sense of duty.
By the way, speaking of Brigadiers, the new Brigadier, Winnifred Bambera, is awesome too! I am so glad that they brought UNIT back for this story because it did harken back to days gone by, while at the same time updating UNIT and their capabilities (but not in the hammy, way over the top way the new Doctor Who series has--no comic book floating aircraft carriers in the sky here, thank goodness).
I can not wait until this DVD is released. I have the story on video, but the extras on these Doctor Who DVD's add something special to each story. I haven't seen the particulars on this DVD's features, but I hope Nicholar Courtney was on hand for the commentary.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
"I Just Do The Best I Can.", June 25, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
I was rather intrigued when I first learned of Battlefield. Featuring my favorite Doctor Sylvester McCoy, the return of UNIT and tying into Arthurian legend (which I'm rather intrigued in) it was going to be an interesting story to view. While Battlefield turned out not to be a classic along the lines of say The Curse of Fenric or Ghost Light, Battlefield stills proves to be an exciting and ever watchable Doctor Who story.
At the heart of it all is Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as the seventh Doctor and Ace. Both show off their remarkable chemistry that made them one of the most successful TARDIS crews of the original series. McCoy in particular gets some fine acting moments such as the "there will be no battle here!" section of part three and the nuclear weapons speech in part four. Aldred also gives a nice performance as Ace though the character does come across as being downright immature at times. That said there are plenty of good things to say about Aldred's performance especially in the special edition's scenes with Brigadie Lethbridge-Stewart. As always the delight for watching a story from the McCoy era lies in the splendid work of its leading cast.
The story also features another one of the great things of the McCoy era: a fine supporting cast. Nicholas Courtney makes a welcomed return as UNIT's former commander Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart even if there are moments where he is pushing credibility at one or two moments. That said Courtney gets the best lines of the story including part four's classic "I just do the best I can!" plus some fine moments with McCoy's Doctor. Also of special mention is Jean Marsh who gives a well-stated and even believable performance as the Arthurian villainess Morgaine, the result being one of the single best performances of the McCoy era. There's also a nice performance from Angela Bruce as the new Brigadier in charge of UNIT, Winnifred Bambera, which makes it a shame that the show didn't get to go on much past this story and we never got to see more of the character. There's also nice performances from James Ellis, Marcus Gilbert, Robert Jezek and Angela Davis amongst others. That said there are some rather mixed performances from Christopher Bowen as an over-the-top (and out of place) version of Mordred and Ling Tai as the immature Shou Young. All said though it is as good a supporting cast as any to be found in the McCoy era.
The story has some nice production values as well. The sets and costumes are nicely done considering the low-budget the show was forced to work within. Thi is especially true of the Knights armor which, while not the sort of futuristic thing originally envisioned, stands up well today because it isn't futuristic. There's also the Destoryer in parts three and four who in a short space of time leaves a huge impression. Te Detroyer is a brilliantly realized creation as not only a fantastic monster but as a personification of Oppenheimer's "destoryer of worlds" as he described nuclear weapons which gives the story a nice piece of symmetry as well. That said the production values aren't perfect.
Battlefield suffers from two very distinct problems in the forms of its special effects and music. While special effects in the original Doctor Who series have a;ways been a mixed affair anyway here they are sadly lacking at times such as he Knights guns that do little more then shoot sparks or the sad looking exterior effects related to the Destroyer towards the end of the story. There's also the mater of the score by Keff McCulloch which works for the most part but is at times seeming out of place at times then too loud and too brash at others, especially in the action sequences. thankfully there is an answer to some of those problems (more on that later).
One of the more successful elements of Battlefield is the script by Ben Aaronovitch. Doctor Who has time and again proved itself capable of adopting mythologies for its own purposes the Battlefield is no exception. The story makes fine use of the Arthurian legend with its use of its heroes and villains, giving the story an anchor in on the long lasting and best known mythologies of the Western world. Even more interesting from the Arthurian standpoint is that the Doctor is identified as being as Merlin which not only makes for a nice plot device but adds a nice bit of mystery back to the Doctor. There's also a nice return to some of the elements of the series own mythology including the return of UNIT and its original commander Lethbridge-Stewart, the Doctor's old car Bessie and the morality about war and diplomacy that ran throughout the original UNIT stories of the 1970's. The latter is particularly evident in the Doctor's speech on nuclear weapons (written in fact by script editor Andrew Cartmel) towards the story's conclusion. While the story has some structural issues (such as a slow moving first episode and the Lethbridge-Stewart taking half the story before really making an impact on events) the script is a good one and it stands up well.
The second disc of the DVD release contains a special edition movie length version of the story. First off it contains some deleted scenes which add not only some explanations but add onto the relationship between Ace and Lethbridge-Stewart. Yet the biggest improvement to the story is the incorporation of new CGI effects. The aforementioned knight's guns now have beams with the sparks which help to make them believable plus there are some nice improvements to effects all through the story. Of particular mention is the effect of Morgaine summoning the Destroyer's shadow from her crystal ball which even had my little brother saying "whoa!" The special edition also attempts to fix the issues with the music as well though this is only a partial success and it is a shame that Mark Ayers (who supervised the special edition and created the best scores of the McCoy era) didn't take the opportunity to redo the music entirely Even with the issues the special edition is a considerable success and something of an improvement over the original.
The DVDs special features are as good as any as those on any other Who DVD. On top of the above mentioned special edition version of the story there are a total of four documentaries : three on the making if the story (including one about the famous water tank incident that occurred) and one featuring actress Jean Marsh discussing her three appearances on the original series of Doctor Who. There's an audio commentary featuring actors Sophie Aldred, Angela Bruce and Nicholas Courtney plus writer Ben Aaronovitch and script editor Andrew Cartmel in which the group discuss the story, their remembrances of it and give it criticism (especially from Aaronovitch and Cartmel) some needed some unneeded. Add on the usual info subtitle option and photo gallery and the special features are up to par.
So where does Battlefield stand? Well while it has its issues (even with the new special edition version included here) it is still an enjoyable and ever watchable piece of Doctor Who. While it might not be a classic story along the lines of say Genesis of the Daleks or later McCoy stories like Ghost Light or The Curse of Fenric, as an adventure story is a fine one. What more can you really ask for?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The Brig saves the day!, July 24, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
I am not a big fan of the McCoy era of the Doctor. Practically everything about his portrayal annoys me, but this episode has so much going FOR it, that I actually liked it. How can you not like an episode featuring our beloved Brig! I'm also a sucker for mythology, and it is present in droves. This one is a fun episode, well worth watching
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Doctor Who: Battlefield, July 4, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
I enjoyed this episode although Silvester McCoy is not my favorite Doctor. It was well acted and I enjoyed seeing "The Brigadier" again. The writers did a good job tying the history of Arthur into a SciFi show.
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McCoy, one of my favorites, December 23, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
One of my favorites. Had it on VHS. Upgraded to DVD. The King Arthur/Morgana legend done Dr. Who style. The extended version adds a few more minutes & more story background.
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One of my all time favorite Dr. Who episodes, December 18, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
Since the day I first saw "Dr. Who" Battlefield" on t.v. I was really impressed, especially with how it successfully mixed Dr. Who & the legend of King Arther. I wish the B.B.C. had done more with this story - quite a few fun stories could have come from it!
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The Doctor? Or is it Merlin?, December 8, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
Sylvester McCoy era as the Doctor brings the legend of King Arthur and his knights to the world of Doctor Who.
The Doctor and Ace while in the TARDIS encounter a strange singnal coming not only from the past and the future, but sideways in time as well. There they land on 20th century earth where they find a sleepy little village and the site of a UNIT convoy containg a nuclear warhead borken down. All the while strange things come crashing to Earth in the form of knights lead by Mordred seeking excalibur and preparing the way for his mother the powerful Morgan Le Fay. Soon enough The Doctor and Ace encounter UNIT new Brigadier Bambera and she suspects the Doctor has something to do with what's going on. With no real evidence she has to go to the one person who might have any information about the Doctor and that's retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Meanwhile another knight comes crahing through and finds The Doctor and immediatly calls him Merlin. The Doctor not knowing why this knight thinks he is Merlin nor why Morgan Le Fay and her son are here on Earth seeking something that may or may not even be here. Caught in a war that may have only one outcome and the Doctor can't let that happen.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
"Oh shame!", June 6, 2009
This review is from: Doctor Who: Battlefield (Story 156) (DVD)
The best things about this serial are what the DVD production company decided to place on the cover: Nicholas Courtney returning as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Jean Marsh, and the Destroyer. The worst things about this serial are almost everything else.
The previous season, Ben Aaronovitch wrote the well-received REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS which had a strong logical structure, contained some subtle and some obvious themes, and generally held together satisfactorily. BATTLEFIELD, on the other hand, has multiple flaws even including such basic oddities as characters acting and emoting wildly different from scene to scene.
The storyline (bringing the legends of King Arthur into the Doctor Who universe) looks good on the surface but quickly becomes a bit of a shambles. I got the impression of a story going through far too many rewrites, leaving disconnected, orphaned artifacts from previous drafts in the mix. If one were to perform an archaeological excavation on the script, one might discover what purpose Excalibur's scabbard ultimately served. Shou Yuing appears to have absolutely no reason whatsoever to be in the story other than one scene in which she inadvertently provides the Brigadier with a car (when the credits ran, I actually had to rewind the DVD to figure out if she had appeared in the final scene). Why is UNIT randomly moving a nuclear missile around the English countryside? Why does the Brigadier ask Morgaine to surrender before knowing who she is? Why does Excalibur suddenly wake up and start transmitting a distress call after centuries of dormancy?
There are some neat ideas in the script. I like the Doctor being an alternative universe version of Merlin in his own personal future (there's enough plausible deniability to keep it interesting). More like the usual Aaronovitch style, Morgaine's customs and sense of honor follow a logical, if skewed, pattern (witness her ruthless killing of the helicopter pilot followed quickly by the magical restoration of a blind woman's sight). And call me sentimental, but I like seeing Lethbridge-Stewart called out of retirement for one more adventure.
One can spot moments that would work in one of Ben Aaronovitch's New Adventure (NA) novels, but which aren't quite successful on TV. For a trivial example take the scene of the Doctor waking up Ancelyn and Brigadier Female Dave Lister by bursting an empty crisp packet. Or think about how much better the "chalk circle" scene would be on the written page.
As for other aspects of the production, the direction unfortunately takes a few cues from WARRIORS OF THE DEEP; both productions feature the popular Doctor Who military strategic formation of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder in a straight line, taking absolutely no cover and shooting at each other.
The directing in general is a bit on the poor side. Talky scenes are mostly adequate, but anything remotely ambitious more often than not turns into a disaster. Two of the silliest scenes from the original Doctor Who series can be found here. The first, the infamous "Boom!" scene which allegedly features a man in armor thrown through the air by an exploding grenade cross-cut with massive closeups of Sophie Aldred's lip gloss. The second, the sequence where Mordred summons reinforcements from an alternate dimension by laughing uproariously for about a half an hour.
At times the production seems much more interested in showing off their rented helicopter than in scenes which would further or explain the plot. The cheaply-made Excalibur is buried in what bizarrely looks like an undersea disco. The snake thing which chases the Doctor and Ace for seemingly an eternity looks awful. The Destroyer on the other hand is a realistic and genuinely impressive costume and mask, and is wisely held back and then used very effectively in the story's conclusion.
As for the special extended, movie-format edition included on the second disc, to be honest, I'm surprised they bothered doing this. A few other Doctor Who stories have undergone this treatment, but those were stories that started out good to begin with. Sure, on some level it's nice to have restored or extended scenes, but in many cases, it's clear to see why they had been cut in the first place. The Brigadier and Ace rivalry may have sounded nice on paper, but the filmed version just feels too forced and extraneous. Couldn't we have simply had this footage as an isolated menu option the way that other DVD releases have done? The problems with this story are too fundamental to be solved by a simple re-edit. Nor do new special effects (which are sure to date as quickly as the originals they replace) particularly add to anything other than the price of a second DVD.
The DVD commentary is a quite a lot of fun and a division springs up almost instantly between the actors and the behind-the-scenes folks. Ben Aaronovitch and script editor Andrew Cartmel hold court, ripping apart virtually all aspects of the production (with the exception of the performers). Actors Nicholas Courtney, Sophie Aldred and Angela Bruce meekly try to play defense but mostly sit around talking about how much fun the taping was. The "making of" documentary was pretty good too with some honest discussion about everything that went right and wrong.
A lot of what the script was attempting (things like the Doctor being a mysterious alien with strange unknowable powers, but who is content to stay behind and make supper) would not be fully implemented and achieved until the NAs. Indeed, aspects of the story feel a lot like the type of thing that would be developed later. Re-watching BATTLEFIELD did make me nostalgic for my NA collection, although I'd rather revisit some of those excellent novels than spend much time seeing where elements of their success began.
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