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"Doctor Who" (1963) More at IMDbPro »

Doctor Who - The Invasion (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: An electronics industrialist plots to conquer the world using the cybernetic devices his company makes. You can insert your own Bill Gates joke here, but in this epic eight-part 1968 Doctor Who adventure, the villain, Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney in a great performance, one eyebrow perpetually cocked as he schemes), has allied himself with the robotic Cybermen and nearly succeeds in global domination. This story was a harbinger of what was to come in the series during the first half of the 1970s--that is, the threat to contemporary (or near-future) Earth, with the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) joining up with the quasi-military U.N.I.T. headed by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney--who also provides a newly shot introduction to the story and fills in the two missing episodes that were shamelessly destroyed by the BBC when they purged their archives in the early 1970s). Director Douglas Camfield fully exploits the mood-inducing black-and-white imagery, manages to keep the action going (with assistance from real Department of Defence soldiers on loan), and provides some memorable moments, particularly the Cybermen bursting out of the sewers and marching relentlessly through the streets of London at the end of episode 6. The writers wisely give Vaughn most of the exposition with the Doctor and allow the Cybermen to remain nearly indestructible, mostly silent killers. This may not be the greatest of the Cybermen stories in the 1960s, but the metallic monsters make the most of their appearances here, thus cementing their reputation in popularity as second only to the Daleks. --Ryan K. Johnson

Doctor Who - The Ark (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: No Doctor Who collection is complete without this rarely seen, vintage 1966 episode of the venerable British series's third season, and starring William Hartnell, the first incarnation of the cosmos-hopping Time Lord. But even if you are a recent initiate into the Who universe, you will find this episode contagious.

The TARDIS, an interplanetary time machine that on the outside resembles a police call box, lands Doctor Who and his companions, the chirpy Dodo and forthright Steven, on a spacecraft called the Ark. They learn that Earth is about to plunge into the sun. The Ark contains all human, plant, and animal life and is bound for the planet Refusis. But Dodo has a cold, against which the Ark's Guardians and the slave race called Monoids have no immunity.

The Doctor is able to overcome the Guardians' fears and suspicions and finds an antidote. The TARDIS is allowed to take off, but it returns, seemingly seconds later. Actually 700 years have passed. The time-traveling trio is stunned to discover that a mutant strain of the fever has led to an evolutionary shift--the Guardians are now the slaves and the Monoids rule.

The Ark is disarmingly stagey (some of the actors step on each other's lines and others stumble over their dialogue), but it is a precious relic from television's longest-running sci-fi series, and one for which its devoted fans will gladly make time. --Donald Liebenson

Doctor Who - The Sontaran Experiment/The Genesis of the Daleks (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Whether you're a fan of Dr. Who or just curious, "The Sontaran Experiment" and "The Genesis of the Daleks" are great fun. The best-known and beloved Doctor (Tom Baker) romps through the past, along with his companions Harry and Sarah Jane, in two complete shows from the long-running British series. The first, and shorter, show pits them against a Sontaran warrior in the Earth's past who is testing humans in preparation for an invasion, and shows off the location shooting that made Dr. Who so great. The classic "Daleks" episode puts the doctor on assignment to keep the evil creator Davros from ever building the robots of death. Baker's alternating serious and whimsical moods are priceless, and the tension between the characters mounts until the very end. Will the Daleks return? Only time will tell. --Rob Lightner

Doctor Who - Invasion of Time (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Crystalline aliens lurk in their ship in the vicinity of the shield that keeps Gallifrey safe from its enemies, and the Doctor, in his Tom Baker incarnation, is engaged in highly suspicious negotiations with them. As he takes his seat as president of the Time Lords Council and displays ever-increasing signs of paranoia, expelling Leela (Louise Jameson) to the barren area outside the Time Lords' citadel, could it be that he has turned to the dark side? Or is this all a cunning plan?

This is one of the most inventive of the Doctor's adventures back home on Gallifrey, with nicely judged portrayals of the senior Time Lord bureaucracy, some suspenseful journeys through the Tardis's interior, and a surprise appearance by particularly unpleasant old enemies. The real high point, though, is Tom Baker's performance, more barnstorming than ever before, at times blazingly angry and at times even more terrifying when soft-spokenly whimsical; this is a story line that reminds us that the various incarnations of the Doctor are impressive as well as charming. --Roz Kaveney

Doctor Who - The Sun Makers (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Tom Baker's fourth season of Doctor Who marked a change from the exploration of Gothic horror. The unusually satirical "The Sun Makers" finds the Doctor, Leela (Louise Jameson), and robot dog K9 involved in a struggle against capitalism-gone-mad at the outer limits of the solar system. With Earth exhausted, mankind has colonized Pluto and lives in six vast "megropoli" lit by artificial suns. These colonies are run by the Company, with drugged human "work units" slaving simply to pay their funeral expenses. There are plenty of potshots at overzealous taxation and bureaucracy--Robert Holmes wrote the story as revenge after a frustrating audit--and splendidly theatrical performances from Richard Leech and Henry Woolf as the ultra-capitalist villains. With no monsters and little conventional horror, Baker is in fine form in a briskly directed four-part comedy-thriller distinguished by its political edge. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - Face of Evil (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: "Kill the Tesh!" is the battle cry of the Sevateem tribe, on whose jungle planet the TARDIS, an interplanetary time machine, has landed. These primitives mistake the good Doctor for the so-called Evil One. "Nobody's perfect," he responds. "But that's overstating things a little." The Sevateem believe that the dreaded Evil One is working on behalf of the Tesh, whom they claim is holding their god, Xoanon, captive. For the casual viewer, what follows may be a tad confusing, but it all boils down to a previously downed spacecraft and its computer, which at some point in the past the Doctor tried to repair and inadvertently gave a split personality.

This four-episode Doctor Who adventure hails from the venerable sci-fi series' 14th season. It stars Tom Baker, the fourth and the most popular of the seven actors who have portrayed the Time Lord, which is reason enough for collectors to add it to their video library. Baker, with his rumpled charm and dry wit, is as ever unflappable, even when gazing upon his image carved Mount Rushmore-style into a mountainside. Which is not to say he can't be roused to action. Brandishing a bag of sweets, he bluffs Sevateem attackers, "Drop your weapons, or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."

For the legion of Doctor Who fans, The Face of Evil is also of note for the introduction of Louise Jameson as Leela, the banished, scantily clad Sevateem warrior who would become the Doctor's traveling companion. According to a bonus interview segment that precedes the episodes, her character was created to give the series more adult appeal. Mission accomplished. --Donald Liebenson

Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal Death (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: For an entire generation who hid behind the sofa during the scary bits, jokes about Doctor Who are almost inescapably funny. "The Curse of Fatal Death," an extended sketch for Comic Relief, stars more unlikely actors and comedians as the Doctor than anyone could have imagined plausible--Rowan Atkinson, to begin with, and both Hugh and Richard E. Grant. The last-named performance indeed gives one uncomfortable thoughts about roads not taken, as does Jonathan Pryce's remarkable tribute to Roger Delgado as the Master. The tape is filled out with an informative behind-the-scenes documentary and three Doctor Who-related sketches by Victoria Wood and Jim Broadbent, by Lenny Henry, and by French and Saunders. This last sketch, never before shown, with French and Saunders as extras playing reptilian aliens, is particularly hilarious. --Roz Kaveney

Doctor Who - Time-Flight (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Time-Flight is the four-episode serial that concluded Peter Davison's first season as the fifth Doctor. Arriving at Heathrow Airport with companions Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan (Janet Fielding), still grieving after the death of Adric in "Earthshock" (1982), the Doctor is soon involved in solving the mystery of a Concorde that has literally vanished into thin air. Tracing the lost plane's flight path in a second Concorde, the travelers find themselves flying through a hole in time into the prehistoric past. Here the Master (Anthony Ainley), under the rather camp persona of Kalid (which strangely he maintains even when alone), is planning to harness the power of the currently disembodied alien Xeraphin, who are stranded on Earth. Echoing both the classic 1960 Twilight Zone episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" and prefiguring Stephen King's chilling The Langoliers (1990), at heart Time-Flight is a reworking of the superior Tom Baker Doctor Who story "City of Death" (1979). Ending on a minor cliffhanger, what makes the story really distinctive is that it was the first drama of any sort to be given permission to film in and around a genuine Concorde. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - Terror of the Zygons (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Loch Ness is the setting of this very traditional 1975 Doctor Who monster story, even though it was actually filmed in southern England with local atmosphere provided by Scottish character actor Angus Lennie (The Great Escape). The Doctor (Tom Baker) is called in to investigate a mystery involving the destruction of several oil rigs and it's not too long before the Loch Ness monster is revealed as the culprit. But it's actually just a biomechanical weapon being manipulated by the evil Zygons, who have been living at the bottom of the loch, plotting world domination. The organically designed sets and monsters are very striking, as are the visual effects, with one notable exception: Really Big Creatures have always been a bane for the series, with its limited budget, to pull off, and this story's reliance on an obvious puppet monster, especially during the climax, diminishes its impact. But there is still much to relish, particularly the dialogue of writer Robert Banks Stewart (who would go on to create the long-running BBC series Bergerac) that provides a number of gems, including the Doctor admonishing the Zygons that if they succeed in their plans, they'll "have to come out on the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle." With much derring-do, the Doctor saves the day as usual but not before four exciting episodes of fun and action. --Ryan K. Johnson

Doctor Who - The Ice Warriors (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The Doctor and his companions Victoria and Jamie find themselves in a frozen wasteland inhabited by futuristic interior dwellers and other older creatures in Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors. Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor, reigned in the late 1960s as the most frenetic (and delightfully irritable) of the Time Lord's many incarnations, and his manic energy is infectious as he romps through the fantastic ultramodern sets, trying to set things right as the civilization slides toward destruction. The Jetsons-like extras are often amusingly dim and stunningly dressed, giving plenty of opportunities for the heroes to make fun of the people they are trying to save, a hallmark of the series. This might not be the best introduction to the Doctor Who series--its fast-paced plot and rapid-fire dialogue might bewilder the novice--but for the connoisseur it's irreplaceable fun. --Rob Lightner

Doctor Who - Greatest Show in the Galaxy (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Doctor Who isn't really known for having villains with a high level of creepiness for anyone over the age of 10, but if you have any sort of clown phobia, this adventure is sure to confirm your worst fears about them. The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace land on a barren planet that is hosting something called the Psychic Circus, which has fallen on hard times. Now, any soul unfortunate enough to stumble into the big top is forced to entertain in the center ring with typically fatal results. The Doctor tries to find out who or what is behind it all, and the resulting story comes off like an allegory for the series itself.

After a creative slump in the mid-'80s, Doctor Who was finding its footing again, although the story is burdened by throwing as many disparate elements as possible (including an animated corpse, a wolf girl, and even the gods of Ragnarok) into the mix. The gods, not unlike the audience, demand to be entertained, but for the most part the best the Doctor can do is some cheap conjuring tricks while waiting for the inevitable climax. The most effective element throughout is the menace provided by Ian Reddington (a regular on the soap opera EastEnders) as the Chief Clown, sending victims to their doom with wave of his hand and a perpetual smile painted on his face. --Ryan K. Johnson

Doctor Who - The Five Doctors (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Yes, "The Five Doctors" is the one that gathers together Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, and Davidson, dumps them on some moorland, and lets some of the Doctor's greatest enemies take potshots at them. Except, of course, William Hartnell had passed on by the time this series was made in 1983 (although his replacement Richard Hurndall does an excellent job), and Tom Baker was only featured as a patched-in cameo, apparently prevented from joining in by a temporal thingummy. However, this kind of creakiness comes with the territory and is soon forgotten. The assorted incarnations of the Doctor (together with a scattering of assistants) are drawn together through time and space to battle Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti--those weird androids that keep jumping into the air and disappearing--and many other old foes. They realize that they're on their home planet of Gallifrey and must eventually deal with the legacy of Rassilon, founder of the Time Lords. --Roger Thomas

Doctor Who - Robots of Death (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: By Tom Baker's third season in the role the actor had become firmly established in the minds of many fans as the definitive Doctor. First broadcast in early 1977, "Robots of Death" follows on directly from "Face of Evil," which was writer Chris Boucher's debut and also that of Louise Jameson's Leela, the Doctor's most shapely companion (a kind of Neanderthal Seven of Nine if you will). Boucher's second Who story concerns an isolated mining ship on which a series of inexplicable deaths takes place--although as the Doctor opines, "nothing is inexplicable, only unexplained." The Doctor and Leela inevitably become embroiled in events, which soon turn into a sci-fi murder-mystery: imagine Isaac Asimov crossed with Agatha Christie in a Dune-like setting. Add an undercover robot sent by "the company" and the claustrophobic, not to say deadly, setting of the mining ship, and there is a fascinating foreshadowing of Alien, too. It is tightly plotted, intelligent Saturday afternoon entertainment (something that was possible then but is now an unthinkable oxymoron) with a typically strong cast of redoubtable thespians in supporting roles (not to mention extravagant costumes and garish makeup). There may be no Daleks or Cybermen, but this is vintage Who nonetheless. --Mark Walker

Doctor Who - The Pertwee Years (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Jon Pertwee, the third actor to play the title role, introduces an exclusive-to-video feature-length program devoted to his portrayal of the BBC's most famous time traveler. The tape, which is dominated by three complete episodes that were each the final part of a serial, would have been more comprehensible with the inclusion of plot synopses. "Inferno" (1970) is a tale of environmental peril involving a project to drill into the Earth's core; "Frontier in Space" (1973) showcases the last performance by the original Master, Roger Delgado; "The Daemons" (1971) is chosen as the climax of Pertwee's own favorite Doctor Who story. It should be noted this episode is in black and white, as the BBC wiped the color original from the archive.

There are very few personal reminiscences of the kind found in this video's companion volume, The Colin Baker Years, though there are more diverse clips than in The Troughton Years. These include Pertwee's first appearance as the Doctor in "Spearhead from Space" (1970), an unused test version of a new title sequence, footage shot at a 20th-anniversary celebration at Longleat in 1983, and a very entertaining introduction to the "Whomobile" from 1973. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - Spearhead From Space (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: "Spearhead from Space" launched Doctor Who into the 1970s with not only a new Doctor, Jon Pertwee, but a new assistant, the scientist Liz Shaw (Caroline John) and a regular place in the show for UNIT and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). It also marked the debut of the program in color and saw the Doctor stranded on Earth after Patrick Troughton's last adventure, "The War Games" (1969). Not only that, but it proved the only serial in the show's history to be entirely shot both on film and location, giving it a uniquely cinematic feel. Regenerating in a country hospital, the Doctor finds himself helping the Brigadier investigate an unusual meteorite and its links with a sinister doll factory. The Autons are cybernetic killers--anticipating The Terminator by some 15 years--and the sequence in which they break through shop windows to slaughter pedestrians remains a chilling highpoint of Doctor Who's entire history. Things do turn silly with a subplot involving a wax museum, while the ultimate battle with the Nestine consciousness is more likely to induce laughter than fear, but as vintage television nostalgia this is fast-moving, splendidly characterized entertainment. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - The Tomb of the Cybermen (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: "The Tomb of the Cybermen" brought the Doctor, Patrick Troughton, into conflict with his silver cyborg nemesis for a third time, following "The Tenth Planet" (1966) and "The Moonbase" (1967). The Doctor, Jamie (Frazer Hines), and Victoria (Deborah Watling) join an archaeological expedition to explore the planet Telos, where they encounter death traps, betrayal, and a waiting army of frozen Cybermen. Scripted by Kit Pedlar and Gerry Davis, who would later write Doomwatch (1970-72), many of the essentials of the plot anticipate James Cameron's blockbuster Aliens (1986): the barren planet with abandoned city, the tense wait for a rescue ship, the human traitors, the implacable, more powerful enemy. There are a few flaws, but this is a superior Doctor Who adventure of its time and a thoroughly entertaining piece of classic television. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - The Troughton Years (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: This is the second of a series of exclusive-to-video feature-length programs devoted to the seven actors who played Doctor Who in the famous BBC series. Patrick Troughton was the Doctor from 1966 to 1969. Troughton passed away in 1987, so this program is introduced by Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor. Pertwee provides some brief linking material filmed in various places associated with the program, and there are also clips from Troughton's appearances in such stories as "The Web of Fear" and "The Three Doctors." But the bulk of the tape comprises three complete episodes. As a result of the BBC's destruction of valuable archive material, they are the only remaining segments of their respective serials. Shown here are episode two of "The Abominable Snowman" (1967), episode three of "The Enemy of the World" (1968), and episode two of "The Space Pirates" (1969). While rewarding for the serious fan, watching isolated episodes from incomplete serials does take commitment, and a booklet with detailed synopses would have made everything much more accessible. Even so, the sight of a Yeti in action or Troughton in the dual roles of the Doctor and the dictator Salamander remain notable pieces of vintage television history. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - The Twin Dilemma (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: When this four-part adventure first appeared in 1984, it was the only thing fans had to go on as their first impression of the new sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) until another season could be produced the next year. Baker gave it his all, drawing on his years as a character actor and frequent villain on British TV to play a manic, possibly schizophrenic, Time Lord immediately after regenerating, quoting Longfellow and nearly strangling his American assistant Peri (Nicola Bryant) at one point. The question was, would he ever settle down? Even by the last frame of this story, viewers couldn't be sure.

Thus, it's a shame such a heady performance couldn't have been engaged with a first-class script. Instead, writer Anthony Stevens, perhaps inspired by a recent garden infestation, pits the Doctor against the less-than-terrifying menace of giant slugs bent on conquering the universe using the computational powers of a pair of twin boys (hence the title). Even the Doctor must agree, saying, "In my time I have been threatened by experts. I don't rate you very highly at all." But through it all, Baker takes center stage, attempting to forge a bond with a skeptical audience (if not Peri) as the new Doctor who may not be as cuddly, warm, or even human, as previous incarnations. TV fixture Kevin McNally makes an early appearance as the young Lt. Hugo Lang, an aggressive space officer who takes his share of lumps during the story. --Ryan K. Johnson

Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The "unearthly" strains of Ron Grainer's now-famous title music announced the arrival of Doctor Who to British TV screens on Saturday, November 23, 1963. It must have been quite a baffling experience for first-time viewers: the swirling abstract graphics, the weird electronic sound effects courtesy of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, the very oddity of the show's title. This really was groundbreaking TV. "I think you'll find there's a very simple explanation for all of this," says schoolteacher Ian Chesterton (William Russell) condescendingly, just before being taken on board the Tardis and transported to an alien planet. For audiences, too, this was something entirely unfamiliar, yet obviously appealing: Doctor Who ran for almost 30 years and even long after cancellation it remains one of the BBC's most popular shows.

His later incarnations were all eccentric in their different ways, but William Hartnell's original Doctor is an irascible and distinctively alien character, not at all happy having to put up with ignorant 20th-century humans. The "Unearthly Child" of the title is his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), temporarily attending school on Earth. She is conspicuously different from her classmates and attracts the attention of two of her teachers, who resolve to find out why. After an encounter with her mysterious grandfather they are whisked away on an adventure to a different time and place, where angry cavemen are trying in vain to learn the secret of fire. Thus the show's trademarks are established from the outset: the Doctor and his more or less reluctant human companions, the mechanical unreliability of the Tardis, the cliffhanger ending of each episode. It was a formula that rarely changed but that allowed apparently limitless variation (the only constraint was the BBC's budget). In later years the show tried vainly to compete with blockbuster special-effects movies, but its original low-key incarnation relied more on inventive scenarios and good writing--qualities that are just as important now as then. --Mark Walker

Doctor Who - Edge of Destruction & The Pilot Episode (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: One of the rarest of the early Doctor Who series, with William Hartnell as the crusty old Doctor, "Edge of Destruction" is entirely based in the Tardis, which has stopped somewhere between worlds and times. The Doctor blames Ian and Barbara, the two teachers who came aboard in search for answers about his granddaughter Susan, assuming they have committed sabotage in an attempt to return to their own time. They, in turn, in spite of recent shared escapes from cavemen and Daleks, have no particular reason to trust his sanity. Something is causing one after another of them to act with violent irrationality, and the clock is ticking toward their destruction... This is a claustrophobic two-episode plot in which the series examines closely some of its more beloved assumptions. For example, who, in this situation, is good and who is dangerous? The restriction to a single set may have started as an economy measure but virtue is made of necessity.

Also included is the original pilot episode, "An Unearthly Child," with several retakes. --Roz Kaveney

Doctor Who - The Daleks (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: "The Daleks" (sometimes called "The Dead Planet") is the second-ever Doctor Who serial, presented with all seven unedited episodes on one tape. First broadcast between December 1963 and February 1964, the story ensured the program's success by introducing the Doctor's most iconic enemies. Five hundred years after a nuclear war has devastated the planet Skaro, the Doctor (William Hartnell), Barbara, Ian, and Susan materialize in a petrified forest where the pacifist, and decidedly camp, Thals face starvation. Our heroes visit a nearby city that is home to the last remaining Daleks, terrifyingly cold-blooded mutants encased in armed, pepper-pot-like shells, and become involved in a desperate battle for survival. Given a nightmarish atmosphere by Tristram Cary's surreal electronic score, "The Daleks" proved the template for many a future Doctor Who adventure. Hartnell's Doctor is a surprisingly self-serving hero, and the ambitious storytelling, which reflects the cold war fears of the time, belies a tiny budget. The story, remade for the cinema as Dr Who and the Daleks (1965) and starring Peter Cushing, is still both an effective, if at times unintentionally hilarious, entertainment and an essential piece of television history. A superior sequel, "The Dalek Invasion of Earth," was screened in late 1964. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - Frontier in Space (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Opening with the Doctor, John Pertwee, materializing the Tardis in a starship to avoid collision, "Frontier in Space" is the first half of a space opera that ends on a cliffhanger leading into "The Planet of the Daleks" (1973). It is the 26th century and the Ogrons, previously seen in "Day of the Daleks" (1972), are raiding spaceships from both the Earth and Draconian empires, intent on provoking interstellar war. Ranging from deep space to Earth and Draconia, from a lunar penal colony to the Ogron home world, the Doctor discovers that the Master (Roger Delgado in his final performance in the role) is set to plunge the galaxy into chaos. Fans expecting Dalek action should be aware that the psychotic pepperpots only appear at the end, although Katy Manning proves heroine Jo Grant's resilience, and thanks to especially strong make-up and costuming, the Draconians are an impressive addition to the show's gallery of aliens. The inevitable cheap special effects and some flaky continuity aside, this is Doctor Who near its ambitious best, even if splitting six episodes onto two tapes does seem highly unnecessary. Sci-fi aficionados will not need much convincing that this story provided inspiration for Babylon 5's Earth-Minbari war. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - The Caves of Androzani (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Peter Davidson's final adventure, "The Caves of Androzani," pulls out all stops to give this Doctor an unforgettable farewell. Deep within the titular caves, the disfigured, masked antihero Sharez Jek (Christopher Gable) and his regiment of androids are locked in conflict with an army unit and a group of smugglers for control of the life-extending Spectrox. When the Doctor and Peri (Nicola Bryant) enter this labyrinth, they immediately become victims of deadly Spectrox poisoning. The story's numerous subplots involve espionage, betrayal, and revenge, as well as big-business corruption, political assassination, and silly-looking reptilian monsters. And the first episode has one of the best cliffhangers ever: our heroes are executed by a firing squad armed with submachine guns.

Robert Holmes (who wrote the more satirical Doctor Who story "The Sun Makers") here concentrates on delivering a breathlessly paced action thriller, with relentless death and destruction unfolding like in a Sam Peckinpah film, making Davidson's heroic pacifism all the more effective. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - Remembrance of the Daleks (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: "Remembrance of the Daleks," the final Doctor Who story to feature the titular mutant cyborgs, is a particularly notable adventure for the way it ties the plot into the very first story, "An Unearthly Child," made 25 years before. It is 1963, and the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, arrives in London with new companion Ace (Sophie Aldred), where two Dalek factions are engaged in a deadly search for the Hand of Omega. Ace quickly proves herself adept with high explosives, and while there are references to the history of the show, including some nice in-jokes, the drama is played much straighter than in McCoy's first season as the time traveler. This is Doctor Who with a decent budget; the period setting is surprisingly lavish and there are some fairly intense action sequences. The Daleks remain as menacing as ever, the plotting has an intriguing air of mystery, and McCoy injects some steel into his characterization. Aldred serves an ace as a heroine with attitude (very much post-Sarah Connor from The Terminator), and if this really does prove to be the Daleks' swan song, at least they go out with a bang. --Gary S. Dalkin

Doctor Who - The Keys of Marinus (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: For all the Whos in Whoville (sorry, wrong "Dr."), this vintage Doctor Who adventure from the venerable British series' inaugural season is a must-own collectible. For the uninitiated, Dr. Who is television's longest-running science fiction series and it has gained a cult following that rivals those of Star Trek and Star Wars. Dr. Who, portrayed here in his first incarnation by William Hartnell, is a Time Lord who travels the cosmos in a spacecraft called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), whose exterior looks like a police call box.

Originally broadcast in 1964, The Keys of Marinus is a six-episode arc that features the doctor's original traveling companions, science teacher Ian Chesterton, history teacher Barbara Wright, and the doctor's granddaughter, Susan, who is given to screaming at the first sign of peril. Hartnell's doctor is a sprightly curmudgeon who relishes adventure and mystery, which he finds after the group lands on Marinus, an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. Doctor and company are compelled to retrieve four microcircuits that are the keys to the Conscience of Marinus, a computer that has eliminated evil from the minds of men (except apparently the evil Yartek and his web-suited Voords, who want to seize the machine). Their quest takes them most memorably to "a planet of the most contented people" (beware the brainwashing powers of the "mesmerent"), another world overrun by plants, and finally a city where Chesterton, framed for murder, is considered guilty until proven innocent--by the doctor, of course. As is characteristic of this series, the special effects are a hokey hoot and the actors sometimes step on each others' lines. Hartnell vacationed during production and is absent for two episodes. But this is a surprisingly prophetic cautionary tale: it may be good to heed the doctor's prescient observation that "man was not made to be controlled by machines." If you have yet to make an appointment with the doctor, perhaps the episodes featuring Tom Baker--the fourth and most popular of the doctors--are a more accessible introduction. --Donald Liebenson

Doctor Who - Horror of Fang Rock (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: "Something is going on here. Something I don't understand." So states the old lighthouse keeper on the remote, fog-shrouded island of Fang Rock in this haunting story from Doctor Who's 15th season. If you are a new visitor to the universe of this venerable British sci-fi series, no doubt you will share his sentiment.

But for this particular story, you need not know that Doctor Who is a Time Lord who travels the cosmos in a spacecraft called the TARDIS, an interplanetary time machine that looks like a police call box, or that Tom Baker, who portrays him here, is the fourth and perhaps most popular incarnation of the good Doctor.

Horror of Fang Rock is as much ghost story as science fiction. The TARDIS has deposited the vacation-bound Doctor and his companion, Leela, on Fang Rock ("You told me I would like Brighton," an unimpressed Leela remarks about the desolate surroundings), just after a strange light was witnessed plummeting from the sky into the sea. A mysterious fog envelopes the lighthouse, and one of its inhabitants is mysteriously killed. When a ship runs aground, its passengers take refuge in the lighthouse and find themselves stalked as well. Is it the mythical Beast of Fang Rock or, as the Doctor suspects, an alien menace?

The cheesy mid-1970s-vintage special effects are part of this show's charm. Like Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, what Doctor Who lacks in production values, it more than makes up for in verbal ingenuity. "Are you in charge?" someone asks the Doctor. "No," he responds, "but I'm full of ideas." --Donald Liebenson

Dr. Who - Terror of the Zygons (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Scotland's Loch Ness is the setting of this very traditional 1975 Doctor Who monster story--though it was actually filmed in southern England, with local atmosphere provided by Scottish character actor Angus Lennie (The Great Escape). The Doctor (Tom Baker) is called in to investigate a mystery involving the destruction of several oil rigs, and it's not too long before the Loch Ness monster is revealed as the culprit. But it's actually just a biomechanical weapon being manipulated by the evil Zygons, who have been living at the bottom of Loch Ness and plotting world domination. The organically designed sets and monsters are very striking, as are the visual effects, with one notable exception: really big creatures have always been difficult for the series, with its limited budget, to pull off, and this story's reliance on an obvious puppet monster, especially during the climax, diminishes its impact. But there is still much to relish, particularly the dialogue of writer Robert Banks Stewart (who would go on to create the long-running BBC series Bergerac), which provides a number of gems, including the Doctor admonishing the Zygons that if they succeed in their plans, "You'll have to come out on the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle." With much derring-do, the Doctor saves the day as usual, but not before four exciting episodes of fun and action. --Ryan K. Johnson