BBC Studios, out now

London 1975 – and the Great Intelligence is in the Underground.

I’m sure I don’t need to rehash the importance of this story to SFB readers – the start in many ways of the UNIT years with the introduction of Nicholas Courtney’s Lethbridge-Stewart, its reappearance nearly a decade ago near enough intact – but it is a key part of Doctor Who history and, setting aside any discussion of the replacement episode for now, merits the Blu-ray treatment on that score alone. There are glorious moments for Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, Courtney makes his mark, in part thanks to Douglas Camfield’s direction, and you can see why these Yeti mk. 2 scared the living daylights out of so many people that it’s a key part of their memories. (Oh and, no matter what may come later, this is definitely 1975: 1935 is specifically mentioned and that’s 40 years ago according to Travers.)

The recovered episodes were rushed onto iTunes and then onto a bare bones DVD so that people had the chance to see them, and it’s taken some time (and one has to suspect, partly because of the hope that the apparently still extant episode 3 might turn up) before it arrived in an all bells and whistles edition. Toby Hadoke is on commentary duty and does his usual excellent job of eliciting information without seeming to push (and there’s the original episode 1 commentary as well from the Lost in Time DVD). The making of section comes in four parts, looking at the original series, the new animation, the life of Jack Woolgar (Staff Sergeant Arnold), and the missing episodes (again from Lost in Time).

For those who prefer it – although it means switching discs – there’s the telesnaps version of episode 3 per the DVD. The default setting is a 4:3 monochrome animated episode 3, with a widescreen colour version available on disc 2. The latter was available for preview, and while the depiction of the characters and sets was good, all the characters appear unable to keep still which was distracting (ironic to criticise it for that, given how much flack the original Power of the Daleks animation got for being too static!). However, as producer Gary Russell notes in the booklet, this animation was consciously designed to blend more easily with the surrounding five live action episodes, and watching the whole story through with the black and white, old aspect ratio version, it was a lot less jarring.

It’s well worth listening to the commentary on that episode with members of the animation team – there’s a comment about actors of the 1960s being “theatrical” and I suspect that the animator whose performance was used as the basis for the motion capture took that to heart, so everything is a little overplayed. This motion capture idea isn’t new – as I recall, Nick Scovell has been hired for previous animations, but he’s an actor rather than an animator, and I suspect that if this route is used again, then the use of a trained actor would remove some of the harsher edges from the performances.

Verdict: A classic Doctor Who story worth buying again for the hi-def treatment even if the animation won’t be to everyone’s taste. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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