Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years and the Patrick Troughton Years
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Frazer Hines, Jacqueline Hill, Nicholas Courtney, Patrick Troughton, William HartnellBrand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Peter Bryant
Writer: David Whitaker
Writer: Terry Nation
Writer: Dennis Spooner
Writer: Brian Hayles
Writer: Geoffrey Orme
Writer: Kit Pedler
Writer: Malcolm Hulke
Writer: David Ellis
Writer: Mervyn Haisman
Writer: Henry Lincoln
Writer: Robert Holmes
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 434 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E2083
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- 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, and guest star turns by Julian Glover (Indiana Jones) and Michael Gough (Batman). New to video is the recently recovered Episode 2 of "The Daleks' Master Plan," which marked the series debut of Nicholas Courtney, who later returned as
Movie Reviews of Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years and the Patrick Troughton Years
Movie Review: Patrick Troughton - The Great Lost Doctor Who!
Summary: 5 Stars
This set is a REVELATION! It's indispensible. A month ago I had never heard the name Patrick Troughton, and was only mildly familiar with three Doctor Whos from the BBC America broadcasts: John Pertwee, Tom Baker (whom I liked a great deal), and that more lightweight Fifth one with blonde hair. The trouble was that the broadcasts here in America were on at such varying hours that I don't think I ever saw a complete Doctor Who story, just scattered episodes. I happened recently on some old VHS copies of several Tom Baker episodes, and was hooked. But where were the "complete 7th season", "complete 10th season" collections in Circuit City (or on amazon.com)? Instead, BBC had apparently decided to issue the storylines one by one, and about the only box set available when I was looking in earnest was this "Lost in Time" set, starring the First and Second Doctors. I snatched it up (having enjoyed the replacement First Doctor in the VHS of "The Five Doctors" - the tired performance of that odd short Second Doctor who looked like Moe of the Three Stooges did not impress me much.) When I happened on this DVD set, I watched the remaining William Hartnell episodes from otherwise lost storylines, and liked him well enough - a nice, crotchety elegance and intellect, at least when he wasn't blowing his lines and looking vaguely lost while the cameras rolled on around him. OK, and I am glad to have made his acquaintance. I bought the DVD set for the Hartnell episodes, but, as there were two other DVDs featuring this odd, unpromising Second Doctor fellow, I decided I'd suffer through those, at least so many as I could stand. But a very strange thing happened while I did so -- sometime midway during the final episode of "Moonbase" from the first season (we have 2 of the 4 original episodes), I realized with a lightning bolt of joy that this guy might just have been as good as Tom Baker. No - he was even better, unmistakeably better, I saw as I watched the "Faceless Ones" episodes and the others. The point of absolute conviction was watching the few superb moments from the climax of that greatest of lost storylines, "Fury of the Deep," with Patrick Troughton at his very peak, intense, brilliant, exciting beyond measure in the very highest expression of this art form -- the finest, and by a considerable margin, of all the Doctors, and that includes the great Tom Baker. Patrick Troughton was the perfect Doctor Who. Most unusually for me, I was heartsick about the terrible loss of the very best work of this fantastically gifted actor, and set about to listen to all the soundtracks I could find (while the Daleks at BBC destroyed the vast majority of Troughton's work as the Doctor, fans recorded the sound, at least, of the lost masterpieces, and BBC has atoned in some small measure for its abject stupidity and unforgiveable negligence by reissuing them.) I also discovered the remaining off-the-air "snaps" taken by a photographer who used to sell the images to actors in the series. (Why didn't anyone just film the episodes off the air, in kinescopes? But apparently no one did.) It is possible, I discovered, to recreate some sense of just how great the Second Doctor consistently was, by hunting down the soundtracks (on CD, MP3, and downloads) of the first season, interspersing the remaining episodes lovingly restored on this glorious DVD set, and checking the photo "snaps" on the BBC website. Having now lived through this first, great season in a week or so, I can report that the work, though a degree variable, was of the very highest quality, with Troughton and his supporting cast members, especially the actors portraying Jamie, Polly, and Victoria, reaching a peak never equalled, so far as I have seen, at any other time in the series. Here is an informal rating (on a scale from 1 - 10) of Troughton's first series storylines (1966-67), not one of them surving in total on film, and many of them lost utterly:
Power of the Daleks - 10 (highlights include Daleks hilariously masquerading as "servants" -- "shall I bring you more liquid?" --while they wait for their power to be restored by a naive scientist - go grab the soundtrack!)
Highlanders - 9+ (no sci-fi, just an old-fashioned "historic" storyline, quite swashbuckling and marvelously spun)
Underwater Menace - 4 (not the best of the series - and those pathetic "fish people" in the surviving filmed episode, suspended by huge black wires; Troughton's great, though)
Moonbase - 8 - good story line, marred a bit by cheesy special effects (paper Cyberman spaceships, e.g.) - perhaps sometimes it's better to listen to the soundtracks than to see the filmed version, but only when Troughton is not onscreen, he's not to be missed
Macra Terror - 9 - quite creepy, and even timely, given US politics as I write this (let him who has ears hear)
Faceless Ones - 10 - off the charts - suspenseful, well written, with Troughton at his hapless and commanding finest (luckily, one of the best episodes, Episode 1, survives on film and is part of this DVD set)
Evil of the Daleks - 8 - overlong, probably stretched out to fill the last few weeks of this season, but with a smashing (literally) climax as rebel Daleks (created by the good Doctor in one of his usual strokes of genius) destroy the Dalek home planet.
And that's just Troughton's first season - as for the second, which I am just peering into now, "Fury of the Deep" is a masterpiece, perhaps the very finest sci fi storyline to appear in a television series on either side of the Atlantic, ever. BBC saved about 45 seconds of that one.
Go grab this DVD set right now, and see the way Doctor Who deserves to be portrayed - an absentminded genius, an inept angel, a befuddled Prometheus, who always rises to the occasion with flair and brillance. You'll love Patrick Troughton - the greatest Doctor Who! He never disappoints.
More Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years and the Patrick Troughton Years reviews:
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Summary of Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years and the Patrick Troughton Years
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, and guest star turns by Julian Glover (Indiana Jones) and Michael Gough (Batman). New to video is the recently recovered Episode 2 of The Daleks' Master Plan, which marked the series debut of Nicholas Courtney, who later returned as the Brigadier.Similar DVD Movies
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