Part Two of Our Review of This Stellar Season!
Video and Audio
Season 7 is notable for featuring the only classic Who serial to be entirely filmed on 16mm film in Spearhead from Space, which looks very nice on Blu Ray and is presented with more or less the same transfer from the previous 2013 release except some additional cleanup, which is welcome.
Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death, meanwhile, presented more complicated stories to restore. This is owing to their original colour tape being wiped back in the 1970s (excepting Ambassadors episode 1, for which the PAL tape survives, the earliest to do so for the colour era), with only the Black & White film prints being retained in the archives. These tapes were given a colour recovery treatment by the talented Peter Crocker and Richard Russell (though this didn’t work for every episode, resulting in utilising the older technique of combining the tapes with off-air colour NTSC recordings for Silurians episodes 1 and 3, and extra work needing to be done across both stories.)
The result is that, whilst still incomparable to the picture quality of surviving PAL tapes from the era, these two stories have never looked better on home media and have been given the best restoration possible unless the original tapes ever materialise. There was one slight issue noticed though, during Ambassadors, wherein the Doctor’s hands went a blue colour for a moment, but otherwise, I’m impressed these episodes look as good as they do considering the limitations of the source material.
Finally, Inferno is presented via both a new restoration that builds upon the 2013 DVD Special Edition and the older 2006 one (in SD), which was restored by converting NTSC colour tapes to PAL via RSC (Reverse Standards Conversion). The new restoration looked very solid to my eyes, and retaining the older version with more frame intact for completion remains a nice touch for those who prefer it, as we saw for the Season 8 and 9 boxsets (See Colony in Space, The Sea Devils, etc).
The audio presentation from Mark Ayres remains a treat, and though there’s no new optional 5.1 Surround Sound, it’s clear that this is the best these serials have and are likely to ever sound, especially owing to less compression.
Season 7 upholds the fold-out book-styled packaging, with a compartment for the booklet and a stack of disc trays. The exterior artwork by Lee Binding is more minimalistic than other covers, with just four monsters in the roster, and I’m not overly fond of how Pertwee’s head is imposed (though it’s better realised than Season 9’s cover). As always, we get another detailed booklet with retrospective content by Pete McTighe, which packs in the little details for these stories that make it an essential element of the set.
Considering how little cast and crew we have left from Season 7, this is a nicely packed set from a VAM perspective, and I appreciate that the budgetary focus for this release was mainly on the restoration of Silurians and Ambassadors especially. This set leans into the previous DVD (and Blu Ray) special features including a pair of biopic documentaries for Jon Pertwee (A Dandy and a Clown) and Caroline John (Carry On: The Life of Caroline John) carried over from the Spearhead Blu Ray release, featuring alongside existing commentaries, documentaries and other featurettes like Hadoke Vs. Havoc.
Season 7 presents two new omnibus editions for The Silurians (retitled The Cave Monsters) and Inferno, which are nice to see included again. The Behind the Sofa segments see a return here also, and in lieu of many surviving personnel for the most part, we get Geoffrey Beevers and Daisy Ashford (husband and daughter of Caroline John) appearing alongside presenter and moderator Toby Hadoke as the main sofa here. Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton also appear once again, this time alongside Sophie Aldred, and the final sofa sports Katy Manning and Matthew Waterhouse, who were a good pairing if a little full-on!
For this set’s In Conversation, we see John Levene (Sargeant Benton) interviewed by the capable Matthew Sweet, and it’s a solid and sometimes very touching interview that peels back some of the layers Levene has put up over the years in his numerous convention and VAM appearances. For new documentaries we get a detailed profile and tribute for Nicholas Courtney, and another “Looking for” feature on writer Malcolm “Mac” Hulke, both of which were real highlights and the latter provided a look at a superb writer who died far too soon and had an ending I won’t dare spoil here.
Terror in the Suburbs and Lucky 13 were a change from the usual format with no cast and crew interviews – I found both solid and watchable, but wouldn’t be in a rush to revisit them – the same goes for the latest Escape Room entry, wherein Katy Manning, Daisy Ashford, and Sadie Miller (daughter to Elizabeth Sladen) took part – I though the format remained overlong and meandering but the trio were fun enough to watch and this was easily the best of the three released so far.
As of writing this review, there is no news of the next set in the collection range, but rumours are circulating around Season 13 being next, with the 80s season, 21, likely not being too far behind. Recent insights into a possible speeding up of the animations with the collection range in mind suggest that we’ll have to wait that bit further for another 60s season, but as always, we shall see!
The Stories:
4.5/5
The Packaging:
3.5/5
The Video:
3.5/5
The Audio:
4.5/5
Special Features:
4/5
Overall:
4.5/5 – Season 7 is one of the greatest of the classic era, taking the Doctor down to Earth in a season that feels more mature and adult. Jon Pertwee’s quick grasp of the role also ensures that his era kicked off in style.
Look back at Part One of the review for more details on the stories included.
By HW Reynolds
Images Courtesy of the BBC
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