Part Two of Our Review of This Fantastic Season of Classic Who!
Video and Audio
Season 13 is another mid-70s offering and fares similarly from a restoration perspective…except when it doesn’t. The PQ for this season has been rather controversial, owing to some overly zealous AI upscaling being applied to certain stories in this season – this is especially evident with Terror of the Zygons and The Android Invasion during both the film and studio scenes, but can be seen in places throughout the six serials to a lesser degree.
It’s a shame, really, as despite this being an issue with the previous few boxsets to an extent, I didn’t find it as distracting then, but here it was apparent right from the opening moments of TotZ, and stuck out like a sore thumb whenever it gets over-applied here and there across the six serials. The result is an unnaturally smooth image which removes detail from actors and scenery and even manages to realign Tom Baker’s teeth on occasion. I hope the negative reaction is taken on board for the remaining Collection boxsets, and ideally, if replacement discs can be provided too, as they are going to be for certain discs from the Season 20 boxset.
The audio presentation from Mark Ayres, thankfully, remains a treat, and we get a new optional 5.1 Surround Sound option for Pyramids of Mars, plus the existing one for TotZ.
Season 13 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, sporting Tom Baker in the Scottish gear he wore (albeit briefly) during TotZ, with the familiar layout of the monsters and villains featured throughout the season. The background, also utilising elements from TotZ, is striking indeed, and though the likeness of Baker isn’t perfect, this is definitely another solid cover. The back art, which is taken from Planet of Evil, is easily my favourite to date, and takes full advantage of that serial’s striking set design. 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.
Season 13 is another wherein we have a fairly minimal amount of surviving cast and crew members left, but the team behind these sets have still pulled out the stops to produce a great selection of new VAM. We are presented with three new omnibus editions/HD recreations for Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius (designed to recreate what would have gone out in the 70s), and The Seeds of Doom (based on director Douglas Camfield’s own notes). For new special effects, PoM utilises the ones produced for the Tales of the TARDIS edition made to coincide with the Disney Season 1 finale – this edition, featuring Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson, is also included.
The Behind the Sofa segments see a return here also, and in lieu of many surviving personnel for the most part like with Season 7, we get Sadie Miller (daughter of Elisabeth Sladen), Katy Manning, and Toby Hadoke on the main sofa, whilst Colin Baker, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton also appear once again for the second, and finally Maureen O’ Brien and Sophie Aldred for the final sofa. As always, I found these to be a mixed bag, but I did enjoy the enthusiasm from O’ Brien and Aldred.
Director Graeme Harper takes the interviewee seat in another informative In Conversation with Matthew Sweet. It was great hearing about his career, which encapsulates both classic and modern Who. In terms of new documentaries, we get a Season overview of sorts in Return to Thirteen, in which producer Philip Hinchcliffe and Toby Hadoke visit locations from the season and reunite with some familiar faces – this was brisk and great fun, with the duo working well off one another.
Perhaps the best piece of VAM here is another Chris Chapman biopic, this time focusing on Ian Marter, whose life was tragically short and who, even post Harry Sullivan, maintained a connection to DW as a superb author. It’s a sensitive and insightful profile that I greatly enjoyed.
What I perhaps didn’t enjoy quite as much was the latest Escape Room entry, with Matthew Waterhouse, director Michael E. Briant, and Toby Hadoke taking on the puzzles and challenges – they formed one of the better teams, mind you, but the same issues I’ve had with previous entries remain true here.
Finally, there’s another Tom Talks, which is about as fun as it’s ever been – only one more to go, I think, for Season 16. Of course, we also get a healthy selection of existing VAM as well, including making-ofs, a tribute to director Douglas Camfield, the third part of a UNIT featurette, plus a secondary edition of a Barry Lett’s directing documentary, which was included with a previous Collection set but finds its way here too.
With only three colour seasons remaining and the seeming intent to hold back the 60s Seasons, plus mounting evidence of work being done and/or scheduled, Season 21 is almost a certainty for the next Collection set, with a likely Dec/Jan announce and March release on the horizon. From there, we’ll likely get Season 11, but I’d always welcome 5/6!
The Stories:
4.5/5
The Packaging:
3.5/5
The Video:
2/5
The Audio:
4.5/5
Special Features:
4.5/5
Overall:
3/5 – Season 13 is another one of the greatest of the classic era, focusing on more horror elements and producing a selection of classics for the most part. It’s just a shame the picture quality has gone full Auton in places, and I can’t ignore that for the overall rating, as it’s a major issue that lets down a season that should have been an easy win for the Collection range if they had stuck to the previous restoration methods. If the stories most affected get replacements, we will revisit this rating in the future.
Look back at Part One of the review for more details on the stories included.
By HW Reynolds
Images Courtesy of the BBC
Reverbium 
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