DVD Spotlight
DOCTOR WHO The Complete Third Series
By David Kalat
The Weeping Angels do more than weep, as shown by this unflinching shot from DOCTOR WHO’s Third Series episode, “Blink.”
At its best, DOCTOR WHO (1963-1987) was a perfect fusion of the best aspects of se- rial dramas, rich in character development and lay- ered mythology, with the kind of anthology sci-fi exemplified by THE OUTER LIMITS and THE TWI- LIGHT ZONE. At its worst, it was embarrassingly chintzy. For many years—decades, even—that tension put an onus on the show’s writers to keep the storytelling clever and inventive to compen- sate for low-budget production values. Unfortu- nately, in the later years of the 1980s, the balance tipped precariously in the wrong direc- tion. Writers like Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel found themselves self-censoring out of a fear that the show’s impoverished production team would ruin their best ideas.
The BBC top brass knew that a total creative overhaul was called for, if DOCTOR WHO was to stay relevant, but no producer seemed eager to take on what was viewed as a bad career choice.
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In 1989, the world’s longest-running science fiction TV series slipped off the airwaves—but it did not dis- appear. Aside from a misfired attempt to reinvent the program as an American-made series (resulting in a one-off made-for-TV movie now MIA on Region 1 DVD), a cycle of graphic novels, increasingly grown-up novels, full-cast audio dramas, and fan-made video spin-offs kept the flame burning. In 2004, Russell T. Davies, creator of QUEER AS
FOLK and one of England’s foremost TV dramatists, presented the BBC with an elaborate pitch for a com- prehensive and coherent rethink of DOCTOR WHO.
DOCTOR WHO: THE COMPLETE THIRD SERIES
2007, BBC Video/2-Entertain DD-5.1 & 2.0/16:9/LB/ST/+, $99.99, 108m 26s, DVD-1
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