Peter Davison may not come out on top of any Favorite Doctor Who actor poll, but he's definitely one of the contenders for the most recognizable. Manning the TARDIS in the early 80's, he looked quite natty in his red-trimmed cricketers uniform with the celery stalk pinned to his lapel.

Davison stars in the latest BBC Video Doctor Who release, This box set is made up of  'Mawdryn Undead," "Terminus," and "Enlightenment."

The Doctor comes into the trilogy with two lovely companions, Tegan and Nyssa but they're soon joined by Turlough (Mark Strickson), an alien who has been living his life among the humans at a UK boarding school.

As with all of these early Doctor Who releases, the joy is in seeing where we came from. The broad acting, the flat sets, the low-tech special effects (some of which were actually very high-tech at the time) are all part of the charm of the series. So I was very surprised to see that this set offered an upgrade — an option to turn on new CGI effects to replace the outdated ones.

Except in the case of cleaning up video and audio quality, I'm not a fan of upgrades, so I'm glad they give you the option of turning off the CGI effects if you want. I do appreciate the effort that went in to delivering a clean product. You won't realize how great the film looks until you watch the special features which include un-enhanced deleted scenes and outtakes. These bits are seriously flawed with pops, vertical lines and faded colors.

The special features on this DVD set are plentiful to the point of "I can't believe they bothered." I'll give the BBC credit for trying to preserve the history of Who but many of the included clips, such as the film edits which show the few seconds before and after the scene clapper, are tedious to watch. Same goes for many of the outtakes.

On the other hand, the featurettes are all interesting to watch. They're filled with behind-the-scenes tidbits from people who were there. It's obvious that everyone interviewed has fond memories of their time on the show and one actress even goes so far as to say that she's proud to have Doctor Who on her resume.

A really rare treat is a clip from Russell Harty Christmas Party
that has Peter Davison singing in what the Brits call pantomime. (Please forgive me if I'm not using that word correctly.)

Davison, Strickland and several other actors and writers get in on the commentary. There's also a "notes" track that allows you to switch on a trivia component that appears like closed captioning. I found this very enjoyable and made it so I could watch and hear the episode while still getting my production trivia fill.

The DVD also sports the usual photo galleries, extended and deleted scenes, and a DVD-Rom library of documentation from back in the day.

The most unusual special feature is a feature length edit of "Enlightenment" with 5.1 surround sound and CGI effects. Sort of their tribute to how the episode would have been if it had been filmed today.

is another piece of the Who History puzzle. BBC Video has done an excellent job capturing what it was like to be a part of the Doctor's 20th season. It's the perfect gift for the Doctor Who fan on your holiday shopping list.

The DVD streeted early in November and is anywhere you buy DVDs.

For a more in-depth review, check out Judge James Stewart's take at DVD Verdict.

Photo: Amazon

Post from: SF Universe