There are several things that I don’t get about fandom and with the release of this particular serial on DVD, it raised one of those questions. The Rani, played by Kate O’Mara appeared in two stories, neither of which are considered to be classics. Despite this, there’s speculation about the return of the character in the press and online being played either by Sarah Parrish or some horrendous woman from Footballers Wives.

I don’t understand the attitude of bringing back a character that was routinely slaughtered as one of the worst elements of the classic series. Russell T Davies said on a Newsround interview that you might as well invent a new character rather than bringing back a niche character.

With the story having three lords of time in the story, it should be wonderfully dynamic relationship between them all, but actually all they end up doing is squabbling. It would have been fine, but the relationship is apparent between the Doctor and Peri.

The beginning of the story sees the TARDIS dragged off course, but it’s an element that is ignored for the rest of the story. Then there’s the question of why the Master has been dressed as a scarecrow.

I can’t find it in my heart to like this story, despite the beautiful photography, music and the performance of the human characters in the story. What I do like is the extra features on this DVD. The commentary comes from Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Kate O’Mara which is surprisingly good and much more light hearted than most of the commentaries.

Lords and Luddites is comprehensive in it’s covering of every aspect of the story, which is not bad given that only the writer and script editor are interviewed from the production side.

The most innovative extra is the alternative score from John Lewis, which he couldn’t complete before his death. It’s a lot grittier than the score from Jonathan Gibbs, which is fine for the photogenic moments, but nothing for the tense moments. The deleted scenes are mostly additions to scenes in the program, but for the TARDIS scene, which was rightly cut.

The Now and Then is reasonably interesting, in that it still looks a lot like it did twenty years ago. Playing with Time gives us a more detailed look at the music in the show and the acrimonious history behind. Blue Peter’s look at Ironbridge Gorge and Blists Hill is noteworthy for some rather interesting use of shots, which would probably be the work of this story’s director, Sarah Hellings.

There’s a rather fun extract from Saturday Superstore while for those that like the music can find it isolated from the rest of the sound in the program. The production subtitles are unintentionally funny while the rest of the extras are PDF files of the 1985 Doctor Who annual and Radio Time Billings.

I can’t say that I care much for the story or any of the elements in it, but considering the DVD was rushed into production, it’s has the high standard of many of the previous releases.

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