Doctor Who Season 10
Hai! definition
released 8 July 1972-1973 | PG | Blu-ray Producer Barry letts Cast Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney, roger delgado
Freshly scrubbed for HD, Jon Pertwee’s penultimate run finds the show in its velvetjacketed pomp, high on brilliant ideas and accustomed to the idea that it’s a national treasure.
Tenth anniversary tale “The Three Doctors” unites Pertwee with his predecessors. An established gimmick in later years, it’s still a joy to see Patrick Troughton pickpocketing entire scenes from under his successor’s mighty nose. “Carnival Of Monsters” is another slice of fizzy, CSO-fringed unreality – with a clever narrative bait-and-switch at its heart – while “Frontier In Space” and “Planet Of The Daleks” chart an interstellar cold war before staging the archetypal Terry Nation yarn, crackling with the thrills and weirdness of a ’60s Dalek annual. Icecanoes!
It all builds to “The Green Death”, an eco-parable where the maggots are as huge as the heartbreak. Companion Jo Grant’s departure signals the beginning of the end for the Third Doctor – but this is a glorious sunset, and it’s never looked better.
Extras “Doctor Who And The Third Man” (93 minutes) is the centrepiece, a documentary on the Pertwee years built from archive interview clips and fresh insights from the likes of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, who skewer some entrenched myths while illuminating the storytelling mechanics of the era. The true heart of the extras, however, is “Keeping Up With The Joneses” (31 minutes), which returns Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan to Deri in Wales, where “The Green Death” was filmed – warm, nostalgic and brimming with a sense of community, it’s a Welshcake for the soul. Equally heartfelt is “Looking For Lennie” (42 minutes – and seven of deleted scenes), Toby Hadoke’s exploration of director Lennie Mayne’s life.
There are also five new instalments of “Behind The Sofa” (176 minutes), fielding a UNIT reunion of Manning, John Levene (Benton) and Richard Franklin (Yates), along with contributions from modern Who writers Pete McTighe, Joy Wilkinson and former producer Phil Collinson.
Other gems include an hour of Pertwee, Manning and Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) at a 1993 con; Manning discussing her departure on Nationwide in 1973 (six minutes – a rotten-quality clip, but her charm cuts through); Pertwee pimping a foldaway caravan (unmissable); raw interview material from the cast of “The Green Death” (30 minutes); an hour of modelwork from “Frontier In Space”; original BBC continuities, galleries and, for hardcore chronophiles, studio clocks. You can also boggle at the unused “Delaware” revamp of the theme tune in all its piddly-piddly wrongness. Plus: (optional) new CGI effects for “Planet Of The Daleks”; an omnibus of “The Green Death”; Jo Grant’s return in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Bonuses from old DVD releases are also carried over. Nick Setchfield
William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee never actually meet in Who, but did share the screen in 1953’s Will Any Gentleman..?