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A number of episodes and stories from actor Patrick Troughton's turn as Doctor Who (1966-69) are either incomplete or missing altogether, much to the dismay of series fans. However, this two-disc set attempts to reconstruct the "orphaned" stories through episodes and clips culled from a variety of sources. For Who historians, the most important footage here is from Troughton's first appearance as the Doctor in season 5's "The Power of the Daleks," which is missing in its entirety; a rough glimpse of the transition from actor William Hartnell to Troughton is included, along with other surviving fragments. The complete episodes offered here are the sole remaining episode from season 4's "The Underwater Menace" (fragments from this story are included in the extras), episodes 2 and 4 from "The Moonbase," which features the return of the Cybermen (audio from episodes 1 and 3 is featured in the extras), episodes 1 and 3 from "The Faceless Ones," and episode 2 from "The Evil of the Daleks" (which includes commentary by actress Deborah Watling, who played the Doctor's companion, Victoria). Disc 2 marks the only episode from the Yetis' debut in "The Abominable Snowmen" (Watling again provides commentary), two episodes from "The Wheel in Space" (with commentary by director Tristan de Vere Cole and story editor Derrick Sherwin) and just one apiece for "The Web of Fear," "The Space Pirates," and "The Enemy of the World."

Chief among the extras is the 1998 documentary The Missing Years, which interviews several of the film collectors responsible for rescuing these lost episodes and fragments (the doc has been updated to reflect the 2004 discovery of two William Hartnell episodes); the supplemental features offer fragments and behind-the-scenes footage from "The Macra Terror" (with a rare clip of the monsters), "Fury from the Deep" (which includes a scene reconstruction), "The Highlanders," and the aforementioned stories. As with the William Hartnell disc, the Patrick Troughton Years is available for U.S. buyers as a stand-alone two-disc set and as part of a three-disc box with the Hartnell disc, while U.K. buyers will receive only the box; either scenario is sure to please the die-hard Doctor Who fan. --Paul Gaita ... Read more

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Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy scribe Douglas Adams made his scriptwriting debut for Doctor Who with this 16th-season episode, the second in the "Key to Time" story arc, and a delight for fans of the series and Adams's work. Tom Baker's Doctor and companion Romana (Mary Tamm), in pursuit of the second segment of the Key to Time, accidentally land on the planet Zanak, which has been cored out and converted into a ship with which to plunder the mineral resources of other neighboring planets. The Doctor and Romana must outwit the Captain, the planet's half-human, half-metal ruler, in order to retrieve the segment, which is concealed in the shriveled husk of a conquered planet. Adams's wry humor (well delivered by Baker and Tamm) and imaginative flourishes help buoy this episode, though Who aficionados that dislike the series' humorous efforts may not appreciate the serial's overall light tone. Fans of the Hitchhiker series will note several references to elements from that series (Adams was writing a radio adaptation of Hitchhiker's Guide at the same time he wrote this episode) woven throughout the script. --Paul Gaita ... Read more

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The Ribos Operation is the first part in the ambitious "Key to Time" story arc that composed the 16th season of Dr. Who, and series fans were treated to not only a feisty and comely new assistant for Tom Baker's Doctor, but a cracking good story by Robert Holmes that relied more on character and plot than on special effects or monsters. The Doctor is dispatched by the White Guardian to recover the six segments of the Key of Time, a device that allows its user to make time stand still. With the help of elegant Time Lady Romana (Mary Tamm), the Doctor begins his search on the wintry planet of Ribos, where a con man (Ian Cuthbert) is attempting to rook a deposed despot into buying the planet via a phony mineral scam. Unbeknownst to all but the Doctor and Romana, the con man's mineral sample is in fact the first segment to the Key. Holmes's script gives some charming wordplay to Baker and Tamm and Cuthbert, along with the prerequisite dashes of cliffhanger suspense. --Paul Gaita ... Read more

Description

The search for the Sixth (and last) Segment of the Key to Time bring the Doctor, Romana and K9 to the planet Atrios, where they encounter a pesky interplanetary war and Princess Astra, who is linked to the sixth segment in some mysterious way. ... Read more

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The sad fact faced by all fans of the BBC's long-running science fiction series Doctor Who is that nearly half of the 200+ episodes are considered lost or incomplete due to improper storage. However, episodes and tantalizing glimpses of "orphaned" stories from the reign of the first Doctor, William Hartnell (1963-66) have been culled together from 16 and 35mm prints and restored on this disc. The most noteworthy treasure is "Day of Armageddon," the second episode in the epic 12-part story from season 3, "The Daleks' Master Plan," which has been unseen by the public since its initial airing in 1965. Also among the recently recovered is "The Lion," the first episode of season's 2's "The Crusade." The only other surviving episodes from these stories--episodes 5 and 10 from "The Daleks' Master Plan," and episode 3 from "The Crusade" (audio tracks and narrative links for the second and fourth episodes of this story are also included), as well as the sole remaining episode (#4, "The Final Test") from "The Celestial Toymaker" (featuring veteran actor Michael Gough) round out the disc.

The DVD extras include fragments from the lost episodes of "The Daleks' Master Plan" and season 4's "The Smugglers" and "The Tenth Planet," all rescued from a variety of far-flung places; also included is commentary by actor Julian Glover for episode 3 of "The Crusade" and actors Peter Purves and Kevin Stoney, along with designer Raymond Cusick for "Day of Armaggedon," and some 8mm off-screen footage from the Hartnell era. Viewers can also access introductions to and an afterword for "The Crusade" (taken from the original VHS release) by accessing the "Play All" option on the main menu. The William Hartnell Years is available in the U.S. as a single disc and in a three-disc box with a double disc of rare episodes from the Patrick Troughton era; however, the Hartnell disc is only available to U.K. buyers in the boxed set. Either way, it's a must-have for Doctor Who completists. --Paul Gaita ... Read more

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The magnificent Helen Mirren soars through British TV movie Cause Célèbre, a true-life story of a scandalous murder in 1930s England.Soon after Alma Rattenbury (Mirren) hires an 18-year-old named Bowman(David Morrissey) to help around the house, she falls into an affair with the much younger man. Madly in love with her and jealous of her much older husband, Bowman rashly murders the elderly man. When the lovers are put on trial, the tabloids rant less about the murder and more about the sin of Alma's middle-aged passion. The storyline of Cause Célèbre contains few surprises, but it's skillfully written--the mordant wit of Alma's and Bowman's lawyers blithely discussing how each intends to blame the other's client is delicious--and wonderfully acted by Morrissey; David Suchet as Alma's celebrated lawyer, T. J. O'Connor; and especially Mirren, whose intelligence, sexiness, and empathy make her every scene fascinating. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

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"The Devil's Foot"
One of the most interesting stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon, "The Devil's Foot" finds the Great Detective's friend and ally, Dr. Watson (Edward Hardwicke), pressuring the exhausted sleuth (Jeremy Brett) into joining him on a vacation on the Cornish coast. Instead of relaxation, however, Holmes and Watson encounter one of the most horrifying multiple murders they have yet come across. Though our heroes nearly die from Holmes's effort to prove the cause of death, they carry on until Holmes finally unmasks the identity of the culprits--and then makes a controversial decision about the fate of one. Brett and Hardwicke excel as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous team, who are under more duress than usual in this fascinating tale.

"Silver Blaze"
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle caught a fair amount of flak for getting a lot of details wrong in this story about the training and racing of horses. Nevertheless, it is one of his most popular yarns and makes a fine basis for this vigorous 1988 episode from the Granada Television series about Sherlock Holmes. The Great Detective and Dr. Watsonhurry to Devonshire, following the murder of a trainer and the disappearance of Silver Blaze, a swift horse heavily favored to win the big-money Wessex Cup. Holmes takes some snarly barbs from Blaze's rich owner in stride--though he has his revenge on the arrogant fellow later. The mystery is a keen one and the solution is among Doyle's most inventive. Brett and Hardwicke are at their best as the dynamic duo.

"The Bruce Partington Plans"
A junior clerk working for Britain's defense planning dashes off in the middle of a date with his fiancée, and turns up dead along some railroad tracks--apparently having been pushed from a train while carrying several secret documents related to England's development of a submarine warship. Was he a traitor? If so, who killed him? The case is brought to the attention of Sherlock Holmes and his Dr. Watson, by none other than Mycroft Holmes (Charles Gray), brother of the Great Detective and indispensable repository of government business. Sherlock's conclusions, however, prove there is more to the truth than meets the eye. Brett, as always, is the perfect Holmes while Hardwicke is the ideal Watson for the latter years of their crime-fighting career. A strong story with some of the sleuth's most impressive investigatory work, "The Bruce-Partington Plans" is a worthy part of the long-running Granada Television series, based on Arthur Conan Doyle's famous character. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Holmes, excellent television...
These three Holmes episodes are a good variety of Holmes stories, and possibly might be the best DVD for the starting Holmes viewer. Brett and Hardwicke make the best Holmes/Watson ever seen on screen. The adaption of the Conan Doyle stories to TV work perfectly and are some of the best written, directed and acted television made yet.

Particularly memorable are the drug sequences in Devil's Foot, along with the story's very odd and lucid atmosphere. Bruce Partington is one of the best episodes since it has brilliant interaction between Sherlock, Holmes, Mycroft, and Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock's ever working, ever chiding house keeper. This story based around stolen plans for a top secret submarine puts Holmes through his greatest odds against a case with a thinnest thread to begin. And it is also the case with the greatest political conseqences for the world. It seems everytime the highest level of government calls on Holmes he winds up going to the furthest extreme, such as the cat burglery he commits in this episode. Arthur Conan Doyle's writing plays on so many levels and in Bruce Partington it is particularly adept because he writes about the arms race and balance of power in Europe that would eventually snap into World War One. His stories of Holmes also persevere because of the underlying optimism of his Britain; he writes the main criminals as generally rich and priviledged while the average man might be grubby, unrefined and ignorant, is extremely loyal and hardworking. It is no doubt why these are classic literature, and now classic television. ... Read more

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Murder strikes a teaching hospital in this satisfying puzzle from one of Britain's best mystery writers. Nightingale House, home to a top nursing program, is also the home of students, teachers, a nest of secrets, and racks and racks of easily accessible poisons. When prim Nurse Pierce is offed right in the middle of a classroom demonstration, tensions explode, troubles multiply, and Scotland Yard's poetically inclined Commander Adam Dalgliesh must untangle the mess. P.D. James's mystery novels are notable as much for their emotional depth as for their knotty solutions, and this thoughtful production reflects that, taking its time in building to the macabre fun. The acting is uniformly good, but Roy Marsden makes a truly remarkable Dalgliesh, quietly capturing his intelligence, sadness, and faint touch of cruelty. Shroud for a Nightingale's three episodes take about four hours, so brew a good strong pot of tea (be sure to check the milk for poison) and settle in for the evening. --Ali Davis ... Read more