Cheap Doctor Who - City of Death (Episode 105) (DVD) (Christopher Barry (III), Rodney Bennett, John Black (IV), Gerald Blake (II), Darrol Blake, Timothy Combe, Fiona Cumming, Derrick Goodwin, John Gorrie, Ken Grieve) Price
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DVD features
Thanks to its popularity, the two-disc DVD of City of Death comes with an abundance of typically topnotch supplemental features. The commentary by Glover, co-star Tom Chadbon, and director Michael Hayes, is the longest and most informative of the extras, but it's well-matched by Paris in the Springtime, a 45-minute making-of featurette that offers rare archival interviews with Adams and many of the cast (but not Baker or Ward, sadly) and crew. Paris, W12 offers 20 minutes of studio footage taken from 1/2-inch videotape, while Prehistoric Landscapes and Chicken Wrangler are very different views of the story's special effects (the latter is a particularly amusing glimpse at the challenges of working with live animals). Finally, there's Eye on Blatchford, a wry parody of BBC "human interest" news items, here focusing on another alien attempting to live peacefully in the rural English countryside. Production notes and photos and a batch of well-concealed Easter eggs round out this highly enjoyable set. --Paul Gaita
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Christopher Barry (III), Rodney Bennett, John Black (IV), Gerald Blake (II), Darrol Blake, Timothy Combe, Fiona Cumming, Derrick Goodwin, John Gorrie, Ken Grieve |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 29 September, 1975 |
| MANUFACTURER: | BBC Warner |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC |
| TYPE: | Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy, Movie, Science Fiction, TV Shows, Television |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 2 |
| UPC: | 794051239921 |
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Customer Reviews of Doctor Who - City of Death (Episode 105)
A Classic For anyone who's experience of Doctor Who is purely through the new series, City of Death showcases just how good the old series could be. This 1979 classic has everything, Tom Baker at his finest, some great Paris location filming and then to top at all it's written by Douglas Adams. The accompanying documentary is worth the entry fee alone.
MORE of a table wine, really
Before Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, the late Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) re-penned this goofy romp through Paris, history and prehistory. He has the badie planning to steal the Mona Lisa in order to sell fakes that aren't fake at all, then executing said plan in order to fund his secret, posthumous, alien-agenda.
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> "City of Death", broadcast in 1979 as the second story of season seventeen, is one of the few outstanding story arcs in one of the weakest Tom Baker seasons. Although, the guest cast and cameos are impressive, featuring Julian Glover (Indiana Jone and the Last Crusade) , Catherine Schell and David Graham amongst others, with John Cleese and Eleanor Bron (in episode four). The script full of clever, inspired dialogue and the location filming in Paris, a first for the show, makes the story seem more impressive. Tom Baker's over the top humorous acting does seem to fit the bill here. Lalla Ward as Romana is still finding her character (given her unfortunate choice of outfits in this) in her second story, but the relationship between her and Baker is developing so nicely (in and out-of-character, the couple married later) that the story is a pleasure to watch. Then, the addition of the thick, British detective Duggan provides for a good foil for the pair. There are moment's of classic Adams' Adams' brilliance, like the Doctor writing "This is a Fake!" on DaVinci's canvases or his intial scream as thumb-screws are applied to his hands yelling, "His hands are cold." This was Adams' last Dr. Who script, "SHADA", was abandoned midway through filming due to a BBC strike and he didn't continue as the script editor. Although, had it been completed, "Shada" would have proved a better story than "City." What I remember most about seeing "City of Death" sticks out now upon a more recent screening as, "a lot of running around Paris, with some time travel tossed in the mix."
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>Normally I love DVD extras, especially on Dr. Who DVDs, this wasn't one of those times. The extras have been added to a second disc, thus raising the cost for what in this case seems like no good reason (unlike "Curse of Fenric"). Unused studio footage and out-takes from episode one, a look at the locations, a short documentary. These bonuses aren't all that great, they're too long, repeating information already available in the text, the post adventure faux documentary about the alien character's life after the show isn't very good. The commentary is also disappointing, without Baker or Ward (nor the late Douglas Adams) taking part with the job left to the director and the two guest actors, Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon with little to relate about the series as a whole. I'm not clear on the process used for selecting the order that Dr. Who DVDs are being released, but there are better Tom Baker 4th Doctor episodes out there than should be released first.
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> "City of Death," like the Doctor says about 1979, "is more a table wine, really."
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Great, except for the commentary track
"City of Death" deserves all the praise it has gotten, and the DVD has only one disappointing feature: The commentary audio track adds absolutely nothing of interest. Fortunately, one can activate an "information text" that appears as the program runs, which is much more interesting. There are also entertaining extra features, including a "making of" that includes an illustrated summary of the original, very different draft of the story.