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 Before I tell you about this excellent DVD it’s necessary for me to give you a brief plot outline. If you don’t’ want to know close your eyes now……you can open them after three paragraphs!
The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) is exiled to Earth by the Time Lords and has had his ability to operate the TARDIS taken away from him. The TARDIS lands him on Earth in the middle of a massive meteorite shower. He is found by UNIT troops and taken to a nearby hospital where he falls into a coma. When he wakes he is confused and appears to know The Brigadier (head of UNIT in the UK) although no-one knows him.
The meteorites turn out to be globes (like eggs) containing the alien Nestenes. Their agent, Channing, infiltrates a plastics factory and is using the energy from the globes to animate his Auton soldiers (Autons are plastic figures, like mannequins, created to take key positions and take over the world). He is controlled by the Nestene Consciousness; a malignant, squid-like monster which is indescribably hideous and extremely powerful. It’s quite a complicated story to describe, but very good to watch!
Aided by newly recruited UNIT scientist, Dr Elizabeth Shaw, the Doctor sets out stop this plan and (as usual) save the Earth from invasion. Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge- Stewart, seen previously during Patrick Troughton’s “Doctorship” and UNIT are soon drafted in to help when meteorites and people start going missing.
What follows is a great adventure with some great action and some very chilling moments. When the Doctor and Liz are hiding in the waxworks, it is very eerie, and it’s very hard to tell who is real and who is not! The shop window dummy sequences are also chilling, and I must admit that I looked at them very suspiciously for a while afterwards; I was the only woman frightened by the window display in M ' S!! This is not really a story for very little children; a genuine “hide behind the sofa” Dr Who classic!
Spearhead From Space was originally transmitted from 03/01/1970 to 24/01/1970.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Unit Recruitment Film
This is humorous compilation of clips showing UNIT in action. Some people have said they found this boring, but I thought it was good and a great reminder of the “Golden Days” of the show. It doesn’t last too long, at around 5 minutes, and was first broadcast as part of the programme’s 30th Anniversary celebrations. I would recommend you give it a go, for a bit of well produced nostalgia.
Commentary from Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) and Caroline John (Liz Shaw)
This is pretty interesting, and the two of them obviously have good memories of their parts in the series. I enjoyed listening to them and it gave me a nice insight into the behind the scenes action (and the fun that they had) while making this story. Again I would recommend that you watch it first without the commentary, because it’s dubbed over the sound, so they are distracting from the action.
Production Information Subtitles
Once again my favourite Special Feature on the disc! Good facts about the story, the locations and the actors. I learned a lot and it cleared up a lot of our “wasn’t that so and so who played whatsit?” type questions. It helped my husband and I understand and appreciate a story that we hadn’t been as familiar with: Recommended!
Photo Gallery
The usual stills and photos of the cast. Very nice, but not unusual! Some shots are exclusive and “never been seen before” so it’s worth a look to see those.
Graphical Menus
Very slick and well produced; there are some great pictures from the adventure playing in the background too. These menus are easy to navigate and make the DVD very user friendly too.
Scene Selection
Another pretty standard feature that enables you to pick at which point you start to watch the story. Each episode is split into sections; this is very useful, but again, nothing out of the ordinary.
Two trailers from the 1999 repeat season
These bought back some memories I can tell you! I got married in 1999 and my husband to be and I watched these repeats together. These are the original trailers (as the title suggests) of these repeats and are nice to watch.
Trailer for the “one-off” Dr Who night on November 13th 1999
A “must watch” trailer….I won’t give it away in case you didn’t see it at the time (shame on you!).
Easter Egg
There is one thing hidden on this disc. I won’t tell you how to find it, so you can have that fun yourself. Just bear in mind that you can only access the Easter Egg if you view the DVD on your PC. This is great if you find it…I recommend it if you have access to a computer (and DVD-ROM drive of course!).
INTERESTING FACTS:
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It was the first DVD release with Jon Pertwee portraying the Doctor.
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It was the first Dr Who DVD to have on screen production notes added.
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It had already been re-mastered so was already of the high standard required for DVD release.
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It was the first colour Dr Who production and was the first adventure of the 1970s.
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It was the start of a new “Earth based” era for the Doctor and saw the introduction of a more grown up style of story.
This is a really good DVD; one that I’m sure any Sci-fi or Dr Who fan would be proud to own. It was the first DVD release in the Dr Who series to have all these wonderful features that have become such a bonus. The sound and picture quality are both clear, crisp and a pleasure to watch. If you consider that this story was first broadcast in 1970…over thirty years ago…it is staggering to see it in such a good state!
I would really recommend that you invest in a copy of Spearhead From Space. It is available from all the usual stockists (Blackstar, Amazon, HMV, MVC, etc) and retails from £18.59 to £19.99 (where I have seen it).
Even if you already own it on video, or have seen it on TV, it’s well worth buying and is a super DVD. My only criticism (as with the other BBC DVD titles) is that the covers aren’t very inspiring. The discs released in other countries are far superior to the UK ones. This doesn’t make the DVD any less appealing because there are web-sites where you can print out alternative (far better) covers!
Happy viewing!
» Review by Andrea Waterhouse, Copyright 2003.
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