Dr Who: The Five Doctors

Picture

4 Star

Sound

5 Star

Dolby Digital 5.1,

Extras & Presentation

3 Star

Tardis Console Menu, Music tracks

Movie

5 Star

Information

4:3 (Original Aspect Ratio), 24 Chapter Stops, RSDL

Distributor

BBC

If you are a sad Dr Who anorak like me you will no doubt be interested in this disk. I was gutted when it took an extra month to arrive but think it was well worth the wait. The best place to get an idea of the quality of the film is at the Dr Who dynamic rankings page, although this is a slightly different version to the original, with a small amount of extra footage.
The disk has a Tardis console styled menu for scene selection, language selection and to access the music tracks included.
The picture quality is very good. At the start of the main event I was a little concerned as I noticed a few artefacts in the background but these rapidly dissapeared, as though they hadn't quite worked out how to do the encoding at the start. Obviously the BBC have been slightly limited by the original, but the capacity of the dual-layer disk seems to have been filled to get the best bit rate possible and the general colour and definition of the picure is much better than I'd expected.
I was slightly concerned at the thought of a re-mixed soundtrack but it's nice and subtle. A few extra rear effects and enough background music to immerse you nicely without an over the top re-mix.
The extras are some music tracks, which are accessed using a scene selection type screen.

Overall: If you are a Dr Who fan then you'll want it. If you've ever liked Dr Who you'll probably enjoy it. The Beeb have done a nice job putting it onto DVD.

(c) Philippa Conmy 1999

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