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Title:
Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive: The Tom Baker Years 1974 - 1981
Region:
One
Genre:
British Science Fiction
Stars:
Tom Baker and Lalla Ward
Writer:
David Fisher
Director:
Lovett Bickford
Feature
length: 86 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary With Actress Lalla Ward, Director Lovett Bickford, and Script
Editor Christopher H. Bidmead, “A New Beginning” Documentary, “From Avalon
To Argolis – David Fisher and Christopher H. Bidmead” Featurette,
“Synthesizing Starfields” Featurette, Title Design Featurette, “Leisure
Wear” Featurette, “Blue Peter” Featurette, Music-Only Option, Production
Note Text Commentary, Photo Gallery
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 6 Per Episode/24 Total
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1980/DVD Release: 2005
Home
Video Distributor: BBC Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Arguably
the most beloved Actor to ever play “The Doctor” is Tom Baker who stars in
“The Leisure Hive” along with his ex-wife Lalla Ward. Originally transmitted
between August 30, 1980 and September 20, 1980, “The Leisure Hive” marked
the beginning of the 17th season of “Doctor Who” on the BBC. The
series is the longest running sci-fi program in television history with
Christopher Eccleston (28 Days Later) starring in the role of the role as “The
Doctor” at this time of this writing with co-star Billie Piper as his latest
traveling companion. The strength of “Doctor Who” definitely rests with the
quality of the Actors that have portrayed the Time Lord through the years, but I
have always felt the biggest strength of “Doctor Who” lied within the
writing of the stories themselves. Even the weakest stories tend to have
something engaging to them. While we Americans can watch state of the art visual
effects on television with such great American franchises like the new
“Battlestar Galactica,” both “Stargate: SG-1” and “Stargate:
Atlantis” and reruns of the last few incarnations of “Star Trek,” I think
aspiring television sci-fi writers could learn a lot from watching “Doctor
Who” because despite the budget limitations and at times laughable special
effects and monsters, the series from the beginning focused on great
storytelling with terrific Actors and ultimately stands the test of time because
of this. If there were an American genre TV show on the air today in first-run
episodes that I think truly puts storytelling and characters first above
anything fantastic it is “Lost” and for anyone who has seen that show on
either side of the pond, I think you might agree that while the shows could not
be more different, they both rely more on great writing and interesting
characters first and above any kind of eye candy regardless of the allotted
respective budgets and the time in which the programs were produced.
Season
17 of “Doctor Who” would also see a shift more toward serious science
fiction storytelling with the departure of Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s
Guide To The Galaxy) as Story Editor and the arrival of John Nathan-Turner as
Producer. Turner had been involved with “Doctor Who” for years and was quite
familiar with how the BBC operated and one of the things he wanted to do was to
get rid of anything too “magical” that would allow the characters to get in
and out jams too easily so out went K-9 and to some extent Tom Baker’s
humorous adlibs were reined in a bit in an attempt to take some of the camp out
of the show. This would prove to be both a good change for the show, but also a
bit of a put off too. “Doctor Who” had been produced with children in mind,
but had caught on with adults because of the humorous nature of some of the
characters and action. I mean “The Doctor” in all his incarnations was a
maverick at last among his own people and definitely a bit of an eccentric. Tom
Baker was perfect to bring both of these qualities out and he also always
maintained a certain amount of humanity within the character so that in one
storyline where he rationalized why he did not destroy the Daleks (one of Doctor
Who’s most popular enemies) at the time of their genesis when billions of
lives in the future could be saved, we could emphasize with him and understand
his decision even if some viewers personally disagreed with it. That is why Tom
Baker is often considered the best Actor to play the Doctor. He could handle
both drama and comedy effortlessly and infuse it into the program without ever
going out of character.
After
a brief opening on Brighton Beach where K-9 is “written” out of the
adventure, The Doctor and Romana (Lalla Ward) travel a few hundred years into
the future to the planet Argolis, a poisonous world ravaged by a war with a
reptilian race known as the Foamasi. The survivors on Argolis have been
experimenting with a way to preserve their race for generations to come while
slowing their own degeneration that occurs after one enters into their elder
years. The Leisure Hive is a resort devoted toward interspecies understanding as
well as a testament for the people of Argolis to be remembered by. However
wherever The Doctor shows up, you can bet there’s always a bit of trouble
around the corner and here the trouble lies with various plots within the
government of Argolis as well as a threat from the Foamasi that implicates the
Doctor in the death of a visiting Earth Official. Nice plot twists and some
clever misdirection make “The Leisure Hive” a better than average four-part
“Doctor Who” adventure.
Presented
in a (1.33:1) four by three television broadcast aspect ratio, “The Leisure
Hive” looks for the most part like the original video masters were well
preserved with only a scene here and there showing any sort of video noise. A
newly remixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack mix is also provided
for viewers with an atmospheric use of the sound effects and synthesized music
score to deliver a fuller listening experience for the viewer. The original
English Stereo mix is also included along with optional English Captions for the
hearing impaired. Though not entirely screen specific, a retrospective feature
length audio commentary with Actress Lalla Ward, Director Lovett Bickford, and
Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead is provided as a listening option along
with a music-only soundtrack option as well. There is also a fact and anecdote
filled optional text commentary track included on the DVD, which points out
references in the script from “The Armageddon Factor,” which is available on
DVD-Video now individually or as a part of BBC Video’s excellent “The Key Of
Time: The Complete Adventure” DVD box set.
The
other extra value features included on this dual layered DVD is an excellent
documentary entitled “A New Beginning” (30:20), which chronicles the many
the changes made to “Doctor Who” by incoming Producer John Nathan-Turner.
The documentary features some interview clips with Turner from the mid 1990s and
brand new video interviews that include none other than Tom Baker himself. There
is also some interesting behind-the-scenes video from the making of “The
Leisure Hive” featured in the documentary too. This documentary is supported
by a number of companion featurettes that focus on the story development and
writing of “The Leisure Hive” in “From Avalon To Argolis” with Writer
David Fisher and Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead (14:02), the scoring of
the revised opening theme for “Doctor Who” combined with the creation the
new opening credits in “Synthesizing Starfields” (9:09) and “Redesigning
The Titles” respectively. In addition there is a costume design featurette
with Judith Hudson who shows the various sketches and so forth that led to the
upgrade in The Doctor’s costume and whatnot in “Leisure Wear” (6:48) as
well as a sort of teaser for the seventeenth season with a tour of the Longleat
Doctor Who Exhibition that features an appearance by Producer John Nathan-Turner
entitled “Blue Peter” (3:52).
A
motion photo gallery (5:36) and cast biographies and credits under the
subheading “Who’s Who” wrap up the DVD extras included in this volume. The
interactive menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. “Doctor Who: The
Leisure Hive: The Tom Baker Years 1974 – 1981” is available on DVD-Video now
at retailers on and offline courtesy of BBC Video.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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