Belle Epoque
The Official BBC Site have the news that City of Death is coming to DVD in November!
We here at the Doctor Who Blog have this to say to BBC Video:
TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH
Leaving that aside, we’re thrilled that this well-loved adventure—which has dominated top ten polls for decades and is the favourite of the current producers—is finally getting the shiny disk treatment. (Many of us expect to wear out the lasers on our DVD players from constantly repeating the scene where the Doctor is interrogated by the Count and Countess for the first time). And we’re thrilled at the idea of a featurette with Tom Baker in Paris. Might we suggest, though, a Russell T Davies commentary as a means of tying the “classic” series together with the “new”?
Posted by Graeme on Wednesday, March 16 at 8:10 am
6 Comments...
True it is one of the best stories. Thanks to David Agnew (Douglas Adams, Graham Williams and let’s not forget David Fisher) the biggest problem I have with the story is more with how it is used to prop up the other stories around it and say “See this! This is what the entire Williams run is like.” Of course it isn’t. It is the apex and most other stories from that time can’t get to that level but it is what people imagine it to be. Doctor Who as The Avengers which is fine but is it really sustainable? I also think part of it is fans who are generally embarrassed to tell other people they are Doctor Who fans point to this story. Saying to a friend that it was written by Douglas Adams (Someone they probably heard of unlike Robert Holmes), shot in Paris (so it wasn’t that cheap)and had a cameo from John Cleese makes people feel they can brag about it because it is “classy”.
As for the story itself it as I said very good it’s too bad like several other classic stories it has such a naff ending.
Posted by Ryan on 03/16 at 10:37 AM
Lest you forget that Graham Williams also produced Fang Rock, Sunmakers and The Key To Time! City of Death is great…and perhaps a bit more accessible to the general public (ie the girlfriend factor)...but I would not say it is Williams’ best. It is up there however. PS… I love Nimon too.
Posted by Rod on 03/16 at 03:17 PM
I’m waiting for the Lalla Ward boxed set.
Posted by John on 03/17 at 08:48 AM
“Local police find British actress sealed in box in home of Toronto man.”
Posted by Mike on 03/17 at 10:17 AM
HB, I want to watch this!
Posted by anonymous on 03/17 at 10:34 AM
The British fans seem much more strongly anti-Williams. For them DW is spooky, childhood nostalgia, and so they tend to cling to the belief that it should be “serious” and never “silly”, whereas for Anglophile, Python-crazed fans in North America it was often the humor that made the show special. It’s hardly surprising that Williams stories should take so long to reach DVD, nor that the first one to make it would be the atypically Hinchcliffe-like “Horror of Fang Rock.”. Contrast that with North American fans demanding the Key to Time as the first box set! We seem to be at the mercy of UK prejudices (slow-moving rubber monsters good, witty humor and quirky storylines bad), so expect the “Sun Makers” DVD to be a long, LONG way off…
Posted by Curt on 03/19 at 08:46 AM
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