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| Doctor Who - The Two Doctors [1985] [1963] | ![Doctor Who - The Two Doctors [1985] [1963]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512J6DAQAKL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Actors: Colin Baker, Patrick Troughton, Nicola Bryant, Frazer Hines
Studio: 2 Entertain Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy Used: £4.13
You Save: £15.86 (79%)
New (7) from £5.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 6740
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Running Time: 134 minutes
Number Of Items: 2
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5014503121327
ASIN: B0000AISJA
Theatrical Release Date: September 29, 1975
Release Date: September 8, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Usually NEXT DAY DELIVERY if ordered before 3pm Mon-Fri (Uk-Mainland)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Doctor Who: The Two Doctors is one of those occasional adventures in which the then-current Doctor joins forces with one of his former incarnations, here Colin Baker's sixth Doctor with Patrick Troughton's second Doctor. In the epic Three Doctors (1972-3) such a team-up faced a suitably overwhelming danger; here the threat is rather less impressive. This adventure starts encouragingly enough, with Troughton and Jamie (Frazer Hines) investigating time-travel experiments on a space station, which endanger the fabric of the universe. Baker's Doctor and Peri (Nichola Bryant) arrive in the aftermath of a massacre and suspect the Timelords; but events lead them to Spain and old enemies the Sontarans. Also involved is alien schemer Chessene (Jacqueline Pearce) in a role not dissimilar to her Servalan from Blake's 7, while John Stratton as Shockeye, a food-obsessed alien "Androgum" chef is vastly entertaining. Despite location filming in Seville, the three 45-minute episodes eventually stretch the material too thinly, degenerating into some of the most farcical scenes in the history of Who. The story becomes a repetitive series of double-crosses, escapes and pursuits, featuring an unnecessary obsession with cannibalistic comedy-horror. Despite many fine moments along the way The Two Doctors ultimately leaves a Bad Taste. On the DVD: Doctor Who: The Two Doctors is offered with an as-good-as-possible 4:3 picture, which exposes the limitations of the original video footage. The sound is excellent mono and the first disc also offers an isolated track of Peter Howell's striking musical score and an engaging commentary with director Peter Moffatt, Frazer Hines and Jacqueline Pearce. A Fix with Sontarans (9 mins) is a specially made mini-adventure, with Colin Baker and Janet Fielding returning as Tegan, made for the then hugely popular Jim'll Fix It. The highlight of Disc Two is Behind the Sofa: Robert Holmes and Doctor Who a new 45-minute documentary with series luminaries Chris Boucher, Terrance Dicks, Philip Hinchcliffe, Barry Letts and Eric Saward remembering the writer. Of more specialist interest to would-be programme makers is Adventures in Time and Spain (29 mins), in which Production Manager Gary Downie charmingly recalls the problems of finding the Spanish locations. Beneath the Lights is a 27-minute compilation of studio footage centred on Baker and Bryant filming three scenes, while Beneath the Sun complies video location rushes, which at 36 minutes with poor picture quality is for completists only. Wavelength (1984) is an interesting 29-minute edition of the BBC Schools radio documentary series giving an in-depth look at the making of Doctor Who in general. Finally there's an animated, scored photo gallery. Overall this is an exhaustively comprehensive presentation that will satisfy the even the most serious Who fan. --Gary S Dalkin
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
Timelords behaving badly" February 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm afraid that this is really not the best of Robert Holmes, Colin Baker, Patrick Trougton or JNT stories in general. There is a lot to enjoy, Patrick Troughton is always good, and whether you agree with me or not, so's Colin B, but this is a padded story that is less than a work of genius.
It might have been a lot better over 2x45 minute episodes instead of 3. The 1st episode is the most padded as Troughton and Jamie go to a space station and then after an argument, Jamie escapes while Troughton's Doctor is captured and the Androgums and Sontarans set up shop in 20th Century Spain(it must be for the views!).
Colin Baker's Doctor and Peri, fish, argue, look for the name of a good Doctor, argue and then wander about a space station.
And all of this takes 45 minutes.
Colin and Patrick Troughton are good and Robert Holmes gives Colin Baker some of his best Doctor lines ever, especially musing about the possible collapse of the Universe, and there are lovely touches such as the story begining with Troughton in black and white before changing to colour, Colin Baker feeling his predessor's pain, but this highlight's the problem.
The dressing is great but the meal is not.
Holmes love for his dear old Sontarans is clear and there is a great deal of humour with Commander Styke, especially bickering with Troughton.
New monsters the Androgums are interesting but never as well developed as they could be. Troughton gets to play an Androgum as he is injected with their genetic material and Colin Baker shows his doctor being affected as he muses about eating a cat!
The two Doctors themselves get a bare minimum of time together.
The silliest moment is when Colin Baker jealously covets Patrick Troughton's Doctor having a Tardis remote control. He says "I've always wanted on of those!" Colin he's your ealier self, you ought to know where it went!
The commentary including Bryant, Baker and Frazer Hines is a good 1, and full of happy memories.
There is an extra mini-adventure that was done for Jimmy Saville's Jim'll Fix It, and it's fun until Saville turns up.
There is an interview with Gary Downie remembering the logistics for shooting abroad and a radio programme provides some material on the making of the story.
There is also a bit or raw production footage but ity's not very interesting.
Best of all is a documentary on story author Robert Holmes' contributions to Dr Who "Behind the Sofa", where contributors such as barry letts and Terrance Dicks fill in some details on the man behind the writing.
All in a good support package for a disappointing adventure.
 Poor- and it's the writer's fault January 31, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Two Doctors is probably the worst story in Colin Baker's brief tenure as the Doctor and the fault lies squarely with script writer Robert Holmes. Despite many's determination to cast the blame on production values, these are frankly no worse than at any other period in the series history. The cannibalism theme was a major error of judgment. Holmes has written some wonderful scripts for Dr. Who. Sadly this was not one of them
 Two great Doctors for the price of one! July 11, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Two Doctors was a highlight of Doctor Who's classic 22nd series. It featured the surprise return of the 2nd Doctor Who, played as always by the lovely Patrick Troughton, who we discovered had grey hair (his previous stories were black and white.) Also back are the Sontarans, one of the top 10 monsters in the history of the show and as evil as ever here. The other thing the story is famous for is that it was filmed in Spain. This adds a real touch of class to the proceedings and the visuals are sumptuous, brilliantly directed by veteran Peter Moffatt. The creepy way he introduces the Sontarans is startling but effective. Special mention must go to John Stratton, who relishes the role of Shockeye, the main baddy of the piece. Mr Stratton establishes himself as one of the best villians ever to grace a Doctor Who story and his scenes are filled with tension. Colin Baker is well into his stride now and fills the screen with ease, even when he comes face to face with his former self (although that is no disrespect to Patrick Troughton, who is as wonderful as ever.) A real gem, this is one you will not want to miss. If you liked the new series, then I would say it compares very favourably with the likes of 'New Earth'. Wonderful.
The Two Doctors February 4, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Okay, first of all lets get something out of the way. Think Three Doctors - think 10th anniversary, think Five Doctors - think 20th anniversary, think Two Doctors think no anniversary. This may seem that I'm stating the obvious however it is something that needs to be said as quite a few people come into this story knowing of multi doctors, a script written by Robert Holmes and knowing of the returning Sontarans that they immediately think rip roaring epic anniversary tale and come away disappointed. There are other aforementioned stories that suit this tag (and some unmentioned) but this is not one of them.
This story is one of the rare examples of exploring the nature of time travel. Throughout the course of the series The Doctor has got himself into various situations that he has been able to get out of, however this story starts off with The Second Doctor walking into a trap that has been set up by an alien that has been augmented to the level of a super genius. Due to his later incarnation turning up at the scene after the events in question due to a completely unrelated matter its up to the Sixth (and at the time current) Doctor to save his previous self.
With such a simple kidnap and rescue plot a good deal of screen time goes to character building moments and at the length of a traditional six parter it gives the story time to breath, not leaving the story feeling as frenetic as the rest of the season. A good thing about the relaxed plot is that it gives Colin Baker some time to build up his newly regenerated Doctor which as this was his first proper full season is only fair. In fact the entire of the first half of the story, scenes which feature Colin Bakers Doctor and Peri see them exploring a battered space station trying to figure out what happened, in terms of character building it is reminiscent of Tom Bakers 4th Doctor and the opening episode of Arc in Space.
There are so many good performances in this, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are on form as the regulars and the guest cast also features some good parts. Shockeye the food obsessed Androgum and Oscar the out of work actor are wonderfully OTT. Jacqueline Pearce makes for a good villain as the super genius Androgum Chesene (which she confesses is a similar part to her more well known role in Blakes 7). However the main joy for most people is seeing Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines slip effortlessly back into the roles of The Second Doctor and Jamie. Its a surprising fact that due to the kidnap element Jamie gets more screen time however Patrick does give a good performance. A few of the stories detractors complain that the Second Doctor doesn't get as much to do as the later Doctor, however Troughton does get a lot of screen time in episode one and goes wonderfully OTT in episode three when he gets implanted with androgum genes, also he gets to do a lot more than he did in his previous appearance.
In short this is a fun slice of Who full of character building, good dialogue and fun moments. In all honesty most people would probably give the story 3 or 4 stars but I has a real soft spot and I can't resist giving it the 5 star treatment. The only negative aspect is the Sontarens who are not really needed in the script and don't do much.
There's a good amount of extras on the DVD, I'm a big sucker for behind the scenes footage and there is about an hours worth of studio and location footage (sadly there's not much footage of Troughton though). The commentary featuring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Frazer Hines, Peter Moffat (director) and Jaqueline Pearce is very entertaining especially when they have to take turns explaining what's going onto Pearce. A Fix With Sontarans is an amusing piece of nostalgia as is Wavelength. Adventures in Time and Space sadly didn't interest me and I lasted 5 mins before switching off deciding that anecdotes being given on a UK beach about finding locations in Spain was a bit dull. Behind the Sofa is a documentary about Robert Holmes and his contribution to Who, he's written some good stories and was script editor during one of the best era's of Who. Its easy to forget how many good stories he wrote, when I think of I think the auton stories and Pyramids of Mars, its nice to be reminded he wrote the likes of Caves of Androzani and Carnival of Monsters.
 Violence and cannibalism in sunny Spain May 9, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Story: 4/5 - Extras: 5/5
Colin Baker's era of the TV series, and in particular season twenty-two, often comes under fire from fans as being badly written, thoughtless, bombastic and violent, with an unlikeable protagonist. However, I must confess a sneaking enjoyment of Colin Baker's era and nowhere more so than in Robert Holmes' The Two Doctors, which is by far the best of the original series' multi-Doctor stories.
The story isn't perfect: episode one drags, and there are some problems with the effects, particularly the Sontarans' loose headpieces. However, it also boasts excellent supporting characters in Jacqueline Pearce's conniving augmented Androgum Chessene and John Stratton's fiendishly greedy performance as Shockeye, the Androgum chef. The story is rife with cannibalistic and carnivorous themes and yes, there is a lot of violence, but it all serves to emphasise writer Robert Holmes' obvious ambhorrence of such behaviour in the real world, without ever resorting to preaching.
We also have the pleasure of seeing the return of Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines, both looking older but obviously enjoying themselves. Finally, much of the story is filmed in sunny Spanish locations in and around Seville, which gives the story a great sense of sophistication and a welcome departure from the often cheap studio sets common to the era. It's just a pity that the Spanish setting doesn't really kick in until episode two.
As well as an expertly restored version of the original story (which is a lengthy one, equivalent to a "traditional" six-parter), which also has an excellent score by Peter Howell, The Two Doctors has as large a package of special features as you could possibly ask for. The commentary by Baker, Bryant, Hines, Jacqueline Pearce and director Peter Moffatt is unfocused (Pearce says "darling" a lot without offering much else), but the on-screen production notes are excellent, and there is also a wide range of bonus material including two custom-made documentaries, an hour's worth of "making of" footage, a half-hour radio programme discussing The Two Doctors and the 1985 Jim'll Fix It special A Fix With Sontarans starring Colin Baker and Janet Fielding. All together a well-stuffed package.
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