DVD Corner

Doctor Who: The Moonbase DVD Review

“The Moonbase” is a decent Cybermen story. 

After planning a trip to Mars, the Doctor, Jamie, Ben and Polly predictably do not arrive at their destination. Instead, they discover that they have landed on the Moon. While goofing around in their space suits on the lunar surface, the group comes across a Moonbase. The base turns out to be a control center for an Earth weather control machine called the Gravitron. Alas, things are not running smoothly at said base due to an apparent virus breakout. Worse still, crew members are starting to die from the virus and perhaps other reasons. As the Doctor investigates these troubling matters, it is soon revealed that the Cybermen are behind these disasters. What do the Cybermen want and can the Doctor and company stop them from their mission?

Prior to this DVD release, “The Moonbase” was one of the incomplete classic era “Doctor Who” episodes. Of the 4 episodes of this Second Doctor story, only episodes 2 and 4 currently exist. Thankfully, however, episodes 1 and 3 have now been fully animated and the Cybermen centric story can now be viewed in full. So, how does it fare? From a writing perspective, the story is, well, like many “Doctor Who” stories as the script follows a standard structure that classic era writers tended to follow. The story takes awhile to get going, the characters try to figure out what’s going on, the Cybermen reveal their destructive plan, the story could have easily been truncated into an hour- the usual.

The good news is that you won’t mind trudging through this 98 minute adventure because of the wonderful setting (and stand-out) sets and, of course, the Cybermen. While “The Tenth Planet” Cybermen left something to be desired with their voices, they have thankfully been altered for “The Moonbase” and now sound more robotic and less human. They’re also much more menacing here as they carefully take over the moonbase. As far as the sets go, this episode boasts some stellar production values for the time. The space suits, the Cybermen suits, the moon set, and the moonbase set are all creative and well designed.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 4:3. How does it look? The live-action episode transfers hold up well here while the newly animated sequences look stunningly beautiful. This could very well be the best missing episode animation we have seen to date.

Audio Track: Dolby Digital Mono. How does it sound? The Mono track is hit-and-miss. The dialogue and Cybermen voices sound fairly sharp while the sound f/x and music are distractingly shrill and loud at times.

Extras:
* Trailers for “Doctor Who” Series 7 and “The Underwater Menace,” Radio Times Listings, info text, and a photo gallery.
* “Lunar Landing” is an above average making of featurette that contains cast and crew interviews, episode clips, and discussions about the Cybermen, the production of the episode, the sets, etc.
* Commentary on episodes 1 and 3 by Toby Hadoke, Lucy Pedler, Carol Topolski, Innes Lloyd, Lovett Bickford, Barry Noble, Derek Chaffer, and Reg Whitehead. 2 varied commentaries that contain archival interviews, discussions about writer Kit Pedler from his daughters, and comments from actors who actually played Cybermen. The commentary tracks on episodes 2 and 4 contain a different cast of commentators (aside from moderator Toby Hadoke) as Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Edward Phillips, and Brian Hodgson speak their mind on these two.

Overall Thoughts: “The Moonbase” might not be making many “best of” lists, but I am sure fans will be glad to finally watch this episode in full. Now, bring on “The Underwater Menace!”

February 10, 2014 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Doctor Who: The Moonbase DVD Review