The Time Lords have banished the Doctor
to Earth and forced him to regenerate. The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) wants to get
back into his TARDIS and travel time and space, but he learns the Time Lords have grounded the TARDIS and some of the Doctor’s
memories. Meanwhile, UNIT is investigating some strange meteorites that have
landed. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) has recruited Elizabeth
Shaw (Caroline John) to help investigate the alien threats which keep getting attracted to Earth. She is first skeptic about what UNIT is hiring her to do,
but she soon teams up with the Doctor to stop the latest alien threat known as the Autons who are operating out of a plastics
factory.
SPEARHEAD IN SPACE is a unique Doctor Who
story- it is the first story filmed in color, it was all shot on 16 mm film (due to an industrial strike) and it was the first
story of my favorite Doctor aka the Third Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee. The
51st story marked a series of new beginnings for DOCTOR WHO as it would lay out the format of many Doctor Who stories
for the next five years with the Doctor, his assistant, UNIT, and an alien bad guy.
The seventh season of classic Who has to be one of my favorite seasons of the entire show with SPEARHEAD IN SPACE being
the first of four fantastic stories in a row in addition to the Doctor having the underappreciated (at the time) and intelligent Dr. Liz Shaw (Caroline John) as his assistant.
Since the whole serial was shot on film,
this made the first Third Doctor story a perfect choice for the first Classic Who to debut on blu-ray. However, the HD transfer
had a few hiccups along the way of a little clean-up having to be done to at least episode three due to the film going through
a chemical process from the previous 2012 SD master for the Special Edition DVD. SPEARHEAD
IN SPACE is going to be the best looking Classic who on blu-ray due to every other story being shot in standard definition
and not much improvement can be done by up converting any of the other stories to HD.
It is just a stroke of good and bad luck that lead SPEARHEAD IN SPACE being shot on film.
I wonder if the Time Lords sent the Doctor
to Earth to protect the planet from alien threats more than just punishing him. He
wants to be able to travel freely and not be stuck on a planet he does love and the TARDIS comes back to like a homing beacon.
This first Third Doctor season also creates
a family of characters that sets the tone for many of the stories during the next five years as we get to see The Doctor interact
with his woman assistant and various members of UNIT (and verbally spar with the Brigadier at times). Maybe this is why I
so appreciate the Third Doctor era the most out of classic DOCTOR WHO.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Don’t throwaway the DVD of this story
since it is meant as a companion piece to the blu-ray. They have created and
presented some new extras for the blu-ray and none of the extras from the previous DVD versions have been carried over to
the blu-ray.
A DANDY AND A CLOWN (42 minutes)- a tribute
to the life and career of Jon Pertwee as told by family and friends (many of them actors including Katy Manning and writer
Terrance Dicks) from Navy Lark radio show to Doctor Who to Worzel Gummidge to his final years with many personal photos included
CARRY ON: THE LIFE OF CAROLINE JOHN
(29 minutes)- a tribute to the career of actress Caroline John with husband Geoffrey Beevers, daughter Daisy Ashford, brother
Seb John, sister Priscilla John and friends Jennie Heslewood and Patricia Merrick.
TITLE SEQUENCE MATERIAL (22 minutes) shows
all the individual elements that went into creating the title sequence
RESTORATION COMPARISON (2 minutes) compares
the various versions of the story on DVD and blu-ray in addition to the problems faced when presenting the story in high definition.
Coming Soon trailer for THE GREEN DEATH
special edition
FINAL ANALYSIS: Whether you are a fan of the classic of new DOCTOR WHO series, you should give the SPEARHEAD FROM
SPACE a spin on blu-ray. The two tribute documentaries are also worth watching.
This Blu-ray review is (c)8-25-2013
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
to feedback@enterline-media.com
Like Enterline
Media on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/enterlinemediaweb and follow on tumblr at http://enterlinemedia.tumblr.com
