The Black Guardian Trilogy comes to DVD

[Mikey]

Soon, The Black Guardian Trilogy will be released on DVD in region 1 (USA/Canada) so I thought it might be a good time to talk about this series.

I was never a huge fan of the JNT years but I can live with this trilogy.
It did have some flaws but was quite watchable overall.

Mawdayn Undead ...
A nice return for the Brigadier -- as a matter of fact, this time we get TWO of them :>)
A little trivia, the Brigs part was actually written for Ian Chesterson, but he was unavailable for filming so his part was rewritten for the Brigadier.
The first story with Turlough ...
Oh man, I used to HATE Turlough with a passion.
I didn't hate him because he was bad, I just hated him
I also hate the fact the Doctor seemed quite dumb for letting Turlough come aboard.
The Black Guardian is back ...
Blackie always plays his part over-the-top ...
He must have went to the Anthony Ainley school of acting
Overall, a decent story in a time when Doctor Who was starting to go down hill.

Terminus ...
The only thing most people remember about Terminus is Nyssa in her skivvies and a giant talking puppy dog... Sounds more like a freaky dream
It was also Nyssa's swan-song story.
This story makes you wonder why get a new companion (Turlough) when an overcrowed TARDIS is finally getting less crowded ?
I mean, basically Tegan and Turlough did nothing but creep around this entire story.
The story itself was "ok" but i'm not very fond of center of the universe stuff ... It's too grand for just a throw-away story like this.

Enlightenment ...
This story seems like it was plucked straight out of the William Hartnell years.
The Black Guardian really goes over the top in this story with his fake laugh.
His evil laugh is embarrassingly awful
The story itself I wont get into to give away spoilers, but let's just say - like all the other stories of The Black Guardian Trilogy it's "ok" but that's about it.

So for a quick sum up .....
If you're a Davison era fan this boxed set is a MUST.
If you're not a fan of the JNT years, you still might want to give this trilogy a try.

Thanks

American/Canadian box cover
http://megomuseum.com/mmgallery/file...5_original.jpg

m

[david_b]

Thanks much, Type1, for the excellent review! Much like Tennant's 'Timecrash', Davison was always 'my Doctor', although I actually came in midflight during Tom Baker's tenure.

I loved 'Mawdryn' and 'Enlightenment' as better-than-typical Davison stories, so I'll most likely pick this up.

If you pick up the earlier DVDs with the initial stories with Peter AND his 3 companions, they're a BLAST to listen to.. cracking jokes left and right..!


david_b

[jds1911a1]

David is quite right that for any who dvd release where the key cast is able to commentary they really have fun as the watch the show. this is the sad part for the first 3 doctor's dvd releases since the best you can do is producers and directors and sometimes a lead companion.