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the series. This tale of sentient robots getting all medieval on a ship full of lazy and decadent miners (yes I said decadent miners!) may be rather derivative but it still works marvelously. Great fun for fans and Who newcomers alike.

The main extras here are a commentary from producer Phillip Hinchcliffe and writer Chris Boucher plus a generous selection of model test footage.

The Five Doctors

One for the fans. Of the three first wave Doctor Who releases The Five Doctors offers little to the casual viewer and much to the experienced fan. A reunion movie that unties The Doctor with his previous four selves in the dread Death Zone of Gallifrey. Newcomers to the series will likely be a bit perplexed and perhaps disappointed at this relatively weak offering but Who-philes will delight in seeing so many old familiar faces crammed into one story.

The Five Doctors collects all the Who regenerations up to the time it was shot - and yet it doesn't. The very first Doctor William Hartnell is seen only in a vintage clip at the beginning - the character is then played by another actor throughout the story, the unfortunate by-product of Hartnell being deceased at the time. The Fourth Doctor Tom Baker refused at the last minute to participate in the reunion so he is represented by old scrapped footage from a story left un-filmed thanks to a strike at the BBC. The then current Doctor Peter Davison isn't given to muck to do as he struggles for screen time with the other three and a half and an assortment of companions and enemies. The story does it's best at meting out lines and plot points but as with al reunion shows it often seems more than a bit forced.

The typical Doctor Who production values are here - cheesy effect and barren fields and quarries as locations - but with perhaps an even lower than usual budget. As such this makes The Five Doctors good fun for the initiated but perhaps a bad introduction for newcomers. Either of the other two first wave releases - Spearhead From Space and The Robots of Death - would serve better as well as being more entertaining.

The Five Doctors features an excellent off the cuff commentary from Peter Davison and longtime Who scribe Terrence Dicks as well as a nifty isolated score and Who's Who character gallery.

The thing to keep in mind with

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