Hello everyone! 🙂
I’ve now seen the ‘Mindgame Saga’ on DVD! This is a DVD I had for Christmas this year and it contains two stories including ‘Mindgame’ and ‘Mindgame Trilogy’. This saga stars Sophie Aldred (who plays Ace in ‘Doctor Who’) as a human space pilot and there’s also a Sontaran and a Draconian!
I enjoyed the ‘Mindgame Saga’ DVD and Sophie Aldred is brilliant in both dramas. Although I don’t think this has been the most exciting and inspirational DVD release compared to ‘Downtime’ last year. I found ‘Mindgame’ better than ‘Mindgame Trilogy’, but they’re both interesting tales to tell on DVD.
The first story ‘Mindgame’ has Sophie Aldred as the human meeting a Sontaran and a Draconian. All three are held prisoner on an asteroid by an unknown alien. They’re forced to fight to save their lives. It was an interesting tale on how the human, Sontaran and Draconian interact with each other.
The second story ‘Mindgame Trilogy’ features the three characters, Sophie Aldred as the human, the Sontaran and the Draconian after the events of ‘Mindgame’. There are three tales in this drama about what happened to those three characters and how they reflect when they face certain fates.
‘Mindgame Trilogy’ was disappointing compared to ‘Mindgame’. Whilst the character journeys were interesting in themselves, I couldn’t see where they were going. The Draconian story fell flat for me, but Sophie Aldred’s performance in the third story shone throughout and was pretty heartbreaking.
The ‘Mindgame Saga’ came from the mind of ‘Doctor Who’ writer Terrance Dicks. I enjoyed all performances of the cast, especially with Sophie Aldred; Miles Richardson who played the Draconian and Toby Aspin and John Wadmore who played the Sontaran respectively in the saga’s two stories.
I found Sophie Aldred’s human character the most intriguing of all. Though not claimed as Ace in the story, she does have certain character traits that are similar to Ace. She mentions a certain ‘professor’ and I’d like to think this is Ace from the ‘New Adventures’ series of ‘Doctor Who’ novels.
I hope to write a complete DVD review of the ‘Mindgame Saga’ soon.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Your on a role Tim I’m struggling to write one review lol, I agree this spin off lacked something, Sophie Aldred was excellent but deserved better scripts.
A excellent review Tim, you really do grasp the fundamentals of good & bad points in your fantastic reviews.
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Hi Simon.
I did write some of these reviews, namely the more detailed ones like ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, early in December 2016 before Christmas. I wrote the latest reviews on my Christmas DVD/CD presents after Christmas.
I was hoping for something better than what I saw in the ‘Mindgame Saga’ DVD. It was interesting, but it could have been more action-packed. I enjoyed Sophie Aldred’s performances in both dramas, but it was rather lacking for me.
Very pleased you enjoyed my review on this DVD, Simon. I hope to review the ‘Mindgame Saga’ and ‘Downtime’ in full detail soon. Let’s hope ‘Shakedown: The Return of the Sontarans’ comes out on DVD next.
Thanks Simon.
Tim. 🙂
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I saw Mindgame somewhere on YouTube almost a couple decades ago, and finally saw Mindgame Trilogy late in the last decade. Both were interesting despite how subtle they might have seemed, as opposed to what fans were used with all classic series adventures with familiar Dr. Who aliens and certainly the Sontarans. The alien villain who looked like they cheaply settled for some mask from a Halloween store was a disappointment. The fight sequence could have been better too. In regard to seeing a Draconian again and Sophie as the human heroine, that much was certainly an appreciable reason to enjoy Mindgame. As well as the Sontaran sequence for Trilogy, which I felt was the best aftermath. Thank you, Tim, for your review.
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Hi scifimike,
Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘The Mindgame Saga’. It’s been a while since I’ve seen both ‘Mindgame’ and ‘Mindgame Trilogy’, though I did watch the DVD over a Zoom call with my best friend Stephen during the pandemic years. Hopefully, I’ll get to do an updated and in-depth review on ‘The Mindgame Saga’ soon, along with ‘Downtime’ and ‘Wartime’.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim 🙂
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Mindgame was part of Danny Lavery’s The Rise Of Evil fan edit Dr. Who story. Sadly it seems to be no longer be available anywhere online.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for letting me know about this.
Tim 🙂
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There’s also an impressive spinoff film for the Cybermen called “Deconstruction” from Westlake Films in 2005. I saw it on YouTube. I’d like to read your review on that one.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for letting me know about the ‘Deconstruction’ film featuring the Cybermen. As to whether I’ll review it, well, we’ll see.
Tim 🙂
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