‘MORE THAN 30 YEARS IN THE TARDIS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Surely It’s ‘More Than 50 Years In The TARDIS’?!

This is a ‘Doctor Who’ documentary produced by Kevin Davies. ‘More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS’ was originally ’30 Years In The TARDIS’. It was made to celebrate the 30 anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’.

The documentary is divided into three parts – ‘Doctor Who and the Daleks’; ‘Monsters and Companions’ and ‘Laughter and Tears Behind-the-Scenes’. There are interviews with cast and crew.

In this documentary, we have behind-the-scenes footage and rare interviews from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s on certain stories. This provides some interesting insight for those who never saw them before.

All of the Doctor’s eras are covered, more or less. William Hartnell’s era is represented by Carole Ann Ford; producer Verity Lambert and also his granddaughter Jessica Carney, who wrote his biography.

Patrick Troughton is represented by Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling. They’re interviewed and they appear in the Dalek control room from ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ in colour, which was exciting to watch!

Jon Pertwee appears in this documentary, being interviewed, which was fantastic. He also gets to be reunited with his own car, the Whomobile. I did like it when Jon Pertwee talks to a Draconian in this.

I loved seeing Elisabeth Sladen with her daughter Sadie. Lis is a popular ‘Doctor Who’ companion. It was nice to see her in this, especially as Lis is no longer with us and it’s endearing to watch her again.

Gerry Anderson who created ‘Thunderbirds’ gets interviewed with his son Jamie. I can’t help feel sorry for Gerry who created his own children’s shows, yet his son prefers ‘Doctor Who’ over his shows. 😀

It was great to see Nicholas Courtney, who provided a big contribution to the TV series. Everybody shares how they liked working with Nick. I was glad to hear William Hartnell liked working with him.

I thought it was a shame Tom Baker and Peter Davison never got interviewed for this documentary, since their contribution was greater. We only get rare archive interviews from 70s/80s news items.

I found the Peter Davison era rather thinly covered, especially since nobody from that era was interviewed. Not even Peter! I was personally saddened that Sarah Sutton wasn’t interviewed here.

I enjoyed seeing Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant being reunited, as they walked down the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, followed by Cybermen. It was lovely to see these two together in the documentary.

Watching Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred was great too, as they meet up on a set from ‘Battlefield’. The two back into each other by mistake and they soon meet up with some Hamevores.

The Peter Cushing era of ‘Doctor Who’ gets a mention too. Roberta Tovey and Jennie Lidden get interviewed, sharing fond memories of working on the two Daleks movies, which was lovely to see.

The DVD special features are as follows. There’s ‘Remembering Nicholas Courtney’, a tribute featuring an interview with the chap; and there’s ‘Doctor Who Stories – Peter Purves’, a 2003 interview with Peter Purves. There’s ‘The Lambert Tapes – Part One’, an interview with Verity Lambert; a female villains featurette called ‘Those Deadly Divas’; a ‘Radio Times Listing’ PDF of the documentary and a photo gallery of the documentary. There’s also an ‘Easter Egg’ to look out for on this DVD disc. There’s also a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Reign of Terror’, starring William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill and Carole Ann Ford.

‘More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS’ is a nostalgic documentary, marking 30 years of the show’s history. Years on and we’re still celebrating the show’s history for over 50 years as it is still so strong!

‘The Legacy Collection’ DVD lives up to its name. ‘Shada’ focuses on its own legacy as ‘More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS’ focuses on the legacy of ‘Doctor Who’. These DVD are worthy to have, if you’re a ‘Shada’ fan and you want to see what kept the spirit of ‘Doctor Who’ alive in the wilderness years.

‘More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS’ rating – 7/10

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