STORY PLOTLINE
On holiday in Lanzarote, a young American girl named Peri narrowly escapes drowning when she is rescued from the sea by Turlough and taken into the TARDIS to recover. The Doctor is on the island because the TARDIS has detected a mysterious signal being transmitted from an unknown artifact.
The Master reasserts his control over Kamelion and gets it to bring the TARDIS, along with the Doctor, Turlough and Peri, to the planet Sarn, where he is hoping to use that world's supply of revitalising numismaton gas to restore his body - accidentally shrunken in an experiment with his tissue compression eliminator weapon - to its correct size.
DVD EXTRAS (Released as KAMELION TALES boxset)
PLANET OF FIRE - DISC ONE (link to review)
- Commentary with Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant, Mark Strickson and director Fiona Cumming
- The Flames of Sarn: Documentary on the making of PLANET OF FIRE
- Return to the Planet of Fire: Fiona Cumming and Malcolm Thornton revisit Lanzarote
- Designs on Sarn: Malcolm Thornton on designing the story
- Deleted Scenes + Extended Scenes + Continuity
PLANET OF FIRE - DISC TWO (link to review)
An alternative version of Planet of Fire will be presented on a second disc, a new version cut by director Fiona Cumming, containing previously unseen material and special effects. It will be in a 16:9 format and the audio will be in 5:1 surround sound.
EXTRAS DISC TWO
- Calling the Shots: Looking at the story's production
- Remembering Anthony Ainley : A look back at the life of the actor
COMMENT - SPOILERS AHEAD
DISC TWO (of the KAMELION TALES boxset)
On introducing the studio commentary of PLANET OF FIRE, Peter Davison: And you're in for a treat.
On the exotic Lanzarote location, Fiona Cumming: To prove that you can use it as an alien planet. Nowadays, we would be able to film on any of those rocks.
Mark Strickland: I thought it was a way to get the men in shorts!
On Peter Wyngarde's performance as Timanov, Peter Davison: He played it like Laurence of Arabia with a dyed moustache.
On admitting that he seemed not to be able to recall anything about PLANET OF FIRE, Mark Strickland: Thanks, Nicola, I need all the help I can get with this one.
On the Professor Howard Foster (Peri's Step-Father), Peter Davison: Dallas Adams; no longer with us.
Fiona Cumming: Peter Grimwade envisaged Dallas' character as an old academic and he was horrified that he was so young.
On her first TV drama appearance, Nicola Bryant: One of the pieces of advice I got from Fiona (Cumming) was to watch Peter (Davison).
On seeing Peri abandoned on the Archaeological Finds boat, Peter Davison: WOW! How's that babe?
Nicola Bryant: Nice shorts, Mark.
Mark Strickland: Thanks.
Fiona Cumming: Nice legs, Mark.
Mark Strickland: Thanks.
On the famous "drowning sequence", Peter Davison: There were 25 naked Germans who came to rescue you, Nicola.
There is an audible "wince" as the studio commentary team see Peri Brown slide down the volcanic rock slope.
At the very end of episode two, Peter Davison starts to tell a story about BBC TV Centre but leaves it too late during the credits: I want to tell my TV Centre but. until episode 3.
Nicola Bryant: That's a cliffhanger! Do tell.
Mark Strickland: Control your excitement.
At the start of episode three's commentary, Davison continues with his story to reveal that the reason why BBC TV Centre is being sold to property developers is that it would cost millions alone to remove vast amount of carcinogenic Asbestos material.
On the flying out for the seven-day film shoot abroad, Peter Davison: .and we drank the plane dry on the way there.
Mark Strickland: And do you remember I was late for the flight. They had to hold the plane for me.
Nicola Bryant recalls that night when she though that "beige" bathing costumes & trunks were the fashion statement of 1983 during a late night dip in the hotel pool. Only to discover later that due to her shortsightedness that "beige" was "au naturel" (read: skinny-dipping by the rest of the cast & crew).
On his mild expletive, Peter Davison: Oh, I said "Damn". I'm fired!
On the confusing naming of the Master's weapon, Nicola Bryant: Tissue Compression slash eliminator.
On her long association with DOCTOR WHO, Fiona Cumming: I learned a lot on DOCTOR WHO. This was the last one I ever did but I started with William Hartnell in 1966. I was the AFM (Assistant Floor Manager).
In an attempt to help younger "listeners", Mark Strickland describes the premise of a former BBC ONE "light entertainment" show, THE BLACK AND WHITE MINSTRELS SHOW. Peter Davison abruptly terminates the discussion: Let's draw a line over the matter.
On one of the reasons why he leave the programme, Peter Davison discusses the "Brutishness" of the drama and why he disagreed with John Nathan-Turner on the introduction of an American companion: We had heated discussion about it.
NOTE: Strangely, the studio commentary is silent for over two minutes during episode four (between 13:33 and 15:40).
On the termination of Kamelion, Peter Davison: Oh, I miss him. Reduced to the small model of an Action Man.
On his ten DOCTOR WHO stories, Mark Strickland: I did enjoy my time; I worked with some very nice people. My fondest memory? A complete blank. We had fun!
The main DVD EXTRAS for PLANET OF FIRE (disc two of three) are, as we have come to expect, professionally produced, consummately edited, skillfully dubbed but, after so many DOCTOR WHO DVD releases, are tediously familiar. As the saying goes; "familiarity breeds contempt". Is it time for the BBC WALES producers of DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL to take over the reins for the final CLASSIC SERIES releases (to be completed by 2012)?
THE FLAMES OF SARN's budget must have been spent on the PRS (Performing Rights Society - it recovers funds for publicly aired music and pays the performers) payment to TAKE THAT for the music track, "Star". This documentary is the run-of-the-mill "talking heads" with many of the anecdotes a repeat of the studio commentary, however one treasure is the audio contribution of John Nathan-Turner (taken from his fascinating two-volume set of memoirs released by BIG FINISH PRODUCTIONS). Salient input from set designer, Malcolm Thornton and film cameraman, John Wilkie is invaluable in assessing the challenges encountered whilst location filming. Unfortunately, the discussion relating to the robotic Kamelion is a repeat from disc one's documentary, KAMELION - METAL MAN.
Tighter control of content & assiduous editing was required to make this informative & entertaining.
However, the main question that remains unanswered is: Is that Mark Strickland's real hair or a wig, and does he visits to the same stylist as American tycoon Donald Trump?
RETURN TO THE PLANET OF FIRE is a nice "little jolly" (read: a perk of the job for no valid reason) for both the crew of the CLASSIC SERIES and for the DVD's producers. Worth it? Not really. Previously this feature would have been titled, NOW AND THEN with an added voiceover. That format would have sufficed in this instance too as the only valuable piece of "Oh, I didn't know that" was that fact that the materialisation of the TARDIS was created by using two "scenery flats" of a 100cm tall (3 feet) placed close to the camera.
DESIGN ON SARN was brief and lacked the technical aspects of Malcolm Thornton's set designs to be anything other than a cursory nod of interest. A lack of technical drawings, mood-boards or models rendered the featurette as another "talking head" supplemented by photographs (see in this disc's PHOTO GALLERY). There more repeats on this disc than on BBC ONE on a Sunday lunchtime!
Of course, the DOCTOR WHO aficionados will relish, as I did, the ALTERNATE EDITS, DELETED AND EXTENDED SCENES featurette. Going "off-piste" is always exciting and this will not disappoint.
DISC THREE (of the KAMELION TALES boxset)
PLANET OF FIRE disc three is another "special edition", re-crafted by Fiona Cumming and the team at 2|entertain. Lovingly re-crafted, tweaked and polished, I have to say.
The feature-length story features a NEW SERIES style pre-titles sequence that actually is so accurately produced & performed that you are tricked into thinking that this opening sequence was actually in the 1983 edit. It wasn't but it makes perfect sense in having it there now as it leads into the episode (set 10 years in the future).
I should, "congratulations for that - perfect" at this point so I will; congratulations for that - perfect.
An personal introduction from CLASSIC SERIES director, Fiona Cumming, details that the new 66 minute (compared to the original broadcast's 90 minutes) version is a "complete re-edit", re-mixed (by Mark Ayres) with a tweaked theme tune (even better than Murray Gold's SERIES 5 theme) & updated sound effects, new CGI contributions (from Climas & Semenoff). The most interesting aspect of this new re-edit to note is the restrained use of Peter Howell's incidental music score. It is adopted briefly to supplement tension, and it works.
It may be controversial to publicly say but, if I were in charge of BBC CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO DVD, I would concentrate on the production of "re-edits" and focus less on the repetitive "talking heads" documentaries. There is greater value in doing so.
REMEMBERING ANTHONY AINLEY is a delightfully charming retrospective of the actor's career (sadly, skimming over his pre-DOCTOR WHO appearances), using archive footage from an DWAS PANOPTICON fan convention interview, during which is admits that by the time of MARK OF THE RANI that he showed up for work, "take the cheque, go to Mass and ask for Forgiveness".
Interestingly, he recalls that whilst filming his final story, SURVIVAL, the rehearsed scripts were abandoned and a new script delivered on-location at the last minute.
CALLING THE SHOTS uses "time-coded" recoding material to demonstrate that DOCTOR WHO was a truly collaborative effort, and that at times, as Mark Strickland confirms, was "petrifying" and that it was recorded at a relentless "pace" to finish filming before the electrical plug was pulled.
On the surface, DOCTOR WHO - KAMELION TALES DVD boxset seems to be a winning release but it is the predictability (is the 2|entertain production time complacent with their abilities?) of the featurettes that have become tiresome.
Sadly, for the first time in a long while, it is only the "special edition" that lifts the release from mediocrity.
