STORY PLOTLINE
The TARDIS materialises in Iceworld, a space trading colony on the dark side of the planet Svartos. The Doctor and Mel encounter Glitz and learn that he has come here to search for a supposed treasure guarded by a dragon.
Also on Svartos is Kane, a - literally - cold-blooded criminal who has been imprisoned here by his own people from the planet Proamon.
DVD EXTRAS
- STUDIO COMMENTARY
- FIRE & ICE - THE MAKING OF DRAGONFIRE
- THE BIG BANG THEORY
- THE DOCTOR STRANGE LOVE'S: DRAGONFIRE
- DELETED & EXTENDED SCENES
- PHOTOGALLERY, INFORMATION TEXT, PDF RADIO TIMES FILES
- COMING SOON - DEATH TO THE DALEKS preview
DOCTOR WHO - DRAGONFIRE Studio commentary
Stepping, well, ‘sardining’ themselves into the BBC DVD Commentary studio no less than seven contributors are assembled recall the making of DOCTOR WHO – DRAGONFIRE, and an eloquent of hoard they are too.
Coerced by DOCTOR WHO audio-supremo, Mark Ayres, cast and crew stir their loins in an attempt to remember a three-part story that mere fans have attempted to forget for nearly 25 years. Sophie Aldred (Ace), Edward Peel (Kane), Ian Briggs (Writer), Andrew Cartmell (Script Editor), Chris Clough (Director) and Dominic Glynn are informatively coherent, chirpy and professional; everything you’d expect from a commentary track.
DVD Commentary highlights:
On the genesis of DRAGONFIRE, Ian Briggs: It started out as a completely different story.
Fact: The lead villain, Kane was originally named Hess but this was changed at the Producer’s (John Nathan-Turner) request so not to offend incarcerated Nazi War Criminal, Rudolf Hess.
On the inclusion of Glitz into the story, Andrew Cartmell: Imposed on us by JNT.
Mark Ayres: A character was originally called ‘Razorback’ or ‘Swordfish’.
Andrew Cartmell: It was a case of ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’ with John Nathan-Turner. A compromise to get what we wanted (for the story).
On the “Fruit Bar” restaurant setting, Andrew Cartmell: Our attempt at the Canteen scene from STAR WARS on a very small budget.
On her casting as Ace, Sophie Aldred: I didn’t have a screen test. First day of filming was my audition (for Ace as the next companion).
On a wardrobe malfunction, Sophie Aldred: So, you can see I’ve laddered my tights by then. And I shared my armpits for that scene. I didn’t want to but I did as requested (by John Nathan-Turner).
On Bonnie Langford, Sophie Aldred: Bonnie was great. So helpful.
Andrew Cartmell: Great ‘pro’ but a character that could not go anywhere.
On the end of episode one, Chris Clough (apologetically): All my fault. Looks ridiculous. Common sense deserted us!
On the Seventh Doctor’s character development. Sophie Aldred: Sylvester wanted to be a darker Doctor.
Andrew Cartmell: He wanted to have the pathos.
Fact: The archive projection is played by Daphne Oxenford. She was the ‘paternal’ voice for WATCH WITH MOTHER television series of the 1960s that reassuringly ask toddlers & children, “Are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin.”
On the special effect of the alien head opening, Mark Ayres asked Chris Clough: How was this effect done?
Chris Clough: Not very well is the answer.
(The studio commentary team erupt into sympathetic laughter)
Chris Clough: It wobbles – disaster. Today you’ll do it more successfully.
On changing the script/plotline to reduce influence on children, Andrew Cartmell: We had had Kane coming out of fridge.
Fact: DRAGONFIRE was to include a subtext of Glitz and Ace having a sexual relationship.
On working with McCoy, Edward Peel: We were in absolute fits. I job I thoroughly enjoyed.
Sophie Aldred: A beginning of a massive adventure and it will never end for me.
With DRAGONFIRE being a three-parter there’s more space to fill than normal if BBC DVD could warrant a standard ‘recommended retail price’ so not to offend fans’ TARDIS money boxes.
The making of DRAGONFIRE documentary, FIRE & ICE is, as you’d expect, insightful, informative and mildly entertaining, chronicling the development of season 24’s final story; a season of trauma (the series had extricated itself from an imposed hiatus) and change within the DOCTOR WHO production office at Western House (a new Doctor and a companion actress expressing an interest to move on). New contributions are from Cartmell, Aldred, Clough and Briggs, however McCoy recollections are accessed from an archive interview (looking remarkably like an extra from HBO’s THE SOPRANOS)
Andrew Cartmell admits that his new role as series Script Editor was a challenge (“The show was bad a odour at the BBC”) whilst Ian Briggs was surprised that he was invited to submit a storyline for the series (“I’d forgotten that I wanted to write for DOCTOR WHO. I felt what I wrote was a ‘comedy’”). Jointly they created the character of Ace who they favoured over the previous story’s (DELTA AND THE BANNERMEN) potential companion character, Ray. Analytically, Cartmell surmises that Ace may be a linear companion character of the NEW SERIES’s Rose Tyler (“I came up with Alf, a demolition expert”.)
Watching the DELETED & EXTENDED SCENES extra is the equivalent of narcolepsy; a sudden urge to fall asleep. Truly, this DVD EXTRA is for hardened, caffeine-soaked fans only. Sadly, there is only one deleted scene of note; Glitz being rescued by the Doctor.
In twisting the usual CLASSIC SERIES featurette format, THE BIG BANG THEORY is fresh if a little sleight in it’s presentation. Highlighting the historical significance of the CLASSIC SERIES’ ‘special effects’, in this instance ‘explosions’ under the scrutiny of NEW SERIES’ expert, Danny Hargraves. Delving into the DOCTOR WHO archives, Hargraves comments & examines how his predecessors created the effects of exploding daleks, smoking cybermen and location battle scenes amid ‘flash-bangs’ and smoke. “It’s similar to what we we’re doing now but we’ve got more toys to play with”, and on dissecting the special effects for THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE GALAXY (episode four) he concluded that he was “impressed with that one.”
This convergence between the two 'phases' of the series could be expanded - and I hope it is - to discuss, for example, costume design, electronic visual effects, incidental music, set design, lighting, and a direction masterclass.
Now for the unforgivable ‘filler’, THE DOCTOR STRANGE LOVE: DRAGONFIRE hosted by a line-up of ‘uber-fans’ called Simon, Josie and Joe. A more of a motley crew of reprobates I have never had the misfortune to yawn – sorry, sit – through, demonstrating a narcissistic and nefarious level of appreciation that had me reaching for the RADIO TIMES to check when the next episode of the dire COME DINE WITH ME was due. This featurette is unwarranted and is merely an on-screen version of the worst of DOCTOR WHO fan-forums.
I recommend that you ‘fast-forward’.
Overall, if it was not for the climatic special visual effect from episode three (of Kane disassembling in glorious higher-definition for frame-by-frame DVD ‘pausing’), DOCTOR WHO – DRAGONFIRE could have been left to languish in the BBC archive vaults until the consumption of planet Earth by our expanding Sun in five billion years time (according to Dr Brian Cox).
And even that would be all too soon.
It has been a unequivocal chore to review this CLASSIC SERIES story; dull, uncreatively produced, statically directed, aurally challenged and acting that left me as cold as a exhibit labelled "Margaret Thatcher's Heart" in a museum called "The Coldest Things In The Known Universe".
I need an antidote; let me blow the dust of my copy of DOCTOR WHO - TIMELASH. Yes, I'm that desperate.
