Doctor Who Season 20: Many Happy Returns

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Publication: SFX
Date: Oct. 2023
Author:
Page: 96
Language: English

★★★★☆ EXTRAS ★★★★★

RELEASED 18 SEPTEMBER

1983 PG Blu-ray

Producer John Nathan-Turner

Cast Peter Davison, Janet Fielding Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickson

For a series realising the power of its past and increasingly playing to a canon-minded fandom, Doctor Who's 20th anniversary season feels surprisingly fresh. Yes, there are rematches with a handful of old enemies, including an unrecognisable Omega and cosmic wrong 'un the Black Guardian, but the beloved Brigadier's brought back for a Moffat-worthy time-warp tale that refuses to freeze him as a childhood icon, exploring midlife mental breakdown instead. Meanwhile duplicitous new companion Turlough shakes up the format in a genuinely intriguing way, even if the stories never quite capitalise on his slippery potential.

Celebratory special "The Five Doctors" - also presented here in a new anniversary edition, with sympathetically updated effects delivers all the nostalgia rush you require, for the show's own history and now, a surely impossible 40 years later, itself.

Extras Davison, Fielding and Sutton reunite for an overlong but entertainingly fractious European road trip (67 minutes); the freewheeling dashcam banter reminds you these are old friends as well as castmates. Joined by Strickson, the TARDIS team demonstrates the same watchably snarky chemistry on a jaunt to Amsterdam, location for "Arc Of Infinity" (76 minutes). Davison, Fielding and Strickson also contribute a new commentary for the 40th anniversary edition of "The Five Doctors".

Interviewed by Matthew Sweet, Fielding and Sutton are commendably honest about the more disquieting sides to their time on Who (66 minutes). "The King's Demons" gets an equally candid dedicated doc, touching on dodgy French accents and the on-set tensions of working with robot companion Kamelion (35 minutes). Janet Fielding catches up with "Snakedance" co-star Martin Clunes (24 minutes), and joins Sutton at Jodrell Bank for a chat about "Logopolis", made to promote the season 18 Blu-ray in the US (21 minutes).

Hours of studio footage from "Arc Of Infinity", "Snakedance" and "The Five Doctors" prove numbing and fascinating in equal measure - First Doctor surrogate Richard Hurndall is twinklier than you might expect. There's also a wealth of rare footage from contemporary and more recent conventions, including the 20th anniversary blow-out at Longleat.

Box set teaser "The Passenger" gets a behind-the-scenes featurette. Oher treats include location rushes from "The Five Doctors", 1983 US doc "Once Upon A Time Lord" (24 minutes), updated effects on select stories, and seven instalments of the Gogglebox-aping Behind The Sofa. Plus: galleries, 8,849 pages (!) of PDFs and more - including hours of old special features from the DVD range. Nick Setchfield

The initial plan for the anniversary was a Robert Holmes storyline in which the Cybermen plot to become Cyber Lords.

DRINKING GAME

Knock back a beverage of your choice every time...

A returning villain/monster makes an appearance.
Peter Davison's sideburns get U aggressively pointy.
Turlough cradles a glowing piece of Perspex.
Tegan's wearing inappropriate clothing for what's clearly a bone-rattlingly cold location shoot.
The horn of Rassilon mournfully parps in the score to "The Five Doctors".
In the studio footage a flustered floor manager cries "Settle down! We are still recording!"

Doctor Who Season 20: Many Happy Returns

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