Velvet Goldmine
- Publication: SFX
- Date: 364 (Apr 2023)
- Author: Nick Setchfield
- Page: 96
- Language: English
DOCTOR WHO Season Nine
Velvet Goldmine
★★★★☆ EXTRAS ★★★★★ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1972 PG Blu-ray Producer Barry Letts Cast Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney, Roger Delgado
Fittingly, Jon Pertwee's middle season finds the Third Doctor not just in his dandy pomp but perfectly caught between his past and future. Still exiled to Earth and mixing it with the military, he's also sneaking away to other worlds a whole year before the Time Lords officially lift his travel restrictions.
The classics are frontloaded: "Day Of The Daleks" is powered by the kind of time-bending paradox you suspect may have imprinted on a young Steven Moffat, while "The Curse Of Peladon" proves a deliciously atmospheric piece of studio-bound world-building. "The Sea Devils", meanwhile, delivers one of the show's touchstone monsters and a briny whiff of seaside location work.
If "The Mutants" is a plod it's a nobly intentioned one, aiming for a Star Trek-like parable about the iniquities of apartheid. "The Time Monster" has no such ambitions - other than clunky commentary on Women's Lib - but for all its production shortcomings it's a breezy, giddy romp.
Extras The eternally ebullient Katy Manning (Jo Grant) revisits key locations from the season (43 minutes) in the company of old co-stars, finding magic in a decaying railway bridge in Middlesex and discovering the iconic orifice known as "Jon Pertwee's Hole".
There's an engaging profile on prolific director Michael E Briant (52 minutes), who shares insights into his time on Who and beyond; elsewhere, affable veteran stunt artist and monster man Stuart Fell is revealed as one of telly's true unsung heroes in an illuminating look at his career (26 minutes).
"The Time Monster" gets an overdue retrospective (51 minutes) - "It was a polyester life," John Levene memorably reflects on the 70s - that also covers the overlooked craft of film editing in the days when Who was assembled with Stone Age tools like tape and chinagraph pencils.
Each story receives its own Behind The Sofa session featuring Whominaries including Manning, Peter Davison and Sophie Aldred, while archive convention footage pairs script editor Terrance Dicks and "The Time Monster"'s Ingrid Pitt (43 minutes), and UNIT mainstays Nicholas Courtney and Richard Franklin (42 minutes).
You feel the absence of Matthew Sweet's candid In Conversation interviews, but he's represented by a thoughtful episode of Radio 3's Free Thinking focused on the Daleks (43 minutes). You also get splendid snippets of archive media coverage (look out for Pertwee, in character, on the psychiatrist's couch in 1989), an authentically retro 60-minute omnibus of "Day Of The Daleks", and much more like 3,643 pages of production paperwork PDFs. A glut of extras have also been transferred from the DVD releases.
"Go on, let me touch those luscious locks..."
DRINKING GAME
Knock back a beverage of your choice every time...
- An unusual example of '70s U transportation turns up on screen.
- Jon Pertwee thoughtfully Li puts a finger to his chin.
- The Master puts the 'fiuence on someone.
- Three Dalek props are doing their best to look like a horde.
- A radiophonic burble sounds alarmingly gastric.
- Queen Galleia's cat in "The Time Monster" clearly wants a word with its agent.
- The Doctor uses his Venusian L' aikido. Hai!
John Byrne said that the X-Men storyline "Days Of Future Past" was unconsciously inspired by "Day Of The Daleks"
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Setchfield, Nick (364 (Apr 2023)). Velvet Goldmine. SFX p. 96.
- MLA 7th ed.: Setchfield, Nick. "Velvet Goldmine." SFX [add city] 364 (Apr 2023), 96. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Setchfield, Nick. "Velvet Goldmine." SFX, edition, sec., 364 (Apr 2023)
- Turabian: Setchfield, Nick. "Velvet Goldmine." SFX, 364 (Apr 2023), section, 96 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Velvet Goldmine | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Velvet_Goldmine | work=SFX | pages=96 | date=364 (Apr 2023) | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=16 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Velvet Goldmine | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Velvet_Goldmine | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=16 March 2025}}</ref>
