2 thoughts on “Doctor Who – The Cybermen Box Set [DVD] [1975]”
Great Entertainment! Way back in 1975, I didn’t know what cybermen were or heard of them before until Weetabix did a promo of Dr Who stand up figures in their cereal packs and one of Dr Who’s enemy featured was a Cyberman and lo and behold that same Saturday evening Revenge of the Cybermen story was broadcasted. Brilliant! I really enjoyed this story. So nostalgically the release on DVD has been brilliant. I have since seen most of the Classic series Cybermen Stories with EarthShock and Revenge being my all time favorites, though I do not rate the ‘New’ series Cybermen as I think they are useless and boring.The highlight of the DVD extras for Revenge of the Cybermen is ‘Cheques, lies and videotape’. This is a well produced and fascinating documentary about what die-hard fans would pay in terms of money and swap-exchange of Dr Who memorabilia to get hold of rare Dr Who stories on Video before they became commercial and available in shops. Often the quality were so poor like the 10th generation copy of Revenge of the Cybermen featured in this DVD extra.The featured Easter Egg is the original 1983 BBC Video intro before the Video programme starts.The Making of Revenge is great. The newsreport at Wookey Hole featuring a great Tom Baker interview before his pre-fame Dr Who role. This DVD extra was already featured on The Ark In Space DVD, however it is relevant on this Revenge DVD.The Revenge of the Cybermen Photo gallery seems to be lack lustre compared to previous DVD releases. Not many Cybermen photos but too many boring Vogans pictures.. Surely a right balance of interesting photos and behind the scenes would have made this more interesting like they did with Frontier In Space/Planet of the Daleks photo galleries.I’ve seen small clips from TV documentaries from Silver Nemesis and reviews about the story, but I have never watch this Cybermen story ever until this DVD. From a fresh outlook point of view I really enjoyed this 3 part tale. It’s fast pace, with some great stunt scenes and pyro-technic explosions. The scene with Ace on the metal frame balcony overlooking the TARDIS below was terrific!The Extended Deleted scenes were an added bonus as an extra, clocking in around 22 minutes!The making of Silver Nemesis was great; the lead actors gave some great imput.I found the photo gallery for Silver Nemesis faired better than Revenge of the Cybermen DVD.Another Tom Baker story The Seeds of Doom is due out on 25 October 2010. Also reported is Day of The Daleks DVD sometime next year which will include a new optional voice track for the Daleks. The Mutants is also expected.
Revenge typifies 1970s Doctor Who at its best Sadly, for much of the last twenty years, Revenge of the Cybermen has always been underrated, arguably due to the fact that it was the very first VHS release and watched so many times, that most fans became bored of it. It has all the right elements. The fourth Doctor era at his best before it became humourous a few years later. For some (me included), the best Cyberman design, and certainly the snake-like Cybermat is glorious compared to the 1960s ones. Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter are one of the best companion double acts, and the scene where Sarah gets poisoned is simply brilliant. Jeremy Wilkin is suitably chilling as the secondary villain.The story has a few flaws, such as the chocolate roll planet effect, the American Cyberleader accent and the Cyberleader shaking the Doctor, but that aside it is an almost-classic still worthy of five stars.Revenge of the Cybermen should have been released on its own, but it was not, and I partially accept this on the basis that one gets a bonus bit of cardboard when two or more stories are clumped together.Silver Nemesis should have been equally good, but is heavily flawed which was marginally remedied with the extended VHS Silver Nemesis. Why we have not got this here as an option beggars belief, it now seems rather pointless just having the deleted scenes as extras. Anyone who has the VHS, hold on to it!!!Revenge *****Silver **Overall *****Revenge should not suffer because Silver is with it. The box set is certainly cheap enough.
Great Entertainment! Way back in 1975, I didn’t know what cybermen were or heard of them before until Weetabix did a promo of Dr Who stand up figures in their cereal packs and one of Dr Who’s enemy featured was a Cyberman and lo and behold that same Saturday evening Revenge of the Cybermen story was broadcasted. Brilliant! I really enjoyed this story. So nostalgically the release on DVD has been brilliant. I have since seen most of the Classic series Cybermen Stories with EarthShock and Revenge being my all time favorites, though I do not rate the ‘New’ series Cybermen as I think they are useless and boring.The highlight of the DVD extras for Revenge of the Cybermen is ‘Cheques, lies and videotape’. This is a well produced and fascinating documentary about what die-hard fans would pay in terms of money and swap-exchange of Dr Who memorabilia to get hold of rare Dr Who stories on Video before they became commercial and available in shops. Often the quality were so poor like the 10th generation copy of Revenge of the Cybermen featured in this DVD extra.The featured Easter Egg is the original 1983 BBC Video intro before the Video programme starts.The Making of Revenge is great. The newsreport at Wookey Hole featuring a great Tom Baker interview before his pre-fame Dr Who role. This DVD extra was already featured on The Ark In Space DVD, however it is relevant on this Revenge DVD.The Revenge of the Cybermen Photo gallery seems to be lack lustre compared to previous DVD releases. Not many Cybermen photos but too many boring Vogans pictures.. Surely a right balance of interesting photos and behind the scenes would have made this more interesting like they did with Frontier In Space/Planet of the Daleks photo galleries.I’ve seen small clips from TV documentaries from Silver Nemesis and reviews about the story, but I have never watch this Cybermen story ever until this DVD. From a fresh outlook point of view I really enjoyed this 3 part tale. It’s fast pace, with some great stunt scenes and pyro-technic explosions. The scene with Ace on the metal frame balcony overlooking the TARDIS below was terrific!The Extended Deleted scenes were an added bonus as an extra, clocking in around 22 minutes!The making of Silver Nemesis was great; the lead actors gave some great imput.I found the photo gallery for Silver Nemesis faired better than Revenge of the Cybermen DVD.Another Tom Baker story The Seeds of Doom is due out on 25 October 2010. Also reported is Day of The Daleks DVD sometime next year which will include a new optional voice track for the Daleks. The Mutants is also expected.
Revenge typifies 1970s Doctor Who at its best Sadly, for much of the last twenty years, Revenge of the Cybermen has always been underrated, arguably due to the fact that it was the very first VHS release and watched so many times, that most fans became bored of it. It has all the right elements. The fourth Doctor era at his best before it became humourous a few years later. For some (me included), the best Cyberman design, and certainly the snake-like Cybermat is glorious compared to the 1960s ones. Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter are one of the best companion double acts, and the scene where Sarah gets poisoned is simply brilliant. Jeremy Wilkin is suitably chilling as the secondary villain.The story has a few flaws, such as the chocolate roll planet effect, the American Cyberleader accent and the Cyberleader shaking the Doctor, but that aside it is an almost-classic still worthy of five stars.Revenge of the Cybermen should have been released on its own, but it was not, and I partially accept this on the basis that one gets a bonus bit of cardboard when two or more stories are clumped together.Silver Nemesis should have been equally good, but is heavily flawed which was marginally remedied with the extended VHS Silver Nemesis. Why we have not got this here as an option beggars belief, it now seems rather pointless just having the deleted scenes as extras. Anyone who has the VHS, hold on to it!!!Revenge *****Silver **Overall *****Revenge should not suffer because Silver is with it. The box set is certainly cheap enough.