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Presented by Sylvester McCoy.
Produced by John Nathan-Turner. |
Citizen of the Universe by Carl West 18/12/98
Of all the BBC Video rare episode specials, The Hartnell Years is one of the best collections (rivaled closest perhaps by Daleks: The Early Years). Although I have become more accepting of (and interested in) the Telesnap Reconstructions lately, I still feel that there is nothing that can compare to an existing episode or story.
The first episode on this tape is the original, untransmitted Unearthly Child pilot. I have heard people commend the BBC for canning this episode and re-filming it, yet I do not see what is so bad about the original. Although I have only seen the transmitted version once-- fairly recently, mind you-- I don't recall it being all that different from the original, other than the occasional changes in dialogue, etc.
The second gem on The Hartnell Years is an absolute joy to watch: The Crusade, episode 3. The thought of Jean Marsh and Julian Glover appearing as guest stars in the same Who is fantastic. This episode is a fragment of what looks like a classic BBC costume drama. David Whitaker appears to have taken a similarly serious, realistic approach to this historical subject as Lucarotti did in The Aztecs.
The last episode on the tape is The Celestial Toymaker, part 4. This story appears to have been one of Doctor Who's classic forays in science fantasy. This episode always reminds me of Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner. Having always been a fan of Arc of Infinity, it is nice to see Michael Gough in his most famous Who role. I can't really say it was nice to see more of Dodo, though, as she has always struck me as being a particularly uninteresting companion, and it seems preposterous to regard her as an adequate replacement for Maureen O'Brien. It was good to see more of Steven, though, who stood up a little better in the hard-to-rival shadow of Ian. Hartnell is quite funny in this one too, with his quirkiness and his trademark "hmm!!".
While we're on the subject, don't miss Daniel Callahan's sterling review of Hartnell's Doctor.
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 8/1/99
Presented by Sylvester McCoy, The Hartnell Years has a lot to recommend it. McCoy`s presenting is enthusiastic but not over the top, and he gives a little insight into the man behind the First Doctor, William Hartnell. This isn`t overly detailed, as the tape is just meant to cover the actors time on Doctor Who and in this, it succeeds. There are of course selected missing episodes including the original pilot, which highlights why it needed to be refilmed if Doctor Who was to get off on a firm footing.
This is followed by the best episode on the tape, The Crusade part 3. Not only is this the strongest episode of the story highlighting the acting talents of William Hartnell, Julian Glover and Jean Marsh in some particularly dramatic scenes, but also is an example of the period drama that the BBC always does so well.
The tape concludes with Doctor Who`s first foray into fantasy with The Celestial Toymaker part 4. This showcases the acting abilities of Micheal Gough and allows the companions Steven and Dodo to take centre stage for much of the episode.
When all is said and done, The Hartnell Years is worth buying for the missing episodes alone as it only goes to show Doctor Who at it`s best, with both a historical and fantasy based segment thrown in for good measure.
My trek through the Years tapes Part 1 by David Barnes 21/7/02
The Hartnell Years was my first Doctor Who video! My mum wanted to get me The Tom Baker Years for Christmas but that had been deleted so she decided to go from the beginning and bought me this video (later that day I also recieved Troughton and Cybermen Years tapes, amongst many other things!)
Now, the Years tapes are videos that are presented by a Doctor and look at a particular section of Doctor Who. Unfortunately, the amount of detail varies a great deal, as I shall tell you through my trek through the Years tapes.
The tapes have their own theme tune that I quite like but is universally hated by every other Who fan (think of what it would be like if Doctor Who was a game show. Thats the sort of theme tune).
The Hartnell Years is presented by Sylvester McCoy, who is a very good presenter. His delivery of the facts makes it look as if he knew it all himself (in actual fact he was reading things off a cuecard).
The video itself dosn't look at the Hartnell Years in much detail at all. It mainly showcases 3 rare episodes from the era. Hartnell's entire life before Who is skipped over in 10 seconds.
The first episode is the Pilot. This episode has been released recently with The Edge of Destruction in better quality and more thoroughly. The pilot itself is quite good and I think I prefer Hartnell's peformance here than in the proper first episode. There are a few things wrong with it but the script itself is better I think. There are a few extra bits that come with this episode, including an alternative take for the early TARDIS scene (in which the doors struggle to close) and a look at the TARDIS dematerialization effect in the proper episode, to allow comparisons to be made with the Pilot's dematerialization scene.
The second episode is part 3 of The Crusade. Now, this is a very entertaining episode with marvellous performances all round and a superb script. The problem is this episode has also been released recently in The Crusade/ Space Museum box set. This is the problem with many of the Years tapes: the episodes they showcase have been released elsewhere (sometimes in audio in the case of some rare 60's episodes) with the rest of the story. The recent boxset had episodes 1 and 3 on video with parts 2 and 4 on audio, giving you a chance to experiance the entire story. This makes The Hartnell Years obsolete.
The third episode on this tape is The Celestial Toymaker episode 4, the only remaining episode of this story. The episode itself is quite entertaining, with good performances and a very well thought out resolution.
But the main problem with The Hartnell Years video is that, in my collection, it is completely obsolete. I have the Pilot in The Edge of Destruction video, The Crusade part 3 with the rest of the story and The Celestial Toymaker part 4 with the rest of the story on CD. Due to the fact that this is all the video offers (no insight into Hartnell himself, behind the scenes things, interviews etc), The Hartnell Years is one of the worst of the Years tapes. When I first got it, several years ago, I thought it was fantastic. But my Who collection has caught up with it and now all I can give it is a 5/10. Get the full stories instead.