December 13th, 2012 335 comments

Legacy DVD Shada / More that 30 years in The Tardis

Doctor Who Legacy (Shada) DVD

A double helping of ‘Doctor Who’ treasures. Never aired on television due to a strike in 1979, and never fully completed, the six-part adventure ‘Shada’ traces the chase to recover a powerful book, the Artifacts of Gallifrey, stolen from retired timelord Professor Chronotis (Denis Carey).

Skagra (Christopher Neame) is the evil despot responsible for this foul jiggery pokery. Original footage from this episode was used as the Fourth Doctor’s involvement in ‘The Five Doctors’, before it was reassembled, with an older and portlier Tom Baker narrating the missing gaps.

Also included is the BBC-produced documentary ‘More Than Thirty Years in the Tardis’, a compilation of clips spanning the first thirty years of the Doctor, including some never before seen on television, plus interviews with the many stars, writers, producers and designers.

The following features and quotes (via tv shows on dvd) are listed in addition to those shown below…

• Shada – Flash version
• Taken Out of Time
• Now and Then
• Strike! Strike! Strike!
• Being a Girl Women in Doctor Who
• Remembering Nicholas Courtney
• Doctor Who Stories – Peter Purves
• The Lambert Tapes – Part 1
• Those Deadly Divas
• Photo Galleries
• Easter Egg
• PDF materials: Radio Times Listings
• Production Note Subtitles

New to DVD! Digitally remastered Doctor Who classic Shada! Written by Douglas Adams as his final contribution to Doctor Who, Shada was envisaged as a Time Lord story without a Gallifreyan setting. It sees the Doctor bringing Romana to present-day Earth to visit Professor Chronotis, an elderly Time Lord who absconded from Gallifrey and now lives a quiet academic life at St Cedd’s College in Cambridge.

Doctor Who Legacy (Shada) DVD (region one and Australian cover shown)

Shada and More that 30 years in The Tardis

Also seeking Chronotis is a scientist called Skagra who has a device, in the form of a floating sphere, with which he intends to steal the Professor’s mind and thereby learn the location of a book entitled The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Skagra eventually succeeds in obtaining the book, which has been borrowed from the Professor’s study by a student named Chris Parsons. He then kidnaps Romana and hijacks the TARDIS.

Original VHS covers and information…

It was sixteen minute’s past five (Earth Time) on Saturday the 23rd November 1963, the day after the – assassination of President Kennedy, when Doctor Who first materialised on to BBC Television.

Squeezed in between the football results and the Telegoons, a legend was born’.

So, from humble flickering beginnings more than 30 years ago, began the eccentric Timelord’s crusade against evil. Now this fascinating documentary charts that remarkable career in time travel.

There are dozens of classic excerpts featuring all seven Doctors, clips from the wide-screen trailers of the two Dalek movies starring Peter Cushing, plus recently discovered material.

More than just a nostalgic birthday programme, unique documentary made specially, for BBC Video,

Archive gems

• scenes from the missing 1965 Dalek episode DEVIL’S PLANET.
• colour film of WILLIAM HARTNELL at a 1966 airshow, plus pictures from his own scrapbook.
• Dalek creator TERRY NATION on WHICKER’S WORLD’ in 1968

Behind The Scenes

• Action from the studio floor including CARNIVAL OF THE MONSTERS (1972), DEATH TO THE OALEKS (1973), THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI (1984), GHOSTLIGHT<1989)

Pure Nostalgia

• BLUE PETER – the Doctor Who monster competition winners, the unveiling of the Who mobile
  and the War Machine.
• NATIONWIDE – the TOM BAKER interview
• Pebble Mill at One – interview with Patrick Troughton and visual effects designer Bernard Wilkie

More treasures from the cutting room floor

• Battlefield – The Brigadier meets Ace for the first time
• Sophie Aldred and the water tank stunt that went wrong
• Remembrance of the Daleks – Is there more to the Doctor?

All this plus two exclusive Doctor Who commercial breaks, spoofs by CRACKER JACK and SPIKE MILLIGAN. candid moments and bloopers from across the years, specially shot interviews and an all star cast of favourite Doctors, assistants and of course, monsters.

An ultimate celebration of the world’s longest running science fiction TV series, this special BBC Video includes footage from Thirty yaers in the TARDIS, originally transmitted on 29 November 1993.

SHADA.

The long forgotten adventure destined to bring the Doctor face to face with the evil Skagra and his master plan for total omnipotence.
Recording of this 6 part adventure in 1979 was sadly never completed until now – with the aid of Tom Baker, Doctor No. 4.

Now all available filmed and recorded sequences are linked by his brilliant narration allowing BBC Video to unveil Shada in its entirety at last.

When one of the Artefacts of Gallifrey – a dangerous book dating back to the time of the all-powerful Rasillon – goes missing from his study, Cambridge professor and retired Timelord Dr. Chronotis calls in the aid of the Doctor and Romano.

The Doctor is very worried. Who knows what powers could be unleashed if the book falls into the wrong hands? Then the mysterious Skagra arrives armed with a thought-draining sphere and a scheme for one universal mind. But first he must get hold of the book…

This unique pack contains a video and a copy of the original scripts – a great addition to the wealth of Doctor Who titles on BBC Video.

Categorised under: Doctor Who DVDs, DVD