TARDISCS - Doctor Who DVDs

The Aztecs (2002)

Commentary Highlights:

The commentary here is necessarily relaxed and based on the speakers reacting to what they see, apart from some of Verity Lambert’s recollections of some of the specific battles she had to get suitable facilities to make Doctor Who. There’s clearly still a great deal of affection on the part of all three participants (but particularly William Russell) for William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill, which also adds a wistful quality.

I Didn’t Know That Before I Read The Information Text:

Not allowing for inflation, an episode of Doctor Who in 1964 had a budget roughly equivalent to what I earn in two months.

Extras:

-Rememberring the Aztecs, essentially two intercut interviews, one with John Ringham and Walter Randall and the other with Ian Cullen.

-Designing the Aztecs; a sustained interview with designer Barry Newbery on how the sets were designed, constructed and decorated

-Cortez and Montezuma, an extract from the 1970 Blue Peter assignment in which Valerie Singleton relates the story of the fall of the Aztecs. Shortly before leaping into bed with Peter Purves, no doubt.

-Restoring the Aztecs, in which the then-new VidFIRE process is demonstrated via a contrast with the print used for the 1990s VHS

-Arabic soundtrack for the final episode

-Making Cocoa, a South Park-style animation featuring the voice talents of John Ringham and Walter Randall in the continuing adventures of Tlotoxl and Tonila

-Photo Gallery, with both colour and monochrome stills (I’d guess mainly from Barry Newbery) with a bit of sound and animation.

-Specially-recorded introductions recorded in character by John Ringham, Walter Randall and Ian Cullen, played over the introductory caption slide.

-TARDISCam 3, another model on a barren desert planet beset by howling winds

At the time that the DVD release of ‘The Aztecs’ was put together, the story was particularly fortunate (for a 1964 story at least) in having its producer, designer, two of the regulars and three of the supporting cast still with us and available to contribute. Sadly that’s now been trimmed by two, but with this particular disc of delights there’s a real sense of a major step forward in what the range could offer. Not one but three separately recorded interviews- Barry Newbery on his designs, and then one with John Ringham (suffering from a particularly bad case of Old Man’s Trousers) and Walter Randall (with all due respect for the dead, not a pretty sight in an outfit which redefines the phrase "ill-fitting shirt") interviewed together and apparently needing little prompting, while Ian Cullen appears to have a very nice garden. It’s also the release which saw the debut of the VidFIRE technique which revolutionised the way black and white video could be watched in the DVD era; at this stage it isn’t taken for granted as the explanatory feature shows, and the results on the first and fourth episodes are a little rough due to the story having been filmed in two different studios with the more modern facilities of Television Centre having been used for the middle instalments. ‘Making Cocoa’ is amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s a good indication of what can be achieved by getting the supporting cast of a story together and persuading them to enter into the spirit of things- the same goes for the in-character introductions to the story, and it has to be said that without the contributions of Messrs Ringham, Randall and Cullen the release would be good but rather less special. From a sales point of view, I suppose it was always going to be the case that a Hartnell historical would need a bit more added value, but to have so many members of the cast and crew of a story of this vintage contributing gives a real sense of what it must have been like to be involved in the making of ‘The Aztecs’ and the care and attention to detail with which the story was crafted- and given that so many of the personnel involved are no longer around, it’s a fitting tribute to the quality of their work.