Commentary Highlights:

There’s a lot to like on this particular release, whether it’s Frazer Hines’s description of Jamie’s tartan ("Hunting Wendy", indeed!), Terrance Dicks’s sense of humour coming to the fore or Wendy Padbury apologising in advance for corpsing.

I Didn’t Know That Before I Listened to the Commentary:

One of the T-Mat technicians is Michael Briant’s wife Monique, according to Michael Ferguson. Very lucky Michael Briant, I say...

Extras:

Sssowing the Ssseedsss- a 25-minute feature made up of new interviews with Alan Bennion, Sonny Caldinez and Sylvia James plus an audio-only interview with Bernard Bresslaw covering the realisation of the Ice Warriors.

The Last Dalek- nearly ten minutes of model and studio footage from the final episode of The Evil of the Daleks, with commentary from effects boffins Peter Day and Michealjohn Harris.

New Zealand Censor Clips- Some rather nice clips from ‘The Web of Fear’ and some fairly incomprehensible violence from ‘The Wheel in Space’; what’s particularly good about the ‘Web’ footage is that nearly all the shots are of Yeti in action, including some from the big battle in Episode 4. Bless those delicate Kiwis.

Photo Gallery- You may be surprised to learn that there are more photos surviving from ‘The Seeds of Death’ than the two mandatory ones of Slaar, and here they are, albeit grouped fairly haphazardly so shots of the same models are together, but there’s no overall sense of scene order. The size of the hose on the BBC foam machine has to be seen to be believed, though.

TARDIS-Cam Number 5- A snowy, Arctic- looking planet. And the door’s open- that’ll cause a draught.

‘The Seeds of Death’ was an early entry in the BBC’s VHS range (although edited into a compilation which made it very difficult to watch from beginning to end) and there are good reasons for it to turn up early in the DVD range as well- not least the Ice Warriors being one of the iconic Troughton era monsters, and the story itself also being an excellent vehicle for Patrick Troughton’s Doctor as he gets to show so many different facets of his performance over the six episodes- in the final episode alone he’s moving from slapstick one minute to facing down Slaar the next. In terms of the DVD range, it’s also the point where the VidFIRE process came home with a vengeance; Episode 5, having been transmitted from 35mm film, looks particularly sharp, but the whole story from beginning to end could have been made last week albeit in black and white. I emptied six years’ worth of WH Smith clubcard points to buy this, along with the conclusion of The X-Files, having initially been apprehensive about buying something I already had and rarely watched, but it didn’t take long for me to be sold on the restoration alone.

‘Seeds’ is also the range’s first experiment in moving on to two discs, which would become standard practice for most six-parters as it allows more space for extras. It’s unfortunate, though, that there isn’t quite enough material to fill up the space on this particular disc, which becomes something of a selection box of Troughton-era treats. ‘Sssowing the Ssseedsss’ is interesting- not least for Bernard Bresslaw’s contribution from beyond the grave- but also for the opportunity to hear some less familiar voices. ‘The Last Dalek’, however, and the New Zealand censor clips are particularly welcome as glimpses of episodes which we may never see otherwise, the material from ‘The Web of Fear’ tantalisingly so as we’re left with ten seconds here and there from what were doubtless moments of high drama. For a story from the 1960s, we are however fortunate to have four people in the commentary box (although not all the time)- the commentary starts off with Michael Ferguson, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, then Terrance Dicks turns up for Episode 3, Ferguson disappears about ten minutes later only to reappear for Episode 4, from which Hines and Padbury are absent, before all four are reunited for the last two instalments. With Hines and Dicks in the commentary box there’s certainly no shortage of jokes, while Michael Ferguson’s contribution is more measured and anecdotal and Wendy Padbury is somewhere between the extremes. The only lull in the commentary comes when the Doctorless Episode 4 is left to Dicks and Ferguson, who emphasise the technical aspects of the production; as Jamie and Zoe are carrying the story at this point, it might have made sense to give the actors free rein on that episode, but it evidently appeared otherwise to whoever was making the decisions.

The release of ‘The Seeds of Death’ had to have a certain amount of added value; after all, the story had been available on BBC video since the mid-1980s, so needed to be something special. Fortunately what we’re presented with more than meets that requirement; the commentators are clearly enthusiastic about what they’re watching and the selection of extras includes a couple of real gems. So- a top notch restoration, a commentary which rarely flags and some additional bits and pieces which add to your appreciation of the story and indeed of the Troughton era as a whole. Asking for anything else would just be greedy.