Whose Doctor Who is a 60 odd minute documentary made & aired by the BBC here in the UK where presenter Melvyn Bragg takes a look at the first 14 years of the long running sci-fi program & it's effects on society.
First thing to say is this is probably quite rare although it can be found on the British region 2 BBC 2 disc DVD of Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) which any self respecting fan will have anyway. The main reason this documentary was included on that particular Doctor Who adventure was that they both originally aired around the same time & that Whose Doctor Who features lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage from the making of The Talons of Weng-Chiang which are absolute gold dust for me as it's one of my favourite stories, there is lots of footage on set discussing & creating the special effects & interviews with some of the makers along with rehearsal footage.
This documentary also features many isolated interviews by various contributors including people described by on screen captions as 'Educationalists' whatever they are. Unfortunately there's various sound-bites from annoying children who really aren't taking things that seriously & have bad English skills. There is also a child psychologist who gives his thoughts on the series & it's effects. These interviews are decent enough but you can't help think some of the participants slightly play the significance of the series up, I mean it's a fun show but it's hardly a life-changing or deeply meaningful one is it?
There are also plenty of clips from previous stories although it felt very odd to not see any Doctor beyond Tom Baker obviously because this was made back in 1977 when there only had been four. Interestingly some of the clips from the Jon Pertwee era are in really poor quality black and white while other's are in good quality colour so I guess the BBC had wiped some of those episodes & at that time only had access to the poor quality black and white footage.
So summing up this is a fantastic documentary with some brilliant & raw behind-the-scenes footage that covers many aspects of the making of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, another aspect of Whose Doctor Who which I like & is refreshing is that it is seems to be an independent look at the series without a hidden agenda rather than a self gratifying back patting exercise in shameless promotion & butt kissing. As a free extra on a brilliant DVD this is great stuff & if you have the DVD then give this one a watch if you haven't already & if indeed you haven't, why?
First thing to say is this is probably quite rare although it can be found on the British region 2 BBC 2 disc DVD of Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) which any self respecting fan will have anyway. The main reason this documentary was included on that particular Doctor Who adventure was that they both originally aired around the same time & that Whose Doctor Who features lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage from the making of The Talons of Weng-Chiang which are absolute gold dust for me as it's one of my favourite stories, there is lots of footage on set discussing & creating the special effects & interviews with some of the makers along with rehearsal footage.
This documentary also features many isolated interviews by various contributors including people described by on screen captions as 'Educationalists' whatever they are. Unfortunately there's various sound-bites from annoying children who really aren't taking things that seriously & have bad English skills. There is also a child psychologist who gives his thoughts on the series & it's effects. These interviews are decent enough but you can't help think some of the participants slightly play the significance of the series up, I mean it's a fun show but it's hardly a life-changing or deeply meaningful one is it?
There are also plenty of clips from previous stories although it felt very odd to not see any Doctor beyond Tom Baker obviously because this was made back in 1977 when there only had been four. Interestingly some of the clips from the Jon Pertwee era are in really poor quality black and white while other's are in good quality colour so I guess the BBC had wiped some of those episodes & at that time only had access to the poor quality black and white footage.
So summing up this is a fantastic documentary with some brilliant & raw behind-the-scenes footage that covers many aspects of the making of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, another aspect of Whose Doctor Who which I like & is refreshing is that it is seems to be an independent look at the series without a hidden agenda rather than a self gratifying back patting exercise in shameless promotion & butt kissing. As a free extra on a brilliant DVD this is great stuff & if you have the DVD then give this one a watch if you haven't already & if indeed you haven't, why?
