Lord Dalek
11-09-2005, 02:15 AM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-0.jpg
Story: *** ½ Video: **** Sound: **** Extras: **** Overall: ****
What a surprise! For once UNIT is facing a benevolent alien menace! The Axons claim to be the last survivors of a race of biological engineers. In return for minerals, they will give humans Axonite, a rock like material impervious to radiation. The Doctor is suspicious of the British Government’s plan for this new material and the presence of his nemesis The Master (Roger Delgado), still on the run after the Stangmore Prison riots, only complicates things. Unsurprisingly though, Axos isn’t really benevolent after all and Axonite has some nasty properties.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-2.jpg
Claws of Axos is the first story of the legendary season 8 (aka the Master Season) to make it onto shiny disc. While it would have been nicer to have either Terror of the Autons or The Daemons, this one’s still pretty good. Pertwee’s always at his best when dueling it out with Delgado and Axos has got a lot of that. Some very inventive sets and effects are also on display here.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-3.jpg
Now this is a very important release as it marks the debut of the DWRT’s new toy, Reverse Standards Conversion. Episodes two and three were originally shot on PAL video. Unfortunately those tapes were later wiped (along with almost all of Season 7, and most of Season 9). However before said wiping occurred, conversions to NTSC for the North American market were made. These became the broadcast masters when recovered from TV Ontario in the late 70’s. Regrettably, like all NTSC’d material, these suffer from visible line structure, some heavy grain, phasing errors in shot transitions, and annoying motion artifacts. The latter two have now completely disappeared thanks to the RSC process. It still doesn’t look as good as PAL and the film sequences are now a pixilated mess, but it’s the best we’re ever going to have. On the other side of the spectrum, the un-RSC’d PAL material looks amazing with terrific color balance and contrast.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-5.jpg
Audio is presented in 2.0 mono. The NTSC episodes sound a tad bit muffled when held up to the original. Apparently the standards conversion process took a hit on the sound quality as well as the video.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-4.jpg
Features are slightly more technically oriented than usual. We start with the audio commentary featuring vets Barry Letts and Katy Manning with newcomer Richard Franklin. Katy’s not quite as annoying here as she’s been in the past.
Deleted and Extended Scenes have been recovered from an original studio session for Episode 1. Included is the original title sequence for the story (it was known as “Vampire From Space” back then).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-7.jpg
Reverse Standards Conversion: The Axon Legacy is the next featurette and may bore some people to death. Jack Pizzy hosts tracing the evolution of standards conversion from the present way back to the early 50’s when Dr. Peter Axon developed the BBC’s first video recorder. If you have the stomach for it, it’s very fascinating albeit a brief. There is also some clips of how bad the 525 line conversions used to look.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-6.jpg
Katy Manning narrates another installment of Now and Then, this time centering on the Dungeness location where the exteriors were shot. It’s not as good as the ones seen on Dalek Invasion of Earth and Pyramids of Mars.
Finally Directing Who: Michael Ferguson continues John Kelly’s acclaimed interview series. Most of the featurette concerns Claws… with little involving his other stories.
Story: *** ½ Video: **** Sound: **** Extras: **** Overall: ****
What a surprise! For once UNIT is facing a benevolent alien menace! The Axons claim to be the last survivors of a race of biological engineers. In return for minerals, they will give humans Axonite, a rock like material impervious to radiation. The Doctor is suspicious of the British Government’s plan for this new material and the presence of his nemesis The Master (Roger Delgado), still on the run after the Stangmore Prison riots, only complicates things. Unsurprisingly though, Axos isn’t really benevolent after all and Axonite has some nasty properties.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-2.jpg
Claws of Axos is the first story of the legendary season 8 (aka the Master Season) to make it onto shiny disc. While it would have been nicer to have either Terror of the Autons or The Daemons, this one’s still pretty good. Pertwee’s always at his best when dueling it out with Delgado and Axos has got a lot of that. Some very inventive sets and effects are also on display here.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-3.jpg
Now this is a very important release as it marks the debut of the DWRT’s new toy, Reverse Standards Conversion. Episodes two and three were originally shot on PAL video. Unfortunately those tapes were later wiped (along with almost all of Season 7, and most of Season 9). However before said wiping occurred, conversions to NTSC for the North American market were made. These became the broadcast masters when recovered from TV Ontario in the late 70’s. Regrettably, like all NTSC’d material, these suffer from visible line structure, some heavy grain, phasing errors in shot transitions, and annoying motion artifacts. The latter two have now completely disappeared thanks to the RSC process. It still doesn’t look as good as PAL and the film sequences are now a pixilated mess, but it’s the best we’re ever going to have. On the other side of the spectrum, the un-RSC’d PAL material looks amazing with terrific color balance and contrast.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-5.jpg
Audio is presented in 2.0 mono. The NTSC episodes sound a tad bit muffled when held up to the original. Apparently the standards conversion process took a hit on the sound quality as well as the video.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-4.jpg
Features are slightly more technically oriented than usual. We start with the audio commentary featuring vets Barry Letts and Katy Manning with newcomer Richard Franklin. Katy’s not quite as annoying here as she’s been in the past.
Deleted and Extended Scenes have been recovered from an original studio session for Episode 1. Included is the original title sequence for the story (it was known as “Vampire From Space” back then).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-7.jpg
Reverse Standards Conversion: The Axon Legacy is the next featurette and may bore some people to death. Jack Pizzy hosts tracing the evolution of standards conversion from the present way back to the early 50’s when Dr. Peter Axon developed the BBC’s first video recorder. If you have the stomach for it, it’s very fascinating albeit a brief. There is also some clips of how bad the 525 line conversions used to look.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/lorddalek/E2398-6.jpg
Katy Manning narrates another installment of Now and Then, this time centering on the Dungeness location where the exteriors were shot. It’s not as good as the ones seen on Dalek Invasion of Earth and Pyramids of Mars.
Finally Directing Who: Michael Ferguson continues John Kelly’s acclaimed interview series. Most of the featurette concerns Claws… with little involving his other stories.