"And out came me red beam..."

"And out came me red beam..."

It'll be interesting whether there will be a measurable rise in sales of Jon Pertwee DVDs in the next month or two. I hope so, for it will mean that more people will get to see some of the more notable documentaries and extras that made this range so ground-breaking and such good value compared to the earlier VHS releases.

With 'Doctor Who And The Silurians' having recently been beamed to the watching thousands on the internet, we made a passing reference to Peter Miles and his 'red beam'. This quote is from 'What Lies Beneath', a very intelligent piece illustrating the story in terms of the wider social and political climate of the UK in 1970.

Hopefully, these days we don't have to justify subjecting ancient 'Doctor Who' stories with such serious analysis, but once upon a time the odd eyebrow might have been raised to see such names as former MP Roy Hattersley commenting upon perceived bias on the part of the BBC.

As he points out, any government in power always thinks the Beeb is on the Other Side and Barry Letts rightly says that so long as the complaints roughly balance out from both political wings, then they're probably doing it about right.

Terrance Dicks is always concerned that a story should be 'about something', meaning that it should have an underlying theme or point to make. "The children's own programme that adults adore" is the quote from 'The Daily Sketch' on the back of the book 'Doctor Who And The Cave Monsters' and this gets to the heart of the matter. Mind you, the blurb on the back cover also claims that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is also a savage mammal, so you shoudn't believe everything you read...

Rewatching extras such as these also allows you to spend some time in the company of many members of the production team who are sadly no longer with us. In hindsight, that's another reason why all the extra work that went into these releases was time very well spent. Not only do we have the original stories to rewatch, but we can learn more about them from the people who were there at the time.

As a kid, I loved these stories in books and on the telly. As an adult, I adore these DVDs.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)