Doctor Who: The Aztecs (DVD)
— Dr. Who Story No. 006
Science Fiction Video
Written by John Lucarotti
Starring William Hartnell
ISBN: 0-7907-7345-5
Publisher: Warner Home Video / BBC Video, $24.98
Originally aired in 1964, “The Aztecs” is a shining tribute to how good Doctor Who can truly be, even with an old set of episodes from the series' initial season. This is also one of the few Doctor Who shows that involves only human beings interacting, rather than aliens or other such things. In addition, it is the earliest surviving historical adventure in the entire Doctor Who library of videos.
In this particular four episode storyline, we have actors William Hartnell (the Doctor), William Russell (Ian), Carol Ann Ford (Barbara), and Jacqueline Hill (Susan) arriving on Earth in Mexico during the time of the Aztecs. The Tardis materializes inside the tomb of Yetaxa. Finding an exit out of the tomb, the group soon gets caught up within the Aztec system, mainly because they falsely believe Barbara to be the reincarnation of Yetaxa.
Our band of time travelers at first finds life within the Aztec civilization rather admirable, with many aspects of their life respectful and honorable. However, the darker side is also discovered, mainly in the fact that Aztecs performed ritual sacrifices on a regular basis to appease their Gods.
After a short while, the Tardis members find themselves involved in a power struggle between the current way of Aztec life and Barbara, in the role of Yetaxa, trying to put an end to the sacrifices. Suffice it to say, the verbal and few physical battles between Barbara, Ian, the Doctor, the Aztec high priest Tlotoxl (John Ringham) and the other Aztecs characters is just wonderful. The personal interaction, rather than space battles, makes this show stand out very well, and makes it open to a much wider audience than most Doctor Who stories. You get a genuine feeling of how modern people would react to part of the ancient Aztec culture. Combine this with the educational value of the Aztecs, and you get even more than your average story, making this four episode storyline even better.
The Doctor Who director, design team, and other workers went all out, making this one of the best Doctor Who stories in the whole series. Most of the props in the story are very well designed, including the inside of the tomb, the cool fake stone door that leads out of the tomb, and the other various background objects that make the story believable. About the only bad mark in the set design in the obviously painted backdrops, which the lighting crew failed to make look like backgrounds, rather than obvious paintings. The few fight scenes are also rather fake looking, but this again is only a very small part of this whole production, which is very well done. It is even more amazing that they had to get by with partial sets during the last few episodes when some parts of sets were prematurely destroyed in preparation for the next studio show.
This Doctor Who DVD is also special in the fact that the BBC had to go through great lengths in restoring this story from a filmed copy of the original video recording, which no longer existed. Great effort went into removing scratches, sound problems, missing frames, and improving the poor quality of the film. The video on the DVD is just incredible, as if it was filmed recently rather than 30 years ago, although of course this show is in black and white, not color.
The extras on this DVD are rather extensive too. You get wonderful commentary from the original producer Verity Lambert, along with actors William Russel and Carol Ann Ford. They also added the delightful option for informational text during the show, which doesn't disappoint on this DVD. Included is great stuff that points out all the things that went on behind the scenes, along with other Doctor Who trivia. A real treat for any Doctor Who fan.
Other extras include an animated South Park-style section that deals with making Aztec Cocoa. I found this a bit strange, as the voice acting for this was not very well done. Interesting, but something that could be skipped. There is also a short documentary on “Remembering The Aztecs” which was good, but not as good as the Doctor Who story itself. I kind of skipped through this section, finding it a bit dry. The set designer, Barry Newbury, has his own short documentary about his work on this serial on the DVD. This I found informative, amusing, and just fun to watch. Newbury is definitely a character in and of himself, and has a good memory for someone getting up in his years (this was filmed in 1964). They also have a section on how “The Aztecs” was restored from the poor recording the BBC had, showing before and after restoration comparisons. This part really shows how much work went into improving this serial.
There is also the usual Doctor Who photo gallery, which was fairly good on this DVD. You get the Tardis Cam No. 3, which is a filming of the Tardis set in an alien setting. Not really useful, but they keep putting these things on the newer DVDs, apparently just to show what they could do with Doctor Who if they wanted to. One other weird bit is the inclusion of an Arabic soundtrack option for Episode 4. This was a strange addition, and I really have no idea why it was put on the DVD, except maybe as an experimental idea!?
This very early Doctor Who serial shows what can be achieved when it all comes together — good acting, sets, plots and more. This is truly one of the best Doctor stories on DVD to date, and a must have for any fan of the series. For others, rent it if you can. I really can't see anyone being disappointed with this DVD!
(review (c) June 2004 / David Flemming)