Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom is now available for you to own on DVD!
The long-running British Sci-fi tv series, Doctor Who, has had its ups and downs over the 60 plus years it has been running. But many Classic Who fans seem to agree that Tom Baker, who became the fourth Doctor after Jon Pertwee’s run, is considered the “Golden Age” of Doctor Who, bringing with it a number of timeless stories and memorable characters as well as the return of the popular third Doctor companion (who now stars in her own spinoff show), Sarah Jane Smith.
“The Seeds of Doom” is one of these “golden age” stories, taking place at the end of Tom Baker’s second season as the Doctor, with Sarah Jane accompanying him. It starts when an alien plant-like seed pod is uncovered in Antarctica by several British scientists, after having been frozen in the ice for several thousand years by British scientists. The Doctor is called in to see if he can assist in identifying the object and identify whether or not it is alien. Since this IS Doctor Who, of course, it is an alien being that has just awakened, and it is about to cause a load of problems for The Doctor and his friends.
The pod quickly grows, proceeding to infect and mutate one of the scientists, while the Doctor arrives on the scene to handle the situation. Meanwhile, in England, a plant-obsessed millionaire, hears of the alien pod’s discovery and is determined to take it for himself. The millionaire hires men to steal the dangerous pod, which causes the entire situation to spiral out of control… especially when its discovered that there is actually a second pod.
The Seeds of Doom is absolutely Classic Who, complete with all of the lovable cheese and corny dialog. The special effects are very hokey and the acting is hit or miss for the most part, but the story is classic quality pulp sci-fi fare that works well with how campy everything is. Tom Baker is very fun to watch as The Doctor and you can easily see why he reigned for so many years as the fan’s choice for top Doctor. Sarah Jane is not given much to do for the most part and ends up being captured several times throughout the serial. It is kind of sad to see that Elisabeth Sladen, a fan favorite who has returned many times throughout the years, wasn’t given much to work with here and isn’t given very much depth or characterization. Its also unfortunate to see UNIT return without bringing back Nicholas Courtney as The Brigadier, or any of the other familiar characters from that group seems to be a missed opportunity.
Special Features:
Audio Commentary by the cast and crew
Featurettes:
-Podshock- Making of featurette
-Playing in the Green Cathedral- Featuring Geoffrey Burgon’s Music Score
-Stripped for Action- Comic strip adventures of the 4th Doctor
-Now and Then- Film Locations featurette
-So What Do You Do Exactly?
-Trailers
-Photo Gallery
-Isolated Music Score
-Various PDF Materials
Overall
Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom is quite a nice package. Its always nice to see many of the Classic Who stories being re-released on DVD, especially from the Tom Baker era. But sadly, its not the strongest and hasn’t aged very well at all, considering some of the other serials from the time. BBC has loaded the set with a bunch of special features and its nice to see quality being put forth in terms of bonus content, instead of just slapping an audio commentary on the disc and calling it a day.
ComicsOnline gives Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom – 3 vile alien pod seeds out of 5.
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