Doctor Who returned to the BFI Southbank this past weekend for another screening in anticipation of the latest Blu Ray collection release.
The next season to receive a Blu Ray collection release is Season 7. Given the other stories in the season are seven parters it made sense that four parter ‘Spearhead from Space’ would be the centrepiece of this particular screening. In June 2023 the same venue screened 16mm black and white prints as part of their film on film season. This time however we were back in NFT1 to see the freshly restored full colour version of Jon Pertwee’s debut story.
Broadcast across January in 1970 it is now 55 years since ‘Spearhead from Space’ hit screens. Sadly that means there are few people who were involved in the production still around to regale us with their stories. However, the team at the BFI including hosts Justin Johnson and Dick Fiddy still delivered another excellent screening event.
Spearhead from Space
Prior to the screening of the first two episodes audio expert Mark Ayres joined the hosts on stage to discuss the sound restoration required. Although all four episodes exist in the BBC archive as 16mm prints, the separate magnetic soundtracks which survive to accompany them are in particularly poor condition. Ayres commented that although copies of the soundtrack had been made onto CD they were copies of poor quality material. Therefore a lot of audio polishing was required. Of particular note were the scenes which took place in Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart’s office. As the door had been left open the sound echoed down the corridor. Thanks to Ayres that echo has been greatly improved although the nature of these things required removing the echo and then adding some more natural echo back in!
Following the first two episodes Johnson and Fiddy were joined by Robin Squire. Now there was some confusion about his role in the production. How a supposed assistant script editor ended up playing the main Auton was unclear. Similarly, a query from Caroline John regarding polymer chains was directed to Squire rather than another member of the crew. He was however an interesting guest and certainly the best dressed!
Further Guests
The highlight of the day for me was the discussion with Peter Crocker. Each of the collection boxsets has their episodes polished up as much as possible to prepare them for high definition. Season 7 has no doubt presented the most difficult challenge so far. Several of the episodes exist in a black and white format with additional colour off air recordings which have aided the colourisation process which was used for VHS and DVD releases. However, with these episodes needing to be delivered in high definition even more work was needed.
It was genuinely fascinating to see a few sequences from ‘The Ambassadors of Death‘ in a four square split screen. In the top left was the black and white film print from the archive. Top right was a colour off air recording from North America. Bottom left demonstrated the varying effectiveness of colour recovery software. Sometimes Bessie was yellow. Sometime Bessie was purple! Then finally in the bottom right corner was the final result which used a combination of techniques including manual colourisation similar to that seen for The Daleks and The War Games. It is no exaggeration that ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians‘ and ‘The Ambassadors of Death‘ will have never looked better when the box set is finally released which made it all the more disappointing not to get to see a full episode or two from these stories on the big screen.
Surprise Guest
One unadvertised guest who also joined Johnson and Fiddy on stage was Matthew Sweet. Following a few preview clips of some of the special features on the upcoming Season 7 Collection box set it was apparent that Sweet would feature not once but twice. Sweet’s ’In Conversation’ interviews have been a highlight of these releases, delving into more personal stories and delivering interviews which don’t just revisit the typical questions asked over and over again. For Season 7 the interviewee is John Levene and if the preview clip was anything to go from, it’ll be emotional.
Additionally Sweet presents another feature ‘Terror of the Suburbs’ focusing on how Season 7 brought Doctor Who down to Earth and made the mundane terrifying. Both features were appropriately teased by Matthew Sweet and I look forward to watching both when the box set is finally released.
And finally
To bring the event to a close Daisy Ashford, daughter of the late Caroline John joined Johnson and Fiddy. In addition to the expected comments about her Mum looking so young there was another lovely story. As Liz Shaw only featured in the series for four stories, John always felt that she hadn’t done a good job in the role. Parking Doctor Who firmly in the past, it was only when John attended her first convention and was overwhelmed by the standing ovation she received that she finally realised the popularity of Liz.
Now with Season 7 due for release shortly it is a wonderful opportunity to revisit this special series of Doctor Who. As the recently released trailer highlights, 1970 was the year where everything changed. Liz Shaw is especially deserving of reappraisal. An impressive female character who inspired many viewers. The four stories in the season are classics and when this set is released they’ll never look better. I cannot wait to see them!
