I recently got my copy of The Macra Terror on DVD and sat down to watch it. I decided to write up a little review. Note that I just have the plain old DVD set, not the Blu-Ray one. I don’t think there’s too much of a difference in extras, though.
I’m not going to do a review of the actual story as lots of fans before me have already posted their thoughts. The animation itself was very well done. The likenesses of the Doctor and his companions are quite good and their movements (as well as that of the other people) seem very natural. I know fans have complained that their movements looked quite stiff and unnatural in previous animations, especially in The Power of the Daleks and The Ice Warriors. I’ve noticed that myself and I think they’ve improved it quite a bit in this one.
The intro starts off at the end of The Moonbase, and this is in black and white on both the black-and-white and color versions of the animation (more on that later). Interestingly, they’ve got Polly with her cropped haircut here instead of where it shows up the first time after her “shampoo” early in Episode 1. I assume they did it for simplicity’s sake though, and to save a bit of time. Such was the case for the omission of the scene where the Doctor gets his “makeover” and then gets his old look back, as well as Ben and Jamie getting their “treatments.” Fortunately, we can still see this scene in the original episode reconstructions that are provided as an Extra on the set. I also noticed that Jamie is wearing his light-colored turtleneck shirt which he started with in the beginning of the episode instead of changing into that odd uniform like Ben. Again I assume it was done to save time and for simplicity, and perhaps for emphasis on Ben being brainwashed by the Macra.
As an aside, one thing I hate about the story being missing is that we didn’t get to see Jamie doing his “Highland Fling.” They did recreate this for the animation, though, and part of me wonders how close it is to the original. 😉
As for the extras, there is a good selection of them on this set. First, I like the fact that you can choose to watch in color or the original black and white. The audio commentary is quite good, too, featuring Frazer Hines (Jamie), Terrence Lodge (Medok), Maureen Lane (one of the majorettes in the dance scenes), Anthony Gardner (Alvis) and the director John Davies. Frazer reveals that his and Michael Craze’s uniforms were actually orange and not blueish (as they were here), with tight Bermuda shorts. He also did a quite funny impersonation of Patrick Troughton during a scene or two featuring the Doctor and Polly. Terrence Lodge shared some interesting info on the motivation for his portrayal of Medok, namely that he’d done some pretty high-brow theater earlier on and so made Medok overly dramatic at times.
There are two photo galleries: One with set photos and photos of the guest cast taken during production of the serial; and the other an animation gallery showing character sketches and pictures of various scenes from start to finish. There’s a little film called Animatics, basically showing how the animation came together. The “behind the scenes” film is a little “Follow that Dalek” type silent production made circa 1967 that’s basically a tour of various props from different Doctor Who stories, including the Macra, with some more recent narration. The surviving footage which had been previously included on the “Lost in Time” DVD set is included here as well, featuring cuts that had been made for Australian TV broadcasts from Episodes 2 and 3 (of note, Ben and Polly grappling with the Macra, and Jamie encountering the Macra down in the mines).
Finally, there’s the “mini episode” from The Wheel in Space. It’s basically about 11 minute’s worth of Episode 1 of this story, featuring the Doctor and Jamie. I thought this was very well done, although the animation (especially the look of the characters) is a bit rough and rudimentary compared with that of The Macra Terror. I’m assuming they fine-tuned it a bit for the latter. If something similar were to come of this if they ever decide to animate the missing episodes of The Wheel in Space, I’m all for it.
All in all, it’s a good set. I found it very interesting how they tried to recreate this missing story from just the soundtrack, production photos, short deleted scenes and the telesnaps. I think they did a very good job. Now we’ve got The Faceless Ones and Fury from the Deep to look forward to. Hopefully the treatment they receive will be just as good as this one.
Once again I am sorry for neglecting this poor blog for … four months now? Eek, I didn’t realize it had been that long. I promise I will try to post more frequently now. I’ve got a few things in mind, one in particular being a review of The Macra Terror DVD (which was finally released here in the States about a week and a half ago).
I also wanted to take the opportunity to share my thoughts on the great convention experience I had yesterday. LI Who has been holding Doctor Who conventions since 2013 on Long Island, New York. I live here and I only discovered it recently (but as they say, better late than never, right?). This year it was held at a Ramada Plaza in Holtsville, NY, just over half an hour from where I live. Because of this I decided not to stay overnight at the hotel.
Turns out I’d made a good decision. The hotel was undergoing a lot of renovations, pretty much taking out most of the lobby. There were some tables set up for people to sit and talk or get something to eat. There was also room for the registration/check in tables, and a separate area for autographs, panels, and a room down the hallway for photo ops. It was pretty cramped, but we all tried to make the best of what was available to us.
There was a great selection of programming on offer: panel discussions among fans, panels featuring the guests, a Saturday night dance party, and of course the aforementioned autographs and photo ops. Sadly I was only able to attend yesterday (Sunday) due to the proximity of Thanksgiving, and the fact my two dogs probably wouldn’t forgive me if I’d stayed away so long. But for the time I was there, I really enjoyed it.
People went all out for cosplay. I saw someone in a big dinosaur costume. A girl was dressed like Susan in An Unearthly Child and bore an uncanny resemblance to Carole Ann Ford – I mean, she looked exactly the same way she did in that story. There was also a girl dressed as Zoe in her quick appearance in The Five Doctors, bubble wrap and all. There were also quite a few dressed as the 4th Doctor and the newest Doctor. People were roaming the halls handing out ribbons for people to stick below their badges. Among them I picked up a “K9 Grey Brother” ribbon from an Ontario, Canada fan group, and a “Dalek Souffle” ribbon (“Eggs…stir…min…ate”). It was really nice to meet so many friendly fans. All the people I chatted with (admittedly, not very many people) were so nice.
The first thing on my agenda for the day was a photo op with Frazer Hines (Jamie). I admit I was a bit nervous as I’d never met him before but I had nothing to worry about. He really was lovely. As he approached the photo op room, we saw him carrying a Jamie balloon animal (there was a guy there creating balloon animals of Doctor Who characters), with kilt and all. He proudly showed it off to us before going inside. Anyway he introduced himself to me and then asked if he could put my arm around me for the photo (my reply: of course!). He was very sweet and thanked me once the photo was taken.
And here we are… I don’t photograph well. He looks great, though
Afterwards I decided to grab some autographs. I’d seen Louise Jameson (Leela) earlier walking through the hall. When I went for her autograph she said to me “Hello!… Again!” When she was signing my picture and asked me for my name (which is Jessica), she asked me if I was named after the Shakespeare character. I told her sadly, no. She was very sweet though. There was a huge line for Katy Manning (Jo)’s autographs mainly due to the fact that all the fans with the deluxe “Master Plan) passes had them included, so while I was waiting for the line to thin out, I got Frazer’s. I’d meant to ask him if he’d brought any of the Second Doctor and Jamie figures with him (several months ago he posted an unboxing video on Facebook, mentioning the website they’re from and said he might bring some signed ones with him to upcoming conventions), but I didn’t see anything apart from photos so I didn’t ask. Again he was very gracious and sweet.
Katy… wow. She is so energetic and such a sweetheart. She loves to give out hugs. When I went for her autograph, she jumped up and gave me a big hug. I told her it was my first convention and she said “Really!” and she told me how wonderful it is, that it’s where people can be themselves. She gave me another hug and said she hopes to see me at more of them in the future (and that they’ll invite her back!).
John Leeson (voice of K9) was very sweet too. He asked where I was from and told me he heard that people had come from as far away as San Francisco to attend this convention. I loved his autograph… I’ll include it at the end with some pics of the others. I also got a photo op with him and K9:
I had intended to go to three panels but was only able to get into two. The rooms where they were held were pretty small so you had to line up quickly in order to get in. The first panel I attended was Katy’s: “The Woman of Many Voices.” Again, she is so energetic and funny. Not much was touched upon regarding her voice work, except for the Time Lady she’s been voicing in the Big Finish Audios. She did mention that she made her voice go higher as Jo when she was on Doctor Who and at times it would get lower, prompting Jon Pertwee to tell her she sounded like a lorry driver. She was asked what her least favorite outfit on the show was. One of them was the white outfit she wore in The Sea Devils. She’d mentioned something about it shrinking when it got wet and how uncomfortable that was. She was very sweet, mentioning that she just likes to hug random strangers, even when she’s on the Tube in London she’ll turn and say to someone “Excuse me darling, can you tell me where such-and-such is” and after they help her she’ll say “Oh thank you” and give them a hug. She said she just loves people. She’s not fond of huge parties and crowds but individually loves people. Sadly I had to walk out in the middle of her panel for my photo op with John Leeson, but I enjoyed what I saw of her panel. Here’s a photo from the panel:
After her panel and the John Leeson/K9 photo op, I sat for Frazer’s panel, “The Animated Man.” The main topic was the lost episodes that have been animated (and are slated to be), but he also told some funny behind-the-scenes stories of filming other episodes. Frazer was a riot. He mentioned The Macra Terror and how he and Michael Craze had to wear these awful orange uniforms with tight Bermuda shorts. The animator told him they thought they were gray or blue, but he told them he definitely remembered them being orange. He also mentioned how large and cumbersome the Macra prop was, that you had to throw yourself against it to make it look like it was attacking you. The Faceless Ones, as the next one to be animated, was also mentioned and he mainly talked about how Ben and Polly just left in the middle of the story and only showed up again at the end.
The moment in The Tomb of the Cybermen where Jamie and the Doctor meant to grab Victoria’s hands and instead ended up grabbing each other’s hands was of course mentioned, as well as the tradition of Jamie and the Doctor’s “look at the size of that one, Doctor”-“Yes Jamie, it is a very big one, isn’t it” exchange (and I should mention he does a hilarious impression of Patrick’s Doctor). A photo of the Dalek Emperor from The Evil of the Daleks was shown and Frazer turned to it, mentioning it has a brassiere on, LOL. He even mentioned that Wendy cut them off in The Seeds of Death when Jamie points to the rocket saying his line, and the Doctor starts in with his but then Wendy cuts them off to say something else.
Fury from the Deep was brought up as a story that’s been recently slated for animation. Frazer mentioned that they don’t like them to go on social media and announce these things, but he said he recently went out to the location where they filmed the beach scene (I believe) for this animated version. It almost sounded like this might be an extra when it’s finally released on DVD. He also told a funny story about the helicopter scene in the episode. Apparently Debbie Watling (Victoria) told him she was afraid of heights and asked if she could get into the helicopter first and then have him and Patrick sit on either side of her. Frazer replied “Of course” but then as she turned around she saw him sprinting for the helicopter and started shouting “You swine, you swine!!!” LOL. On a more subdued note, he was asked about the ending scene where Victoria admits to Jamie she wants to stay. He said it wasn’t so much acting because they really did feel badly about Debbie leaving. I really enjoyed his panel. Here’s a photo:
I should say that the camera doesn’t do him justice. In person he has this real youthful spark to go with his sense of humor.
I really wanted to attend the 4th Doctor panel with Louise and John but after a very short trip to the restroom I learned the room was already full. Hopefully someone else has posted some highlights of that panel online somewhere.
All in all, it was a great (albeit short) experience and I’m so glad I was able to attend. If they hold it again next year I’d love to go.
Here are my autographs:
John Leeson wrote “Tail wags to my friend Jessica from K9!”
Once again, I apologize for being so quiet here. Admittedly, I haven’t had all that much to say lately. That’s finally changed.
I just got tickets to my first Doctor Who convention. I’ve been a fan of this show since circa 1981 and I finally got my opportunity. The end of November I’ll be attending Long Island Who, aka An Unearthly Convention in Holtsville, New York (on Long Island, east of New York City). As of this writing, Louise Jameson (Leela), Katy Manning (Jo), Frazer Hines (Jamie), and Paul McGann (the 8th Doctor) will be attending. I believe I also read that John Leeson who voiced K9 will be a guest as well.
Not sure if I will get any photo ops. I definitely want to get autographs, but will have to decide on the photo ops a bit later. I’m so excited. I only hope I won’t make a fool out of myself, lol.
If anyone is interested in attending or just in any details about the convention, look here.
A friend of mine has written a superb novel called “Forgotten Suns”, starring the 2nd Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. He is planning to record an audio version and is looking for a person (or persons) to voice Jamie and Zoe.
If you think you may be interested, please see this page for more information. Even if you have no interest, please give a heads up to anyone who might be.
I finally got a chance to sit down and write a review of this book. It had taken me a bit longer than I’d expected to finish it (not the fault of the book at all; I’d had lots of things going on in between – mainly dealing with illness and being away on vacation), but I did want to share my thoughts on it.
I enjoyed it very much. I guess most people know that it originated from a screenplay written by Tom Baker and Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) for a possible Doctor Who film back when they were both on Doctor Who. I did get that impression from it while reading and the portrayals of the three main characters (the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry) were perfect, exactly as I’d expected them to be. Within the story are references to serials from Tom Baker’s first series as the Doctor, as well as a few from the second series, and it would seem to me that this takes place sometime after The Android Invasion, since events from that story are alluded to.
Just as a brief synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a remote island (somewhere off of Scotland, it would seem). The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry are ready for a picnic and some fun when they notice things seem a bit off. The area is quite desolate and it turns out people have been turned into scarecrows with the help of some nasty fertilizer (which coincidentally seems to be made up of ground up human bones). They encounter some rather shaken humans and try to protect/defend them as much as possible, but they sadly end up being turned into scarecrows and other similar beings who attack the remaining humans (including Sarah and Harry). The Doctor discovers a tear in the fabric of this universe and a portal leading to another dimension ruled by Scratchman. He must travel there to find his friends and save their own dimension. Interspersed throughout are scenes of the Doctor coming before the High Council of the Time Lords as a result of what’s happened in this story and discussing fear with them. He discusses his own fear(s) and ultimately gets them to admit their greatest fear: dying. It’s very well done.
Scratchman is basically the Devil (coming from the nickname “Ol’ Scratch”). The land he rules is literally like Hell. In fact, the cabbie who gives him a lift is named Charon (and is an amusing character who makes a few cracks about the Doctor’s previous incarnations). Scratchman has a rather crude castle floating in the sky. He’s dressed in a business suit and has a fiery globe for a head. He’s also got a large group of yes-men who look exactly like him. Scratchman is quite charming and has some interesting interaction with the Doctor. His portrayal kind of reminded me of Roger Delgado’s Master.
What I also found pretty neat was the inclusion of the Thirteenth Doctor. She meets the Fourth and in a way gives him some encouragement. I thought it was a nice touch. His three former incarnations also appear, in scarecrow form actually. They seemed to be there mostly for comic relief, but they were a bit instrumental to the plot as well, especially as far as Scratchman’s fate is concerned. Another interesting bit featured Sarah in the TARDIS attempting to evade the scarecrows that have gotten inside. There’s a room in the TARDIS called “The Jigsaw Room” which has a floor laid out as jigsaw pieces she must run across. Parts of the floor show different stages of her life and there are references to later events in her life, including some from The Sarah Jane Adventures. I thought this was nicely done as well.
Things do resolve themselves in the end. Sadly, the villagers who were turned/killed were unable to be saved, but the Doctor, Sarah and Harry are back together, and the Doctor has another small, poignant encounter with his 13th incarnation. The Doctor pens a small “Afterword”, with Sarah adding her own little bit at the end. Both bits were very amusing and totally in character. Tom Baker did a wonderful job (and he does give a nice, short acknowledgement to Ian Marter in the end as well). The book really held my interest. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
This was yet another book I’d received for Christmas, but due to the backlog of books I had yet to read, I didn’t get to finish it until recently.
I’d decided to read this one because not only are the Second Doctor and his companions among my favorites (as I’ve mentioned countless times before, lol), but from the little blurbs and various reviews I’d seen, it sounded interesting.
In a nutshell, the TARDIS ends up taking the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe to the rings of Saturn. There are big chunks of debris flying at them and they’re saved by a teenage girl named Phee Laws, who happens to be the daughter of Jo (who is the mayor of a settlement on the Wheel). A moon called Mnemosyne is being mined for a mineral called bernalium, directed by a female tyrant head of a corporation known as Bootstrap. People get attacked by these creepy “blue doll” monsters and repeated trips to this moon are made in order to put a stop to it all. The Doctor of course is at the heart of this, trying to understand and influence the “blue dolls”, as well as Arkive, the failing ancient artificial intelligence that is controlling them.
It doesn’t specify when exactly in the Who universe this story takes place, but given the references to the Cybermen invasion of London having occurred in the past, plus the references to T-Mat, it’s definitely post-The Seeds Of Death (actually, in the beginning of the book it’s mentioned that Jamie is wearing the same black lace-up Jacobite shirt he wore in that serial, plus the physical description of the Doctor – ragged sideburns, for one – seems to be a callback to the way he looked then as well). Other reviewers have suggested it takes place directly before The War Games. Whatever the case, it’s definitely in the late Series 6 time frame.
There are some other interesting characters, especially Sam, the 19-year-old son of Jo Laws. He ends up developing a bit of a rapport with Jamie. There’s a scene where the Doctor and companions are taking up residence at Jo’s house, with Zoe sharing a room with Phee and Jamie with Sam. At first, Sam scoffs at Jamie, calling him “Granddad” (which insults Jamie, who insists he’s not much older than him), but he soon offers Jamie to come along with him and his friends, riding scooters in space and “skiing” on another moon, Titan.
Jo also has a daughter named Casey, who is about 2 or 3 years old. It’s basically through her that the blue dolls are discovered. There is a nice scene towards the end of the book where she and Zoe are taking cover in an old ship. Little Casey is frightened the way the ship is being jostled about due to flying debris from an explosion and Zoe, who’s obviously not had much experience with children, does her best to comfort the toddler.
Another interesting character is MMAC, a large mechanic of a robot programmed to believe he is a Scotsman from Glasgow (in fact, upon first meeting them, he and Jamie have an interesting exchange … Jamie takes issue with the fact he’s a “Jessie” from Glasgow who most likely would have fought with the English during the Jacobite Uprising, LOL). Even though his memories are artificial – and it’s a bit sad when he discovers this – he’s very kind and helpful, coming through to save our protagonists in quite a few ways.
The characters that really didn’t do anything for me were Jo Laws’ ex-husband, whose interaction with Sam in particular seemed a bit forced (although I will give him credit for helping them save the day in the end); and Florian Hart, the head of the corporation in charge of mining the moon for bernalium. She starts as a relatively tame antagonist but as the story wears on – and especially near the end – she turns into a power-hungry tyrant. In doing so, she actually becomes a bit cartoonish and one-dimensional, and I was rooting for her defeat so we wouldn’t have to hear anymore about her.
Things do get resolved in the end and I won’t go into detail on that. I’ll just mention there’s a celebratory parade on the Wheel in which Jamie takes part, proudly playing the bagpipes. As you’d expect, the Doctor has them all quietly slip away while speeches and the like are being given, and they’re off in the TARDIS for their next adventure.
The characterizations of Team TARDIS were very well done, in my opinion. The Doctor’s portrayal seemed to start off a bit shaky, but got much better after the first chapter or two, and later on when he’s confronting the blue dolls/blue army men and Arkive, I could just hear Troughton as the Second Doctor delivering the words on the pages. Zoe and Jamie were very well done, too, although I’ve mentioned before that it’s an occasional pet peeve of mine when authors make him sound more Scots Highlander than he sounded in the TV show. Baxter does this here and there, with the occasional “yon” or “ken” but it wasn’t very distracting and apart from that, he got Jamie’s characterization very well.
That’s about all I wanted to say about this one. If you haven’t read it before, I would recommend it. The storyline was interesting and I liked the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe’s involvement in it.
I’ll write up my thoughts on “The Wheel of Ice” soon, but there’s one thing I noticed in the book that I wanted to address in general.
I’ve noticed that in some of the Doctor Who novels and fanfiction during the Second Doctor’s time, writers tend to make Jamie sound a bit more Scots than he did in the show. They’ll have him saying words like “yon” or “ken” (as in “Doctor, there’s a noise coming from yon shrubbery!” and “Look, Doctor, she’s not joking, ye ken.”).
It doesn’t bother me a lot, but we’ve never actually heard him use these words in the show, even in his very first stories “The Highlanders” and “The Underwater Menace” (if I’m wrong, please let me know … I do remember him saying “dinna fash” and “whist” several times, but no “yon” or “ken”). When I write any fanfics involving Jamie, I like to make him sound as closely to the way he talked in the show as possible. I know not everyone does that, and there are writers who don’t employ any of the “Scots-speak” at all.
Maybe it’s just me but I’ve found it a bit of a pet peeve. It is quaint but to me not overly realistic of the way he talked in the show.
First, apologies for having gone so long without updating this blog. Work has had me insanely busy, plus the fact that the Tumblr folks haven’t been giving me grief and marking my posts as adult content has given me less motivation for importing more of my posts here. Finally, I was waiting until I finished “The Wheel of Ice”, the book I’m currently reading before writing a review … I’m almost at that point, so it should be forthcoming.
Now to get to the main point of this post: There is news of another Doctor Who serial to be animated! The Second Doctor story “The Faceless Ones,” of which only two episodes out of six exist, is going to be animated and released on DVD next year. Go here for more news and a video teaser.
From what I’ve seen it seems that it’s going to be similar to “The Macra Terror” which was just recently released. I still don’t have my copy as it’s not going to be released in Region 1 until October (*sigh*), but I have seen it and would like to write a little “review” of what I’ve seen. I’ll try to do that as soon as possible.
I received this classic Doctor Who novel by Mark Gatiss as a gift last Christmas and only got around to finishing it now (I have a real backlog of books … what can I say?).
I haven’t read many Doctor Who novels as it is, and the last ones I had read were both Nu Who stories starring the 9th and 10th Doctors. The Second Doctor and his companions are among my favorites in Classic Who, so I decided to give this a read. This isn’t so much of a long, extensive, detailed review as it is mainly my general thoughts on it.
Basically, the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie end up in London in December, 1648 during the war between Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads and the Cavaliers who supported the King Stuart. This story is set in between The Macra Terror and The Faceless Ones. I have to say I was impressed. Gatiss does very well with the characterizations of the 2nd Doctor and his companions. Their interactions with one another and the other characters are much what I’d expect. There is a scene I enjoy very much where the Doctor and Jamie are held prisoner in the Tower of London. A watchman and jailer are interrogating them and the Doctor, thinking quickly, decides to tell them that Jamie is a seer who can tell how their situation is going to end up. He refers to him as “The McCrimmon” of Culloden and begs the “great McCrimmon” to tell them how this war will end up for them. Jamie goes along with it, appearing as if he’s in a trance and moaning, wiggling his fingers, the whole act. Their captors fall for it and the Doctor exclaims “The McCrimmon knows all!” I enjoyed their interaction which is right on par during this point in Jamie’s travels with the Doctor.
Ben and Polly of course end up getting separated from them. Polly befriends a young woman whose father is heavily caught up in this business. She then befriends a young Cavalier named Whyte, is recruited to help him and is crushed when she has to betray him in the end. Ben himself ends up at sea on the ship of a Polish captain headed for Amsterdam. He meets an interesting character named Sal Winter, an assertive female captain with a false nose who’s out for revenge against the Polish captain.
There’s a running thread of the Doctor not wishing to change history as you’d expect, and he tries to stick to that as much as possible, even when it appears they might not get much of a chance to pull it off. Even though he and his team are off in their own separate threads, they all come together in the end to set things right. I enjoyed reading this book. It really held my interest and as I mentioned, the characterizations were very good. I know this book isn’t new by any means (it was published in the early 2000s), but if you haven’t read it yet I’d quite recommend it.
I’ve mentioned before that I can only purchase the various Classic Doctor Who DVDs in Region 1. This kind of sucks because a lot of good titles are out of print in Region 1 and very hard to find (and really expensive if you can find them). Also it seems that some titles aren’t going to be released in Region 1 either. It’s not feasible for me to get a multi-region player at the moment. I’ve got a blu-ray player and a Region 1 DVR/player that’s only a few years old, so I’m not looking to get rid of it just to replace it with a multi-region player (and I highly doubt they make any that have a built in hard drive anyway).
Well, I just discovered I can play Region 2 DVDs on my desktop computer’s DVD-ROM drive. A friend sent me a movie on DVD for my birthday, which she had to order from the UK as it hasn’t been released Stateside. It’s in Region 2 and natch, as soon as I popped it into my DVD player, I got the region error. I remember reading an article online which claimed that you can play other region DVDs on your computer if you have VLC Player (which I do). I wasn’t sure if this was actually true, so I popped the DVD into my drive, chose to play it in VLC Player and it worked! I honestly wasn’t expecting it to because I don’t always believe everything I read, and I can’t count how many times I’ve read how you can do this and do that and it ends up not working (especially those articles about how to make your player region-free. Nope, tried that, never works).
I’ve got a handful of 1st Doctor stories, all of the 2nd Doctor ones, and a few for the 3rd Doctor all in Region 1. But I’m thinking of getting some of the hard-to-find ones in Region 2 to play on my computer. Plus there’s also the special edition version of The Enemy of the World that was released last year in Region 2, which I highly doubt will ever be released in Region 1. The extras alone make me want to grab that one.
So, long story short, this was a nice discovery. If anyone in Region 1 is thinking of purchasing Region 2 DVDs and doesn’t have a multi-region player, this may be a good option.
Update: It seems VLC Player can play DVDs from other regions, but your DVD drive could still be region locked. I discovered that I can only change the region of my DVD drive 5 times before it locks on the last one. I did manage to find a way around this so if anyone is interested, leave me a comment and I’ll fill you in.
Junkyard Bluebox 