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Its a short two parter from season 19 which why,llst not without its many plotholes and flaws is an entertaining period story that fits in well.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Superb Picture quality and sound.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Fantastic
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
It’s fairly clear, within minutes of their commentary track for Doctor Who: Black Orchid starting, that the majority of the participants in the story aren’t very fond of it. At all. Peter Davison is perhaps the most scathing, calling it a “lazy story”, that Terence Dudley got out of the drawer and turned into a Doctor Who episode. And let’s be frank: there aren’t too many elements you’d associate with Doctor Who in Black Orchid: the show’s clearly done historical stories exceptionally well in the past, but this has not a jot of science fiction in it, leading the commentary team to speculate that it’s a Miss Marple-alike story that Dudley, for reasons easily explained by the sieve-like plot, couldn’t sell. And yet this reviewer at least doesn’t mind it too much. There’s not a great deal to it, granted. It’s a two part mystery set in the 1920s, that – despite its total 50 minute running time – still manages to shoehorn around five minutes of Peter Davison playing cricket, another few minutes of Nyssa and Tegan dancing, and umpteen shots of Adric, er, eating. Yet it’s breezy enough (literally and figuratively) to watch, and passes before your eyes perfectly harmlessly. The premise is that the Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan (for this was in the days when the Tardis was full of companions, a choice criticised in the recent commentary track for The Five Doctors) arrived in England in 1925, where thanks to a case of mistaken identity, they’re scooted off to Cranleigh Hall for the aforementioned cricket match. But behind the scenes at Cranleigh Hall, things are amiss. There’s a double for Nyssa for starters, in the shape of Ann Talbot (both, naturally, are played by Sarah Sutton), a strange man with some ring like device coming out of his mouth (it’s hilarious, to be fair) and a series of murders. There’s also a fleeting reference to the black orchid flower, which justifies the title of the story. Just. In the midst of all of this is a fancy dress ball, which sees Nyssa and Ann confusing everybody by wearing identical outfits, while the Doctor ends up in a strange harlequin costume, just minutes after it was used by the murderer. If there was much substance to it, this would be the part where the plot thickens. But it never does. With a script that sees people doing things that defy logic, and with not a great deal of meat to the fairly obvious plot, it’s fair to say that Black Orchid is no classic. But it’s still surprisingly good fun, especially given the opinions of those who were in it! Which leads us neatly to the main DVD extra, a commentary track with Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton (the only one to like the story, primarily because it did something a little different), Janet Fielding (who is on great form again, verbally bouncing off Davison) and Matthew Waterhouse. There’s no director or writer here, meaning it’s very much a non-technical, actors’ commentary. And it’s an absolute hoot. They’ve marked their card within minutes by declaring dislike of the story, and from there they’re happy to royally rip the piss out of it. “None of us come out of this well”, muses Fielding towards the end, with the track also pointing out the variable weather in the main outdoor sequences, Davison’s hatred for the costume he had to wear, the lighting, the script holes and chest hair! There is some meat in here. John Nathan-Turner’s dislike of six part episodes was the reason they ended up with a two-parter hereRead full review
"Classic" Doctor Who (for want of a better name) usually involved four or six part 25-minute serials running at least 100 minutes in total. "Black Orchid" is one of but a handful of pre-2005 stories that is only two episodes (approx 50 minutes) in length - almost the same as a modern episode of David Tennant themed "Who". You'd think then that a 50 minute TV story would proceed at twice-the-pace of a 100 minute serial, but actually it doesn't. If anything, this story feels even slower than usual and even finds time for about five minutes footage of Davison playing cricket. Boring though the sport is, this is probably the one time during Davison's tenure on the show that his characters love for the pastime was treated well. We join the TARDIS crew (a full complement of Tegan, Nyssa and Adric - the latter would get killed off in the next story, the Cyberman-themed "Earthshock") when they arrive in 1925, and the Doctor is mistaken for another cricket-playing Doctor due at Cranleigh Hall. After a first-class show of his cricket skills, Lord Cranleigh invites the Doctor and his companions back to a fancy-dress ball. Nyssa in particular is surprised to discover that Lord Cranleigh's fiancee Ann Talbot, is her exact double! What comes next is a "whodunit". Well, not much of a whodunit, as the audience knows full well who the killer is - the guy with the breathing problem who stole the Doctor's party costume. It turns out that the guy with the breathing problem is Lady Cranleigh's disfigured son and that she is hiding him up in the attic somewhere. What's actually surprising when you put on the DVD commentary to this episode is when you hear all the cast voice their opinions that this is not actually their favourite story, a fact that is somewhat at odds with many fans views of the serial. Sarah Sutton is not especially convincing in her dual role of Ann/Nyssa and the effects concerning the two sharing the screen together range from the acceptable to the poor. Certainly at times it is quite obvious where Sutton's body double is being used. Matthew Waterhouse's dancing skills are woefully inadequate as well, but Janet Fielding seems to be having a good time and dances a good Charleston. It's such a shame then that most of the outdoor filmed scenes of the party either seem to have been filmed in a force 8 hurricane or in the middle of a rainstorm when the patio changes from wet to dry almost at will. The costumes might be from stock (and the BBC very rarely gets period drama wrong), but the non-existant Doctor Who "budget" (or lack thereof) is always very much in evidence. Even at the end of the show, the Doctor sticks around for the funeral of George Cranleigh, something that the recent Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant versions of the character have always avoided - they just jump in the TARDIS and do a runner, but here for some reason, the Doctor decides to stay. He also makes a rather odd decision in part two and shows the policemen the inside of the TARDIS in order to "prove" to them that he is telling the truth. You'd think he'd be more careful of advertising his "alien-ness" to all-and-sundry. Surely there was another way to prove his innocence besides this? The writing does seem quite lazy at times. An interesting experiment for the series, but I wouldn't like to see this every week. One for the fans only. Not likely to win any new converts to the series. As a fan though, I give 8/10.Read full review
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