Doctor Who: Bred for War Box Set (UK shop)

Starring Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, Colin Baker, Patrick Troughton, Elisabeth Sladen

Features the following episodes:
The Time Warrior
The Sontaran Experiment
The Invasion Of Time
The Two Doctors

This superb Doctor Who box set contains all four stories featuring the alien species the Sontarans. The Sontarans are the militaristic clone species from the planet Sontar who made their first appearance in 1973 in the Who serial “The Time Warrior”.

The Time Warrior

Starring Jon Pertwee

Directed by: Alan Bromly
Produced by: Barry Letts
Written by: Robert Holmes

Summary

Journalist Sarah Jane Smith is impersonating her aunt, virologist Lavinia Smith, in order to gain access to a research centre where top scientists are being held in protective custody while UNIT investigates the disappearance of a number of their colleagues. The missing scientists have been kidnapped by a Sontaran, Linx, and taken back to medieval England, where they are working under hypnosis to repair his crashed spaceship…

Extras include

• Commentary – Terrance Dicks and Elisabeth Sladen
• Beginning the End – the interviews are shot at the story’s location of Peckforton Castle.
• Trails and continuity
• Stills gallery a Coming Soon trailer
• A reproduction of the 1974 Doctor Who Annual
• The Radio Times listings
• The Time Warrior, a cover story both in PDF format.
• Plus two Easter Eggs on this DVD

The Sontaran Experiment

Starring Tom Baker

Directed by: Rodney Bennett
Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe
Written by:  Bob Baker and Dave Martin

Summary

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive on a desolate and apparently deserted Earth to discover that a group of shipwrecked astronauts from a human colony, GalSec, have been lured there by a fake distress call. One of their number, Roth, tells Sarah of an alien conducting gruesome experiments on him and his crewmates. The alien turns out to be a Sontaran, Field-Major Styre, who is compiling a report on human physical and mental capabilities as a prelude to an invasion of Earth.

The Doctor challenges Styre to unarmed combat. The Sontaran agrees but is quickly weakened in Earth’s unfamiliar gravity…

Extras include

• Commentary -With Elisabeth Sladen, Bob Baker and Philip Hinchcliffe
• Built For War – Documentary that looks into the development of the Sontaran, featuring contributions from Terrence Dicks, Elisabeth Sladen, Anthony Read, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant.
• Photo Gallery

The Invasion of Time

Starring Tom Baker

Directed by: Gerald Blake
Produced by: Graham Williams
Written by:  David Agnew

Summary

In which Gallifrey is invaded by Sontarans who, unknown to the Doctor, were using the Vardans to enable them to conquer the Time Lords. The Doctor uses knowledge extracted from the Matrix by K9 to construct a forbidden de-mat gun, activated by the Great Key of Rassilon. He then uses this to kill the Sontarans, although his memory of recent events is wiped in the process…

Extras include

• Commentary -With actors Louise Jameson and John Leeson,
• ‘Out of Time’ – artistes and production crew recall the making of this story. With actors Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Chris Tranchell and Milton John
• Deleted Scenes Deleted scenes from the film sequences for episodes five and six.
• The Changing Face of Gallifrey: A look at how the portrayal of the Time Lords and their home planet of Gallifrey changed over the years.
• The Elusive David Agnew Who is the mysterious David Agnew, the writer of this story? Script editors Terrance Dicks and Anthony Read try to get to the bottom of the mystery…
• CGI Effects
• Continuity BBC1 continuity announcements from the story’s transmission.
• Photo Gallery
• Coming Soon trailer.
• Easter Egg
• Radio Times Listings in Adobe PDF format for viewing on PC or Mac.
• Programme subtitles.

The Two Doctors

Starring Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton

Directed by: Peter Moffatt
Produced by: John Nathan-Turner
Written by:  Robert Holmes

Summary

The second Doctor and Jamie are sent by the Time Lords to space station Camera in order to put a stop to unauthorised time travel experiments being carried out there under the auspices of the head of projects, Dastari. The Sontarans raid the station, killing almost all aboard. They capture the second Doctor and take him to Earth, imprisoning him in a hacienda near the Spanish city of Seville. There Dastari, also in league with the Sontarans, plans to dissect him in order to find the Rassilon Imprimature – the symbiotic nuclei within a Time Lord’s genes that are the key to time travel. The sixth Doctor and Peri rescue Jamie …

Extras include

• Commentary -With actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
• Behind the Sofa: Robert Holmes and Doctor Who
• Beneath the Lights – 25 minute look behind the scenes
• Beneath the Sun – 35 minute featurette on location in Spain
• Adventures in Time & Spain
• Wavelength – half hour Radio 4 schools programme
• Photo Gallery