More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS

Video review by Nicholas Withers

For the 30th Anniversary fandom was given the failure of The Dark Dimension, the abysmal Dimensions in Time and the mediocre 30 Years in the TARDIS documentary. In the case of 30 Years it was obvious that commercial interests had taken over when it came to editing the various portions together for the televised version.

Once again thanks are due to BBC Video for providing us with a more fitting tribute to the Doctor's 30th anniversary, even if it is a year late. Unrestrained by the time limit or the commercial interests required by a television time slot, More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS stretches out to 87 minutes. The result is packed with enough clips to appeal to most fans. At last we can see the Prime computer advertisements! We can be stunned at Jon Pertwee trying to decide who came up with the Daleks! Our mystification with the Seventh Doctor will continue with the sight of him revealing himself to Davros! The tape even includes footage of the near-drowning of Sophie Aldred and the rescue triggered by Sylvester McCoy himself! All these clips and more.

The items filmed specifically for this documentary also make for good viewing. The reconstruction of famous scenes, as well as the young kid's entry into the TARDIS, is excellent. These are slightly ruined by the inclusion of British TV personality Toyah Wilcox cropping up here and there to tell us of her fetish for PVC and for the vinyl clad Cybermen. Once more we are also treated, unfortunately, to the annoying 'essential information' interludes.

However in its restored form More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS provides a vast quantity of Doctor Who related clips and information in a fairly fast-moving format and as such it survives multiple viewings relatively well. It is obvious that the documentary was assembled by people who are also fans of the show.