The seventh Doctor story Battlefield is set to be released in the UK December 29th. The story is from the final season of the original series, and is the last story to feature the Brigadier (although sharp-eyed viewers could spot the actor, Nicholas Courtney, in a cameo in the previous season’s Silver Nemesis).
This story is one of my favorites from McCoy’s (televised) era, and blends Arthurian legends with science fiction. It was another story to continue the trend that began in season 25 of reintroducing mystery into the Doctor’s character (see Remembrance of the Daleks, which is also written by Ben Aaronovitch, for the first example of this trend).
The story involves characters from Moraine Le Fey from the legends of King Arthur, who have traveled from a parallel Earth to this one. In this story, it is established that at some point in his own future, the Doctor would be known as Merlin in that parallel world, and it’s one of the few stories I can think of where the Doctor intrudes (indirectly, by leaving himself a note) in his own timeline.
The DVD is noteworthy in that it will be the first time the broadcast version of the story will be released, as the 1990s VHS release was an extended cut taken from the “71 edits” (a BBC term for footage that ran too long to be broadcast in full), although interestingly enough the “broadcast version” was actually rebuilt from the longer 71 edits.
A second disk will contain a movie-format extended version with updated special effects.
No word yet on the American release of the story, but we should see it in a few months if it follows the usual schedule.
A more technical article on the restoration process can be found here.
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