DOCTOR WHO: THE AZTECS

By: TONY WHITT
Review Date: Monday, April 07, 2003

"The Aztecs" is one of those DOCTOR WHO stories that gets most often compared to Shakespeare, though that's really a bit of an overstatement. "The Aztecs" is arguably one of the series' best historical stories, but it's not quite RICHARD III, despite the comments of several on this disc to the contrary. Instead, it's a glorious example of early British television at its best, and one of the best William Hartnell episodes ever.

"The Aztecs" explores what only a handful of later DOCTOR WHO stories would take on as a central concept: the consequences of meddling in time. Although the central conflict of the story is much the same as any other Hartnell era story - the travelers are separated from the TARDIS and must find some way to stay alive until they can get back to it - the greater conflict arises from Barbara's desire to save the Aztec civilization from the fate that awaits it when Montezuma arrives. If the human sacrifices can be stopped, Barbara reasons, then the Aztecs will be spared, and since she's been taken for the reincarnation of the High Priest Yetaxa, she believes she can bring this about. The Doctor warns her that she can't rewrite history (despite the fact that he himself will go on to do little else), but Barbara has convinced the High Priest of Knowledge, Autloc (Keith Pyott), that the gods are on her side. The High Priest of Sacrifice, Tlotoxl (John Ringham) and the captain of the army Ixta (Ian Cullen), however, suspect that she and her "servants" are false and go about plotting her demise. In the meantime, the Doctor has his own problems: not only must he find a way to get back into the tomb where the TARDIS is, but he's accidentally gotten himself engaged to an Aztec woman named Cameca (Margot van der Burgh) by making her some cocoa.

"The Aztecs" looks better now than ever before, thanks to the VidFIRE process which restores to film copies of existing '60s DOCTOR WHO the look of video they were originally shot on. Granted, the VidFIRE process does have a few drawbacks - in restoring much of the missing visual information, the motions of the actors are sometimes too fluid, causing dizzying visual effects from time to time. It also makes the difference between the few filmed sequences and the majority video sequences that much more noticeable. Otherwise, the digital restoration is incredible, with some scenes of the story almost looking like they were shot yesterday. The "Restoring 'The Aztecs'" featurette provides more information about the process and includes some scenes from later stories taken from higher quality film stock, giving us a glimpse of what we can look forward to in later releases.


In terms of the other extras on this disc, it's astonishing that such an old story should provide so much more extra material than previous releases of newer stories have done. "Remembering 'The Aztecs'" features interviews with cast members Ringham, Cullen, and Walter Randall, all of them eager to share their memories of a story they made nearly forty years ago. (It's a pity the producers didn't tell Ringham to wear longer pants or Randall to button up his shirt - it's just a little too much to see that much skin on actors this old.) Designer Barry Newbery's memories of "Designing 'The Aztecs'" are only slightly less compelling, though the production photos that accompany the featurette provide some rare behind-the-scenes views - and remind us just how few resources and how little space the production team ever had to work with back then. Even the Arabic soundtrack on Episode 4 is worthwhile, particularly considering that Richard Rodney Bennett's excellent incident music is replaced by equally appropriate stock music and how much the Arabic voice artist playing Susan sounds like Carole Anne Ford.

Other portions of the disc aren't quite as exciting, sadly. There's yet another TARDIS-cam featurette, and Richard Molesworth's subtitled production notes aren't quite as complete as usual, possibly owing to so much information coming to us through the featurettes. The SOUTH PARK-ish animated featurette "Making Cocoa" is a bit of harmless fun, with Ringham and Randall providing voices for the characters that sound very little changed from the time they first played them four decades ago. Otherwise, one would be justified in asking why it's even here. Only the commentary by producer Verity Lambert, and actors William Russell and Ford is completely disappointing. Lambert does her best to provide some background information about the series in general and this story in particular, but she's often drowned out by Russell and Ford ooing and ahhing about the sets and the other actors. The producers of the disc also make the mistake of bringing the story soundtrack up in volume to fill in the many silences as the actors get caught up in watching the story and don't say anything. Perhaps the presence of an interviewer such as those on the DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS movie disc or on the TOMORROW PEOPLE discs would have helped here. Even with these flaws, "The Aztecs" is well worth the investment, even for those who might have been lukewarm about the Hartnell era previously.

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