Tom Baker? Check! Elisabeth Sladen? Check! These are the only two elements you need when it comes to classic Doctor Who and boy is Doctor Who the Masque of Mandragora a classic! Featuring the enigmatic and eccentric looking Tom Baker as the Doctor, the BBC have carefully released another great addition to our Doctor Who collection as the Doctor makes his way to 15th century Italy, only to be running for his life and once again saving life as we know it.

The story begins with the Doctor and his lovely companion Sarah-Jane discovering another control room for the TARDIS, however to make matters worse, an outside entity known as the Mandragora Helix is controlling the Time Lord's vessel. With classic BBC effects, the TARDIS materialises in 15th century Italy after being hijacked by this energy. To make matters worse for our Gallifreyan hero, by arriving in 15th century Italy, he is embroiled in court politics with the nefarious Count Frederico who threatens the very fabric of reality. 

The Doctor also discovers that is attempting to thwart his nephew from power and to compound the situation, he is in cahoots with a mystic called Hieronymous whose cult is about to use the power of the Mandragora to destroy all life on Earth. With drama, action and intrigue, this is one of the better Doctor Who collections and the setup of this story is great as the Doctor and Sarah-Jane attempt to right things in this timeline in some fun Tom Baker fashion.

Compared to some other Doctor Who stories, this story is quite dark, especially with the involvement of the cult of Demnos that still gives me a scare all these years later. Without dissecting this review any further, this is classic Doctor Who and once again Baker proves why he was one of the better actors to play this Time Lord. The only downside to this production is the video and audio quality and even though it has been restored, it's not 100% as some past releases.

However where the DVD does shine is through the amazing special features from commentary to featurettes and everything you ever wanted to know about this story. It doesn't get any better than this and best of all, this DVD is extremely affordable. Recommended!

Special Features

• Commentary by Tom Baker (The Doctor), Gareth Armstrong (Giuliano), Philip Hinchcliffe (Producer) and Chris D'Oyly-John (Production Unit Manager)

• The secret of the labyrinth cast and crew look back at the making of The Masque of Mandragora

• Bigger on the inside - The history of the TARDIS

• now and then - A return visit to the locations used for The Masque of Mandragora

• Beneath the Masque - Garth Roberts and Clayton Hickman take the Masque to task

• Radio Times Billings (PDF DVD-ROM PC/Mac)

• Trails and Continuity

• Production Information Subtitles

• Photo Gallery

• Digitally remastered picture and sound quality