DVD Reviews: Dr. Who: The Aztecs

Dr Who: The Aztecs, first thing I have to say about this DVD is it’s a bit wonky and for those of you out there who don’t know what I’m talking about, it buzzes and wobbles at the start making a terrible noise all the way through. I’m not sure if it’s the copy I got, but it does it in both the DVD player and my DVD-ROM. 

I enjoyed this DVD even though it’s older than I am, these episodes were created in the time that William Hartnell was playing Dr Who (1963-66).  At some points in the movie you can tell that the scenes in the back ground were just blurry back drops that had been around the block a few times.  But back in those days I guess they didn’t really have much to work with, but it does add to the effect of the movie and its appeal. 

Sound and picture quality isn’t really that good but if you check out the extras “Restoring the Aztecs” you can see all the work they had to put into it to get the picture to come out clearly, a real good job on the DVD transfer.  Looking at what they had to work with it’s actually amazing as to what they have accomplished, some scenes you can actually see how they’ve filled in the edges of the scenes and back drops and the amount of actual picture correction and sound enhancement that would have had to be done by hand is fantastic, if you’ve never seen a Dr Who this old you should, and if you can still remember the old episodes you should check them out now, what a quality increase. 

The story is all about Dr Who’s adventures in The Tardis,  his machine can transfer them anywhere in time and space the story starts off with two young women entering a tomb, this is where Dr Who lands the Tardis.  They enter the tomb determining that they are in the land of the ancient Aztecs, as once women disappears out through a secret entrance/exit the other three follow.  Only to find that Barbara has been mistaken for a god and Dr Who and his other two companions as her servants.  The high priest finding complete faith in his returned god now finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between the new god Yetaxa (Barbara) and the high priest of sacrifice.   

After Barbara orders the sacrificing to stop, the high priest of the art is offended and is from there goes on a war path to prove that Yetaxa is a false god.  Though Barbara is ordered not to interfere with history by Dr Who she tries her very best, and so begins a struggle for power and the love of the people. This is a cool show even though it’s a bit old and there’s not much action, though it’s still a good story line. 

After watching what they had to work with it’s amazing what they can do these days. Not bad for an old movie, not exciting but still good to watch if you’ve never seen anything from this era of theatre.