Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death (Story 53)

The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) is now working hand-in-hand with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT. So he's on the scene when the Brigadier investigates why the astronauts on Mars Probe 7 have not communicated with Space Control since they started the trip back to Earth seven months before. Professor Ralph Cornish, head of the program, sent a recovery space capsule to investigate, and now they're having the same problem with the rescue mission.When, finally, the rescue mission lands on Earth, the three astronauts in it are kidnapped in a daring raid. Not only that, but scientist Liz Shaw notices that the Geiger counter is showing maximum radiation. What is going on? Who has kidnapped the astronauts, if indeed, these creatures able to kill with a touch are actually our astronauts.This episode sends delicious shivers up my spine. I think it does an excellent job of stringing the viewer along, trying to figure out what is happening and why. As the Doctor says, "I don't know what came down in Recovery 7, but it certainly wasn't human!" I appreciate the general theme of the dangers of xenophbia. I also get a kick out of Liz Shaw's white go-go boots. I had a pair myself in sixth grade.This review is for the October, 2012, release of "Ambassadors of Death" on DVD, the first time it will be offered on DVD. There are seven 25-minute episodes. This longer format is not always appreciated - there's more time for character development and conversation, which isn't to everybody's preference.The show first aired in March - May, 1970. It sounds like there's good reasons why it's taken this long to get out on DVD. The show was originally filmed on color videotape, but several of the seven episodes were only stored on black & white 16mm film. With new technology, they are "picking" the color out of the film. The DVD release is in full color for all episodes. I wonder if that will change the shiver factor for me. The scene where a kidnapped alien astronaut trudges out of it's room like Frankenstein, to mount the stairs while one of its captors cowers against the door, looks pretty awesome in grainy black & white. [After watching my DVD, I think it holds up pretty well in color!]This will be a 2-disc release. The only extra on Disc 1 is the Commentary. The other extras are on Disc 2. After my DVD was received and watched, I've added to my description of these extras:1. Commentary. Parts of it were recorded in 2009. Participants include Caroline John (who plays Liz Shaw), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Michael Ferguson (director), Peter Halliday (the voice behind multiple alien voices, though he has acted in previous Dr. Who series), Derek Ware (stunt co-ordinator and a UNIT sargeant), Roy Scammell (stuntman), Derek Martin (stuntman), Jeffrey Deavers (Private Johnson, and Caroline John's real-life husband) and Terrance Dicks (script editor and "part author"). Caroline John just passed away in June, 2012, at the age of 71. Nicholas Courtney died in February 2011.Toby Hadoke is the Commentary moderator, and he is really growing on me. He obviously researches the series and the commentators beforehand.At the beginning of episode 1, the Doctor and Liz disappear and re-appear as he works to fix the TARDIS time vector generator (and can escape his exile on Earth). The main purpose of this scene was to get something sci-fi into the story early on, at the request of Barry Letts, the producer. Dicks says, "Barry used to say ... 'We need something Who-ish to happen!' "The commentators talk about Who companions. Playing second string to the Doctor wasn't always easy. Dicks explains, "The reason why Barry wanted to ... change Carrie [Caroline as Liz] was because ... the character was too intelligent! ... There was no excuse for the Doctor to explain things".You need to listen to the commentary for Episode 2, with all the stuntmen, to find out to what "Sign the blood chit" refers!2. "Mars Probe 7: Making The Ambassadors of Death" (27 minutes) Commentators include Terrance Dicks, Michael Ferguson, Derek Ware, Roy Scammell and Margot Hayhoe (assistant floor manager). At one point, Margot mentions how all the stuntmen were very attractive, and the videos that are shown of rehearsals, etc., certainly bear this out.3. TV trailer for "The Ambassadors of Death" (1.5 minutes)4. "Tomorrow's Times: The Third Doctor" (13.5 minutes) Narrated by Peter Purves, this special goes to the archives of the British Library to see what newspapers were printing about Jon Pertwee's Doctor. One columnist wrote that Pertwee "manages to look like Danny Kaye while sounding like Boris Karloff."Pertwee started as a whole new Doctor in 1970, which also ushered in full color for Doctor Who. In addition, BBC wanted the show to have a grittier feel to it. In spite of the lack of graphic blood and gore, there were still many complaints that Pertwee's Dr. Who was too violent, especially as it's time-slot was late afternoon, when very young children were more likely to watch the show. But, as Pertwee said in an interview, "Rubbish! Our programme isn't violent, it's all just fantasy. There is no blood, no pain - it wouldn't upset an eighty-year-old maiden aunt and my young son loves it."5. Photo Gallery6. PDF material: Radio Times Listing7. Coming Soon TV trailer for "Claws of Axos". This is a great one, with fading in and out in black and tight cuts, the trailer is scarier than the series itself!Happy Reader

VHS... How quaint.I've never really understood the bad rap that AMBASSADORS OF DEATH gets. Sure, it's in the middle of a good season, but I've never felt it was the weakest of Pertwee's first year. I'd much rather watch this again than view THE SILURIANS (I like the idea of SILURIANS much more than the actual story itself). AMBASSADORS is a straightforward romp that I found very enjoyable. When my copy arrived, I planned to watch the first tape one night, saving the second for the next evening. But I was having such a blast, I viewed the whole thing in one long sitting.A lot of the time we fans find ourselves laughing at the show as often as we laugh with it. Time has not always been kind, and aspects of this serial show their age. Television and film were still new to the idea of portraying space travel realistically; it's amusing to see the production crew simulating weightlessness by turning the camera upside-down and running everything in slowmo. Gender equality is also something that the producers may have attempted, but, amusingly, Britain's Space Control Centre is staffed by a substantial number of pouting, miniskirted scientist-babes.The story begins with the British Space Programme (well, it was the early 70s, and they were rather optimistic back then) mounting a rescue mission to discover what happened to their latest Mars Probe. When the capsule docks, contact is lost while a loud alien sound screams across the radio. The Doctor believes the sound is an alien message. Some time later, mysterious space-suited figures that can kill by touch are seen committing petty thefts, stealing radioactive isotopes and scientific equipment.My review is more a series of isolated thoughts. This is an entertaining romp, and deep, serious analysis wouldn't be particularly fruitful. My initial thought is that this is probably the story where the James Bond influence on the Pertwee era is the most apparent. The Doctor pulls gadgets from nowhere. He faces an earthbound menace with access to the latest military hardware. Gun-battles and chase scenes abound. There are even jazzy musical cues to punctuate the action.On the subject of the music, I just want to say that I really dig the incidental score, occasionally inappropriate as it is (to me, action sequences don't scream out for flute solos). Of particular note is the piece played whenever the Ambassadors initiate their raids. Dreamy and atmospheric, I loved it the first time; multiple viewings have not diminished my appreciation.Action by Havoc! Yes, the stunt-work in this one is impressive. AMBASSADORS relies on its action sequences and the team is more than up to the challenge. The battles are smoothly executed and sharply directed. Something that I found amusing (and I'm probably alone) is that one of the stuntmen reminded me of Stan Laurel. This presented me with very entertaining imagery. Stan Laurel shooting bad guys. Stan Laurel's rifle shot from his hands. Stan Laurel thrown from a helicopter. I guess life after Hardy was rough on the little guy.The script contains quite a number of nice little moments. Reegan is particularly villainous, casually ordering his two lackeys to their deaths and then attending to the disposal of their bodies.Visually, the story is strong. The blank faces of the space-suited aliens are as chilling as any other villain Doctor Who would produce. It's an effective way of highlighting the alien's fundamental otherness by placing the unfamiliar inside the familiar. Removing the face completely dehumanizes the aliens. It's a much more effective way of displaying their unsettling nature than if they had relied on cheap makeup.The film sequences are fantastic -- a world of difference from the rather static studio portions. The shot of the Ambassador slowing walking towards the UNIT guard with the sun behind him would look at home in a smooth, atmospheric movie. Even the chase-scenes are inspired; note that stylish shot where Reegan races through metal walkways. He steps briefly into a puddle and the camera focuses on the reflection in the water as the ripples soften, allowing us to continue to see his progress. Cool stuff and not what one expects in a three-decade-old television production.Towards the end, I was struck by the thought that the cliffhangers seemed unimaginative. Rather than having the episode build towards them, they just seemed to happen at whatever point in the story was up after twenty-five minutes. Wouldn't it have made more sense to move the episode five cliffhanger a few minutes so that it occurred as the alien spacecraft appears to smash the two capsules, rather than when the ship has merely appeared on the scanner?In the later episodes, the story begins dragging. Liz gets very little to do, and her escape attempt adds nothing but time. The aliens are poorly realized outside their spacesuits. When the Ambassador removes his helmet, the director very wisely keeps the shots to a minimum, only showing the face either for a few moments, or from behind foggy glass. Unfortunately, he doesn't employ the same subtlety for the leader on the mothership, so we're treated to the sight of an alien made of oatmeal waving oven mitts at Jon Pertwee from behind a Venetian blind.The restoration on the video is excellent. It's a pity that there was no alternative to fading between monochrome and color footage, but the transitions aren't especially jarring. The demonstration placed at the end of the second VHS tape really drives home how superior the cleaned up version is.There's a funny cheat in episode seven where Cornish explains that they can't obtain a good look at the alien spacecraft because radioactivity is blotting out cameras. That'll save a bit of money from the effects budget! But I have to forgive AMBASSADORS its cheats because it's just so damned entertaining. And while there are figures of power in the world willing to launch pre-emptive military strikes, this story will always be relevant.

Didn't realize it was going to be a burned copy, not the original manufactured product.

Jon Pertwee's first series as The Doctor is arguably Doctor Who's most adult season. It is more action oriented and serious in tone than any series before or since. As far as I'm concerned, it is Pertwee's best, and is only matched by Tom Baker's third for consistency. But where does 'Ambassadors Of Death' rate amongst classics like, 'Spearhead From Space,' 'The Silurians,' and 'Inferno?' Read on...The Ambassadors Of Death (1970) – Personally, I think it is the weakest of the four stories that make up Season 7, though not because it is bad; rather, it's just not quite as consistently strong as its season mates. Despite its seven episode length, it's never boring, as it has many twists and turns, and plenty of action. Michael Ferguson does an excellent job as director, plus it's well acted by both the regulars and guest cast. In fact, my favourite character is Reegan, who is ruthless, charming and amoral in equal measure. The story also boasts one of the most underrated of cliff-hangers. That is at the close of episode 2, when the Doctor attempts to communicate with Recovery 7. However, the fact that three different writers worked on the serial clearly shows, for the plot is often muddled and confused. The ending also comes across as being rather abrupt. So, it may not be the best story of Season 7, but it is still a very enjoyable watch; plus, you can now see it in colour for the first time since 1970.Extras include:- A making of... 'Tomorrow's Times' and trailer.

Doctor Who 'The Ambassadors of Death' is a superb story from the brilliant Season 7 (Jon Pertwee's first season) from 1970. Season 7 is among my top three favourite seasons of all time. The other two being Seasons 5 (Troughton) and 13 (Tom Baker) respectively. Every story from Season 7 is strong with well written adventures, nice direction and great acting. My favourite story from this season though is 'The Ambassadors of Death'. This story is generally regarded as the weakest in Season 7, but for me it's my slight favourite of all four stories in this season. I just find 'The Ambassdors of Death' to be a great mix of action, mystery and complex story telling. For me personally it's the best story to hold my interest over 7 episodes. With a stunning opening episode, brilliant cliff hangers, and great acting and direction throughout, plus a good mix of action, thriller and sci-fi make this a very good story, which never gets boring. The extras on the DVD are fine and enjoyable, but it's a shame there isn't an extra on the restoration of this story. As only the first episode exists on it's original video tape, the others only exsisted in black and white. It must clearly have been a painstaking process retrieving the colour chroma dot information on the black and white prints, plus converting the domestic recorded 525 line color back to 625 line colour. The recovery to full colour is an astounding achievement, and whilst it can't look as good as episode 1, the colour throughout is still to a very good standard considering where all the colour has been lifted from. Overall I'd give the story: 10/10. Extras: 9/10

There was always a hint of James Bond about the Third Doctor and `The Ambassadors of Death' has more than `a hint'. It's a budget-busting science fiction action thriller showcasing all that was best about the UNIT era of `Doctor Who' and Jon Pertwee's first season as the Doctor.If you've already seen `Inferno' and didn't like it, then you might choose to make a diplomatic excuse and avoid this story. But if you enjoy the unique style of season seven as much as I do, then I'm sure you'll give this ambassador from 1970 a great reception. 5*Mars Probe 7 is almost home from the Red Planet, in total radio silence. The recovery pilot meets it in orbit - then a scream, and silence again. Something landed back in England - but something not of this world. So where are the three astronauts? And if there were aliens in the landing capsule, where are they now?As a seven-parter, this is a long and complex story, as was the story of its creation from a Patrick Troughton era show by David Whitaker via multiple rewrites and three more authors, Trevor Ray and Pertwee-era legends Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks. There are a couple of moments when the plot leaves a loose end but overall it's a remarkably good result.Episode 1 was remastered from the original colour materials and looks superb. The remaining episodes are a technical triumph, re-coloured by merging the surviving mono film with residual colour signal that was left within the mono material - much as the Doctor extracts a hidden message from the alien radio signal in this story! A huge amount of work must have gone into producing such a great result, with fine details and well-balanced colour. It looks as though episode 3 was the most difficult to restore, the colour is relatively faded for a moment or two compared with the rest, but even here the results are still very good. An amazing restoration, it's wonderful to be able to watch this whole story in colour and the soundtrack is also excellent.This review has turned out almost as long as the story so thanks if you reach the finish! I knew almost nothing about this story and had the pleasure of watching it `fresh', split over two evenings - and finished the first session in a state of some confusion! But that's a compliment - this is a convoluted thriller that keeps you guessing for a long time.Alien invasion? Government cover-up? Misguided patriots? Rogue elements? Foreign agents? Criminals? All of these? I don't envy the original audience trying to keep track of this story, spread over seven weeks, but viewed over a much shorter time from this DVD release it's great fun following the Doctor's and Brigadier's investigations. Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney could have shared star billing for this story, with two splendid performances as usual. From an edgy start (the Doctor is still angry about the Brig's military solution to the Silurians), it's a pleasure to watch their friendship and mutual trust developing over the course of seven episodes. If the Brigadier needs the Doctor's scientific genius again, in this story the Doctor more than ever needs the firepower of UNIT to back him up.Matters aren't helped by General Carrington (a former Mars Probe astronaut himself) conducting what appears to be a `turf war' between his national space security agency and the international team from UNIT. John Abineri gives an excellent performance, with ample time for the character to develop over the long story. Another notable guest performance is William Dysart as Reegan, a very professional villain who is utterly immoral and ruthless but who is strangely hard to dislike - almost a human preview of the Master who would feature so strongly in the next season. I noticed the commentary also picked up on this similarity of characters, but didn't comment on whether it was a coincidence or if Reegan inspired the Master's creation in some way?Caroline John has a good strong script for Liz Shaw and makes the most of it, with her own action sequences and sub-plot which keeps her separated from the Doctor for much of the story. Yes, she is held prisoner (the job of a companion!) but within that traditional role Dr. Liz Shaw the scientist is very active, helping the Doctor and UNIT from within the villains' lair and giving us an inside view from their perspective. Cyril Shaps is a wonderfully troubled (ex-)Dr. Lennox; in this story even some of those on the villains' side have consciences.In many ways the real stars of `Ambassadors' are director Michael Ferguson and the stunt team. Filmed in the bleak midwinter, with misty views, low sun angles and industrial landscapes, this story has some of the best location filming ever in `Doctor Who', and lots of it. And where there's a location, there's a stunt - the stuntmen of HAVOC make their first combined appearance in the show and what a spectacular one it is! Every episode has its action sequence and they're first class. An unusual two-part title structure has the recap before the story title and there are some terrific cliff-hangers - the one for episode 4 is likely to send a shiver down your spine at any age! - and each is highlighted by the now-famous `scream' of the closing music, first used in this story.While UNIT try to keep things under control on Earth, the Doctor has to head into space himself - and with no working TARDIS he's forced to use our primitive technology. The rocket sequences are impressively done with very good model work and music, and clever filming to create `weightless' conditions. The space capsule, mission control and techno-chat are convincing, as are Ronald Allen as unflappable mission controller Ralph Cornish and Michael Wisher as the TV newsman. And they needed to be convincing - this series was broadcast at the height of the Apollo missions when real-life spaceflight regularly appeared on TV. Incredibly, as the DVD documentary points out, the Doctor's rescue mission in this story was broadcast exactly coinciding with the actual rescue-from-disaster events of Apollo 13: you couldn't make it up!As this is `Doctor Who', there are of course real aliens; so alien that not even the Doctor can understand them without a translating device, mysterious, almost invisible behind fogged-up visors and actually quite creepy - fear of the unknown is a strong theme in this story and for once not everything is explained, named or neatly tidied away. Viewed from the outside, the alien spacecraft is not convincing but the sequence of the Doctor's arrival within the alien craft is excellent and imaginative.The ending seems quite abrupt, but it needs to be seen in the context of this season, the Doctor's first in exile. If he sometimes seems quite short-tempered and in a hurry to get back to his own lab, he is! To him, everything that has happened is just a tiresome nuisance, a distraction from his own work - to fix the TARDIS, break free from the exile imposed on him by the Time Lords and return to his travels. And with Liz Shaw and UNIT to tidy up the loose ends he knows he's leaving matters in safe hands.Their Excellencies `The Ambassadors of Death' are another five-star class act in the DVD range and well worth giving an audience to. 5*DVD Special Features:The enjoyable commentary manages to sustain interest through all seven episodes, thanks to the great line-up of contributors. Director Michael Ferguson is joined by Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney, Peter Halliday (who voiced the aliens), Geoffrey Beevers, script editor and co-author Terrance Dicks and (with some of the best anecdotes) three stars of the HAVOC stunt team; Derek Ware, Roy Scammell and Derek Martin.`Mars Probe 7: Making `The Ambassadors of Death'' - does what it says on the space capsule and does it brilliantly. In 25 minutes the `making of' story is told with emphasis on the superb location work, direction and stunts that rightly make this story famous. I really enjoyed this one.`Tomorrow's Times - The Third Doctor' - 15 minute feature looking at press coverage of the Jon Pertwee era, well presented by Peter Purves.Finally, the Photo Gallery includes some excellent informal pictures of the stars on location (around Marlow I think) and special mention must be made of the attention-grabbing DVD cover illustration.

This is a very good story. Coupled with the following "Inferno" these two impressive slices of intelligent sci-fi represented a significant shift to a more mature and serious collection of conundrums for the newly re-morphed doctor to sink his teeth into. Jon Pertwee's timelord is sophisticated but unpompous with plenty of sly humour - a far cry from the previous incumbent's clownish interpretation & the kilted oaf. The doctor's new sidekick, Liz Shaw (the excellent Caroline John) would only be appearing for the one season, but what a season!"TAOD" has many of the familiar ingredients of a Quatermass story: mystery, with plenty of creeping paranoia etc. A sprawling 7-part tale that may test the staying powers of some viewers, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the best stories from one of the best Who seasons, with excellent performances from all involved. Good picture & sound quality with English subtitles.

Penultimate story from Pertwee's first season as the Doctor.This Season is super stong imo.Ambassadors Centres around radioactive Spaceman.Overall an Excellent adventure with the underrated companion Liz Shaw getting some quality screentime here.The set is 2 disc - disc 1 has the 7 parts while the 2nd houses has the usual array of extras.Giving the story ...8/10Thanks!