Quick DVD review – ‘Downtime’

Hello everyone! 🙂

This is one present I had for Christmas!

I enjoyed watching ‘Downtime’ on DVD. It’s an exciting drama starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith; Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield. I’m not sure I fully understand the plot, but it was exciting as I wanted to see this and I’m glad that this is on DVD.

‘Downtime’ is a sequel to the two Patrick Troughton stories ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ and ‘The Web of Fear’. It featured the return of the robot Yeti, monsters that appeared in those two stories. This is a 69-minute drama by Marc Platt and was it was directed by the legendary Christopher Barry.

I heard about this drama before when it was released on VHS in 1995. This was made during a time when ‘Doctor Who’ was unloved by the BBC as it wasn’t on TV. It was produced by Reeltime Pictures (who did the ‘Myth Makers’ interview series of ‘Doctor Who’ stars) and it doesn’t feature the Doctor.

I was thrilled to see Lis Sladen and Nick Courtney again as Sarah Jane and the Brigadier who I love in ‘Doctor Who’. Deborah Watling was great playing an older Victoria alongside her father Jack Watling who reprises his role of Professor Travers from ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ and ‘The Web of Fear’.

This drama features the first appearance of Kate Stewart, the Brigadier’s daughter, played by Beverley Cressman before being taken over by Jemma Redgrave in ‘The Power of Three’ in 2012. It was nice to see Geoffrey Beevers and John Leeson appear in this although not as the Master and K-9.

‘Downtime’ has been nice to have as a Christmas present on DVD. I’m hoping more ‘Doctor Who’-related dramas made in the 1990s by Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions will get released on DVD soon. I’d like to see a DVD release of ‘Shakedown – The Return of the Sontarans’ someday.

I hope to write a complete DVD review of ‘Downtime’ soon.

Bye for now.

Tim. 🙂