Doctor Who: Shada (Video 2017)

Doctor Who: Shada: Directed by Charles Norton. With Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Christopher Neame, Daniel Hill. The story revolves around the planet Shada, on which the Time Lords have constructed a high security prison for some of the Universe’s most dangerous criminals. Skagra, a flawed genius from the planet Dronoid, wishes to create a “Universal Mind” in which all the pooled knowledge of the universe’s greatest criminals would be placed at his disposal and with which he intends to take control of the Universe. Skagra wants to go to Shada to extract the knowledge of the criminals who have been imprisoned there. Unfortunately for Skagra, knowledge of the location of Shada has been deliberately hidden by the Time Lords, but Skagra discovers that there is a Time Lord living on Earth in the twentieth century who may hold the key to its location. This Time Lord is masquerading as a professor at St. Cedd’s College, Cambridge and calling himself Professor Chronotis. Sensing danger, Chronotis calls for the assistance of his old friend and protégé, the Doctor. The story climaxes in a battle for control of the Universal Mind.

“Firstly, this is a big update on the previously available version of this great lost u0026#39;masterpieceu0026#39;, including new model work, subtly polished effects, and a few newly filmed live action scenes, all joined together by pleasing digitally animated u0026#39;comicu0026#39; style sections that fill in all the missing acted bits, which also serve to open up the settings far more than Iu0026#39;m sure the BBC would have been capable of achieving originally.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf weu0026#39;re being honest, the story itself isnu0026#39;t exactly the best ever, it plods a teeny bit in places and gets rather too silly in others, but overall it works and the dialogue is typical Douglas Adams in that there are many fun to and fros between the characters which keeps you entertained regardless, and there are lots of enjoyable moments that carry it along quite adequately with a twist and a turn at the end.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI enjoyed it tremendously, but any new classic Who is good Who when youu0026#39;re a fan, and itu0026#39;s worth it just for the delightful newly added live action scene right at the very end that will both delight and leave a lump in the throat of every whovian on the planet. It certainly did me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBetween that and the most campily dressed villain ever brought to screen (seriously, itu0026#39;s jaw dropping), I highly recommend a viewing.”