Doctor Who - No Doctor? No Problem! The Brigadier and Sara Jane in 1995's 'Downtime' Manufacture on demand DVD is rolling out to online sellers right away!
Posted by David Lambert	5/26/2017
Fighting alone this time, without their famous time-traveling scientific advisor, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen - DOCTOR WHO) and The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney - DOCTOR WHO) investigate the New World University; a sinister organization seemingly run by another familiar face - Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Wating - DOCTOR WHO). It's difficult to tell friend from foe as The Brigadier's old enemy The Great Intelligence returns to Earth in the guise of Professor Travers (Jack Wating - DOCTOR WHO) and begins a new invasion attempt using the planet's own technology, but to win it must find the Locus that binds its power. A few years ago, British company One Media released Downtime as a 2-DVD set in the U.K., with the 1995 production starring Nicholas Courtney as "Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart," Elisabeth Sladen as "Sarah Jane Smith," and 2nd-Doctor companion "Victoria Waterfield," played once again by Deborah Watling, who originated the role (and last played her in 1993's Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time). Downtime is also the story which introduced the character of "Kate Lethbridge-Stewart," the Brigadier's daughter; she's better known these days as played by Jemma Redgrave, but in Downtime (and the follow-up 2004 production, Dæmos Rising) she was played by Beverley Cressman. The enemy is The Great Intelligence ("The Abominable Snowmen," "Web of Fear," "The Snowmen," "The Bells of Saint John," "The Name of the Doctor")...so it's probably not a surprise that Jack Watling (Deborah's father!) also reprises his Doctor Who role as "Professor Edward Travers." One Media has now teamed up with North American manufacture on demand distributor Allied Vaughn, and their first release is an MOD for Downtime! Officially available starting this past Tuesday, May 23rd, it's just now rolling out to online sellers of MOD product (for example, it's not available yet from Amazon's CreateSpace MOD program, although an import copy of the U.K. version is for sale...however, being Region 2 encoded, it won't work in most DVD players in the USA and Canada). The American release comes on a single disc, with the feature and two extras: "Behind the Lens" and a "Post Production Glimpse." List price is $19.95 SRP, and below is the front box art, as supplied to us by Allied Vaughn. Note that despite other changes to the cover, One Media elected to leave on the triangular British "PG" logo, denoting the rating for U.K. audiences; it's not something normally seen on DVD covers in the States, though! Nevertheless, this does appear to be the American version of the box front: