Dr. Quinn – Medicine Woman – The
Complete First, Second & Third Season sets (1993 – 1995/repackaged) + Highway To Heaven – The Complete First
Season (1985/repackaged/A&E DVDs) + Noah’s Castle (1980/VCI DVD)
Picture:
C/C+/C Sound: C+ (Noah: C) Extras: C+/C+/D Episodes: C+/C+/B-
Now a
look at three TV shows that show the peak and fall of the medium. First, the lame shows.
Though I
like Jane Seymour very much, I never much liked Dr. Quinn – Medicine Woman and it was a nighttime soap opera that
was never identified as such. Part of it
is over ideological reasons because some right-wing types wanted it to be seen
as normal and it was not even radically written, but The Complete First, Second & Third Season sets we are now
catching up with in repackaged editions (these are the same DVDs previously
issued many years ago by A&E from A&E) have dated badly because they
are so overly simple.
I gave my
first thoughts on the show when we covered the telefilm reunions at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3922/Dr.+Quinn+-+Medicine+Woman:+The
As a
joke, some of her solutions to illness (like so many men of the time) would
re-label them “Dr, Quack”, but it is moments like these that are often
inoculating distraction substituting for the ugly realism that actually
pervaded the time period, reromanticizing the West (and Western) in ways that
do not add up. Since so many revisionist
Westerns have turned up on TV and in theaters since, the show has aged that
much more. The arc in these seasons
starts with the telefilm pilot and follows the cast to “new family” status.
Extras on
text cast biographies on all three sets, with the first two offering audio commentary
tracks by Joe Lando and Seymour on the double episode For Better Or Worse on the first set, Lando on Best Friends, featurette Beginnings,
Boarding House; Guest Stars, Series Awards & Honors on the second set, Jane
Seymour: Hollywood’s English Rose Biography installment, photo gallery,
interactive tour of 19th Century Colorado Springs, Series Awards
& Honors on the third set.
We
previously covered Highway To Heaven –
The Complete First Season in its original release and now it too has been
repackaged. You can read about it here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2221/Highway+To+Heaven+-+Season+One
Though
many will call it the worst kind of double dip, the only thing I can say is
that the new packaging is nice. The show
is still very silly.
Last and
definitely not least is the British Science Fiction series Noah’s Castle (1980) based on a book by John Rowe Townsend (better
known for the children’s hit series Jackanory
and lesser-seen 1972 series The Intruder)
about a near-future Britain where a sudden crisis of money being worthless and
1920s-style German hyperinflation follows.
Martial law is declared and more and more laws are passed as food
becomes harder to get, authority falls into disrepair and people become
desperate.
This was
part of the peak
of British TV’s last
Golden Age that included exceptionally smart genre shows like Sapphire & Steel and Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected
(both reviewed elsewhere on this site) that had a certain kind of darkness that
was stark, honest and undeniable. That
is why I am so happy to see this show arrive and glad it holds up as well as it
does. Running seven half-hours, the
music score (including classic hit records you’d hardly ever hear on any TV
show today) is a plus, as is the mostly unknown cast. I did recognize Jack May from Adam Adamant Lives! with Gerald Harper
(playing a character named Mr. Gerald!
Writer Nick McCarty had worked on the older show. Director Colin Nutley also helmed The Flockton
Flyer (reviewed elsewhere on this site) where Harper appeared.) and the rest of
the cast worked. David Neal showed up in
the 1978 Superman and 1980 Flash Gordon. Christopher Fairbank (Sapphire & Steel, Alien
3), Lee Macdonald (Memoirs Of A
Survivor), Mike Reid and Douglas Blackwell also star.
This may
have dated a bit, but not by as much as you might expect. It impresses for its age and deserves to be
widely rediscovered. There are no
extras.
The 1.33
X 1 image on Quinn is problematic on
all three sets, with edge enhancement, digital harshness (the show was filmed,
then finished on analog video) and as the show color seems to improve in later
season shows, we get more faded shots here and there. Heaven
is the same as the last set, though it is getting more dated in the HD
era. Castle is a mix of PAL analog videotape and film, all from PAL
masters that show their age, but is oddly the most watchable of the three and
has the best visual style. All have Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo sound (save the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Castle) and all show their age, though Castle tends to have the most
challenging sound mix.
- Nicholas Sheffo