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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > Adventure > Soap Opera > Science Fiction > Literature > Britain > 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/VC

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


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