Customer Reviews
Time Changes Everything - By: Mr. I. Clarke, 01 Dec 2008 
When Battlefield came out, it was hailed as a classic. Written by Ben Arronvitch, who wrote the superb Rememberance of the Daleks the previous season, the script blended Arthurian fantasy with sci fiin a way that was positively engaging. However, since then, people have been a little more reticentin calling it a classic. The main reason really has to do with the budget.
Season 26 is frustrating, it was where the team finally got it right with Sylvester McCoy's Doctor; Survival, Curse of Fenric & Ghost Light all look convincing & are well regarded. However, it was also the last season for a long time. Battlefield spends all its money on the excellently realised Destroyer, the Brig's helicopter, & some actually very good fight sequences. However, it is detreimental the to magical effects & the effects of the Knight's guns themselves, they just don;t stand up.
What does stand up is the script, although it is a little paddedin places (the story was originally 3 parts but extended to 4 on the instruction of JNT), very well written as to the glory/horror of war, for once the Doctor is notin control, & there are some brilliantly written speeches. McCoy, Aldred, Courtney & Marsh are all excellentin their roles, with some good supporting characters chippingin for all they are worth. It has to be said though that the one exception is Ansolyn, who is frankly dire.
You can see the footage of the smashed water tankin the episodes (yes, it was THAT tight), but documentaries revelaing the behind the scense should prove interesting, & the McCoy era team are always enthusiastic about their commentaries, providing an interesting listen. Watch again.
One of the best stories out there - By: FBRobertson, 26 Nov 2008 
I am going to only explore the actual storyline of this DVD & why I enjoy it. Thus I wont talk about the extras, since I of course dont know what those extras are. Furthermore I wont talk about the production value since, because it is the story that counts & not the special effects, the production value really isn't very important to me. I love the seventh Doctor. Stories like Battlefield shows & rekindled the mystery behind the Doctor. Who is the Doctor anyway? Rogue TimeLord or something more powerful, more haunting, more dangerous? It was stories like this one that empowered the Virgin novel series of Doctor Who. The story itself is wonderful & mythical. Whoin the fandom of the Doctor's hasn't ever wanted to know whether Merlin the Magician was actually Doctor Who? There had always been that possibility, that consideration, & this story empowers all of that & so much more. McCoy is one of the best actors out there who has portrayed the Doctor. He has the smile of the forth Doctor, but the darkness & the mystery of the First Doctor. Yet he is,in his own right, his own Doctor. This story connects so well with the last few storylines of Doctor Who. I can't wait to have thisin my collection. I suggest that those of you who are giving this storyline a negative review actually study the storyline very carefully (heck, pick up the Target novel version & study that as well). You will find some very wonderful surprisesin store for you. Yey the Doctor!
Prattlefield - By: J. W. Taylor, 04 Nov 2008 
Not a good who, but it's Sylvester plus Turner - it could never have better than mediocre. Other reviewers have said it - the Brig is great (you wouldn't expect anything less from Nick) & the Destroyer make up is so good it holds its own against the superb Cat-kind of the modern Who. Jean Marsh is an excellent actress but her performance is lifted straight out of Willow - the scene where she catches a magic acorn & crushes it is repeatedin Battlefield with a bullet - rather sad really.
I never liked McCoy much & Turner saw fit to hammer the final nail into the lid with question mark overkill at a time when we knew more about the Doctor than ever - he was hardly the enigma we first sawin that old junk yard. Ace was annoying from the start & each mention of her home made explosive made me cringe (I can't even bring myself to name it). Money was wasted on big explosions rather than production values & extras.
I look back at stories like this & feel sad.
Bodgelfield - By: andy, 27 Oct 2008 
Battlefield promised much.
By Sylvester McCoys Third Season, a lit of people had deserted Doctor Who, as it was a shadow of its former self.
Following the disastrous 1985 hiatus & the bad decision to replace to planned Season 23 with the Trial of A Timelord, which had seen Who slashed by halfin screentime, the rot had set in. Then an even worse body blow was dealtin the decision by the BBC to sack the excellent Colin Baker.
At the same time the talents of Eric Saward the script editor who had managed to help the show retain some of its dignity during the troubled Trial season were lost, & when 1987 came, viewers were 'treated' to a Who without any sense of its former drama.
The 7th Doctor was Sylvester McCoy, who wasn't the best actorin the world, sort of grimaced & growled & overacted his lines, & yet was sort of oddly likeable.
Unfortunately, he was not really suited to the role, & the Patrick-Troughtonesque-ness the production team were possibly hoping for, did not materialise & embarrassment ensued.
The first season was shockingly bad. A succession of weak scripts, badly executed, done on the cheap, with actors from the light entertainment sphere hamming it up with no restraint from a production staff who no longer cared or believedin what they were doing.
By all accounts John Nathan Turner had tried to resign as producer but tellingly no one else wanted to do Doctor Who..... so he carried on..
By the time we start McCoys third season, things had picked up a little following the better than average Greatest Show In the Galaxy that closed the 25th season.
And so to Battlefield.
The return of the Brigadier. A proper Unit Story for the first timein years. The idea of Arthurian legends reworked for Doctor Who, which surprisingly had not been done beforein the shows history.
Unfortunately, it was a damp squib.
The bad bits;
McCoys lack of acting ability, (or possibly ineffctive direction) is irritatingin parts, especialy the'There will be no battle here' bit or words to that effect. You'll know it when you see it. He sounds like he is gasping for breath.
Ace is irritatingin the extreme, & more so when she is rude to the Brig who is being his usual good old self.
Why she didn't get herself blown up with her silly home made explosives is anyones guess. We could only hope... sadly she survived!
Brigadier Bambera is annoying, as is her blossoming romance with drippy Ancelyn, even if she acts well. The bit where she shoots her gun from a Citroen 2Cv looks silly & ineffective. This should have been a Unit Land Rover.
Speaking of which, the Unit vehiclein the story is a Toyota, which grates a bit! Shouldn't it have been a Landy, or am i just old fashioned?
The Incidental music is awful 80's style pap & does not conjure up any hint of tension & drama.
They just had to have someone emerging from a lake with a swordin one hand, and, yes, guess who it is? Ace. Lady of the lake? More like Ladette of the lake. Its a wonder she didn't slash the Brigadiers tyres with it & then mug somebody.
Excepting a few actors,namely the two Brigadiers & Jean Marsh, the acting of everyone else is below standard.
There are not enough Unit personnel around laterin the story.
The special effects are not good on the whole, even for Who. The helicopter destruction is particularly unconvincing. This could have been done a lot better, especially as magic & sorcery are presentin the story. It could have just gone, 'pop' & disappeared, which would have actually been more believable.
The Future Doctor Who is Merlin idea is intriguing, & could work, but you just know when watching it that future producers would never capitalise on this & actually work this into the show future by doing a sequel/prequel! (And of course, they didn't because the show was axed!) So it sort of falls flat a little.
The Good bits;
The Brig is played to perfection by Nicholas Courtney. Nothing else to say there.
The Thrid Doctors car Bessie returns! But, why does it have a different number plate?? Presumeably some silly idea by the producer?
The Destroyer is fab. Even if he doesn't do an awful lot.
We actually get to see the Brigs wife Doris, even if the last scene is a bit trite.
Jean Marsh acts her socks off, & steals the show.
And, er, thats about it!
Its ok,in a sort of ok way, but if you buy this expecting wonderful things, well you won't get them.
The whole thing reeks of cheap naffness, & is a bit of a letdown actually. I remember being disappointed at the time after looking forward so much to the new series of Who. It did improve as the weeks went on, but this series opener wasn't really up to the job, & it doesn't stand up well on its own here either.
Entertaining in a silly kind of way. - By: StormSworder, 19 Oct 2008 Seasons 25 & 26 were all-time greatsin the history of Dr Who. We had what remains to this day one of the best Doctor-companion double-acts, & the show had a freshness & imaginative quality to it. Though that's not to say there weren't the occasonal lapses. I'min two minds about Battlefield. On the one hand it's an interesting Krull/Legend-type combination of SF & swords-and-sorcery. On the other it's a lot of King Arthur elements all thrown together with very little hint of a storyline. There is a lot of terrible over-acting (Ace's "boom!" & Mordred's pantomime laughter, for example). And McCoy's cerebral incarnation of the Doctor is given some completely out-of-character material (shouting, bellowing, threatening people & generally being boorish). The whole thing is also bogged downin a totally dreadful soundtrack which sounds like up-beat shopping centre music, & a lot of it feels childish & silly. The Destroyer, though it looks fantastic, is wastedin a minor role which seems unconnected with the rest of the story for the most part. What saves the story, however, are the brilliant portrayals of the Brigadier & Morgaine. The latter is a first-class villain. There are also a couple of real edge-of-seat cliff-hangers. Though this story has its faults, it's still entertaining & certainly a lot better than some of the yawn-fests of the early '80s.
