The Leisure Hive
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DVD NTSC
Region 1
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DVD PAL
Region 2
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VHS Video
NTSC
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(Doctor Who Story No. 110, starring Tom Baker)
- written by David Fisher
- directed by Lovett Bickford
- introducing producer John Nathan-Turner
- music by Peter Howell
- 4 episodes @ ~ 25 minutes each
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Story: The Doctor and Romana
visit the Leisure Hive on the planet
Argolis, whose inhabitants are desperate
to find new anti-aging applications for the science
of Tachyonics that they have discovered,
before they are forced to declare bankruptcy.
But mysterious forces lurk in the shadows,
sabotaging their every move. The Doctor gets
caught in the middle, and must solve the
mystery before he gets all the blame....
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DVD Extras include:
- Audio commentary by
actress Lalla Ward (Romana),
director Lovett Bickford,
and script editor Christopher H. Bidmead.
- "A New Beginning" featurette (30 min.) on the new producer's changes to the show
and the making of "The Leisure Hive",
with Bickford, Bidmead,
Tom Baker (The Doctor),
John Leeson (Voice of K9),
costume designer June Hudson,
assistant floor manager Val McCrimmon,
graphic designer Sid Sutton,
composer Peter Howell,
and archive interviews of the late producer John Nathan-Turner.
- "From Avalon to Argolis" writing featurette (14 min.) with Bidmead, Nathan-Turner, and
writer David Fisher.
- "Synthesizing Starfields" featurette on the new
title sequence and theme music (9 min.) with Peter Howell and Sid Sutton
- "Leisure Wear" costume featurette (6 min.) with June Hudson
- Music Only and Dolby 5.1 Surround audio options
- Photo Gallery sound effects montage (6 min.)
- Pop-up Production Note Subtitles
- Doctor Who exhibition with John Nathan-Turner on Blue Peter (4 min.)
- "Who's Who" text actor biographies (may feature on Region 1 only)
- Easter Egg - trailers and continuity (3 min.)
In-Depth Analysis Review
by Martin Izsak
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WARNING: This review contains "SPOILERS", and is intended for
those who have
already seen the program. To avoid the spoilers,
read the Buyers' Guide version instead.
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"The Leisure Hive" is most often remembered as the story in which
John Nathan-Turner, just promoted from Production Unit Manager to
full Producer, left his mark on the program by giving it some of its
most radical style changes in its long history. In this respect,
I think "The Leisure Hive" overdoes it, getting so focused on style
that it begins to show a lack of substance.
Oh, there are a lot of grand sci-fi and social ideas in the piece.
Mena's speech about the purpose of the Hive might equally apply to what
the producer wants to achieve during his run - and very noble at that.
But, once the Doctor wakes up and gets out of his lounge chair on the
beach, the pace feels badly rushed. Important dialogue flies by too
quickly for the audience to truly absorb it, what little escaped trimming
on the script itself. As evidenced by the different versions of
"Shada" (the previous story)
that I contrasted in my review,
fleshing out ideas and character motivation through dialogue,
and painting pictures with words, is an important part of a successful
Doctor Who story. "The Leisure Hive" would have needed most to develop
in this area.
The director seems keen to make his visual efforts noticeable instead,
which often feel like a distraction from the actually story.
Large chunks of dialogue scenes are carelessly thrown at the audience,
while less significant tidbits like humorous gags or idle suspense
are given much more attention and screen time than they deserve.
Altogether, there seem to be too many tight shots in this story,
not allowing the sets and Foamasi costumes to get away without
looking cheap as they might have done in mid- to long-shot.
And the finished story must take a hit for not really involving
the Doctor as much as it should. Tom Baker hardly gets any screen time
in this one. Romana gets a little more to do,
but not much. K9 bows out of the adventure early on, and the TARDIS
interior decides this is the only season eighteen story that it will
not feature in. The guest characters own this story, and could almost
have proceeded without our time-travelling regulars.
The materialization of the TARDIS is rather lacklustre - you need
to be savvy about the limitations of certain effects to notice that
something innovative has been attempted here. I feel a better example
of the TARDIS materializing in the middle of a motion shot was achieved
in the opening episode of
"The Ark" (story no. 23),
way back in black-and-white season 3.
Technically, they did cheat slightly, but the overall effect and flow of
the shot was much more graceful and satisfying.
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I like the new title graphics. I like the new title music,
and the new style of incidental music by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Perhaps
there is a bit too much music in Peter Howell's score this time around;
by using less, the music may have had greater impact each time it actually
was used. But it is a great score, highly enjoyable to listen to.
The whole sequence with Stimson in episode two seems devised to
reassure fans of the era of producer Philip Hinchcliffe
that tense horror moments will be done with seriousness and finesse,
and not descend to the jokey levels
witnessed during producer Graham Williams' more recent tenure.
I'm reassured to see that
horror moments like the Stimson sequence do not become the focus of
each entire story, as so often happened in the Hinchcliffe era. It is
instead just a small piece of a whole that integrates much more variety.
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The complete Musical Score by Peter Howell and
Special Sound by Dick Mills
from this story are available on:
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For me, I feel the story is really rather lost in the first two
episodes, but the real dramatic tension builds nicely in the latter half
of the story, and comes to a nice conclusion, with the Doctor and Romana
being heroic in the end.
A good but hasty first effort, achieving only a low ranking in the
season because, enticingly, there are even better things to come....
International Titles:
Deutsch: "Leisure Hive"
Magyar: "A szórakoztatóközpont"
Français: (La ruche au loisir)
Русский: "Вольный улей"
This story has become available on DVD and VHS video:
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DVD NTSC Region 1
for the North American market:
in the U.S.
in Canada
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DVD PAL Region 2
for the U.K.
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VHS Video
NTSC
A
in the U.S.
NTSC
B
in the U.S.
NTSC
in Canada
PAL
for the U.K.
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Comments on this article are welcome. You may contact
the author from this page:
Contact page
LYRATEK.COM
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Read the In-depth Analysis Review for the next story:
"Meglos"
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