DVD

Now here's a fitting way of celebrating Doctor Who's 50th anniversary. Not only is The Mind of Evil the last John Pertwee story to be released on DVD –excluding any future ‘Revisitations’ of previous Third Doctor DVDs - but this release is also the first time that the six episodes have been seen in colour in decades (click here for how and why). The recolourisation is generally impressive – especially Stuart Humphryes' work on episode one – although the quality varies from episode to episode. As we’ve come to expect from the Doctor Who DVD range, the non-anamorphic 1.33:1 transfer is technically excellent, as is the Dolby Digital dual-mono soundtrack.

This documentary finds Keanu Reeves chatting to a variety of famous filmmakers about the pros and cons of the move from using celluloid to shooting digitally. If that sounds rather dull and geeky, it's not. Instead, it's an absorbing and balanced look at a milestone in the development of cinema and a must-see for anybody with even a passing interest in the art of making movies. While the film hasn't been given an HD release in the UK, this two-disc DVD outing fares rather well with an agreeable anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer and DD 5.1 mix. Extras take the form of 14 extended interviews.

This penultimate run of the award-winning sitcom about the making of a live TV sketch show continues to deliver more laugh-out-loud gags per episode than the vast majority of its peers.  Technically, the triple-disc DVD release is pretty comparable to its predecessors. In other words, the anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer is generally sharp and colourful (although some excess softness creeps into a handful of shots) and the DD 5.1 mix is fair, despite not making that much use of the surrounds. Extras include a few commentaries and several videos relating to the season's live episode.

Director David DeCoteau throws together elements from Porky’s, Meatballs 2 and Weird Science with this uneven sex comedy about a nerdy freshman (Billy Jacoby) who is transformed into a babe magnet after being injected with ‘alien vitamins’ by mysterious new biology teacher Ms Zenobia (Judy Landers). The film’s first act - all pratfalls and comedy sound effects – feels more like a sit-com than a film - but things do get a little bit more interesting when the sci-fi elements start to kick in and it all ends up with a very silly shoot-out in a hideous New Wave nightclub.

With a title like that, Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity carries with it a weight of expectation that - to be fair - it never really had a chance of truly living up to. This sci-fi version take on Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game stars Elizabeth Kaitan and Cindy Beal as Daria and Tisa, a pair of bikini-clad prisoners who break out of their cell, steal a spaceship and ending up crashing on a nearby planet. There our nubile heroines meet the seemingly friendly Zed (Don Scribner), who invites them to come and stay with him in his fortress home. But it soon becomes clear that Zed has a secret hobby – hunting his guests in the surrounding jungle and mounting their heads as trophies on his walls.

Yet another previously released Doctor Who benefits from a second DVD outing – including improved picture quality and even more bonus features. However, the major selling point for this two-disc set is the inclusion of a 64-minute reconstruction of the missing 1965 serial Galaxy 4, the centrepiece of which is a pristine restoration of the recently rediscovered third episode (pictured). It's still a dreadful story, but the chance to finally see how bad it was for yourself makes this set a must-own for fans.

Gallows humours abounds in this six-part 1964 serial set during the French Revolution that marked the end of the show's first series. Sadly, only four of the episodes still exist, but for this DVD release, the two missing episodes have been recreated using the surviving soundtracks and some stylish (if rather rapidly edited) animation. Unsurprisingly, the archival 1.33:1 video looks pretty rough, but the audio for all six episodes is excellently rendered. The usual plethora of extras is supplemented by a gallery of animation character models and a closer look at the animated sets.