Kamelion Tales Box Set

Kamelion Tales features two Doctor Who Serials The King's Demons and Planet of Fire both from the 5th Doctor era featuring Peter Davison as the Doctor. Both serials hold some historical importance to the timeline of Who. King's Demons welcomes aboard new companion Kamelion while Planet of Fire welcomes aboard Nicola Bryant as Peri and sees the departure of two companions Turlough and Kamelion. Why put two serials together in this case? The King's Demons was only two episodes and is in my opinion somewhat boring while on the otherhand Planet of Fire is a one of Davison's best serials. Both serials are also the only ones to feature the character of Kamelion. Kamelion was a shape changing android John Nathan Turner planned to use in the show, but with limited mobility and constant technical problems in the end turned into a useless prop. With all that said the concept of Kamelion was great and makes this boxset highly desirable on that factor alone.

The King's Demons by Terence Dudley
On the Box
England, March 1215. King John is visiting the castle of Sir Randolph Fitwilliam. The arrival of the TARDIS disturbs a medieval joust, but the Doctor and his companions are proclaimed to be friendly Demons by the King, who seems strangely interested in their "blue engine"
It soon becomes clear that niether King John or his Champion, Sir Gilles Estram, are who they appear to be. One of the Doctor's oldest and deadliest enemies the future of democracy on Earth, and he must be stopped!
Story - C
The King's Demons is just your average historical setting story that deals with the Magna Carta. Nothing really happens great to make this a better story or a story that stands out more than others. With the exception of this being a Master story and the appearance of a new companion this serial really has nothing else going for it.
Video - A
You really can't get much better than this on a Who release. With only two eps and a bare minumum of special features it looks nearly flawless because almost all the space on this disc want towards video and audio quality.
Special Features - C-
Besides the usuals this disc gets very few one on the history of Kamelion and one on the Magna Carta and how it has effected us. I expect more on features for Who serials, but it easy to tell the majority of the budget went towards making the other story in this release a better DVD.
Overall- B- This is not a bad release or a great release, but for an average story with less than two eps do the fans a favor and make up for it in the special features section.

Planet of Fire by Peter Grimwade
On The Box
A Strange Signal from Earth draws the TARDIS to the island of Lanzarote, where Turlough rescues a young American girl, Peri, from drowning. Among her possesions is an artefact bearing ab alien symbol - the same triangular mark that Turlough has branded into his arm.
The Mystery deepens when Kamelion falls under the control of a powerful mind, and the Tardis travels to volcanic world of Sarn. As Turlough is forced to face his past, the Doctor must stop his oldest enemy from harnessing the rivitolzing powers of the Numismaton Gas.
Story - A
Planet of Fire is one of the best 5th Doctor stories made with great work all around on everybody's end with great acting, great story, and great directing it turns out to be one of Who's best stories. This episode was directed by veteran Who worker Fiona Cummings and written by another Who veteran Peter Grimwade who both wrote and directed alot of Who serials. Planet of Fire also marks another milestone in Who's history it is the first time since Adric joined the crew of the Tardis that the Doctor had only one travelling companion in years. Unfortunately a Tardis with almost three companions and the Doctor is too much for me and is easily why I enjoy his era the least, but this story sets everything staight for me in that aspect and returns Who to the way it should be one travelling companion.
Video - A regular edition/B special edition
I saw no artifacting whatsoever on either edition however for some reason the regular edition proved to be clearer despite some extra effort going into putting extra scenes into the special edition I would of thought it would of been clearer on the video sequences i can't fault film scenes in either edition because of the choice of film they used despite some of the earlier serials seem to have better sequences
Special Features - A+
What is there to say about this release besides Planet of Fire in my personal opinion is #2 on special features and only gets narrowly beaten by War Games. Besides the usuals you get Fiona Cummings herself coming back to do a director's cut Special Edition with new scenes and CGI sequences, the original version, and six different documentaries. Maybe the only drawback to the Special Features is on one of the documentaries called Calling The Shots it features a song from the group called Girls Aloud "Call the Shots" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHoF3a6Q9Wk. As a result of the choice to use this song for in a feature other region releases won't have this special feature. No draw back for the R2 release.
Overall - A
This serial and how it was released is easily one of the best examples of why I can justify buying them individually versus seasons. Great video quality topped with Special Features that other great series like Star Trek wish it could have good job production team.
Box Set
Value A
For less than 5 pounds more I you get two serials and it is really three when you count two editions of Planet of Fire. A decent amount of special features on Planet of Fire that makes up for the lackluster of features on King's Demon more than it should
Overall B+
Despite being having one of the best released serials in the history of Who on DVD. You still can't forgive the Production Team for not having a making of King's Demons a standard documentary on almost every Who feature. I heard more about other serials like the Awekening in this release than I did about King's Demons. If I didn't buy every Who DVD it is easy to see why I could skip on King's Demons if it didn't have Planet of Fire with it. Which is really the only reason why this release doesn't achieve the A rating.