Time Flight/Arc of Infinity Box Set

There are quite a few Doctor Who serials out there some are great and well some are just downright awful. Which leaves the question how do we offer these serials that may sell less to get people to buy it who would normally stand there ground and wouldn't buy this set. 2E has came up with a few answers to this problem release them with a lot more extras than normal as they did with the Twin Dilemma, release a bad story with a good story as in the case with Peladon Tales, and release two bad stories together as they have done with the set I am about to review today. On the Doctor Who Dynamic Rankings the two stories I am about to review today finish 193 and 225 out of 229 stories made. So it is safe to say most fans don't care for either of these stories. In the process reviewing this set I even had talked with writer Rob Shearman in the middle of it. Rob's first question was why am I submitting myself to this. He thought I was just going thru the series chronologically to submit myself to this terror. It really all came down to I needed to look at some bad stories and review so Im not playing favorites and see what I think of them. Rob put it the best so your reviewing Doctor Who The Clunkers Set. So with all this negative views already being said lets get to the reviews themselves
Time-flight
Is a 5th Doctor serial with Peter Davison and written by Peter Grimwade and falls directly after the classic Earthshock serial.
On the Box
The Tardis arrives by accident in the middle of terminal one at Hearthrow Airport. One of the Supersonic Concordes has disappeared midair and the Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa
soon become involved in a hunt for the missing airplane. But what connects its disappearance to prehistoric Earth and why is a mysterious sorceror so interested in the doctor's Tardis? A Flight through time will reveal all.
Story - F
I will be the first to admit I hate this story. The story as said above had the misluck of being featured directly after Earthshock which could make any serial that was mediocre look even worse. Does TimeFlight fit in that category? No it made a bad story even worse. Why is this serial so bad? It all comes down unneeded storylines, effects, boring set designs, and more. This serial changes storyline directions more than almost any other storyline making a lot of this serial useless. Perfect examples the aftermath of Earthshock was said and done no need to drag it into this story taking up screen time there. Also without revealing too much this a Master story so the plot changes about one or two eps into it into something else simular to the X Files. Effects we didn't see many in this one except stock footage and maybe a few more here and there which leads me to believe this was the last story filmed in that season meaning the budget was gone by then. Sets are just very boring almost all one color making the story seem boring, and it is just a comibination of all this into one makes a bad story.
Video Quality - A
Overall I saw nothing wrong with this story everything clean and smooth in the video
Extras - A
Well 2E tried to make up by putting alot more extras than usual on this set besides the usual Commentary, Radio Time Listings, Trailers, and Photo Gallery. Other extas includes Janet Fielding talking about playing Tegan, Deleted Scenes, Interview with the writer Peter Grimwade, Outtake Fluffs and Gaffs from the production, and behind the scenes making of this story.
Overall - D
You should be buying this release because you like the story and not because of the special features or your just finishing the collection. The Special Features does make up some, not enough for me to give this story any other rating higher than a D.
Arc of Infinty
Falls directly afte TimeFlight and is written by Johnny Byrne. With Special Guest Stars Colin Baker and Michael Gough.
On the Box
Travelling with Nyssa in the Tardis, The Doctor is attacked by a malign entity - being part of pure antimatter seeking to cross the dimensions. Although the invader is successfully repelled, the Tardis is immediately recalled to Gallifrey, where the high Council of Time Lords sentence the Doctor executed to prevent any further attempts at bonding. It seems there is a traitor on Gallifrey. And what links the Renegade and the disappeareance of Tegan's cousin in Amsterdam? Two fates interwined must battle for the future of the entire universe...
Story - B
Despite the bad rankings I quit enjoy this story for many reasons and i can't see why people don't like it. Very interesting sets, effects, and a decnt story altogether in one. Not to mention a an idea really only looked at once before and only in the other dimension. Sure some of the acting is over the top from certain people, but it is enjoyable. The other good thing is that the Doctor is down to one companion this time a nice breath of fresh air compared to when the Tardis was crowded by three companions.
Video - B
The video itself is oustanding, but some of the film sequences itself look terrible and outdated for when it was made.
Special Features - A+
The commentary features actors Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Colin Baker.
Keith Barnfather has produced Anti-Matter from Amsterdam (dur. 34' 55") a new documentary which looks at the making of Arc of Infinity. Featuring actors Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sarah Sutton, Ian Collier, Paul Jerricho and Alistair Cumming, along with script editor Eric Saward, with writer Johnny Byrne and narrator Sophie Aldred filmed on-location in Amsterdam.
Keith has also produced The Omega Factor (dur 14' 55") in which writers and actors involved in the various Omega stories look at the character and motivations of the renegade Time Lord. Featuring co-creator Bob Baker, writer Johnny Byrne, actors Stephen Thorne and Ian Collier, and writer Nev Fountain, who continued Omega's story in an audio play from Big Finish.
A Deleted Scenes package (dur. 2' 54") is taken from a timecoded viewing copy of an early edit of the last episode.
Under Arc Lights (dur. 11' 30") goes behind-the-scenes in the studio courtesy of timecoded viewing copies of some of the studio recording sessions. Both of these features were put together from tapes given to Ian Levine by the story's director, Ron Jones.
John Kelly has produced a CGI Effects option, giving the viewer the option to watch the story with eighteen of the original video effects sequences replaced by new CGI versions. You can also choose to watch the story with isolated music.
A BBC1 trailer and continuity announcements are included, along with the usual photo gallery, 'Coming Soon' trailer and production information subtitles. For completeness, the 1983 Doctor Who Annual and Radio Times listings are included.
You don't get much better on a Who release than this
Overall - B+
Ill stand by and support this serial and along with the extras you really can't beat this DVD release.
Time Flight/Arc of Infinity
Value - A+
Overall - C
No matter what you do if something stinks it stinks. It is like taking AXE body spray and spraying it onto somebody who smells bad they still smell like crap. In the case of this release masking in my opinion one awful story with a story I like and putting in alot extra features still is not going to make that story any better and as a result even though the boxset is really at a good value TimeFlight really takes away from the value of this set and some people could say the same about Arc of Infinty.