“Nightmare of Eden” is an adventure of the seventeenth season of “Doctor Who” classic series, which aired in 1979. It follows “The Creature from the Pit” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Bob Baker and directed by Alan Bromly.

The story

The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), Romana II (Lalla Ward) and K9 arrive on the starship Empress that has just emerged from hyperspace in the same coordinates as the cargo ship Hecate causing a crash. The two Time Lords offer their help to solve the situation but it’s clear that the co-pilot was under the influence of some drug. The Doctor recognizes the symptoms of Vraxoin, a drug which trade had been eradicated.

On board the Empress there’s the zoologist Tryst together with his assistant Della. They have a machine that records portions of planets they have visited on special crystals. The Doctor realizes that the machine has a problem in the stability of its contents. In particular, the recording of the planet Eden seems all too realistic.

Extras

This DVD contains a good amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure, the Radio Times Listings and a promo of the “Doctor Who” DVDs soon to be published.

There are various comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonis Lalla Ward, actor Peter Craze, author Bob Baker, special effects designer Colin Mapson and make-up designer Joan Stribling moderated by Toby Hadoke.

The Nightmare of Television Centre. A retrospective on a production full of problems told by some protagonists.

Going Solo. Writer Bob Baker speaks about this adventure, the only “Doctor Who” one he wrote without his partner Dave Martin.

The Doctor’s Strange Love. A discussion among fans about this adventure. I really don’t like this kind of extra because I can find threads like this on the Internet and if I feel like I can participate.

Ask Aspel. Lalla Ward in an interview from that time. It’s interesting because the actress talks about her life and her career.

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Bob Baker had written screenplays for years together with Dave Martin and not just for “Doctor Who”. When their collaboration ceased, Baker kept on developing ideas for the show and one of these, which was about the subject of drugs, was accepted by script editor Douglas Adams becoming “Nightmare of Eden”.

The theme of drugs caused some concern because after all “Doctor Who” was a family show also watched by children. In the end, attention was paid to show the topic in a way that contained no element that could be considered in a positive way.

This approach is understandable but ended up making the message quite crude. For example, the Doctor says several times that Vraxoin led to the destruction of several planets but without providing explanations for those events. It’s obvious that in a show like “Doctor Who” they couldn’t have deep analizes on the drug problem but some development on the subject would’ve improved the story.

The classic “Doctor Who” series always fought with budget problems and in those years the situation was becoming very complicated. To save money, the special effects were produced on magnetic tape instead of film, a choice that allowed a significant cut on the production time of the images of starships.

The special effects are still good by the standards of the time, instead the costumes leave something to be desired. The Mandrels, monsters that are supposed to be deadly and frightening, are worse than some costumes from the ’60s. They’re equipped with claws which should easily kill a humanoid but the actors don’t even pretend to use them, perhaps for fear of ruining the costume.

The sense of threat, not only from the Mandrels but in general in the story, is what is quite lacking in “Nightmare of Eden”. There are some moments when a character is attacked but in general the atmosphere is too light-hearted and the humor tome definitely exceeds the dramatic one.

The sets in which this adventure was filmed are bright when less light would’ve helped create an atmosphere of tension. This is one of the elements that show a flat direction. “Nightmare of Eden” was given to Alan Bromly, who some years earlier had directed the Third Doctor’s adventure “The Time Warrior”, very different from this adventure from many points of view. In 1979, Bromly was close to retirement and wasn’t used to the new ways of producing a show. This led to various problems not only in its shooting but also in his relationship with the cast.

It wasn’t easy to work with Tom Baker, who felt like he owned “Doctor Who”. It was almost inevitable that friction with a director who wanted to control all the details of the job would increase dangerously. The two of them ended up arguing and for producer Graham Williams that was a big problem. Before the end of the shooting, Bromly left the production and Williams took over directiion and post-production until the end.

It’s a shame because “Nightmare of Eden” had a really interesting potential with an important theme in a story that could be really good. In general, it’s the acting is good despite Tryst’s accent, not present in the script, which is for many people one of the controversial points. This adventure needed first of all a brilliant director to take advantage of its potential and better go around the limitations of the budget.

“Nightmare of Eden” has several flaws, nonetheless I found it overall enjoyable. However, I understand that many see especially its flaws and can’t appreciate it. The extras on the DVD seemed to me to mostly interesting and also for their characteristics it seems a suitable product to “Doctor Who” fans.