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“The greatness of Omega could have been yours.”

Doctor Who celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1983, a year later remembered for excesses of continuity, a handful of returning villains, a rare themed trilogy of stories, and of course, “The Five Doctors,” the feature-length anniversary special. With all that was going on, in retrospect it was probably quite easy to overlook “Arc of Infinity.”

“Arc of Infinity” finds the Doctor’s TARDIS invaded by a mysterious, alien form, who attempts to merge with eponymous hero (Peter Davison). Shaken by the experience, the Doctor and his companion Nyssa travel back to his home planet of Gallifrey to access information that will allow them to identify the culprit. At the same time, the Time Lords’ bio-data records are infiltrated, and they decide to keep the Doctor secured on Gallifrey until the mystery is cleared up. But as the plot thickens, it seems the only way to totally repel the alien force is to terminate the Doctor entirely - something the Time Lords, and especially the hard-nosed Commander Maxil (Colin Baker), are prepared to do. But what they don’t yet know is how this all ties into events on Earth, in Amsterdam, and little can prepare them for the return of a legendary figure from Gallifrey’s past.

Producer John Nathan-Turner always had a slightly bizarre sense of what made a good season premiere or finale. In general, they tended to involve returning villains, like the Daleks, the Master or the Cybermen. This time around, however, the big idea was location filming in Amsterdam. Overseas filming has been used to great effect in 1979’s “City of Death,” shot in Paris, and Nathan-Turner was keen to repeat that success. “Arc” is the first of his three attempts, one per year, and perhaps the only one that’s even moderately successful. If the Amsterdam location is largely superfluous, at least it isn’t ridiculously overplayed, as in “The Two Doctors,” or easy to mistake for a quarry, as in “Planet of Fire.”

These days, fans tend to focus on this story because of Omega, a returning Time Lord villain from 1972’s “The Three Doctors,” and the continued degredation of the Gallifrey, the Time Lords, and their society. Since Robert Holmes first turned the Doctor’s people into stuffy bureaucrats in 1976, the Time Lords had slipped from being god-like superbeings to, here, a group of feckless elite in ceremonial garb. One junior Time Lord’s comment, when staring down the barrel of a gun, is simply to identify the weapon: “Impulse laser…?” That says it all, really. It probably doesn’t help that the script is by Johnny Byrne, whose other Doctor Who tales (“The Keeper of Traken,” “Warriors of the Deep”) almost luxuriated in groups of intelligent characters standing around and pontificating. From that point of view, “Arc” is probably Byrne’s single most punchy and action-packed script, if only because of the endless running down corridors.

On the other hand, Byrne’s script also tries for some commentary on the meaning of existence, and indeed the right to exist - a heady concept, but probably well within the realm of Byrne’s own ideas for the story. As a writer on Doctor Who, he always tried for something “above” the level of simple action-adventure, and if his efforts went unrecognized by the directors or the production team, that’s certainly not his fault. Probably the most enjoyable way to view “Arc of Infinity” is to look beyond the corrirdors and the fibreglass collars and see it as a sort of revenge drama: the sort of thing where a hardened criminal (Omega) breaks free of his prison, incriminates the man who sent him to jail (the Doctor), and watches gleefully as his opponent his put on trial, preparing all the time to (literally) take over his cushy existence. It might not be Cape Fear, but appropriately condensed, stripped of its pretension and the Amsterdam locations, “Arc of Infinity” might actually make a pretty good stageplay. Whether that makes it good or bad Doctor Who is up to individual taste, but for my money, “Arc” is certainly worth more than a cursory look. If nothing else, it’s an engaging story, and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) finally gets some all-too-brief time in the spotlight.

Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity comes to DVD from 2entertain and BBC Video (through Warner). Some of the video (studio) scenes look unusually colorful in this story; perhaps it’s my set-up, but generally Doctor Who wears a slightly muted color palette, except for restored location shots on film. But many sequences here, including nearly anything set on Gallifrey or in the TARDIS console room, look really saturated and perhaps just a touch soft; odd for Doctor Who, perhaps, but actually a very pleasant effect. Take a look at Davison’s coat; it’s more of a mustard-yellow than in most stories, where it usually appears sort of yellowy-beige. Perhaps it’s just the result of the lighting scheme for “Arc,” because this little anomaly certainly doesn’t carry over into all of the studio sets, like the underground crypt. Unfortunately, the location films for this story were not available - so all of that footage taken in Amsterdam, which might have looked so nice if restored, is actually a bit dank and grainy. Unfortunately, that probably puts the relative video quality of “Arc of Infinity” a step or two below most of the 1980-85 releases.

Audio is provided in the original mono soundtrack, or an isolated score of Roger Limb’s incidental music. Optional English subtitles are available for the story and all of the video featurettes.

Richard Molesworth’s information subtitle track runs along the usual lines: studio recording and location filming schedules, actor filmographies, and this time, an emphasis on the early draft versions of the storyline. The latter is interesting - showing how the story progressed from something called “The Time of Neman” to “Arc of Infinity” - but the rest is Molesworth’s typical material. Worth a watch…once.

The audio commentary features - wait for it - two Doctors! (And with all the multi-Doctor stories now released, this is likely to be the only such commentary.) Actors Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding make for an absolutely hilarious commentary, with Baker’s personification of Maxil’s helmet - a chicken named Ermintrude - often stealing the show. Actually, the beginning of the first episode gives Davison and Sutton a time to shine on their own, without other personalities vying for space (and, as often happens, someone talking over Sutton). However, even with all four participants on board, this is an extremely lively and fun commentary - absolutely the highlight of the disc.

Anti-Matter from Amsterdam (35 mins.) is a slightly strange presentation of a very straightforward idea. This is your typical making-of documentary, with contributions from writer Johnny Byrne, script editor Eric Saward, and actors Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sarah Sutton, Paul Jericho, Ian Collier and Alistair Cumming. What makes it strange is Sophie Aldred’s linking narration, shot on location in Amsterdam - just fine for what it is - with Johnny Byrne loitering in the background. Or watching Aldred from across the street. Or “accidentally” brushing into her. You keep waiting for him to join in on these little narrative links, but that never happens…he’s just a distracting background element. Aside from that odd stylistic choice, though, this is a nice documentary that covers all the bases, even if it it’s a bit overlong. Perhaps five to ten minutes could have been pruned by cutting some of the stories repeated from the audio commentary.

The Omega Factor (15 mins.) focuses on the character of Omega, both in this story, its predecessor, “The Three Doctors,” and (briefly) the audio drama sequel produced by Big Finish, Omega. The piece is built around interviews with writers Bob Baker, Johnny Byrne, and Nev Fountain, alongside Omega actors Stephen Thorne and Ian Collier. As usual, Byrne sees his script at something of a higher level than, say, your average viewer, though I appreciate his having thought out the concept of Omega’s madness. This whole piece is a little bit made for the newbie-fan-type, and overlong, but it’s still rather interesting. I was particularly surprised to see the Big Finish audios acknowledged.

Deleted Scenes (5 mins.) feature four brief sequences taken from what looks like an early edit on timecoded VHS, with a little bit of surrounding broadcast material for context. They all appear to be from part four, and don’t add a great deal to the story, although the last one features more nice footage of Amsterdam.

Under Arc Lights (12 mins.) is another of the irregular featurettes built from timecoded studio recording footage. Much of this involves Ian Collier as Omega, including the sequence of Peter Davison having to meet “himself.” Fun for the behind-the-scenes fanatic (which, largely, I am).

Optional CGI Effects by John Kelly are available to replace or enhance the effects in eighteen shots, ranging from Gallifreyan staser fire to Omega’s merging with the Doctor. A couple of them are a bit overkill, like the “Impulse laser…?” scene in part one, but others are a marked improvement. Shame nothing could be done for those terrible Matrix effects, though.

Continuities (3 mins.) features a trailer for part one of “Arc of Infinity,” clearly taken from an off-air VHS recording, plus BBC1 continuities for all four episodes.

Photo Gallery (8 mins.) includes publicity and production photos from the story, with an extra section devoted to design department pictures, all set to Roger Limb’s musical score. Doctor Who Annual and Radio Times Listings gives DVD-Rom-savvy fans the chance to view PDFs of the 1983 Doctor Who annual - featuring stories, comics, and behind-the-scenes factoids - and the four original listings for “Arc of Infinity” from the Radio Times magazine.

Finally, the Coming Soon Trailer (1 min.) is the same piece for the Doctor Who: The Time Warrior DVD that featured on Doctor Who: Time-Flight. There’s also an easter egg available on this disc, but it takes real determination to chance upon it, and it actually advertises a product you can’t get in Region 1!

The disc opens with that familiar old trailer for Doctor Who: The Complete Second Season. Bless.

I pushed it aside for many years, leaving it forgotten at one side of the video shelf, but watching it on DVD, I’ve discovered “Arc of Infinity” isn’t really that bad. The direction is occasionally clunky, and the decision to film the story in Amsterdam is perhaps a touch peculiar, but overall, it works; of all the ‘80s stories were an old villain puts in a fresh appearance, this is perhaps one of the least forced, especially when you discount the Daleks and the Cybermen. The DVD also features a few nice extras - best among them, the commentary - and in general, fans of the era should be pleased to rediscover this one, too. It’s not the best of the best, but if you enjoy your ‘80s stories, Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity still comes recommended.

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