Doctor Who - The Dominators [DVD] [1968]

The Dominators is one of the most underrated Doctor Who stories. I've always enjoyed it since first seeing it in 1990 on VHS. It certainly isn't a classic, and it's far from being one of Troughton's best, but I still consider it to be very good. The two Dominators are well cast and played, and I like the interplay between them, like a argumentative long time married couple! The Quark robots are well designed and look fairly good. As for the Dulcian people on planet Dulkis, they however tend to leave a lot to be desired. Arthur Cox as Cully is pretty good though. The regulars, Troughton, Hines and Padbury (2nd Doctor, Jamie and Zoe) are great as usual. One of the highlights in this story is in episode two, when the two Dominators believe that the Doctor and Jamie to be inhabitants of planet Dulkis. The Dominators then do various tests on the two time travellers. Which results in the Doctor and Jamie acting like fools to convince the Dominators that they are a less capable and lower rank Dulcian. So the Dominators written by Norman Ashby (not quite) and directed by Morris Barry is good fun for a five parter. It's certainly not terrible, but I do view 'The Dominators' as one of my 'guilty pleasures'. 8/10

The Dominators is the season 6 opening serial of Doctor Who in what happens to be Patrick Troughton's final season as the 2nd Doctor. This episode is Zoe Heriot's first proper serial as a companion following her inclusion to the Tardis duo of the Doctor and Jamie (as played by Frazer Hines) at the conclusion of the season 5 finale The Wheel In Space.Now there was a few issues that rose during the production of this story with this serial originally meaning to be a 6 part story before being reduced to 5 parts. When compared to the 5 part story of The Mind Robber which was reduced from being 4 x25 minute parts to 5 x20 minute stories, The Dominators is 100x better.The whole concept of the Dulcians being a peaceful race who were against violence and almost accept the Dominators being the conquerors to their planet Dulkis was quite relatable to the time given it 1968, Vietnam was still raging on, Martin Luther King had been assassinated and the world was still in the height of the Cold War. People wanted peace once more and by any means possible.I found the Dominators to not be the worst opening serial that the show had done in recent years but when compared up against its predecessor opening serial from Season 5 'Tomb Of The Cybermen' and its succeeding opening serial from Season 7 'Spearhead From Space', its probably the weakest even though its rather the strongest in terms of continuity and strength between its characters. The storyline rather dampens the rating in my eyes.All in all, this episode rather sets the tone for the season whilst the viewership for much of the season gradually reaches a peak between The Invasion, The Krotons and The Seeds Of Death before plummeting starting to have a regular viewership of under 6 million viewers for The Space Pirates and The War Games.The special features on the DVD aren't the worst as the first feature gives an insight into what happened behind the scenes whilst the second feature gave an insight as to how the show was recieved by viewers during Patrick Troughton's era as the Doctor which I thought was rather intriguing.

This may not be the greatest story but is still a good watch and gets unfairly criticized by some people, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land the Tardis on the planet Dulkis and encounter a peaceful race called the Dulcians who are unwillingly to fight when they are enslaved by a race of aliens called Dominators and there slave robots called Quarks and it's up to the Tardis crew to help them out.For those of a certain generation who grew up with playschool and camberwick green a certain Mr Brian Cant makes an appearance and just hearing his voice takes you back to being a kid.There is commentary for all five episodes a documentary on making the show with cast, crew and the writer of the story plus a tomorrows times news clippings about the 2nd doctor with Caroline John acting as a newsreader.

It's not terribly good. If I were looking for a classical allusion I'd be thinking of the Ancient Athenians confronted by the Roman Army, but what we really have here is an attempt to replicate the success of the Daleks in a story that resembles the first Dalek story not a little - the pacifists threatened by the ruthless aggressors - only it's not nearly as good.Lots of reason for this - the Dulcians are dull, the Dominators shout at each other - one of them being reactionary and sulky - and the Quarks just aren't as good as the Daleks; they don't look half as impressive, they're not nearly as mobile, and they sound far less scary.And over five episodes the only critical factors seem to be the amount of stored power the Dominators have got, and how well Dominator Toba can keep his temper.The Dominator costumes look good - that's a good bit.

The Dominators are the most depressed invaders you will ever meet. They have these really sweet Quarks with little hands and voices like pinky and perky but the are badass. Unfortunately they only have about five of them and they can't walk very fast which makes Jamie and the rebellous Cully running all over a quarry trying to blow them up a bit pointless. but Dr Who magic none the less

I've never understood this much-maligned story's bad reputation among DW fans, it's thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining and, unlike some of the overrated season 5 stories, never boring. The Dominators, with their endless arguments, are fascinating to watch and the Quarks work perfectly, especially with their electronic chuckling and giggling after killing someone or blowing something up. Great fun, this an underrated gem.

It’s a high quality DVD and restoration work on the footage is grand. But the story itself is like watching paint dry. Can you believe this was originally to be six episodes but was cut down to five? Count ourselves lucky.

Oh dear , not one of the best Pat Troughton stories ,sadly. The Dominators & Quark design is good but that's about it .