Serial: 7N  Episode Nos. 690, 691, 692, and 693.  Title: Battlefield

Beneath Vortigern's Lake, a spaceship has rested for centuries, and at it's heart is the legendary King Arthur and his sword Excalibur.  The sword calls out forwards, backwards, and sideways in time, summoning warriors, the sorceress Morgaine, and the Doctor, who is surprised to hear everyone calling him Merlin.  Even with help from UNIT and his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, can the Doctor prevent the struggle for the sword and Arthur from destroying the world?

starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Written by Ben Aaronovitch, Produced by John Nathan-Turner, and Directed by Michael Kerrigan.

Originally transmitted from 6 September 1989 to 27 September 1989 on BBC1.

DVD Features:

On Disc 1:

-         All four 25-minute episodes (the original 1989 versions) with full restoration treatment.

-         Graphical menus, episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.

-         Optional commentary track with actors Sophie Aldred, Nicholas Courtney, and Angela Bruce

(Brigadier Winifred Bambera), Writer Ben Aaronovitch, and Script Editor Andrew Cartmel.

-         Information Text subtitles option.  Displays pop-up production trivia throughout the story.

-         Isolated Music option.  Plays the story with only the music soundtrack playing by itself.

-         “Storm Over Avallion”  23-minute featurette about the making of the story, featuring interviews

with Actors Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Angela Bruce, Nicholas Courtney, and

Jean Marsh (Morgaine), Writer Ben Aaronovitch, Script Editor Andrew Cartmel, and

Director Michael Kerrigan.

-         “Past and Future King”  12-minute featurette about the writing of this story, featuring

interviews with Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred,

Angela Bruce, and Michael Kerrigan.

-         “Watertank”  7-minute featurette that goes into detail about the near-fatal accident that

occurred during the scene of Ace trapped in the flooding spacecraft airlock when the

glass in the tank she was in cracked open.

-         Studio Recording.  19 minutes of raw footage from the studio floor during the original studio

recording session for this story.

-         “From Kingdom to Queen”  8-minute interview with Jean Marsh charting her 1965, 1966,

and 1989 appearances in Doctor Who.

-     Radio Times Listings.  PDF files for your computer containing the original Radio Times TV

listings for this story, as well as some contemporaneous articles about it they ran.

On Disc 2:

-         Battlefield Special Edition. 

A 95-minute movie-format version of the story, with numerous deleted scenes edited

back into the action, other reediting of the action and the music, boosted CGI effects,

and a Dolby 5.1 sound mix.   Comes with graphical menus, scene selection menu,

and subtitles for the hearing impaired.

-         Season 26 Trailer.  A 1:30 trailer for the entire 26th season that was shown to the press in 1989.