Scott Gray (CotR writer) writes:

Wow. I mean, WOW! Watching CotR was, to put it mildly, a surreal experience for me. I wish my dreams were this enjoyable! After seeing a computer-animated Doctor Who film based on something written by – gulp – me, I can only be two things: thrilled and amazed. Blimey! So don’t expect a balanced critique here. Not from me. This is a rave. And an all-nighter!

CotR is obviously the result of months and months and months (and months) of imagination, ingenuity and sheer hard work. It’s a testament to the special kind of love and dedication Doctor Who inspires in all its fans. I feel privileged that CotR was chosen for this treatment, and I’ll bet Lee Sullivan feels the same. I had CotR’s colourist Adrian Salmon staying over at my flat a few weekends ago and surprised him with the film. He was as stunned (and chuffed) as me!

Where to start? The Daleks are just beautiful. It’s like Ray Cusick had CGI in mind for them right from the start! It was fantastic to see them gliding down the Argus corridors, burning through walls, zapping hapless crewmen. Full marks for adapting Lee and Adrian’s brilliant “coming through the doors” shot in Part Two so perfectly! Stuart Palmer delivers spot-on voices for them. His performance for Alpha is wonderful throughout. My fave cliffhanger is also in Part Two – oh, those shadows!

My favourite vocal performance is Richard Dadd’s Julius Otago, who gives the part just the right amount of energy and good humour all the way through. I loved the Southern twang! Anola Chase’s feisty Alison was also a lot of fun. Was she originally American? Can’t remember. She is now! Another standout in an all-round strong cast is Bryan McCormack’s Kata-Phobus. Bryan absolutely nails K-P, giving him the perfect blend of posh joviality and throaty menace. I was hearing Stephen Fry when I wrote K-P, but Bryan has usurped him!

The music is superb. That relentless, pulsing Dalek theme is so perfect for the story. Whoever was responsible, take a bow!

The designs are top-notch, very faithful to Lee’s work but taking into account the possibilities for animation. One of my favourite moments in the story is a little thing in Part Three – the unfolding discs that form a bridge from the bay to the Argus. Lots of lovely animated sequences abound – the Doctor/Alpha fight in Part Six is terrific, as is the initial sweep across the ocean to establish the Argus in Part One. I also loved the two B&W flashback scenes, with the animated 2nd Doctor appearing over the clips from Evil of the Daleks, and also the flashback stemming from Alpha’s eyepiece. Very, very clever!

I could rabbit on for a long time yet, but I’ll shut up now. My thanks to everyone who contributed to CotR. It’s a wonderful achievement. Bravo!

Lee Sullivan (CotR artist) writes:

Blimey. And flipping 'eck too.

Very impressed with the discs and the huge amount of work they represent. I had to have a lie-down :)

Really nice the way you incorporated the strip images into the animated work. Fell off my chair laughing at the sub (the nit-picker in me points out that I based mine on a WX11 - seen here - rather than the WX5, though I have both).

Also really enjoyed the various artists' montage. Amazed you got the 'Revolution' extra done so fast.

Keep up the good work!

Steve Purbrick writes:

Many, many thanks for the CotR finished product! A most impressive set of extras on each disc, again displaying your undefeatable attention to detail.

You have outdone yourself again! I imagine that you must have a set of Stuart Clones over there, all producing this wonderful labour of love.

The story is well written, and you have captured the full feel and tone of Lee's graphics. Nice to see the return of the concept of the humanised Daleks.

The most outstanding thing about this story for me (quite apart from hearing my wife's lovely voice portraying Izzy) was the recreation of the Emperor Chamber from 'Evil of the Daleks'. I imagine this is very like a Loose Cannon reconstruction. The Pat Troughton was utterly convincing! I assume it was original dialogue voicing the character? As Ron Weasly might say; "Bloody hell!"

On a slightly more negative note, I'm afraid - the Doctor's voice, whilst being a fairly accurate impersonation of Paul McGann, didn't have Paul's expressiveness, tonality and timbre. Some of the lines delivered lacked emotion, and conveyed little motivation or even concern with the condition of the other characters, and at times the performance was out of keeping with the state of the story at that point. I don't want to be hypercritical here, but this is just how it seemed to me. I was fortunate enough to meet Paul the other weekend, and the voice in this story just didn't seem like him. I'll shut up now, and stop being artistic.

But being positive, Richard Dadd is utterly brilliant, along with the rest of the cast. I thoroughly enjoyed your consistent performance as the Dalek voices, and your other little guest roles! Both Anne and I have enjoyed sitting down and watching the story - Anne thought it was so sad when the Daleks all self-destructed at the end!

Richard Dadd writes:

Just watched the first disc. Initial thoughts on episode 1-3: WOW! From the glorious opening shots through to the first appearance of the Daleks the whole thing sparkles. The title sequence is great fun (it's so familiar but I've never seen this version) and the animation is among some of your best yet. The music helps an awful lot. The squelchy stings and doom-laden electricity of the music is a perfect match for the constantly engaging visuals (it's all so BLUE! And remember what Buxton the cat said about blue? MAGIC ROUNDABOUT references aren't too obscure I hope...).

This is the first Altered Vistas product which I have read as a comic prior to watching the animation, and I have to say what a perfect adaptation it is. Things move just as they should. All credit to the rest of the cast for their great performances. Theo's slimy dialogue sounds just like it did in my head, Alison is performed quite quite brilliantly (You absolutely must get hold of a Colin Baker impersonator, so she can be his Peri... imagine that!), and Andrew Merkelbach's Paul McGann voice is a thing to be proud of.

As for the Daleks: they do benefit from all those colours don't they? They look fab, whizzing around (so much more visually interesting than all just being bloody goldy-bronze - I was sick of that after The Parting of the Ways!!). And they are so much more scary in this than they are in any of the previous AV releases (bizarrely). This has to be down to their dialogue which is far more Daleky in this than anything I've so far heard David Whitaker come up with. The metal meanies are also helped by the shadows which they constantly glide through in this adventure (in retrospect there seems to be a lot of sunshine in The Dalek Chronicles!).

A moving and fabulous tribute to Patrick Troughton is played out in episode 3 (my favourite part so far - still got 4-6 to watch). It's lovely to hear his dialogue from that missing classic Evil, and the overlaying of surviving footage with a CGI Troughton (with lip-synch!) was a masterstroke. Altered Vistas are going from strength to strength! Given some of the exciting projects I know you have lined up, this release fills me with anticipation about the possible achievements in future. I mean this adventure has such a SCOPE! It's enormous! Top marks Mr Palmer! Can't wait to see the rest.

Bryan McCormack writes:

Stuart Palmer takes Altered Vistas in a new direction with this brilliant version of the Scott Gray/Lee Sullivan DWM comic strip Children of the Revolution. The story is broken up into 6 ten-minute episodes that feel just about the right length. As a format it works just fine, indeed some of the ‘Classic Series’ TV episodes could have benefited from it! There’s no lip-synch, unlike the last AV outing Menace of the Monstrons but that doesn’t detract from a fine story well told. There’s plenty of visuals to keep your eye interested including a very subtle homage to Power of the Daleks. And it’s faithful to Lee Sullivan’s visuals too.

The story is split over two discs, both of which have some really nice extras. There is footage from both the Blackpool and Brighton exhibitions which, whilst great for those of us who couldn’t make it ourselves could nevertheless have benefited from a bit tighter editing, as they feel a little slow. There’s a nice montage of Lee Sullivan’s original artwork alongside some interview quotes but the best extra for me was a journey through all of the Daleks’ comic strip appearances, set to some brilliantly recognisable 60’s music. Judging by this extra alone, Stuart has enough work ahead of him to keep him going for the next twenty years or so...! Stuart should seriously consider doing more of these DWM adaptations, as they show that his skills can be equally well deployed somewhere other than Skaro and still make something that’s enjoyably watchable. Particularly when he has an excellent soundalike for Paul McGann in Andrew Merkelbach and two girls in the cast, Anola Chase and Anne Lister, who were exceptionally good. I look forward to hearing more from them. Next it’s back to the land of TV21 for Eve of the War. It’ll be like The Chase only in colour and I can’t wait!

Roger Smith AKA Black Dalek writes:

What can I say? Children of the Revolution is, as the 9th Doctor would say, FANTASTIC.

It is everything I had hoped for and more. Split over 2 disks and the extras, well, they are great, but more later.

Love the opening: "One being many faces". Using T-Rex’s Children of the Revolution brought back so many memories from my childhood.....brilliant. Title sequence is a straight 10/10.

Andrew Merkelbach... well at times he was so close I thought you had got Paul. Well done that man.

The use of Patrick from Evil was beautiful/ He is my Doctor by the way. Doing the Evil sequences in black & white was perfection and I am glad you used Patrick's audio.

Over all the visual are 9.9/10 I have loved lip-synch, but with the 8th doctor’s flowery way of talking maybe not.

The whole cast came over very well. Tea and biscuits all round; you deserve it. You made this old man very happy. I start to cry next.

Disk 1 extras

Brighton Exhibition was a great surprise and I am glad you did it as I could not get there, so a big thanks for that. Daleks in Comics, you could not have timed that better. I have been chasing Daleks in comics for a while now. Biggest problem is finding what titles they are in, so even though I had most there was still some I had no information on, so the hunt goes on. I have about 80 - 85%

But most interesting I found was Creating Revolution. Great interview.

Disk 2

Blackpool 2005: I did get to see this but it is good that I can see it again and again now. I did go every year once but that was before video so I have lots and lots of photos. Sullivan’s Revolution was also interesting to see how the story boards are made up. Last of all, the trailer for Eve of War; cannot wait, the Mechanoids look great.

Over all 12/10 the best yet.

So a big THANK YOU and thanks for making my christmas.

Andrew Merkelbach writes:

Wow! Children of the Revolution is quite a cinematic experience (or at least it WILL be when the film premieres on the big screen here in Australia in 2006)! The CGI is top notch and overall the production has a very professional/polished feel. It was great to see my lines actually coming out of the 8th Doctor's mouth (per say) and it was wonderful to hear his witty banter with the other characters (especially with Otago). Praise must be given to my co-stars: Anola Chase, Richard Dadd, Anne Lister and, of course, the very talented Stuart Palmer (love the Dalek voices, mate)!

The thousands of Daleks, revealed to the Doctor by Alpha in the catacombs of episode 3 is a visual masterpiece sure to rival the Dalek space fleet in The Parting of Ways. Stuart has done a marvellous job adapting this excellent comic and the epic scale of the production is nothing short of breathtaking.

Even though I didn't get the gig as Doctor 10 earlier this year, I can honestly say that when I was watching this film, it almost felt like I had actually taken part in an official BBC Doctor Who adventure! That's a testament to just how good it is! Who knows? Maybe this might help to get me the role as Doctor 11...?

David Rance writes:

It's brilliant and I'm speechless.....

I haven't been so into things as to religiously follow the fanzines, so I'd never seen this story before.

The ending had me almost devastated, the same sort of reaction as the ending of Dalek (how I hope it hasn't destroyed itself after all...), or the ending of A Question Of Priorities from UFO, another series I hold dear - where two wrongs don't make it right.

Am I getting too involved, well probably. It's testament to your excellent work that it becomes so believable - the chap who played the eighth Doctor did a splendid job.

Please accept my sincere thanks. A nearly-Fifty-year-old can become a kid again for a few minutes (with adult perspectives)...

Jay Hastings writes:

Finally got to see Children of the Revolution. An awesome job, just as good as the rest. And Paul McGann is one of my favorite Doctors, so it was nice seeing him represented in it. A worthy job and can't wait to see Eve of the War.

EXTERMINATE!

Brian Ashley writes:

I finally found the time to watch Children of the Revolution all the way through at the weekend.

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

If you get any better, Dreamworks and Pixar are going to be quaking in their boots!!!!!!

Fantastic, the 8th Doctor sounds remarkably like Paul McGann, the Humanised Daleks ROCK, and the animation is out of this world.

If you ever stop, I will be forced to hunt you down and slap you around!

Looking forward to Eve of the War (with Jeff Wayne's music?) as soon as possible!

Stephen Herbert writes:

Finally it arrived, Children of the Revolution finally popped through the letterbox, ready for my DVD player to play. Another stunning Altered Vistas Production, their first Doctor Who Adventure, having previously only released the brilliant Dalek Chronicles. So for a change not only do they give us a Doctor Who Adventure, but also a much longer running time.

It could have run as one long adventure, but seeing as they were adapting a six part Doctor Who Magazine Comic strip, it was good that they took it one instalment at a time. But we still have Daleks, plenty of them! And in all sorts of different colours! But more of the Daleks later, as they hardly appear in Episode One!

So to Part One.

Before we even start on the first episode we get a brilliant reminder of all the actors who have played the Doctor over the years. Well, all the official Actors and a few more besides. Then we get a burst of Bolan's Children of the Revolution just to get us in the mood!

Then the titles are running, and don't they look good, its just as if Doctor Who was back on the box, like he's never been away. But Doctor Who is back on our TV screens, better than ever before. In fact we've just seen the tenth Doctor's first adventure. After watching The Christmas Invasion and Attack of The Graske, the time was perfect for a brand new Doctor Who adventure.

The first scene we see is a tracking shot underwater, which sets the scene, rocks and schools of fish, and as we move in towards the ship we hear Izzy reading her letter to Max back in Stockbridge. And so we are introduced to the characters through the opening set pieces: Alison, Julius and the rest of the characters.

The scene with Alison The Doctor and Izzy is a superb scene! Well done Andrew Merkelbach, Anola Chase and Ann Lister! This scene is so well played it easily could make the basis of a trailer, mixed in with a few shots of Daleks, it would really work played either before or after Eastenders!

Andrew Merkelback is the new Doctor, or at least the voice, and what a brilliant impression from Andrew of Paul McGann's Doctor. And the images of Paul's Doctor just look great! Well done, Stuart! "No! Absolutely positively emphatically not, Alison, how could you possibly suggest it!" What a line, and how well it's delivered by the new Doctor. Who needs David Tennant? Eh? Well I for one can't wait for series 2. But surely Andrew proves he could play the part, RTD are you watching?

So we approach the end of Episode One, the ship is in trouble, the Doctor and Alison are outside all suited up and Izzy is swimming towards a big shock: there in front of her are the dreaded Daleks! And so the end credits roll and we've only just met the Daleks! But there's plenty more surprises to come!

Part Two

The Argos is falling, the Doctor and Alison are in deadly peril and there are dead bodies floating outside, poor souls who have drowned. Somehow it appears the Doctor and Alison have made it to the Airlock. A guard tells them to wait a minute, he'll open the door for them, except, no, it's not the Doctor but the Daleks, and our poor guard is apparently exterminated!

The two Daleks travel up the corridor and two more poor souls also seem to be exterminated! The Daleks take control of the bridge. Julius Otago and his crew are helpless!

The Doctor and Alison do make it onboard the Argos and they hurriedly head for the power room, where they find bodies lying around, the Doctor heads to the Controls, "Prey For a Miracle" as he realises there's little he can do. But before the Doctor can get to the controls, the Daleks enter! "Someone up there has a nasty sence of humour" he exclaims! But the Daleks save the stricken Argus.

The Doctor tries, very unsuccessfully, to hide Who he is, but the Daleks soon realise. And they start excitedly to exclaim "All hail the Saviour! All hail the Saviour!"

Part Three

The Doctor meets Julius and the rest of the crew, with fifteen of his crew dead (The exterminated crew from earlier were only stunned!) Julius is to put it mildly very angry. So the Doctor goes off to find out what's happening, from the Daleks themselves.

And so we come to Azhra Korr, city Of the Daleks, and its an amazing site, plenty of flying Daleks. Stuart is very much matching the Beeb here! The masses of Daleks, sans weapons, surround them all! And soon The Doctor is reunited with Izzy. "There's someone here who really wants to see you," exclaims Izzy, and suddenly, from a mass of green Daleks, a Red Dalek rises Up! "Welcome to Azhra Korr, Saviour" he greets the Doctor! He has a symbol on the top of his dome, like an A. "You know me by my name." "Alpha," realises the Doctor, and as we focus on the Doctor, Stuart gives us a truly remarkable reconstruction of The Evil of The Daleks. We have the surviving pictures of the story's  climax, and a CGI image of Patrick Troughton's Doctor!

"Alpha, Beta and Omega..." The words of Troughton as we see his final encounter with the Emperor Dalek. Now this is something I'm not sure of, another review on this page tells us that this is indeed the voice Of Patrick Troughton but I thought I heard that Andrew Merkelbach had done the audio for this scene? But whatever It is an amazing confrontation, and the Emperor Dalek is soon losing it! "There is danger here! Do not fight in here!"

We soon find out that The Daleks didn't attack the Argus, so who did? Who is behind the Daleks? Can the Doctor stop Julius and his crew baying for Dalek blood? And can the Doctor save The Daleks, save the crew, Izzy and himself, and defeat the menace that awaits him in the final three episodes?

If you've read this and you still haven't seen Children of the Revolution, then what are you waiting for? This truly is Altered Vistas at their very best! Nearly seventy minutes of stunning CGI Daleks. Great Great Doctor Who! A masterful Doctor Who Comic Strip lovingly brought to life!

And there are superb extras. Stuart has provided us with nearly an hour of extras, that really makes this release a total package! Six episodes of varying length and the extras provides us with two hours of entertainment!

So all together...

All Hail Stuart Palmer "All hail The Saviour!"

Ian Peters writes:

First off, I want to thank you for sending Children of the Revolution to me. I got them today and I am about to sit down and watch the episodes!!! :-) Secondly, please thank the lads over in the UK who thought to put in that video tour of the Brighton Exhibition. I lived in the UK in 2004 (when the new series was being planned/announced) and I was unable to get back there this past year to see the exhibition.  It was one of the things I truly regretted missing and thanks to this amazing DVD I feel like I now at least got to see it from the (relative) comfort of my own home. You really have no idea what a wonderful surprise it was to find this special feature on the disk.

Well, I'm off to enjoy the actual film now. Thanks again for sending these disks out to me.

Alan Boyd writes:

Wow.

Fantastic job, Stuart. And the extras were great too.

I'm not familiar with the comic strip, but the adaptation was first rate and one would find it hard to fault it.
If pushed, I'd say ease up with the pulsating Episode title graphics - they're borderline on almost interfering with the non stop action.

Looking forward to seeing the rest - and Stuart, please consider a missing Troughton story as those short flashbacks combined with the live footage looked awesome.

Brent Zirnheld writes:

I received and watched Children of the Revolution over the weekend. In a word: Wow. You and the rest of the people behind this effort are to be commended on a job well done. Working from a great story you  accomplished something quite wonderful. The visuals, the audio, the music. It was better than some of the televised "Who!"

I fully intend to spread the word about what you're doing at Altered Vistas and look forward to seeing more productions.

Philip Morley writes:

Children Of The Revolution should be on the telly. The sheer pace and tension are married to the beautiful art, which takes you right to the heart of the story.

I also loved the music, which I feel suited the mood very well. Let's face it, you just had to put T.Rex in there somewhere. It's the law!

The extras too are well worth watching. Quite clearly a lot of time, thought and patience have gone into this wonderful production.

Again, many thanks for doing all this.

Dean Rose (Loose Cannon) writes:

Phew! I've had an epic evening of Stuart Palmer productions. Really enjoyed it too.

Sorry for not reviewing Children of the Revolution sooner, which I've actually had for some time now. Really enjoyed this one. Great. The McGann artist is very good and your animations get better and better. I really liked the Evil flashbacks and the whole Izzy thing worked very well. Really really good.

I'm still amazed how you find the time to do all this and still keep a job down. Brilliant stuff.

Peter Christy writes:

It was quite a good story. Dalek becoming nice...? What next? Daleks doing my homework or doing the dishes? I'd like to see that.

I like the animation part of it though, really smooth. My favourite bit was when the Daleks’ heads exploded.

The background music was good too, made it feel dramatic.

I liked the bit were you go to Blackpool and Brighton Doctor Who exhibitions because I've never been there before.

And that's about it.

Tony (and Jonathan) Kennedy writes:

Children of the Revolution. What can I say but superb. Jonathan and I watched it as soon as it arrived. By the time Episode 2 started, my daughter joined us. Complete silence during the whole story. Their reaction when it finished was “Start it again” and we did.

I know that’s not a long-winded summary, but I hope it tells you volumes as to how good you made the story. The kids and I loved it. More Paul McGann please.

We are all looking forward to the next release. Keep up the good work and many thanks.

Don Schwartz writes:

Stuart Palmer does it again! I can’t imagine how much time he must put into every Altered Vistas production.

First off, I must say Andrew Merkelback does an excellent job as the Eighth Doctor, true it may not be as good as having Paul McGann but very well done. In fact the entire cast is good.

The animation is what one would expect from Stuart Palmer, superb and the music complements the action well. Without doubt the best part was having a flash back with Patrick Troughton who is a personal favorite of mine.

One interesting thing: we find out Izzy the Doctors companion has been turned into an amphibian. I haven't read many of the comics so I hope AV will produce the story of how that happened.

Keep up the great work, Stuart.

Daniel Pegg writes:

I was a little disappointed that there was no lip-synch in this one, but to be honest, by about five minutes into the first episode I had forgotten that the lips weren’t moving as the story and acting and special sound was so good. Where do you find your actors, Stuart, as they are all so top-notch? Even the minor roles are well played. Particular credit must go to Anola Chase as Alison (the best companion who never was?) and Richard Dadd as Otago, though I also really liked Bryan McCormack as the voice of Kata-Phobus - very creepy, but also sounding like he really was a giant squid!

Although he sometimes stressed odd words, I also liked your Eighth Doctor - Andrew Merkelbach - who sounded a lot like Paul McGann. I hope you can use him again sometime soon.

The Dalek attack on the Argus was very well played, and the twists and turns in the story kept me glued throughout all six episodes. At an hour in length (then all the extras on top) this was the longest Altered Vistas production so far, but also the most engaging and rounded. A great story, and also great to see that you had some involvement from Lee Sullivan. The galleries of images and pages of his original artwork in the bonus features were a joy to see and really made this something special. And I loved the Sixties-style music on one of these too!

The other bonuses were great too, especially the two films about the Doctor Who exhibitions. It was a real thrill to see inside the Brighton exhibition, especially as it is no longer there and I never got to see it in person. Now I feel like I have. I hope you have some more of this type of feature in the future.

I must just mention the Patrick Troughton/Evil of the Daleks flashback. Just as I thought I couldn’t enjoy this production any more than I was doing, up pops a lip-synched and really good CGI Troughton! And the Emperor, and clips from Evil of the Daleks! Wow, that really blew me away!

Michael Elliott writes:

I was extremely impressed by the sheer quality and professionalism evident throughout Children of the Revolution! Well done to everyone concerned!!

Thanks, ever so much, for giving two Doctor Who followers a tremendous amount of pleasure!

Steve Swales writes:

I admit it, I’m not a Dr Who fan, I only ever watched it to see if the Daleks would appear in a new story and if they didn’t I’d only continue if it had a substitute like the Cybermen or the like. So it’s no great surprise that I await an Altered Vistas Production dropping on the mat much more keenly than another dose of Dave’n’Billie on Saturday evenings. So AV08 is an oddity because I’m getting both stimuli at once. Moreover, this is one where I have no advance expectations, as not being a Who fan, I never read the original comic strip.

Once I’d adjusted to which Doctor it was: the nano-era of McGann (who’s wooden delivery is nicely  sent-up vocally here!) – and gotten used to the strangely attractive (for an amphibian) Izzy, I wasn’t ready for the twist at the end of episode two! I was further knocked-out at the vast ranks of Daleks in their base – the scale being conveyed ultra effectively. When it transpired these odd Daleks were linked to the humanised ones in Evil of the Daleks – complete with a mini-montage(!) – I was becoming manic (Stuart, you have got to release this final battle reconstruction by itself!!).

Whereas in the end the story doesn’t pan-out in quite the way I hoped (aren’t the humans total b******s and isn’t the Doctor a spineless creep for selling out his offspring), the production itself never falls flat.

Dave Aldridge writes:

I was incredibly impressed by Children of the Revolution, it was a comic strip I have very fond memories of, so I was thrilled when I learnt that you were producing your adaptation. Obviously it was never going to be easy recreating the 8th Doctor's voice, but I was pleasantly surprised by the performance. Also the 'footage' for the flashbacks to Evil worked amazingly well. Thanks once again, and I look forward to more!

Jerry Pappin writes:

I’ve just finished watching Doctor Who - Children of the Revolution. WOW AWESOME and SPELLBINDING this story and everything about this oozes with soooooooo much style and pace. Fantastic stuff indeed... I’m a complete newbie to the wonderful world of Altered Vistas, and, boy, I’m so glad I’m a Doctor Who freak and get all the Loose Cannon recons as there was an advert with AV trailer and that blew me away. Fantastic stuff...

First off, I must say a big huge thank you to Steve Swales you my friend are so fast, sent my discs on Tuesday and by Thursday evening I’ve got a huge smile on my face watching this epic masterpiece. Next I must say wow to Empire 639 - you are seriously talented. What you did to that Doctor Who theme is so very amazing. Christ, it’s so moving and sets you up for the mood, and the story rattles along at breakneck speed. Frantic, awesome, such a great story and different to top marks to you ‘saviour’ Stuart Palmer, thank you so much for busting a gut for us Doctor Who/dalek fans your a legend.

Now then, I’m going - and I’ve done a review without any spoilers - awesome! In a nutshell, to everyone who hasn’t seen it GET ON WITH IT - contact a dubber and sort it out. You wont be disappointed.

Chris Rumbol writes:

Would just like to leave you all a message saying thanks for the great work.

I've received the discs for Children of the Revolution and love the work - fantastic! Have passed your web-site on to a couple of mates who I’m sure will order from you in the future and I’m sure they will love the work you guys are doing. Keep up the great work. I’m hoping to order some more very soon.

Kevin Rhodes writes:

Wow.

The run of Eighth Doctor comic strips from Doctor Who Magazine is one of my all-time favourite periods in Doctor Who's history, so I was a little dubious when I heard about this production... Would one of the greatest eras of Doctor Who be tarnished forever by a bunch of amateurs trying to make a second-rate CGI production?

In a word... no.

This production of Children of the Revolution is extraordinary, a real achievement that everyone involved with should be extremely proud of. Special mention goes to Andrew Merkelbach for his wonderful Eighth Doctor voice and Stuart Palmer for his spot-on Dalek voices and, of course, for all of the hard work he has so obviously put into this.

I only wish the cliffhanger ending to the serial had been left in :( But that's by no means a criticism, I completely understand why it was removed and would probably have made the same choice myself.

I hope that this production is the catalyst for Altered Vistas to try their hands at some more of the strips from this classic era - I would love to see the likes of Ground Zero or The Flood given this treatment. For the latter, you could even reinstate the regeneration ending!

Children of the Revolution is the first Altered Vistas production I've watched. But based on what I've seen, it certainly won't be the last.

Craig Prescott writes:

I’ve just watched Children of the Revolution and I’m very impressed - great story, great acting, the Eighth Doctor’s voice was perfect. Also the animation was excellent. Can’t wait to see another

Matthew Kresal writes:

Children of the Revolution was the first Altered Vistas production I saw. After seeing quite a few fan productions of varying degrees of quality, this production was a revelation to say the least. From terrific voice work to splendid animation and excellent special features, Children of the Revolution is a fine example of what a good fan production should be.

The actors are fantastic to say the least. Andrew Merklebach's work as the eighth Doctor was incredible and so good it's difficult to call it an impersonation. Anne Lister gives voice to Izzy, giving life to a character that existed previously only on paper. Anola Chase, Richard Dadd, and Terry-Budin-Jones were terrific as the Argus crew as was Bryan McCormack as the menacing Kata-Phobus. Any review is incomplete without making special mention of the Dalek voices done to near perfection by Stuart Palmer. Considering that the cast never recorded together in a studio there is an excellent chemistry between everyone and it takes a lot of talent to do that.

The animation was, for me, the biggest surprise of seeing this production. I'm rather ashamed to admit it but I had low expectations going in but I was totally blown away by it. The animation is fluid and works surprisingly well. Yes there are moments where it has issues (the cliffhanger of episode four comes to mind) but it works for the vast majority of the piece. It gives the production an epic scope thanks to amazing moments like the opening shot of episode one, the arrival in Azhra Korr, the first appearance of Kata-Phobus and the truly shocking finale. The Daleks look fantastic in animation despite (or rather perhaps because of) all their vivid colors. All in all it's terrific stuff animation wise.

Of special mention is the amazing flashback to the events of The Evil of the Daleks in episode three. Congratulations on the brilliant combination of Patrick Troughton/recreation animation, audio from the classic lost story, and footage from the DVD documentary The Last Dalek. It makes one really wish that that classic story was still here to be watched and enjoyed today. I did notice something about the footage used in one shot from The Last Dalek you can see a technician's hand setting a Dalek go! A fun little tidbit I noticed on the fourth or fifth viewing.

I also enjoyed the special features. Living in the States I found the two exhibition short films to be a real treat. It makes one envious of those who can and do go. The two things that really got my attention were the interview with writer Scott Gray and the look at the amazing art work of Lee Sullivan. These special features are an excellent supplement for a terrific production.

So a quick sum up to finish off: Children of the Revolution is a terrific production of an excellent Doctor Who story. From exceptional voice work to terrific animation and special features that serve to supplement the production, this was a pure joy to watch. I look forward to seeing other Altered Vistas productions in the future. I have no qualms in calling this one of the premier Doctor Who fan productions on the web.