The reason I dislike Season 7 so much is the very fact it is entirely Earth-Bound(aside from the odd space sequences in this story). For me it goes entirely against what the show was(and still is) about, which is The Doctor going of in travels in the TARDIS and visiting different times and places.

I know the reasons why the show had to become Earthbound at the time but still don't like it and as for pace, as with several recent stories in the New Series, it is almost at a crawl, especially in the Silurian Story.

They weren't awful stories by any means in this Season but I don't like the grittiness or the Earthbound nature of it, prefer main part of the Pertwee Era between Seasons 8-10, as I'm not a big fan of Season 11 either(Planet Of The Spiders aside)but that's for another reason entirely.

Just watching the DVD of this at the moment and seeing the majority of the first time in colour. I think it looks good and the restoration team have done a good job but feel perhaps the grainy nature of the picture now makes parts of the story seem better in black and white.

Off course, that could just be my DVD player, but just wondered what others feel about the now restored colour version of this story?

As for the story itself, my views of this haven't changed much from viewing it in colour but it does make it a more refreshing watch from the black and white version.

I think to fully appreciate the restoration work with this story you really need to have seen the b&w repeats shown on UK Gold in the early 90s - then you appreciate how knackered their source material really was!

Overall it's amazing that they managed to restore this story to the quality we now have, my main issue with the colour restoration is the amount of colour bleeding in many of the shots. It's the same with the recent Daemons DVD - I had an off-air DVD recording of the UKG repeats of this story and again the restoration, especially of the sound, is fantastic but the colour bleed is very noticable, which wasn't on the old version.

Just watched this story for the first time. Wow what an interesting and unusual story !!
Overall lots of good things to enjoy. The aliens in spacesuits are a really clever idea and the script is in many parts suitably tense. I actually like the first two episodes with the mystery in space and the recovery vehicle returned to earth the best. As silly as it might sound I can only imagine how exciting it might have been to watch a live space event such as the moon landings and this feels like the closest to actually seeing it . Well done to the director Michael Ferguson as there’s no quick cutting and I just rather like the way it builds up the tension. Like the 2001 film homage space sequences and why does the music sound like A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum ?

The ambassadors when we finally see them are very creepy as we cant see underneath the helmets and as silent assassins , powered up by radiation, this makes them rather an unknown quantity. There is an other worldly feel about them but I rather like later the plaintive cry when the Doctor goes to see the alien ship and they say ‘why do you make us kill’ nicely playing against the paranoia that occurs in Colonel Carrington as he asserts his moral duty to protect the world from the aliens that kills his friend accidentally.

There are lots of nods to adventure serials with the script with the involvement of the criminals. The disposal of the two men buried in a gravel yard is gritty and realistic and this is doctor who which feel nicely grown up which is great.

I love the action sequence in the warehouse and the highjack of the recovery vehicle and then the Doctor stealing the recovery vehicle back and driving the HGV ! Its nice to see UNIT being fully involved in the story and the action sequences feel thrilling and exciting and the Brigadier is a real action hero. Oh and the gorgeous Sergeant Benton appears
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Being even less serious for a moment and I need to mention Liz’s hair. I loved the hair bun she had in the first story and just don’t like her with her hair down. It looks too severe and covers her face too much. Put it up Liz!

Other positives are : Ronald Allen before his Crossroads days. He plays it cool in an understated performance but rather shines. The change with the opening titles and the sting is rather good. The reprise in episode 3 with the Doctor saying ‘ cut it open’ really works and finally we see the doctor get into space after two earthbound stories.

Good to see that Liz continues to be on a par with the Doctor as she applies her brains to create the communication device and works out the way the aliens understand through symbols.

I gather that most of this serial had to be colourised from black and white prints and I think episodes 3 and 4 are probably the most noticeable especially for the external sequences and slightly distracting as you notice blurry edges quite a bit around people and the bleeding of colour as mentioned. As a mainly action story I think it needs colour though to show all the money they spent and I guess you have to ignore the slight flaws with the picture. It looks good though most of the time.

The downsides: 5 or 6 parts would have really pushed the story and there are loads of great bits but with 7 it gets slightly repetitive with the numerous attempts to kill the doctor but this really highlights the weekly serial nature of the programme then and having to show the doctor in peril each week.

Some good observations you make, but this one in particular stood out for me that I had to comment back on.
Haha, hmm, female Doctor Who fans must really like the cut of Benton's jib so to speak. The Wife in Space adores him too.

Benton in his uniform is so .........GORGEOUS ! ...........( gets dizzy.... faints! ) ...

I think if they had released Ambassadors on DVD before Invasion of the Dinosaurs, they would have made colour the default for Dinosaurs Ep 1, because it looks better than many bits of Ambassadors.

I liked the idea behind it, but it felt VERY stretched out, with lots of big action scenes to fill time in. The name gave away the whole premise too, which was dissapointing. It had quite an interesting plot, but when the big reveal was done I was like 'yes.....and?' because of the name.

I know what you mean. The doctor doesn't see the aliens until quite late and the plot takes a bit of a detour as the villains plot to use the ambassadors in robberies.

The documentary on the DVD is interesting though as it talks about how the story is about first contact and most of what we see is about how the humans want to use or destroy the aliens.
Just had a thought maybe the title is ironic ? The humans are the ambassadors of death not the aliens ( as they are forced to kill by the humans ) . That's makes more sense actually.

Humanity doesn't exactly come out of this story well does it. I have read somewhere that originally it wasn't meant to be called the ambassadors of death, but it was changed. At least one of the writers thought the new name gave the game away, which it does. Overall it's a nice idea, just a bit stretched out.

Season 7 Earth Exile UNIT scenario seven parter alert!.

I'll deal with the recolouring first, yes a reasonable job I think. The footage is grainy and hence a bit pale. Nice to see it in colour and it has a refreshing quality to watch it. On the whole I think I would rather watch it in Black and White for some of it!, it adds rather than detracts from it as a visual piece in this case.

As for the story it's too long. I refer to a Barry Letts quotation on rewriting David Whitaker's story: " "Look we've got five drafts of this. David's fed up with it, he doesn't know what to do. What we need to do is pay David in full and Mac [Hulke] and I will finish." and that's basically what we did. I made sure that David got a full script fee for all his episodes because he had been b******d about by the establishment and Mac and I took the bare bones of his story and almost did a War Games - wrote new scripts very quickly - and it shows. It had its moments though." "
I concur, I enjoyed episodes one and two and the last two. In between there are enjoyable moments only, usually anything to do with the Ambassadors or Liz.

The Doctor is so smug, abrasive, aloof and arrogant at the start of this story, I am really glad this was not his portrayal throughout his tenure. Luckily from the point where he parks Bessie in front of the truck carrying the Capsule, and his trick of immobilsing them to the back of Bessie. He visibly enjoys it and from then on is fine and much more watchable.
This I think is my best moment, coupled with the fact he pretended to be a bit of a old buffer to lure Carrington and his cohort into pushing Bessie

Cornish also takes a bit of warming to initially, but he is a well acted character. John Abineri as Carrington does enough to convey the mystery of his motives, as well as the conflict of the greater good from his point of view.

Liz puts in a good show, her "Don't worry I won't hurt you" line is great.
Liz is very attractive in this one, I think it is her straight hair that does it.

The themes and change up that the Ambassadors are effectively the good guys, being manipulated and forced into killing to survive makes for a nice change.

Throughout the UNIT soldiers are easily beaten and a bit gullible at points, only the Brigadier seems to be able to shoot straight in the first episode fight. Another complaint would be some of the cliffhangers are a bit poor. They just feel artificial, but a couple of them are good. The recorded message from inside the Capsule is creepy and the Doctor's reaction to cut it open is impressively done.

Some decent moments and elements in this story, not bad overall.

Just watched this again. Does anyone else remember how, in the first episode, where the recovery shuttle linked with the returning Mars probe, there was music playing that sounded rather like Je T'aime, which was a funny touch! Also, in the segment when the two criminals who abduct the aliens are dumped in a gravel pit, after dying of radiation poisoning, I really love that bleak creepy bit of music that is playing, as the man in the radiation suit dumps and conceals the bodies.