I found this particular historical adventure to be quite excellent in many aspects, the writing, the acting, sets, and costumes.
The crew of the TARDIS land in the midst of the French Revolution, Ian, Barbara and Susan are subsequently captured and sentenced to meet their fate at the hands of Madame Guillotine. And it's up to the Doctor to travel on to Paris and save their lives.
This is the first historical not to be written by John Lucarotti, who provided excellent scripts for both 'Marco Polo' and 'The Aztecs', instead it is written by Dennis Spooner, someone that would also help out the show as script editor for several years.
The story and depiction of the time frame retain the very brutal atmosphere of the 'Reign of Terror' but focus more the characters and the lengths taken to save the lives of the innocent, much in the same vain of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel'.
William Hartnell is in top form as the Doctor as he dons the guise of a Governor of a Regional Province to try and gain information regarding the whereabouts of his companions.
Everyone is in fine form and although there might be some historical inaccuracies, they do not detract from the overall enjoyment of this six part season 1 finale.
Although episodes 4 & 5 are missing, Carole Ann Ford (Susan) does a marvelous job in providing a summarized narration of the events that transpire in those episodes, along with some excellent photos, clips and audio clips.

The final story of Doctor Who's first season takes place in one of the Doctor's favourite periods. After affirming that he has finally gotten Ian and Barbara back home, the TARDIS crew step out and soon realize they are in France. A quick investigation in an abandoned farmhouse gives them the time period, during the Reign of Terror.

They find that it's not a really nice place to be. Susan, Barbara, and Ian are captured by Revolutionary soldiers and sent to the Conciergere Prison in Paris. The Doctor runs afoul of an oafish overseer in charge of some tax-evaders doing manual labour, and his trips across the countryside have some nice accompanying incidental music. The jailer in the Conciergere would be the last person to get a Red Cross service medal or be canonized for sainthood. Yet the prison governor, Lemaitre, is curious about Ian, who is imprisoned with a wounded and dying English prisoner named Webster, who gives him a secret message concerning a secret agent in France named James Stirling.

Yet it's the dingy cells and unpleasant characters such as the soldiers, the jailer, and overseer, who effectively add to the period detail.

Not everybody appears to be from the dregs of humanity, though. Jules and Jean, in the manner of The Scarlet Pimpernel, are two rebels who stage raids, rescuing prisoners who have appointments to keep with Madame Guillotine. As an example of honorable humanity, he tells Barbara and Susan regarding their separated comrades, "I shall not rest until the four of you are together again."

The Doctor has some real fun with his regional deputy uniform, complete with feathered hat, cloak, and epaulets, which he appropriates to rescue his friends.

Episodes 4 and 5, "The Tyrant Of France" and "A Bargain Of Necessity", are missing, but Carole Ann Ford (Susan) fills in the blanks as Nicholas Courtney did for The Invasion. Apart from her narration, there are photo stills, recordings from the soundtrack, and some moving footage. This is where Robespierre finally comes out.

There are some continuity errors. Webster, the dying prisoner in Ian's cell, tells him to go to the Chien Gris inn, yet later, Ian remembers it as The Sinking Ship (Vaisseau Qui Coule). Chien Gris means Grey Dog in French. Also, Napoleon's role in Robespierre's overthrow is historically inaccurate; at least they get Paul Barras's role more or less correct. Despite Robespierre not controlling the Terror, he is made as the chief villain here.

However, the spirit of adventure and knowledge is maintained in the Doctor's speech to his crew at the end of the story, in a voice over amid a starry sky: "Our lives are important-at least to us-and as we see, so we learn... Our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it..."

The second tape contains the surviving episodes of two Patrick Troughton stories, episodes 1 and 3 of the 6-part The Faceless Ones, set at Gatwick Airport, and involving aliens kidnapping passengers using Chameleon Tours as a front. But for additional knowledge, this story is the last story of Ben and Polly. And Samantha Briggs is played by Pauline Collins, best known as Sarah in Upstairs Downstairs. She's very plucky here. There's also Episode 1 and a few brief clips from The Web Of Fear, which feature a return of the robot Yeti. A pity that the episode featuring the debut of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart was lost.

I bought this tape as part of the "End of the Universe" Collection, which is the BBC's wonderful idea to get all the remaining VHS tapes out so that collectors like myself can complete our VHS collection and the BBC can concentrate on the DVDs.

"The Reign of Terror" is one of the early Black and White series' that had episodes (in this case episodes 4 & 5) destroyed by the BBC. At the time the BBC had not realized Dr. Who's overseas potential and to make room, they thoughtlessly distroyed many of the early (and in many cases best) episodes of Dr. Who. These 'incomplete' stories were therefore never shown again, so this is almost like watching new Dr. Who.

I've always been a big fan of these early historical stories and this one has got to be among the best. The acting (which is always good in Dr. Who) was excellent, the costumes were great, the story was engaging and I was on the edge of my seat at some points. Of course we know the Doctor and his compaions got out of it, or they're wouldn't have been 26 years of episodes. Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan all those years ago, provides linking narration for the missing episdoes $ & 5, which also contains some still footage and clips.

Tape 2 contains 3 episodes from the 2nd Doctors era the were similarly never seen due to other episodes in the story being distroyed, and while these have no linking narration, they are good on their on..there are also some clips at the end of the web of fear episode 1 so don't turn off the tape until you see those.

If you're a collector like me, get the whole set, but if you aren't and only want to buy one...make it this one..it's the most unique.