Distributed by
Laserlight

Cert:

Cat.no: 82118

Running time: 205 minutes

Year: 2000

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 44 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-Enhanced: No

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras: Photo Gallery

Director/Producer:

Rob McAuley

Narrator:

Robyn Williams

Music:

Campbell McAuley

Narrated by Robyn Williams (no, not that one), this series provides all the info you'd need if your only experience of battleships is the pencil and paper game you used to play or the electronic version which made cool noises, but it'll mainly appeal to those who are old enough to remember the two World Wars which get mentioned along the way, including the Queen Mother who turned 21 just as the very first ship rolled off the production line at the start of the 19th Century.

Marvel at the muzzle-loading cannons, the 18-inch guns, the rocket launchers and missiles, the competition they face from more superior forms of attack such as submarines and fighter planes, but it glosses over the fact that they're completely useless when up against the time-travel doobery used in The Philadelphia Experiment.

I didn't see this programme on TV but I presume the 4:3 fullscreen ratio seen here is how it was presented on TV. Usually most documentaries are shot in 16:9 nowadays, but those that largely contain 4:3 footage will be edited that way. There's no problem with artifacts, but the quality of the image on screen is down to the varying nature of the archive footage used. The average bitrate for each episode 4.86Mb/s.

As for sound, stereo won't make a great deal of difference here but it keeps the narration clear. This isn't a DVD with which to show off your home cinema system, but those buying it will know that already and can rest assured that nothing looks in any way less than it ought. As a result, if this DVD tickles your fancy don't be put off by the middle-of-the-road scores since the content is the main one to take notice of and if the subject is up your street you can't go far wrong.

The only extra is a Photo Gallery for many of the battleships featured with brief accompanying info. However, in similar fashion to many documentaries, you could argue that the "extras" score isn't really applicable here because it just adds more information to the heaps of facts and figures already supplied.