The Tenth Planet
I had previously seen the first three episodes of The Tenth Planet before -- I think if it wasn't for the historical importance of this story, it would not be a very important story. It may serve as a template for the Troughton era in many ways (Monsters invading a base), and the introduction of the Cybermen is certainly an important point as well. Obviously, when you throw the regeneration in as well, you get a story that most Doctor Who fans would want to see. Unfortunately, the story is a bit of a disappointment.
I think most of the fans who would like "Tenth Planet" to be recovered don't really know what the story is really like. The Doctor doesn't really get a proper send off -- he literally just fades away. Mondas looks embarrassingly poor, rapidly spinning like something out of a bad science fiction serial (surprise!) -- and doesn't work at all well when contrasted with the base. The Cybermen have their bizzare charm -- they look more human than almost any other version we see in the series -- but it is amazing that they took off and had repeat appearences.
The reconstruction for this primarily uses footage from the first three episodes. This is a little odd at times, because it makes episode 4 look like a translated film, with the occasional cut to a photo or a remaining clip from the story adding a bizzare twist. However, since the story runs through so many of the same scenes and situations, the episode works better than you might think. The audio is decent for the story -- I was able to understand everything. It is really only valuable for historical reasons -- not because it makes for great Doctor Who.
My first observation when I watched this story was how much it felt like an episode of The X-Files. I've joked for a while that Season 7 was very X-Files like, but with seaweed taking over people and turning them into gas-breathing monsters, you have something that is even more out of the recent FOX TV series. This is probably the most frightening Doctor Who story to date in the series, made even more amazing because no one actually dies in the story.
This story features Victoria's departure from the series. I was quite impressed with her departure -- she was disturbed by events fairly early in the story, not just five minutes before the last scene. This was also played well into her background -- she doesn't have anyone to go to outside of the Doctor, but she wasn't ever really an "adventuring" type. There's also a good deal of characterization on Jamie's part -- he's quite broken up by her departure, and doesn't understand why she might want to go.
I'm not sure if the reconstruction complete covers the story -- I found myself refering to various reference books to refresh myself on the plot and characters from time to time. This may be because this is a story that I'm not very familiar with -- where my previous reconstructions were of stories I already knew pretty well.
This story also only used telesnaps and existing clips. Unfortunately, the telesnaps are occasionally a little blurry and hard to work out faces. I'm not convinced that it wouldn't be better to include non-telesnap photos if and when they exists (and I don't know how many there are for this story, probably very few, because I don't think I've seen many pictures from it.) However, they are used well, and maintain visual interest in the story. I don't have any complaints about the audio.
Obviously, since I wrote this review several years ago the era of fan-made telesnap reconstructions has really effictively ended, and it looks like this material is finding more and more official uses, with audio CDs and DVD releases like the Lost in Time collection.