When the Dr. Quinn series was cancelled after its sixth season it left many fans bitter and angry towards CBS. I kind of went through the same thing myself when Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled thanks to Paramount and UPN. Some would probably argue that the former was better than the latter, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Begrudgingly I do have to admit that while I was a fan of Dr. Quinn when it first came out I drifted away from the show by the time the cancellation notice rolled around.

Even so when I heard about the Dr. Quinn TV movie that was released a year after the sixth season I sat down and watched. A lot had changed since I had stopped watching the show and most of what happened in the movie was over my head. Quinn and Sully had a kid? Where were the Cooper children? Hank didn't run the saloon anymore? At the time I was baffled by what was going on and I didn't really put all of the pieces together until I picked up the A&E releases from the series. To preface everything that you'll see in the Dr. Quinn movies (Dr Quinn: The Movie and Dr Quinn: The Heart Within) you probably should get a run down of some of the essentials.

For starters, your appreciation of the films will rest solely on your interest in the series. I'm not going to go into every nitty gritty detail about the show but I'll give you some basics. The show starts out in 1867 down in Colorado Springs where a young female doctor has just arrived from Boston. However, she quickly learns that the town's people thought they were getting a male doctor and want nothing to so with her. In the first episode the only person that accepted her was a woman named Charlotte Cooper who ran the local boarding house. Unfortunately she fell victim to a deadly snake bite and left her children in the care of Dr. Michaela Anne Quinn (Jane Seymour). New to the place and now with three kids to deal with she eventually meets and falls in love with a man named Sully (Joe Lando). In the third season the two got married and in the fourth they had a daughter named Katie. The Cooper kids eventually went their separate ways through Brian stayed behind in town with Quinn and Sully.

Frankly that's all you really need to know in order to understand what's going on in the Dr. Quinn movies. The first film released in 1999 takes place a little bit after the final episode. Quinn and Sully seem to be living the happily ever after lifestyle with Katie. I emphasize the "happily" part because the two still seem to be in the honeymoon phase of their relationship (ie: they're all over each other). But things turn sour very quickly when a gentleman comes to town looking for permission to mine for copper.

Despite the promise of riches beyond their wildest dreams Sully turns down the proposition due to the possible pollution of the local water supply. This brings about "dire consequences" when the man in charge of the operation comes along and kidnaps Katie for Sully's refusal to vote for their project. From there it's a nonstop chase to Mexico as the whole gang ponies up and rides off into the sunset in search of the missing girl.

Almost all the original cast reunited for this attempt to bring the show to a more satisfying end. But, while the movie wasn't bad, it wasn't really good either. Because the show was cancelled The Dr. Quinn Movie felt like an attempt by CBS to appease fans and probably get them to stop sending letters. Due to this it felt rushed and not quite up to the quality that fans came to expect from the series. The action based tale was simplistic and corny at times with no real display of emotion. There were a few moments where the script shined but inevitably this film felt like a "safe" way to send annoyed fans packing.

Two years later in 2001 CBS tried yet again to keep Quinn viewers satisfied with another made for TV movie Dr Quinn: The Heart Within. This one featured a story that felt more like an extended episode of the series than the original "movie" did. The interesting thing is that the entire story takes place in Boston and it never sets foot in Colorado. The film starts on a train and ends on a train. Because of this, the only cast we see are the main players and none of the supporting. It feels a little strange and takes something away from the movie but fortunately the story is decent enough to carry on without them.

There are few different storylines here that play out as the film progresses. The main tale involves Quinn, Sully, Brian and Katie traveling to Boston to attend Colleen's graduation from Harvard. It's a big deal because at this point in time (1876) women doctors were something of a taboo in the medical community, though it's not like Michaela wasn't a rebel herself. Speaking of that rebel we find her and Sully yet again lip wrestling behind corners and getting all lovey dovey at the drop of a hat.

In the meantime Michaela's mother has fallen ill and has been in and out of the hospital for the past six months. If you remember her from her previous appearances on the show then you remember the character is a relatively stubborn woman and is out to do whatever she wants to do. That means, against better judgment, she starts popping pills so that she can live the last moments of her life the way she wants to live them. There is all manner of sappy foreshadowing surrounding her demise but you know the old saying, "It's better to burn out than fade away."

The script and the acting are much better for The Heart Within compared to the original TV movie. The atmosphere felt more like the original show. If you were ever a fan of the series then you owe it to yourself to check these films out if you haven't seen them before. If you skip the first movie you won't be missing anything too important but the second one on the disc is definitely worth watching.

Because of the two different production dates for these films you can obviously expect different video quality. Both are presented with 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratios though The Heart Within maintains the best image. The first Quinn movie looks very similar to the presentation of the A&E DVDs with grain, compression and an overall soft image. The most recent film looks decent despite the lack of a widescreen ratio. The picture is sharp and clear with very little to complain about compared to the first feature.

As is the case with older TV productions the audio on this DVD is presented with a 2.0 stereo mix instead of a more robust 5.1 selection. You take what you can get I suppose and for what it's worth the stereo sound quality is decent. There isn't a lot of directionality between the channels though that's to be expected and just like the video quality the audio is better in the second film. There are no subtitles available for either movie.

There is a paltry selection of bonus material available on this disc and I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed with it. A commentary track or an introduction by creator Beth Sullivan would have been great. Instead all we get is a little trivia game, some screen captures from both movies and a list of biographies for most of the actors from the series.

In its prime Dr. Quinn was a good show with an interesting premise, great cast and wonderful collection of scripts. I can appreciate where CBS was coming from by releasing the first TV movie a year after the show's cancellation but to be honest they didn't do the series justice. The story felt so unnatural compared to the storytelling for the rest of the show and it was a little too silly for its own good at times. The second film proved to be much better with a more heartfelt tale and it provided a near fitting end for the franchise. It's just a shame that more of the cast wasn't involved in its production.

Fans of the show will definitely want to pick this up whether they have seen it or not because chances are good these will never be aired again. The DVDs don't receive the best treatment that they could have, but for a release eight years after the show was cancelled I suppose the budget isn't there to put too much effort into it. I recommend this for Dr. Quinn lovers but everyone else can obviously get by without seeing it.

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