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Disc One
10/10 Extras Commentary, David Tennant and Julie Gardener. This was recorded before Christmas when the new series had still not been made and the first official screening had only just happened. David presents himself very well on audio as well as in front of a camera. Julie plays the part of interviewer a lot of the time, which suits her well in this instance. Lots of behind the scenes secrets such as how they hid Catherine Tate’s presence on set. Julie is SO enthusiastic, though. She is a huge asset to the show. 10/10 David’s video diary for Runaway Bride is a lovely bit of behind the scenes
fun. Best bit is when Catherine
Tate with a complete straight face pretends
she HATED working on Doctor Who. She is clearly playing about with
David who is playing along, but you could imagine the
tabloids getting a quote. Also the debate about whether she’s a companion
or not and how high a companion or non-companion rates on the Ohio
Convention. Chats with Sarah
Parrish in costume as well. David is very comfortable in front of a camera in every
way so it works so well. 10/10 Freema’s Video tour is very interesting, looking in at the different offices and parts of the studios, the Torchwood and Doctor Who sets side by side, art department, costumes etc., and talking to many of the backstage people. There’s a bit of a clue about the Christmas episode having a chasm to cross. 10/10 Deleted scenes – including travelling in Donna’s little car. Two versions of it; A longer scene with Lillith in Shakespeare Code; a chat between The Doctor and Donna in the TARDIS; some more sewer scenes in Manhattan; Tallulah whinging a lot more than she does in final cut; a longer speech to the Daleks in the theatre. John Smith’s dislike of pears, cut in order to save the pear industry, and David being silly in the TARDIS; a disturbing scene in which the little girl is attacked by scarecrows which just wasn’t right for a family show; John Smith singing modern pop songs in his mirror before realising something is odd; a longer scene between Tim and Hutchinson about the future; longer goodbye scene with The Doctor, Martha and Jack in the Plas. Interesting insight into decisions made by the director for the final cut. 10/10 Outtakes – mostly falling over,
running out of corridor or fluffing lines. Classic one is Shakespeare’s
mobile ringing – its his agent. 10/10 Doctor Who Confidential Christmas Special, featuring the making of the Children in Needs Concert. I really would have rather had a nice clean copy of the concert itself. But this was quite interesting to see again. 8/10 Trailers – more interesting in years to come to look back at how they were done. At the moment they’re a bit too recent. 8/10 Disc Two
10/10 The Shakespeare Code – The Doctor and Martha in Shakespeare’s London, fighting alien witches who use the lost play to open a portal in the universe for the rest of their species. The Doctor is there to stop them, with a bit of help from Martha, Shakespeare and JK Rowling. 10/10 Gridlock plunges The Doctor and Martha into a nightmare world of a choking underground motorway with a deadly secret at the bottom level. While the children of the motorway keep their faith The Doctor goes down to hell and back up to the dead city of New New York to find an old friend giving his last to make things right. The Face of Boe tells his last great secret and dies. 10/10 Extras Commentaries Smith and Jones – Russell T. Davies and David Tennant. David asking questions, Russell talking enthusiastically as ever. He had been told that ‘hello faithful viewer’ was irritating so he decided to say it every time and everyone else has got in on it as well. They talk about how the story evolved, especially the opening scene, the fact that it is The Doctor from Martha’s point of view much of the time, and point out many details and subtleties that might be missed by the casual viewer. For instance, if anyone DIDN’T guess, the MRI scanner becomes the stasis chamber in episode 7. 10/10 David Tennant and Christina Cole, who played Lillith, comment on the Shakespeare Code, and we learn right away that blonde is not a good colour for a witch so she wears a wig. Christina makes a very good presentation of herself and the two talk well together and manage to be interesting, informative, and funny at times. 10/1 Gridlock’s commentary is by Julie Gardner, Travis Oliver who played Milo and Marie Jones, visual effects manager at The Mill. Having a visual effects manager, of course, makes it a more technical commentary, but there were still plenty of actor anecdotes. 10/10 David’s Video Diary for Smith and Jones has David concentrating on Freema’s first day and her introduction into the series. He is very kind to her. Again he is very intelligent and knowledgeable and has a good time, too. Moving onto Shakespeare Code he is in daft mood, stretching the ‘ye olde…’ joke all the way as they go on location. Gridlock’s diary starts with a gag about the Face of Boe’s inability to get work in mainstream TV. 10/10 Trailers – again a bit too soon for nostalgia value to kick in. 8/10 Disc Three Daleks in Manhattan
sees The Doctor in 1930, the year the Empire State Building
was built. People are starving in Hooverville,
in the very shadow of the great new building and, worse, disappearing.
The Doctor decides to find out how and why and he and Martha
discover a horrific secret in the New
York sewers. Men turned into pig-slaves by the Daleks as t 9/10 In Evolution of the Daleks, Dalek Sec is transformed into a hybrid Human using the body of Mr Diagoras. He recruits The Doctor to help him create a new race of Human/Dalek hybrids that will not be as aggressive as the Daleks and will survive where their race has not. Of course it all goes wrong and all but one of the four remaining Daleks dies. Dalek Caan escapes to fight another day. 8/10 The Lazarus Experiment brings The Doctor and Martha home – literally home for her. She discovers that her sister is working for Professor Lazarus, who has discovered a way to rejuvenate himself. What he didn’t expect was that his DNA was going crazy and he kept reverting into a monster that drained the life of people at the launch party. Amazing conclusion in the bell tower of Southwark cathedral. 10/10 In 42 The Doctor and Martha answer a distress signal in space and find themselves on a ship that is hurtling towards a sun with only 42 minutes to escape. Meanwhile a possessed crewmember is torching people to death. Martha nearly falls into the sun first when she is trapped in an escape pod and The Doctor is infected by the same possession, only to discover it is living matter from the sun itself that has to be returned before they can get away. 8/10
Extras Commentaries Louise Page, costume designer, Helen Raynor, writer, and Miranda Raison who played Tallulah do the commentary for Daleks in Manhattan. It isn’t as good as it should be, rather like the episode itself. It is difficult to tell the three voices apart a lot of the time and there aren’t very many clues in the general chatter. It’s a bit like overhearing three women on the bus talking. 7/10 Evolution of The Daleks has David Tennant with Nicholas Briggs, the voice of the Daleks and Barney Curnow, a Dalek operator. David is enthusiastic as ever. Nicholas Briggs just loves his job. Barney can’t help but be carried along with them. It’s a 45 minutes with three genuine fans of the programme they themselves made. 10/10 David Tennant and Mark Garris have a rollicking time here. Even when they talk technical detail they do it with a laugh in their voices as they are clearly enjoying themselves. Mark Gattis as a writer and actor and David as a great all round speaker who seems pretty much an expert on all aspects of making Doctor Who are a joy to hear. Plus there is the anatomical euphemism ‘my back wheels’ to ponder. 10/10 Russell T. Davies and Chris Chibnall are 40+ fanboys who love their job. A commentary from them is always going to be interesting. Quite apart from their knowledge of the making of 42, there is a fascinating anecdote about Russell’s boyfriend and TV telephone numbers. 10/10 Trailers – the same as before. 7/10
Disc Four Human Nature – The Doctor has to become another person, become Human. He becomes John Smith, a teacher in a boys school in 1913. Martha is his maid. And he falls in love with Joan, the school matron, who he tells about his PARENTS, Verity and Sidney. Meanwhile a sinister bunch of aliens are taking over Human bodies and seeking out the Time Lord. 10/10 AT LEAST Family of Blood sees the aliens marching on the school with their army of animated scarecrows, a gun battle between the schoolboys and the scarecrows, and a hard decision for John Smith. Of course he decides to become The Doctor again. But at a cruel cost. The closing scene at the remembrance parade is beautiful. 10/10 AT LEAST Blink is the Doctor light episode, but the one universally declared to be the best of the series. It follows Sally Sparrow on a surreal journey of discovery and a sinister game of statues. The Angels Have The Phone Box is now a secret code that identifies true Doctor Who fans. And as for the statues, you’ll never look at one the same way again. 10/10 AT LEAST Extras. Commentary on Human nature is by director,
Charles Palmer, writer, Paul Cornell
and Murray Gold. Charles
has a lot to talk about. So does Paul,
who talks about some of the changes to script, including dropping
the reference to The Doctor not liking pears. Murray talks about his musical arrangements for the episode.
“Scary green” as a lighting technique is discussed at length. And
the wonderful information that the ‘battlefield’ was a garden centre
where they actually sold SOIL. Mud is very good business, apparently.
And then we were reminded that the fantastic piano scene was inspired
by the baby carriage scene in The Untouchables, which was, itself,
based on a scene in Battleship Potemkin.
The Film and TV industry homages itself
in every generation. 9/10 Much of the commentary for Family of Blood, chaired by Susie Liggat, Tracie Simpson and Arwell Wyn Jones, all crew members, was about the location and sets. The problems and the joys of filming at St. Fagans, especially at the open air Museum of Welsh Life, took up a lot of the time. They also enjoyed discussing the interior of the alien spaceship, which was built on the space used by the Torchwood hub set. It was enjoyable, though far more technical and less ‘entertaining’ than a commentary involving any of the cast. 8/10 Murray Gold and Steve Moffatt have the commentary for Blink. Murray talks quite a bit about his music. And we LOVE his music, of course. But I don’t think I am alone in not knowing the difference between a bassoon and a cor anglais even if he jumped up and hit me on the head with them. Steve talks about creating scary monsters and testing them on his kids and completely fails to explain ‘timey wimey’ stuff in any more technical terms than that while revealing in the last minutes that the way to defeat the Weeping Angels is to sneak up behind them all and put a bucket over their heads. 10/10
The Weakest Link diary includes some behind the scenes reveals, including how lovely John Barrowman looks in glasses and his choices of shirts. The video diary for 42 is mostly about the fact that it is freezing in January but they are meant to be falling into the sun, David’s space suit costume and how to remove prosthetic ice from the skin. Moving on, we discover that the spaceship belonging to The Family of Blood was in fact the Torchwood set, borrowed for the day, and more prosthetic work for David to make himself look like an old man for the very short but important “dying as a Human” scene. 10/10 Trailers – the same as before. 7/10
Disc Five Utopia reunites The Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness and after a brief awkward time they become friends again before being plunged into a crisis on a dying planet with a bunch of refugees trying to get to Utopia. The Doctor and companions help an old Professor called Yana to get the rocket ship launched. But then they discover that Yana is actually…. THE MASTER 10/10 Sound of Drums finds present day Earth in trouble as the regenerated Master becomes Prime Minister and declared The Doctor, Jack and Martha as public enemy number one, two and three. A clever trick with perception filters spawns a dozen fan fiction ideas and lets them NEARLY get The Master but he has another couple of tricks up his sleeve. Killing the US president seems to have met with universal joy, but making The Doctor age one hundred and fifty years is another matter! 10/10 Last of the Time Lords takes up the story a year later, with Earth in ruins and the population decimated. Martha is touring the world, apparently in search of a weapon against The Master, but in fact the weapon is FAITH and she has been spreading that. The Doctor’s return to glory is breathtaking and The Master’s death tragic. And when it’s all over…. The Titanic crashes into the TARDIS. 10/10 Trailers – the same as before. 7/10
Extras Commentaries David Tennant and Russell T. Davies talk about Utopia. And the first topic of conversation HAS to be the quarry. The great Doctor Who cliché. Working in a quarry, working with John Barrowman, working the Derek Jacobi, and the horrendous accident when one of the Futurekind speared himself! And the strange news that next season the end credits have to be shorter! 10/10 Phil Collinson and Julie Gardner talk about Sound of drums. They try to talk technical about sets and locations but the two of them are so enthusiastic about the series they just forget about that and chat among themselves a lot of the time. Either way it’s pretty good. 10/10 David Tennant, John Barrowman and Freema Agyeman are like three schoolkids who were let run the class. They have a terrific time together, talking about screwdriver envy and all sorts of fun. They do manage to get quite a bit of technical detail in while they have a very good time. John and David seem to have become very good friends in the course of their time together and express their opinion of the US President into the bargain. 10/10 David’s Video diary – back on location in the glass factory with John Barrowman and his dogs, a lovely insight into John, a dog lover, who brings all three of them with him in his trailer. Later, a cold quarry on St. Valentine’s Day was the romantic location for their glamorous TV job tonight. It looked confusing but in the end it all looked good! David next shows how TRULY glamorous being a TV actor is as he gives us a close up of the skin irritation caused by the prosthetics that age him 150 years followed by a day or wire acting in a very uncomfortable harness before his last scene, the Titanic bursting through the TARDIS walls, done in relative secrecy before its all over for another season. All over except for John Barrowman’s 40th birthday cake – with a Dalek on it, of course. And David speaking from his heart about his pride working on a show he loves so much. It’s a bit worrying as he makes it sound as if he’s leaving. Which we are pretty sure he ISN’T yet. And he does end by saying ‘see you next year’ so that’s a relief. 10/10 AT LEAST
Disc Six The Confidentials. Without doubt the best one is the one where David interviews all his friends who were Doctor Who fans who grew up to work on the show. But there are quite a few other back stage gems in the other episodes, too. 10/10
Overall The menu screens have been nicely redesigned this year and it all looks very fresh and new. It is slightly easier to navigate. Overall a nice package. Some of the extras were superb. All of them were great. No boring bits at all. Though the trailers do need a bit of time to appreciate nostalgically. 12 out of 10
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Runaway
Bride – The one where Doctor Who meets Speed, robot Santas,
a big hole to the centre of the world, a big spider woman, a tank
in the middle of Cardiff – aka
London and the Thames drained. Just some of the highlights of a rollicking story that
never slows down. The Doctor and Donna
make a great love-hate team through the story.
Smith and Jones introduces Martha Jones, a trainee doctor, and the
only person in the whole hospital who keeps her wits when they find
themselves transported to the moon in the custody of the Judoon. A
blood sucking plasmavore and the air running out, a snog, and The
Doctor to the rescue. A cracking first episode. 
hey
conduct a gruesome experiment.
David’s
Video Diaries for the middle episodes start with a night shoot in
Wells Cathedral in which everyone is utterly exhausted and the concept
of ‘glamorous TV job’ is shown up as a sham. Also a lot of interest
in Mark
Gattis’s costume, from his old man prosthetic to his flesh coloured
jock strap. Moving on he rues the missed chance to go to New York and welcomes the prospect of a Dalek two
parter. He enjoys a chat with Nick
Briggs and Miranda Raison on set.
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