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Disc One Voyage of the Damned – the all star spectacular for Christmas 2007, with Kylie Minogue as the guest companion and a whole collection of homages to disaster movies through the years and the queen thrown in for good measure. It was at one and the same time tongue in cheek and poignant and sad. When Astrid died, it was extremely sad. It was non-stop action, adventure, comedy and tragedy. But strangely, some people didn’t like it! I’m not one of them. 10/10
Commentary Voyage of the Damned commentary is by Murray Gold, Russell Tovey (Midshipman Frame) and Peter Bennett (First Assistant Director). Now, I didn’t expect Kylie to have time, but this being the Christmas special I did expect a couple of more significant people than the last two. Murray was important, since his music is essential to the story, but Tovey is a minor character and First Assistant Director seems small fry, somehow. They all, to my ear, seem to have very similar accents which makes it hard to work out who is talking, and they all seem unsure at first what to say. There are a lot of ‘ums’. When they settle down, they seem to have fun and it’s not bad listening to them. But there are far more interesting commentaries. The best bit was the three of them discussing which Doctor Who toys they own. 8/10
Extras Time Crash was a ten minute piece written for Children in Need. It starts where Last of the Time Lords leaves off and ends with the opening of Voyage of the Damned. Inbetween, The Doctor encounters the Fifth Doctor in a ‘time crash’ in which the two TARDISes are merged. The result is a fantastic bit of Doctor Who nostalgia in which David Tennant’s Doctor is the fan we all are, enjoying the chance to meet his hero before they work together to avert the end of the universe. It’s amazing fun and perfectly in canon and perfectly plausible. Even better than the first one. 10/10
10/10 Voyage of the Damned deleted scenes include a 10/10 Trailers – including the cinema trailer for Voyage of the Damned and the various TV ones. These are fantastic trailers. They really teased us all the way to Christmas last year. 10/10
Disc Two Partners in Crime is a lightweight episode to start things off, introducing Donna Noble as the new companion and allowing her to show off amazing comedy timing as well as a certain amount of pathos which will be seen to greater effect later. The Adipose blew everyone away. All the teens I know wanted one straight away. It was the start of good things to come. 10/10 Fires of Pompeii is a beautifully shot, highly emotional story with a wonderful wit and comedy from many of the guest actors as well as Catherine and David. The running gag of The Doctor and Donna being ‘celtic’ contrasts with the tragedy of the inevitable destruction of the city. The family that they become involved with are fantastic caricatures but at the same time real and sympathetic. 10/10 Planet of the Ood has a beautiful setting on the snow-covered planet (quarry) and an interesting plot about slavery and rebellion, but I never really liked the Ood and this doesn’t stand out as a favourite for me. It does have wonderful moments like the Song of Freedom and Donna empathising with the Ood, which make it a memorable episode if not a favourite one. 9/10
Commentaries Commentary for Partners in Crime is by Julie Gardner, producer, James Strong, Director, and Russell T. Davies. Julie is enthusiastic as ever. Russell talks for Wales. James hardly gets a word in, but it is one of the most entertaining commentaries because all three know what they’re talking about and they love Doctor Who. They talk about the death of Howard Attfield at some length, and the way the story was recast with Bernard Cribbins. There is a lot of discussion of how the cleaning crane scene is done and credit given to all the great actors involved. 10/10
The commentary for Fires of Pompeii is by David Tennant and Catherine Tate, who explain straight away that ancient Pompeii has two ‘I’s and Modern Pompei has only one. Which is strange because the spell checker doesn’t like the modern version at all. Tracey Simpson, production assistant is also involved and they automatically launch into a discussion of how to pronounce the name of the Cinecittà Studios in Italy. Goat in lard also comes into the conversation before they get into the more serious issues of doing the first foreign shoot since The Two Doctors. The fact that Phil Collinson is scared of mice is probably not the most useful bit of technical information ever, but very funny the way the story was told. David and Catherine are a hell of a double act, and Tracey becomes straight man to them both. The commentary is full of anecdotes and information as well as a lot of fun. 10/10
9/10
Extras Howard Attfield Scenes - Russell introduces the three scenes which Howard Attfield managed to film before he became too ill to carry on. He passed away during the summer when the series was airing. Bernard Cribbins reshot the scenes as Donna’s granddad, but with the permission of Howard’s family the original scenes are included here on the box set. 10/10 Deleted Scenes – Russell again introduces the deleted scenes and explains his decisions in between the excerpts. Mostly they seem to be the right decisions. 10/10
10/10
Disc Three Sontaran Stratagem brings back the old enemies with a new look and an old, old plot – take over the world! U.N.I.T. are back, too! But no Brigadier. There’s a lovely Major, though, who seems to want the job, and some young bloods who aren’t quite Yates and Benton – probably just as well since they’re all going to die. It also sees Martha back, and Wilf and Sylvia! 9/10 Poisoned Sky sees the cliffhanger solved in two seconds with an axe while The Doctor is bewildered. Later it has lots of heroism and a massacre, and more heroism when the annoying boy sacrifices himself. There is also a brilliant scene that is somewhere between the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V and the Four of July speech from Independence Day. 9/10 The Doctor’s Daughter drove the conspiracy theory types nuts. They thought she really WAS his daughter, Susan’s mother! Sorry, guys. She’s a clone. And she’s only here for one episode. It was a cracking story. I liked it. It really went well. The Hath were great characters. The Doctor’s relationship with his daughter was a great plot development. 10/10 The Unicorn and the Wasp is a very different story to anything that has been on Doctor Who before. It is a Windmill Lane farce transferred to the Doctor Who world. It was beautifully shot, beautifully acted. The story was rather implausible, but that’s the point. It wasn’t realism. It wasn’t supposed to be. 10/10
Commentaries Commentary for Sontaran Stratagem is by Julie Gardner, Dan Starkey, (Commander Skorr), and Neil Gorton, Prosthetics. Julie leads the discussion, drawing Dan into a discussion about his prosthetic make up and Neil into designing Sontarans. All three are lifelong fans, so they enjoy themselves a lot. Neil talks very competently about his work. Julie all through acts as discussion leader, preventing it from drying up. Dan does come into himself part way through and talks quite freely about his time on Doctor Who. 9/10
10/10
6/10 Commentary for The Unicorn and The Wasp is really, really annoying and dull. Felicity Kendall and Penelope Woolgar are left alone to commentate, and they both talk and talk and talk about things they have worked on before and almost never stick to the point about the story. They really do witter on! Give me a break. 5/10
Extras
10/10 The trailers for the four episodes were new to me. I don’t watch much TV inbetween Doctor Who and I hadn’t seen any of them. It’s strange seeing them AFTER you see the episode. But at least I don’t spend all week speculating! 10/10
Disc Four Silence in the Library was the first half of another two parter. It has some fantastic scenery and a whole bunch of mysterious characters, and nobody is entirely sure what is going on, except that the Vashta Nerada are eating people alive and a young girl seems to have dreamt most of it. 10/10
Forest of The Dead has an amazing sequence with Donna
living a virtual reality life while The Doctor tries to work out what
happened. River Song is revealed as possibly The Doctor’s future
wife. There’s a surprising happy ending considering nearly everyone
got eaten by the Vashta Nerada. 10/10 Midnight was meant to be a budget saver, of course. It stood on the merits of the actors involved. And it did so. It was quite amazing in that way. It proved Doctor Who is much more than an effects show. The story is simple, but compelling. It puts The Doctor in a completely different situation where he can’t fast talk his way out. It is gripping. And it could be played by a bunch of drama students with two rows of chairs in an empty studio. 10/10
Commentaries Commentary on Silence in the Library is by David Tennant, Julie Gardner and Stephen Moffatt, writer. They begin with a discussion about The Doctor’s buttons and it gets dafter from there on. The three of them are a riot, and also manage to tell some real anecdotes and give away some technical detail about making of the show. 10/10
10/10
10/10
Extras Deleted scenes include a scene from Forest of the Dead cut for time and to move the pace on and a longer scene with Donna and her granddad on the allotment from Turn Left. It included reference to Wilf being ill and finding a nurse to treat him. There is also the infamous scene where the Doctor gave the second Doctor a piece of TARDIS to grow his own. It’s a good scene. There’s also an alternative ending for Episode Thirteen with Donna in the kitchen, and a cliffhanger ending that they changed their minds about. 10/10 Trailers include the trailers for the episodes on the disc, including all the speculation about who River Song is. 8/10
Turn Left is set in an alternative universe where The Doctor is dead and everything goes wrong with huge, huge consequences. The world disasters are told beautifully through the personal experiences of the Noble family, before Donna meets Rose and makes a wonderfully brave sacrifice to put everything right again. Then the Bad Wolf returns with a vengeange! 10/10
10/10 What a week it was between Stolen Earth and Journey’s End! Everyone was talking about regeneration. And then, in thirty seconds, there was no regeneration. The Doctor was fine. But the universe was dying. Next, we have two Doctors, then three, including DoctorDonna, and the Daleks don’t stand a chance. Then we have a sad parting on Bad Wolf Bay, Human Doctor and Rose get a life together. Donna goes home, her mind wiped of everything. The Doctor goes on alone. The saddest set of partings, yet. 10/10
Commentaries Catherine Tate, Jacqueline King (Sylvia) and Bernard Cribbins (granddad) commentate. Catherine reveals that the strange drink on Shan Shen was a coke float. Bernard and Jacqueline are very good talkers. Jacqueline sounds just like Sylvia and it is a bit of a surprise hearing her not nagging Donna! Three actors doing a commentary, however, without any kind of technical input, is rather like listening to three people sitting in your own living room, talking about what’s on TV. It’s very pleasant, especially since they are three very nice people. But it’s not very informative. 8/10
Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner and David Tennant comment on The Stolen Earth. They are all three over-excited and enjoying themselves. They take a while settling down to the point. But they are always brilliant to listen to. I will miss Julie’s stock comment ‘How marvellous is that’ when she moves on from Doctor Who. I will miss Russell’s madcap commentaries, too. Stephen Moffatt has some madcap moments, too, though. So bring them on. We are informed that U.N.I.T. New York and Cardiff Traffic Control have the same architecture! Of course they do! Russell reveals that he always planned a multi-companion spectacular. And why not. 10/10
Russell, David and Catherine commentate on the very last episode. David immediately warns us that the version they are watching is still not finished and lacks some of its effects. David is about to go off for Hamlet rehearsals. And we discover that they are recording the commentary in the week when Doctor Who is off air for the Eurovision Song Contest. And they are enjoying the joke about the regeneration that never was. It’s another madcap commentary, of course. There’s a lot of laughs about The Doctor’s nude shot. What it misses, really, is John Barrowman. John is fantastic in commentary, but he was tied up with other commitments. It was still a fantastic discussion of the episode. One amusing part is the way they keep saying that James Nesbitt is the 11th Doctor. Reviewing this in the week after that argument was finally settled I am glad to know they ARE joking. 10/10
Extras David Tennant’s Video Diary follows him in the last episodes. There was a lot of emotionalism from everyone because there is a real sense of occasion about this episode. An interesting piece is where we meet Colm, who plays The Doctor in the scenes where there are two of them. He looks like a young Christian Slater, to me, and is quite a bright young man. Seeing the photo sessions for the pictures we’ve been seeing forever since was interesting. There is a lovely bit with Elisabeth Sladen talking about how many people are no longer alive from Genesis of the Daleks, her first Davros episode. There’s a mad scene in green nightlight when Catherine, Billie and David are waiting to do a scene in a closed street. John Barrowman piles into the car being totally mental as usual. It is the middle of the night and that man is STILL full of energy. He really does run on Duracells. He also speaks a smattering of Welsh. 10/10
The journey so far is a beautiful documentary about the first four years of New Doctor Who, from the first series with Christopher Eccleston to Journey’s End. Russell, Julie and others talk enthusiastically about what they had done. It’s nothing new to anyone who has all of the box sets. But it does exactly what it says on the tin. A few critics complained that it didn’t reveal any secrets about the future, or anything about why Christopher Eccleston left. But it never promised it was going to. 10/10 The trailers for the last episode were nearly as fantastic as the trailers for the series start. Brilliant stuff that revealed no secrets! 10/10
Disc Six Doctor Who Condidential Cut Down is very cut down. Each one is no more than ten minutes long, when in fact the originals were nearly as long as the episodes. For some of them, that’s good. When you’ve seen one green screen effect being made, you’ve seen them all. For others, it’s a tragedy. 8/10 There are some qualms about this box set. The extras seem limited. One or two of the commentaries are dull. But it is a great season and I love almost every minute of the episodes.
9 out of 10
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David Tennant’s Video Diary is a wonderful bit of fun. David
and Julie Gardner are in a car going up the M6 to Blackpool, and are
panicking because they’re in a traffic jam and have been promised
a police escort from Preston. I don’t know about anyone else,
but living in Preston, and having lived in Blackpool, I found the
idea that David and Julie were passing our neck of the woods rather
wonderful, quite apart from the fun of them getting their police escort
into Blackpool and the whole fun of turning on Blackpool Illuminations.
The last time that happened it was Tom Baker, and I was there, and
it was a cold, miserable nightmare, so watching it in the comfort
of my own home was much nicer.
little
explanation for each one by Russell T. Davies, which actually adds
to the experience as we understand why they were cut. Mostly it’s
for time, but it’s nice to know when there were other reasons
for doing it, such as a long scene with Max that just felt irrelevant
and too wordy.
The
commentary for Planet of the Ood is by Graeme Harper and Roger Griffith
who plays Kess. Graeme is ok. He is a professional director who has
credits in the classic Who as well as all four of the new series.
But Griffith was a bit annoying. He talks too much at the wrong times.
Graeme takes us through the important issues technical detail and
anecdotes of making the episode, but Griffith interrupts him far too
often with nothing much to add to the discussion. It was the first
story to be filmed, making it Catherine’s first story after
her Christmas special. Graeme explains very well how the snow planet
was created from a quarry near Merthyr with the help of some matte
backgrounds and CGI effects.
Commentary
for Poisoned Sky is by David Tennant, Russell T. Davies and Suzie
Liggat, producer. They start with a ramble on about episode titles
and whether it’s a good thing to have ‘and’ before
your name in the credits. They then settle down into discussions about
the effects, about the scale of the mobile U.N.I.T. HQ and the use
of real TV newsreaders on the episode. The three of them are very
knowledgeable about the subject, of course. Russell admits he thinks
Americans are more evil than British people and he loves filming newsreaders
in close up pixilation. And so on, having a lot of fun watching an
episode they seem very proud of.
Commentary
for The Doctor’s Daughter is by Catherine Tate and Georgia Moffat,
Ben Foster (music) And this is the second most irritating and annoying
commentary. Catherine and Georgia giggle through most of the episode.
Ben only gets a word in briefly. The two women play a really silly
word game throughout that stopped being funny in five minutes flat.
Deleted
scenes are again introduced by Russell, including several long pieces
from The Doctor’s Daughter and Unicorn and the Wasp. Particularly
interesting is the idea that the Agatha Christie story was going to
be bookended by an elderly Agatha in bed, talking about something
that happened that she can’t remember. They decided not to go
with it. Probably a good decision.
Commentary
for Forest of the Dead is by Eros Lyn, Helen Raynor, Louise Paige
(costume designer) Louise talks competently about the problems of
costuming, including the fact that the space suits came from designs
for racing driver suits. Later they count how many outfits Donna wears
in the course of this episode – more than she does in any other
episode. The three do very well in this commentary. Eros talks very
well about his direction of the episode. Helen Raynor directs the
discussion, asking the questions of the other commentators. 
David
Tennant is the first voice on the commentary for Midnight, followed
by Russell T. Davies and with them is Alice Troughton, director, who
was pregnant when she made the commentary and was expecting the baby
the week the episode would broadcast – or possibly during the
commentary. David mentions that the scene with Catherine is filmed
in a smart hotel used for the Ryder Cup presentation, which might
be its claim to fame before, but now more likely to be known for this
episode of Doctor Who. Alice Troughton speaks well about the challenge
of directing an episode with one main set in which The Doctor is emotionally
stripped down to his most vulnerable. Russell, also talks about the
same issues as he approached writing the story. David talks about
it as an atypical story and they refer back to Edge of Destruction
as the last time they had set a story entirely in one place. Russell
makes a very interesting point that the story is completely set within
the situation. It is not one of those 1970s style trapped on a cable
car stories where the plot is all about everyone’s backstories.
We learn nothing about the people except what is absolutely necessary
and the story is about how they all cope with the fear and paranoia
that grips them.
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