Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven 3D Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 3, 2023

Dark Water and Death in Heaven were the season (and/or "series", depending on your national vernacular) endings for Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Series , and were generally regarded at the time as being among the better episodes from that year. BBC has aggregated both episodes together on a 3D disc with both 3D and 2D presentations, along with a few supplemental features.

As Dark Water opens, Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) is kind of fumfering her way through an awkward phone call with Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson), where she finally is able to tell him she loves him. Unfortunately, Danny isn't paying attention on his walk as he talks to her and is killed by a passing motorist. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Clara of course thinks that Doctor Who (Peter Capaldi) with his vaunted "particular set of skills" may be able to, to quote a certain chanteuse, turn back time and make everything (and everyone) whole again. There's some interstitial drama where Clara supposedly throws all of the keys to the TARDIS into a volcano's lava (since that evidently is the only substance that can destroy them), before it's revealed that that whole vignette was simply the Doctor toying with Clara's addled psyche.

In the meantime, Danny, or whatever is left of him, finds himself in the kind of afterworld bureaucracy that has been lampooned in everything from A Matter of Life and Death to Here Comes Mr. Jordan to Defending Your Life. Doctor Who of course has a number of strategies to track down Danny and reunite him with Clara, but also of course a litany of obstacles intrudes, not the least of which is a mysterious character named Missy (Michelle Gomez) and those alternately weirdly menacing but also maybe just slightly comical Cybermen.

Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with AVC (2D) and MVC (3D) encoded transfers in 1.78:1. Ken Brown gave top marks to the overall video presentation of Series Eight, including these two series, and I substantially agree with Ken's approval of the clarity and general detail levels these two episodes offer, and especially Ken's positive assessment of a really lustrously suffused palette. However, I noticed just a bit of background noise that tends to creep into things in low light situations in particular (if you parse the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, you can make out a bit of splotchiness against darker walls in particular). Some of the CGI is frankly not very convincing, though the added depth of the 3D presentation may actually help in that regard. The 3D presentation is rather nicely done from a depth standpoint, though I'd argue that the few overt "in your face" moments, like a volcano spewing forth a rock supposedly directly into the viewer, don't really offer much dimensionality.

Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven features a nicely immersive Dolby Atmos track. The track understandably comes most fully alive in some of the effects sequences, as in the early moment featuring that aforementioned volcano, where sounds of bubbling lava can waft through the side and rear channels, and overall hellish maelstrom of the environment penetrates the Atmos speakers quite winningly. Once the Cybermen enter the fray, there's also some fun clamor engaging the side and rear channels as hordes spread out through London. Occasional bursts of LFE can bring the subwoofer into focus, but this is perhaps not quite as bombastic as some other contemporary Doctor Who episodes from that standpoint. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Doctor's Meditation (HD; 6:39) is a mini-episode written by Steven Moffat that serves as a prequel to Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Series .


• Wil Wheaton Interviews Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman - Extended (HD; 42:12)

Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The 3D rendering of these two episodes is often quite nicely done from a depth perspective if not from a "pop up" standpoint. The story is unabashedly melancholy at times, despite the series' penchant for sly humor. Technical merits are generally solid and the two supplements very enjoyable. For devoted Whovians at least, Recommended.