Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		2.5

Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 16, 2025

Vis a vis some headscratching elements discussed in previous reviews of BBC's rollout of "archival" Doctor Who seasons, lest anyone think I may have been exaggerating or somehow inaccurately describing both the patently insane release regimen as well as the bizarre multinational variants in how releases have been branded as Doctor Who has had various standalone sets released, I simply offer this chart from a Doctor Who fan site as proof positive that flowcharts may well be in order to try to figure out how everything fits together. In that respect, it's at least relatively easy to get a handle on where this set fits in to the overall run of Doctor Who since this volume's Region A title overtly mentions that this features Jon Pertwee's introductory season in the role (it's notable that in the UK, this release bears the title Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 7). That also makes this the first "archival" season to be offered in colo(u)r, as is discussed in some of the supplements (see below).

This is a kind of interesting season for Doctor Who in addition to its now "enhanced" palette. As devoted Whovians will know, this introductory season for Pertwee as the Third Doctor was largely earthbound, and with a quasi-military cohort known as UNIT in place of what might be called traditional companions. That may prevent this season from offering either daffy recurrences of Daleks or even the occasional metaphysical penchant that even this era of Doctor Who could offer, with frankly kind of repetitive threats against humanity as arguable focal points for all of the serials. Inferno, the final offering of the season, finally sets things up for more "interstellar" activity as seen in the already released and reviewed Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season Two, Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season Three and Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season Four (speaking of the headscratching way BBC has released various seasons on this side of the pond).

Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee Complete Season One is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with AVC encoded 1080i transfers in 1.33:1. Perhaps surprisingly given that this is the oldest of the Pertwee seasons released in (upscaled) high definition, at least parts of this season are among the best looking of the entire Pertwee tenure, courtesy of some random events that, for example, led to more 16mm footage than was customarily utilized back then. There's some interesting technical information available online for those interested in terms of some of the probably more convoluted restoration issues faced for some of the serials due to the BBC's inconsistent curation of original source tapes, and overall this set may surprise longtime collectors of the overall Doctor Who releases with its general quality. That said, there are still pretty huge variances in quality for both videotaped and filmed material. At times some of the video sequences are amazingly sharp and without the telltale signs of upscaling, while at other times, the upscaled video is much more in line with the other Pertwee seasons. Similarly, some of the filmed material offers a reasonably well resolved grain field and some appealing detail levels, while other moments offer seriously mottled grain and less clarity.

Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unlike some of the other vintage Doctor Who Blu-ray releases BBC has offered through the years, this set does not feature any rejiggered surround tracks. All of the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks are nicely boisterous, offering the iconic music without any issues, and also supporting the often goofy sound effects perfectly well, if unavoidably narrowly. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with some of the previous multi-disc releases of other seasons of Doctor Who, this one also includes some supplement "series", like Making Of documentaries on the separate episode arcs, or the enjoyable Behind the Sofa offerings which feature cast members doing an almost MST3K commentary on various episodes. I'm not going into huge detail on any of these, since their outlines are so well known to Whovians by now. Some of the standard definition supplements can have moments of image instability. Also, for those who can access the data, all of the discs save the Bonus Disc have really fascinating promotional and other material (like scripts) available as PDFs in a ROM_CONTENT_PDFs folder that you can open when viewing the disc's file structure.

Disc One: Spearhead from Space

• Making of Documentary (SD; 22:40)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 36:40)


• Jon Pertwee Documentary (HD; 42:27)


• From Black & White to Colour (HD; 18:42) documents the change in palette starting with this season.


• Title Sequence Tests (HD; 22:38)


• Restoration Featurette (HD; 2:14)


• BBC Trails and Continuities (HD; 5:49)


• Audio Commentary Behind the Scenes (HD; 6:30) has candid footage of the very first audio commentary (for DVD) being recorded.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 9:02)


• Audio Archive (HD; 5:32) features an interview with Derek Martinus.


• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Two: Doctor Who and the Silurians

• Design Featurette (SD; 19:09)


• What Lies Beneath (SD; 35:12) is a fun retrospective looking at the series in the late sixties and early seventies.


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 37:12)


• Locations Now & Then (SD; 9:41)


• DVD Restoration Featurette (SD; 4:44)


• On Target: Malcolm Hulke (SD; 20:01)


• Opening & Closing Titles (HD; 1:33)


• Trails & Continuities (SD; 6:13)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 13:13)


• Coming Soon (SD; 1:07)


• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Isolated Music Soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and is accessible under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Three: Doctor Who and the Silurians - Omnibus

• Omnibus Version The Cave Monsters (HD; 1:47:02)


• Malcolm Hulke Documentary (HD; 48:22)


• Nicholas Courtney Documentary (HD; 1:26:18)

Disc Four: The Ambassadors of Death

• Making of Documentary (SD; 25:52)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 40:28)


• Monster Masterclass (SD; 3:46) features Michael Ferguson.


• BBC1 Trailer

Broadcast Version (HD; 1:34)




Long Version (HD; 1:58)

• Photo Gallery (HD; 8:58)


• Coming Soon (SD; 1:04)
• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Five: Inferno

• Making of Documentary (SD; 34:47)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 37:01)


• Deleted Scene (SD; 1:58)


• The Pertwee Years Intro (SD; 2:45)


• Opening & Closing Titles (HD; 2:16)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 11:14)


• Coming Soon - Season 8 (HD; 2:51)
• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Six: Inferno - Omnibus

• Omnibus Version (HD; 1:35:45)


• Unit Documentary (SD; 35:37) is part one of a look at the Doctor's team.


• Caroline John Documentary (HD; 29:08)


• Havoc Documentary (SD; 27:34) focuses on stunts and stuntmen.


• 1970 Visual Effects Promo (SD; 6:02)


• DVD Version (SD)

Disc Seven: Bonus

• John Levene In Conversation (HD; 1:04:16)


• Doctor Who Escape Room (HD; 1:10:10) is another goofy episode, this one with Katy Manning, Sadie Miller and Daisy Ashford.


• Terror of the Suburbs Documentary (HD; 35:11) is a fun look at the studio location with Matthew Sweet.


• Lucky 13 Documentary (HD; 49:46) features Robin Ince looking at supposed scientific accuracy (or lack thereof) in the series.


• Panopticon Archive (SD; 48:59) features Caroline John and Barry Letts.


• Season 7 Blu-ray Trailer (HD; 5:31)


• Studio Clocks (HD; 3:11)

Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jon Pertwee assumes the role of Doctor Who without any problems in his first season, but the actual stories here are earthbound in more than one way. This set offers some unexpectedly good looking video, at least intermittently, and BBC's typical assortment of fantastic supplements, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.