Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Doctor Who: Peter Davison - Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 12, 2018

There’s an obviously joking but still perhaps revelatory comment made in one of the fun if rather chaotic Making Of featurettes that accompany this new set of Peter Davison’s first season as Doctor Who. In a quick aside, it’s mentioned that some aspect of the show “wasn’t suitable for children’s television”, an obvious example of dry British wit, and yet — there is definitely a kind of lo-fi ambience to Doctor Who during this era that may remind some of sometimes patently silly live action opuses that dotted the broadcast landscape stateside in the seventies on Saturday mornings. Some vintage film fans may also find a certain tonal resemblance to some of the more hyperbolic if still quaint feeling serials of yore like Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, but as is overtly mentioned in this release’s bounteous supplements, Doctor Who actually was considered “children’s television”, at least at one time and at least by some. That may help some “non-children” to get past some of the less convincing elements of this particular era of Doctor Who, one where the practical effects weren’t especially remarkable, and when even the “special” effects might be more accurately termed “slightly less than special”. That said, there is definitely a degree of intelligence that runs through at least some of the episodes of this season, even if longtime Doctor Who bugaboos like the Cybermen may still cause more curmudgeonly types to actually guffaw.

With the passing of Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, Doctor Who arguably went “younger and shinier” by hiring Davison for the role. Davison was then coming off of something of a British matinee idol phase as the star of All Creatures Great and Small, and there is a bit of a jolt of energy that he brings to the series, even if it’s arguable that in this first season he’s still finding his sea (and/or space) legs. Somewhat hilariously, there’s a through line of sorts running through these first multi-episode arcs of Season One where the Doctor and his cohorts attempt to get “air hostess” (how quaint is that?) Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) to Heathrow in order to resume her Earthly life. Of course, things continue to go spectacularly wrong at several key junctures, but there are plenty of adventures to keep everyone busy in the meantime.

There’s a bit of quasi-sibling rivalry that occasionally crops here, as the Doctor attempts to “relearn” his relationships not just with Tegan, but also Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse). While there’s a frankly goofy aspect to much of this volume’s collection, and while it may be arguable that the show does tend to play like “kiddie fare” a lot of the time, there are actually more “adult” elements in virtually every episode, including some rather interesting metaphysical dilemmas and a lot of playfulness with regard to both the Doctor’s reactions and other hazards of time travel. There’s also at least one kind of heart wrenching death in this first set of episodes, in a plot gambit that Doctor Who has repeatedly returned to in its more recent years.

The episodes included in this collection are:

• Castrovalva
• Four to Doomsday
• Kinda
• The Visitation
• Black Orchid
• Earthshock
• Time-Flight

Doctor Who: Peter Davison - Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: Peter Davison Complete Season One is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080i (upconverted) transfer in 1.33:1. As with other earlier seasons of this venerable series, the studio set material here is upscaled and is, as Ken Brown stated in exhaustive Doctor Who: Complete Series 1-7 Blu-ray review, of the "take it or leave it" variety. That said, I found the presentations here at least somewhat more generally pleasing than those in Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season One, especially with regard to some of the bounteous location footage, which is culled from 16mm. The studio set material does exhibit some of the same anomalies as those I mentioned in the Baker review, with stairstepping and aliasing perhaps being slightly more noticeable on this set of episodes. That said, overall detail levels are better in my estimation, and the palette typically looks decently vivid and well suffused. The "new, improved" special effects in several episodes are rather artfully woven into the proceedings, and they arguably do improve things at times from the decidedly lo-fi originals, but anyone expecting 21st century CGI grandeur in either versions offered is probably going to be disappointed. Those who aren't familiar with upscales may actually be a little shocked by the appearance of at least parts of some of these episodes, but for those who have already made it through previous Doctor Who seasons unscathed, my hunch is the general reaction may be one of some moderate surprise, if not outright joy.

Doctor Who: Peter Davison - Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the Baker set, BBC provides DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mixes for all of the episodes, with rejiggered DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes also available for Kinda and Earthshock. The mono mixes will probably not set any audiophiles' hearts (and/or ears) "on fire", but they don't suffer from any of the odd amplitude issues I noticed on the Baker set (with regard to The Sontaran Experiment). Dialogue, effects and an arguably too synth laden score are all offered with excellent fidelity and no age related issues like distortion, dropouts or other damage. Again, as with the Baker set, I kind of felt the 5.1 reimaginings weren't enough of a difference to justify what sounded to me a tad artificial at times. Yes, the soundstage is significantly opened up in some effects sequences (and benefits from a more energetic low end), and the music wafts appealing through the surround channels, but the original mono mixes seemed more "right" to my ears, for whatever reason.

Doctor Who: Peter Davison - Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Making Of Documentary (1080i; 39:18) is entitled Time Trap and is the first of several featurettes that offer cast members discussing various sets of episodes, in this case Castrovalva. This one is a bit haphazard, with what sounds like on the fly "scripted" moments where people forget their lines and talk over each other, and then more organic and interesting sounding actual discussions as the group visits various locations utilized for the episodes. There are also some archival and contemporary interviews with various crew members.


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 39:46) continues the Blu-ray release tradition of having various folks associated with the show watch episodes and comment, in what I've likened to a kind of "reverse MST3K", in that you are looking at the fronts of the commenters rather than the backs of their heads.


• Deleted Scenes (480i; 1:36)


• Studio Footage (Part 1) (480i; 49:25) is the first collection of sometimes kind of funny "raw footage", with a timecode caption running at the bottom.


• Studio Footage (Part 2) (480i; 51:37)


• Studio Footage (Part 3) (480i; 22:59)


• Being Doctor Who (480i; 13:32) is an interview with Peter Davison.


• Directing Castrovalva (480i; 11:20) is an interview with Fiona Cumming.


• The Crowded Tardis (480i; 11:26) offers a kind of humorous take on the "population" of the TARDIS at various points (including early on in Castrovalva, and includes interviews with a number of folks, including writer Christopher H. Bidmead and Tom Baker.


• Blue Peter (480i; 9:16) is a snippet from an old show (which looks like it may have catered to teens) featuring an interview with Peter Davison, who was then just coming off of the success of All Things Great and Small.


• Pebble Mill at One (480i; 12:01) is more archival video, of another interview with Davison, this time with a kind of MTV Live vibe with a studio full of what looks like teens and young adults.


• Saturday Night at the Mill (480i; 14:25) looks like a late night talk show, once more with Davison as a guest, proving that the BBC marketing department was getting him as much notice in the role as humanly (or Time Lord-ly) possible.


• Lord Mayor's Show Parade (480i; 00:33) is a brief snippet of a Doctor Who float traveling through a city street, with Davison "aboard".


• Swap Shop (480i; 20:41) seems to be another old show aimed at the "youth market", with (you guessed it) Davison appearing as a guest and taking questions from callers.


• BBC 1 Continuity (480i; 5:29) is a collection of bumpers and brief promo pieces.


• Clean Opening & Closing Titles (1080i; 2:06)


• Theme Music Video (480i; 3:35)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 9:30)


• Updated Special Effects is a toggle switch. While the old effects have a certain quaint lo-fi charm, I would caution against anyone expecting the "updated" effects to be too amazing.


• Coming Soon (480i; 00:56) is an archival promo piece trumpeting the DVD release.


• Episode Commentary featuring members of the cast and crew on all four episodes is available under the Audio Options Menu.


• Isolated Music Soundtrack is also available under the Audio Options Menu.

Disc Two

• Making Of Documentary (1080i; 35:26) is entitled Days of Wrath.


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 30:17)


• Studio Footage (Highlights) (480i; 27:11)


• Studio Footage (Unedited) (480i; 1:02:33)


• BBC 1 Continuity (480i; 2:37)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 7:27)


• Audio Archive (14:46) is a 1994 interview with actor Stratford Johns.


• Episode Commentary is available under the Audio Options Menu.

Disc Three

• Making Of Documentary (1080i; 34:05) is entitled Dream Time.


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 33:28)


• Deleted and Extended Scenes (480i; 14:37)


• Directing with Attitude (480i; 22:59) offers reminiscences of Doctor Who director Peter Grimwade.


• Effects Comparison (480i; 1:35) offers side by side looks at before and after versions of the "improved" special effects.


• BBC 1 Continuity (480i; 6:16)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 7:44)


• Updated Special Effects is a toggle switch.


• Coming Soon (480i; 1:00)


• Episode Commentary is available under the Audio Options Menu.


• Isolated Music Soundtrack is also available under the Audio Options Menu.

Disc Four

• Making Of Documentary (1080i; 44:52) is entitled Grim Tales.


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 28:18)


• Film Trims and Studio Footage (480i; 8:09)


• Writing the Visitation (480i; 12:52) features Eric Saward.


• Scoring the Visitation (480i; 16:20) features Paddy Kingsland.


• Directing Who (480i; 26:14) features Peter Moffatt.


• BBC 1 Continuity (480i; 4:56)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 7:40)


• Coming Soon (480i; 00:56)


• Episode Commentary is available under the Audio Options Menu.


• Isolated Music Soundtrack is also available under the Audio Options Menu.

Disc Five

• Making Of Documentary (1080i; 37:01) is entitled Double Trouble.


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 26:25)


• Deleted Scenes (480i; 7:04)


• Blue Peter (480i; 8:38) looks at costuming.


• Points of View (480i; 2:25) kind of humorously gets into the "children's television" angle alluded to above in the main body of the review.


• BBC 1 Continuity (480i; 2:11)


• Now and Then (480i; 9:06) looks at locations utilized in this set of episodes.


• DVD Film Restoration (480i; 2:40)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 6:26)


• Audio Archive (23:51) is an interview with production designer Tony Burrough.


• Episode Commentary is available under the Audio Options Menu.

Disc Six

• Making Of Documentary (1080i; 41:23) is entitled Earthshocked.


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 36:09)


• Location Film Sequences (480i; 8:48)


• Studio Footage (480i; 1:43:04)


• Putting the Shock into Earthshock (480i; 32:27) focuses on the Cybermen.


• The Boy With the Golden Star (480i; 19:40) features Matthew Waterhouse.


• Did You See? (480i; 10:14) is a kind of funny piece featuring Gavin Scott discussing how Doctor Who has revealed aspects of the British Id no one ever expected.


• Pebble Mill at One (480i; 8:37) is another Peter Davison talk show appearance.


• BBC 1 Continuity (480i; 4:05)


• Updated Special Effects is a toggle switch.


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 5:14)


• Claymation Short (480i; 1:39)


• Episode Commentary is available under the Audio Options Menu.


• Isolated Music Soundtrack is also available under the Audio Options Menu.

Disc Seven

• Making Of Documentary (1080i; 33:58) is entitled Turbulence.


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 27:00)


• Deleted and Extended Scenes (480i; 3:45)


• Studio Footage (Highlights) (480i; 19:33)


• Studio Footage (Part 1) (480i; 2:01:24)


• Studio Footage (Part 2) (480i; 44:19)


• Outtakes (480i; 13:53)


• Peter Grimwade Interview (480i; 4:12)


• BBC 1 Continuity (480i; 2:32)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 8:25)


• Audio Archive (27:40) features an interview with Peter Grimwade.


• Episode Commentary is available under the Audio Options Menu.

Disc Eight

• Peter Davison in Conversation (1080i; 1:08:14)


• Time Crash (480i; 8:29) features a meeting of the Whos, so to speak.


• Jovanka Airlines Trailer (1080i; 2:29)


• The Panopticon Archive (480i; 36:53) features Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse.


• Take Two (480i; 4:01) features some fans commenting on the show.


• Audio Archive (32:52) features an interview with director Ron Jones.


• Mara Tales DVD Trailer (480i; 1:13)


• Tegan Tales DVD Trailer (480i; 1:15)


• Studio Clocks (480i; 7:43)

Doctor Who: Peter Davison - Complete Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's an undeniable sweetness to Doctor Who, irrespective of who is playing him (or, now, her), and also irrespective of the character's inherent tartness. This first set of Davison episodes is often on the silly side, but there is still a lot of fun to be had, and at one point in particular, some viewers may find themselves unusually emotionally engaged. Video once again is a little iffy due to the vagaries of the upscale, but audio sounds fine, and the supplementary package is simply outstanding. Recommended.