8.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In 1963, an old-fashioned Police Call Box sat in a jun yard at 76 Totters Lane. An old man out and about exploring. A young girl wise beyond her years attending Coal Hill School. Two teachers become suspicious. Barbara and Ian suspect the girl is in trouble. They follow her home. The girl, Susan Foreman, vanishes into the junkyard. Barbara and Ian investigate. They discovered the Police Box. "It's alive!" says Ian, feeling a faint vibration coming from within. The girl's grandfather returns. He confronts the two teachers, who accuse him of holding the girl inside the Police Box. They hear her call out to him from inside. Barbara and Ian push their way in and discover a world they never thought possible.
Starring: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker (I), Peter DavisonSci-Fi | 100% |
Adventure | 35% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i (upconverted)
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Atmos
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Nine-disc set (9 BDs)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Maybe the numbers are finally lining up, at least relatively speaking, in terms of the sometimes confusing verbiage BBC has utilized with their long running standalone releases of various seasons of Doctor Who. This release is labelled as the Complete Season Two of Peter Davison's tenure in the title role, but as several online data aggregators list, it was actually the complete season 20 of the show overall, which at least offers a "times 10" alignment between the two numbers. If the actual serials in this season, whatever its number, are pretty much "more of the same" in terms of this era of Doctor Who, this release offers the allure of the series' 20th anniversary special, which reunited several former doctors and companions. That special was called The Five Doctors, but considering the fact that this release offers the special in three different versions, that number might itself be multiplied to be fifteen doctors.
Doctor Who: Peter Davison - Complete Season Two is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded (upconverted) 1080i transfer in 1.33:1. Anyone who has been collecting this general era of Doctor Who will know pretty much what to expect, and while a lot of the studio (video) sequences can be afflicted by clear signs of upscaling, including at times rampant haloing and aliasing, I have to say the palette was really rather nice looking a lot of the time. Detail levels are fairly variable, but larger patterned elements on some of the costumes look at least decent, and textures on some of those aforementioned rubber suits look properly, well, rubbery. The filmed material may offer a more organic appearance, and one probably not as obviously littered with signs of upscaling, but it may not offer any substantial improvement in detail levels. The "new, improved" special effects noted in the Supplements listing need to be taken with whatever the visual equivalent of a grain of salt might be.
Doctor Who: Peter Davison - Complete Season Two features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks for all the episodes, with bonus DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and/or Dolby Atmos tracks available as I've outlined in the Supplements listing below. I'd probably advise that approaching the surround options needs to be accepted with (this time) whatever the aural equivalent of a grain of salt might be, because the "upgrade" can be sporadic at best, most noticeable in scoring and some of the often goofy sound effects that accompany both some of the TARDIS material but also various more energetic interactions with various nemeses. Some of the 5.1 material in particular sounded just slightly phased to me, but the 5.1 mix on The Five Doctors may actually offer a more focused midrange and low end than the Atmos version. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
As with some of the previous multi-disc releases of other seasons of Doctor Who, this one also includes some of the same sorts of
supplements, 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 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: Arc of Infinity
- Nationwide: The Doctors (SD; 9:09)
- Points of View (SD; 00:39)
- Saturday Superstore (SD; 23:04)
- Nationwide: Radiophonics (SD; 10:03)
- Swap Shop Star Awards (SD; 3:23)
- South East at Six: USA (SD; 4:15)
- BBC News: Longleat Convention (SD; 00:56)
- BBC Longleat Featurette (SD; 12:18)
- Convention Panel: Jon Pertwee (SD; 8:07)
- Convention Panel Patrick Troughton (SD; 20:26)
- Convention Panel: Third Doctor Era (SD; 5:48)
- Convention Panel: Season 20 Cast (SD; 14:25)
- Convention Panel: First Doctor Era (SD; 12:17)
- Convention Panel: Tom Baker & John Leeson (SD; 12:08)
- Photo Gallery: 20th Anniversary (HD; 9:01)
- Audio Archive (HD; 28:37) features Ed Stewart.
Note: All of the Convention Panel material comes with a disclaimer about variant audio quality.
- Breakfast Time: Nicola Bryant (SD; 8:59)
- BBC News: Davison Departs (SD; 1:50)
- Newsround (SD; 00:37)
- South East at Six: Davison & JNT (SD; 3:39)
- Breakfast Time: Peter Davison (SD; 11:36)
- BBC News: Sixth Doctor (SD; 1:16)
- Breakfast Time: Colin Baker (SD; 8:26)
- Blackpool Exhibition (HD; 5:47)
- Gerald Flood Interview (HD; 27;59)
- Five Doctors, One Studio (SD; 18:46)
- (Not So) Special Effects (SD; 9:00)
- Outtakes (SD; 6:36)
- The Late, Late Breakfast Show (SD; 1:07)
- Pebble Mill at One (SD; 9:06)
- Blue Peter (SD; 8:04)
- BBC2 Closedown (SD; 4:10)
- Breakfast Time (SD; 1:33)
- Children in Need (SD; 3:12)
- BBC News (SD; 2:03)
- Saturday Superstore - Preview (SD; 2:01)
- Saturday Superstore - Radio Times Special (SD; 1:04)
- BBC Trails & Continuities (SD; 9:25)
- Breakfast Time (SD; 1:07)
- Cliffhangers & Credits (SD; 9:51)
- Tuesday 29th March 1983 (SD; 53:30)
- Wednesday 30th March 1983 (SD; 1:17:03)
- Thursday 31st March 1983 (SD; 1:20:07)
Note: The above come with a disclaimer about variant source quality.
I frankly didn't have the typical lump in the throat that has accompanied some other transitions in companions through the years, and it can't be denied that a lot of this season has just downright silly plots, but there's still fun to be had, and I found the penultimate Enlightenment episodes to be especially enjoyable. Technical merits are once again on the highly variant side with regard to video, but BBC continues to rejigger its audio offerings on these standalone releases, and if the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Atmos options may not be as consistently exciting as modern day equivalents, it's at least commendable that BBC is trying to "dress up" these older offerings. As has typically been the case with the standalone Doctor Who releases, the supplements are bounteous and outstanding. With caveats about video noted, and at least for Whovians, Recommended.
1963-1964
1964-1965
1965
1966
1967
1967
1967
1970
1971
1972-1973
1972
1974-1975
1976-1977
1977-1978
1979-1980
1980-1981
1982
1985
1986
1987
1988-1989
1989
The Star Beast / Wild Blue Yonder / The Giggle
2023
50th Anniversary Special
2013
1965
Doctor Who Docudrama / Includes 'An Unearthly Child' Bonus DVD
2013
2020-2023
2009
1966
1966-1969
Budget Re-release
1987-1994
2014
1995-2001
45th Anniversary
1979
1975-1977
Budget Re-release
2001-2005
45th Anniversary Edition
1978
2019
2016
2000
2018
The Remastered Collection
1978-1980