Doctor Who: Season Two Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

Doctor Who: Season Two Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 15, 2026

What? No Doctor Who Christmas Special? The venerable "Beeb" delivered some veritable coal to fans' stockings when they announced a few days ago (as this review is being written) that indeed festivities for this year's holiday season are not going to include sitting down with the fam to watch Doctor Who "celebrate", and in fact that's just the tip of the coal iceberg, if mixed metaphors are allowed. This is the latest shoe (and/or sonic screwdriver) to drop in what has been a curiously bumpy collaboration between the BBC and Disney, a partnership which has also been left in the dust when Disney itself withdrew its support in October 2025, probably dealing the series a pretty decisive (if apparently somewhat temporary) blow. There's been a lot of newsprint devoted to all of these changes, and as of now it seems likely that there will be no new Doctor Who episodes for what looks to be at least a couple of years, and possibly longer, as the BBC is seeking to establish new production partners with whom to move forward. Longtime show runner Russell T. Davies has also split, but he's released statements to devoted Whovians that basically say "don't worry, be happy", and that the show will return at some point (without Davies). This is all kind of curiously reminiscent of the background of the recently reviewed Doctor Who: The Movie, another project designed to bring the Doctor to more American eyes, and which also flamed out, probably much more spectacularly than the current iteration. That 1996 production was hobbled at least in part by what might be called too many (corporate) chefs in the kitchen, but the last couple of years of Doctor Who especially have seemed to suggest that even if you do in fact have corporations throwing buckets full of cash at a show to up production values and special effects wizardry, "building it" as it were, audiences still may not come.

Part of the issue with both Doctor Who: Season One and this second year with Ncuti Gatwa in the title role is, unfortunately, Gatwa himself, at least insofar as some at times already pretty clunky writing has tended to push the actor into hyperbolic mode. He can alternately be as totally goofy as the most "out there" Doctors a la Patrick Troughton, Tom Baker and/or Matt Smith, and then suddenly ultra serious a la Christopher Eccleston or even weirdly scheming a la Sylvester McCoy. Now all of this is perfectly in tune with the series' foundational premise of a "being" who "regenerates" into different forms but who may have vestiges of his (or her) "former lives" still ricocheting around their psyche, but the tone of the series over the last couple of seasons has been pretty uneven, despite some typically fun flourishes from show runner Davies.

As several of the behind the scenes Unleashed featurettes included on the last two discs of this set amply document, evidently no expense was spared to bring the writers' visions to life, but the sad fact is that many of those "visions" tend to be retreads of previous installments, as even Davies kinda sorta hints at when he talks about writing the Christmas special featured in this set and says that simply "adding snow" to any episode might be enough to push it into that seasonal special category, since the underlying stories seem to often be, well, generic. Some attempts at diversity (in more than one way) are made with the introduction of new companion Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), cheekily playing an emergency room nurse (get it?: doctor and nurse?).

Despite obvious efforts to offer something supposedly new, even the key figures in episodes like Robot Revolution can't help but come off as something akin to (presentationally at least) Daleks: The Next Generation. At least one episode, the actually pretty amazing Lux, provides both a completely unexpected "villain" (see screenshot 3), but also an overall story that is in the best tradition of Doctor Who. Unfortunately, probably none of this season's other episodes rise to the heights of Lux, though vis a vis my introductory comments above the Christmas special Joy to the World finds the Doctor more or less checking into a "Time Hotel" where room are portals to different eras, with near farcical results, to some amusement. Somewhat hilariously, per Davies' own comments above, there's very little tether to the actual holidays in the specia.

Doctor Who: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: Season Two is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. I haven't been able to track down a wealth of technical information on this season, though it at least seems likely Arri Alexa cameras may have been used with a 4K DI (if anyone can point me to verifiable information, private message me and I'll happily update things here). One way or the other, this is just as, and maybe arguably more, sumptuous looking than even the often beautiful Doctor Who: Season One. The variant time periods and settings offer a superb array of really luxe production design aesthetics, and fine detail on sets and costumes is typically excellent. In what might jokingly be referred to as good ol' Doctor Who tradition, some of the CGI may frankly be entirely believable, but that may be part of the fun. The palette is really nicely suffused and offers a wealth of jewel tones this season which keeps things repeatedly very vivid.

Doctor Who: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Doctor Who: Season Two like its immediate predecessor offers a nicely immersive set of DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks for each episode. There's some fun and probably intentionally goofy surround activity in virtually every episode, and some of the cavernous TARDIS material has some really widely imaged background effects that help to establish the sonic space. The huge variety of settings this season (it might be joked in the Christmas special alone) also offer some fun diagetic music and background effects that regularly engage the side and rear channels. Dialogue is cleanly presented throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One - Joy to the World

• Audio Commentary features writer Steven Moffatt, director Alex Pillai and Steph De Walley.


• Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:12) offers the behind the scenes special devoted to this episodes. The rest of the episodic Unleashed featurettes are offered on Discs Six and Seven in this set (see below). All of the Unleashed material should be appreciated by fans and I have to say without trying to sound snarky that some of the Unleashed featurettes may actually be more entertaining than the episodes they document.


• Making of Joy to the World (HD; 8:54) is a shorter overview of the episode.


• Directors Breakdown with Alex Sanjiv Pillai (HD; 5:32) looks at a fun VFX sequence.


• TARDIS Talk (HD; 12:06) features Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffatt touring the set.


• Trailer (HD; 00:59)


• Steven Moffatt Preview (HD; 00:28)

Disc Two - The Robot Revolution / Lux

• Audio Commentary features Varada Setu, producer Vicki Delow and writer Russell T. Davies.


• The Robot Revolution - Making Of (HD; 10:15)


• First Look at Season Two (HD; 1:53) is a brief preview.


• The Nurse and the Whoniverse (HD; 00:53) takes a quick look at the new companion.


• Get to Know with Varada and Ncuti (HD; 1:58) offers a brief back and forth with Gatwa more or less introducing his new companion. Other Get to Know Who featurettes on other discs offer solo introductory outings.


• Varada Answers Fan Questions (HD; 1:06)


• Behind the Scenes Trailer (HD; 1:40)


• Lux - Making Of (HD; 11:57)


• Becoming Cartoons (HD; 00:44) looks at one of the animated sequences in the episode.


• Mr. Ring-A-Ding (HD; 00:44) is a fun look at the voice sessions with Alan Cumming.

Disc Three - The Well / Lucky Day

• The Well - Making Of (HD; 10:49)


• Suited and Booted (HD; 00:44) takes a look at the quasi-Scuba gear.


• Get to Know Who with Rose Ayling-Ellis (HD; 1:47)


• Lucky Day - Making Of (HD; 11:46)


• Lucky Day Directors Scene Breakdown (HD; 5:47) features Peter Hoar.


• Spilling the Tea with Varada & Millie (HD; 2:22) is a brief backstage chat between the pair.


• Joel Dommett - Doctoring Around (HD; 1:18) is another tour of the TARDIS and backstage areas.


• Millie & Jonah's Best Behind the Scenes Bits (HD; 2:20)

Disc Four - The Story & the Engine / The Interstellar Song Contest

• The Story & the Engine - Making Of (HD; 9:32)


• Get to Know Who with Jo Martin (HD; 00:44)


• The Interstellar Song Contest - Making Of (HD; 12:47)


• The Interstellar Song Contest - Directors Scene Breakdown (HD; 5:40) features Ben A. Williams.


• Reality War Companion Catch-Up (HD; 2:45) features Carole Ann Ford.


• Get to Know Who with Graham Norton & Rylan Clark (HD; 1:26) (presented separately)

Disc Five - Wish World / The Reality War

• Wish World - Making Of (HD; 11:33)


• Access All Areas with Varada Sethu (HD; 3:47) is a tour of the studio.


• The Reality War - Making Of (HD; 14:17)


• Jonah's Set Tour - The Bone Palace (HD; 3:33)


• Get to Know Compilation (HD; 1:14)


• Ncuti Gatwa Says Goodbye to Doctor Who (HD; 3:29)


• Epilogue (HD; 3:22) offers some parting thoughts from Davies.


• Trailers (HD; 2:22)

Disc Six

• The Robot Revolution - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:27)


• Lux - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:10)


• The Well - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:16)


• Lucky Day - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:00)

Disc Seven

• The Story & the Engine - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:08)


• The Interstellar Song Contest - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:13)


• Wish World - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:29)


• The Reality War - Doctor Who: Unleashed (HD; 30:37)

Doctor Who: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Longtime devoted Whovians may recall that the end of the McCoy era and failure to renew (even with a different Doctor) was supposedly a "hiatus", despite Davies' assurances to the contrary this time. This is kind of a frustrating season of Doctor Who that has incredible production flair and some intermittently very appealing writing, but which as a whole comes off as a lot of style with very little substance. Still those aforementioned longtime fans will find enough here to enjoy, and the technical merits and supplements are outstanding. With caveats noted, Recommended.