8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS. Along with a series of companions, the Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help people and right wrongs.
Starring: David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, Christopher EcclestonAdventure | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 88% |
Fantasy | 82% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
For those who enjoy parlor games and who may have tired of trying to get past Madison and/or Monroe in their attempts to list the American presidents in order, here’s a somewhat less daunting but perhaps still challenging task: name the actors who have portrayed Doctor Who in order. Even devoted Whovians may have a moment or two of insecurity about the earlier Doctors at least, but the dozen actors who have thus far portrayed the mysterious and (at least in some depictions) curmudgeonly Doctor are William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, and the current (if now temporary — more about that in a moment) occupant of the TARDIS, Peter Capaldi. Capaldi has already announced he’s leaving the role at the end of the now running “tenth series”, meaning list lovers are going to have a new name they’ll be required to memorize. But here’s a perhaps even more daunting challenge for Doctor Who fans, and one which is especially salient for the tenth series, maybe even because Capaldi will soon be leaving the title role: name all the performers who have appeared as various “companions” to the Doctor through the many years and incarnations of the show. That may well be an insurmountable task even for those who have a picayune knowledge of Doctor Who, since there are literally scores of characters who have wandered through the series over the decades who could at least arguably be called an “official” companion. As I alluded to in our Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Series Blu-ray review, a lot of the most effective and affecting emotional content of the ninth series actually involved companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) rather than the Doctor himself, and now with the departure of that character, a lot of the tenth series is given over at least initially to the introduction and development of a new acolyte falling under the Doctor’s sway, in this case a young black woman kind of weirdly named Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie).
Doctor Who: Series Ten Part One is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Virtually everything I stated in our Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Series Blu-ray review holds true for this first volume of Series Ten episodes. The bulk of the imagery, especially scenes with no special effects involved, offer superb sharpness and clarity, and generally excellent detail and fine detail levels. As with the ninth series, however, some CGI can look a bit artificial, to the point that a few isolated moments look positively "animated" (as in cartoon like), while a prevalence of rather dark or otherwise graded scenes in these first six episodes also leads to the same sort of detail deficits at times that I mentioned in that above linked review. A couple of brief moments that look green screened have very minor halos around the real life object in front of the rendered background, but these scenes tend to be very brief indeed, so that they're almost in the "blink and you'll miss them" category.
While there's absolutely nothing to complain about with regard to Doctor Who: Series Ten Part One's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, I'm "only" giving this a 4.5 to differentiate it from what I felt was a near perfect audio experience with the ninth series release. There's just a tad less ubiquitous LFE in this episodes, some of which don't really venture out that much and which aren't reliant upon TARDIS adventures. That said, there's great attention paid to discrete channelization of effects, and some of the alien environments have some rather nice ambient sounds that help to establish the "otherness" of those locales. As is typical with this series, dialogue is always rendered cleanly and both it and the enjoyable underscore are supported by excellent fidelity and prioritization.
Fans' reactions to the various iterations of Doctor Who have tended to be pretty widely variant, but my hunch is even long devoted Whovians would place any of these first six episodes of Series Ten at the apex of what the show has achieved over the course of its long and now legendary broadcast life. That said, there's more than enough enjoyment to be had in these episodes, however relatively slight some of them seem, and the addition of Bill, while not especially artfully handled, has given the show a rather interesting new perspective that the rest of this series will hopefully be able to exploit. As is typical of the BBC Blu-ray releases of Doctor Who, technical merits continue to be strong, and this release comes Recommended.
2005
2005-2006
Remastered
2005
Remastered
2005-2006
Remastered
2006-2007
2007
Remastered
2007-2008
2008
Remastered | The Next Doctor / Planet of the Dead / The Waters of Mars / The End of Time
2008-2010
2009-2010
2009
2009
2010
2010
Remastered
2010-2011
Remastered
2010
2011
2011
2011 Christmas Special
2011
2011-2013
2012
2012 Christmas Special
2012
2013
2013
2014
2014
Keepcase
2014
2014
2014
2015
2015
2015
2016
2017
2017
2017
2018
2018
2019
2020
2021
2021
2022
2022
The Star Beast / Wild Blue Yonder / The Giggle
2023
(Still not reliable for this title)
1977-1978
50th Anniversary Special
2013
2009
10th Anniversary Collector's Edition | Limited
2014
2018
Collector's Edition
2020
2020-2023
1966-1969
2018
40th Anniversary Edition
1982
1977
1999
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2019
2015
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2009
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2017
2005
1983
2002
2016