Doctor Who The Complete Third Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

Doctor Who The Complete Third Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 25, 2024

Note: This version of this series/season is available as part of BBC's Doctor Who Limited Edition New Who Collector's Set, featuring what BBC is describing as a "newly upscaled" video presentation.

The third series/season of Doctor Who may have a code phrase of sorts in "Vote Saxon", but much as with Doctor Who The Complete Second Series, the then concurrently airing Torchwood continues to make its presence known, starting from the very first episode of the series/season, and then continuing on to a three part finale where Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) shows up as a "special guest star". Also following in the tradition of the second series/season, this series/season has its own (somewhat dark) "Christmas special" kicking things off.

That Christmas special introduces Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), who seems poised to take over as the Doctor's companion, despite the fact that all those pesky space time anomalies associated with the Doctor actually interrupt her wedding. That actually turns out not to be the case, however (at least for a little while, as devoted Whovians will no doubt know), and it's the female introduced in the second episode of the series/season, Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), who takes over in that capacity. This series/season continues to exploit some of David Tennant's comic timing (especially some of his almost Jim Carrey-esque facial expressions), while offering a bit more actual emotional content courtesy of his developing relationship with Martha.

The villains of this series/season vary from good old standbys like the ever popular Daleks, as well as perhaps more whimsical bad guys (and/or gals, as the case may be) like quasi-vampire Florence Finnegan (a delightfully daft Anne Reid). There's quite a bit of time traveling in both temporal directions in this series/season, with stories spanning a gamut including everything from 16th century London to New New York in 5,000,000,053. As usual, some of the aliens are on the goofy side, including several that almost look like furries or someone cosplaying various animals.

Doctor Who The Complete Third Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with AVC encoded (upscaled) 1080p transfers in 1.75:1. As with Doctor Who The Complete Second Series, I went back and compared these episodes to the ones included in Doctor Who: The Complete David Tennant Collection, but I have to say for whatever reason this series/season just didn't show the same even marginal improvement that the second series/season did, at least as consistently. While there are probably arguable upticks in some fine detail on practical items like fabrics, and even in some of the close-ups of, you know, actual human beings, overall this series/season has a pretty harsh digitally processed appearance and despite whatever "new upscaling" technologies were employed, can still show typical anomalies like stairstepping and aliasing. As with the second series/season, the palette still looks nicely lush and well suffused. There are moments here that probably approach 2.75 or even 3.00 levels, but I found them fleeting at best.

Doctor Who The Complete Third Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

If the video side of things is a relative minus, this series/season's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is probably a plus, courtesy of the hugely wide ranging settings the set of episodes offer. There are numerous sequences in any number of different "eras" which have noticeable engagement of the side and rear channels, typically for ambient environmental effects and/or scoring, but as with the second series/season, even some of the interior TARDIS material has fun immersive background clamor helping to establish the environment. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who The Complete Third Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Series 3, Disc 1

• Freema Agyeman Studio Tour (SD; 18:17)


• Deleted Scenes (SD; 18:03)


• Outtakes (SD; 5:26)


• BBC Trailers (SD; 4:10) includes:

  Teaser 1

  
  

  Teaser 2

  
  

  Launch Promo 1

  
  

  Launch Promo 2

  
  

  Launch Promo 1 (Short Version)

  
  

  Launch Promo 2 (Short Version)

  
  

  Episode 2

  
  

  Episode 3

  
  

  Episode 4

• Commentary for all episodes can be found under the Setup Menu. The commentaries feature a grabbag of cast and crew; for a complete listing, please see Ken Brown's Doctor Who: Complete Series 1-7 Blu-ray review.

Series 3, Disc 2

• David Tennant's Doctor Who Video Diaries (SD; 1:45:21)


• BBC Trailers (SD; 00:47 ) include:

  Episode 6

  
  

  Episode 7

• Commentary for all episodes can be found under the Setup Menu. The commentaries feature a grabbag of cast and crew; for a complete listing, please see Ken Brown's Doctor Who: Complete Series 1-7 Blu-ray review.

Series 3, Disc 3

• Music and Monsters (SD; 58:33) is a concert with classical musicians and Daleks. So there.


• Doctor Who Confidential (SD; 2:32:41) offers featurettes on the following episodes:

  Episode 1 - Meet Martha Jones

  
  

  Episode 2 - Stage Fright

  
  

  Episode 3 - Are We There Yet?

  
  

  Episode 4 - A New York Story

  
  

  Episode 5 - Making Manhattan

  
  

  Episode 6 - Monsters Inc

  
  

  Episode 7 - Space Craft

  
  

  Episode 8 - Alter Ego

  
  

  Episode 9 - Bad Blood

  
  

  Episode 10 - Do You Remember the First Time?

  
  

  Episode 11 - Ello, Ello, Ello

  
  

  Episode 12 - The Saxon Mystery

  
  

  Episode 13 - The Valiant Quest

• BBC Trailers (SD; 1:28) include:

  Episode 11

  
  

  Episode 12

  
  

  Episode 12 Vote Saxon

  
  

  Episode 13

• Commentary for all episodes can be found under the Setup Menu. The commentaries feature a grabbag of cast and crew; for a complete listing, please see Ken Brown's Doctor Who: Complete Series 1-7 Blu-ray review.

Doctor Who The Complete Third Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This series/season arguably has a bit more variety than the second series/season, and Tennant and Agyeman have a noticeable chemistry from the get go which helps to ground things emotionally in what is, in typical Doctor Who fashion, often somewhat silly storylines. I'm not sure exactly how much the "newly upscaled" video really differs from the previous version, but it may be marginally better, at least in passing. Audio is fine, and the supplements very appealing. With caveats noted, Recommended.