Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 13, 2021

Perhaps it's only fitting that an epochally long running series about a so-called "Time Lord" should skip around almost randomly in terms of which seasons are released and in what order as Blu-ray sets of the show are presented to the public. Fans of Doctor Who have had to put together a kind of complex jigsaw puzzle of sorts as BBC has doled out the show in standalone Blu-ray offerings in a somewhat mind boggling array. In that regard, it's salient to note that the "Fourth Doctor" as portrayed by Tom Baker has seen previous Blu-ray releases for widely disparate years of the series, Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season One, which came out in 2018, and Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Seven, which followed that release about a year later, more or less, in 2019. If a certain slack is therefore almost required in terms of "putting it together" to make a coherent narrative spanning several seasons, as with many of the other standalone releases of individual season, Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three offers a fun if unabashedly goofy assortment of episodes, and it also sees yet another transition regarding the Doctor's "companion", as well as a rather significant "outlier" in the Doctor Who canon, a "companionless" episode.

Verbiage describing television tends to differ between the UK and the US, and in that regard, this "series" (meaning season) of Doctor Who is comprised of six "episodes" (meaning stories, which play in what we on this side of the pond would call several episodes). As is kind of expected with this era of the series, things are a bit on the ridiculous side quite a bit of the time, with both general plot lines and especially nemeses which almost seem culled from old time serials like Flash Gordon at times. Time travel of course enters into more than one story, with The Masque of Mandragora venturing to historical Italy and The Talons of Weng Chiang visiting a Doctor Who standby, Victorian England.

If there's some emotional content as Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) gives way to Leela (Louise Jameson), there's also the interesting interstitial The Deadly Assassin, which offers Doctor Who a chance to "go it alone", so to speak. This kind of daffy episode also riffs rather spectacularly on The Manchurian Candidate, as one of the supplements kind of cheekily gets into. As tended to be the case in this era of the show, while much of the series is set bound (albeit with some new nooks and crannies in the TARDIS), the Doctor does venture out at times, which allows for some fun location footage.

Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.32:1. Those who have seen any of the other upscaled seasons BBC has released of the venerable series will know pretty much what to expect here. Once again there are distinct quality variances between the videotaped and filmed sections. Film (which was used for location work) tends to look relatively good, generally speaking at least, with decent densities and some rather commendable detail levels, especially in close-ups. The video elements unfortunately don't fare nearly as well, as has almost always been the case with previous seasons released on Blu-ray. While the palette is almost always nicely suffused, the image is often soft and has occasional anomalies like what almost looks like ghosting, with the overall impression being kind of flat and not especially well detailed. As with some of the other seasons offering "new, improved" special effects, the similar strategy offered in The Talons of Weng Chiang may indeed up the visual ante at least somewhat, but not all that radically, all things considered. Everything here is certainly watchable, but an upscale is an upscale, and so expectations obviously need to be tempered.

Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three follows the tradition set by several other Blu-ray releases of the series by offering DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks for the season, along with a repurposed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track for The Deadly Assassin. The mono tracks all sound relatively spry, with fine fidelity supporting dialogue, sometimes bombastic score choices and the typically whimsical sound effects. The tracks are obviously inherently narrow, but they show no real signs of the same kind of less than stellar quality the video aspects of this release do. I'm on record as stating I'm not especially fond of the surround repurposing that several other Doctor Who releases on Blu-ray have offered, but this one is decent enough, and certainly opens up some of the effects, though consistent engagement of the side and rear channels is never satisfactorily achieved. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with some of the previous multi-disc releases of other seasons of Doctor Who, this one also includes some supplement "series", 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: The Masque of Mandragora

• Making of Documentary (1080i; 26:23)


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 24:50)


• Now and Then (480i; 10:40) looks at some locations used for the episodes.


• Nationwide (480i; 1:41) is a talk show appearance by Elisabeth Sladen.


• Audio Archive

  Audio Archive: Tom Baker (1080i; 35:05) plays to some explanatory text, as do all of the archival audio supplements.

  
  

  Audio Archive: The Pescatons - Part One (1080i; 22:28)

  
  

  Audio Archive: The Pescatons - Part Two (1080i; 23:42)

• BBC Trails and Continuities (480i; 4:28)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 9:55)


• Comedy Short (480i; 9:40) purports to show some unexpected effects from the broadcast of these episodes.


• Episode Commentary can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Two: The Hand of Fear

• Making of Documentary (480i; 50:25)


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 27:33)


• Elisabeth Sladen Tribute (1080i; 1:17:29)


• Swap Shop (1080i; 10:55) is a talk show with Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.


• Doctor Who Stories (480i; 19:46) is a 2003 interview with Elisabeth Sladen.


• Audio Archive: Exploration Earth (1080i; 19:43)


• BBC Trails and Continuities (1080i; 5:05)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 6:22)


• Coming Soon (480i; 00:57)


• Episode Commentary can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Three: The Deadly Assassin

• Making of Documentary (480i; 29:37)


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 26:23)


• Dressing Doctor Who (480i; 27:05) looks at some of the wild costume choices.


• Nationwide (480i; 4:13) is a talk show with Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.


• The Gallifreyan Candidate (480i; 10:30) might remind some of a certain film with Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, especially since clips from that film are offered here.


• The Frighten Factor (480i; 16:37) comes with some "instructions" on how to prepare for being scared.


• BBC Trails and Continuities (480i; 4:55)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 7:24)


• Coming Soon (480i; 1:26)


• Episode Commentary can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Four: The Face of Evil

• Making of Documentary (480i; 25:11)


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 26:19)


• Film Trims: Highlights (480i; 9:04)


• Film Trims: Unedited (480i; 42:11)


• Girls Girls Girls (480i; 21:17) features some of the 1970's era "companions".


• BBC Trails and Continuities (1080i; 5:38)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 10:43)


• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Five: The Robots of Death

• Making of Documentary (1080i; 32:24)


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 27:01)


• Model Footage (480i; 7:53) is silent with a timecode caption.


• Studio Sound (480i; 1:27) offers a comparison between live audio and looping.


• Swap Shop (480i; 4:28) is a talk show appearance from 1977 with Louise Jameson.


• Serial Thrillers (480i; 41:57) focuses on writing and production aspects.


• The Panopticon Archive (480i; 46:54) features David Bailie, David Collings, Russell Hunter, Louise Jameson and Chris Boucher.


• Robots Featurette (480i; 11:49)


• BBC Trails and Continuities (480i; 2:58)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 7:12)


• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Six: The Talons of Weng Chiang (Disc 1)

• Making of Documentary (1080i; 33:34)


• Behind the Sofa (1080i; 28:17)


• Location Report (1080i; 3:46) has two audio options, TX Audio and Raw Film Sound.


• Pebble Mill (480i; 11:30) is another kind of goofy talk show, this one offering a Dalek holding a microphone among other moments.


• Now and Then (480i; 11:01) looks at some locations.


• BBC Trails and Continuities (480i; 6:10)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 7:14)


• Updated Special Effects can be toggled on or off.


• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Info Text can be accessed under the Subtitles and Info Text Menu.


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Seven: The Talons of Weng Chiang (Disc 2)

• Whose Doctor Who (1080i; 58:43) features a bunch of cast and crew interviews in a 1977 documentary.


• Whose Doctor Who Revisited (1080i; 51:29) looks back on the original 1977 piece.


• Studio Footage (480i; 24:01) is in (pretty rough looking) black and white and features a timecode caption.


• Blue Peter (480i; 24:49) is another episode of the kids' show, this time focusing on production design and prop making.


• The Foe from the Future (1080i; 6:47) features Robert Banks Stewart and Philip Hinchcliffe.


• Moving On (1080i; 4:36) offers Hinchcliffe again.


• Deep Roy Interview (1080i; 12:13) is an interview with "Mr. Sin", Mohindar Roy.


• Historical Featurettes

  Limehouse (1080i; 19:20) features Matthew Sweet.

  
  

  Victoriana & Chinoiserie (1080i; 8:07) looks at genre referents.

  
  

  Music Hall (1080i; 21:46) is a fun piece that features some songs along with interviews.

• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Disc Eight: Bonus Disc

• Philip Hinchcliffe in Conversation (1080i; 1:17:44)


• Life After Who (1080i; 29:38) is another interview with Hinchcliffe.


• Tom Baker & Philip Hinchcliffe Interview (1080i; 20:52)


• Call My Bluff (480i; 29:54) seems to be a vintage game show.


• Denys Fisher Toys Advert (480i; 00:32)


• Blu-ray Trailer: Home Assistant (1080i; 3:50)


• PDF Written Archive is accessible via a BD-ROM drive.

Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a fan of the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who, there is little doubt you'll find a lot to enjoy in this season. This was still relatively early in Baker's run in the role, and he perhaps hadn't yet gotten "too big for his britches", as is addressed rather overtly in some of the supplements on the Doctor Who: Tom Baker - Complete Season Seven Blu-ray release. The stories this season are unabashedly silly a lot of the time, and the "special effects" are probably going to strike some as downright laughable. But there are some fun moments to be had, and The Deadly Assassin may appeal to Whovians with a "trivial pursuit" inclination for reasons mentioned above. Once again, video quality is decidedly iffy, but audio is fine, and as with almost all of the standalone Doctor Who Blu-ray releases, the supplementary package is absolutely outstanding. With caveats noted, Recommended.