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, English SDH, French, French SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This title is available as either a standalone product or as part of the 14 disc set Doctor Who: The Complete Peter Capaldi Years. If you don't already own
the other titles in the Capaldi set, it's considerably cheaper to get that rather than all of the individual titles.
Can you name all of the actors who have portrayed the inimitable Doctor
Who since this venerable series first took to the airwaves way back in 1963? For those who might need a little help with this perhaps
arcane parlor game, here’s a list: William Hartnell (1963 - 1966), Patrick Troughton (1966 - 1969), Jon Pertwee (1970 - 1974), Tom Baker (1974
-
1981), Peter Davison (1982 - 1984), Colin Baker (1984 - 1986), Sylvester McCoy (1987 - 1989), Paul McGann (1996), Christopher Eccleston
(2005), David Tennant (2005 - 2010), Matt Smith (2010 - 2013), Peter Capaldi (2014 - 2017), and, now, Jodie Whittaker, whose tenure in the role
has yet to be determined. William Hartnell passed away back in 1975, but fans of this franchise will probably already know that David Bradley
portrayed Hartnell in the 2013 drama An Adventure in Space
and Time, an interesting feature which documented the creation of this now legendary series. In a bit of cheeky casting, Bradley is back
in Twice Upon a Time, the 2017 “Christmas Special” (a longstanding Doctor Who holiday tradition) playing the First Doctor, who
in
this enjoyable if probably too brief and underdeveloped piece, keeps insisting he’s The Doctor (as in the only Doctor). That
perhaps chafes against the sensibilities of Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, as both Doctors team up to solve a mystery involving not just their
failure
to “regenerate”, but the sudden appearance of a World War I soldier at the same South Pole location that both Doctors have found themselves.
Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1. There are some brief but very fun snippets from a very old Doctor Who episode that are intentionally in an even narrower ratio than Academy (see screenshots 18 and 19), and which are obviously from a fairly low grade interlaced source. The bulk of this presentation is quite winning, though it suffers from a surplus of heavily blue graded sequences, many of which tend to at least slightly tamp down fine detail levels on elements like costume fabrics or even things like downy hair on the faces of some of the performers. There's also a prevalence of almost overly brightly lit material, especially with regard to the admittedly fun journey in the first Doctor's TARDIS, where whites tend to come close to blooming territory on a couple of occasions. In more natural lighting conditions, detail levels and sharpness are typically excellent. As tends to be the case with this series, some of the CGI, notably the "alien" entity, can look fairly soft.
Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that derives considerable if sporadic surround activity from elements like the whipping winds at the South Pole or the sounds of various encampments of soldiers surrounding the isolated duo of the British Captain and his German cohort trapped in the mortar hole. There are also a couple of well done moments where the sonics are quite robust, including the "hijacking" of the TARDIS by the alien entity mothership. There is, however, a lot of "talky bits" in this special, and here all elements are delivered cleanly though there can be only occasional noticeable surround activity. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, and there are no issues with damage or dropouts.
Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time is a lot of fun, but I couldn't help wishing it had stuck around for a little longer, not just because parting is such sweet sorrow, but because several elements in the basic plot design are just kind of plopped down for the viewer to accept, rather than having things adequately contextualized and explained. The pairing of the putative First and actual Twelfth Doctors is a really fun conceit, and even that could have been pushed a bit more than it is here. This was therefore to me a bit of a lackluster sendoff for Capaldi, but longtime fans of the franchise are probably going to be more than willing to overlook any perceived shortcomings. Recommended.
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