Doctor Who: William Hartnell - Complete Season Two Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		2.5

Doctor Who: William Hartnell - Complete Season Two Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 31, 2023

As might be gleaned from such releases as Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen and Doctor Who: Galaxy 4, two BBC Blu-ray releases which offered animated recreations of some relatively early episodes of this almost insanely long running enterprise, recreations which were necessitated by the fact that video of the episodes no longer existed (at least in whole), curation of Doctor Who may not have always been at the top of the venerable network's mind (if, indeed, networks have minds, which is a debatable proposition in the best of circumstances). And in fact one of the serials included in this set, The Crusade, is missing material. This collection from BBC is the earliest season released as a standalone effort, and it's certainly quaint, if unavoidably dated and flat out goofy a lot of the time, with episodes that seem more overtly geared toward younger viewers than some of the later years.

This very early season of Doctor Who already finds many of the series' most iconic tropes already firmly ensconced, including an at times crusty and eccentric but still basically lovable Doctor Who (William Hartnell), who is actually kind of surrounded by companions, including the Doctor's granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Foreman), in a familial relationship within a science fiction context which may kind of hilariously presage Rick and Morty. Two of Susan's teachers, Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), are also on hand. Devoted Whovians will know that none of the supporting characters lasts through the entire season, and perhaps due to how early in the show's run this is, there aren't the sometimes overly maudlin goodbyes granted to some of the characters.

This season sees what would have been the sophomore appearance of the ever popular Daleks, and there are a couple of other episodes that kind of feature "monster of the week" aspects that tend to echo The Outer Limits: Season One, which would have been airing stateside at around the same time as this season. Speaking of stateside series with a tether to this season, the opening serial plays like a Doctor Who infused pilot for what in a couple of years would be a relatively short lived effort from Irwin Allen, Land of the Giants.

The series has some frankly quaint "special effects", but one surprisingly modern element is in the scores for this season, which are often quite strikingly atonal and even electric sounding at times.

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

Doctor Who: William Hartnell - Complete Season Two is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with AVC encoded 1080i transfers in 1.34:1. Fans who have been collecting these standalone collections will have at least a baseline of knowing what to expect with the upscaled video, but I have to say, I think maybe things being in black and white may help things a bit, in that both huge color temperature variances as well as the difference in textures between studio shot material and location filming may not be as drastic and jarring looking. There are still all sorts of anomalies at play here, and there are also some odd passing variabilities in the what I'd call the anamorphic arena, if this were an anamorphic presentation. What I mean is that at various moments things can look either slightly squeezed or stretched, something that I've actually seen in kinescopes, though I'm not sure if anything like that played a part here. Contrast can look a little inconsistent. Detail levels fare best in more brightly lit environments when close-ups are employed.

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

Doctor Who: William Hartnell - Complete Season Two features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. The age of the track means there are some inherited limitations in both dynamic range and overall fluidity of the mix, but everything here is perfectly listenable, if kind of low tech sounding at times. The season actually has some rather interesting underscore choices, as mentioned above, and those reverberate with decent force. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who: William Hartnell - Complete Season Two 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: Planet of Giants

• Making the Reconstructions (SD; 8:29) gives some background on the following reconstruction of "lost" episodes.


• Reconstruction: Crisis (SD; 28:03)


• Reconstruction: The Urge to Live (SD; 24:34)


• William Russell in Conversation (HD; 49:16)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 3:32)


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


• Arabic Dual Mono Episode Audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono and is accessible 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 Dalek Invasion of Earth

• Updated Special Effects can be toggled on or off.


• Updated Special Effects Compile (SD; 1:12)


• Making of Documentary (SD; 45:23)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 32:52)


• Design Featurette (SD; 17:50)


• Script to Screen (SD; 6:03) offers a look at floorplans utilized by cameramen to capture various shots, with those shots offered as picture in picture material.


• Rehearsal Film (SD; 1:43) offers some 8mm footage shot by Carole Ann Ford.


• Dalek Voices Featurette (SD; 10:30) features Voice Agent David Graham, who provided a Dalek voice.


• BBC Trailers (HD; 2:17)


• Now and Then (SD; 7:00) looks at locations as they were then and "now".


• Carole Ann Ford Interview (SD; 15:18)


• DVD Intro and Easter Eggs (SD; 2:25)


• Audio Archive (HD; 27:31) features Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman. Jane Asher (!) portrays Susan.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 3:56)


• Coming Soon (SD; 1:15)


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


• Enhanced Dual Mono Episode Audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono and 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 Rescue

• Making of Documentary (HD; 21:54)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 32:56)


• Maureen O'Brien in Conversation (HD; 1:13:41)


• The Storyteller (HD; 6:24) is a mini-episode that serves as a "Available Soon on Blu-ray" extended trailer, featuring Maureen O'Brien.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 4:10)



• 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 Four: The Romans

• Making of Documentary (HD; 34:07)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 33:10)


• Model Featurette (SD; 2:34)


• Dennis Spooner Profile (SD; 17:46)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 3:48)


• 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 Five: The Web Planet

• Making of Documentary (SD; 37:50)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 31:41)


• Audio Archive (HD; 56:46) offers The Lair of Zarbi Supremo.


• Studio Clock (HD; 00;25)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 5:32)


• 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 Six: The Crusade

• William Russell Links (HD; 5:20)


• Sylvester McCoy Links (SD; 00:52)


• Looking for David (HD; 1:00:55) focuses on David Whitaker.


• The Panopticon Archives (SD; 57:14) feature Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill, Adrienne Hill and Michael Craze from 1985.


• Studio Clock (SD; 00:30)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 7:10)


• Telesnaps Gallery

  The Knight of Jaffa (HD; 5:05)

  
  

  The Warlords (HD; 4:46)

• Coming Soon (SD; 1:52)


• Episode Commentary for Episodes 1 and 3 can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu.


• Episode Narration for Episodes 2 and 4 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 Space Museum

• Defending the Museum (SD; 9:28) features Robert Shearman.


• Collectibles Documentary (HD; 22:06) looks at some of the tie-in products that have been released through the years.


• BBC Continuity (HD; 00:10)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 2:35)


• 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 Eight: The Chase

• Making of Featurette (SD; 10:27)


• Behind the Sofa (HD; 31:13)


• Ian & Barbara Featurette (SD; 13:16)


• Mechonoids Featurette (SD; 2:49)


• Daleks Beyond the Screen (SD; 21:56) looks at the legacy of the lovable (?) villains.


• Daleks Conquer and Destroy (SD; 22:38) maybe puts the lie to that "lovable" bit above.


• Give a Show Slides (SD; 12:16)


• Mary Celeste Featurette (SD; 18:03)


• The Wayne & Shuster Show (SD; 14:04)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 4:48)


• Coming Soon (SD; 1:05)


• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu. This features commentaries from 2005 and 2021.


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


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

Disc Nine: The Time Meddler

• Behind the Sofa (HD; 30:17)


• Restoration Featurette (SD; 4:54) stems from the DVD era, so take the "restoration" with a bit of salt.


• The Lost Twelve Seconds (SD; 1:04)


• Season 2 Documentary (HD; 46:10) is a good overview of the season.


• BBC Trails & Continuities (SD; 3:11)


• Photo Gallery (HD; 3:12)


• Coming Soon (HD; 00:57)


• Episode Commentaries can be accessed under the Audio Options Menu. This features commentaries from 2005 and 2021.


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


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

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

It's fun to see the very earliest years of Doctor Who, even if that means a certain quaintness in writing, performance and especially production ambience can't be avoided. This is another release where the technical merits "are what they are", but where the superb if just slightly less bounteous than usual supplemental material may help seal the deal for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.