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The first episode, ‘Asylum of the daleks’ is a dramatic one. I have never liked the daleks, but they’re probably the most iconic aliens in the series. In this episode, the Doctor is summoned, to his astonishment, to help them figure out a problem with the planet where they have imprisoned daleks who have gone insane.
They’re worried that they might escape, and the Doctor is the only person who can do what they want. They also send Amy (Karen Gillen) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), who - as we have seen in the first scenes of this episode - are about to get divorced.
It’s an exciting start to the new series, one with several twists and turns and the introduction of Jenna-Louise Coleman as Oswin. She’s a self-proclaimed genius who has somehow survived a spaceship crash and is using her computer to control doors and other features around the plant.
The second episode, also on the first DVD, is ‘Dinosaurs on a spaceship’. The Doctor, along with several diverse companions, arrives on a spaceship which is heading for Earth, and due to be destroyed by missiles within six hours. Amy and Rory are amongst the companions, as is Rory’s father, played by Mark Williams. Unsurprisingly, given the title, they find dinosaurs and also an injured man called Solomon who turns out to be extremely evil.
The episode is a little different from the usual ones, enlivened by an Egyptian Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele). The dinosaurs are apparently mostly CGI-generated, and look very realistic. The third episode on the DVD, ‘A town called Mercy’, also feels a bit different. It’s set in a Wild West town in the 19th century. The town is being held hostage by a Cyborg… and gradually a quite disturbing story emerges. All very well done.
The fourth episode, ‘The power of three’ is a bit lighter, with more human interest than many. The earth wakes up to discover mysterious black cubes, all over the place. They don’t appear to be harmful, but the Doctor is very concerned. He’s joined, again, by Amy, Rory and Rory’s father in an episode that’s nowhere near as stressful as some of the others. I liked it very much.
Then comes the powerful ‘The Angels take Manhattan’. This is one of the most emotive episodes of the series, one which sees weeping angels, not quite as creepy as before, but with extra time-travel and scenes with River Song. I have lost track of how her timeline works - but with two time-travellers, perhaps it isn’t possible to figure out. It’s the final episode including Amy and Rory, with a poignant ending.
Apparently this series was divided into two; the first five episodes were shown in the late Summer and Autumn of 2011, then there was an unnumbered 2012 Christmas special, ‘The Snowmen’. It’s not as light-hearted as the 2011 Christmas special, but there are some amusing moments. It opens with the Doctor, rather depressed and determined that he’s no longer going to bother with saving the world. He’s retired, and has no interest in anything that’s going on. He has his tardis hidden above a cloud, and he wanders around Victorian England as if he were an ordinary person.
Jenna-Louise Coleman appears in this as Clara, a barmaid who also works as a governess. The Doctor finds her attractive and interesting, and they have some conversation about snow, and the rather bizarre snowmen that appear out of nowhere. There’s a rather bizarre plot featuring an attempt to turn the world into snow and ice, and there are roles for the Silurian Madam Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and Strax, a Sontaran who still has warlike tendencies, but also a sense of humour.
The sixth episode, ‘The bells of St John’, sees the Doctor in a monastery, waiting - he hopes - to find Clara again. He’s very puzzled about who she is, and why she appears in different places and times. He gets a phone call from her, wanting computer advice… as there’s a nasty internet provider that not only provides fast wifi but downloads people’s souls. In some senses this is a light-hearted episode, but it’s also rather too convincing in this age of artificial intelligence and computer hacks.
The seventh episode, the third on the first DVD of the second set, is ‘The rings of Akhaten’. The Doctor, getting over his reluctance to take anyone with him, invites Clara to see something spectacular. So they travel to a peaceful, multi-cultural planet, only to get caught up in yet more danger as a small girl, crowned queen, is in danger of being sacrificed to a god.
Episode eight, ‘Cold war’ sees the tardis landing in a Russian submarine in the 1980s. One of the crew decides to defrost something they had discovered… and it leads to a fast-paced action-packed episode where I had to close my eyes several times as everything happens so fast. It’s a somewhat political episode featuring some compassion and dialogue about killing, but I didn’t much like it.
Episode nine, ‘Hide’, is slower, more character-driven. The Doctor is becoming obsessed with finding out exactly who Clara is. So they travel to the home of a psychic, who happens to be in communication with someone she believes is a ghost, haunting the mansion. The Doctor discovers who it really is, and gets involved in a dramatic rescue. There’s a lot that isn’t really explained in this episode, but it was quite an enjoyable one from my point of view.
The tenth episode, ‘Journey to the centre of the tardis’ is another rather confusing one, at least to me. The tardis is captured by a salvage spaceship, and while the Doctor gets out, Clara is trapped inside. We see a lot of the tardis in this - passages and areas created by the tardis, and the ‘timey-wimey’ implications are somewhat mind-boggling. More so than usual. But it’s a well-done episode nonetheless.
The final DVD has the last three episodes of the series. ‘The crimson horror’ sounded as if it was going to be very scary, but was in fact punctuated by some light-hearted banter from Madam Vastra and her companions. It was a scenario that somehow felt familiar, from a fictional perspective: a passionate woman preaches doom and destruction to all, unless they move to her peaceful town… where nobody ever seems to leave.
The next episode is rather tenser. The two children for whom Clara is nanny hassle her for a trip in the tardis. So the Doctor takes them to a planet which is supposed to house the world’s biggest amusement park. Unfortunately, it’s long disused. Instead, there are soldiers and cybermen…
And finally, episode 13, ‘The name of the Doctor’. Not that we learn this strange secret; only the Doctor and River Song know it. The episode opens with a caged criminal, guarded by Madame Vastra. She calls a virtual meeting, only to be captured… and the Doctor has to make a very dangerous journey. It’s a tense episode, one that partially explains the ‘impossibility’ of Clara, and which also shows the Doctor as surprisingly vulnerable.
It makes an excellent finale to a series which we both enjoyed rewatching. Matt Smith and Clara make an excellent team for the latter part. Our final DVD has an interesting and well-made ‘extra’ which looks at the roles of the different companions, and their importance to the Doctor’s travels.
The rating of 12 reflects the fact that this really isn't a show for younger children. While there's no 'adult' content or any 'strong' language, there's some violence, and a lot of tension. Some of the issues involved are very complex, too, hard enough to understand as an adult...
Review copyright 2026 Sue's DVD Reviews
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