The day of the doctor (50th anniversary special)

(Amazon UK link)

We finished re-watching Doctor Who series 7 around a week ago. It ends with Matt Smith as the 11th doctor seeing the place where he will eventually die, but with no sign of regenerating. That happens before series 8, but in between the two series were a couple of ‘special’ episodes. We saw them in 2016 on a relative’s streaming system in 2016, but I decided to acquire the DVDs after that, as we enjoyed them both and I was pretty sure we would eventually want to re-watch them.

A decade later, we allowed longer than usual and watched ‘The day of the Doctor’, which was broadcast as the 50th anniversary ‘special’. I had forgotten, until we started watching, that it featured not just Matt Smith, but David Tennant who returned specially, as well as Billie Piper.  I had forgotten everything else about it, too…

The episode begins with the Doctor and Clara (Jenna Coleman) having rather an undignified ride over London when the tardis is requisitioned by UNIT, in particular by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave). She wants them to investigate some 3d paintings which have apparently been vandalised… from inside. 

The decoy bride (Kelly Macdonald)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over ten years since we first watched the 2011 film ‘The decoy bride’, and we had entirely forgotten the storyline. We wanted something light and possibly amusing to watch, so decided this would probably be a good choice.

The story opens with the press gathered, cameras and microphones ready, at the door of a large hotel. Out comes someone dressed in white, with a veil covering her head. We - and the press - assume she’s the bride they are waiting for. Then someone else emerges, also with a veil covering her head, albeit not in white. And then someone else…

It’s clear that there’s a major society wedding about to take place, and that the happy couple are trying to avoid the press. This is probably a vain hope, since the bride is a famous and very beautiful actress called Lara (Alice Eve). There has been much speculation about who she might marry on the front covers of magazines. But she’s finally made her choice in James (David Tennant) who is a writer with a recent publishing success, a kind of travel guide to some of the Hebridean islands.

Unfortunately the wedding is halted when an intrusive member of the press is found hiding. Marco (Frederico Castellucio) has been stalking Lara, and somehow manages to find out where she is, no matter where she hides. Not that she’s in any danger from him, but she is fed up of his persistence. 

Doctor Who, the complete specials 2008-2010 (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

We finished watching Doctor Who series four at the end of July, just before going away for most of August. After returning, I remembered that before series five there was a series of ‘specials’, in the course of which David Tennant would regenerate into Matt Smith. We saw these in 2013, but I hadn’t remembered anything about them.

The first episode, ‘The next doctor’, was the Christmas special for December 2008. I assume that the title was deliberately misleading, since this is not the episode in which the Doctor regenerates. It’s set in Victorian England, in a Dickensian environment with children in workhouses. We see a formal funeral with men only, in top hats and black suits. There’s also a ‘scarlet woman’ (assumed) - a beautiful woman dressed in red who shocks the men in black, and who is in league with the Cybermen. 

Oh, and there’s also a man who insists that he is the Doctor. He has a sonic screwdriver, sort of, and has created a rather unusual tardis. He has an assistant, the feisty, courageous Rosita, and he has clearly done several Doctor-like things. He knows all about cybermen, too… but his memories are very confused, and he doesn’t remember much at all, other than the most recent events. 

The second episode, ‘The world of the dead’, is set primarily in a huge desert, supposedly a different world. It starts with a dramatic ‘mission impossible’ style scene, watching a masked woman commit an ingenious crime. She runs from the police and boards a bus, where she meets the Doctor. There’s a fast police chase and a tunnel is blockaded… but the bus leaps through a ‘wormhole’ into this other world. 

Most of the story is about trying to figure out what has happened, and - more importantly - how to get back. Michelle Ryan is excellent as Lady Christina, who proves to be highly intelligent and almost a match for The Doctor. When we watched the ‘confidential’ extra on the same DVD, there was discussion about whether she might have made a good companion. But, it was explained, as David Tennant’s role as the 10th Doctor was coming to an end, he wasn’t taking on any new companions. There’s some humour in this episode, and in the ‘extra’ too. 

The third episode, ‘The waters of Mars’ is in stark contrast, despite it also taking place on another world. The Doctor arrives looking cheerful; he has no expectations of anything other than a friendly visit. He quickly discovers that the people living in the space station there are the first settlers in Mars, people whose names he knows well. The year is just 2059. When he learns the date, he becomes rather unsettled, insisting he should go.

Some of the filming is done in the style of a horror movie, with tense moments and music before a ‘monster’ is revealed… I found myself hiding my face in my hands more than once. I found it really quite scary as a story. But it was also interesting theoretically because the Doctor insists that an imminent disaster is fixed in the history of time, and there’s nothing he can do about it. This clearly stresses him… 

There are some scenes later in the book which demonstrate, once again, David Tennant’s superb acting ability. His acceptance of his role reaches its limit, and he decides to do something that he knows is wrong, against the laws of time. He is the last of the time lords, so he decides that he’s in charge - and the usually friendly doctor becomes arrogant and appears angry. 

The specials end with a two-part episode, ‘The end of time’.  These were apparently broadcast on Christmas Day 2009 and New Year’s Day 2010. That would account for Christmas decorations being in evidence on the first part, and mention of the new year in the second. But they’re not typical ‘holiday’ episodes. Instead, they’re a dramatic end to David Tennant’s role as the 10th doctor.

In part one of ‘The end of time’, the Master is resurrected, in a somewhat bizarre and disturbing form. He has extra powers, but sometimes he appears as a skull. He is excessively hungry, attacking food in a rather gross and very greedy way; it’s implied that he also eats people if he can’t get other food. 

What I liked best about these episodes is that the Doctor reunites with Wilf (Bernard Cribbins) who turns out to be a very significant person. I love his sense of humour and the joking friendship he has with the Doctor. It was also nice to see Donna, although it was essential she should not remember anything about her travels. 

I’m not sure I entirely followed the storyline, which includes a ‘gate’ (supposedly harmless) which the Master reprograms. It also includes episodes showing the Time Lords, who were supposedly lost permanently in the time vortex. Timothy Dalton is excellent as their leader. The episode ends with the Master changing everyone on earth (with a couple of exceptions) into clones of himself.  

Part two of ‘The end of time’ is faster-paced with a lot of chase scenes and a storyline that becomes increasingly more confusing. The Doctor and Wilf are rescued, and we learn that the Time Lords are responsible for the constant beat in the Master’s head, which is driving him crazy. 

One has to put aside any kind of logic with this show, and accept that the progression of time is - as the Doctor said once - a ‘big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff’. So the world - indeed the entire universe, and time itself - are due to end. But, obviously, they don’t. I didn’t follow the processes, but it’s all very well done even if I had to hide my eyes a few times, when the action became too fast.

At the end, it’s clear that the Doctor is going to regenerate - it’s no surprise as he’s been expecting it since the end of Series Four. He keeps going longer than would be expected, surviving several near-death experiences. And I particularly liked what he called his ‘reward’ - revisiting former companions and loved ones, seeing how they were doing. 

David Tennant is a great actor, and never more so than this final episode when we see him in many different moods. He is angry and also grieving about the fact that regeneration is not just like changing skin. It’s the end of his personality, even if in another sense he will continue living. 

Each DVD of this box set features just one episode of about an hour, and a good number of ‘extras’. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the Doctor Who confidential documentaries, a few deleted scenes, and other random extra features. 

Highly recommended if you like watching Doctor Who, and particularly if the tenth doctor is one of your favourites.  The rating for most of these is PG which reflects the lack of any nudity, sexual content or 'strong' language. But there's inevitably a lot of tension and some violence, so it's not recommended for a sensitive child. I don't think I'd want to show it to children under the age of about ten or eleven, even though, back in the 1960s and 1970s, Doctor Who was billed as a children's TV programme.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who complete fourth series (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

We finished rewatching series 3 of Doctor Who in early April, and then didn’t watch anything for a couple of weeks while our family visited. Finally, at the end of the month we began series 4, which opens with the Christmas special that was first broadcast in December 2007. 

The title of the special episode is ‘Voyage of the damned’, and it’s over an hour long. We had mostly forgotten it, as we last watched series 4 in 2013. It features an apparently traditional Christmas party on a spaceship which has the unfortunate name of ‘Titanic’. The doctor befriends one of the waitresses, called Astrid (Kylie Minogue in a one-off performance) as strange things start happening.

It didn’t seem particularly Christmassy, other than the opening, but Astrid was well cast, and an excellent assistant to the Doctor (David Tennant in his third series as the tenth Doctor). There’s a lot of fast action and it’s quite sad as well as dramatic. I recognised Geoffrey Palmer as the ship’s captain, and also a cameo role for Bernard Cribbins as Wilf, selling newspapers when some of the group briefly visit London. 

It was a couple of weeks later when we watched the next episode, ‘Partners in crime’. It’s much more light-hearted, and despite its widespread low rating, it’s one of my favourite stories. Donna (Catherine Tate) reappears in this, and there’s quite a bit of situational humour as she and the Doctor keep missing each other, neither aware that the other is nearby. They are both, independently, concerned about a new product designed to reduce fat. 

I wasn’t sure about Donna when we first saw this series, after the excellent Martha. But I very much appreciated the repartee between her and the Doctor this time around. I also recognised that their relationship as platonic friends is rather healthier than that of Rose and Martha, both of whom had major crushes on the Doctor (reciprocated, apparently, in Rose’s case). 

Episode Three is also one which I very much liked seeing again. Donna agrees to travel to somewhere in known history, and the Doctor believes they have landed in ancient Rome. But they’re in Pompeii, on the eve of the eruption of Vesuvius. Peter Capaldi appears in this episode as the Roman Catullus, father of a rebellious teenage son, and a daughter who is being primed to be part of a religious group. Several women can ‘see’ into the future, quite accurately. But none of them are aware of the imminent eruption… 

This episode is very well done, with authentic Roman costumes and sets, and some humour which transpires when Donna tries to use actual Latin words. And the Doctor has to make an almost impossible decision, as well as a more personal one, where he is persuaded by Donna to change history a little bit.

Episode Four is more serious, set far in the future on the planet of the Ood. The Ood seem particularly subservient, yet something is going wrong, as a few of them apparently turn rogue. It’s quite a thought-provoking episode, touching metaphorically on the subject of servants vs slaves, with some fast action and some quite emotive scenes. 

That’s followed by ‘The Sontaran Strategem’, a tense two-part story, which concludes with ‘The poison sky’. Martha Jones (the Doctor’s companion in Series Three) gets in touch with him, wanting a raid on a suspicious factory. It has been supplying a new kind of navigation system, but several people who were using it have died. There’s a storyline alongside this, involving a strict boarding school, supposedly for brilliant people, which is run by a most unpleasant young man called Luke. 

The first part ends with a cliff-hanger so I was glad that we could see the second part immediately afterwards. It’s quite a stressful story, but cleverly done. And I liked the way that Martha came into her own again - and is taken at the end, so that she can have another adventure.

I really liked the next episode, ‘The doctor’s daughter’, where both Donna and Martha travel with the Doctor. His ‘daughter’ is generated from his DNA, and I enjoyed it all the more knowing that this attractive young woman, known as ‘Jenny’, ended up in ‘real life’ as David Tennant’s wife. 

Martha leaves at the end of this episode, which is emotional and poignant, and the next one sees the Doctor and Donna at an upper-class lunch party in the 1920s. One of the guests is Agatha Christie, who at the time has only written a handful of novels, although they’re becoming well-known. It’s an amusing episode, peppered with references to Christie’s novel titles, and - in theory - explains a mystery that has puzzled her fans for decades.

‘Silence in the library’ starts another two-parter, entirely set in a planet-sized library in the 51st century. It’s a bit spooky, and we thought very well done. This is the episode where the Doctor first meets River Song, whose time-line apparently runs in the opposite direction from his. We knew, from having seen this and subsequent series before, who she was; but the story behind her involvement with the Doctor still feels rather bewildering. 

‘Midnight’ is an episode where Donna is lying on a sun-lounger in a luxury hotel, and plays almost no part in the story. The doctor, and a handful of other people, are en route to a visitor attraction known as a sapphire fountain. They’re a mixed bunch of people, some of whom have done the trip before. So nobody expects the shuttle to stop, and a rather scary knocking to begin… 

‘Midnight’ is what became unofficially known as a ‘companion-lite’ episode, since it mainly featured the Doctor without Donna. The following episode, ‘Turn left’, is a ‘doctor-lite’ episode, almost all about Donna. The Doctor appears only briefly at the beginning and the end. 

'Turn left' is something of a surreal episode - even more so than most of this series! - beginning with a palm reader who offers Donna a free reading. She asks for some history about why she started travelling with him, and poses a question: what would have happened if she had turned right, rather than left, on a day when she was going to a job interview. 

The story then has brief cameos of many of the earlier episodes in the series, showing what would have happened if Donna had not rescued the Doctor in ‘The Runaway Bride’, at the start of Series 3. I quite enjoyed the reminders of some of the stories, and the alternative reality that would have taken place if the Doctor had not been around to avert multiple crises. And if that isn’t bizarre enough, the Doctor’s earlier companion Rose, who is in a different universe, keeps appearing to talk to Donna… 

And then there’s a dramatic, exciting two-part ending to this series, episodes 12 and 13. We watched them one after the other, ensuring we had plenty of time. The Doctor and Donna arrive on Earth on what seems like a normal day… and then, a few minutes later, the entire planet has vanished. I’m not sure I entirely followed the plot, but essentially a load of planets from around the universe have been hijacked. This is part of a domination strategy by some of the worst of the classic alien enemies.

I found some of it quite scary, with a bit too much fast action. But what I did like is that these episodes draw together several people from the Doctor’s past. Rose has crossed back from the dimension where she had ended up, Martha is involved too. Jack Harkness gets in on the act, as does Sarah Jane and her teenage son. And there are appearances from Rose’s mother Jackie and her former boyfriend Mickey. And even the former prime minister Harriet Jones has a small but very significant role.

There are a good number of extras in our DVD box set, and we watched most of the ones that shared a DVD with the episodes. They give some good insights into the making of the series, and we particularly enjoyed the one that gave an overview of the first four series of the ‘new’ Doctor Who, and it’s popular revival.

All in all, I liked this series very much. But then David Tennant is unquestionably my favourite of the Doctors, and I very much enjoyed Catherine Tate’s portrayal of Donna, with an entirely platonic relationship. I like, too, the fact that the Doctor develops as a character; he's not just a super-hero who arrives on his tardis to fix everything. He makes mistakes, he has regrets, and he has a sense of humour. There's a lot of poignancy in this series, and a lot of happiness too.

Definitely recommended.  Rated 12, probably due to some of the violence and tense situations. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's DVD Reviews

Good Omens (David Tennant, Michael Sheen)

(Amazon UK link)

Although it’s twenty-five years since I last read the excellent book ‘Good Omens’ by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, I remembered that I liked it very much. So when I saw that it had been serialised on film, with David Tennant as one of the main characters, I knew I wanted to see it. It took a while for it to be available, but eventually I put it on my wishlist. I was given a blu-ray edition for Christmas, and we have been watching one episode per week over the past six weeks. 

I was pleased to see that, at least as far as I recall, it was remarkably true to the original. It opens in the garden of Eden; the snake tempts Eve, and she and Adam are cast out. Then we see the demon Crawley (David Tennant) discussing things seriously with the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen). Aziraphale has given away his flaming sword, which he uses to guard the garden, and both are wondering if they did the right thing…

The main action moves to the end of the 20th century, and the birth of a baby. Crawley is told to deliver the antichrist to a particular couple; but things go awry, as in the book. Crawley and Aziraphale keep a watch on a normal human boy who mostly ignores them. The actual antichrist is given to another couple who bring him up as an ordinary child. Adam is a likeable boy, on the whole, with leadership skills and three close friends. 

Subsequent episodes backtrack somewhat through history, showing Crawley and Aziraphale meeting each other at significant points - Noah taking the animals on board the ark, for instance. I did feel slightly uncomfortable at a scene portraying Jesus’ crucifixion, which I don’t feel should be treated with even mild humour. But then Crawley asks what he did, to deserve such a terrible punishment, and Aziraphale responds, ‘He told people to be kind to each other’. As a theological statement it’s surprisingly profound. 

There’s another thread involving a woman called Anathema who is the descendant of a witch called Agnes Nutter. Agnes was burned at the stake, but left behind a book of accurate prophecies. These lead to several amusing moments, as things written hundreds of years earlier are oddly appropriate to the modern era.

Over the centuries, Crowley and Aziraphale adapt more and more to human life. And in the era when Adam is growing up in the countryside, Aziraphale owns an antiquarian bookshop. Crowley is more interested in classic cars, which he drives at a breathtaking speed. And while they profess loathing for each other, it’s clear that they have a sort of unwilling friendship.

Everything is moving towards Armageddon, so we also see the horsemen of the apocalypse preparing to ride… and every so often there are placards announcing how near we are to the end of the world…

It’s all very much reminiscent of the book; the only parts I didn’t recall were some forays that Aziraphale makes into the heavenly realms, where other angels are portrayed as not particularly nice characters. I thought that was a bit of a strange touch. Evidently I need to read the book again soon. 

The acting is excellent, and the production very well done with great use of special effects alongside believable (in context) people. When I read the book I found the storylines, running alongside each other, a tad confusing at times. In this film version it all works well and makes more sense. Having said that, I would probably have found it somewhat bewildering if I wasn’t already familiar with the story. 

We have been watching Doctor Who series 4 with David Tennant in the title role over the same period, and I wondered if I would sometimes find the overlap disturbing. But he’s such a good actor that I mostly forgot that he was anyone other than the demon Crawley, adapting to human life. I don’t think I’d seen Michael Sheen in a production before, but he was also excellent as the slightly nervous, uncertain angel who really wanted to do the right thing, and to be left alone with his books.

The rating is 12, which is about right, in my opinion. There are a few potentially disturbing scenes, and a handful of instances of bad language. There are innuendoes, too, and a couple of scenes showing a couple in bed together, though covered with sheets and just talking. The entire theme isn't really appropriate for younger children anyway. 

I know a second series was made of ‘Good Omens’, though it doesn’t seem to be available on DVD or blu-ray. But I don’t know that I want to see it. This first series covers the events in the book, and seems to me to be complete in itself without the need for anything else. 

However, I would recommend this original (first) series highly. If you do buy it, make sure it's in English if that's your preferred language, or that it has English options. Our set is an Italian one, but has the option of English too. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who, complete third series (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

It wasn’t quite the end of the Christmas season when we started watching Doctor Who series 3. It begins with the ‘Christmas special’ which was first broadcast on December 25th 2006. We saw it in 2012 and I had entirely forgotten the storyline. 

It begins with a wedding. Donna (Catherine Tate) is walking up the aisle in her wedding dress, on her father’s arm. She’s clearly very much looking forward to being married, but suddenly she disappears… and ends up on the tardis. The tenth doctor (David Tennant) is bewildered as this should be impossible, and the two have a bit of an argument…

It’s a remarkably tense episode, in my view, with an alien that could lead to nightmares, the empress of the racnoss. And the references to Christmas are rather scanty, although there are a few light-hearted moments to punctuate the tension. The Santa robots of the series two Christmas special appear again, as this begins a year later, on Christmas Eve. I knew that Donna was one of the tenth doctor’s travelling companions, but she doesn’t accept his invitation in this episode, which seems to have been a one-off.

The first official episode of the series, ‘Smith and Jones’ introduces Martha (Freema Agyeman) as Martha Jones, a trainee doctor whose hospital unexpectedly ends up on the moon. The Doctor is a patient who knows something strange is going on. Martha saves his life, and he offers her just one trip in the tardis to the past, to convince her that he really does travel in time.

‘The Shakespeare Code’ is the second episode, where the Doctor and Martha travel to Elizabethan England and a production of a Shakespeare play that isn’t going as the author expects. It’s a bit creepy, but overall a light-hearted episode with some humour, and more than one nod to the Harry Potter series. I always like the episodes set in real historic periods. 

When they solve the problems and return to the tardis, they travel a long way into the future. ‘Gridlock’ sees the Doctor and Martha travelling to ‘New Earth’, where just about everyone is trapped in a huge traffic jam. They haven’t been stuck for hours, but, in may cases, months or even years. And attempts to go in the ‘fast track’ are doomed… 

Episodes four and five are a two-parter featuring the daleks, one of my least liked of the alien races. Just four daleks remain after the time war, and they seem to be looking to the future, trying to integrate better with humanity. But daleks are built for hatred, and they care nothing for the people they hijack to be part of their purposes. These were good episodes, although there are a lot of casualties.  

Episode six is, on the surface, a bit lighter, but it’s also very thought-provoking. The doctor takes Martha home, just a day after she left. And it looks as though it will be ‘goodbye’, although she feels devastated. But the Doctor happens to hear something on television, and this prompts him to investigate. We meet Martha’s mother and sister, and the idealistic Dr Lazarus who believes he has found the secret to eternal youth - or, at least, to reducing his age. But at what cost? 

I didn’t like episode seven, called ‘42’. The Doctor and Martha arrive on a spaceship which is hurtling towards the sun. There’s quite an interesting underlying storyline, but I found it very stressful as the time gradually clicks down, and the characters have to race through doors, solving codes, or rush around making adjustments to the controls. Too much fast action and stress for my tastes, and I closed my eyes several times so as not to be distracted by the rapid visuals. 

On the other hand, I did like the two-part story of episodes eight and nine, set mainly in a school. The first time we saw this, we realised just how good an actor David Tennant is, managing flawlessly to portray himself in two different personas. There are some quite creepy parts of these episodes, but it’s primarily character-based and I liked them very much. 

We decided to skip episode ten, ‘Blink’. I’m aware it’s considered one of the very best of the new Doctor Who series, but both of us find the weeping angels just a bit too disturbing. So we missed it out, and instead saw episode eleven, ‘Utopia’, with the time-travelling, apparently immortal Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) reappearing and flirting with Martha. He adds a bit of extra fun to his episodes, and the dynamics between the three characters are excellent.

What we didn't realise is that episode eleven is in fact the first of a three-parter... but it was late, so we left it another week.  Finally we watched episodes twelve and thirteen, where a prediction made by the dying ‘Face of Bo’ is uncovered. I liked the way that there’s what they call a ‘story arc’ moving through all the episodes, so that something mentioned in an earlier one could be revealed much later. 

There’s ongoing tension as Martha’s mother reports any phone calls to some officials, convinced the Doctor is dangerous. And there are a lot of scenes involving one or more of Martha’s family, when she and the Doctor are on earth. I had almost forgotten that the new, controlling prime minister is also an old enemy... John Simms is excellent in the role. 

Overall we thought this an excellent series. I liked Martha very much as a companion and was a sorry that she only did this one season. There are a few ‘extras’ throughout our DVD set, including some of David Tennant’s video diaries that go behind the scenes in interesting ways. Then there’s a final entire DVD with longer documentary-style extras, covering the background of several of the episodes. For anyone interested in some of the filming and production, these are well worth seeing. 

Definitely recommended. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who series 2 (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

We finished watching the first 21st century series of Doctor Who (with Christopher Eccleston in the title role) in mid October. So it was time to move on to Series 2. We found these DVDs individually in a thrift store, more than twelve years ago. So we don’t actually have a box set as such, which means there are no ‘extras’. But that isn’t really a problem. I don’t think we even noticed the lack the first time we watched them, early in 2012. 

The first DVD has just two episodes, including the Christmas special which introduced the new Doctor; the others each have three episodes.

The Christmas invasion

This ‘special’, introducing David Tennant as the 10th doctor, was shown on Christmas Day 2005. We first see Rose’s mother Jackie (Camille Coduri) preparing a Christmas meal. She does so rather poignantly, as she thinks about her missing daughter. Then she hears the sound of the tardis, and her hopes rise..

Rose (Billie Piper) emerges with the doctor, who, of course, Jackie doesn’t recognise. And he’s very weak from the regeneration. I don’t recall that happening with subsequent doctors; not as seriously as this, anyway. He’s in a coma in Jackie’s flat while Rose and her boyfriend Mickey (Noel Clarke) become involved with some very stressful attacks from ‘Santa’ robots. 

It turns out that the robots are scouts for some dangerous aliens in a spaceship who want to destroy a significant number of the world’s population. The one scene I had remembered from our previous viewing of this episodes was thousands of people, walking like zombies, right to the edge of the roof of high-rise flats. As one with a phobia of heights, the thought of this was quite terrifying. 

I liked seeing Penelope Wilton as the prime minister in this episode, taking her role very seriously in a way that made us smile. I also very much enjoyed seeing David Tennant, when he finally gets over his coma. At first he acts a lot like Christopher Eccleston in his smiles, his manner of speaking and his way of relating to Rose. Naturally he solves the problem, and it seems that everything is ending happily until Harriet makes a decision that the Doctor is very annoyed about...

New Earth

The second episode on the first DVD sees the Doctor and Rose travel many thousand years into the future, to a ‘new’ earth - created after the first one was destroyed (shown in series one, episode two). They are relaxing in clean air, looking at happy people and flying cars… and they’re being stalked by a mechanical spider, controlled by someone who wants to know why they are there.

The one thing I recalled from this episode is a hospital manned by feline nurses. I hadn’t remembered anything else about who they meet, or the very disturbing way in which the nurses were managing to cure even the most lethal or dangerous of diseases. It’s an exciting episode, one where both David Tennant and Billie Piper have to demonstrate a bit of extra acting talent (which they do extremely well). 

Tooth and Claw

The first episode on the second DVD in the series is very well done, we thought. It’s a historical one, set in 1979 Scotland, rather than 1979, where the tardis had planned to travel. This episode features an excellent Queen Victoria (Pauline Collins). She is temporarily staying in a stately home where something terrifying is going on... 

School Reunion

The second episode on the second DVD starts off a bit lighter. It features The Doctor as a new physics teacher in a school where strange things have been happening. Rose's boyfriend Micky is involved, and although some of this episode is a bit gross, we still thought it was very well done.

The Girl in the Fireplace

The next episode has a clever and rather involved plot. It involves a mixture of a spaceship and characters in 18th century France, including some who were real people. There are also mechanical 'people' who are rather spooky but, once again, this is an excellent episode. The ones involving historical characters are some of my favourites.

The second DVD could stand alone, and might be a good introduction to Doctor Who if someone didn’t want to start at the beginning. We like re-watching them in order, as there are recurring characters and mentions of previous situations.

Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel 

The third DVD begins with a two-parter, which we watched in one evening. I really don’t like leaving these episodes on a cliff-hanger, and there was a very dramatic one at the end of the first part. 

I never did like the cybermen. It turns out, in this story, that they are taking over a parallel universe where the Doctor and Rose have landed, accidentally, through a breach, in the equivalent of London. The tardis has to recharge before they can leave. Rose finds that her father isn't just alive in this universe, but has become a big star. And he seems to have some connection with the big businessman who wants to 'upgrade' everyone into cyberpeople.

Then Rose's boyfriend Micky, also travelling in the tardis, is mistaken for his parallel person Ricky. These episodes are quite chilling, disturbing at times, but I very much liked the human interest parts, and thought they were extremely well done.

The Idiot’s Lantern

Episode 7 of the series, last on the third DVD, is set in London (in the normal universe) in 1953. The Queen is about to be crowned, and people are keen to get televisions. But some areas seem to have a huge number of TVs for the era. One particular salesman is making far more sales than would be expected.

There are bizarre disappearances, and something strange and disturbing happens to people who watch TV…

This episode is lighter than the Cybermen two-parter, with a positive ending. It’s also quite thought-provoking, although the usual dangers of too much screen-time are not as excessive as those portrayed in this episode!

We didn't watch the next two episodes on this DVD, either the first time we saw Series 2, or more recently. One of our sons had warned us that if we found cybermen scary, we would have nightmares from this two-part episode. I did read about them, and decided we would avoid them.  It was interesting to learn that they tell a story where the Ood race are introduced - the gentle, servant-hearted aliens who appear in future episodes.

Love and Monsters

The third episode on the fourth DVD, 10th in series 2, is quite light-hearted, with one or two scenes that made us smile. Rose's mother Jackie is involved, and the story is told by a young man called Elton who is filming a video in vlog format about his experiences. He and a group of four other people were involved in researching all they could about The Doctor, but gradually they started doing other things together, and became quite close. 

Then they're taken over by a very controlling man who - as is clear from the start - is not who he appears to be. He tries to make them focus on their ‘real’ purpose, and does so in highly coercive ways. This episode, like so many others in the series, is  very well made, and the main alien (apparently designed by a schoolboy for a competition) is bizarre enough not to be taken seriously, even though he's very dangerous.

The Doctor and Rose don't come into this episode as much as usual, but we enjoyed it anyway.

Fear her

And so to the final DVD in this series, with the last three episodes. The Doctor takes the tardis to 2012, shortly before the London Olympics, which they are planning to watch. They learn that the street where they arrive is full of fear, as children have been disappearing. It becomes clear to the viewer (though not, at first, to anyone else) that one little girl has strange powers. Whoever she draws will suddenly vanish. 

This, we thought was a very thought-provoking episode. There’s an alien (off screen entirely) who isn’t nearly as disturbing as it first appears. And there’s a human (also off screen) who is much more dangerous than the alien…

Army of Ghosts and Doomsday

Unsurprisingly, this series ends with another two-parter, and once again we watched both parts in one evening. The Doctor and Rose land in London again, only to find that every day some ‘ghosts’ appear. They seem to be harmless and amicable; Rose’s mother Jackie is certain that the one in her kitchen is her long-dead father. The Doctor knows this isn’t right and manages to trace the origin to Torchwood Tower. 

There are cybermen and daleks, infiltrating the world, and potentially leading to its doom. The Doctor manages a last-minute solution, but it means that Rose is forever separated from him, although with her other loved ones. There are some quite emotional scenes towards the end; I was quite engrossed in this story, and found it very moving.

Overall, we enjoyed this series very much. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

Nativity 2: danger in the manger (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

We have over thirty Christmas DVDs, and we like to see at least four or five of them each Christmas season. I pulled out the ones we hadn’t yet seen, or hadn’t seen in a while, and my husband selected ‘Nativity 2: danger in the manger’. We saw this film in December 2014, and I recalled being somewhat unimpressed at the time. It didn’t seem like a worthy sequel to ‘Nativity’, which we thought excellent.

However, we’ve been watching season two of Doctor Who, with David Tennant in the title role. So we thought it might be amusing to see him in the rather different role of classroom teacher in ‘Nativity 2’. And I was interested to see whether I would find it better or worse than I did ten years ago. 

The film opens to a domestic scene. David Tennant plays a young man called Donald Peterson who has just moved house and has a new job. His wife Sarah (Joanna Page) is expecting their first baby. He’s a bit concerned about the school where he’s going to work, but says that the head seems very pleasant, and she has assured him that the children are well-behaved.

The action then moves to the classroom, where Mr Poppy (Marc Wootten), the classroom assistant, is in charge. There have been several teachers replacing the excellent Mr Maddens and we see brief cameos as each one comes into conflict with one or other of Mr Poppy’s wild ideas. The children adore Mr Poppy, but he’s like an overgrown four-year-old and has no concept of boundaries, or of education. He only has the job because the headmistress (Pam Ferris) is his aunt. 

Clearly Mr Poppy should not have the job, despite his relationship to the head. Whereas we found him somewhat amusing in the first Nativity film, he is somewhat irritating in this one. He encourages the children to think they can take part (and win) a singing competition, despite lack of talent, and little time to rehearse. The head refuses permission but Mr Poppy goes ahead and applies. Then, when the day comes for the contest, he uses sneaky methods to get the children away - kidnapping Mr Peterson at the last moment, to accompany them.

The journey to Wales is fraught with mishaps, as might be expected. And it starts to delve into silliness as the ridiculous bus turns into a boat which then runs out of fuel, and the children have to embark on a long walk. Mr Poppy urges them to hurry at times, and insists they take breaks at others. The distance is shown as extremely long, and some of the children have to be carried. But most of them make it without seeming at all tired, and they’re somehow ready to perform when they eventually arrive.

There are some amusing scenes in this film. David Tennant is excellent in his role, so much so that we didn’t even think of him as the Doctor. He is an excellent actor who becomes the person he’s portraying - and we thought of him during this film as the young, rather apprehensive Mr Peterson. At least, we did until the appearance of Donald’s twin brother Roderick, a high-flying and very snooty choirmaster who  also has a competing group. 

They have not spoken to each other in years, and Donald has felt like a failure as their father (Ian McNiece) always favoured Roderick. David Tennant plays Roderick brilliantly, a tad caricatured (but then that's the nature of the film). Moreover, he does this so differently from the way he plays Donald that I sometimes forgot, for a moment, that the same actor was playing both brothers. 

In the last half hour or so of the film we get to see the other acts that are competing, performing their song and dance routines. A couple of them are (deliberately, we assume) pretty bad - twee, schmaltzy and with costumes in bad taste, although the singing and dancing as such is mostly good. Roderick expects to win with his highly trained boys’ choir, dressed as church choristers, and he isn’t averse to a bit of cheating…

And yet, despite the surreal nature of a lot of the film, it’s very well done. The pace is good, the timing is great, and the conversation - most of it improvised rather than scripted - realistic. The humour is somewhat slapstick, but we smiled several times and laughed once or twice. And the finale - which we had completely forgotten, after the concert - is moving, and encouraging, sharing (in a low-key way) the real meaning of Christmas. 

So despite the complete lack of compliance with safeguarding laws, with the head and parents having no idea where the children are, and the annoying nature of Mr Poppy, I liked it rather more than I did last time. David Tennant’s brilliance means I would recommend it on the whole and expect to watch it again in a few years time.  The rating is U which seems about right, although I don't suppose that very young children would find much to interest them in this film. 

There are a couple of extras, including some deleted scenes, on our DVD, which we thought well worth seeing after watching the film. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

I had been looking forward for a while to seeing the Doctor Who 60th anniversary special episodes. I knew - from social media - that the tenth Doctor, David Tennant, was returning for these three episodes. He was my favourite of the ‘new’ series Doctor Who. 

When I heard that Donna (Catherine Tate) was also returning, I was intrigued to know how this was possible. The last time we saw Donna, her memory was altered so she would not remember any of her travels with the Doctor. The alternative was for her to die…

Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor regenerated into David Tennant’s 14th Doctor at the end of the 2022 specials, which we watched in May. I know this was a  surprise when it was first broadcast, since Ncuti Gatwa had been announced as the next Doctor. But since we are not in the UK, we had to wait for the DVDs. So we knew this would happen. 

The 60th Anniversary set contains three DVDs. Each one holds one episode of about an hour, plus a lot of feature ‘specials’. We watched one per week; we didn’t manage all the extra features, but very much appreciated the insights into the production of the show that we saw in the first ones on each disc. 

The Star Beast

The first episode, ‘The Star Beast’, sees the 14th Doctor landing in the UK in the 21st century, only to come across Donna. He tries to hide from her, not wanting to trigger any memories, but inevitably they end up in her house after a spaceship crashes nearby. Years have passed since he last saw her, and she now has a husband and teenage daughter Rose. Rose is clearly very bright, and creative. She meets an alien called The Meep, who reminded me a bit of ET at first…

It’s an exciting story with plenty of twists and turns. There’s fast action at times, but to my surprise I followed the story without problems. In some of the previous episodes, I found the storylines confusing, and had to turn away at some of the shooting scenes. But ‘The Star Beast’ held me captivated, and felt as if it had more of an interesting story than some of the recent series. 

I also loved the way that David Tennant, who is such a great actor, seemed to be channelling some of the quirks and energy that Jodie Whittaker portrayed in her incarnation.  

Wild Blue Yonder

The second episode, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, sees the tardis out of control, taking the Doctor and Donna to the edge of the universe and then abandoning them in what is apparently an empty spaceship. There’s a cute, if rather rusty robot, taking very slow steps in a long corridor. The Doctor tries to figure out what is going on, and it’s quickly clear that there are imperfect copies of both The Doctor and Donna in scenes that are both amusing and rather creepy.

In contrast to the first episode of specials, The Doctor and Donna (and their copies) are the only characters involved and the entire story takes place inside the unknown spaceship. It was fascinating learning how it was created on the first of the features on this DVD. Once again, this is a tense episode, but, as with the first one, I had no trouble following it. I appreciated the asides and conversations that happened, as well as the story itself. 

At the end of the second episode, the tardis manages to return to the UK. They are met by a very frail Wilf, Donna’s grandfather, in what turned out to be the actor Bernard Cribbins’ last appearance. He assures them that the rest of Donna’s family are safe, and asks for help as the world seems to be ending…

The Giggle

The third and final 2023 special, ‘The Giggle’, follows on from that. Life is in chaos because everybody suddenly thinks they are right about everything. Drivers stop obeying traffic laws, pedestrians believe they have the right to walk down the street, people say exactly what they think and want without any filters. Alongside this, we’re taken back to 1925 where a young man buys a puppet from a strange shopkeeper with a fake German accent, who is clearly not who he appears to be. Neil Patrick Harris is superb as The Toymaker, and plays a major part in this episode.

Once again this is an episode with a lot of story; there’s a bit of history involving John Logie Baird and the beginnings of television and a clever plot that, while rather far-fetched, was also straightforward enough for me to follow it. And at the end, while I was sure that Ncuti Gatwa would eventually appear, I was surprised - and pleased - to find that even the regeneration had a twist.

I expected to like these three episodes because of David Tennant and Catherine Tate, and they certainly provided superb leads. It was an unexpected bonus to have such good and memorable stories. They are excellent anniversary specials and I’m so pleased that we finally managed to see them.

We have now caught up, as far as is possible, since the next series is still being broadcast. And ‘The Giggle’ ends with an entirely satisfactory scene which, for me, made it feel almost as if this was the end. I know it isn’t, and that we will, no doubt, continue to acquire further DVDs of Doctor Who. But we’ve decided that, before we do, we’ll re-watch all the ‘new’ series from 2005 onwards.  That’s 150 episodes in all, so if we only watch one per week it will take us three years.

The 60th Anniversary DVD set is excellent, one of my favourites so far. Each episode is complete in itself, but with so much backstory referred to that it would be very confusing to anyone who has not seen at least some of the earlier episodes involving the Tenth Doctor and Donna.

Definitely recommended to anyone who is a fan of Doctor Who.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

What we did on our holiday (David Tennant, Rosamund Pike)

(Amazon UK link)

‘Hilarious British comedy’, the blurb said. One of the stars is David Tennant, who’s pretty good value in anything. The second is Billy Connolly, whom I’ve only recently begun to appreciate as a character actor. The third is Rosamund Pike, who was one of the Bennet sisters in the 2005 version of ‘Pride and Prejudice’. 'What we did on our holiday' was an obvious film to add to my wishlist, and one that I was pleased to be given at Christmas.

We weren’t so certain about it when it started. We meet a family who are clearly under stress. The parents - we quickly learn - are separated, putting on a united front for the sake of an elderly and terminally ill grandparent. The three children are caught up in this, the eldest asking for clear lists of lies which should be told, and what information must not be revealed to the extended family. The youngest, meanwhile, has a passionate attachment to a collection of stones, all of which must travel in the car on their lengthy journey into Scotland.

The journey is long, dogged by traffic and parental bickering. The eventual arrival is overshadowed by the evident frailty of Grandpa, and the shallowness of the children’s uncle, who is organising a huge party to celebrate his father’s imminent 75th birthday.

It’s hardly the theme of a ‘hilarious comedy’. It could have been maudlin, even devastatingly tragic. But somehow it works. The acting is superb, and the characters are believable despite some increasingly bizarre scenes. Even the inevitable tragedy and parental obliviousness manage, somehow, to feed unexpectedly humorous lines and situations.

And yes, we laughed. This was no schadenfreude: our sympathies were with the children. We felt for them in their difficult decisions, and their determination to honour their grandfather. The parents, caught in the middle, with their petty, sometimes selfish concerns, were the ones who were the butt of most of the humour.

The children reminded me forcibly of the three ‘Railway Children’ at times, in the way they pulled together, and their general chemistry. We didn’t watch the extras so I don’t know if their parts were closely scripted or more spontaneous: it doesn’t matter. They were exceptional in their parts, believable as a family unit. They pulled together in the face of unreliable adults, and their comic timing was superb.

I wondered in the early stages - and towards the middle - whether this film would be disappointing, or depressing. But despite the bittersweet and potentially tragic theme, it was a thought-provoking, uplifting, and thoroughly enjoyable film.

Rated 12 for some bad language and innuendoes, and a potentially devastating scene that could disturb younger or more sensitive viewers. But, with those provisoes, I would definitely recommend it. 

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Decoy Bride (David Tennant, Kelly Macdonald, Alice Eve)

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing on Amazon last year, I spotted this DVD in my ‘recommendations’. I assume it was because David Tennant is in one of the main roles, as I knew nothing about either of the other two co-stars. The blurb made it sound interesting, in the light rom-com genre that we enjoy for a relaxing evening in, so it went on my wishlist. I was given it last Christmas, and we watched it last night with our son and a visiting friend.

The story starts with a society wedding that doesn’t go ahead, due to intrusive journalists and photographers. David Tennant is the hopeful groom: he plays the role of an English writer called James, who is engaged to Lara (Alice Eve). She is one of the world’s most desirable and well-known American movie stars.

Lara is quite hot-tempered and wants their wedding to be private, so the wedding planners decide to move the location to Hegg, a (fictional) little-known island in the Hebrides. James has written a long book, supposedly based on Hegg, which makes it sound a lot more appealing than it really is.

Meanwhile on Hegg, we meet Katie, the one unmarried young woman in a population of 75. She has suffered more than one disappointment in love, and has decided to give up on relationships. She has been living elsewhere but has returned to look after her terminally ill mother whose one wish is to travel the world…

Inevitably there are clashes of culture between the gentle Hebrideans and the wealthy, fast-moving wedding party. There are misunderstandings and mistakes which make this gently amusing in places, surprisingly poignant in others. The location is lovely. It's entirely believable as a cold Northern island, although apparently the filming was mainly done in the Isle of Man.

The plot itself becomes a bit unlikely, as Lara goes into hiding and the wedding planners decide to use a ‘decoy’ bride to fool the journalists. They, inevitably, learn about the wedding and arrive in their droves. However, the sequences that follow, without Lara involved, are thoughtfully done with quite a spark of chemistry becoming apparent.

It’s not deep or thought-provoking, other than, perhaps, the glimpse into the lives of the famous that shows how very intrusive and painful media interest can be. But it’s a good story and made an excellent light evening’s watching which we all enjoyed. The ending is, perhaps, a bit too abrupt, but overall we thought it a pleasant film.

It's rated 12 (12A in the US) which seems about right; there are some minor instances of bad language as well as references to ‘adult’ topics; however, there’s no nudity, only mild violence, and nothing explicit. It’s not a storyline that is likely to appeal to anyone under the age of about 14 or 15 in any case.

Recommended. There are no extras on our DVD at all.

Review copyright 2015 Sue's DVD Reviews

Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

We very much enjoyed the film ‘Nativity’ (starring Martin Freeman) about eighteen months ago. It’s schmalzy, and quite silly in places, but it's quite amusing, the children are great, and it has a wonderful feel-good ending. We thought it would make excellent seasonal family viewing.

When I saw that the sequel, ‘Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger’ starred David Tennant, it was the work of a moment to add it to my wishlist, despite a very mixed bunch of reviews on Amazon. I received it for Christmas and we watched it with our adult sons and daughter-in-law...

Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good as the first film. In the original, the harassed class teacher has to come up with a Christmas concert. The school pulls together, the Head is behind him, and the slapstick is mostly caused by his rivalry with a snooty private school nearby. There's a plot, there's development, there's a happy (if schmalzy) ending.

In this film Tennant plays Mr Peterson, the new class teacher. The plot is much more unlikely - and, at times, decidedly worrying. Mr Poppy (Mark Wootton), the irritatingly juvenile classroom assistant, is still around, and this time has been urging the children to audition for a national singing competition in Wales. The school Head has vetoed it, but this does not stop him from egging the children on, and writing a song for them. However there's no real reason for anything, no tension, no story as such. And far too much of Mr Poppy, who only has his job because he's the Head's nephew.

The story then gets sillier (and more worrying still, from a child protection point of view) when the class, unauthorised by the Head, and unknown to their parents, set off for the competition in an extremely odd bus driven by Mr Poppy. Mr Peterson is kidnapped as he tries to stop them, and panics about his wife, who might give birth at any moment...

We were getting annoyed and irritated by the first hour or so of this film, which was not humorous and made little sense. Then we become rather confused when the scene kept switching from the competition - already getting started, in the evening - to the class, staggering across rough ground, up steep hills, down ropes, accompanied by a baby and a donkey… in broad daylight. Without any food or drink, as far as we could see, wearing their costumes, but not getting dirty.

But we kept watching. I'm not entirely sure why. But finally we were rewarded: the last half hour was a great deal better. We very much enjoyed David Tennant playing a dual role superbly; we also quite liked the other choirs singing and dancing (although some of the implications of lyrics were not 'U' rated in my view). It made no sense that the starring school, despite their traumatic journey, and apparently no real rehearsals, absolutely stole the show. But then, we knew that was going to happen - and they did it very well, on the whole.

We also liked the unexpectedly warm (if schmalzy and clichéd) ending that brought the real meaning of Christmas back into focus, albeit briefly.

But I'd rather have re-watched the original; this one is a poor imitation and I wouldn't really recommend it.

Review copyright 2014 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

It was not until we reached the end of Doctor Who Series 4 (starring David Tennant) a few months ago that I realised that Series 5 opened with Matt Smith established as the famous time lord. We had expected him to regenerate at the end of Series 4, but he didn’t. Research led me to the revelation that series 4 was mostly broadcast in 2008; series 5 not until 2010.  In the intervening year, there was no full series; instead, fans were treated to five longer ‘special’ episodes, as found in this box set.

The first episode, 'The Next Doctor', is a ‘Christmas Special’ broadcast in December 2008. The Doctor is in England in the middle of the 19th century, and meets someone else claiming to the ‘the Doctor’.  He has a sonic screwdriver - of sorts - and even a tardis, though it looks a little different from the usual police box... Meanwhile, the Cybermen are kidnapping children, and the two Doctors - naturally - sort this out.

The second episode, ‘Planet of the Dead’, was shown as an Easter Special in 2009.  There’s a rather cool upper class jewel thief, Lady Christina, who joins the Doctor on a bus as it travels through a wormhole to a strangely deserted planet. They have to figure out what’s going on, while experts back on earth try to work out how to get the bus back again without killing all the passengers.

The third ‘special’, 'The Waters of Mars', is more violent than the earlier two, and has some rather scary implications. The Doctor finds himself on Mars, meeting people he knows about from archive news stories.  He also knows that something terrible is going to happen, but - he claims - cannot do anything to change the course of history. In the meantime, something terrifying is happening to members of the crew...

The ‘specials’ end with a two-part episode, 'The End of Time', in which we finally have to say goodbye to David Tenant. It’s fast-paced and exciting, with the background of a prophecy by the Ood (from a previous series), and the regeneration of the evil time lord known as The Master, in a scene oddly reminiscent of Lord Voldemort’s regeneration in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. While it was undoubtedly thrilling in places, and quite moving in others, I felt that this double episode was a bit over-long, and could probably have been condensed into just one episode.

David Tennant is excellent in this entire series, evidently determined to go out as one of the most memorable Doctors. His acting ability shines through, to the extent that the character even becomes a little scary at times with a tendency towards playing God which was a little at odds with the previous series.

In addition to the main episodes, each of the five DVDs in this box set comes with a ‘Doctor Who Confidential’, a documentary about the making of the episode; one that we very much enjoyed was about ‘Planet of the Dead’. It explained how the production team managed to transport a double decker London bus to a desert in Dubai... and the problems that hit unexpectedly! Well worth seeing.

Definitely recommended if you like Doctor Who (or, indeed, David Tennant), but I wouldn't necessarily suggest this box set as an introduction to the series if you are unfamiliar with it.

It's quite expensive for what it is in the UK - only a couple of pounds cheaper than the full 13-episode series box sets - and decidedly over-priced in the US (at the time of writing).

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who, the complete Fourth series (David Tennant, Catherine Tate)

(Amazon UK link)

Long before we reached the end of Doctor Who series Three, I had put Series Four on my wishlist, and was given it for my birthday last year. So we were able to start watching Series Four almost immediately. But with lack of time and other commitments, it has taken us about six months to complete it.

Season Four is the last full season with David Tennant as the Doctor. There is a great first episode featuring Kylie Minogue, of all people, as a waitress called Astrid. She would have made a good companion to the Doctor - they got along extremely well - but alas, it was not to be.

Donna - Catherine Tate - appears in episode Two (out of fourteen in all), a quirky and somewhat amusing one featuring some weight loss pills, and the cute aliens known as adipose (which can now be bought as Doctor Who Adipose Plush). Donna had appeared briefly in the Christmas Special at the start of Series Three, but had been absent from the show since then.

I didn't much like Donna at first. She seemed a bit feeble and not particularly intelligent. However, her lack of romantic interest in the Doctor was quite refreshing, after Rose and Martha, and she grew in confidence as the series progressed. By the last few episodes she had become - as another companion put it - the most important person in creation. By the final exciting two-part episodes Donna had shown herself to be a loyal and brilliant companion... which made her eventual departure from the show, in the last episode, really rather sad in the way that it happened.

There are threads running through this whole series which make it more complicated than the old ones I used to watch from behind the sofa. Yet there are still quite a mixture - from the cuddly Adipose to the terrifying Vashta Nerada, not to mention the ancient daleks with their battle cry 'exterminate'. Daleks still make me shudder and want to hide, like I did as a child.

Lots of companions re-appear in this series, including one from the Doctor's future (should that be 'pre-appear?') in a spooky episode involving a vast library, some terrifyingly tiny aliens, and a small girl. Then there's a delightfully light-weight episode featuring Agatha Christie (at a house-party hosted by a society lady played by Felicity Kendall) and a script which includes a large number of titles of Agatha Christie's books. There's a giant wasp, too, which could have been terrifying but somehow didn't ever feel quite real.

David Tennant is brilliant throughout. It's hard to imagine how he can ever be bettered.

The final DVD - out of six - contains a wonderful documentary, seeing into the lives of those involved in the show, with script-reading, filming and post-production.

All in all, this is great stuff and we are now complete fans of Doctor Who. I just wish I had known sooner that there are some extra episode from 2009 which are chronologically between Series Four and Series Five. I was given Series Five for Christmas, but we need to get hold of these specials before we can move on to see Matt Smith as Doctor...

Definitely recommended. Rated 12, which seems about right, as the storylines are complex and some of the ideas are scary, even if the violence is relatively mild compared to much of what passes as entertainment these days. No nudity or sex, unsurprisingly, and only a few instances of minor bad language.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint)

(Amazon UK link)

Having decided to collect the Harry Potter DVDs and watch them, over a period of several months, we finally sat down to the fourth in the series on Sunday evening.

'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' is my least favourite of the books in the series. I haven't read it since 2005, but could remember most of the important plot points. It starts with some clear evidence of 'he-who-shall-not-be-named' seeking dark methods of returning to power. This is followed by the world Quidditch match, which doesn't much interest me. Most of the book, once the students have returned to Hogwarts, deals with the Tri-Wizard tournament - dangerous tasks between representatives of three different schools.

The ending of this book is particularly unpleasant and much darker than the previous novels; I didn't like it either of the times I had read it, and was not at all keen on seeing it on screen.

Still, the film is very well done, in my view. It keeps close to the plot of the book (or as much as I can remember, anyway) while - inevitably - cutting out some sequences, and cutting down on others. It's two and a half hours long, and quite intense. I felt myself quite tense at times. Some of the action scenes were so rapid that I had to close my eyes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I deliberately didn't watch most of the climax at the end, knowing what was coming. Just listening was more than sufficient - and it was well done.

The three main actors - Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione, and Rupert Grint as Ron - were clearly growing with their roles, and did very well portraying 14-year-old teenagers, sometimes moody and suspicious, sometimes emotional, beginning to show an interest in the opposite sex. This facet isn't overdone at all; the film's 12 rating (US: PG-13) is no doubt due to the somewhat dark theme - even though actual violence is not extreme. A sensitive child could find it very frightening.

I don't watch enough movies to have got fully used to the way that actors pop up all over the place, sometimes in similar roles, but - more disturbingly - sometimes very different. Maggie Smith is excellent, as ever, as Professor McGonagall; we've been watching 'Downton Abbey' and were a little bemused by her being a dowager countess in that, but the characters are not dissimilar.

Robert Hardy as the Minister for Magic was a bit strange - we knew him better as Siegfried Farnon in 'All Creatures Great and Small' - but I was at least expecting that. However, we both found it quite disturbing that David Tennant - the wonderful Doctor Who - appeared as the evil Barty Crouch...

I think I would recommend this film overall, to anyone who likes the books or has seen the earlier films. It would rather be confusing for anyone who knew nothing about Harry Potter, however.

Reviews of the other Harry Potter films:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 2)

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews