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 1 (Christopher Eccleston)

(Amazon UK link)

Although the 21st century Doctor Who revival started in 2005, we didn’t watch the first series until 2011. Since then we have gradually acquired DVDs of the various seasons and ‘specials’. We finally caught up with ourselves in June this year, when we saw the 60th anniversary specials that followed the 13th series, ‘Flux’. At that stage, there were no more DVDs to be bought. 

So we decided that we would re-watch from the beginning, starting in the middle of August when we were both back in Cyprus after travelling. It’s going to be a lengthy process, watching Doctor Who one evening per week, so we agreed that sometimes we would watch two episodes in an evening. 

Disc One

The first episode of Season One, just called ‘Rose’, is, I thought, very well done. We first meet a young woman (Billie Piper) who works in a big department store. At the end of the day, she has to take something down to the basement… and very peculiar things start happening with the display mannequins. Then her hand is grabbed by a strange man, who rushes her away and saves her. Christopher Eccleston tells her he is ‘The Doctor’, and leaves her to go home. 

But he hasn’t stopped the danger. Rose’s boyfriend Mickey (Noel Clark) is somehow assimilated and cloned, and once again the Doctor comes to the rescue - although Rose has to rescue him, too. Little bits of information about the Doctor are cleverly introduced for the benefit of anyone who was not familiar with the series before. It’s a dramatic episode, with a bit of humour here and there to lighten the mood.

The second episode, ‘The End of the World’ sees the Doctor taking Rose several billion years into the future, to the moment half an hour before the Earth is due to be destroyed. They arrive on a spaceship with many different representatives of a variety of alien races, including the last ‘human’, Lady Cassandra. She has had so many surgeries to preserve her essence that she looks nothing like a human. Inevitably there are more dangers, and sabotage, and more information about the Doctor is revealed, including the fact that his own planet (Gallifrey) no longer exists.

In the third episode, the Doctor takes Rose to the 19th century where they discover an alien force trying to take over the bodies of people who had recently died. I found it  a bit disturbing at first, but the episode is lightened by their meeting with Charles Dickens. He is played to perfection by Simon Callow, who apparently loves Dickens, and has acted his character many times. The ‘extras’ on the first DVD mention that the Doctor has not previously been shown with historical figures, although in the previous incarnations he sometimes mentioned having met them. Historical figures play a significant role in many of the later ‘new’ seasons: I had not realised that the 20th century episodes did not include these. 

Disc Two

The second DVD in our box set has three episodes. It’s a good thing we allowed the time to watch two of them, as the first two are a dual-part episode. ‘Aliens of London’ begins with Rose discovering that she’s been away for longer than expected. Then a spaceship crash-lands in the Thames, after destroying the clock face of Big Ben. This is the episode where the ‘Slitheen’ are introduced. I found them quite scary when we first saw them, thirteen years ago. This time they looked rather dated, and much less intimidating. 

There’s some humour in the episode as well as tension, and it ends on such a cliffhanger that I would have wanted to see the sequel at once, even if it had been late. That episode, ‘World War Three’, resolves the issue, as we expected. It also includes some good scenes with Rose’s mother Jackie (Camille Coduri) and also her boyfriend Mickey. Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) is introduced, as a backbencher with political ambitions. We thought she was excellent, providing some of the light relief as well as aiding in the eventual solution. 

I was not looking forward to Episode Six (third on the second DVD), simply entitled ‘Dalek’. Of all the Doctor Who enemies, the daleks are the ones who terrify me the most. But it was a very good episode. The Doctor and Rose land in a kind of museum of aliens, and discover the final dalek in existance. It is being tested and tortured to try to make it speak, but only in the presence of the Doctor does it find its voice. By the end, I almost (though not quite) found myself feeling sorry for this dalek… 

Disc Three

The third DVD begins with episode Seven, ‘The Long Game’, which features a satellite populated with humans many thousands of years in the future. They are apparently all happy, and are broadcasting news around the universe. I had vaguely remembered some of what transpired; it’s perhaps a warning not to accept the status quo, and to be suspicious of ‘promotion’ which nobody is allowed to speak about.

‘Father’s Day’ is the next episode, one I thought particularly engaging. Rose asks to go back in time to the day her father died. She’s warned about the dangers of time travel to one’s own past, and that it might be traumatic for her. But the Doctor doesn’t take into account Rose’s emotional reaction to seeing her father hit by a car. And then it becomes rather disturbing, with results quite at odds with the principles established in the very different ‘Quantum Leap’ series. But I very much liked the background into Rose’s life, and the scenes involving her mother Jackie.

It’s a good thing we had plenty of time the following week when we watched ‘The Empty Child’, another episode that’s full of human interest. The Doctor and Rose arrive in London during the Blitz, to find odd things happening after a strange object landed near a hospital. Jack Harkness, another time traveller from the distant future, is introduced in this episode. I recalled him appearing every so often throughout the series, with a mixed kind of relationship with the Doctor and his companions. John Barrowman is excellent as a charming rogue who rather bewitches Rose, and makes the Doctor oddly jealous.

That episode ended on such a cliffhanger that we immediately watched its sequel,’The Doctor Dances’. Again there’s a lot of human interaction and some insights into the London Blitz. For instance, we see a young girl, stealing from wealthy houses during air raids in order to feed hungry boys. And the conclusion of this double episode was, we both thought, very well done and entirely satisfactory. 

Disc Four

The fourth DVD in our box set contains the last three episodes of Series One. The first, ‘Boom Town’ takes place in Cardiff. The Doctor, Rose and Jack think they’re just relaxing for a few hours while the Tardis recharges. But it’s quite a stressful episode, featuring an alien whom the Doctor thought had been fully destroyed. There are some interesting exchanges and it’s impossible to know who can be trusted. There’s also some emotional turmoil as Rose catches up with her former boyfriend Mickey.

Then there’s another two-parter to end the series: ‘Bad Wolf’ and ‘The Parting of the Ways. The Doctor, Jack and Rose are back on the satellite of episode Seven, a hundred years later. This time it’s broadcasting game shows, many of them spoofs on real television game shows. But there’s a drastic end for anyone eliminated from the competitions. It’s quite a complex storyline involving some unexpected terrible enemies and the potential destruction of the human race.

The climax of ‘The Parting of the Ways’ is a bit ‘deus ex machina’ but well done nonetheless, after some humorous attempts on Rose’s part (helped by Mickey) to open up the tardis. What happens is far from amusing, and I’m not sure I entirely understood the significance. But in the end, as we knew would happen, The Doctor is unable to continue as he is, and regenerates into a very young-looking David Tennant. 

There are a couple of interesting ‘extras’ on this last DVD of the set. One of them looks at the incredible detail put into the creation of the sets (in particular the tardis) and some of the aliens. I’m astounded that anyone would spend so much time and effort on things that were only needed for one episode, but the people involved loved what they were doing. The second extra is by John Barrowman, talking about Jack - I found that rather more interesting, but then what matters for me is the human interest part of the show. 

Three things struck me overall, watching these episodes again, thirteen years after we first saw them. One is that the pace is rather slower than it was in the later series. I liked the slower pace very much, as it makes the stories so much easier for me to follow. 

The second thing I noticed is that the Tardis looks oddly old-fashioned! It reminded me somewhat of the 1960s Tardis, which, perhaps, was deliberate. By the thirteenth series, it had been modernised and transformed many times.

The third is that, although I thought Christopher Eccleston did a good job as the ninth Doctor, he seemed quite hard in the earlier episodes. He did soften in the later ones, and I thought he was an excellent choice to introduce Doctor Who to a 21st century audience. 

Rose, we thought, was a very good companion. We weren’t too sure the first time around, as she looks a bit too like some of the rather fluffy companions of the past. But she has lots of determination and ideas, and The Doctor is evidently very taken with her. We’re glad to recall that she remains as companion to the Tenth Doctor in Series Two, which we hope to start watching next week. 

I would recommend this series very highly to anyone who likes this kind of TV show. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who: Revolution of the daleks (Jodie Whittaker)

(Amazon UK link)

Apparently it’s just over two years since we finished watching the excellent 12th series of Doctor Who with Jodie Whittaker. It ended with a dramatic episode where the Doctor’s origins were discovered. Her companions returned to Earth, but the doctor, right at the end, was put in a space jail by the Judoon. 

I had forgotten all this in the intervening period when I was hoping that we might acquire the thirteenth season. We did have the New Year special episode - ‘Revolution of the Daleks’ - but I’m not a huge fan of daleks, and decided we would wait until we had the following season on DVD too. They were a gift at Christmas, and since we just finished watching the first four seasons of ‘Father Brown’, it was time for another Doctor Who series. 

So, last night, we watched ‘Revolution of the daleks’. It opens with the Doctor’s companions, Yas (Mandip Gill), Graham (Bradley Walsh) and Ryan (Tosin Cole) doing a lot of research. Yas can’t quite believe that the Doctor won’t return, but it’s been a long time since they last saw her. Ryan has been getting back with friends, and trying to make a career for himself. 

And then the new Prime Minister (Harriet Walter) announces new security drones. To the horror of the Doctor’s companions, they look like daleks. There are some scenes with a wealthy, unscrupulous American businessman (Chris Noth) clearly in cahoots with the Prime Minister - but it appears that his only motivation is financial exploitation. He has no idea what daleks were. 

A young and enthusiastic scientist (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is pioneering the project, ensuring everything works, and perhaps all would have been well if he hadn’t discovered a remnant of dalek DNA which he was able to clone…

At least, that’s my understanding of the opening scenes, which happen with such rapidity that it was difficult for me to keep up. The Doctor, who is very bored in space jail, is released unexpectedly after the appearance of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). I didn’t follow that subplot at all, but wasn’t surprised that the Doctor (with Jack in tow) arrive in the Tardis in Graham’s living room while the team are discussing the new dalek-like machines.

It’s a fast-paced episode but there are some excellent interludes of discussion: the Doctor with Ryan, and - later - the whole group. I very much like the depth of characterisation of the companions which has been such a feature of the ‘new’ Doctor Who series that began when the show was reborn in 2005 (in checking that date, I’m astonished to find that it was nearly twenty years ago!). 

It’s the characters and their stories that have kept me watching; science fiction and fast action are not generally my preferred genres of film. I used to watch the ‘old’ Doctor Who, as a child, behind the sofa. It took the persuasion of both my sons to start watching again - and we didn’t do so until 2011, although we then quickly acquired DVDs of the next few series until we had caught up. There are interesting story arcs, and the acting is good, with odd unexpected humour here and there to balance the tension. 

And while I loathe daleks (who epitomise violence and hatred), they weren’t actually too stressful in this episode. The Doctor comes up with risky ideas to vanquish them, which (inevitably) are successful; but while they’re still on earth although we see random ‘exterminations’ they’re done with random people in a variety of places, most of whom have not been introduced. Not that it makes it any better, but I knew it was visual effects - modern graphics and CGI somehow make them less threatening than the very scary daleks of the 1970s. Or perhaps it’s just that I’m fifty years older. 

I’m glad we’ve finally watched this DVD which has been sitting in our to-be-watched drawer for over a year. It’s not my favourite episode, but it was well worth seeing, and is useful from the continuity point of view, bridging Series 12 and Series 13 (which we will start watching next week). 

Our DVD came with some 'art cards' (which we put straight in the paper recycling, not wanting to collect yet more clutter), and has a couple of brief 'extras' on it: one is from the point of view of the Doctor and her three companions, and was very interesting. The other featured John Barrowman trying to recall lines from his time on the series, and was a bit weird. 

Recommended if you’re a fan of the series. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's DVD Reviews