Mark, 10/05/2009
I have never seen Doctor Who before and I was a bit sceptical about watching it when the series began in 2005.
I couldn't have been more wrong! I absolutely fell in love with the show. Christopher Eccleston was an excellent doctor with his eccentric personality and tongue-in-cheek humour drawing me in to the Doctor Who universe. Billie Piper is my all time favourite assistant with her sensitive side being erased by a strong and intelligent woman who can hold her own against a Dalek empire; John Barrowman also played an excellent part as Captain Jack. This first series is a must have for fans of all ages, every episode is brilliant and leaves you wanting more. When I bought the DVD I watched them all in one day and then rushed to buy series 2.
The series mixes Humour, adventure, horror and sadness all into one and can also make you think too.
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Jason Kattenhorn, 19/01/2009
It was always a risk for the BBC to bring back Doctor Who and apart from making me a fan of the show, this series has revamped the franchise making it the best thing to happen on TV for a number of years.
The look of this boxset is amazing and worth having for any collector. The extras, although brilliant, are somewhat tedious because they only have Doctor Who confidential cut downs, the whole confidential episodes would make it that much better.
Nonetheless this boxset does not disappoint and the consistently emotional episodes will have you crying and laughing for years to come.
Well worth the buy!
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George Simkin, 28/07/2008
I thought that this was a fantastic series and believe that Russell T Davies knows exactly how to grab our attention and draw us into this amazing world.
Doctor Who does not take itself too seriously which is probably just as well, and is able to get the best mix of humour and action. All the storylines are superb and there are constant twists in each story. I particularly like the way certain words are placed in almost every episode that link to the end. I never spotted that first time watching and I doubt others will have either. I won't say the words for fear I might spoil it for someone who hasn't seen it yet.
I should probably warn anyone over 60 who might be reading this as it may not quite be your "thing". You don't know what you"re missing.
My only major criticism of Doctor Who is that even though the Daleks are one of the Doctors main enemies it is hard not to think to yourself, "How dangerous can a sink plunger be?" to which Captain Jack would reply, "It depends entirely on how you use it".
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aryeh michaels, 04/02/2006
good good good. all 13 epidodes together with special features. not like the volumes 1-4. the box set even has doctor who confidential. WOW!!!!!!!!!
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John Pettigrew, 04/12/2005
The 13 episodes which comprise the 2005 comeback series of Doctor Who has already been available over 4 single releases. These discs can be bought for approximately £10 each but feature no extras. The episodes presented here come with commentaries on every episode, have a 5.1DD optional soundtrack and feature extras on the making of the series (Destroying the Lair, Laying Ghosts, Deconstructing Big Ben, Mike Tucker"s Mocks of Balloons and Designing Doctor Who); video diary featurettes from Billie Piper (Rose), Russel T. Davies (main writer and executive producer) and Mark Gatiss (writer); an interview with Christopher Eccleston from BBC Breakfast; an interview with John Barrowman (Captain Jack) and lots of trailers. The fifth disc is the main extras disc and contains 14 episodes of Doctor Who Confidential, the programme which was broadcast on BBC3 immediately after each episode. Each episode goes behind the scenes with the cast and crew and focusses on a different aspect of new series. However, the episodes are not the original transmitted versions which contained many interviews and clips from the original series. Also, all the contemporary music which was used in these shows are not included, presumably for clearance issues. Despite this, this collection of material is a welcome complement to the main episodes and the omissions will only really bother the die-hard Doctor Who aficionado. The fourteenth edition is all-new material looking at the yet-to-be-broadcast Christmas episode "The Christmas Invasion" and includes short interviews with the new Doctor, David Tennant.
As to the actual series itself - well Russel T. Davis has managed to pull off the unthinkable, taking Doctor Who by the scruff of its neck and changing it from a cult show that generations of kids just sneer at to something which the BBC are now proud to advertise as family entertainment. The trade-off is that the old show of the past which, at its peak held the attention of many through slow, spooky drama and how-will-they-get-out-of-that? cliffhangers has been replaced with cutting-edge effects and lavishly spent-upon sets. Thankfully, however, the essentials are all in place - a mysterious traveller through time and space, the Police Box TARDIS, the monsters and some amazing original stories which are never as po-faced as every other sci-fi series.
Another institution, which resurrected itself through this series, was the Daleks. These robot/mutant hybrids put the fear of god into generations of avid viewers in the 60s before becoming lost to the Playstation era. Any shortcomings of the metal exterminators were seriously addressed in this series with images of flash-fried skeleton deaths, levitating Daleks and a bone-crunching reply to the sneering comment regarding it"s "sink plunger"! The Daleks feature in three episodes of this series.
All the episodes are presented virtually as broadcast (there is some debate from the hard-core fans over some music cues) which is not necessarily a good thing. On broadcast, the "next week" trailers which crashed in obtrusively before the closing titles was annoying and irritating - on DVD they seem ridiculous and redundant and I would rather they were edited out.
The episodes are presented here with a 5.1 DD sound option. For those of you with decent sound systems, this set becomes very tempting. A good example of the beefy soundtrack is on the sequence of the alien spaceship crashing through Big Ben and into the Thames, with the subwoofer delivering some heavy-duty impact. Other highlights are the ethereal audio movement of the Gelth which considerably ramps up the spookiness factor.
Be warned that there is an authoring glitch on disc 2 which means that almost 2 minutes of a scene in "World War Three" is skipped unless you select Play All from the main menu.
On a superficial level, the packaging is initially original and pleasing to the collector. The set of 5 discs are housed in a robust cardboard Police Box-shaped TARDIS complete with a 16 page booklet detailing plot summaries and disc chapter points of every episode. However, it would have been far more practical to have this set available in a wide amary case as the novelty value of the chunky box soon wears off as you realise how much unnecessary shelf space it takes up. Also be warned that many people who received the set through the post have complained of loose discs and the inside trays coming off. At the end of the day for a 5 disc set of, admittedly excellent material, the RRP of £70 is very much overpriced with too much of the money being spent on the packaging. Even at £40, the set would not be exceptional value and is obviously targeted for the Christmas market. It is, in my opinion, worth saving up for as there has never been a better concept for a tv series and this time around, money has been spent on it.
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