Doctor Who: The Complete First Series (5DVD)

I was a huge fan of Doctor who has a kid growing up on Tom Baker. Towards the end of it's run though the show had in my view run out of magic and was a shadow of the Tom Baker ERA. With a terrible 1996 film version nailing the coffin into the series for good I never gave much thought to the possibility of a new series.

Skeptical as I was hearing that the show was being made again I decided to watch the show to see the beloved blue box travel through time. Indeed, I was curious. After watching the show on the CBC run it began to grow on me more and more. Gone were the laughable sets to a more sophisticated visually impressive slicker production.

More importantly though is the improved writing by Russell T. Davis who has made the best supporting character the show has ever had with the beautiful and exceptionally talented Billy Piper who unlike the damsel in distress is anything but in this series. The show Dalek which is the 6th episode in is the point where the show finds its true footing and begins to take off in political and social satire, the actors are in their groove and the show seems surer of itself. There are human stories here not the usual mania wants to destroy the universe repetitiveness of the older shows.

There is a lot of heart in this series and by the end of it I found myself truly caring about Rose and the Doctor.

The DVD has very clear picture excellent sound, and a lot of goodies sprinkled in like commentaries for every episode. There are 13 episodes here but in reality this would be the equivalent of 26 episodes for a normal half hour program in the old series. Each episode here is ~45 minutes. Add to this 14 segments of making of featurettes and 2-3 additional ones in each of the episode discs as well as a behind the scenes with the tenth doctor David Tennant who stars in the Christmas Special then it's a pretty fair deal.

Tom Baker is still king of the Doctors but Eccleston by the end is second best. The writing, overall cast performances, and effects are leagues better and more up to date than any I've seen from the old series. Episodes like Father's Day create genuine emotion that even a big tough guy like me had me go for a hanky.

Why is it that amazon.com has this DVD much cheaper even in U.S. funds???? Double shame on you amazon.ca!

By the time the BBC "rested" the show back in the late 1980s, it had for most people become a shadow of its former glorious self. Gone were the epic adversaries of the early Tom Baker stories, and in their place were 3rd rate foes and a 7th rate actor in the lead role.

Fast forward 16 years to 2005.... Russell T Davies' re-imagining of the classic show for the 21st century hits all the right buttons. An almost perfect combination of a new approach with classic themes and situations, humour and seriously strong acting, sets and production values. And finally the special effects are up to the task of doing justice to the stories.

Acting which was often a weak point in the late 1980s, is solid in the 2005 season. Billie Piper captured the imagination of viewers with her interpretation of Rose and actually managed to steal much of the limelight from Christopher Eccleston as a result. Quite an accomplishment when her relative lack of experience is taken into account.

The 9 stories that make up this set go from strength to strength, which is not to say there aren't some stories that are weaker (rather that they are weak in comparison simply to the stellar competition provided by their counterparts). Generally the weak episodes involve the Slitheen, which were generally not well realized. Other than those episodes, highlights of the season would be The End of the World (ep2), The Unquiet Dead (ep3), Dalek (ep 6) and The Empty Child (eps 9 & 10), along of course with The Parting of the Ways (ep 13).

Eccleston apparently decided late in the day that he wanted to bail out of the show instead of becoming perhaps the most favourite Doctor of all time. Whatever the real reason behind his leaving, fans were left with David Tennant taking over the role of the Doctor at the end of the series. Having watched The Christmas Invasion and all of the 2006 series, I can safely say that the 10th Doctor does not take a back seat in presence compared to the 9th!

A top set to get if you are a Doctor Who fan. Imagine, a new series, with at least another two more to follow in 2006 and 2007. Something no fan had dared to hope for 24 months ago!