Blu-ray Review: Excellent Set For ‘Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series’

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CHICAGO – The sixth season of “Doctor Who” made the biggest waves stateside, in no small part due to a marketing blitz tied into the fact that the program was, for the first time, premiering in the U.S. at the same time it was in the U.K. (For years, the series would air in its home country and be imported later.) It also became a very divisive season. Do a Twitter search and you’ll find ecstatic love and pure hatred for this season. In the end, I think it settled into an agreement that it may have had some inconsistency but that it was yet another quality season overall of one of the best sci-fi shows of the last decade. Now you can see for yourself with the six-disc Blu-ray set from BBC Home Video.

Blu-ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

Few studios do TV-on-Blu-ray better than BBC. They put clear love and devotion into these releases, aware that their programs have loyal followings that don’t just want typical space fillers but have the commitment to dive deeper into their most beloved shows. The sixth series of “Doctor Who” features hours of extras along with spectacular HD transfers. This is one of those very-rare circumstances in which the video looks even better than the original HD broadcast. Too often it is the opposite, as studios don’t bother to do enough HD remastering. These episodes look incredible.

And, like most “Doctor Who” seasons and most BBC releases overall, the set is loaded down with enough special features to take up days of your life. The entire sixth disc is made up of episodes of the great series “Doctor Who Confidential,” which offers behind-the-scenes insights into every single episode of the season (for the record, the set opens with the Christmas episode, “A Christmas Carol,” and that episode’s “Confidential” is on the first disc with it, along with two “Comic Relief Sketches.”

The set also includes five “Night and the Doctor” additional scenes, four “The Monster Files,” trailers, “Doctor Who Confidential: A Nights’ Tale,” and commentaries on “The Impossible Astronaut,” “The Doctor’s Wife,” “The Rebel Flesh,” “A Good Man Goes to War,” and “The Wedding of River Song.”

Doctor Who
Photo credit: BBC

Synopsis:
Matt Smith and Karen Gillen make their triumphant return as the Doctor and his companion in an all-new series of Doctor Who coming to DVD and Blu-ray in 2011. This release combines the two halves of series six with the 2010 Christmas Special plus hours of bonus material to make a spectacular collectible that no fan will want to miss! The new series includes the first ever episodes shot in the US and promises new thrills, new monsters, and new adventures which will leave fans pinned to the edge of their seats.

Special Features:
o 5x Night And The Doctor Additional Scenes
o 2x Comic Relief Sketches
o Commentaries
o 4x The Monster Files
o 5x Prequels
o Trailers
o 14x Doctor Who Confidential
o Doctor Who Confidential: A Nights’ Tale

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com