Doctor Who Season 6 Standard Box Set

A few months ago I reviewed Doctor Who season 6 part 1 and Part 2. Here is what I said.

http://www.impulsegamer.com/dvddoctorwhoseason6part1.html

http://www.impulsegamer.com/dvddoctorwhoseries6part2.html

The episodes have not changed in any way so I’m not going to review them. I will however review the new material and the special features. The first thing that’s nice about the box set is that it includes last year’s Christmas Special.  A retelling of Darles Chickens  A Christmas Carol.

I counted 46 television and film adaptions that already exist of a Christmas Carol before I got bored including; A Barbie Christmas Carol and The Six million Dollar Man: A Bionic Christmas Carol and I didn’t bother counting the innumerate stage and radio adaptions. It’s probably one of the most adapted stories ever written. And yes I realize that Moffat is probably going to bring something new and subversive to it, or at least I hope he is….otherwise this will be the Laziest Christmas special so far. Still it’s got Dumbledore in it…how bad can it be?  

Actually, I thought it was lovely.  It touched on the Dickens’ Classic with very broad brush strokes. Being an adaption of A Christmas Carol in the same way The Forbidden Planet  is an adaption of The Tempest.

There were a few things that stretched the imagination though...

How long does it take for a ship (that was presumably traveling at a fair clip) to crash? Just how big is this atmosphere? Flying fish, whilst beautiful to behold and important to the plot did stretch the imagination as well, being slightly more fantastical than science fiction and yes I know...in an infinite universe why not flying fish?

However apart from these quibbles, there was a great sense of scale and adventure.  Michael Gamobon was absolutely on form and I liked Matt Smith in this episode more than I had liked him in the entirety of season five. Amy Pond and Rory were bearable due to their near absence from this story. (No I don't think a married couple should be onboard the Tardis for the same reason I wouldn't live with one, when it all goes wrong as it inevitably will, it's going to be unbearable).  I do appreciate Doctor Who gaining it's very own Red Shirt in the form or Rory.  Let’s see how many times he can die this season… pity he keeps coming back. Mind you if I were punching that high above my weight as he is I'd come back from the dead for her too. The effects were great and it all added up to being one of the best episodes of Doctor Who in a while. Full of excitement and whimsy, brimming with imagination and to me that's where the magic lay. Great stuff.

Special Features:

Let’s face it the only reason you want this box set if you have the two part set is for the special features so they had better be spectacular features.

This box set has a whole heap of little Vignettes, short stories that don’t really fit in anywhere apart from the before the end of this season.

The first Vignette is Space/Time unusually for Steven Moffat it’s about time travel and paradoxes…oh wait that’s all he writes about. Still it’s a bit of fun and has the honor of being the first time we have seen the Tardis materialize within itself in the new series.

Death is the only answer is the second Vignette which asks; can the Doctor help Einstein create a time machine? Or will he turn into a bubbling green drink? Written by the Children of Oakley Junior School who won a chance to write a Doctor Who episode and it’s not really noticeably any worse than something written by Mark Gatzis (Victory of the Daleks).

The next five minisodes are linked by a common thread and all come under the title Night and the Doctor and they are all about what the doctor gets up to at night when his companions are asleep. Apart from occasionally sleeping apparently he goes out with River to parties. These are ok, there’s nothing super interesting going on, they’re like the little bits of episodes that never quite made it anywhere. I appreciate them but they don’t rock my world. Although the last one Last Night is quite good.

In addition to these you get the Prequels which in all honestly are basically like oblique trailers to the episodes. They’re short and really add nothing to the episodes they precede. You get them for A Day on the Moon, The Curse of the black spot, A good man goes to war, Lets Kill Hitler and Closing Time.

There’s also the Confidential for A Christmas Carol and Night and the Doctor.

And that’s about it, not bad but not something you’d by another box set for.

Video: Video quality is of the high quality that I’ve come to expect from the new series.

Audio: Audio is also good in a 5.1 Dolby digital mix.