Creator: Sydney Newman
Starring: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Alex Kingston, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill
Running Time: 694 Mins
Certificate: 12
Extras: Audio Commentaries, 14 Mini-Featurettes, Prequels, Mini-Episodes, 6 x Documentaries.
Arriving just ahead of November’s Anniversary celebrations, rewatching all fifteen episodes of Series Seven of Doctor Who is the perfect way to countdown the days before The Day of the Doctor.
Ditching the two part stories and long, timey-wimey arc plots that previous seasons revelled in; Series Seven instead consists of fifteen 45 minute epics, designed to pack as much action, drama, laughs and scares in as is humanly possible. Most of the time it works. Occasionally it doesn’t. At times the story demands more time to set things in motion, the guest characters often require more development and exploration then they are allowed in the 45-minute format, and occasionally theres the niggling feeling that entire chunks of story have been missed out all together.
That said, the majority of what’s on offer here story-wise is excellent –A Town Called Mercy is both a wild west romp and a powerful morality tale; Hide subverts the haunted house format with a clever science fiction twist (and is also quite spooky too); Cold War features the triumphant return of the Ice Warriors in a base-under-siege story, the type of adventure that classic Doctor Who always did best; and The Name of the Doctor is just so perfect and fan pleasing that it’s very presence on this Boxset makes up for any misfires.
Sadly though there are clunkers: Both Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and Neil Gaiman’s Nightmare in Silver get less remarkable and consistently underwhelm with every repeat viewing, whilst The Snowmen is perhaps a bit too heavy on the arc-plot elements to truly satisfy as a Christmas Special. Though entertaining in places, The Angels Take Manhattan is overly predictable throughout, especially when it comes to Amy & Rory’s final fate, a moment which Steven Moffat rehashes directly from Blink, resulting in a farewell that fails to satisfy on any kind of level. And the less we say about The Doctor, The Widow & the Wardrobe the better!
And yet, Series Seven of Doctor Who is still one of the most consistently enjoyable television shows currently knocking about. Matt Smith is still incredibly loveable as the Eleventh Doctor, whilst newcomer Jenna-Louise Coleman excels in the role of Clara from her first appearance. The new mini-movie format may infuriate and occasionally result in viewers getting less then more, but in terms of ideas, there’s still next to no sign of fatigue here whatsoever. The future does indeed look bright for Doctor Who.
Extras:
DVD Commentary fans are in for a disappointment, as only four episodes come with commentary this time around (remember the days when we got a full house of commentaries? We do!). In fact, apart from the commentaries and the three short mini-episodes, everything else here is already available online or has previously aired on BBC America. It’s a slightly poor showing from the Beeb, who clearly put quantity over quality when it comes to DVD extras. Still, maybe for the hundredth anniversary they’ll release a super spiffy ultra-edition or something. With at least one new commentary.
Doctor Who: The Complete Seventh Series is released on DVD & Blu-Ray from the 28th October and is available from the BBC.
