Doctor Who (New Series): Complete Series 1 Box Set (5 Discs)

Doctor Who returns to television, or DVD in this case, and we are in for a real treat.

I was a metaphorical virgin when it came to Doctor Who, i have never seen any of the old serials so this is from a completely neutral and unbiased stand point, and i enjoyed every second of this series.

Yes it is cheesy, yes some of the special effects are pretty pants, but do you have fun? Yes. By the bucket-load. From the first introduction of The Doctor "Run for your life!" to his cheeky farewell "You were fantastic... and so was I" Chistopher Eccleston has you captivated, The Doctor is clever, witty, cocky and at times even scary. Eccleston has a large emotional range, jokily explaining the Autons in the first episode to being full of fear when faced with the menacing Daleks. Billie Piper also brings alot to the show, giving the perfect verbal sparring partner to Eccleston. The two have excellent chemistry and are very entertaining to watch.

Each episode brings a new villain… more »

Doctor Who returns to television, or DVD in this case, and we are in for a real treat.

I was a metaphorical virgin when it came to Doctor Who, i have never seen any of the old serials so this is from a completely neutral and unbiased stand point, and i enjoyed every second of this series.

Yes it is cheesy, yes some of the special effects are pretty pants, but do you have fun? Yes. By the bucket-load. From the first introduction of The Doctor "Run for your life!" to his cheeky farewell "You were fantastic... and so was I" Chistopher Eccleston has you captivated, The Doctor is clever, witty, cocky and at times even scary. Eccleston has a large emotional range, jokily explaining the Autons in the first episode to being full of fear when faced with the menacing Daleks. Billie Piper also brings alot to the show, giving the perfect verbal sparring partner to Eccleston. The two have excellent chemistry and are very entertaining to watch.

Each episode brings a new villain or situation that The Doctor must solve, some ideas are admittedly better than others (Aliens infiltrating Downing Street being a particular highlight) but each episode brings something new and different to the table.

Supplementing each episode is a commentary track providing interesting insight into the acting and other things. The real meat of the special features is CONFIDENTIAL, a set of 13 documentarys, one for each episode, narrated by Simon Pegg, with interviews from the cast and crew and fun factoids on how the fans reacted and how the creatures were created. Definately worth a watch.

Although some episodes stand out in front of others, the sheer entertainment granted from the package of a whole is more than enough to sway the score towards the might 5/5. Personally i would have given 4.5 but i'm rounding up as i am a fan of this series.

Now for a quick run down of the episodes. (tl;dr sorry)
1. Rose - 4/5
2. The End Of The World - 4/5
3. The Unquiet Dead - 4/5
4. Aliens Of London - 4.5/5
5. World War Three - 4/5
6. Dalek - 5/5
7. The Long Game - 3/5
8. Father's Day - 5/5
9. The Empty Child - 5/5
10. The Doctor Dances - 5/5
11. Boom Town - 3/5
12. Bad Wolf - 4/5
13. The Parting Of The Ways - 5/5

The revamp of Dr. Who was the most talked about event of 2004/05 and it is easy to see why. The series returns to the BBC with a bang and from the moment Rose grabs the Doctor's hand you know that the series itself is in good hands. The casting of Eccleston in the lead role is as he would say fantastic as he brings a darker edge to the character and the mystery is made darker by the fact that the story arc reveals a lot has happened to the Doctor since he left San Francisco in 1999. Billie Piper as Rose is also a good move in the casting department. The way that her character is bored and searching for something fits in so well with Eccleston's run as the Doctor. The episodes are also very well written and the only one that I wasn't 100% sure about was the first two-parter 'Aliens of London' and 'World War Three' with the farting aliens. That aside the rest of the episodes were brilliant with 'Dalek' being the best out of the lot simply down to Eccleston's performance. The sad fact… more »

The revamp of Dr. Who was the most talked about event of 2004/05 and it is easy to see why. The series returns to the BBC with a bang and from the moment Rose grabs the Doctor's hand you know that the series itself is in good hands. The casting of Eccleston in the lead role is as he would say fantastic as he brings a darker edge to the character and the mystery is made darker by the fact that the story arc reveals a lot has happened to the Doctor since he left San Francisco in 1999. Billie Piper as Rose is also a good move in the casting department. The way that her character is bored and searching for something fits in so well with Eccleston's run as the Doctor. The episodes are also very well written and the only one that I wasn't 100% sure about was the first two-parter 'Aliens of London' and 'World War Three' with the farting aliens. That aside the rest of the episodes were brilliant with 'Dalek' being the best out of the lot simply down to Eccleston's performance. The sad fact about this run however; is that it is both Eccleston's first and last at being the Doctor which is a shame. But if you take into account future episodes, you could say he made the right decision to leave giving us less rather than more.