Doctor Who Season 7

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

I’m a big fan of Dr Who, having been watching it, on and off, since Tom Baker was the Doctor. I really liked the 7th series. It was sad to see Amy go and Clara was actually much better than I thought she might be. Almost all of the episodes were good and some were excellent, plus we even got a new episode written by Neil Gaiman.

However, as much as I liked the series, I’m very disappointed in one aspect of the series, hence the loss of one star. This has nothing to do with the episodes themselves, but with what they chose to leave out of the series packaging. I can see, sort of, leaving out the special The Day of the Doctor. After all it had both Matt Smith and David Tennant as doctors 10 and 11, as well as John Hurt as the War Doctor, plus even a cameo by Tom Baker, though, maybe, not as the 4th Doctor. And it was billed as a 50th Anniversary Special, so even though it was part of the Matt Smith series 7, I can see it existing outside of the normal run of episodes.

What I can’t see is leaving out the episode The Time of the Doctor from the 7th series collection. It was not a special in the normal sense of the word. It was a normal length episode that concluded Matt Smith’s run as the Doctor and had his regeneration into the 12th Doctor, portrayed by Peter Capaldi. This is a crucial episode that rightly is the last episode of series 7. To leave it out and sell it as a separate special is totally inconsistent with the practices of all the past collections. It means that, when you buy the 7th series, you never see the actual end of the 11th Doctor. It also means when you buy the 8th series, it just starts right up with Peter Capaldi already the 12th Doctor and no indication of how he became the Doctor. Of course, if you watched the show on BBCA, you already know what happened, but if you only see the show on the DVDs, it leaves a crucial gap.

There is no reason for leaving out The Time of the Doctor from the collection, except maybe just greed to make you spend $10 or $12 on the stand alone one hour DVD or Blu-ray, respectively. I, myself, have no intention of buying the stand alone episode. I saw it on BBCA and don’t see is as being worth the money for just a one hour show. However, it does make me feel like my collection is incomplete missing that one crucial episode, and for that, the series 7 collection loses one star.

-Wallywood

There are 5 episodes on disc 1 and only 2-3 episodes on the remaining 3 discs. The first 3 episodes on disc one are fine. The final two have resolution issues and I think its because they over compressed the data to fit it all. Specifically there is static in the dark areas of the screen. I have seen this with overcompressed dvds before but never with blu-rays. I am assuming the other discs won’t have this issue, but if they do, I will ask for a replacement.

– Polka loves Polka Dancing

I’m not a very big Matt Smith fan, but his co-stars more that make up for his shortcomings. SPOILER ALERT! It is unfortunate that they chose to write out two very enjoyable companions in such a disturbing fashion; however, Jenna Coleman fills the void quite admirably.

-Borberigmy

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston
Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English
Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 5
Studio: BBC Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: September 24, 2013
Run Time: 705 minutes