From the Vault: Doctor Who, The Complete Sixth Series DVD Set

Oh yes, my friends it has all led to this, Amy, Rory, River and The Doctor are now in a spiraling vortex of mystery that begins and concludes with The Doctor’s death!

IN UTAH!

I got a chance to watch Doctor Who, Complete Sixth Series DVD set, which includes the following:

• One (1) Doctor Who “collectibles, toys and more” catalogue slip.

• One (1) DVD containing the “A Christmas Carol” Holiday Special.

• Four (4) DVDs containing the entire 6th series

• One (1) DVD containing “Doctor Who Confidential” A companion series to Doctor Who, which contains interviews with the production team.

• One (1) Book-style DVD holder.

• One (1) Slip cover.

This DVD set was released on November 22nd, so it’s available now! Also you can Own it on Blu-Ray.

The When of Who

The series picks up after the events of the previous series, as The Doctor calls Amy, Rory and River Song to Utah, where an astronaut comes out of Lake Silencio and kills him! Then kills him again before he has a chance to regenerate! Don’t worry, I haven’t spoiled anything, this is, at most, the first third of the first episode.

And we’re off, we find out that The Doctor that died is 1,100 years old, instead of our 900-some Doctor, who then shows up and is very weirded out by everyone’s reaction to him. Everyone gets in the TARDIS and has awesome adventures. All the while River can’t tell The Doctor her true identity, The Doctor can’t tell Amy that she’s quantum-pregnant, Nobody can tell The Doctor that he’s going to die and Rory can’t tell anyone anything because he’s a little slow on the uptake.

Each of these issues gets resolved across the whole season (with The Doctor’s death as the final mystery). Between multi-episode sagas and one-off monster of the week episodes we get all the pieces to puzzle out what is actually going on.

This series is a lot of fun. Matt Smith is his own Doctor and stands as a good contrast to the previous two (or 10 depending on how long you’ve been watching). Not only that but the Dynamic of having a married couple on the TARDIS is something that I had not previously seen. We all knew that Mickey Smith didn’t have a chance, but Rory and Amy are involved and despite the Doctor’s amazing amazingness Amy consistently reaffirms her feelings for Rory.

The Only Water in The Forest Is A Little Dull…

So now let’s talk about what’s not so great about this season. If you listen to the Be-Boppin’ Electroshockin’ Major Spoilers Podcast, then you’ve heard me complain about River Song before. Ever since we first met her in a giant library full of shadow termites she’s never sat well with me. A little bit of it is her attitude, a little bit of it is her being so super-badass. It’s entirely possible that my issues with her stem the fact that, from her first appearance it feels like she (along with the writers) is waving her arms yelling “Look at me! I’ll be Important later!” And she is, but a lot of the River Song development felt shoehorned in, her secret relationship with Amy and Rory, her superpower that she has to give up immediately, and no amount of sing-songy clues makes that any better.

Which brings me to my next issue with this series. There is a 900% increase of super-important, poetic, mystery phrases (When compared to Series 1). “THE ONLY WATER IN THE FOREST IS THE RIVER,” “DEVILS RUN WHEN A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR,” “ON THE FIELDS OF TRENZALORE, AT THE FALL OF THE 11TH, TO GRANDMOTHERS HOUSE WE GO!” maybe I’m confusing that last one. But it honestly got to the point where I stopped keeping track of them and waited for their significance to be revealed. I think I know what the writers were going for here, but you honestly don’t need to inflate what is already an epic story by peppering in prophetic nursery rhymes.

Still, Totally Worth it!

That said, this IS an epic storyline and “A Good Man Goes to War” now stands as one of my favorite episodes in Doctor Who history, since I’m a big fan of “Second Genesis” type stories.

Taking everything into account I’ll give the Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series DVD Set three point five out of five stars. Solid storytelling, excellent production value, and a story that is loopy at times, but still fun enough to watch.