James Reviews Doctor Who Season 6 Part 1 [DVD Review]

Amy Pond and Rory Williams haven’t seen the Doctor in some time as have we, the audience, since the stellar Christmas Special that aired in December. This time something new was happening: the first episode of this series was to be filmed in the United States, which had never been done before, even when Fox put out the Doctor Who TV movie back in 1996. This was a first and Steven Moffat had to attempt to top himself from last season’s huge finale of the Pandorica and how the cracks were to be sealed for good. Moffat likes to one up even himself and he’s done that with this series, cut into two parts, the first seven airing this past April and the next six airing in September. July 19th sees the release of Season 6 Part 1 on DVD and Blu-ray, but is it worth your time?

Most were quite angry at this when it was announced, but personally one could understand this if the episodes were of lesser quality. Last season had a couple of lesser ones (looking at the two of you:  Victory of the Daleks and The Vampires of Venice), but there’s always a method to the madness. Moffat and company were forming a bigger story, even from when he took over as showrunner, and were sprinkling in a more menacing villain, The Silence, who were introduced in the Moffat penned two part opener with the episodes The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. And they are now an integral part to the Doctor Who lore, where they might have been around since the beginning of time on Earth, controlling humans without them even knowing because anytime you look at them and then look away, you forget what you just saw. The design, looking like the stereotypical UFO from Roswell, is completely intentional. And that’s the genius of this season and what Russell T. Davies started and Moffat continues, which is taking Doctor Who and molding these season arcs that connect with one another, which makes one who wants to see all these puzzle pieces stick together by re-watching the seasons all over again.

We get some huge revelations this season. Finally getting to know who River Song truly is was a delight. Not wanting to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t checked out the season yet or the show in general, it was something that makes sense when you watch the episodes featuring her and that’s where good writing comes in. A continuing thread throughout this season is also Amy Pond’s possible pregnancy, which the Doctor is continuously trying to investigate without her knowing, which further confuses the audience but makes for great weekly television. You want to know what the conclusion is and when you also throw in Amy being the only one seeing a woman with an eye patch looking at her at random points during the episodes, no matter where she is, we just want to see how they’re going to tie it all together.

Besides the Silence, which is still one of the great newer villains Moffat has created while writing for Doctor Who (the other being the fearsome Weeping Angels), we also get another new ‘monster’ of sorts, the Gangers, who are featured in the two parter The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People. As opposed to what most shows do and give one dimensional villains who just are evil for evil’s sake, the Gangers are flawed and don’t mean to be evil. They are the product of man; working in unsafe conditions, they’ve found a way to make duplicates of themselves while they sleep and if one dies, it’s not a big deal. Or so they think, because when an electrical storm occurs, the Gangers are completely sentient and co-existing with their human selves doesn’t look to be a likely outcome. The Doctor tries to get everyone to see eye to eye, even having a Ganger version of himself created but even Amy herself judges his double as to whose side he’s on.

A highlight of the season (out of many) was the Neil Gaiman penned episode of The Doctor’s Wife. For any self proclaimed nerd out there, Neil Gaiman tends to be a favorite author of theirs, especially when you look at his catalog of titles: The Sandman, Death: The High Cost of Living, Coraline, American Gods, Neverwhere… the list goes on and on and it really is amazing that he hadn’t written an episode of Doctor Who at any time of his life. So of course there was a ton of speculation when the title itself came out. The Doctor has a wife now? How was this to be? He’s always come across as a bit asexual, even when referenced that he had a romance here and there, especially between David Tennant’s Doctor and Rose Tyler.

He gets a distress signal that only comes from another Time Lord’s TARDIS, which confuses and excites him. If you follow the series, all of the Time Lords have been destroyed and he is the last of his kind. So rushing off to the other end of the universe and meets a strange band of people named Auntie, Uncle, a green eyed Ood named Nephew and a neurotic young woman named Idris (played by Suranne Jones). But not all is as it seems and it’s been a trap constructed by House (voiced by Michael Sheen), an asteroid who lures all kinds of people, especially Time Lords to stripe their TARDIS’ and even their bodies to keep his band of miscreants going. It also has some of the best performances from Arthur Darvill as Rory, Amy’s husband, who one could tell has a lot of potential and this to some is his shining moment. The pain and anguish in his face and voice at one point of this episode is chilling. It’s one of the best single episodes of Doctor Who since coming back on the air, flanked by Blink and Midnight in my opinion. It’s got a great balance of humor, creepiness, sadness and effects that makes one want another Gaiman written episode in the near future.

We get a cliffhanger ending of sorts with the one-two punch of A Good Man Goes to War, which had fans speculating as to who this man could possibly be. Amy has been kidnapped and The Doctor gets together his own personal army to fight back against a force that might possibly be too much for even the last Time Lord. Twists and turns galore as we find out once and for all who River Song truly is and why she is forever connected to the Doctor himself. And when one realizes we’re only seven episodes in, you wonder how they’ll top even this half of a series. When you see the eighth episode of the series is named Let’s Kill Hitler, you already have a feeling they’re shooting for the stars, TARDIS and all. With the only low of the season being The Curse of the Black Spot, which deals with space pirates and a mermaid who infects you with a black spot on your hand which then means you are hers, it was still a fun episode, a transitional one that is when you get to relax a bit on the rollercoaster known as Doctor Who.

If anyone knows me or listens to the podcast, they’ll know for a fact that I’m a huge Doctor Who fan. A ‘Whovian’, if you will, and proud to call myself one now. It’s not that I was ashamed of my love for The Doctor, but that name for its fans was a bit alarming. But the more I thought about it, the more it was endearing. And that’s what the story of The Doctor is all about. His hope, his faith in humanity and everyone in between and even when all hope seems to be lost, he just comes up with a bit more from the bottom of his gut and passed his two beating hearts to prevail. There might be some casualties and he seems nonchalant about it, but he has seen everyone around him die, be it family, friends and the enemies themselves.

BBC Video did something a bit different this time around, at least in our neck of the woods. Being that they only showed half of the series, they’ve put out a very reasonably priced DVD with the seven episodes on two discs. Not much in the way of extras (only two Monster Files about The Silence and The Gangers, which are short and right to the point with a series of tidbits from actors, writers and producers), but one misses the Doctor Who Confidentials we’ve come to value on all of these series sets and the select commentaries that always offer more behind the scenes information we Whovians can’t help but devour. If you call yourself a Doctor Who fan, you definitely have to get this set. It’s the best thing one can do before September gives us new episodes. What better way to spend the summer months then re-watching these solid, fun and enlightening episodes over and over in anticipation.

9.5/10