Night and the Doctor and other DVD/BD set comments (poss spoilers)

[23skidoo]

Just picked up the Blu-ray set for Season 6. Some general preliminary comments:

* The Night and the Doctor shorts are definitely worth watching because they address an issue raised in the Comic Relief shorts (which had at the time been promised as being resolved in the season, but wasn't). And, without spoilers, there's some major plot going on. These aren't gag scenes like Meanwhile in the TARDIS. But we do get to see more of Amy in her nightie.

* The special feature from the A Christmas Carol DVD that has been omitted is the Doctor Who at the Proms concert. So if you want to have that too, you need to buy the earlier version.

* Big disappointment: The Death is the Only Answer mini-episode is NOT included in the cutdown version of Confidential 13 after all.

* No silly US monologue opening! Yay! (Though for the benefit of UK fans it might have been worth including as an extra.)

* Neil Gaiman does a solo commentary on The Doctor's Wife which for some is probably worth the price of admission.

* Sadly, the US-exclusive scene that was created for a commercial that aired on BBC America during Let's Kill Hitler (expanding the bike chase) isn't included, even though the promotions at the time said that it would be. At least, I don't think so. I can't imagine they'd edit a "motion comic" into the episode.

Alex

 

[Rowan Sjet]

And for anyone who doesn't have the DVDs on hand, guess what's turned up on Youtube.

 

[The Wormhole]

Having just watched those Night things, they're nothing too impressive. Although it is interesting to see that it is indeed the Eleventh Doctor that takes River to see the Singing Towers. Nitpick, that wasn't a new suit future Doctor was wearing. Should have had him wearing the white suit, for continuity sake.

 

[23skidoo]

Having just watched those Night things, they're nothing too impressive.

I have to disagree. Ignoring the 5th one, which is presented separately for a reason because it's simply a Prequel for Closing Time (why it wasn't webcast as such is a mystery), the first two fill in a LOT of blanks. First, we learn the Doctor actually has adventures while his companions are asleep (which means many, many, many stories of the past 50 years that have featured solo Doctors now may not actually be solo Doctor stories after all - Sarah Jane or Peri or Ace might have simply been dozing). We also get Amy's question from Space and Time answered AND it explains how the whole Big Bang thing worked as far as resetting time. Oh, and perhaps without intending to he also proactively establishes the David Yates movie as being canonical, to boot.

And as for the two River Song stories, well Moffat doesn't need to chronicle their first or final dates anymore, does he? In fact if River never appears again in the series, it's now fine because these two short episodes have covered off almost all the major points. AND we got a "Two Doctors" scenario out of it to boot which covers off her comment in A Good Man Goes to War about meeting more than one Doctor.

In my opinion - and again this ignores that 5th one with Craig and the baby as just a little character piece - Moffat shows once again that he's capable of getting a lot accomplished in a short time.

I hope folks actually go and buy the set, though, rather than taking the cheap route of using YouTube. I personally would like to see these releases continue. (And the Blu-ray only cost me $69 Cdn. which is better than the $105 the DVD set of Series 1 cost me 5 years ago).

Alex

 

[David cgc]

Having just watched those Night things, they're nothing too impressive. Although it is interesting to see that it is indeed the Eleventh Doctor that takes River to see the Singing Towers. Nitpick, that wasn't a new suit future Doctor was wearing. Should have had him wearing the white suit, for continuity sake.

[fanwank]Maybe he met her in the new suit, and then changed to the tux during the date. It seemed to be a bigger night than just seeing the singing towers.[/fanwank]

 

[Worf2DS9]

I hope folks actually go and buy the set, though, rather than taking the cheap route of using YouTube. I personally would like to see these releases continue.

I plan to do just that. I've cashed in some HBC rewards points for an Indigo gift card, so I'll use that and get a nice discount.

Aside from Gaiman's commentary, are there any others, and are they traditional audio versions?

 

[auntiehill]

And for anyone who doesn't have the DVDs on hand, guess what's turned up on Youtube.

AWESOME! Thanks for posting that.

 

[dauntless]

Last Night is the best of the bunch (mainly because I love River) but the one featuring Corden is awful.

 

[captcalhoun]

i liked all of them.

 

[Captain Crow]

Nitpick, that wasn't a new suit future Doctor was wearing. Should have had him wearing the white suit, for continuity sake.

In "Forrest of the Dead" River said "you turned up on my doorstep with a new haircut and a suit" which would imply only the haircut was new not the suit.

 

[The Wormhole]

Nitpick, that wasn't a new suit future Doctor was wearing. Should have had him wearing the white suit, for continuity sake.

In "Forrest of the Dead" River said "you turned up on my doorstep with a new haircut and a suit" which would imply only the haircut was new not the suit.

Okay, but there we see him wearing a hat. How did she know his haircut was new?

 

[Captain Crow]

Being a gentleman he would have taken his hat off when he greeted her at the door. She would have noticed his hair was different and commented about it and he told her he just got it cut.

 

[Pseudo]

Nitpick, that wasn't a new suit future Doctor was wearing. Should have had him wearing the white suit, for continuity sake.

In "Forrest of the Dead" River said "you turned up on my doorstep with a new haircut and a suit" which would imply only the haircut was new not the suit.

Okay, but there we see him wearing a hat. How did she know his haircut was new?

We only saw a brief moment of that encounter with River. I suppose that it's just possible that he might have took it off at some point.

 

[David cgc]

Plus, she's his wife. A woman knows.