Doctor Who - The Collection: Season 12 [Blu-ray] [2018]

To me, Classic Who was at it's best during the Pertwee, Baker and Davison eras, reaching a peak during Tom Baker's reign as the Doctor. Watching this season now, it is amazing how quickly Tom took to the role, somehow channelling bits of Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee whilst adding enough of himself to make the role his own. As good as the series had been previously, it was during his years in the Tardis that storylines and production improved considerably, becoming more adult and horror-oriented and taking the series into a new direction. It was only fitting that when these stories, his first, were aired, there was a vast change in the production team behind the show, and it was during this 12th season that the handover took place, with some stories already greenlit ( some of the scripts had been written with Pertwee in mind ) and others, such as the opening story 'Robot' taking tentative steps to introduce this new version of the main character. Fortunately, we have the lovely Elisabeth Sladen continuing as Sarah Jane, as well as the ever-reliable Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier to help make the change over as smooth as possible.They needn't have worried. From the moment Tom Baker speaks he has the right mannerisms and screen presence to make you accept totally that he is the Doctor. The costume design was spot-on too, in maintaining Pertwee's velvet jacket, Troughton's baggy pants and adding the hat and scarf to make it just that bit more of a change. Genius !Tom Baker even has that slight air of scientific superiority and impatience that is reminiscent of Hartnell, so completing the idea that he is, in fact all four aspects of the character. As an actor, he claims to have known very little of previous incarnations, so I must assume that it is a combination of script combined with his own personality and sense of fun that makes his Doctor so immediately likeable, as seen here.Onto the stories themselves. The opener, 'Robot', is very much like a continuation of the Pertwee era, being set on earth and including already familiar characters and involving UNIT. I like the addition of Ian Marter as a second companion in the form of Harry Sullivan. It's a shame he was not in more stories, leaving as he does during the following season. There seemed real chemistry between the 3 Tardis occupants throughout this run and I would have liked that to continue but alas it was not to be. The second story here is 'The Ark In Space' - a much better solid sci-fi concept, albeit not all that original. In many ways it is a typical Doctor Who story and all the better for that. It gives Tom Baker a chance to get into the role and has plenty for Sarah Jane and Harry to do as well. This is followed by a 2 part 'filler' story involving old foes the Sontarans, which is lacking a logical storyline but is entertaining enough. Still, at least it is followed up by 'The Genesis Of The Daleks', which has to be one of the best ever stories- certainly a fan favourite- and an important one overall, providing as it does an 'origin' story for the Daleks, and introducing Villain and Dalek creator Davros. This is a good example of a 'Who' story with more depth, as the Doctor struggles with the moral dilemma of whether he. or the Timelords, has the right to end an entire race of creatures even knowing what the future holds for them. I never tire of this particular storyline, and this one alone justifies the purchase of this set.The final story sees the return of the Cybermen. It seems the producers were keen to include old favourite enemies during Baker's introductory series in order to give this new Doctor a stronger opening ? Anyway, this story stands up well alongside the others here, making a satisfying and enjoyable season overall.Of course, this is typical seventies TV sci-fi with typical seventies TV production values, so it would be easy to tear into it whilst viewing it through modern eyes. What many people don't understand is that Doctor Who had always been low-budget and had more than it's share of unconvincing monsters and shaky sets throughout it's history. What we, as fans, realise is that it is the storyline, concepts and characters that hold the appeal. What we see on screen is just a way of communicating those ideas and stories and how realistically the visuals are realised take second place to the stories, ideas and performances from the actors. A series like this does not last for over half a century and still retain viewers by relying on special effects alone. After all, does anyone visit a Theatre and come away complaining that they didn't enjoy it because what was on stage was obviously a set and not believable as a house, jungle or workplace ? Of course not.....OK, rant over... all that remains now is whether these blu ray sets are worth purchasing, particularly if, like me, you already own the DVDs. This can only depend on your personal opinion and circumstances. My view is that these sets are worth it for a number of reasons. One is that the resolution IS better on Blu ray despite the original source on which they were filmed. The show has never looked better than this and probably never will. I compared the 2 and could see the improvement, especially on 'Ark In Space' which has a beautifully clear picture quality and sound on all of the stories here is much improved. Most of the extra features are carried over from the DVD's and there are more besides, of varying quality and interest. The 'Behind The Sofa' idea is a good one- sort of like 'Gogglebox' with 'Who' actors- although I don't see the point of including actors from later in the series who had no part or real interest in an episode. Tom Baker and Philip Hinchcliffe, along with Elisabeth Sladen's daughter are pleasantly diverting, but Louise Jameson ( much as I like her) and the other 2 actresses are bordering on indifference and slightly irritating in their comments. The new hour-long interview with Tom Baker is quite philosophical and enlightening. In fact, all of the features when viewed as part of a full season seem so much more coherent and complement each other in giving a full and complete insight into the making of the whole season.Another reason for buying these sets is that it is so much more satisfying to have all of the episodes of a season in one set, so they can be viewed consecutively as originally intended. The box looks good too. Beautifully designed with a great illustration of the relevant Doctor on the cover, the box opens up to reveal the discs and a lovely illustrated booklet with info on each story. I really like the look and feel of these.Even so, personally I will not be buying all of the sets released, and will stick to the Pertwee, Baker and Davison eras before the show descended into the pantomime it became which led to it's cancellation originally. Will the earlier seasons of Hartnell and Troughton be released in this way ? Only time will tell since so many episodes are missing and need to be reconstructed... and instinct tells me there cannot be a lot of improvement on Blu Ray from old telecine black and white. My DVD's will suffice, as they will for the Colin Baker and McCoy stories...A couple of gripes- The way the BBC are releasing these sets as 'Limited Editions' is doing more harm than good. By limiting availability the way is clear for all those unscrupulous dealers to bulk buy and sell at an inflated price afterwards. I only managed to get this season 12 because they re-released it to make up for an under-production and even then I paid above the odds because I had the other releases and wanted a chance to get a complete run of the Tom Baker episodes. Not everyone can do this. The other gripe I have is the illogical order in which they are released. Exactly as they did with the DVD's, the BBC release these in random order. For instance, so far they have released seasons 10, 12, 18, 19, 23 and 26. Season 14 is next. Why not release these classic stories in production order so that we can get a continuous run for each Doctor instead of jumping around the show's history like the Tardis itself? How long will it take to get a complete set of, say, Tom Baker's era, for instance ? Better still, we could have had complete sets of each Doctor- certainly the shorter Peter Davison/Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy eras would have fitted into a box set each, with maybe Volumes 1 and 2 of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker to complete it. Still, this is the BBC and Doctor Who is one of its biggest cash cows.....

The first ever Doctor Who Collection season was certainly going to be popular, especially starting strong with Season 12, Tom Baker's first ever season. It's no surprise that the very limited run at the end of 2018 sold out immediately. So it was with great joy that I heard the BBC would finally be republishing the box set, albeit still in limited numbers. This, unsurprisingly, also sold out, but I finally had one ordered.This week I received my order and couldn't wait to open it. My heart nearly stopped when I saw the discs; season 10 (Pertwee) discs were in the box where the season 12 discs should have been. There was obviously no way I was going to send the box back to Amazon as they have no spare copies and it seems that the printing error comes from the BBC so no doubt all copies will have this issue. Thankfully, the discs actually have the right content on, but just the wrong labels. I'm just hoping the BBC do what they did for the last box set with the faulty discs, and send out replacements to customers. They've said that they've sent Amazon replacement discs but Amazon don't have them. Please don't contact Amazon as they know this is an issue and can't do anything about it as yet.As for the contents of the box set, wrong labels notwithstanding, this is possibly the best set a classic Who fan could ever want. Tom Baker really started on a high, a feat considering how good a job Jon Pertwee had done cementing the character as his own in the previous few seasons. Fan favourite Sarah Jane stayed on, with her being the one constant through these stories, linking them to the past season.Robot might not stand up technically, but it's a great introduction to a new Doctor with a fairly straight forward Sci Fi tale that launches us right into the action. The Ark In Space gives us more time for the Doctor, Harry and Sarah to bond with a slight horror overtone to the story, all the better for it, too. The Sontaran Experiment is a short reintroduction to those potato head adversaries, though the weakest of the stories here, and leads right into Genesis of the Daleks, possibly one of the greatest stories in Who history before we get to the meaty entertaining Revenge of the Cybermen.The highlight of the extras is a brand new 'Tom Baker in conversation' documentary which is well worth owning the box set for, plus Behind The Sofa which puts Tom Baker, Philip Hinchcliffe and Sadie Miller (Liz Sladen's daughter) on one sofa and Louise Jameson, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton on another, all watching the episodes from the set and either reminiscing or commenting on them. These work so well and were thankfully continued for each of the box sets that came after.The updated special effects for Revenge of the Cybermen are worth watching, though I found they added little extra to the story. The Genesis of the Daleks movie version, on the other hand, worked so well. The Tom Baker Years is another welcome edition that I had on Videotape for ages but lost.All of the extras from the previously released DVDs of each story are here, too, hundreds of hours of them! I admit I've not rewatched most as yet, but I will do eventually.So, fantastic box set that really deserved 5 stars and will get them if the BBC manage to sort the disc issue out.