Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2848 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-29
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 300 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Reviews
A good value boxset that unites a loose trilogy of stories of varying interest from the back catalogue, Doctor Who: New Beginnings maintains the high standards set of late by the show’s catalogue releases. Beginnings is the underlying theme, with the stories following the introduction of the late Anthony Ainley’s take on The Master, the swansong of Tom Baker’s Doctor, and the debut of Peter Davison in the title role.

The first story, "The Keeper Of Trakken", tells of a living statue that poses a threat to Traken World. It’s quite a good tale, introducing Nyssa to the Doctor Who Universe, but more worryingly for the Doctor it also plays host to a resurgent Master. And it’s he too who plays a crucial part in "Logopolis", Tom Baker’s final story in the title role. It’s the best story in the New Beginnings boxset, as the Doctor battles both The Master, and the potential end of the Universe when the mathematicians of Logopolis are threatened. Along the way, he also adds Tegan to the crew of the TARDIS for the first time, with the first appearance of Peter Davison as the Doctor, too.

Davison’s first full story though, "Castrovalva"", is the weakest link of the set. Again it features The Master, and it follows the newly regenerated Doctor--in a very shaky state--as he heads for the supposedly peaceful retreat of the title, only to find, as you’d expect, that all isn’t as it seems. Sadly, the premise isn’t really realised, resulting in one of the more tepid stories of Davison’s reign.

Ultimately though, Doctor Who: New Beginnings delivers two very good stories. Yet this being Doctor Who, each is backed up by enough extra features to paper over even the most telling of cracks, and there’s plenty on offer to justify the asking price.--Simon Brew

Synopsis
This collection of episodes focuses on the transition of doctors played by Tom Baker and Peter Davidson, across three stories – 'The Keeper Of Traken', 'Logopolis' and 'Castrovalva'.

Customer Reviews

One goodie, two yawn-a-ramas
Box-sets of Dr Who stories connected by some theme or other seem to be slowly taking over individual releases. Some, like the Key to Time season, are excellent. Others seem to be good stories lumped together with total clangers which, on their own, would only be bought by hardcore fans. I'm afraid this seems to be one of those releases. The Keeper of Traken is a first-class tale. It looks great, has an interesting story, the decaying Master is well-played and the walking statue is quite creepy (it was played by one of Sun Hill's finest, incidentally). Logopolis, however, is a story which tries so hard to be clever and far-out and just ends up being a lot of odd things happening with very little rhyme or reason. It's only real saving grace is the regeneration sequence, which is first-class. Castrovalva is one of those stories which, once you've watched it, fails to ever tempt you back for a repeated viewing. On its plus side, Tegan and Nyssa work well together and it's a shame the latter ended up playing second fiddle to a man in a yellow tracksuit and green wellies. On its minus side, the story is slow. Far too much time is spent wandering around the Tardis, for example, with the Doctor doing impressions of his various past incarnations. This was the beginning of a trend towards irritating in-jokes and self-referencing which would haunt Dr Who through many eighties stories. Michael Sheard is in Castrovalva, but is disgracefully wasted. It has to be said that, although Anthony Ainley would later become a brilliant Master, he is terrible in both Logopolis and Castrovalva. Think pantomime villain and you'd be not too short of the mark. To sum up, I'd have prefered it if they'd released Keeper on its own. I suppose you could always sell the other two stories.

Very dissappointing
I was too young to see these stories when they came out so i bought them with no real knowledge about them. And what a mistake it was.

Every story is poor, and the only good thing about them is the DVD extras. But even they don't justify the purpose of buying the DVD.

The main reason i bought this was because the Master was in it. But what a dissappointment he was. I expected a head-to-head battle with the Doctor in each story - but you barely saw the master in any story. I expected a battle of wits like we saw in the brilliant Roger Delgado stories, but it just never happened. There was nothing wrong with Anthony Ainley, but all he seemed to do was give an evil laugh and then disappear again. It's a case of Roger Delgado 1, Anthony Ainley 0.

I would not recommend buying this DVD at all. Very poor.

3 of the best Dr.Who stories ever
This boxset contains 3 of the most important Dr Who stories ever made, and they also happen to be 3 of the finest. Keeper of Traken is one of the most beautiful stories ever made, with gorgeous set-design, costumes and music and successfully reintroduces old enemy The Master plus introduces new companion Nyssa. The momentous Logopolis is Tom Baker's final story and one of the most atmospheric, sombre and complex stories in the series history. Castrovalva is Peter Davison's first ever story and is highly imaginative and intriguing and Davison makes a good first impression. The extras are superb, with the highlight being the New Body At Last documentary, which is one of the best documentaries to have featured on the DVD's so far. Overall, The New Beginnings Box Set is an essential purchase and is, I think, the best Dr Who DVD release to date.