Product Description

The new series of Doctor Who features Christopher Eccleston as the re-incarnated Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose, his trusty sidekick.

Episodes comprise:

7. The Long Game: Adam discovers the wonders of travelling in the Tardis. In the far future, Satellite 5 broadcasts to the entire Earth Empire. But anyone promoted to Floor 500 is never seen again, and the Doctor suspects mankind is being manipulated. Does Adam have what it takes to become the Time Lord's companion?

8. Father's Day: Rose travels back to 1987, to witness the day her Father died. But when she interferes in the course of events, the monstrous Reapers are unleashed upon the world, and a wedding day turns into a massacre. Even the Doctor is powerless, as the Human Race is devoured.

9. The Empty Child: London, 1941, at the height of the Blitz. A mysterious cylinder is being guarded by the army, while homeless children, living on the bombsites, are being terrorised by an unearthly child.

10. The Doctor Dances: The Child's plague is spreading throughout wartime London, and its zombie army is on the march. The Doctor and Rose form an alliance with the intergalactic con-man, Captain Jack, but find themselves trapped in the abandoned hospital. The answer lies at the bomb site, but time is running out...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5765 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-01
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
It was always going to be a risk for the BBC to revamp Doctor Who--few television programmes inspire as much rabid and cultish adoration. With the 2005 series, however, the BBC have really outdone themselves. Their updated Doctor Who is a revelation: a cult science fiction series that has real mass appeal, and works for both children and their parents. Christopher Eccleston is an inspired and charismatic Doctor--he leaps around the sets with an unrestrained glee, like he’s a child running amok in a toy shop. His enthusiasm in downright infectious. His sidekick Rose (Billie Piper) adds a real human touch, particularly as she gradually and believably matures from in-over-her-head city kid to tough-minded interplanetary hero. Much of the credit must go to writer Russell Davies, who has a much-practiced knack for finding popular appeal without dumbing-down his ideas, and who appears to have let his imagination run riot. Even the special effects, whilst not of a big-budget cinematic quality, still manage to strike a balance between cheesiness and realism. Thrilling, funny and thoroughly entertaining, this Doctor Who is a hero for the new millennium. --Robert Burrow

Synopsis
The Doctor and Rose continue to explore time and space in the next four adventures of the BBC television series. In 'The Long Game' the Doctor discovers that a satellite is manipulating the future of mankind.

Customer Reviews

I'm Running Out Of Superlatives
This is where the new Doctor Who finally comes into its own. One slightly weaker episode - the Jagrafess in The Long Game doesn't really convince, although the episode itself fits nicely into the developing Bad Wolf arc - is closely followed by two of the best stories ever presented by the Who team.

Paul Cornell's Father's Day is brilliant. I didn't hold much hope for this one because I was never a fan of Cornell's novels but he really excels himself here. This is an episode about people rather than monsters and aliens, and the human drama is beautifully written and performed. Shaun Dingwall as Pete Tyler delivers a pitch-perfect performance, the lovable rogue's exterior masking his hurt at not having made good for his wife and child. The episode's monsters, the Reapers, are little more than an acknowledgement that Doctor Who should have monsters in it to scare the children, but the episode is not about them. It's about Rose, Jackie and Pete. A true masterpiece.

And it just gets better. The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances are my favourite episodes of the revived series. The Second World War setting is eerily atmospheric, the supporting cast are outstanding and the gasmasked child is truly terrifying. As someone once said of City of Death, it's almost a pity that the rest of Doctor Who exists to compare this to. And to top it all we get the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness. Exquisite.

Almost perfect
Three of the most clever, emotional and brilliant episodes came from this dvd but it's a shame about''The Long Game''.''The Long Game'' isn't a bad episode it just isn't at all good.''Fathers Day'' is one of my favourite episodes. ''The Empty Child'' and ''The Doctor Dances'' are probably the most thrilling and scary episodes in the series.The plot of these two episodes is ingenious.Although I don't think ''The Long Game'' is great, this is still probably my favourite dvd in the series and I really reccomend it.

Best episodes of the series....but thats not saying much
I'm afraid i am not one of the people who thinks Doctor Who has enjoyed a renaissance. But i can admit there a few of the new series that do show great potential. And this DVD, conveniently, has all three of them in one package. I'll start with the one that isn't fantastic first. "The Long Game," tellingly written by Russel T Davies (and therefore hardly original), is set in the year 5000-odd and is a tale about corporate media takeover. With a big alien in the attic. The problem with this story is that its completely average. Not bad at all, but lacking in being good as well. Simon Pegg gives an overly hammy performance, Tamsin Greig is even roped in for a daft pointless cameo. The alien on Level 51 is once again given an incredibly silly name (I think RTD picked it up incorrectly from watching one or two episodes of the classic series that aliens should have daft names. I stand by my accusation; i don't think RTD is a doctor who fan. He just says he is to make people like him.) And the ending is abysmal. Moving on.
"Fathers Day" is excellent. Oh look, not written by Russel. Taking a basic sci fi concept (that of using time travel to right what once went wrong) and twisting it round to show its dark side. Setting it in the 80s is a stroke of genius - it allows clever use of cool classic cars. Its a morality tale at its heart. The appearance of the creatures (officially "reapers", but they are a little too akin to the Chronovores of Who History) is brilliant; excellent special effects and actually quite scary. The gaping plot holes...well fine. Its time travel. Few people can write a time travel yarn without having a few plot holes. Best just to ignore them and enjoy the ride.
"The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" are not written by Russel either. Ergo they are very good. Its a two-parter, so theres a cliffhanger. And its brilliant. The gasmask transformation is a scare-sequence that will haunt the children of today like the haemovores of "The Curse of Fenric" did when i was that age. Introducing the world to Jack Harkness as well - who will go on to flaunt his classy womanising (and "manising") in the spin off Torchwood). The ending is a little overly sugary but hey, whats wrong with that? Richard Wilson shows what cameo actors should do; play it well and play it straight. True class.

Overall then. Three out of Four and to boot, the best three episodes of the whole of Chris Ecclestone's series all on one DVD. Ignore the rest of the series and watch this one.