Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series [Blu-ray]

First, let me cut to the chase:If you are one of those people who got their introduction to this series through the "New" series and thought it was THE BEST thing ever...skip this review. AND skip buying this season. You will NOT like it!HOWEVER...if you cut your teeth on this series, starting with the "old" (now referred to as the "Classic" series) - and the FURTHER back, the better - and lamented over the "new and improved" resurrected series as being...well...if you just lamented over it...REJOICE! You will LOVE the 5th season (and the new Doctor/Matt Smith).First, I want to say that I never got to see Eccelston enough to form an objective opinion of "his" Doctor. It was just sort of, "Yeah - eh, ok...he's "there." Fine" And I DID love Tennant. What I DIDN'T like, were his companions. Which means that the episodes I liked best, were the ones where he didn't have a companion. (And, interestingly enough, the one I remember BEST, was "Blink" - where the "Weeping Angels" were first introduced.Now...I had a promo code from Amazon to use, and while I started out to just use it to get 1 or 2 episodes for "free," I ended up (by accident) buying the whole season with a TV pass. What with one thing and another, I never got the chance to actually sit down and watch any of them, until now. Anticipating a 3-day weekend, I expected to watch 1 or 2 each night, over a 3-night period.Well...THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN! Once I sat down (today) and started watching...I just COULDN'T quit watching. Every time the box came up, asking if I wanted to watch the next episode, I just HAD to click YES! So I've just spent several hours straight, watching this (and I can say, still, I haven't seen several hours out of the first 4 seasons, total, yet!)I'm sure the "politically correct police" will come for me...and I would like to know when this word became a "four-letter" word...but what I ENJOYED MOST about this - from FIRST to SIXTH episode...was that they were FUN!!!!THIS is what I remembered liking about the "classic" series. There is a lot (a LOT!) of dashing to and fro - insanity - madness - adventure - and just plain good FUN! (Oh, yeah - and saving the Earth isn't a "shabby" deal, either!) Amy Pond (new/current companion) reminds me of Ace (which I consider a MAJOR improvement over the previous companions - so, if you DIDN'T like Ace, you may want to keep THAT in mind, too.)I remember the controversy when Matt Smith was chosen. Bothering to look up what little I could find about him (including an interview), I decided that, "This could turn out very bad (another "fifth season" that I wouldn't be watching)...OR...very good (fingers crossed, hoping against hoping)." I was wrong...this turned out GREAT!!! :-DDDThe Eleventh Hour - sees the new Doctor adjusting to a new personality (as well as a new body). I love the scenes with poor Amy Pond (as a child) trying to find something "acceptable" for him to eat (no - won't tell you what "magic combination" of foods he finally finds "desirable!"). The story also introduces the "crack in the wall" that will run through the entire season (and, from the way the last episode ends, we are given to believe it might NOT be over, yet...)The Beast Below - is a typical story (things aren't always what they seem). Again, everything seems "on the run" with no "lagging" moments. I also liked that it was Amy that ends up making the decision that keeps The Doctor from having to make a choice he'd rather not make between the lesser of 2 evils.Victory of the Daleks - brings back The Doctor's oldest foes - resurrected into new and more ominous/formidable forms - and all thanks to HIM! The story harks back to the old classic stories that would be put in historical settings. Again lots of action, very little "dead time."The Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone - is a 2-parter, and the only case where I felt things lagged a bit. I feel it's a case of having too much story, for just ONE episode...but not quite enough to fully fill-out TWO episodes. It brings back the "Weeping Angels" of the episode "Blink." Apart from the slight "drag," I didn't care a lot for River Song. If her character were "tweaked" just a bit, I'd probably like her better - but there is just enough "off" that I can't quite get over the feeling that I'm just "putting up" with her, because I "have" to. (Demons? Angels? Uhm...no. They're ALIENS! And there were stories with Tennant, that I saw as being SO "religiously symbolic," that they actually made me feel uncomfortable. But THIS story is NOT one of them...)The Vampires of Venice - This time Amy's boyfriend Rory (actually, soon-to-be-husband...well...he's SUPPOSED to be her "soon-to-be-husband!" ;-) are taken along by The Doctor as sort of a "gift" on a trip to Venice (1500's). Vampires? Well, of COURSE NOT! This is Doctor Who. What WOULD you expect? (that's right - ALIENS!) But, as The Doctor says, "What kind of aliens could be so "terrible," that making themselves out to be vampires would be BETTER than what they really are?"(Oh...and from what I saw of the preview for the next episode...it would look like Rory and Amy DO get married - but hey, this is Doctor Who...and, as we all know, NOTHING is ever what it SEEMS...)Every time I watched another of these episodes, I kept thinking, "This is TOO GOOD! SOMETHING is going to happen. I kept watching and waiting for signs that the season was going to start slipping "back" to what the New series was like. But it never did...it just kept getting better - and Better - and BETTER! I'm still sitting here, grinning from ear to ear.And - for the first time since the Classic series - I just CAN'T WAIT for the next episodes! (Yes - I will be getting another pass, and buying the WHOLE season!) And YES...I WILL be watching these AGAIN, while I'm waiting!

Season Five of the reconstituted/reimaged Doctor Who was greatly anticipated, not just because of the transition from David Tennant to Matt Smith as The Doctor, but what direction Steven Moffat would take as the showrunner after--using the terminology I've used with this series--the Russell T. Davies chapter. Smith--the youngest actor ever to play the TimeLord--brought an old-soul nature to the role. If Tennant seemed to hearken to Tom Baker, Smith seemed to go all the way back to Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell; a little crotchety at times, but filled with the usual boundless energy and the lines flying at warp speed. The Companion to Smith's Eleventh Doctor is Karen Gillan's Amy Pond. The immediate issue with Gillan--because of her red hair--is to immediately compare her to Catherine Tate. Whereas Donna Noble was all mouth and "shoulders" (AHEM); Amy Pond is all eyes (brown and doe-eyed) and legs. Not that she isn't mouthy, but Amy has NOTHING on Donna. In this storyline, The Doctor first meets "Pond" (As he calls her sometimes) when she's seven, leaves for two minutes (his two minutes), but comes back to her 12 years later (Her 12 years), then, when she's ready to travel with him it's after a minute of his time--but two more years (And the night before she's supposed to get married) in her time (There WILL be a test on this later...). Plus, there is the element of Amy's attraction to The Doctor, something that plays out at the end of the "The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone" two-parter. This isn't a case of Amy having the feelings for The TimeLord that Rose Tyler or Martha Jones had...this is a Companion in heat. Which leads to the first interesting twist in the Moffatt chapter... The first unique twist of this first part of the Moffatt chapter comes from Arthur Davrill's Rory Williams--Amy's fiancée, who ends up being a key part of this season; putting Rory into the TARDIS--which sort of gives the storyline a feel of Jack Harkness/Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams from Torchwood. Moffatt takes a very different tack here by very quickly giving this Doctor his family...it's just a little bit of a shock that the fourth member of this group is Alex Kingston's River Song--but make no mistake, it's a pleasant shock. River was introduced in Series 4--the two-parter "Silence in The Library/Forest of The Dead"--as a woman who at some point, ends up being very important to The Doctor, but he currently keeps running into her out of order. Kingston certainly brings a little bawdiness to the character--letting The Doctor know that he's about to run into her with the message, "Hello, Sweetie"--but the season finale--"The Big Bang"--also alerts the viewer that there's more to her than just being a Companion (Future wife?) to The Doctor. Suffice it to say that (For those familiar with the Whoniverse) hearing a Dalek begging for mercy from a Companion...is a little different. This series--with River's appearances in four episodes--allows for River to become the person pointing towards the impending dangers that The Doctor, Amy and Rory face, but she also shows her affection for her man. The last scene between Kingston and Smith in "The Big Bang" is a hearty and passionate moment where River really starts letting her guard down to The Doctor...and gets cut short with her next warning of impending danger. There are many high points in this season--the opener, "The Eleventh Hour", in which Smith establishes his take on The Doctor, and the season's storyline gets set into motion..."The Beast Below" has the surprising and unique twist of Amy picking up on things early and stopping The Doctor from making a mistake--plus a great turn from Sophie Okonedo as "Liz Ten"...the aforementioned "The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone", which brings back The Weeping Angels from Season 3's "Blink"; "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood" two-parter which begins the time paradox that is part of the season's climax;... but my absolute favorite story of this season is the episode "Vincent And The Doctor", where the TimeLord and Amy meet up with Vincent Van Gogh after seeing something out of place in one of his paintings at Musee D' Orsay in Paris. It's a great turn by Tony Curran as the tortured artist...who develops a little bit of a thing for Amy...but what makes this episode is an uncredited performance by Bill Nighy as a curator/expert at D'Orsay who unknowingly lets an unpopular artist during his life know that he ends up being held in higher esteem in history. It's a touching and brilliant scene, all at once heartbreaking and uplifting. Nighy is just great, oblivious to the person near him; Curran is heartbreaking--finding out that his art is held in such high esteem after his departure. Overall, this first part of Moffatt's chapter allows Smith to establish is old soul in a young body ("Bow ties are cool..."), Amy to evoke some element of Donna Noble (Though Donna made the point that she wasn't a shag in the TARDIS early on to The Tenth Doctor) while being the ultimate hero of the season, Davrill to become something more than Noel Clarke's Mickey Smith from the Davies chapter, and Kingston to begin to add layers--both heroic and ominous--to River. All in all, a good beginning to the Moffatt Chapter.

J'adore cette série et particulièrement avec Matt Smith, c'est le meilleur Docteur Who.

Mi è piaciuta molto. Confezioni Perfette.

Beste staffel und lustige staffelJede staffel von der Serie ist ein Muss

I have received and watched it. great condition.