by Kroze Kresky, Media Editor

When Stephen Moffat took the Doctor Who reigns from Russel T. Davies, people wondered if he could possibly keep up the feeling of wonder and excitement that RTD was able to inject into Doctor Who during his 5 year run on the series. Moffat, who is no stranger to blowing people’s minds over and over again, has more than proven himself again, showing that Series 5 was not just a fluke occurrence. Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series on Blu-ray gives us everything we have wanted and much much MORE!

The ongoing story of The Doctor’s new menace, The Silence, and his counterpart, River Song (few viewers could have predicted these two plot-points would be so intertwined), Series 6 manages to expand on the universe and the core mythology of The Doctor in ways beyond the expectations of even the most imaginative fan-fiction writers. Matt Smith once again reprises his role as the ever-so-aloof Doctor, joined by the now-married couple of nerd dream girl Amy Pond (played by the gorgeous Karen Gillan), and the awkward-yet-lovable Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), as the three time and space adventurers face off with killer dolls, pirates, and even the TARDIS itself!

Continuing from the storyline set up in “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead” (during David Tennant’s run as The Doctor), as well as events of the previous season, Moffat continues the tale of River Song and the Silence. Last season, several characters informed us that “Silence will fall” across the galaxy. The show even insinuated that The Silence was the force that took control of the TARDIS, causing it to blow it up at the end of Season 5. The Silence is finally revealed to us right off the bat this season in the opening two parter The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and man, are they something!
 
Also this season, for the first time ever , Doctor Who moved its entire production out west to come shoot in Utah, USA! This gave us some of the most elaborate and grand-sweeping shots ever seen on the long-running British sci-fi series. You really get a feeling of the scale of what is happening from these scenes, and are left wishing the rest of the episodes had the same full feel.
 
As always, Doctor Who brings with it a stunning set of special guest stars, and this year is no exception. Right from the start of the season, beloved genre-actor , Mark Sheppard, joins the fun as the former FBI agent Canton Delaware (with his father, William Morgan Sheppard, playing the older version of Canton). Michael Sheen joins the series as well, lending his voice to the series as the alien planet “House”. This season of Who also played host to a special guest writer for the fourth episode of the season: Neil Gaiman lent his storytelling mastery to produce a episode that will go down as one of the most memorable episodes of Who ever. James Corden returns this season as Craig, who was introduced to us last year in “The Lodger”, and we get to take a look at his life since the Doctor changed it forever! Speaking about returning characters, fan-favorite Ian McNeice also reprises his role as Winston Churchill in possibly one of the most fun ways to bring back a previous historical character.  Special mention goes to the cast of the season-starting Christmas special, starring the great Michael Gambon (known currently for playing Dumbledore in the recent Harry Potter films), in a role that can only be described as “Space Scrooge”, and mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins playing a brilliant opposite to him. This season of Who sure certainly no shortage of special guest stars, and they do far more than just pull their weight!

Episodes:

“A Christmas Carol”: Kazran Sardick is an unhappy old meiser devoid of any joy in his life, so much so that when a spaceship filled with people (including Amy and Rory on their Honeymoon) is about to be destroyed (killing all onboard), he could not care less and refuses to help, though it is entirely in his control to do so. It is up to the Doctor to try and change his mind by altering Kazran’s past in order to save the day, but will playing the Ghost of Christmas Past cause more harm than good?  

“The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon”: The most shocking way to start a season: Kill off your main character within the first 10 minutes while his companions watch it happen helplessly… and yet still, he lives. That is exactly what happens to The Doctor just before they start off on their journey to 1969 Utah to stop an alien invasion that no one can remember.

“The Doctor’s Wife”: The Neil Gaiman-penned episode in which we learn the inner workings of what could be considered the Doctor’s Wife: The TARDIS. When an evil sentient planet named “House” decides to take over the TARDIS with his own consciousness, the soul of the TARDIS is thrust into a deteriorating patchwork human body and Amy and Rory find themselves trapped inside a malicious Time Machine. Can the Doctor manage to put the TARDIS back inside itself and save his companions in time?
 
“The Rebel Flesh”/”The Almost People”: The Doctor is up to something as he goes to investigate a situation in Earth’s future. Remote Controlled human clones, called “Gangers”, are put to work doing dangerous jobs that could otherwise end in massive casualties. Due to a freak accident the Gangers come alive and plan to take over for the humans… permanently. Can the humans and Gangers find a way to live together peacefully, or will it cost them all their lives?

“A Good Man Goes To War”:
“Demons run when a good man goes to war,
Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war,
Friendship dies and true love lies, night will fall and the dark will rise, when a good man goes to war.
Demons run but count the cost,
The battle’s won but the child is lost…”

To not risk spoiling anything about this epic episode, we will just leave it at that and say this is the episode River Song fans have all been waiting for… but that is just the beginning of the truth behind the elusive River Song!

“Lets Kill Hitler”:  Starting off the second half of the season with a bang (as well as a very misleading title), to say Lets Kill Hitler is a very involved episode would be an understatement as we learn more about River’s history. The TARDIS is hijacked at gunpoint by a longtime childhood friend of Amy and Rory’s as she is determined to go back in time to kill Hitler, taking the gang along for the ride with her. Little do they all know there is a small group of time travelers who are a self appointed time police force already on the scene; and they know all about the Doctor’s deadly future, and the inevitable yet to come.

“Night Terrors”:  A completely ordinary apartment complex is not normally the place for adventures, but when The Doctor is psychically summoned by a scared kid, the TARDIS trio discover just how scary an apartment complex can really be as people start disappearing one by one. The only answer lies within a dollhouse… where the dolls have come to life!

“The Girl Who Waited”: The gang arrives on a paradise planet to take a much-needed vacation only to find it a quarantined facility for victims of an alien plague, one which could kill the Doctor if he is exposed to it. Amy becomes trapped in the facility, which fast-fowards its “paitents” through their lives making them live their entire lifespan in a single day. With the Doctor unable to leave the TARDIS, it is up to Rory to rescue his wife and save the day. Only one problem: due to the time distortion of the hospital, there are now two Amy’s… a young one and an older one, and Rory can’t save them both! This happens to be one of the best episodes of the season, as well as one of the most thought-provoking and talked-about as we see a side of The Doctor we don’t normally see.

“The God Complex”: The TARDIS is summoned to a strange hotel of horrors, with every room holding someones’s fear inside… including The Doctor’s. The gang must try to save themselves along with everyone else whom the hotel has captured, before a giant Minotaur is able to kill them all. The ending 10 mintues of this episode are some of the most emotional scenes in Who history… you may want to keep a tissue with you!

“Closing Time”: Continuing from where last season’s “The Lodger” left off, we check in with Craig and his wife Sofie again… and they now have a son! Sofie leaves for the weekend, leaving Craig to overcome his fear of being a father. Before long the Doctor shows up, and once again brings trouble right into Craig’s life in the form of Cybermen looking to rebuild their army. The Doctor and Craig must team up once again to prevent a new Cyber Empire from beginning… with a little help from a baby preferring to be called “Stormageddon, The Dark Lord”.

“The Wedding of River Song”: The time has come for the Doctor to stop running and face his fate at Lake Silenco, when River steps in to prevent it. This causes an entire alternate reality to happen, where time happens all at once, the result showing what happens if you try to drastically alter a fixed point in time. As the universe slowly dies, can the Doctor convince River that his death needs to happen before it is too late? And just what is the question and why is it so important that it must not be answered?

Special Features:

The BBC’s Doctor Who sets have always have gone above and beyond, consistently packed-full of extras and special features, and The Complete Series 6 is no different. Just like last season, Stephen Moffat wrote and filmed a special set of shorts made just for this release, showing what happens after Amy and Rory go to sleep… and the results are hilarious. In true Moffat style, he uses this as yet another chance to show how much he loves screwing around with the progression of time itself. Special mention goes out to First Night/Last Night as it gives us a glimpse of a possible upcoming event in both The Doctor and River’s lives that will doom them both. Props to Moffat for daring to make something so important exclusive to the set alone. The previously released online episode prequels are a very nice touch to the set and help set up event sequencing . If you choose to watch only one of these, watch the prequel to Let’s Kill Hitler, as it is one of the most stand out moments of the season; we are actually given the chance to see The Doctor at his most helpless state, and how being completely helpless affects his psyche. Two specials that provide hearty comic relief are Time/Space, both hilarious and a must-watch for any Who fan… if just for the fantasy of having two Amy Ponds hitting on each other… Mmm, two Amy Ponds…

The special features on this set go way above and beyond the norm, making it worth getting the set just to have these in your collection. Its too bad most other TV shows don’t come close to the quality that was put into this set! Here is a list of features included in this release:

-The Doctor and Night DVD/Blu-Ray exclusive shorts:

• Bad Night
• Good Night
• First Night
• Last Night
• Up All Night

-Comic Relief 2011 Mini Episodes – Space and Time

-Episode Prequels:

• The Impossible Astronaut
• Curse of the Black Spot
• A Good Man Goes to War
• Let’s Kill Hitler
• The Wedding of River Song

– Doctor Who Confidential featurettes

– Monster Files featurettes

– Audio commentaries

– DTS-HD 5.1 Surround Sound

Overall:

Moffat and company can’t seem to stop their amazing run, even topping several sci-fi blockbusters in terms of quality and consistency. Smith, Gillian, and Davrill are made for these roles and fans are generally unanimous in their hope that all three of them will be sticking around for awhile. This team has skyrocketed Doctor Who into its most successful series yet, making this set one of the must haves for any fan of good sci-fi television shows. It continues to be imaginative and spectacular; it just doesn’t feel like a TV show at all with its massive scope. Once again, all of the actors bring their A game, and Smith is really blowing it out of the water – almost fully erasing thoughts of previous Doctors from the minds of viewers. Moffat and his team have done it again, and we cannot wait to see what is in store for our heroes in the upcoming 2011 Christmas Special, and Series 7, which airs in 2012!

ComicsOnline gives Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series Blu-Ray – 5 Hitler punches out of 5!

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