Doctor Who The Collection Season 8 [Blu-ray]

Product Information

Whilst I absolutely love the ‘Behind the Sofa’ features, I do come to question which clips are actually selected for the actors to watch. Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s scripts often feel like having a machine gun full of ideas fired in your direction, but Claws of Axos, their first script for Doctor Who, feels very contained and shows that they definitely work best in the 4-episode format; Baker and Martin’s 6-parters, The Mutants and The Armageddon Factor are all over the place! Once again we start with the Time Lords, in the blue and silver colour scheme that would reoccur in the Pertwee era, temporarily breaking the Doctor’s exile on Earth to send him on a mission to another planet. Season 8 now arrives on a lavish eight-disc Blu-ray boxset but fans are advised not to expect the crisp, sharp visual quality of previous sets culled from much later in the series’ run.

Doctor Who Season 8 may have been Jon Pertwee‘s second season in the title role, but it’s here that the Third Doctor era really kicks off. Battling Autons, Axons, an alien mind parasite and a mighty Daemon, the Doctor, Jo and UNIT must defend the Earth – and its future pioneers – in five action-packed adventures. In my opinion, the Underworld model effects of the spaceship are excellent; love the cliff hanger to episode one when the ship is buried and the shots in episode two when it crashes through the crust of the planet. Much has been written about Delgado’s stunningly menacing performance over the decades, but it bears repeating how utterly unique and immense his presence is from his first appearance. Season 8 is iconic for multiple reasons in the Doctor Who canon, and on Blu-ray, it truly receives the love it deserves.There is no better tv that was created than Doctor Who and the Classic series has stories that made you think but also wished you were part of the adventures in time and space. The result was a series of four stories of which three were unusually long and obviously padded and a lot of production design that varied from story to story.

For those Coronation Street fans you will see a very young Helen Worth appear in Colony in Space before she became long suffering Gail Platt. The costumes for the primitives work well enough, but the Alien High Priest, which looks fantastic in photographs, falls down when it has to move and reveals itself for what it is – a rather stiffly-operated puppet. Katy Manning In Conversation - Matthew Sweet takes Katy back to her time as Jo Grant, the grooviest of Doctor Who companions. Coming Soon: Shada/More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS removed, not on season 17 but perhaps The Wilderness Years.

The serial juxtaposes gothic trappings with the scenic English Village setting, throws in some engaging characters, and plenty of solid action by HAVOC, resulting in an occasionally silly but ever-entertaining story of devil worshippers, strange witchcraft and alien gargoyles.