From the manufacturer

Doctor Who: The Complete First Series

The Doctor is wise, funny, cheeky and brave. An alien and a loner, his detached logic gives him a vital edge when the world's in danger. But when it comes to human relationships, he can be found wanting. That's why he needs Rose. From the moment they meet, the Doctor and Rose understand and complement each other. As they travel together through time, encountering new adversaries, the Doctor shows her things beyond imagination.

Doctor Who: The Complete First Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with a 1080p transfer in 1.74:1 (you'll note thin black "pillarboxes" on the screenshots I've uploaded to this review). As "advanced" a Time Lord as Doctor Who the character is, this season of Doctor Who is still a relic of the standard definition era, and as such the image quality is often plagued by the kind of typical things we mention in our reviews of upscaled material. The best thing about these transfers is probably the palette, which still pops with considerable energy and gives things a bit of authenticity it's probably lacking in the sharpness, clarity and detail level arenas. I'm assuming that this series partook of the Doctor Who tradition of having both captured and filmed scenes (depending on location work), as there are sudden spikes in grittiness at occasional moments here that are unfortunately further exacerbated by the upscale, which can tend to produce almost squiggle looking artifacts. CGI is somewhat variable, with some scenes, as in "the end of the world" in the second episode, looking rather good, all things considered, but some other moments (like what might be thought of as living gargoyles or harpies in a later episode) looking pretty soft and even cartoon like. Fans of Doctor Who who have watched other series that feature upscaled video presentations will probably have a good baseline as to what to expect here, but hopefully the screenshots can give an adequate idea of what things look like.

Doctor Who: The Complete First Series features a rather robust sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one that can emphasize some nicely rumbly LFE at times. Some of the big special effects sequences, like the destruction of a certain London landmark, or even "the end of the world", offer good panning effects and nicely wide dynamic range. There are some decent ambient environmental effects populating several episodes that have at least some scenes taking place outdoors. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout all of the episodes.

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Doctor Who: The Complete First Series (Repackage/DVD)

Christopher Eccleston's Doctor is wise and funny, cheeky and brave. An alien and a loner, his detached logic gives him a vital edge when the world's in danger. But when it comes to human relationships, he can be found wanting. That's why he needs Rose. From the moment they meet, the Doctor and Rose understand and complement each other. As they travel together through time, encountering new adversaries, the Doctor shows her things beyond imagination.

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