Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Nov 19, 2008, 14:49 GMT

Hot on the heels of the acclaimed third series, Doctor Who returns for a fantastic fourth series with a familiar face alongside the Doctor. Award-winning comedienne Catherine Tate returns as the Doctor\'s new companion, revisiting her role as Donna Noble who featured in the 2006 Christmas special The Runaway Bride. Martha Jones - who left the Doctor at the end of Series Three to break the unrequited circle of love ...more

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who's gonna save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?"

The end is nigh for the good Doctor as David Tennant has announced that he’ll be departing the show.  This was not known during the fourth series, but head writer Russell T. Davies had put his letter of resignation in at the time of this series and has crafted a fantastic finale to his time with the Doctor.  

The Doctor (David Tennant) is sad after the departure of companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman).  He doesn’t get much time to mourn as the Titanic crashes into the side of the TARDIS.  Well, not exactly as it’s a spaceship from the planet Sto that is done up to resemble the famous steamship. 

The new Titanic is just as unlucky as the old one as a plot puts the ship in the path of some meteors and disaster repeats itself.  It’s up to the Doctor to save the survivors, including a love interest in shipmate Astrid (Kylie Minogue).  After saving the Earth, yet again, the Doctor meets up with an old friend Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) while investigating a sinister diet plan and she boards the TARDIS as his new companion. 

They next visit ancient Pompeii, see the home planet of the Ood, fight the Sontarans (Sontar HA!) along with UNIT and Martha, witness the Doctor having a daughter (Georgia Moffett), have tea with Agatha Christie (Felicity Kendal), visit a gigantic library that requires an entire planet to house it and also meet Professor River Song (Alex Kingston) who appears to have intimate knowledge of the Doctor in the future, the Doctor is menaced by an unknown force on a train, and Donna’s future is in question. 

This all leads up to the fantastic final episode of series four that brings together Torchwood, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), and other old friends and companions to battle an old enemy and their creator (Julian Bleach in a delicious performance) but I’ll not spoil it for you (though the disc art does as that creator is revealed on the final one). 

It’s a fantastic season and Russell T. Davies appears to be pulling out all the stops the make this one a glorious sendoff for himself.  Tennant is still scheduled to appear in a four episode arch through 2009, but he’s recently announced that he’s handing the Doctor’s brainy specs to a new actor come 2010. 

Watching this fab fourth series only cemented my enjoyment of his Doctor and I’ll be sad to see him go.  However, let not your heart be troubled as Davies is turning the series over to writer Steven Moffat who has wrote my favorite Doctor Who episodes of this new series and I think that the series is in able hands (unless he gets turned into a Cyberman).  

Doctor Who: The Fourth Series is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Each episode features a commentary (found under set up and not special features) and we hear from the likes of Tennant, Davies, Tate, composer Murray Gold, actor Russell Tovey (supposedly in running for the Doctor job, we shall see), producer Julie Gardner, and a whole host of others involved in the production.  Fantastic listens, all of them. 

Disc one features the Children in Need Christmas special Time Crash (8 minutes).  In it the Doctor meets a past Doctor (Peter Davison) when their TARDIS collide.  It’s a delightful tribute to Davison’s era as the Doctor as writer Moffat and Tennant say that he’s their favorite Doctor.

Next is the delightful “David Tennant’s Video Diary” (15 minutes) where Tennant and Julie Gardner gush as they’re police escorted to a Christmas lighting ceremony.  There are also 2 minutes of deleted scenes introduced by Russell T. Davies (who intros all the deleted scenes) as well as 5 minutes of trailers for “Voyage of the Damned.” 

Disc two has 6 minutes of deleted scenes with actor Howard Attfield.  He was to play Donna’s father, but sadly died after filming these scenes.  He was replaced with the excellent Bernard Cribbins (I always love how the production staffs some of the smaller roles with these fantastic characters, Cribbins is one of my favorites) as Donna’s grandfather.  There are also 10 minutes of deleted scenes and 3 minutes of trailers for the episodes on the disc. 

Disc three has 13 minutes of deleted scenes (the most interesting is a different opening and closing of the Agatha Christie episode) and 1 minute of trailers for the episodes on this disc.  Disc four has 6 minutes of deleted scenes and 2 minutes of trailers.  Disc five has another “Tennant Video Diary” (15 minutes), the 30 minute “The Journey (So Far)” that has thoughts on the events of the show so far, and 2 minutes of trailers.  Disc six is entirely devoted to “Doctor Who Confidential” making-of specials and there are three hours worth!  

Doctor Who has been revived in grand style on the BBC and it makes me laugh that they let the show be off the air as long as they did and now it’s become one of their flagship programmes.  This fourth series features some fantastic episodes, but also features a treasure trove of special features to delight fans.  

Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.