Introducing Eric Loren as the Dalek Mutant Sec in “Evolution of the Daleks.”
season manage to be more adult than anything served up in TORCHWOOD, for all its ostentatious bed-hopping and gore. With any luck, TORCHWOOD’s success will embolden its writers to take more chances in its sophomore season and allow that pro- gram to grow into an even worthier companion show to main-track WHO. That TORCHWOOD is sold separately makes perfect sense, but the line dividing what is included for your box set purchase and what is excluded has been drawn in a fairly stingy fashion. British TV shows, as noted above, produce far fewer total episodes per season than their US counterparts, but somehow end up on DVDs priced far higher. The ratio of dollar-to-entertainment-minute is quite disproportionate compared to, say, a box of HE- ROES. The 13 regular episodes and the Christmas special are all attended by commentary tracks, which range from the pleasingly vacuous to the downright insightful, depending on the participants (star David Tennant is as much a fanboy as any- one in the audience). Video diaries from the stars, outtakes, and extended scenes are scattered across the discs somewhat randomly.
The 6th disc collects a series of making-of documentaries that originally aired on the BBC as a weekly companion show to DOCTOR WHO, called DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL. Although these are among the most genuinely enjoyable making-of featurettes you may run across in your DVD travels, the fact remains that they aired as
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half-hour programs but are here shown in their 15-minute “cutdown” form. Back in Christmas 2006, there was a live concert of DOCTOR WHO music set to clips from the show, staged in Cardiff as a benefit for needy children. The music from that concert was webcast only for UK-based lis- teners and American fans must content themselves here with a bonus CONFIDENTIAL installment about the concert—well-made, but again a choice to exclude bonus material that could have been in- cluded. UK fans also have access to a spin-off called TOTALLY DOCTOR WHO, a sort of CONFI- DENTIAL for the youngest viewers. That it has been left off the DVD is no great loss, save for the seri- alized animated cartoon that was shown, using the voice talents of David Tennant and Freema Agyeman along with guest villain Anthony Stuart Head. The total running time of the “Infinite Quest” cartoons tops out no more than 45m, and could easily have found a home on the box set if the decision had not been made to relegate them to their own stand-alone release, on an overpriced disc currently available only in Region 2. Griping aside, the DVD box set does include the most important extra, the full-length “Easter egg” from “Blink,” arguably the best hour of DOC- TOR WHO’s entire storied history. With triumphs like these, the growing legion of Whovians will certainly find this package worth its hefty price tag, and the source of many happy evenings in front of the telly.
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