Doctor Who - The Complete Collection - Season 17 - Limited Edition Packaging [Blu-ray] [2021]

Tom Baker's 6th season in the role of the Doctor always seems to come in for so much insult and stick if you ask me. Yes the tone of this season is more humorous than previous seasons, but for me this doesn't mean that the stories are rubbish because of it. In fact three of this season's stories are definitely in my favourites of the Fourth Doctor."The Creature from the Pit" may well have the embarrassingly bad Erato creature, but despite this appalling piece of monster design the story itself is brilliant. Myra Frances really lights up the story tremendously as the malevolent and unbalanced Lady Adrasta. And there is an excellent performance put in from Geoffrey Bayldon too, its great to see such a classy actor sharing screen time with Tom Baker. Also the jungle sets in this story are without doubt the finest the show ever managed to portray on screen. Gives the story such a strong authentic hot and bothered look, just look at the sweat dripping from Tom Baker on the jungle sets."Nightmare of Eden" has the typical elements of a story that is only marred by a few annoying niggles. This time the story is woefully overlit. The Mandrels do not work well in the stark Christmas tree like lighting of the studio sets, but when in the darkened sets of the Eden set and the unstable matter zone of the two crashed ships they are excellent, and even creepy. And Tom Baker's infamous OTT "MY arms, My legs" scene is perhaps a little too stupid. But despite these little qualms and a very troubled production this story is still hugely entertaining indeed, and the updated special effects for this stunning Blu Ray edition help the story no end. And I may be one of the only people not to be bothered by Tryst's silly accent too."The Horns of Nimon" is very very pantomime like in its presentation but it is also hugely enjoyable as a story. Graham Crowden is lovably OTT and rediculous as Soldeed. His cries of "Lord Nimon, Lord Nimon...it is I, Soldeed!" are hilarious in the extreme. I like the fact that this story really gives Lalla Ward the chance to shine as Romana too. And there is one sublime performer amidst all the stagey amateurs here and that is John Bailey as Sezom. A really touching little performance that in some ways is at odds with all other aspects of the story. But this story I still love so much and think looks stonking on this new Blu Ray set.My only weak link story wise in this season is the opener, "Destiny of the Daleks" contains a few good elements, but also some shocking lapses that I cant stand at all. The top of the list being the stupid exclamation of the Doctor to the Daleks to "Try climbing up after us" when several stories before have shown us how Daleks can get about easily. But even more jarring than this is the scripting of the Doctor's actions in allowing the Daleks to murder two poor slaves before he shouts stop to them. This is is such a disgusting lapse in what the character of the Doctor should and has always been like. What is even worse is that one of the slaves killed is a woman too. I absolutely hated this writing and for that reason this story is still my least favourite classic serial of all time. And also the woefully dumb way to incapacitate the Movellans is rubbish too. I hardly think the Daleks would be at an umpasse with robots that can be defeated so easily just by ripping off their power packs. I can see why Terry Nation was very displeased with what was done to his original writing of this story. The story is a very very disappointing dalek story indeed. And even poor David Gooderson as Davros Im sorry to say is no Michael Wisher."City of Death" though is a belter of a story and surely the cream of this season. Julian Glover is sublime as Count Scarlioni and Tom Chadbon is so brilliant as the fist happy Duggan. The humour in this story is done perfectly, in that it does not ruin but in fact complements the far more dramatic moments of the story. In fact Part Three has one of the most horrifying climaxes of the entire classic era run. And the story makes good use of its Parisian setting which is awesome to see on screen. For this story the locale really works and gives the tale a brilliant flavour that lifts the whole production. Catherine Schell too makes for a beguiling and very diverting Countess.So aside from the woeful Dalek opener, I absolutely love this season of the show. And what about the absolutely awesome labyrinth of extras? Well as ever they are sublime. I love documentaries on all aspects of the show and the content on this set is incredible and extremely enjoyable indeed. In all these sets I have been blown away by the gorgeous and awesome subjects dwelt upon in the extras. So many goodies, enough to make any Doctor Who fan salivate uncontrollably! I cannot recommend this set highly enough. Yet another gorgeous edition to the Doctor Who blu ray range. I literally am chomping at the bit for the next one. Yeah so "Destiny of the Daleks" aside, this season was so enjoyable and awesome for me. Demonstrated yet again why the classic era of the show was by far and away the best run of the series. This season is delightful, humorous but still with enough excellent drama as to make it yet again easily a winner and a standout slice of Doctor Who history.

The Episodes:This is definitely Doctor Who at its most enjoyable, freewheeling and fun! Tom Baker is (apart from that truly ill judged and OTT scene in "Nightmare of Eden" part 4) on top form for these episodes, dominating the proceedings with wit, style and charisma, and he's perfectly matched by Lalla Ward's playful new incarnation of Romana, who carries a great deal of the action in these stories. The duo are accompanied by a succession of superb guest actors such as Julian Glover, Catherine Schell, Myra Frances, Geoffrey Bayldon and Graham Crowden, who all make the most of their chance to appear in the series. It's probably a bit too light-hearted for some of the more earnest fans out there, who would prefer the rather dreary and cold (but visually stunning) Season 18 to this, but, for me, this was the last truly watchable and accessible set of Who episodes for quite some time, and the viewers of the time seemed to agree. Even after the ITV strike was over (which had allowed the series to gain ratings of up to 16.1 million for "City of Death") around 9-10 million viewers still largely stuck around, something that certainly didn't happen the following year...The Box Set itself:It's what we now expect from the team responsible, quite simply a masterclass in TV restoration and presentation that puts all other TV series releases - without exception - to shame! The restored episodes look and sound far more stunning than 4:3 ratio 625 line 2" videotapes have a right to be! The picture quality is sharp, the colours vibrant and stable, and the crisp mono sound is also more than adequate. This is topped by the fact that two of the stories have enhanced 5.1 surround sound options, with "Destiny of the Daleks" having not just one but two enhanced soundtracks! Amazing!!!! It's a shame that the wonderful "City of Death" wasn't a candidate for the 5.1 treatment as I'd love to have heard Dudley Simpson's amazing score for this in an enhanced version, but we can't have everything I suppose! Because of a lack of original film elements for the other stories, it's only the abandoned season finale "Shada" that benefits from having HD transfers of its 16mm film sequences and I must admit that I'm looking forward to at last seeing an episodic version of this animation-completed story. The new CGI effects for "Nightmare of Eden" greatly enhance this much underrated story, the Who swansong for the Oscar winning writer, the late Bob Baker. His final interview here with Matthew Sweet is brilliant, and it's a shame that his talents weren't used by the incoming production team.All in all then a top-notch package, with far too many extras to highlight here - go and check them out yourselves! - superbly presented in a typically lavishly illustrated slip case and accompanied by a meticulously researched booklet. I can't recommend this highly enough and no-one, unless they are seriously lacking a sense of humour, would ever regret buying this release!Go out and get it now!!!!

Tom the boss

Another great collection of Tom bakers doctor who, nice extras, quality.

I have all The Collection box sets and this is one of the best so far! The work done on the stories I've watched so far is brilliant.I loved the new mix of sound for Destiny of the Daleks. Hearing little excerpts of the music from the 60s Dalek stories just adds "something" that was missing from the original version.The extras on all the discs are brilliant but the main joy of this set is finally seeing Shada in its proper 6 Part version as it was always intended. After being so disappointed by its first release I didn't even finish watching it. But seeing it in all its final episodic glory with fantastic animation just shows what a fantastic story Douglas Adams had written and Tom Baker at the height of his powers as the Doctor.Well done on creating this set and let's hope for more of the same in 2022

The Blu-ray was in a very good condition and l like doctor who

Simply put brilliant release with Tom at his best⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

not much to say quality over dvd versions improved, new extra interviews, another classic season done

Blu ray set for season 17. May need an international blu ray player if in US. Note, this season will be labeled season 06 for the US when the set is released in US. All disks play fine. Picture is clean and clear. I won't go into details for the individual episodes. Those have been reviewed elsewhere. If you are 4th Doctor fan, you will enjoy this set. Comes with a small booklet detailing information about the episodes. Disks are in seperate plastic holders. Set is setup like a book. Each "page" has a disk. Disks have subtitles. (English).