Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series

Don't turn away....Don't even BLINK!......
The strength of DOCTOR WHO, the new series and the original, has always been change, and change it has. Over forty-years ago the show began with one actor and now we have 10 actors who have portrayed the 900+ Timelord. The first season of the new series ended by changing leads through regeneration, as the 2nd season ended with the "lost" of not only the companion / love interest, but the whole "point-of-view" for the new series: Rose Tyler. Since the PILOT or "ROSE" episode the series has been through her eyes. The viewers could relate to the Human perspective more readily than the sometimes alien POV of the title character. In fact, the series gave up not only Rose, but her family, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler; Mum, Pete Tyler ( deceased, sort of) ,all of the anchor characters that added so much emotion to the new series.

Can the series, even one a clever and cool as Dr. Who, survive such change.
The answer is yes, definitely, yes. Although, there is a loss, infact...

"I dream I'm this...adventurer. This daredevil. A madman."
Third time's a charm--that's the inevitable cliche that pops to mind. If the first series (season) of Doctor Who was good with some hiccups and the second quite fine overall, the show's creators seem to have really hit their stride with the third series here and brought forth an excellent range of science fiction adventures at once interesting, inventive, and exciting--innovative and unusual but very true to the show's spirit over the decades. Oh, and loads of fun, of course.

By now David Tennant has a totally surefire grasp of the Doctor's character and has contributed much to its portrayal--and convincingly developed it in the bargain, especially in light of the events of series two. Eccentric as always, frenetic and off the wall but silently nursing a deep melancholy, open and friendly and yet with a certain emotional distance and brusqueness. The Doctor we all know and love, but a little more complex. You will never get me to say that he's better than Tom Baker as some...

Possibly the best season since Tom Baker hung up his scarf
I have been a fan of Doctor Who since Jon Pertwee put on his first velvet jacket and the 3rd season since the BBC revived its series about "the Doctor," a time travelling alien with a fondness for earth, is quite possibly the strongest season for that show since the 4th actor to play the role hung up his trade mark 18 foot scarf, more than a quarter century ago.

Going back and forth between sci fi and historical adventures the season manages to flit easily from Elizabethan England to a medical lab of a mad scientist in modern London, to a boys school in Edwardian England to a crippled space ship to depression era New York to a lost colony in the far future and on, it goes without a misstep.

There are more 2 part adventures than the revived series has had in the past but this allows for the more convoluted plots and this is a good thing, harking back to the plot with in a plot adventures of the mid 70's. And an appearance by Sir Dereck Jacobi in one episode as...

Click to Editorial Reviews