Science Fiction World

Doctor Who: Series 6 Part 1, the first half of Doctor Who’s sixth season with the excellent Matt Smith, was released on Blu-ray and DVD 19 July. The two disc box set contains the first 7 episodes, including the sensational opening episode, The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, The Curse of the Black Spot, The Doctor's Wife, The Rebel Flesh, The Almost People and the half season cliff hanger, A Good Man Goes to War. Amy Pond and Rory, now husband and wife, and the prison inmate River Song from the Doctor's past (or is it future?), are all back for another round. Warner Bros. kindly provided us with a copy to review.

New Doctor Who head writer Steven Moffat gets the season off to a memorable start - the first episode is a Doctor Who classic, a twist filled and at times haunting ride, arguably Matt Smith’s best episode yet. The Doctor has sent four invitations to his companions (and others) to meet him in the US where he tells them "I've been running for my whole life, now it's time for me to stop. And tonight I'm going to need you all with me". The Doctor ends up in the oval office with president Nixon in 1969. Nixon is receiving strange untraceable phone calls from a young girl and the Doctor and his team (after proving their worth) along with a former US government agent, lend a hand. His companions learn something that even the Doctor doesn’t know, but they can’t tell him without risking the Doctor’s, and the universe’s, future...

As well as a chilling new memory-eating, suit-wearing villain known as "The Silence", this season also features a lot more detail about River Song’s relationship with the Doctor, which comes to a head in episode 4, The Doctor's Wife.

Apart from episode 1 and 4, my favourites include episode 5, The Rebel Flesh, and the second part of Episode 1, Day of the Moon, which continues the story of “The Silence”, aliens who have occupied the Earth and who leave your memory the moment you stop looking at them. In episode 5 The Rebel Flesh, it’s the 22nd century on Earth and the Doctor and his companions find humans using clones to perform dangerous tasks. Things take an interesting twist when the Doctor is cloned too...

A lot is revealed in season sixth's first half, and a lot more is left unanswered. After watching the episodes again on Blu-ray (a definite boost in quality) I’m hanging out for the next  intriguingly titled episode, Let’s kill Hitler, to be broadcast 27 August 2011.

Check out BBC America's official Doctor Who Season Six site here.

You can also buy Doctor Who: Series 6 Part 1 on Amazon here.