Doctor Who - The Complete Ninth Series [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

When I first watched this series on initial broadcast I must admit I was not too impressed. I found it a bit confusing and the stories not too interesting anyway while I also felt the whole series was weighed down by multi-part episodes. Probably after my first watch I only enjoyed four or five of the episodes on offer and I felt series 8 was far superior.All in all I did not have too much hope for this when I started watching it on Blu-ray. However, upon re-watch and when I started to understand the stories a bit more it has really grown in my estimation. First episode, Last Christmas I loved on first viewing back on Christmas day 2014. It is a really captivating story of being in multiple dreams which I feel outdoes its possible inspiration, Inception. Okay it may be a bit cheesy with the payoff being that Santa Clause is the way the mind fights back against the Alien-esque dream inducing aliens but it pulls it off with aplomb and so what it is Christmas after all! Although some fans were not too keen on Danny Pink it is good to see him reappear in one of the dreams. Obviously, also I was made up that the end was a happy one that Clara's aging like the eleventh doctor's in the previous year’s Christmas special was still only a dream - or should I say nightmare - though the fact that she choose to keep dreaming and so got herself in trouble was one of the many foreshadows throughout the series for what will happen to her later in the main run. Clara's character still had more to offer and it would have been quite miserable and gloomy for Christmas day and possibly too similar to Matt Smith's exit if she had left Doctor Who as originally expected in this episode. But anyway bottom line for the first episode is that it has so much Christmas magic and is so engrossing in its effect on you that you start to wonder are you as a viewer in a dream!First episode of the main run The Magician's Apprentice I was not too keen on when first broadcast. While the Colony Sarff character is still a bit of a gimmick to include snakes in Doctor Who I feel that Michelle Gomez as Missy is so excellent that she carries this episode and the story of ending up on Skaro is alright too. However, I am still not totally keen on the minutes devoted to the Doctor playing his guitar and also the plot swiftly moving on and forgetting about the UNIT members being executed by Missy. But still like I say Missy and a plot of ending up stuck on Skaro make this episode alright so it has grown on me.Second part The Witch's Familiar is much more a vintage episode of new Who, however and I always appreciated it highly from first broadcast. Missy and Clara's survival of using the aliens energy from their weapon fire and using it too teleport to safety which also provides a resolution to Missy being shot by the Brigadier at the end of series 8 is really clever sci-fi. Although the episode has quite a lot of talk between the Doctor and Davros it is all worthwhile and interesting in terms of character. But it is the payoff where the Doctor puts some of his regeneration energy into Colony Sarff's connections (snake wires) between Davros and all the Daleks that also energises the discarded Daleks in the sewer to attack the main Daleks above that really makes this episode superb and provides even more intelligent sci-fi than even the resolution to Missy and Clara surviving the Dalek fire. Once the Daleks are being defeated, the twist with Missy reverting to her usual evil ways (hence the episode title) trying to get Clara killed by the Doctor adds to the drama of this episode. The timey-wimey end with The Doctor showing mercy to the child Davros in order that "mercy" is part of Dalek's vocabulary later on ensures that the Doctor recognises it is Clara in the Dalek shell by her being able to say "mercy." It is a great finish to an excellent episode which shows the value of compassion too and the setting of Skaro (and all its Daleks) looks visually striking too. In fact for me this is a superior episode to the series 4 finale RTD episodes that included Davros (same actor) as it has a better story as it does not have to include so many different characters.Episodes 3 and 4 for me are the strongest overall two-parter of the entire series IMHO. The Underwater Base looks visually impressive yet again and pulls the viewer in to the story while the dark mystery of the homicidal ghosts is similarly intriguing. I also found most of the other characters in the tale to be interesting too while the bit where the base starts flooding at the end is a positive too as it provides some action and even reminds me of the film, Titanic. Although I still probably feel the first part Under the Lake which is set mostly on the underwater base "The Drum" is the strongest part, the second part Before the Flood is only slightly less excellent. The "Bootstrap Paradox" pay-off again is really full of timey-wimey cleverness with the Doctor knowing when to use the power cell (that was obviously missing in the future) to blow up the dam, defeat the fisher king, use the stasis pod and activate from it a hologram of himself that he uses from what Clara tells him it is saying in the future as what to next do in the past before the flood. It is really excellent and the only reason why I slightly prefer the first part is O'Donnell getting herself killed in the past by the Fisher King by going a different way to the other characters was a bit daft. But other than that is a really super episode and for me it is probably writer Toby Whithouse's strongest Doctor Who material so far!The next three episodes have not grown on me too much, however. The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived are the first two ones to include Maisie Williams as Ashildr/Me and show the problems of a human being given infinite life by the doctor's impulsivity. The former - despite being co-written by Jamie Mathieson who had penned two of series 8's standout episodes - comes a cropper with it looking so ridiculous with Odin appearing to the Vikings from the sky while most of the Viking characters are laughable too, though I find The Doctor a bit patronising in the way he tries to help them fight the Mire also. The whole episode is all a bit childish but what saves it from being a total failure is though the electric eel energy is too cheesy, the payoff has enough complexity in it and I find Odin's/the Mire's humiliation being filmed quite comical too. But one of the few things I like about the episode most is the flashback to series 4's The Fires of Pompeii with the current Doctor realising that he ended up with the Peter Capaldi-played characters' face (that the tenth doctor with the encouragement of Donna Noble saved from Vesuvius' eruption) in that earlier episode after his most recent regeneration to show that he needs to save people. I really like this flashback to the Tennant years though I do wonder whether it is realistic as after all I thought he had no control over how he regenerates unless when the Time Lords granted him a new cycle and he reset himself that did something different to the process this time. However, other than those things the episode is naff IMHO.The Woman Who Lived is kind of standalone (a separate main plot in a different time and written by a different writer) and also a follow up part to the first Maisie Williams featuring episode both at the same time. It too is similarly naff with its awkward making robbery and execution look comical and also the cringe worthy alien lion. However, what saves it from being completely a mess is that the way it is written is well paced and so less confusing than some of the other episodes and it also shows the problems of granting a human being infinite time with the potential pain of life experience suffered in isolation - with Ashildr/Me being the only immortal - turning her bad and a threat. But other than that it is only just average and again quite childish.The next episode - the first episode of the Zygon two-parter - The Zygon Invasion has similarly not gone up in my estimation. You kind of feel you have seen it all before and parts of it fail to make sense. For example, why do all the other soldiers enter the church too with the lead soldier who is conned by the Zygon outside the church pretending to be his loved ones, and get themselves killed too and fail to neutralise it. Another issue is that it is too obvious that the policewoman that Kate faces in Truth or Consequences is a Zygon. Also you feel the explanation that the Doctor likes to show off in his Presidential airplane that gets him into trouble for the cliff hanger of the episode with Bonnie firing a missile at it in flight is lightweight when he has the Tardis. But this shows one of the main problems with this Doctor Who story is that the parallels with what was happening at the time in the news and still going on with Isis come across as uncomfortable and crass to write about.However, despite this the second part, The Zygon Inversion, is much better. The payoff is both sufficiently clever with Bonnie's telepathic connection with Clara ensuring that she instead becomes peaceful after being talked round. She calls off the splinter group and her memory does not have to be wiped yet again – only UNIT Leader Kate Stewart's instead - which would have led to the same situation arising again in the future. Despite the insensitive start with only the Doctor and Osgood surviving an exploding plane it is an otherwise excellent episode which has a great anti-war sentiment. I also really appreciate Jenna Coleman's portrayal of Bonnie as an evil Clara and Osgood is a really strong recurring character too and it is good to see that her appearance in Death in Heaven was not her last too. The whole clever and entertaining mystery of which was the human or Zygon Osgood is another great positive of this episode too.Sleep No More I found lightweight on first watch but now I think it is a strong episode. The setting of a space station above Neptune at the end of our solar system in the future and the Morpheus process which compresses sleep to a few minutes is really intriguing. Although I thought initially it was just another Doctor Who episode set on a spaceship and too similar in some respects to the Drum episodes at first, I appreciate it more now. The Mr. Sandman song at first I found quite irritating but now it comes across to me as creepy, which it should. I still feel the sleep in the eye composed Sandmen is a bit dubious but it is certainly interesting enough as a concept of sleep being reduced from human existence and the monsters being the catastrophic side effect. I also like Clara messing around near the Morpheus pod and getting herself stuck with it changing the chemistry in the brain too (though the Doctor says he can resolve it at the end of the episode) as it is yet another foreshadowing of her fate in the next episode by being too risky. I also appreciate the way it is filmed in quite a lot of dark in some of the episode. However, this episode is all based around and its goodness pivots around the twist at the end that Rassmussen is a Sandman too (he came from the pods at the beginning) and he was filming it all through the Monsters hacked sight (they are blind when trying to hunt down the Doctor and co.) to include the Morpheus process in the edit so we and all the human beings that watch it are all dead! On first view I was not too impressed with a lightweight ending with the doctor disintegrating the Sandmen by adjusting the gravity shield and in turn destroying the Le Verrier Space Station but even he realises himself there is something more to this and this twist upon re-watching makes this episode strong. Though Mark Gaits wrote some somewhat unimpressive episodes like The Idiot's Lantern, Victory of the Daleks and Cold War this is one of his better efforts though IMHO it is not quite up there with The Unquiet Dead, The Crimson Horror and Robot of Sherwood. But once it grows on you it is a good effort anyway.The final episodes of the main series nine run make up a three-part trilogy. This first part, Face the Raven is a good episode but I still do not feel it is great. It is different and sad with Clara - a companion - dying and her well written final words but to me it is not quite up there with the best of this series. You can tell it is a former Neighbours writer who composed this as while the emotion is very strong and apt the story is a bit lacklustre. For example, though there is a pathos and it has a bit of intuition in Clara taking all these risks because she wanted to be with Danny Pink it is still really foolish to take the Chronolock off Rigsy. It makes Clara who is usually immensely clever look stupid as does even the Doctor a bit when it starts to become more obvious that it is a trap and using his Tardis key leads to his arm ending up with a teleport on it; though to be fair he was trying to save Anah after all. But still although the “murder” mystery/trap plot is a bit lightweight it is a very emotional end for Clara and a good episode overall. It does need a bit more depth but it is also Maisie Williams best performance of the Mayor Me this time so far.However, the penultimate episode Heaven Sent is highly likely the best of the bunch. It is literally a great puzzle box/castle - in his confession dial seen at the start of the series - that the doctor has been transported too. As well as being immensely clever and complex, though IMHO accessible enough, the episode also has a great atmosphere. You cannot wait as a viewer for the next part of the puzzle to be solved by the Doctor and it is so good you could even make a video game out of it. The payoff at the end with the Doctor not giving away too much about the hybrid and instead being killed by The Veil and then using the cells in his body that still have some residual energy in them to activate the teleport to transport his original copy back to the room as the chambers revert to their condition upon his arrival is brilliant. After a cycle of over 4 billion years of numerous teleports he eventually breaks through Azbantium wall. It is such a sensational and heroic pay off and shows Steven Moffat's gift for giving so many different layers to Doctor Who episodes. The Doctor ending up emerging onto the returned Gallifrey many, many years into the future is the finest cliff hanger of the series.The final episode, Hell Bent, is a good and effective finale for the series but I do feel it is another that is not quite great and has faults. Although it is quite strong for a first Gallifrey episode since it has returned, after the previous one it is a slight let down. For a start, The Doctor's defeat of Rassilon because the former was a war hero and the other time lords will not execute him you could see a mile off though it is quite interesting as a bit of action. Also the Doctor actually shooting and killing the General - though he can regenerate still - is the "Hell Bent" theme of the episode going too far as like the Tenth Doctor said if he had allowed Wilfred Mott to die (i.e. ended his life too) it would have been how the Master started. Another issue is the monsters and Cloister Wraiths are too easy to get around and past and offer no real threat. In fact the whole bit in the Cloisters is a bit like the episode is trying to be clever but ultimately is not as due to the doctor escaping from it before it is quite easy for him to get away from it again to the workshop below to steal another Tardis to escape with Clara. Also why is the Doctor so convinced that going as far away from Gallifrey will get Clara away from the time loop and get her heart restarted again? It kind of makes a bit of sense but not enough to make the viewer understand why he has confidence in this.Still, despite these criticisms it is an exciting and quite a fast paced Doctor Who episode based a fair bit on Gallifrey again. Maisie Williams performs Ashildr well again and the resolution to the hybrid mystery offered by her with it being the two species of human and time lord together as two entities - The Doctor and Clara - who are both so clever they will cause the destruction of Gallifrey by the Doctor saving Clara and ignoring the fact that her death was a fixed point of time is a very strong ending. It’s also ingenious writing as we finally find out why Missy chose Clara for the doctor back in series 7 in order to make the hybrid happen. Clara reversing the polarity of the neuroblocker and letting him know, so that they both take a chance on which one will have their memory of the other erased is something I mostly like as after all it is a satisfactory for the ending that Clara - eventually - returns back to Gallifrey to go back to the extraction chamber to return to her point of death on the Trap Street to restore time. IMHO it is mostly alright because it is the only way it could have ended because if the doctor had saved Clara one hundred per cent it would have destroyed time and as prophesised left Gallifrey in ruin.With the doctor losing his memory of who exactly Clara was, it is also quite emotional and sad but what is even more impressive is the way he becomes more Doctor-like again at the end of the episode ahead of the future episodes and final Steven Moffat-led series 10 next year. Although it is an effective ending I do feel that Clara has become a bit too Doctor-like and it is a tiny bit embarrassing that she has outsmarted this British hero, the Doctor at the very end. But still it is an effective conclusion and the only possible one too and Clara is still my favourite companion since Rose and it was good that she continued for this final series for her. Although maybe not everyone liked it but really the Doctor - though Clara ultimately does return to the Trap Street and die - has saved her as she cannot age and can return to Gallifrey "the long way around" (i.e. almost infinite) in the second Tardis. I feel it is a better and more fair end for Clara as after all she is ultimately a companion who dies. Also Ashildr/Me travelling with her is similarly a fair resolution as hopefully Clara can keep her on the straight and narrow. Overall, it is a good finale but it is prevented from being excellent due to a few faults.The final episode on this complete series nine Blu-rays is the most recent Christmas special The Husbands of River Song. This is a return to top form after the slight issues with the main series 9 finale. It is great to see the Doctor become more Doctor-like again and the episode is a fine romp across the galaxy. Again it is in the Christmas spirit and I feel it is even better than Last Christmas. It is so good to see Alex Kingston as River Song again and it is so good to see a resolution to how she ended up in the library where she dies. It is good storytelling that Doctor realises he cannot save River Song this time as presumably he has learnt from what saving Ashildr did. Despite this inevitability of River Song's death you can see how the Doctor does love her as despite her not recognising him at first as she did not know that he had been given a new regeneration cycle he does come to her aid and spends the whole 24 year night last date on Darillium with her. It is such an effective theme and I like the "And they lived happily" on the screen at the end as it provides a universal message of making the most of life. In fact as well as having a great story with the aliens, the timey-wimey ending with the Doctor and River spending one last - albeit extremely long - night at the restaurant together is one of my favourite endings to a Doctor Who episode ever.Despite initially series 9 of new Who not fulfilling my expectations on re-watch I have appreciated it significantly more. Really there are only three mediocre episodes, the rest are good and seven are amongst the finest of all new Who. Although Russell T Davies first series remains my favourite series of new Who so far and is the benchmark, I do feel this and series 8 probably on the whole have more episodes that standout than RTD's series 2, 3 and 4. Because I still feel series 8 is the best series since the first, there are three weaker episodes and perhaps there are too many double part adventures I would give it a very good four stars as opposed to the full five. I do feel although there has been some inconsistency in quality and sometimes the show is a bit too complex and convoluted with a lot of exposition I love the inherent cleverness that Steven Moffat has brought to Doctor Who so largely I will miss him when he departs as show runner next year.

(SPOILERS) As a whole this product is amazing, the quality of the case and the quality of the series are both amazing, here are individual reviews.Package: The exterior art is amazing stuff from Alice X Chang, well rendered on the steelbook. The case is as thin as a normal bluray with the discs stacked three on each side which makes it dense but sleek. Sturdy and durable with some nice art inside too. The menus are good, no episode selection, only scene selection which can get annoying but good music and pictures.Series: This is one of the best series (probably the second best after series 4) of modern Who. With only one duff episode out of the 14 contained here (for some reason Last Christmas is part of series 9 not 8). Here are individual ratings:Last Christmas: 7/10 (A better than average Christmas special, funny and scary in equal measure)The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar: 9/10 (So good it could be a season finale, great Missy and the return of Davros, many references to Classic Who)Under the Lake/Before the Flood: 8/10 (The first part is fairly scary and entertaining but it is with the second episode that this becomes amazing. The Fisher King is amazing work, with guest scream by Cory Taylor of Slipknot, and meshing time travel in in a way were not used to in Who)The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived: 8/10 (Again the first part is weaker with not much about Ashildir but the second part is spectacular, and very funny)The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion: 8/10 (The most politically relevant Who has been in a long time, amazing monsters and some intriguing question, plus THAT war speech)Sleep No More: 5/10 (Oh dear, interesting sleep questions, interesting filming technique, interesting ending but just not good. Walking sleepy dust? Really?)Face the Raven: 8/10 (Bye Clara :( , miss you, nice concept, also I like Me, good character development)Heaven Sent: 11/10 (Holy ????. Best who in a long time, amazing performance, direction and writing. It works, just the Doctor and the twist ending. VERY good. A Classic in the making)Hell Bent: 9/10 (Love the retro TARDIS but wanted more Time Lords and Rassilon. Good finale though. Also, Clara's back travelling the universe with Me, if no TV spin off then Big Finish surely)The Husbands of Riversong: 7/10 (Good special, silly at start which I don't mind but a very nice ending wrapping up Riversong)In summary definitely worth it for the content, only very ardent Whovians should get this, if else just get normal bluray.