Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series Review (5/5)

For Doctor Who fans, December 25th was the beginning of a long and cold wait for a new series, as its central actors take on other parts for a couple of months before resuming filming in February for the longest time the team has been in production since the show's revival in 2005. With that in mind, it's hard to see The Complete Sixth Series DVD box-set as anything but a filler used to sustain the wait, and yet to think of it as such would be to do injustice to its fantastic set of episodes and array of interesting special features...
THE EPISODES
A CHRISTMAS CAROL- Who Christmas Specials up until 2010 had been a mixed bunch to say the least, but Steven Moffat took the festive spirit of the period and ran with it, providing a beautiful, heartwarming adventure made all the better by Michael Gambon's portrayal of Kazran and Katherine Jenkins' wonderful song at its conclusion. 5/5
THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT- Setting up the season arc marvellously, Astronaut suffered a little from the trappings of focusing on keeping secrets from the Doctor and the slow reveals of the Silence, but as series openers go there hasn't been one that's been quite so ambitious as this! 4.5/5
DAY OF THE MOON- On the other hand, here the Moff seemed to feel a little more free-form, only putting emphasis on the arc towards the end of the episode and thus enabling himself to craft a brilliant, timey-wimey love letter to America packed with gags and thrills. 5/5
THE CURSE OF THE BLACK SPOT- Many fans were a little disheartened by this Pirates of the Caribbean-alike, but on reflection (no pun intended) I really enjoyed it as an edgy, well-paced tale of darkness and illusions. 4/5
THE DOCTOR'S WIFE- Although its bizarre opening nearly lets it down, Neil Gaiman's quick-fire writing redeems The Doctor's Wife within minutes, and Suranne Jones' is perfect and heartbreaking as Idris until the very end, sealing the deal on one of the best episodes of this run. 5/5
THE REBEL FLESH- Styled very much like the classic era of Who, this opener to a two-parter was mostly about building up tension, but my oh my, did Matthew Graham do it well! 4/5
THE ALMOST PEOPLE- One of the only real lowpoints of the season, but thankfully not too bad, Almost People got carried away with its emphasis on the Flesh (yes, we get it, you have the same thoughts as your clone, please stop reminding us as if it's a running joke!). Still, its shocking conclusion and gritty base-thriller feel stopped it from being another Cold Blood. 3/5
A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR- A stunning way to close the season's first half, Good Man is epic Doctor Who in every sense of the word(s), featuring a host of brilliantly realised SFX sequences and a sublime soundtrack bolstering its beautiful final scenes. 5/5
LET'S KILL HITLER- You would think these two episodes are intrisically linked given their war-themed titles and River story arc, but you'd be wrong: Let's Kill Hitler is a far more fun and light-hearted romp, yet packs the same emotional punch and drops the darker elements of the first seven episodes to give us a magnificent tour de force of Who at its best. 5/5
NIGHT TERRORS- This mock-horror seemed a little too keen to mimick classic Who, however Daniel Mays was great as the father of a disguised alien child, especially as he rushes to the kid's rescue in the tear-jerking final dollhouse scene! 4/5
THE GIRL WHO WAITED- A beautiful piece of character drama, placing a focus on Amy and Rory but to a far greater degree of success than the strange misplaced-genre Amy's Choice. Watch this if you want to know why this show is still on air fourty-nine years after its first broadcast. 5/5
THE GOD COMPLEX- Another fantastic showcase of the flexibility of Who, darker than the rest of Part 2 yet still lighter than most of Part 1, a complex and thought-provoking outlook on life with the death of a character who in the space of fourty five minutes convinced us she could have been a fully-fledged companion. Praise Rita, and above all praise Toby Whithouse! 5/5
CLOSING TIME- This was the one point in the series where the guys really dropped the ball with the story arc, hashing in a tacked-on ending to an otherwise standalone story that as a result felt disjointed overall. James Corden's return ensured Closing Time was still good telly, but the arc problems and the criminal misuse of the Cyber-Men (not to mention the umpteenth time love has saved the day) held this back from being any sort of classic. 3/5
THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG- Not the perfect finale, Wedding suffered from having to fill out fourty-five minutes of the Doctor's death and his 'marraige' to his killer. That said, there was still fun to be had with some of the fantastic setpieces, even if they were in another reality and so no longer exist, and the essential rebooting of the show's premise was a bold move by Moffat that judging by the 2011 Christmas Special will pay off big time! 4/5
SPECIAL FEATURES
By far the highlight of the extras included on this impressive package are the Night and the Doctor scenes, which focus on unresolved plot threads like Amy's incredibly unlikely life of timey-wimey goodness and the Doctor's final visit to River Song involving the singing towers of Deryllium and the Library. I don't know whether we'll see these threads picked up in Series 7 (I'd imagine Deryllium will come back to haunt fans), but for now the scenes are great as extra little episodes of Who to keep us speculating until this Autumn. Elsewhere, we get the final episodes of Doctor Who Confidential (sniff!), trailers, commentaries on four episodes and a behind-the-scenes look at making the bonus scenes.
THE VERDICT
This is a package well worth its £60 RRP, and now that shops like Amazon are selling it for nearly half the price, I'd wholeheartedly recommend you pick up The Complete Sixth Series on DVD or Blu-Ray to relive one of Doctor Who's strongest ever seasons!