Where oh where do you start with a review of The Doctor? With a history of Dr. Who? How he is a member of a race called the Time Lords, who watch history but never interfere, which drove him to boredom causing him to make off with an older ship, and see history and the Universe for himself?
Or, what about the TARDIS itself? A self contained city in a spaceship that to all outward appearances looks just like a Police Call Box from any London street in 1963?
Or maybe one of the various Doctors? There have been several; starting with the great William Hartnell and now with a brand spanking new one, David Tennent?
I guess every fan has a favorite Doctor Who and a favorite episode. Personally, I really, really liked the short lived Christopher Eccleston version and the first one in his series, Rose. But, like I say we all have a favorite. Some are fans of City of Death while some just love all the stories dealing with the Daleks.
Or, maybe I should just start with some basics. Star Trek is a great show, and its fans have kept it going for quite a while. But…
Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction series in the world. It aired its first episode, An Unearthly Child in November, 1963 and continued with new seasons until 1989. And 7 years later it came out again as a full length movie, and was finally reborn in 2005 and seems to be doing quite well.
There have been over 700 Doctor Who shows since 1963 and two feature length films, the aforementioned 1996 TV film and 1983's The Five Doctors.
In a simple sentence, this show is probably the most imaginative TV show ever done.
And this collection demonstrates that even in its earliest form, it had more creativity and imagination then any five shows done from American production companies in the last two decades. Yes, Star Trek the Next Generation was a good show. It also had a tendency to mimic the original in many ways. Voyager was a fine show, once 7 or 9 showed up. And let's just not talk about Enterprise.
Looking at various other TV shows, one sees at time creativity and at other times imagination but so very, very seldom both working together at the same time. And yes, there were times when the Doctor had a few problems, but in the overall scheme of things the show stood out.
Not because of flashy special effects, there weren't any. In many cases the effects looked like something dreamed up by Ed Wood. But this added to the charm of the series.
It used effects created by emotion, which is so much more difficult. Take "An Unearthly Child," the premiere episode of the Doctor Who show. Here Doctor Who (William Hartnell) and his young granddaughter take a pair of her teachers to the prehistoric past. We dealt with fear, from the teachers as to what was happening to them; from Susan (the granddaughter) over what might happen to her teachers; and from the Doctor, who was fearful of exposure for Susan as well as how she might perceive him if he did anything to her friends.
In the Daleks, the second story arc, we see fear all the way around. From the Doctor who faced the death of people he cared for, to the peaceful Thas who want to end the hatred between them and the Daleks who rule the last city. We see love, friendship, trust, lust, greed and even hatred exposed in the first three story lines.
In the episode The Edge of Destruction, the crew of the TARDIS awakens after an explosion only to find that the ship is in deep trouble and no one knows what is going on. Tension mounts as the ship moves nearer and nearer to its final destruction with each member of the crew becoming more and more dangerous, revealing fears and mistrust among them.
While this story arc could have been mishandled by the over use of special effects they went instead in the other direction, with all the action taking place aboard the TARDIS itself.

Disc 1 includes "An Unearthly Child" and the original Pilot Episode, with retakes and dailies; Commentary with Verity Lambert, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Gary Russell, Waris Hussein. Also included is a Theme Music Video which gives the watcher a chance to finally hear the original full-length theme music and a Picture Gallery. This disc also includes the exciting short sketches, "The Pitch of Fear", "The Corridor Sketch", "Web of Caves" and "The Kidnappers." Exciting? Why they are colossal.

Disc 2 has "The Daleks", including commentary with Christopher Barry, Verity Lambert, Gary Russell, Richard Martin, William Russell, and Carole Ann Ford.
Also has Creation of the Daleks which is a new featurettes showing the origins of the most dangerous alien species ever (which I still think were the grandfather to both the Borg and the Cylons). There is also a Picture Gallery included.
Disc 3 presents "The Edge of Destruction" with an Arabic soundtrack, an in-depth look at the creation of Doctor Who, including interviews with the late Sidney Newman, the shows creator.

As I said earlier, Doctor Who is not for you if all you are wanting is hot special effects. But, for future show makers, Doctor Who is great to watch just to see the quality of work done on a shoestring budget and to see the exceptional history of the way this show was and the impact it made on viewers. But, Doctor Who was always more about the characters, script and plot, and that is what matter most when the curtain comes down.