Doctor Who: Complete Series 10: Blu Ray Review

Doctor Who: Complete Series 10: Blu Ray Review

Released by Roadshow Home Entertainment
Rating: G

Pulling together Peter Capaldi's final season as the Doctor and Pearl Mackie's debut as his plucky companion, Bill, the complete series 10 of the BBC show is a mixed bag that gets some things right and others not so much.

As usual, it's elements of the story-telling which hold Who back, but then given such an equal footing of actors in the first half of the episodes, including the return of Matt Lucas as Nardole, there's a great reason to engage with the show.

Mackie impresses as Bill, a naturally curious companion, but no slouch in the emotional and intellectual fronts either. Mackie certainly owns the screen within moments and Steven Moffat's writing helps solidify it all very early on.

But it's Capaldi's work which also helps the latest run - a genuine vein of sadness persists in the Doctor's being grounded on Earth and charging with looking after a vault with a mysterious entity housed within.

It's in the final episodes that this season finds its feet, wrapping back to the menace of the past and also cleverly segueing into the very first regeneration. Delivering one hell of a personal cliffhanger in episode 11 ups the ante and while writer Moffat falls back on his usual retcon lazy ways, there's a real feeling of danger that's been lacking through the season.

It helps that both Capaldi and Pearl Mackie as companion Bill have brought their A game to this series - the acting's been sensational even when the scripts have been as wobbly as the sets from back in the 1970s of the show.