This year’s season of Doctor Who is full of action and adventure, though special features cast no light on any drama behind the scenes
In some ways it feels like only yesterday that Ncuti Gatwa took his explosive bow, declaring his time “absolute joy.” Yet, it also feels an eternity since Billie Piper flashed her 10,000 watt grin and greeted her latest Doctor Who role with a cheeky “Oh, hello!” But maybe that paradox is less to do with the two months, three weeks, and six days since Season Two. It’s likely more a product of the seemingly interminable wait for news, any news, about Series Three. That wait might feel a little shorter with the Season Two box set out now. It stands ready on DVD, Blu-ray, and a frankly gorgeous steelbook, for fans to dissect every moment of the episodes all over again.
Blogtor Who has reviewed each of the episodes on this set in depth already, from Joy to the World to The Reality War. You can find our reviews, and Second Sight reviews, for each one below. Besides, Blogtor suspects readers will already have made up their own minds, one way or the other.
So, for the stories themselves, we will simply say that re-watching the season emphasises how aggravatingly inconsistent it is. 2025 sported some of the best episodes of Doctor Who this century. Yet, by the end, it was mired by some bizarre storytelling choices, full of easily avoided dead ends. There’s a strong arc running through the episodes, but re-watching the early ones now depends slightly on forgetting how badly it will all collapse by the end.
Yet we shouldn’t define an entire season by the last 20 minutes of the final episode, good or bad. Taken as a whole, it’s still the bright, fun, scary, colourful thrill ride it always was.
The Robot Revolution | Second Sight
The Story & the Engine | Second Sight
The Interstellar Song Contest | Second Sight
The Reality War | Second Sight
The beautifully presented set might not quite match The Collection, but is head and shoulders above most modern TV releases
These says streaming is king, and all these episodes are on iPlayer or Disney+ anyway. Therefore some fans may question the need for this set. However, there’s much more than scratching that itch to have a complete collection at work. Although in theory the Blu-ray set should offer the exact same HD quality as iPlayer, there’s little doubt these episodes have never looked better. This marked increase in quality extends to the sound too, which is crisper and clearer than ever. (Blogtor’s long given up trying to make predictions about how the music/sound balance will play on any given home setup though.)
In terms of presentation the standard Blu-ray set which we got closely follows the layout of last year’s Season One. The cover art, featuring the Doctor and Belinda bestriding an asteroid as the Rani’s cracks into the Underverse cover the Earth, is very handsome. The gatefolds highlight the Doctor and Belinda with more lovely looking promo illustrations. The individual disc trays each feature a photograph from the respective episodes. All in all, it’s a nicely presented, hefty package that will look well next to the rest of your collection.
The discs themselves each re-use the same image of the Earth cracking up into the Underverse. This may feel slightly cheap for a moment for people used to The Collection sets, but is actually pretty standard for television releases.
The menus are clean and easy to navigate and contain a neat and thoughtful touch
Speaking of the Collection, it’s a shame the menus here don’t offer us a zoom around that massive console room. Instead, we move around a CG recreation of the clock in the Ranis’ Bone Palace. All the while, images from the disc’s episodes play on a loop in an energy sphere in front of it. Though one fantastically observed touch though is the Doctor Who logo in the corner being surrounded by a circle of the same Gallifreyan text featured on the sonic screwdriver. It’s a translation of the old Rwandan proverb “The sharpness of the tongue defeats the sharpness of the warrior.”
It seems more fitting than ever at the end of the Fifteenth Doctor’s run.
And for fans of the legendary “Press Enter Now for Audio Description” (which you can literally get on a t-shirt these days) Jemma Redgrave provides it. It does leave you musing slightly whether Kate’s voice features on the accessibility options for UNIT training videos too.
There are few commentaries, but they’re full of both wit and insight, though the absence of the Unleashed 20 Years special is disappointing
Blogtor has previously listed all the extras on the set. Most of them are available on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel or on iPlayer. Others have previously appeared on the brand’s social media. However, as we’ve said in previous reviews, if you value physical media as a way to permanently ensure content doesn’t vanish according to corporate whims, than you’ll welcome their preservation here. There are some features unique to this set though. As with director Alex Pillai’s breakdown of exactly how they made the jungle room scene in Joy to the World, these tend to be more technical than the fun Q&As and Getting to Know Who clips of TikTok, but are all more fascinating for it.
There are only two commentaries, for Joy to the World and The Robot Revolution. They may be few in number compared to the earliest seasons of the revival, but contain some brilliant insights. Besides, where else will you get a chance to hear Steven Moffat’s RTD impression? They’re also the only place here you’ll find any deeper behind the scenes gossip. There’s confirmation, for instance, that yes, as pretty as it is, directors and crews hate filming on the current TARDIS set.
If we do consider one of the purposes of the set being preservation, there is one glaring omission. Though the whole season of Doctor Who Unleashed is here, the Unleashed special celebrating 20 years of the show in Wales is not. There’s no alternative home for the documentary in the foreseeable future. So fans maybe shouldn’t delete it off their home recorders any time soon.
The extras all maintain the same brisk, fun tone as other modern releases, even for the finale. However perhaps not since the 2005 season has a set felt like a story half told
Towards the end of the season, at first glance Wish World and The Reality War are well served. There are the usual behind the scene shorts and interviews, and episodes of Unleashed. There’s even Ncuti Gatwa’s Goodbye to Doctor Who. Yet the only concession to what were clearly major script changes late in the day is the intriguing titling of Varada Sethu and Carole Ann Ford’s chat as a Reality War Companion Catchup. It’s the clearest official sign that the original ending of The Reality War involved the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan. Don’t get too excited for the listed “Season Two Epilogue,” either. It’s not what you might think from the title.
Perhaps one day, a decade or two from now, the Collection will catch up to this point. Maybe then the old folks home can host Matthew Sweet In Conversation with Ncuti Gatwa while Chris Chapman edits an expansive new making of documentary across the corridor in the television room. If we’re lucky, perhaps Toby Hadoke will even use his OAP rail pass to go up and down the country Looking for Poppy.
For now though, if the story of the season is of a strong start collapsing into an incoherent conclusion, then the overriding impression behind the scenes is of a story half told.
However, until that story is ready to be told, the Doctor Who Season Two Blu-ray presents the season in all its visual splendor. It packs it full of behind the scenes fun, as well, if not the behind the scenes drama.
Doctor Who: Season Two
The Doctor meets Belinda Chandra and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-travelling TARDIS team must face greater dangers, bigger enemies and wilder terrors than ever before.
Featuring an array of dazzling guest cast including Emmy Award winner Alan Cumming as cartoon foe Mr Ring-a-Ding, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Anita Dobson, Bonnie Langford, Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley, Susan Twist, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Christopher Chung, Evelyn Miller, Ariyon Bakare, Julie Dray, Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Alexander Devrient, Rylan, Freddie Fox, Jonah Hauer-King, Kadiff Kirwan, and the return of Millie Gibson.
This release includes all 8 episodes; The Robot Revolution, Lux, The Well, Lucky Day, The Story & the Engine, The Interstellar Song Contest, Wish World, The Reality War with accompanying Unleashed episodes and Making Of episodes, along with 2 directors scene breakdowns, an audio commentary and social assets. Plus Christmas 2024 special: Joy To The World and all accompanying special features.
Doctor Who: Season Two is out now in the UK and Europe on DVD, Blu-ray and Steelbook formats.
