Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series (DVD TV series extras review).
The year 2007 feels like a distant memory. It is for some. As I reviewed the episodes when they first came out, I’ll focus on the extras here.
The first DVD features ‘David Tennant’s Video Diary To The Runaway Bride’. ‘David Tennant’s Video Diary: The Runaway Bride’ runs for 9 minutes. Lots of behind-the-scenes footage towards the end of filming. Six wedding dresses were shown in various states of destruction. Sarah Parish is in make-up and actually wears two complete lenses in each eye for only a few hours and filmed for 3 days.
‘Freema Agyeman Studio Tour’ is 18 minutes doing just that, showing they were recording ‘Sarah Jane’ and ‘Torchwood’ at the same time.
Returning to the episodes, the second one, titled “Music and Circuses”, spans 59 minutes and is part of the Confidential series, which focused on the 2005 concert. I think I covered that back then as well. Just think: all the children who attended this concert are now in their mid-20s or older.
I’ll hold back on the ‘Deleted’ and ‘Outtakes’ until I’ve seen the entire season. I appreciate your patience. The final episode trimmed down the majority of the 18 minutes of ‘Deleted Scenes’, which are extended scenes. It’s a shame that the speed bumps gag was trimmed. The 5¼ minutes of ‘Outtakes’ are mostly fluffed bits, despite unexpectedly few.
On disc # 2, we have more of ‘David Tennant’s Video Diary’ at nearly 29 minutes, this time on their first episode, ‘Smith And Jones’, and ‘The Shakespeare Code’ and a touch of ‘Gridlock’. It’s interesting to note that they weren’t actually on the Moon. Tennant also gets philosophical.
On disc # 4, another ‘David Tennant’s Video Diary’ at 40 minutes covers ‘The Lazarus Experiment’ and ‘Daleks In Manhattan’ episodes and the 2006 ‘Weakest Link’ where Tennant came third. I was going to comment that Tennant never mentions the year in all of these diaries with his entries, but in this one, he notes it three times.
On disc # 5, another ‘David Tennant’s Video Diary’ at 27 minutes covers the last two episodes, ‘The Sound Of Drums’ and ‘Last Of The Time Lords’, covering John Barrowman’s birthday and Tennant’s own three hours in make-up, ageing him and his skin problems after.
It’s more like intriguing, watching these stories again. Actress Anne Reid appears as two different characters in the series, but not as a Judoon. A young actor, Andrew Garfield, appears in the two-part ‘Daleks In Manhattan’ story, and you do have to wonder if he used it in his showreel for a certain webslinger.
The 6th disc contains 13 ‘Doctor Who Confidential Cutdowns’, one for each episode. As I covered these back in 2007, I’ll just acknowledge they are here.
The variety of the episodes makes them worth buying the box set if you haven’t seen them recently.
GF Willmetts
March 2025
(pub: BBC, 2007. 6 DVD boxset 585 minutes 13 * 50 minute episodes with extras. Price: varies. ASIN: BBCDVD2385)
