Doctor Who: Last Christmas + Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Season (2014/BBC Blu-rays)

Doctor Who: Last Christmas

Picture B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C+ Main Program: B+

The Doctor Who Christmas Special is the tenth since the show's revival in 2005, and the first full Christmas special to feature the Twelfth Doctor portrayed by Peter Capaldi. The Last Christmas is suspenseful, entertaining, and features one of the best imaginings of Santa Claus in recent years.

It starts with a bang on Clara Oswald's (Jenna Coleman) roof in the middle of the night. As she climbs out on the roof, she spots Santa Claus and two elves standing before their crashed sleigh. Before you know it, the TARDIS appears and out walks the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) who convinces Clara to go into the TARDIS with her. They must save a North Pole science base from Dream Crabs, which induce dream states that grant your wildest dreams and make you happy... as your body slowly dissolves! The only way to stop them is with the help of Santa Claus (Nick Frost). Part Alien, Part Nightmare on Elm Street with a Christmas-y twist, this episode is very cool and definitely worth checking out!

Here, Santa is expertly portrayed by Nick Frost, who makes the character powerful, pleasant, and not without a sense of humor. In one scene, he rides Rudolf like a Cowboy on a horse that sums up his fearless nature. The scenes with him, his elves, and the reindeer are all pretty impressive and well produced. There's a great deal of creativity and imagination in this episode with incredible production design and special effects that could compare to any Hollywood production. This Dr. Who is dark, intelligent, and even a little quirky.

BBC does a fantastic job with the presentation on this disc with a sharp 1080p high definition transfer and a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The audio is superb to match with a powerful English lossless DTS-HD 5.1 mix and subtitles in English SDH.

Extras include a Commentary and a Fourteen Minute Behind The Scenes Featurette.

Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Season

Picture: B+ Sound: B+ Extras: B+ Episodes: B+

This four disc set of Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Season is a must have for Sci-fi fans and features Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, featuring every episode since he debuted in 2014. Along with his beautiful assistant Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), the two travel through time in a TARDIS, which is forever stuck in the form of a blue British Police Box, and encounter many interesting revelations and characters along the way!

The main story arc for Season 8 revolves around a mysterious woman named Missy (portrayed by Michelle Gomez), who is often seen welcoming people who have died throughout the series to the Promised Land, which is a place that serves as an apparent afterlife to deceased characters. Missy's true identity is later revealed to be the Doctor's arch-enemy, the Master, who has hatched a plan using the help of the Cybermen and through manipulation of the Doctor and Clara's relationship.

In this season, The Doctor and Clara encounter a fleet of Daleks as they attempt to rescue a stranded ship of human survivors, face ranks of Cybermen stalking the Earth, go back in time and join Robin Hood in a fight with killer robots in Sherwood Forest, become bank robbers when they break into the deadliest bank in the cosmos, face a Mummy on the Orient Express, discover a deadly horror dwelling on the Moon; and come to know the last man standing at the end of the universe. Pretty awesome stuff!

Episodes on the set include Deep Breath, Into the Dalek, Robot of Sherwood, Listen, Time Heist, The Caretaker, Kill The Moon, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline, In The Forest of the Night, Dark Water, and Death in Heaven. That's twelve episodes!

Picture & sound are the same excellent combo as in the Christmas release above. The Extras are pretty in-depth and fantastically produced including:

DVD Exclusive: Doctor Who - Deep Breath Cinema panel session

DVD Exclusive: Audio Commentaries

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Time Lord

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Companion

Doctor Who: Earth Conquest (World Tour Documentary)

Doctor Who Cast interviews

Doctor Who Behind the Scenes

FOXES - Don't Stop Me Now (Music Video from Mummy on the Orient Express)

I thought this season was a lot of fun and really enjoyed watching it. Even if you haven't seen Doctor Who before, it's pretty easy to get sucked in! Recommended!

- James Harland Lockhart V

www.facebook.com/jhl5films