Doctor Who-Complete Davros Collection, The-Extras (2007) |
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Doctor Who-Complete Davros Collection, The-Extras (2007) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Science Fiction | Booklet | |
| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2007 | ||
| Running Time | 847:58 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
Dual Layered Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | None Given |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring | None Given |
| Case | Custom Packaging | ||
| RPI | Box | Music | None Given |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | ? | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
The Complete Davros Collection features two discs of supplemental content beyond the five serials it includes.
The first disc of extras contains a lone featurette, presented on a single-sided disc in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and 16x9 enhanced.
This featurette tells the story of Davros and his influence on the Daleks and the doctor, from start through to his influences in the new series of Dr. Who. This documentary tells both the history of the character himself and the development of the character by the show's writers. The story is told through interviews with series writers, snippets of stories (both from the actual TV series and Big Finnish audio stories), and CGI some specially made for the documentary.
Interestingly, this featurette firmly incorporates the Davros stories from the Big Finish audio books into Dr. Who lore - something the new series has deliberately avoided. Time will tell how well this goes down with fans. It certainly adds more depth to the mythology of Davros which puts the featurette in a position where it could be readily dismissed as a heavy-handed attempt to validate the Big Finish mythology.
The second extras disc contains 8 audio dramas and an hour-long "Making Of" audio featurette. Each has been produced by Big Finish, who produced a number of Dr. Who audio dramas featuring the cast of the TV show from various eras following the series' "indefinite hiatus".
Each of the audio stories further the character of Davros. In fact, five of them don't actually feature the Doctor and focus solely on Davros.
Each of the audio stories runs between 60 and 90 minutes and plays back with a static image of the cover from one of the stories. It is a little disappointing that the stories are presented in this way as it necessitates playback be on a DVD player, rather than a regular audio device, which rules out (short of any nefarious audio ripping) listening in the kind of places audio dramas are good to listen to - on trains, in (most) cars, on the walk to work. This is rather unfortunate as the stories are all pretty good and well worth a listen if you can keep the rest of your senses occupied while they play.
The only video to consider is that of the Davros Connection feature which is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.
The video appears to be a recently digitally recorded production and consequently the image is very sharp. There is no grain or low level noise noticeable. Dark scenes tend to feature plenty of detail and the colour is generally very bold.
There is no sign of distracting video artefacts, such as MPEG compression artefacts, and no sign of any film artefacts.
English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available. They appear to be accurate and well timed.
This no noticeable layer transition on either disc - only the audio drama disc is dual layered and the transition appears to be between stories.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
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| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
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The audio for all these features is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0.
The dialogue is clearly audible and easy to understand in all instances.
Each audio drama features suitably Dr. Who-ish electronic scores, as does the documentary (albeit to a much lesser extent).
There is no noticeable surround or subwoofer usage at any point.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use |  |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
A 12 page booklet featuring an essay that parallels Davros's plight to that of the Doctor, a timeline of the character's history and contents listings for the discs that comprise the box set.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
These discs have not yet been released in Region 1 and are identical to those found in the Region 2 box set.
A worthwhile set of supplements to The Complete Davros Collection box set.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras |  |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony Playstation 3, using HDMI output |
| Display | Samsung 116cm LA46M81BD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL). |
| Audio Decoder | Pioneer VSX-D512. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX2016AVS |
| Speakers | 150W DTX front speakers, and a 100W centre and 2 surrounds, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub |