Doctor Who - Series 7 (Part One)

The first half of Doctor Who Series Seven is collected here including The Doctor's (Matt Smith) final farewell to Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), dinosaurs on spaceships, a cyborg assassin in the Old West, an invasion of mysterious black cubes, the introduction of Mark Williams as Rory's father, and an entire planet of insane Daleks which teases the future introduction of Jenna-Louise Coleman as The Doctor's new companion in this year's Christmas episode.

Centered around single one-off episodes rather than an ongoing story arc, these episodes get the season off to a good start (even if the western episode is a little flat), before returning the Weeping Angels to their original glory and saying a tearful farewell to the Ponds. "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is the real stand-out among the set which feels very much like a throwback to Doctor Who's old Douglas Adams days complete with an absurd premise and pair of quarreling robots.

Usually there are no features included on these half-season sets. However, along with the season's first five episodes the two-disc set also includes the five-part web-series "Pond Life" (including The Doctor surfing a lava flow and Amy and Rory's Ood butler), the short introduction teaser for the season premiere "Asylum of the Daleks," a glimpse at the creation of the cyborg warriors by Kahler scientists, a featurette on the science of Doctor Who, and a behind-the-scenes look at Steven Moffat, Smith, Davrill, and Pond's trip to Comic-Con. I'm glad to see the inclusion of all these features, but I have to admit to being slightly disappointed that the one extra I really wanted, the Doctor Who Series 7 P.S. - the unaired final coda to Amy and Rory's story, is sadly missing from the collection.

[BBC, Blu-ray $29.98 / DVD 24.98]