Volume 3 of Series 5 of Doctor Who takes us past the halfway point in the series, with episodes seven to nine of Matt Smiths debut in the much coveted role. The disc starts out with Amys Choice, which opens five years after Amy travelled around space and time with the Doctor. Shes now married to Rory, living a quiet life in the country, and heavily pregnant. Then the Doctor shows up for a visit, and unsurprisingly things start getting weird.
After a few minutes in this existence, Amy, Rory and the Doctor inexplicably wake up from the future, and are all back on the TARDIS in the middle of their adventures. They then start jumping from one time and place to the other and back, but theres no way to tell which of these realities is the true. A mysterious figure (Toby Jones) shows up to say both realities are in peril and they must choose one, but theyll die if they pick illusory one. Its a great idea for a Who episode, but perhaps unsurprisingly its a concept that gets rather confusing, with the result that the idea is better than the execution.
The rest of the disc in taken up with the double-parter, The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood, which sees the Doctor, Amy and Rory in Wales in the near future, at the site of a massive project to drill down into the Earth, deeper than anyone has gone before. However what the scientists think is an innocent experiment is seen as an act of aggression by a race of beings living deep under the ground. They are the Silurians, the reptilian creatures who ruled Earth before humans arrived on the scene (and made several appearances in Classic Who, in a more rubbery, man-in-a-daft-suit form), but went underground, one day planning to return to the surface.
Soon the Doctor is caught up between Silurian factions, some of whom want to send an army to wipe the apes from the planets surface, while others attempt to try and negotiate with the humans to find a way to allow both to live side-by-side. Its all a lot of fun, as long as you dont think about it too hard about it (there are more than a few plot-holes, which are larger than in most Who episodes). The only disappointment is the ending, which is actually fairly pivotal, but feels rather underplayed for whats actually going on. Thankfully though, the redesigned Silurians themselves are wonderful, with much credit needing to go to the designers and makeup artists who created the reptilian look.
As with earlier volume releases, the only special feature is a single Monster Files featurette, this one looking at the Silurians, comparing their appearances in the classic series with their new look, as well as exactly what the writers were hoping for from these intriguing but so far rather underused Who villains.
Overall Verdict: While the three episodes are fun, theyre perhaps not a strong as the beginning of Matt Smiths reign as the Doctor, but they keep things ticking over for the excellent final four episodes that will be in Volume 4.
Special Features:
Monster Files Featurette
Reviewer: Tim Isaac