Doctor Who: The Monster Collection

One of the problems with the BBC's Doctor Who DVD releases is that although they are high quality editions, with a positive wealth of extra features they often prove too expensive for the casual fan. The BBC have addressed this just in time for Halloween with a superbly priced collection of six DVDs that go under the collective banner of The Monster Collection.

The sets are Cybermen, Sontarans, Silurans, The Master, Davros and of course Daleks.

These discs are great value (£7 each) and each one contains a complete story from two different doctors - The Silurans for instance contains the Jon Pertwee 1970 seven parter,The Silurans on one disc and the Matt Smith two part story The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood from 2010. I've not seen much of Matt Smith's Doctor but I watched this two parter last night and found it an enjoyable if frantically paced story.

The Davros edition contains the David Tennent 2008 two parter The Stolen Earth/ Journey's End and the all time classic Tom Baker story, Genesis of the Daleks. While Cyberman contains the fan favourite Pat Troughton's Tomb of the Cybermen (a story that at one time was missing from the BBC archives) and the two part David Tennant Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel - and in the scene in Age of Steel where all the cyber controlled people are walking through the comples eagle eyed viewers will spot me amongst the horde of cyber controlled humans. Mind you my bit is blink and you'll miss me.


Daleks gives us the WIlliam Hartnell seven part story that first introduced the Daleks on the first disc with Matt Smith's Asylim of the Daleks on the second disc. The Master then contains Jon Pertwee's Terror of the Autons  (this episode introduced the super hot Katy Manning as Jo Grant and David Tennant's final turn as the Doctor in The End of Time. The Sontarans contains Jon Pertwee again in The Time Warrrior and 2008's The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky.

There are no extras on these discs but that's not a complaint given that the discs are so cheaply priced and contains full adventures featuring multiple doctors. I'll be buying all of these sets. After all at this price there is no reason not to.

Top marks to the BBC for these themed collections.