Let’s Get Technical in Part Two of Our Review!
Video and Audio
Season 15 is another mid-70’s offering and fares similarly from a restoration perspective, though Horror of Fang Rock notably feels softer than the other stories – this was reportedly the hardest story to restore for the set and considering how rough the DVD looks by today’s standards it’s still a solid upgrade.
The audio, which is handled wonderfully by Mark Ayres as always, cleans up nicely and we get a new 5.1 Surround Sound mix for Horror of Fang Rock alongside the new SFX mentioned in part 1 of this review.
The Packaging
Season 15 continues to integrate the fold-out book styled packaging, with a compartment for the booklet and a stack of disc trays. The set appears to be slightly wider than 17/26 which also had seven discs, as noted by my difficulty at getting it into the DW4 protector from Steelbook Central and needing to use a DW2 one instead.
The exterior artwork by Lee Binding fares rather well, and is one of the stronger offerings as of late, especially after 2/9 were more divisive in my eyes due to the slightly uncanny look to the actors. The inclusion of the new version of the Rutan enemy versus the original was unexpected, and a first for these releases.
We also get another detailed booklet with retrospective content by Pete McTighe which packs in the little details for these stories that makes it an essential element of the set.
This boxset on paper initially appears to be less stacked than some previous sets but the Season 20 collection really felt like an exception to the rule owing to all the 20th anniversary VAM included. Certain boxsets in the range are bound to be a bit lighter on new VAM depending on how many cast and crew members are left to utilise for interviews.
Special Features
The set collates most of the previous DVD special features alongside prominent recurring ones like the Behind the Sofa segments and Matthew Sweet’s In-Conversation pieces. The BTS segments usually leave me a bit indifferent but Katy Manning and Matthew Waterhouse make an entertaining pair, and Toby Hadoke is always good value. Predictably Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton return and their rapport with Colin Baker was fun.
Louise Jameson appears on the BTS segments and also makes a solid interviewee for Matthew Sweet, providing some insights into her conflicts with Tom Baker early on and her role on the series, whilst also expanding on her pre and post-Who work and the experiences she had with sexism and how her parents encouraged her acting career. Her presence is also seen on the following documentary mentioned and a series of archival interview panels.
The Chris Chapman directed Darkness and Light: The life of Graham William provides us with a rarely seen insight into the life of one of Doctor Who’s arguably most underappreciated producers, exploring his career, his personal life and his all-too-early passing aged just 45. It’s one of the finest features to grace these boxsets, and it was worth getting this set just to experience.
We also get a new making-of documentary for Horror of Fang Rock, Inside the Lighthouse (also directed by Chris Chapman), and it’s a great inclusion that like other new making-of features fills in a gap from the DVD range nicely. Overall, the boxset does well to provide some new features, though I was perhaps expecting some new K9 content (a John Leeson In-Conversation for Season 16?) or something on the infamous Max Headroom hijacking during a broadcast of Fang Rock in the US (possibly a rights issue ?)
As of writing this review there is no news of the next set in the collection range, but rumours are circulating around Season 25 being next, and coming sooner than we expect. I’ll believe it when I see it, but it makes sense as Season 24 came out all the way back in 2021. I’m personally expecting seasons 25, 6, and 11 to be the next three (I need a Troughton set on the shelf too.)
The Stories:
3/5
The Packaging:
3.5/5
The Video:
3.5/5
The Audio:
4.5/5
Special Features:
4.5/5
Overall:
3.5/5 – Season 15 remains one of the series’ weakest seasons upon rewatch, but has some very solid stories and an all-time classic kicking it off. Any poorer stories are evened out by frank making-of features and the boxset also includes some superb new content which makes it worth the investment as always.
Look back at Part 1 of the review for more detail on the stories included.
By HW Reynolds
Images Courtesy of the BBC
Reverbium 
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