Doctor Who is the world’s longest-running sci-fi series. As the show has stacked up over 800 stories in its 60 years, it’s also built an impressive legacy of home media. The classic Fourth Doctor story Revenge of the Cybermen was the first adventure to make it into fans' homes. But in 1983, it was a major investment to own a single Doctor Who story on Betamax, Video 2000, or VHS. Jump forward 40 years, and the BBC’s flagship genre show has embraced high definition and box sets.
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Doctor Who wasn’t produced in high-definition until 2009, when the year of special episodes that completed David Tennant’s time in the TARDIS as the Tenth Doctor jumped up in quality. That doesn’t mean fans are stuck with watching stories made before then in standard definition. The BBC has employed upscaling, remastering, and animation to release classic and modern eras in the best possible quality. The show’s 60th anniversary is the perfect time for fans to top up their collection with complete series sets throughout its history.
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Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 15
The first classic season collection to be released in 2024 is what many consider to be the end of Tom Baker's peak years in charge of the TARDIS. Along with popular companion Leela, the Time Lord confronts an alien haunting a lighthouse before he's cloned and miniaturized to fight a sentient virus, and meets faithful robot dog K9. In the epic season-closer, the Doctor even returns to Gallifrey to stop The Invasion of Time. Available to pre-order in limited edition packaging, this set has hours of special features and behind-the-scenes material.
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Doctor Who: William Hartnell Complete Season Two
The earliest Doctor Who you’ll find on Blu-Ray is the First Doctor’s second season. It’s a classic run of an impressive 39 episodes, two of which have been reconstructed after they were deleted from the BBC archive. Highlights include The Dalek Invasion of Earth and the first appearance of another renegade Time Lord in The Time Meddler.
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Doctor Who Collections Set
This Walmart exclusive is one of the best value collections fans can get. It bundles together the complete run of stories featuring the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors over 31 discs. That's a whole load of Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Sontarans, and many more universal threats. In all, this is an incredible set of adventures across time and space at a fantastic price.
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Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee Complete Season Two
$37 $70 Save $33Jon Petwee’s second year as the Doctor introduced his greatest enemy, the Master. The Doctor’s fiendish rival appears in every story, setting in stone an enduring rivalry that still exists today. This was a golden age for the third Doctor as it also introduced companion Jo Grant. Actress Katy Manning is making guest appearances in Doctor Who half a century later. Before fans watch her in the BBC’s anniversary series Tales of the TARDIS, fans can catch up with Jo’s origins here.
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Doctor Who: Colin Baker Complete Season 2
The Trial of a Timelord is the longest-surviving storyline from Doctor Who’s classic years. The Sixth Doctor’s second and final year formed an overarching arc of four stories where the Doctor is put on trial by his people, the Time Lords. Hardly anything in this fine slice of mid-1980s Doctor Who is as it appears, with the court proceedings pulling in the riddle of a post-apocalyptic society, a murder mystery, and the horrors of alien brain-swapping.
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Doctor Who: The Complete David Tennant
You get three seasons and a heap of specials in one fantastic set of every Tenth Doctor story. David Tennant is one of the most popular incarnations of the Time Lord, and this impressive run brings him into contact with great villains, including the Daleks, and the first modern-era appearances of the Cybermen and Sontarans.
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Doctor Who: Tom Baker Complete Season Six
Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor remains the definitive Time Lord for many. His sixth year was script-edited by Douglas Adams, a year after the first broadcast of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The mix of ambitious sci-fi and humor he brought to Doctor Who continues to divide fans over 40 years on. Still, there's a huge amount to enjoy, including the classic story City of Death, which set a series record of over 16 million viewers when it was broadcast in 1979.
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Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 10
The Third Doctor's fourth year starts with the first multi-Doctor story, inadvertently setting an anniversary tradition. After the first three Doctors joined forces to combat a Time Lord threat, the Third Doctor was finally released from exile and almost instantly fell into an epic Dalek war. The season ends with The Green Death, an environmental tale that saw the teary departure of companion Jo Grant.
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Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 19
The Fifth Doctor’s first season saw the fresh-faced Time Lord revive his rivalry with the rejuvenated Master before a bonafide classic conflict with the Cyberman that gives the in-universe explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs. This era with a fresh-faced cricket-loving Doctor remains well-regarded, and fans will enjoy exploring the parallels between his packed TARDIS and the modern series.
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Doctor Who: The Complete First Series
$42 $60 Save $18Doctor Who’s successful return wasn’t guaranteed in 2005. Fortunately, Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor and Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler made a winning combination. As the revitalized show jumped between the past and future and a soap storyline in the present, the new format inspired a new generation of fans. This 13-part series remains endlessly rewatchable and a great jumping-on-point for new viewers.
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Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 14
A peak year for Doctor Who from the mid-1970s. The Fourth Doctor is in his element as he oversees the handover between two legendary companions, Sarah Jane Smith and Leela. Highlights include a Sherlock Holmes case in Victorian London, the iconic futuristic murder mystery of The Robots of Death, and the return of the Master in the conspiracy thriller that helped create the Gallifrey we know today, The Deadly Assassin.
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Doctor Who: The Complete Thirteenth Series (Flux)
One of the few complete season arcs in Doctor Who history came in Jodie Whitaker’s final season as the Thirteenth Doctor. Flux is the name of the universal threat at the heart of the story that sees the Time Lord and her companions embark on a time-jumping flight to stop it. It may have a shortened format impacted by the 2020 pandemic, but it remains one of the modern era’s strongest runs.
Doctor Who 4K Sets
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Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time
$4 $30 Save $26Facing regeneration and reeling from the loss of companion Bill Potts, the twelfth Doctor finds himself in the South pole in 1986, just as his first incarnation is facing the end of his life. This Christmas special is the first episode of Doctor Who to be released in 4K UHD.
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Dr. Who & The Daleks
Celebrate your love for Peter Cushing's alternative version of the Doctor with this beautiful set, perfect for the mega-fan. The 1965 movie introduces the eccentric inventor Dr Who, who, along with his granddaughters and Roy Castle's Ian Chesterton, finds himself on a mysterious planet where the ancient war between the Thals and armor-encased Daleks is about to reignite. The film is presented in a brilliant 4K restoration with plenty of extras.
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Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.
The second Dalek movie takes the TARDIS to a ravaged Earth in the 21st century when the Daleks have successfully conquered the planet. the Doctor and his granddaughters. this time accompanied by hapless policeman Tom Campbell (played by Doctor Who legend Bernard Cribbins), joins the resistance to stop the despotic pepperpot's latest scheme. This gorgeous presents the restored 4K film with a time ship full of extras.
All Of Time & Space
Doctor’s Who has embraced high-definition releases, but that’s just one benefit of collecting the saga on Blu-ray. The Complete Collection sets come with a wealth of special features that have fans of other sci-fi franchises looking on in envy. With every release, Whovians are spoiled by a core group of talented fans who help colorize, restore, and provide in-depth background features on the show’s classic era.
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Doctor Who is entering a new phase with its 60th birthday, with the newly coined Whoniverse promising a wealth of new series and spin-offs broadcast on BBC and Disney Plus. Fans can expect even more ways to watch the show, as well as the impending release of collections that haven’t yet made it to Blu-ray. Fans who aren't Prime members but are looking at picking up a set from Amazon can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Prime to stand the best chance of receiving it before the 60th anniversary.
FAQs
Why are there seasons and series of Doctor Who?
Generally, the use of season and series means the same thing: a sequence of episodes transmitted sequentially. In British television, a series is usually more appropriate, as that sequence often numbers fewer than 10 episodes, unlike a seasonal broadcast.
This is true of the modern era, where each series collects between eight and 13 episodes. However, classic Doctor Who was broadcast over a longer period, often covering half a year with story serials broken up into episodes, so those units are historically referred to as seasons. The change of lead actor explains the different numbering of collected sets in different territories.
Can you watch Doctor Who in 4K?
As with many TV series, Blu-ray will likely remain the high-definition standard (1080p) for Doctor Who due to broadcast quality. While a few episodes of classic Doctor Who were recorded on film, most were taped on video, which makes upscaling a problem.
But this doesn’t mean fans can’t experience adventures in time and space in ultra-high-definition. While not part of the TV continuity, the colorful 1960s Dr. Who Dalek movies are available in stunning 4K at Amazon and other retailers. Of the modern era, the Twelfth Doctor's swansong, Twice Upon a Time, became the first story to be released in the UHD format in 2018, and is available in a single-disc set. See the available 4K sets and where to buy them above.
Will every Doctor Who season be released on Blu-ray?
It’s safe to say there are plenty of Blu-Ray collections to come, most probably completing the full sequence of Doctor Who back to 1963. The major challenge isn’t that earlier episodes were transmitted in standard definition but that many 1960s episodes were systematically junked.
It was a time when nobody considered home media releases or even broadcast repeats. However, the BBC has steadily filled those gaps with animated reconstructions. As with the Season 2 Collection, early Blu-ray sets featuring the First and Second Doctors will likely include those.
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