You wouldn't imagine that a story written over the weekend before the director came on board would make a contender for the best Doctor Who story ever written. It arguably is though.

There's isn't much new that I can say about City of Death, there's strong performances from the cast, Michael Hayes' direction is cinematic and Dudley Simpson's produces his best score for Doctor Who. All help to compliment the perfect script from Douglas Adams.

Looking at the DVD. With Tom Baker unavailable and Lalla Ward unwilling to appear, you would have thought this would be a light extras package. However, it's probably the strongest package for a while. Michael Hayes, Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon make up an interesting dynamic, but can be accused of watching too much rather than commentating on events. However, there's a nice discussion on TV production now and then.

The biggest feature is Ed Stradling's longest and best documentary for the DVDs. It's looks at the making of the story, while focuses on Douglas Adams' contribution to the series. Illustrations from Jason Lythgoe Hay give us a novel look at the original storyline from David Fisher. All the contributors to the City of Death part are extremely enthusiastic and it's particularly nice to hear from Catherine Schell.

The are some interesting criticisms of Douglas Adams as a script writer and script editor from David Fisher, Steven Moffat and Pennant Roberts, with all of them describing him as a man with tremendous creative ability rather than being a particularly disciplined script editor. Archive interviews with Adams also describe some of the trauma and tribulations that he went through working on Doctor Who.

Paris W12 is a poor quality look behind the scenes at some of the recording days, with some pleasing moments from on the set, including an increasingly irritated Julian Glover. It lasts 20 minutes, but don't be put off by the poor quality, it's very watchable.

Prehistoric Landscapes and Chicken Wrangler look at the special effects on the series, including the spectacular Jagaroth spaceship. Eye on Blatchford has already come in for some criticism, but it has it's moments.

The Doctor Who annual from 1980 will keep other's more interested than me, but it's a nice inclusion on the disc. The photos are fascinating, while the production subtitles are amusingly comprehensive. For once, it's worth persevering to find the Easter Eggs as there's a great anecdote from Douglas Adams about Ken Grieve.

Simply put, this is one of the most beautiful packages ever released. From the artwork on the discs themselves, to the story and extras that reflect the story better than ever before, it's one of the best Doctor Who DVDs ever released. Until The Beginning comes out

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