Briony's World Of Buffy

Disc One: Script for 'The Replacement'. Commentary for 'Real Me' by writer David Fury and director David Grossman.
Disc Two: Script and commentary for 'Fool For Love' by Doug Petrie.
Disc Three: Script for 'Into The Woods'. Featurettes - 'Buffy Abroad', 'Demonology - A Slayer's Guide', 'Casting Buffy', 'The Stunts Of Buffy'. 6 trailers.
Disc Four: Script for 'Checkpoint'. Commentary for 'I Was Made To Love You' by Jane Espenson.
Disc Five: Commentary for 'The Body' by Joss Whedon.
Disc Six: Featurettes - 'The Story Of Season 5', 'Natural Causes', 'Spotlight On Dawn'. Stills gallery.

Preorder from Chaosmusic (Australian Site) for shipment 27th November. Click here

The first series has been available on VHS for about a year, so does the DVD make up for the wait we've had? Well I was a little disappointed in the picture quality which is quite variable. That said, the first series has always looked a little ropey and the DVD transfer is far better than the recent airing on Sky Digital.

The main problem is that the picture is both soft and grainy. The transfer itself is fine, but the original source material is a little disappointing to say the least. This is the best the series has looked, no doubt about that, but DVD can and has done better in the past.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is suprisingly involving and there's a fair amount of surround action. Of course, it's not as good as a dedicated 5.1 channel track but as one doesn't exist there's no reason to complain - the 2 channel DVD soundtrack is the best we can expect and it does it's job very well indeed.

The extras are also pretty impressive for a TV series. The best extra has to be the commentary by Joss Whedon which covers the first two episodes and reveals a lot about the thinking behind the writing! We get to learn a lot about how things were done and what was originally intended and Joss lets slip some interesting casting facts. It has to be said that a lot of what he says has already been covered in various interviews and articles but there's still quite a bit here which hasn't been mentioned before and I highly recommend it. Joss seems pretty laid back about things so it's an enjoyable commentary to listen to. Oddly, the commentary also features forced French subtitles - it would have been nice if these could have been switched off but I couldn't find a way to do it...

The interview with Joss and David Boreanaz for just over four minutes, and doesn't really cover any new ground. It's interesting to watch once but it's unlikely you'll bother going back to it more than a couple of times.

The 'original pilot script' doesn't actually cover the original pilot - in fact it's the script for the final version of 'Welcome to the Hellmouth' and 'The Harvest'. It's a huge disappointment that Fox didn't make the original unaired pilot available, and I thought this script would have been the script for that... Oh well - maybe they'll rectify this with the next box set?!

There's the music video for the pretty annoying Hepburn song 'I Quit' and a photo gallery - which as far as photo galleries go is pretty average and consists mainly of promo shots and some stills.

I am unable to check out the DVD-ROM material at present due to my ongoing PC problems! I'll ensure that I cover this in more detail as soon as I get the chance but I think it mainly consists of a screensaver. The final disc is reported to contain a selection of cast biographies. I can't comment or confirm this as I don't have this disc in my possession...

From what I have seen, the DVD release of Season One is pretty much as expected. The slightly ropey picture quality is a little disappointing, but given that this is still better than I've seen it anywhere else I can't really complain. Hopefully later seasons will improve.

If you've held off buying the VHS versions then you made a good choice, the DVD release is a great package and once it's available to buy I'll certainly be adding it to my collection. I can't wait for Season Two to be announced now!