Put your stethoscopes on and step into the emergency ward of Albert Memorial Hospital, as we examine The Young Doctors – Collection One.
Follow the lives and the medical procedures of the young interns working at Albert Memorial, dealing with love interests, busy-body kiosk operators, debonair and fun-loving doctors, nerdy orderlies, and tough-nutter Sisters of the medical ward.
DVD screenshot from The Young Doctors Collection One.
Starring an all-star cast such as Alfred Sandor, Tim Page, Michael Beecher, Joanne Samuel, John Walton, Delvene Delaney, Cornelia Frances, Peta Toppano, Mark Holden, Gwen Plumb, Ugly Dave Gray, Tony Alvarez and Chris King among others too many too list.
There’s even a few up-and-comers that pop-up (Russell Crowe).
The Young Doctors became an iconic series for the Nine Network, launching in 1976 and wrapping up in 1983, producing 1387 episodes across 8 seasons (that’s including the movie length pilot).
For the first time ever, the first 250 episodes of the Australian TV soap have been released in a 35 DVD boxset, thanks to The Grundy Organisation / Fremantle and Via Vision.
There are 6 DVD cases, with each DVD containing 6 to 7 episodes. Each episode has an average run time of 21 minutes – excluding the pilot – with the resources directly from the master tapes.
Case One – Part One – 6 DVDs
- Extended Pilot and Episodes 1 to 40
Case Two – Part Two – 6 DVDs
- Episodes 41 to 83
Case Three – Part Three – 6 DVDs
- Episodes 84 to 125
Case Four – Part Four – 6 DVDs
- Episodes 126 to 167
- There is a note saying Episode 163 is of lower quality due to the missing master tape and the episode itself has been sourced from the National Film and Sound Archive, but the quality is really decent and it shouldn’t interrupt your viewing. Full credit to Via Vision for completing the collection, similar to the E Street release.
Episode 163 sample.
Case Five – Part Five – 6 DVDs
- Episodes 168 to 210
Case Six – Part Six – 5 DVDs
- Episodes 211 to 250
- Special Features:
- The Young Doctors 30 Year Anniversary – a 20 minute special hosted by TV Historian Andrew Mercado from in 2006.
- What’s Cooking With Ada? slideshow
The video and audio quality holds up extremely well, considering the age of this series. While you won’t get a high definition remaster, fans should be very satisfied with the quality.
Screenshot of DVD menu
Manufactured in Region 4 – it’s safe to use overseas if you have a region-free DVD player. This boxset has a runtime of 96 hours and 32 minutes and is presented in its original 4:3 aspect ratio and glorious mono sound. Unfortunately there are no subtitles or different audio languages to choose from, nor an episode guide. However, there ARE special features!
Young Doctors 30th Anniversary special (2006) included as Special Feature.
If you have the two ‘Best Of’ volumes “30th Anniversary / Best Romances” and “Classic Cliffhangers ” DVDs, don’t throw them out yet, as there are episodes that haven’t been featured in this boxset, but may appear in future releases.
Overall, The Young Doctors Collection One boxset is definite for fans and collectors.
Now available through ViaVision and all good DVD retailers.
Thank you to Via Vision Entertainement for supplying the boxset for review purposes.
