Old Doctor Who - Part 3

[pigamus]

Season 15 just comes in a plain brown wrapper with a picture of Graham Williams standing in a disused mental hospital in Redhill and crying.

[Norton Canes]

I like this impassioned defence of season 15 from the Watching Blake's Seven blog (by the same person who does 'The Chairs Of Doctor Who' on 'Pink For Your Actual Pterodactyl').

[purlieu]

I think one of the issues with this one is that nobody's been able to go to shops to buy it, so every sale has been pre-ordered. I was planning on purchasing a week or two before release and had to go through eBay because all the stores had sold out of their allocation.
There's a lot of trouble at the minute because quite a lot of Amazon orders haven't been sent out because they haven't received enough stock. Fuck knows what's going on.

And yes, limited releases like this can fuck right off. Anything that requires you to pre-order it just to be in with a shot of actually getting it is ridiculous, and there's nothing you can do if you get a damaged copy or it gets lost in the post. I ordered a deluxe box set of an album and it never came in the post. I got a refund, but by that time it was long sold out and all copies cost twice as much as I'd originally paid. Do Royal Mail care? Do they fuck.

EDIT: Check if your local Argos have any in stock.

[daf]

Just got mine this morning - ordered from Zoom back in January, so I got lucky there!

Couple of titbits on my first quick scan :
- The Elisabeth Sladen documentary is worth the price of the box on it's own - incredibly moving tribute from Tom at the end!
- Amazingly, Hinchcliffe claims not to have seen Hand of Fear since it went out (despite being on the DVD commentary from 2006!!)
- Peter Purves had only watched four Tom Baker stories up to this point

[Old Gold Tooth]

Ah well done! Had my Zoom order cancelled last week due to insufficient stock being allocated.

In fairness to Zoom they sent an email that actually had some sympathy in it (along with a tenner voucher) explaining that stock levels have been fucked up on this item all over the place, but it's still a shame. Ah well, still got the stories on DVD.

[Deanjam]

Mine has come from Amazon. Was getting worried with all this talk of cancelations. Am so excited to go through this. Not only my favourite series of Who, but my favourite run of any TV show.

[Peru]

Surely they're going to do a re-release a la Season 12 after this fiasco.

[Norton Canes]

Robots Of Death is the best - Boucher's dialogue, the gorgeous yet sinister robots, Tom and Leela's performances, the suspense... it all sings. Deadly Assassin is a masterpiece of subversive storytelling and the matrix episode is an utter triumph. Face Of Evil is a great story built on a lovely concept - yeah, I'd go mad if I'd been fixed by Tom Baker. Masque Of Mandragora is a gorgeous-looking curio; Hand Of Fear is a typically wayward Baker and Martin effort which really only deserved to be a two-parter but at least has a great turn by Judith Paris. And Talons... dubious portrayal of the Chinese aside it's never been one of my absolute favourites, but Holmes' dialogue and the fruity performances of Jago and Litefoot make it a nice comfort watch, the end of a magnificent era.

In an interview with his local Hampshire newspaper a few years ago (take that, DWM!) he said that his fourth season would have "mined the literary seam of the 'Colonial Adventurer'" in the mould of Conan Doyle and Rider Haggard. Although, given that it would have apparently involved "angry tribesmen and dense jungles", perhaps we dodged a bullet...

[JamesTC]

Surely they're going to do a re-release a la Season 12 after this fiasco.

Seems like stock levels have been impacted. Either that or demand was significantly higher.

I emailed BBC DVD Enquiries to ask if they will do another run of Season 14 as it was already out of stock on pre-order. They replied last week to apologise and say that they have a lot of illness at the moment and they will answer when they are able. When they do confirm, I'll post the reply here.

[purlieu]

As I've probably said more times than necessary, it's my least favourite era of '70s Who, so it's mostly the extras I'm excited about here. Looks like there'll be a lot to keep me entertained.

[Old Gold Tooth]

Seems like stock levels have been impacted. Either that or demand was significantly higher.

I emailed BBC DVD Enquiries to ask if they will do another run of Season 14 as it was already out of stock on pre-order. They replied last week to apologise and say that they have a lot of illness at the moment and they will answer when they are able. When they do confirm, I'll post the reply here.

Nice one. I had the same thought earlier about a possible reprint, as from what Zoom said in their email it sounds like something's gone awry. Here's hoping.

And here's also hoping no one buys any of the ridiculously inflated sets that are already up on eBay. Doctor Who and the Scalping Bastards.

[daf]

The Australian version is up for pre-order - https://www.amazon.com.au/DOCTOR-WHO-SEASON-COLLECTION-DISCS/dp/B084DG7GMC - looks like the same packaging (and should be playable in the UK), so may be worth a speculative punt?

[Old Gold Tooth]

Cheers Daf, good thinking.

[Alberon]

The Australian version is up for pre-order - https://www.amazon.com.au/DOCTOR-WHO-SEASON-COLLECTION-DISCS/dp/B084DG7GMC - looks like the same packaging (and should be playable in the UK), so may be worth a speculative punt?

But it'll be upside down!

[daf]

Arf!

[Peru]

Annoyingly they don't seem to be delivering to UK addresses.

Edit: DVDland.au are delivering internationally

[Deanjam]

Tom talking about Liz Sladen. WARNING: may provoke feeling.


https://twitter.com/vortexbutterfly/status/1257750295301545985

[Malcy]

Tom talking about Liz Sladen. WARNING: may provoke feeling.


https://twitter.com/vortexbutterfly/status/1257750295301545985

That's a right punch to the heart.

[JamesTC]

I received the following from the DVD team regarding Season 14 stock:

So sorry for delay in responding due to high levels of sickness in the department.

We have checked and can confirm that Sales on Season 14 have been especially strong, and exceeded our expectations.

We did manufactured the same volume as for earlier releases (exception being Season 12 the very first in the Collection)

We have forwarded your e-mail to the Sales Teams.

Kind regards

DVD Enquiry Line

[Deanjam]

How could anyone possibly have foreseen that the most popular season in the show's history would have a higher demand? I am shocked!

[Bad Ambassador]

How could anyone possibly have foreseen that the most popular season in the show's history would have a higher demand? I am shocked!

Who could have foreseen that the low production run used on previous releases, which all sold out immediately, would lead to the new release selling out immediately?

[Ambient Sheep]

They really are tossbags.

I've been fairly broke for over 15 years and been totally unable to buy any of this stuff.  The most I've managed are a few Classic Who DVDs bought out of birthday and Christmas monies.

In mid-Feb this year I came into a little bit of money and managed to get the Season 12 reissue[nb]Love the fact they bothered to print "2_^ND EDITION" on the bottom of the box, presumably to placate those who got in early... or is there a legitimate reason for doing so?[/nb] despite ordering it a few days late, and was now looking to pick up the others which, I'd erroneously assumed, weren't so rare.

Turns out, from reading this thread, I have no chance.  Why on earth are they doing this?!


By the way, if anyone could recommend a good quality Blu-Ray player, preferably one that can be made region-free at least for DVDs, that would be nice.  I've never owned one and know nothing about them.

[Alberon]

I would assume at some point in the future there would be a cheaper packaging reissue, but I suppose they'll want to issue all 26 series first which is going to take a while. At the moment it just looks like it's done deliberately because they can sell out at full price rather than being discounted later.

[Ambient Sheep]

It's doubly-annoying because a couple of years ago I had an unexpected £100 or so spare, for the first time in years, and splurged most of it on that limited-edition Goodies box-set, especially because of all the books and other stuff that came with it.

Literally months later, not only did they reissue all the DVDs (fair enough), but also separately all the books etc., and if you added them all up they came to less than the frigging box-set had!

As far as I can tell, the only thing I got extra for boosting Network's coffers for three months was a small brown cloth bag with the Goodies' logo on it.

[weekender]

I've decided to wait for the point when all of the 'The Collection' Blu-rays are all consolidated into a Doctor Who: The Collection Collection box-set in which you can get the entire 26 classic series on digital media in a nice small box, playable on whatever digital device replaces Blu-rays.

It's at this point I expect Philip Morris to announce his haul, incidentally.

[purlieu]

I would assume at some point in the future there would be a cheaper packaging reissue

Nothing has actually been said to suggest this - apparently there are plans for a 'Wilderness Years' box and the team want to do all the new series in the same design box - which all makes the finishing point of this about eight years away, by which point I can't even imagine what state the physical market will be in when it comes to film and TV. I certainly wouldn't hold out hope for a reissue at some point, as when asked whether there'll be a 'standard' packaging release the answers seem to have been no so far.

And yes, it's fucking ridiculous. What other TV series has releases which you can only pick up if you happen to have the right amount of money at a specific time? "Here's one of the most popular British TV shows ever, we've spent a lot of time and money making these BluRay editions, let's make sure they are only available for a few months."

Either way, the DVD Team's response isn't worth anything because the problem was most retailers weren't allocated the stock they'd been promised (and thus over-sold), which is obviously a BBC Worldwide issue.

[purlieu]

Amazon.es have some: https://www.amazon.es/Doctor-Who-Collection-Season-Edizione/dp/B083T3BBQN

[purlieu]

Just a heads up: Amazon Spain still have copies.

[Old Gold Tooth]

Big thanks purlieu, I would never have thought to check international sites after seeing how much the U.K. stock fell short. Didn't even realise they exported these sets. Great spot.

[pigamus]

"¡Eldrad debe vivir!"