Old Doctor Who - Part 4

[daf]

Been eyeing up the Collection boxsets recently, as I hadn't realised they had done as many as they have. I thought it was a range where they were just doing a couple of the most beloved seasons.

Yes they plan on doing 27 sets (26 seasons plus a TV movie/wilderness years box).

Anyway, I've now pre-ordered this one and am scouring eBay, at the beginning of a collection I forsee financially crippling me.

You should be able to get then at pretty decent prices now (fairly close to the original RRP) thanks to the standard editions not being limited. (That really neutered the re-sellers - who were regularly able to ask silly money for the shoeboxes - £250 - £350 - that sort of madness!)

[JamesTC]

Saw it said the other day that only the first 26 are guaranteed. But the intention is to do a TV Movie set if they can (hence extras being moved off Survival to go on such a set). Scream of the Shalka, Shada (McGann), Death Comes to Time, Real Time and More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS could all be on there too. Plus the Pertwee audios. Maybe Curse of Fatal Death. Considering the range seems to be selling well, I think we can be safe in the assumption that they'll do a Wilderness Years set too.

Some involved in the range have also spoke about wanting to do some of the new series. I'd definitely be up for them doing Series 1-5 at the very least considering the upscales for 1-4 were in the wrong frame rate and Series 5 was edited to remove the next time trailers.

[Replies From View]

Just found out about this Doctor Who reference in a sitcom I'd never heard of.  I'm sharing it in this thread because it was broadcast in the last year before Classic Who was cancelled:

Chelmsford 123

(skip to 16:25 if you are impatient)

[JamesTC]

Weirdly that was one of my first exposures to Doctor Who. I didn't really understand the reference until my Dad explained it to me.

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Saw it said the other day that only the first 26 are guaranteed. But the intention is to do a TV Movie set if they can (hence extras being moved off Survival to go on such a set). Scream of the Shalka, Shada (McGann), Death Comes to Time, Real Time and More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS could all be on there too. Plus the Pertwee audios. Maybe Curse of Fatal Death. Considering the range seems to be selling well, I think we can be safe in the assumption that they'll do a Wilderness Years set too.

I'd like to see Dimensions in Time embraced for what it is, though I guess there are issues of copyright preventing its inclusion.  It's terrible and it's not canon but it's still part of the history of JNT's version of the show.

[daf]

It's terrible and it's not canon

It should be shot out of a canon!!!

[purlieu]

Dimensions in Time would cost a bomb, but I hope they're able to find a way.

And yes to all the above Wilderness Years material, as well as hopefully a Big Finish or two. I do hope they carry on into the new series, I think there would be an audience for it. I'd absolutely love it if they numbered them season 27, 28, etc.

That Chelmsford 123 TARDIS gag is literally the only funny moment in the entire show.

[JamesTC]

And yes to all the above Wilderness Years material, as well as hopefully a Big Finish or two.

Perhaps the BBC Radio 7 versions of Storm Warning, Sword of Orion, The Stones of Venice, Invaders from Mars and The Chimes of Midnight. They were edited versions and are not available in this form in any format (physical, download or streaming) so wouldn't be stepping on any of Big Finish's toes.

[BritishHobo]

Do the Collection boxsets have all of the special features from the individual story sets? I used to have quite a lot of the Hartnell DVDs, but sold them along with a lot of other boxsets a while back.

[JamesTC]

Do the Collection boxsets have all of the special features from the individual story sets? I used to have quite a lot of the Hartnell DVDs, but sold them along with a lot of other boxsets a while back.

Yes and no.

They move around the bonus features to the appropriate seasons. So you might find the odd thing from a Season 2 story won't be on the Season 2 set. For example, the comic strip documentary was on The Time Meddler, but they've tended to put those documentaries on the final season for each Doctor so that one will likely be moved to Season 3.

This is a great website which details all the bonus features for The Collection releases and also lists any missing bonus features as well as which set they have been moved to.

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On the subject of the blu ray collections, I'm still somewhat saddened that Classic Who has now been lumbered with an arbitrary New Who logo.  I know everyone says it's the best thing about Chibnall's era but that's not the point.  In a year's time the Chibnall era logo won't be on anything new apart from the Classic Who blu rays, assuming they keep using his logo for them and don't update to the new RTD one.  Either way it's a cock up; they should have stuck with either the final Classic Who appropriate logo (the McGann version, as used until the end of the DVD range) or - ideally - used era-specific logos for each release.

[JamesTC]

The higher ups at BBC Studios sounded really out of touch when they were getting the Blu-ray range started. I think they inherited the unreleased The Underwater Menace DVD and just assumed that the range didn't sell well and were surprised when they got the sales figures out and then also undersold the Season 12 set and had to do a further printing down the line to produce the same number of sets as the later releases.

Worst of all, they apparently couldn't understand why anybody would want something that didn't have the current Doctor in it. Just a complete fucking idiotic misunderstanding of their audience to an atmospherically moronic degree. But this is why they wanted the logo to be the same across everything. Everything had to be "new".

They had it right in the Smith/Capaldi era when they reclassified anything before the current Doctor as being "classic" and they used the Pertwee/McGann era logo for it. It meant there was a nice simple delineation between new and old.

For what it is worth, whilst I think the logo is abject, the version on The Collection releases looks okay as they remove all the garish colour.

[daf]

they should have stuck with either the final Classic Who appropriate logo (the McGann version, as used until the end of the DVD range) or - ideally - used era-specific logos for each release.

Big Finish do this - god bless them - they have to use the Chibnall logo, but all the CDs also feature an alternate design using the era-correct logo on the back of the cover booklet for us super-nerds!

[purlieu]

Yeah, I've been saying this from day one, rebranding the entire Who range with the Whitaker logo was a ludicrous step. The DVD reissues for the 50th which had all the pre-Capaldi new series with the McGann logo were a great move, the logo effectively meaning 'anything that isn't the current Doctor', in line with the previous 15 years of Who. And then the decision was reversed after five years. Even the DVDs that have been released since the initial completion of the classic range - and thus with a number of new cover designs - have had reversible covers to keep them in line with the previous house style. Now, depending on how far into the new era they get - if they do at all - we might end up with something between 27 and 30-odd boxsets with the only logo that isn't relevant to any of them, which is possibly the daftest decision ever.

The Targets usually had the then-current logo, but they were very often reprinted, and there was no house style for them anyway (they're even numbered alphabetically rather than in release order or chronology, up until the numbering system was implemented, then numbered in release order).

[Replies From View]

If the rule for the blu rays is to use whatever logo is current, they might switch to the new RTD logo in 2023.  It's a hog's arse of a mess whatever they do.

[Replies From View]

And it might be aesthetically acceptable, but I associate the Whittaker/Chibnall logo with the Timeless Child intervention.  It's horrible to have it plastered all over Classic Who.

[JamesTC]

If the rule for the blu rays is to use whatever logo is current, they might switch to the new RTD logo in 2023.  It's a hog's arse of a mess whatever they do.

They confirmed when the range started that they would keep it uniform. And I believe it has been said since that they will not change the logo.

If word does come from on high that they need to change the logo, I imagine they will have some workaround like an extra removable sleeve with the new logo on. But I doubt it would come to that.

[Bad Ambassador]

Assuming they get two more out before the first RTD2 episode, that'll mean more than half will have the Chib logo.

[Replies From View]

Does the season 24 box set have an option to view a slightly less jarring version of the regeneration from the sixth > seventh Doctors?  Eg pasting Colin Baker's face over McCoy's, or at least smothering the wig joins with video effects?  I know there are fan efforts on youtube, some of them are quite good but it would be good to have an official one available in the blu rays.

[Deanjam]

Does the season 24 box set have an option to view a slightly less jarring version of the regeneration from the sixth > seventh Doctors?  Eg pasting Colin Baker's face over McCoy's, or at least smothering the wig joins with video effects?  I know there are fan efforts on youtube, some of them are quite good but it would be good to have an official one available in the blu rays.

Yes, there's a redone regeneration effect that you can opt into on the first episode.

[mjwilson]

Does the season 24 box set have an option to view a slightly less jarring version of the regeneration from the sixth > seventh Doctors?

I don't have the set but https://whospecialfeatures.fandom.com/wiki/The_Collection:_Season_24_(Blu-ray) says

Disc Two: Time and the Rani- Part Two

* Extended Episodes with Updated CGI Regeneration Sequence

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That's good.  I don't have a blu ray player but it pleases me to know it's on there.  I hope it's done well.

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Stumbled upon this in my searches.  Very sweet.

[JamesTC]

That's good.  I don't have a blu ray player but it pleases me to know it's on there.  I hope it's done well.

If memory serves, it is the one that appeared on the DVD but just now given as an actual option on the episode. It was previously just a separate bonus on the DVD.

[Replies From View]

Hmm.  I can't remember what it's like.  I will need to check it.

Some of the early CGI remakes were always dodgy and should have been redone for the blu rays in my view.  For example the CGI model shots for The Ark in Space looked bad when the DVD was released, not just in retrospect.  There's a spaceship explosion that's so bad you can't tell if it's supposed to be the real ship or some kind of computer game simulation on one of the monitors.  I was disappointed when they didn't revisit the CGI for the special edition DVD, and the fact it's made its way onto blu ray is a bit shite really.

[JamesTC]

The budget is so limited they can only do so much. It was a matter of do new effects for Revenge or re-do the effects for Ark. I think they made the right choice. Porting over the old effects was just a matter of completeness.

There are some features they genuinely didn't want to port over but felt they had to. For the Perfect Scenario two-part feature, they made minor amendments and put them at the bottom of the bonus features on Season 10. For all the criticism the black pudding documentary got, that one was another level.

[Midas]

For all the criticism the black pudding documentary got

What's this?

[JamesTC]

What's this?

A short feature on blood in culture that appears on the State of Decay disc. At the time Dan Hall, who was in charge of the range, was trying to diversify and do documentaries that were less Who specific. Fans were rightly rather annoyed that money was being spent on documentaries being made with tenuous links to the show.

Frankly I think the attitude some documentaries of the time of "Who is shit isn't it? But we love it" really irks me far more. I always skip the "Was Doctor Who Rubbish" features. Even worse when they talk of the new series as if it can do no wrong.

[Deanjam]

Frankly I think the attitude some documentaries of the time of "Who is shit isn't it? But we love it" really irks me far more. I always skip the "Was Doctor Who Rubbish" features. Even worse when they talk of the new series as if it can do no wrong.

Agreed. Also Day of the Daleks DVD spends a huge amount of time trashing the serial, including bizarrely having a go at Aubrey Woods performance, which is perfectly fine.

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The special edition of Day of the Daleks is so frustrating.  Nicholas Briggs' Dalek voices are too in line with the New Who style than the other 70s stories he should have been evoking.  Also why remove the beloved "no complications" line but not the sequence of the Doctor shooting an Ogron?

Frustrating because so much of what it does is right that it could have been perfect.