The Frequently Asked Questions List for Doctor Who

DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs in North America.

Or… click here to see the VHS Home Video FAQ, or here to see the LATEST NEWS,

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Last updated June 27, 2009.   Recently updated sections are in red.
Compiled by Steve Manfred,  smanfred at comcast.net  (change at to @ and remove the spaces to email me)

 

UPCOMING RELEASES

 

July 7, 2009                 Doctor Who: The Rescue / The Romans starring William Hartnell (2 stories in one 2-disc set:

                                                2 25-minute episodes in The Rescue on one disc and 4 25-minute episodes in The Romans

on the other, $34.98).  These stories will not be sold separately (but they’re consecutive

stories in the chronological order in any case).

 

                                    Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen starring Colin Baker (2 45-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98)           

           

July 28, 2009               Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead starring David Tennant and Michelle Ryan (1 60-minute episode,

                                                1 disc, high-definition BLU-RAY for $19.89 or standard-definition DVD for $14.98 for DVD)

                                                Also includes a 60-minute Doctor Who Confidential

 

Torchwood: The Complete Second Season (13 50-minute episodes, 4 BLU-RAY discs, high-def, $79.98)

 

                                    Torchwood: Children of Earth starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles (5 50-minute episodes,

                                                2 discs, high-definition BLU-RAY for $34.99 or standard-definition DVD for $29.98 for DVD)

                                                Also includes Torchwood Declassified

 

September 1, 2009       Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin starring Tom Baker (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98)

 

                                    Doctor Who: Image of the Fendahl starring Tom Baker (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98)

                       

                                    Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen starring Sylvester McCoy (3 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98)

 

September 15, 2009     Doctor Who: The Next Doctor starring David Tennant and David Morrissey (1 60-minute episode, 1 disc, $14.98)

 

Further classic series titles will follow in November.  The exact titles are yet to be announced.

 

                                                                                   

LATEST DVD RELEASES

 

May 5, 2009                Doctor Who:  The E-Space Trilogy starring Tom Baker  (12 25-minute episodes, 3 discs, $49.98)

                                    Contains three stories:

                                                Full Circle (4 episodes), State of Decay (4 episodes), and Warriors’ Gate (4 episodes).

                                                The stories will not be available separately, only in the box set. 

                                    Doctor Who:  Battlefield  starring Sylvester McCoy (4 25-minute episodes and a new feature-

                                                length Special Edition, 2 discs, $34.98)

 

March 3, 2009             Doctor Who: The Key to Time Special Edition starring Tom Baker (26 25-minute episodes, 7 discs,

                                                $99.98)

                                    Contains six stories, which will also be available separately:

                                    The Ribos Operation (4 episodes), The Pirate Planet (4 episodes), The Stones of Blood

                                    (4 episodes), The Androids of Tara (4 episodes), The Power of Kroll (4 episodes), and

                                    The Armageddon Factor (6 episodes).  The 4-parters will be 1-discers at $24.98 each and the

                                    6-parter is $34.98 on 2 discs. 

 

January 6, 2009            Doctor Who: The War Machines starring William Hartnell (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98) and

                                    Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday starring Peter Davison (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98)

 

November 18, 2008     Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series box set starring David Tennant (2 70-minute episodes and

12 45-minute episodes, 6 discs, $99.98)

                                    Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest starring David Tennant (45-minute animated adventure, 1 disc, $9.98)

 

November 11, 2008     Torchwood: The Complete First Season starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles on high-definition

Blu-Ray discs  (13 50-minute episodes, 6 discs, $99.98) in CANADA

                                    Torchwood: The Complete Second Season in CANADA

 

October 7, 2008          Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius starring Tom Baker (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98)

                                    Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord starring Colin Baker (14 25-minute episodes, 4 discs, $59.98)

and

                                    The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season  starring Elisabeth Sladen (1 60-minute

episode and 10 30-minute episodes (6 stories), 4 discs, $49.98)

 

September 16, 2008     Torchwood: The Complete Second Season starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles

(13 50-minute episodes, 5 discs, $79.98 U.S. ONLY)

Torchwood: The Complete First Season starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles

(13 50-minute episodes, 6 high-definition Blu-Ray discs, $99.98, U.S. ONLY)

 

September 2, 2008       Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy starring Tom Baker with K9 and Company starring Elisabeth Sladen

and John Leeson  (4 25-minute episodes on disc 1, 50-minute special on disc 2)

                                    Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time starring Tom Baker (6 25-minute episodes, 2 discs, $34.98)

 

RECENT DVD RELEASES

 

August 5, 2008             Doctor Who: The Time Meddler starring William Hartnell (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98),

                                    Doctor Who: Black Orchid starring Peter Davison (2 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $14.98), and

                                    Doctor Who: The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Edition starring Peter Davison, Jon Pertwee,

Patrick Troughton, Richard Hurndall, Tom Baker, and William Hartnell (90 minute special on

disc 1, 100-minute special edition on disc 2, $34.98).

 

June 3, 2008                Beneath the Surface starring Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison  (3 stories spread across 4 discs, $59.98)

                                    The three stories in this set are all of those that features the Silurians and/or their cousins, the Sea Devils. 

                                    They will also be made available separately.  They are:

                                    Doctor Who and the Silurians starring Jon Pertwee (2 discs, $34.98),

                                    The Sea Devils starring Jon Pertwee (1 disc, $24.98), and

                                    Warriors of the Deep starring Peter Davison (1 disc, $24.98). 

 

April 1, 2008                The Time Warrior starring Jon Pertwee (1 disc, $24.98) and

                                    Timelash  starring Colin Baker (1 disc, $24.98)

 

 

 

***THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS LIST***

 

1.  Are Doctor Who stories available on DVD?  Who makes them and where can I find them?

 

Yes.  A limited number of Doctor Who stories are available now on DVD, and the number gradually increases every few months. 

Their content comes from BBC Worldwide Americas.  The manufacturing and distribution is accomplished by Warner Home Video.  

 

The DVDs are available from both brick-and-mortar video sales stores and from online sellers such as amazon.com or Warner’s site,

http://whv.warnerbros.com/ or BBC Worldwide America’s sales site, http://www.bbcamericashop.com/

 

2.  Will the new Doctor Who TV series affect the classic series releases?

No, the new series has had no effect on the classic series releases, other than changing the timing of some of them. 

 

3. I’m interested in perhaps buying some of these DVDs. What should I know?

You should be aware that most of the Doctor Who DVDs released so far have had extensive restoration work done on them

prior to authoring and now look better than they ever have before.  The only ones that had lighter restoration done didn’t need

much in the first place.  We’ve never seen Doctor Who look this good – it’s much better than the old PBS broadcasts. 

You should also know that to date, all of the DVDs have bonus materials on them that are not available on the VHS tapes.

 

You should also know the difference between "episode form" and "movie form".  The natural format of most of the classic

Doctor Who series is as a cliffhanger adventure serial.  Each true "episode" of the classic series was usually 25 minutes long and

ends in a cliffhanger and crashing theme music, with the original viewers on the BBC having to wait usually a whole week before

the next installment.  The most common serial length was 4 such episodes, with 6-parters also being heavily used in the first half of

the series' life with some other odd lengths mixed in here and there.   Most PBS outlets in the US did not broadcast the series in

this format, but instead showed what became known as "movie form," where all the episodes of each serial were edited together

to form one long movie. (4-parters usually came to about 90 minutes, 6-parters to 2 hours and 20 minutes.)   The DVD releases

all present the stories in episode form (when applicable). The fans prefer this because it is the true format the series should be seen

in, because the episodes were plotted and paced with only 25-minute installments in mind, and because the cliffhangers themselves

sometimes have differences between what's shown at the end of one episode versus the beginning of the next, with altered shots

and changes made to the music.  In the "movie form" practice, one of those versions always has to be cut out. 

 

The standard episode length of the classic series’ 22nd season and of the new series that began in 2005 is 45 minutes. 

Most of the new series episodes are now stand-alones, but some are part of two-part stories.  The season 22 stories were all at

least two 45-minute episodes long.

 

4. Why are these DVDs so much higher-priced than most American TV series on DVD?  And why don’t they

release season box sets of the classic series?

 

As you might expect, Doctor Who DVDs do the most sales in the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom hasn’t seen as

much of the enormous price erosion of TV DVDs that the North American market has.  Also, multi-standard TVs and

multi-region DVD players are very commonplace in the UK. BBC Worldwide and their UK sales clients are all afraid that if they

price Doctor Who (or any other BBC DVDs) more in line with what the American DVD market is used to, then they will see

large numbers of UK consumers import the American editions of those DVDs, because even with the shipping charges

the price will still be lower than what it would be if they bought the DVD off a UK store shelf, especially considering the

strength of the British pound versus the US dollar these days.  They therefore price the North American editions at a level only

slightly lower than the UK price so that they don’t get a lot of importation going on into the UK.  This policy is likely to continue

until prices for DVDs in the UK start to come down on their own, if they ever do.

 

Regarding season box sets... Doctor Who classic series DVD releases began in the UK in 1999 with them repeating the

single-story-at-a-time model that had been in use on VHS.  Before season box sets started becoming the norm in the US

(and other countries), many stories had already seen release in the UK. Were they to switch over to the season model, many

consumers would be forced to re-buy some stories they already had.  Just as importantly, production budgets on single titles

are higher than they would be for season sets, which means that each single title can be (and is) packed with special features. 

Were they to switch to the season model, the special features would have to be reduced.  They have instead adopted a compromise

plan where they release a few smaller box sets per year of stories that were linked together in some way (like a story arc)

while continuing the single-story-at-a-time model the rest of the year.  The new series is another case entirely, as the extra features

are being made concurrently with the series itself, which allows those DVDs to be almost as full as the classic series ones and still be

in a season box set (and, of course, the “rebuying” issue isn’t a problem as these are all-new episodes).

An exception to what I’ve just said is talked about in the next question….

 

4a.  Why have they re-released The Key to Time (especially when half the rest of the series isn’t out yet?) 

 

The answer has to do with how and why we got the 2002 edition of this set.  In their first DVD releases in North America

in 2001 and early 2002, BBC Worldwide Americas included a questionnaire that pointed to a website poll

where their customers could choose from amongst a list of titles which Doctor Who title they would most like to see

released next.  On that list was The Key to Time, and it won the poll.  They went back to their partners in the UK and

requested that it be released.  They met with some resistance as the UK BBC people didn’t feel the time was right

for their market for a box set of this many episodes to be released, however the BBC WA people emphasized how

important box sets had already become in the North American market and how having one was in fact now essential

to get stores to stock Doctor Who titles at all.  They’d had a wave of some individual titles in 2002 that many chains

chose not to stock because all they were was individual stories.  A box set was now seen as a requirement to save the

range’s future in North America.  And so an agreement was reached whereby The Key to Time could be released in

late 2002 in North America without there having been a UK release first.  This is the only time that this has happened,

and it probably will never happen again.  Due to there being no UK release, the volume of episodes in the set, and the

quick turnaround time needed, the titles in the 2002 set came out with only minimal extras.  Although they did all

have commentaries and production notes, they had no featurettes, only a few deleted scenes, and the restoration work

was very minimal. 

 

Nowadays, with the revival of the series’ fortunes that began with the coming of the new series, the market for classic

Doctor Who in the UK has become much healthier, and box sets have become much more attractive, and you’ll have

noticed there have been more of them in recent years, and that when they come out they get the same full treatment

extras-wise that the individual titles get.  And so in 2007, they decided to bring The Key to Time to the UK, with that

full press of extras.  The release pattern in North America is for them to bring out the UK’s recent titles in largely the

same order that they come out in the UK, but they decided to hold off for a while on this particular title as they already

had the old edition on the market, and also they’d fallen behind the increased pace of releases coming from the UK and

wanted to catch us up on the titles we had never seen before first.  Now in 2009, that catching-up has been largely

completed, and they feel they can spend a release slot on bringing us the UK’s edition of The Key to Time, and will

begin selling it in North America on March 3 with the “Special Edition” moniker attached to all the titles to distinguish

it from the original edition.  

 

5. Will Doctor Who be released in a high-definition DVD format, i.e. on BluRay?

Beginning with the 2009 Easter special, Planet of the Dead, the new series of Doctor Who is switching up to high-

definition, and so from there on I would expect Blu-Ray releases of Doctor Who in high-definition to begin happening

in late 2009 or early 2010, but only of the episodes shot in high-definition.

 

Everything up until that story has been predominantly shot on standard-definition videotape, and what you see on the

standard-definition  DVDs is almost the best it can ever look.  However, the better codecs that are now available on

BluRay would improve the pictures somewhat.  Also, from 1967 onwards, the BBC was using 625-line PAL, which

was a superior system to the North American 525-line NTSC system, and if they were to be re-released on BluRay,

North Americans with high-def TVs would see an improved picture just from that that the Brits wouldn’t. 

Also, a BluRay disc would be able to hold perhaps 3-4 whole classic stories. 

 

For these reasons, it is becoming more likely that the classic series and perhaps the first four seasons of the new series

could see re-release on BluRay sometime in the future, however, nothing along these lines is planned for 2009.

 

There is one single story of the classic series that was shot completely on film and could benefit from a high-definition

BluRay re-release someday, and that was Jon Pertwee’s debut story Spearhead from Space, so that one may be

a special case and could perhaps happen sooner than the others would.

 

6. Will the spinoff series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures be released on DVD?  Might they see

release in a high-definition format?

Both series are getting standard-definition DVD release to North America. 

 

Torchwood is shot in 1080i high-definition, and there has already been a BluRay high-definition release of the first season in

November 2008.  The second and third seasons will probably follow at a later date in 2009.

The Sarah Jane Adventures is only shot at standard-definition, and so it will not be seeing a BluRay release. 

 

7. Do any of the Doctor Who DVDs have edits?  Have they cut anything out, like the SciFi Channel does? 

 

The versions on the DVDs of the new series are the same as those shown on the BBC in the UK and have none of the

editing that the SciFi Channel, and to a lesser extent, BBC America does to it to accommodate their commercial loads.

The running times of Doctor Who episodes vary more than most US-made fare does, so if you’re watching on the SciFi

Channel, you could be seeing an episode with nothing cut out (because it was a short one to start with) or one with up to

five minutes cut out (when it runs long).

 

That said, there is still a caption missing in the episode Blink on The Complete Third Series Box Set.  At the start of the final scene

set in the DVD store, there was originally a caption which read “ONE YEAR LATER,” which is mysteriously absent from this DVD. 

(It’s missing from the UK’s DVD of this one too… how this happened is a mystery.)

Also, the commentary track that was recorded for the UK edition of Last of the Time Lords which featured David Tennant,

Freema Agyeman, and John Barrowman, is not on the North American edition and is instead replaced by the one from the

official Doctor Who website podcast with Russell T. Davies, Phil Collinson, and Julie Gardner.  This had to be done

because David, Freema, and John frequently sing bits of songs during their commentary as a running gag, which couldn’t

be copyright cleared in time for the North American production deadlines. 

They have cleared it since then, however, and have made it available for download from this address:

http://bbcamerica.com/content/123/commentary.jsp

 

For the classic series, there have been a few changes made to the original programs in a few instances.  Here’s what they were

and why:

 

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

This one is so small I would never have noticed it myself, but some others have.  Apparently if you’re looking very carefully at the

background in one of the on-location chase sequences in the third episode, in the original version you could see a contemporary

truck parked on the street, but it was very small... only a few pixels in fact.  During restoration, the engineers thought they’d see

how easy it would be to paint that out, never intending to leave it like that, but then a miscommunication happened and the copy

with the truck painted out got used on the DVD master by mistake. 

 

The Time Meddler

The print used for the third episode on this DVD is one returned to the BBC from an overseas broadcaster.  This broadcaster

had made a censorship cut to the death scene of the Viking named Ulf, feeling it to be too violent for the timeslot they were

running the series in.  That clip is still missing, although a soundtrack recording of this scene has been recovered and is

included in a featurette on the DVD. 

 

The War Machines

The prints used on this DVD were ones returned to the BBC from overseas broadcasters.  These broadcasters had made some

censorship cuts of so-called violent scenes to episodes 2, 3, and 4.  Many of these censored bits have been recovered by other

means and inserted back into the prints, but there are still a few absent or incomplete.  The Restoration Team have worked

wonders to bridge these small gaps (and there is a full featurette on what they did on the DVD), and you might not have ever

known they were there, but technically, these are still some cuts from the original version.

 

The Seeds of Death

A small mistake was made during the restoration process, where the VidFIRE video-look restoration tool was wrongly applied

to a scene that was shot on film.  The Restoration Team normally try to make the whole production look as it originally did, with

the studio video scenes processed but film inserts left alone to keep looking like film.  So, if you look carefully, near the end of

episode 5 (and in the recap at the start of episode 6), you’ll see a scene of the Doctor trying to get into the Weather Control Bureau

that has been VidFIREd when it shouldn’t have been.

 

Spearhead From Space

In episode 2, during the establishing shots of the plastics factory, some electric guitar music was used to accompany the shots. 

This music came from a track called “Oh Well (Part One)” by a band that was just up-and-coming in 1969/70, when Spearhead

was made.  They made it pretty big later on though… perhaps you’ve heard of Fleetwood Mac?  Well, these days their

management tends to ask for a lot of money for even a few bars of their songs to be used in anything that gets republished, such

as a DVD release, and the BBC couldn’t justify the enormous expense to leave the track on here.  So, as they did on the original

VHS release, they’ve taken some of the background sound effects from the plastics factory and used those to replace the

Fleetwood Mac track.  The scene and the shots are all still there, just not the music.  For similar reasons, they also had to change

the music on one of the broadcast trailers that appears on the DVD as an extra.

 

The Stones of Blood

The DVD of this is the original broadcast version.  There’s been nothing cut out.  However, the original VHS release included

a deleted scene, and that scene is not present anywhere on the DVD.  The scene in question was early in Part Two, lasted 30

seconds, and showed the characters of De Vries and Martha panicking over their failure at the sacrifice and arguing over running

away to Plymouth.  The broadcast version doesn’t pick this scene up until De Vries notices the raven is missing. 

 

The Five Doctors Special Edition

This was one of the first DVDs to be released in North America in 2001, but has since been withdrawn from the market and

replaced with The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Edition.  This original DVD release was not the original version of

The Five Doctors, but rather a souped-up version that was originally made for a special VHS release in 1995.  The contents

of this original DVD are completely available along with the original version of the story and much bonus material besides in the

new 25th Anniversary Edition. 

 

The Caves of Androzani

In the original version of this story, the first few scenes on the surface of the alien planet weren’t as convincing as they could’ve

been because of a shaking film image of the live action being married into a completely stationary matte painting glass shot of the

planet’s surface.  That original version is still to be found on this DVD, but to see it you need to select that you want to see that

version from the DVD’s bonus menu.  The DVD instead defaults to a new version of the scene where the shaking film image has

been stabilized.  Also, the smoke effects laid in over the action are slightly different from the original. 

This was the first time the Restoration Team made an alternate effects shot like this available in the DVD, and after this they changed

policy so that the original version of the scene is always the default version and the new one must be selected from the menu.

 

The Trial of a Time Lord

A mistake was made in the sound restoration of the opening episode.  On the opening shot of the Time Lords’ space station,

as the camera panned over to the doorway that shoots out the tractor beam that grabs the TARDIS, originally a humming

sound effect was heard to imply that doorway opening.  That humming sound is now absent on the DVD. 

 

Remembrance of the Daleks

In the scenes set in Harry’s Café, some original Beatles music was to be heard on occasion being played on the café’s jukebox. 

One of the current co-owners of the rights to the original Beatles recordings would not permit them to be used at any price, and

so it had to be replaced with other music tracks in the scenes in question.  The original 1993 VHS release was not affected by

this, as the co-ownership agreement of the Beatles catalog which is the problem took force in 1995.

 

8. Are the Doctor Who DVDs remastered for DVD, or did they just stick the old VHS masters on discs?

 

All of the Doctor Who DVDs that were first released in the UK have received extensive video and audio restoration treatment

by the BBC Restoration Team.  Full details of their work can be found at http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/   

 

The six DVDs comprising The Key to Time – The Complete Adventure box set received a much lighter restoration treatment,

but the source material here didn’t need much work to start with.   The only obvious “flaw” is you can hear a bit of tape hiss in the \

sound if you’re listening for it. 

 

9. I saw some "Dr. Who" DVDs on the shelf that star Peter Cushing and Daleks... what are these?

The Daleks became so popular in the mid-1960s that a British film producer named Milton Subotsky acquired the license to make

three films based on Terry Nation's Dalek stories for the TV series.  Two of these were produced and released to theaters and

are currently available on DVD in North America from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

The first film was released in 1965 and is in DVD release in North America as  "Dr. Who and the Daleks", catalog number

DV11577.  It is color (technicolor even), 80 minutes, closed captioned, 2:35:1 aspect ratio, and usually retails for $19.98 or less.

The second film was released in 1966 and is in video release in North America as "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.", catalog

number DV11578. It is also color, 80 minutes, 2:35:1 aspect ratio, closed captioned, and $19.98 or less.

The films are also available in a box set, where they come with a third DVD called “Dalekmania”, a 1-hour documentary about

the two films made in 1995.  The catalog number for the whole box set is DV11958.

 

These films star Peter Cushing as "Dr. Who". "Who" is his actual last name, and here the character is an ordinary human

scientist who has invented a TARDIS in his backyard.  The first film's plot is a condensed version of the first Dalek television story, 

The Daleks, and the second film's plot is a condensed version of the second Dalek television story,  The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Both of those original television stories are available on DVD from BBC Worldwide Americas and Warner Home Video.

 

10. My favorite story hasn't been released yet! Would writing to Warner help to get it released soon? 

BBC Worldwide Americas currently decide what to release based on what's recently been released in the UK.  From that list

of UK titles, they then select the ones that sold the best on VHS in North America and move those to the top of the list, when

they have a list to choose from.  When the North American releases are close behind the UK ones, they don’t have much

choice and just release them as they come from the UK. 

 

When there is a queue, the rules of thumb to what we’d likely get first is if it had Tom Baker as the Doctor, if it had Daleks in it,

or if it’s a box set of multiple stories. 

 

Warner makes none of the release decisions themselves.  They only distribute.  Your better option is to write BBC Video in the

UK directly about what they’re releasing, or to write BBC Worldwide Americas.

 

11. What are Warner's and BBC Video's mailing addresses?

Warner's is:
Warner Home Video
4000 Warner Boulevard
Burbank, CA  91522


If you want to address the horse's mouth at BBC Video in the UK, write to:
BBC Video (Doctor Who)
BBC Woodlands
80, Wood Lane,
London
W12 0TT
ENGLAND

 

BBC Worldwide America’s address is:

BBC Worldwide Americas Inc.

747 Third Avenue

New York, NY  10017

 

12. Why hasn't the 1996 Fox TV Movie with Paul McGann come out on DVD yet? It's been out since 2001 in the UK!

This is a special case. Under the co-production deal between the Fox TV Network, Universal, and BBC Worldwide, the North

American video release rights now seem to rest with Universal, and they have shown no interest in either releasing it themselves

or in licensing it back to BBC Worldwide.  The only hope for this ever to be released in North America would seem to be if the

new TV series becomes a hit in the US and then Universal changes their mind on this title, trying to ride the coattails of such a

success.  So far, the new series’ success at the SciFi Channel does not seem to have been of a high enough magnitude to interest

them.

 

13. I'm sick of waiting for (insert title here) to come out in the US when it's already out in the UK (or some other

country).  I want to order it from an overseas vendor. Are there any special problems I should expect if I do this?

 

There are two obstacles you first need to overcome before you can play a UK-made DVD in North America. 

 

First, you must somehow defeat “region coding.”  Region coding is an instruction written into most DVDs that the players all look

for to see if it can play the disc.  This is not a legal restriction but rather a voluntary restriction that was settled on by the international

DVD standards consortium.  Britain is in Region 2, and North America is Region 1, and if you put a Region 2 DVD into a

Region 1 DVD player, the player will refuse to play it.  (This all has to do with what company has what right to publish what

show or movie in what territory.)   It is possible, especially if you look on-line, to buy DVD players that are either

region-free, or can be programmed to become region-free and thus enable you to play the disc. 

 

The second problem is the difference between the television technical standards in the two regions.  The UK’s traditional

“standard-definition” uses a PAL color standard with 625 lines and 50 fields per second.  North American’s traditional

“standard-definition” TVs used the NTSC color standard, with 525 lines and 60 fields per second.   The practical upshot of this

is that the two TV systems are incompatible.  Even if you defeat the region coding, the DVD player will be outputting a PAL TV

signal that your NTSC TV won’t be able to understand.  This problem is solvable too, however.  You could buy yourself a

PAL TV set to watch your PAL DVD on, but this can be very expensive, and might become harder to do as the UK too

switches from PAL to high-definition. 

 

Another option is to hack (er, program) the DVD player on your computer to be able to play Region 2 DVDs and watch

them on your computer.  Computers and their monitors already have a lot more resolution than either NTSC or PAL and

can easily cope with either image system.  The downside here is that computer monitors don’t use interlaced frames, whereas

standard television does.  This means that motion from a videotape source will look jerky when played on a monitor, and as

most Doctor Who was predominantly shot on videotape, you’ll lose the smooth motion effect of video.  (Interlaced frames

work like this: a TV updates only half its image every 1/60th of a second by lighting up only the even-numbered lines of pixels

in its screen in that 60th of a second.  In the next 60th, it goes back up the screen and lights up all the odd-numbered lines of pixels,

then in the next it does all the even-numbered ones again, etc.  The result of this is terrific “temporal” resolution, and a live, smooth

look much like real life.  Computer monitors display rather like film images, where the entire image is updated at once, and like

film projections, motion tends to look a lot more jerky.  It’s the difference between watching a football game live (video) or watching

it on an NFL Films highlight show (film). )  Some of those television DVD players that can be made multi-region can also be

programmed to convert the PAL signal into an NTSC one that your TV can cope with.  The downside of that is you’ll lose the

extra resolution a PAL image would bring, and you’ll get some conversion artifacts in the images (little bits in the picture that

shouldn’t be there).  Also, most of these in-built PAL-to-NTSC converters leave out a lot of the interlaced video fields in the

conversion process, and so the videotape look of most Doctor Who will be lost.  This loss-of-fields on computer monitors

and through converting DVD players especially affects the new VidFIRE video restoration tool being used on black and white

stories...you won’t see any effect at all in either instance.  However, a Region 1 NTSC disc played on a normal player and

TV set will look as it should.  

 

Also, there is another reason to hold back and continue to buy North American DVDs, even if they do come out later than the

UK ones… it seems that frequently a mistake or two gets made in the authoring process of the UK DVDs, which then subsequently

gets fixed in time for the North American release.  For example, the on-screen production notes subtitles on the UK

Vengeance on Varos DVD malfunction halfway through and become unavailable.  That should be fixed for the North American release.

There were also some special effects shots that went missing in the original UK Remembrance of the Daleks which

were reinstated for the Region 1 release.  The latest one was an authoring fault in The Invisible Enemy  which caused the

DVD to skip a chapter during playback.  They’ve since done a recall of that disc, but the North American edition never had

this problem at all as it was spotted in the UK one first. 

 

Also, the waiting time between UK and North American release has fallen over the years, until now North Americais now usually

only a few months behind the UK as opposed to a year or more.

 

14.  I live in the UK and want a North American DVD.  Will it work for me when I get it?

Actually, it might.  I hear that both DVD players and television sets in the UK are more versatile than are their commonly found

counterparts in North America, and most (but not all) can be set to cope both with the region coding problem and the technical

standards (NTSC vs PAL) problem. 

 

15. I am hearing impaired, or I want to get DVDs for someone who is. Are the videos closed captioned? Do they have subtitles?

 

All but the first 5 BBC classic series Doctor Who DVDs to be released in North America have DVD subtitles for the main

program available in the DVD options.  Those first 5 DVDs did have closed captions for the hearing impaired encoded into

them, however.  Those DVDs were Spearhead from Space, The Robots of Death, The Five Doctors Special Edition,

The Caves of Androzani, and Remembrance of the Daleks.  That original release of The Five Doctors Special Edition

has since been withdrawn and replaced with The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Edition which has subtitles instead.

 

These subtitles and closed captions do not, unfortunately, cover the extra commentary tracks by the actors and production staff. 

 

16. What DVDs are available, how much are they, and what extra features do they all contain?

 

There are now (or just about to be) 72 DVD releases of the Doctor Who TV series available, and also the two Peter Cushing Dalek movies,

and now also some of the spinoff series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and the animated adventure The Infinite Quest.

Suggested retail prices are given in US dollars. 

 

A quick summary of the TV titles is below, listed in the chronological order of the TV series.

 

Clicking on a title will give a description of the story, and of all the DVD features.

Catalog #

Story No.

Title

# of

Eps. (25 minutes long each)

 

# of Discs

b/w or color

sound

 

Price

 

 

starring WILLIAM HARTNELL

 

 

 

 

 

E2489

1-3

The Beginning Box Set

14

3

b/w

mono

37.92

E1719

6

The Aztecs

4

1

b/w

mono

9.98

E1813

10

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

6

2

b/w

mono

24.98

3000021803

11,12

The Rescue / The Romans

6

2

b/w

mono

34.98

E2666

13

The Web Planet

6

1

b/w

mono

19.98

1000029559

17

The Time Meddler

4

1

b/w

mono

24.98

1000043356

27

The War Machines

4

1

b/w

mono

24.98

E2081

14,21,

24

Lost in Time

6 + 2 audio

1

b/w

mono

19.98

 

 

starring PATRICK TROUGHTON

 

 

 

 

 

E2082

32,33,

35,36,

38,40,

41,43,

49

Lost in Time

12 + 2 audio

2

b/w

mono

29.98

E2083

14,21,

24,32,

33,35,

36,40,

41,43,

49

Lost in Time – all 3 discs in one box set

18 + 4 audio

3

b/w

mono

44.98

E1181

37

The Tomb of the Cybermen

4

1

b/w

mono

14.98

E2316

45

The Mind Robber

5

1

b/w

mono

19.98

E2856

46

The Invasion

8

2

b/w

mono

34.98

E1924

48

The Seeds of Death

6

2

b/w

mono

29.98

 

 

starring JON PERTWEE

 

 

 

 

 

E1163

51

Spearhead From Space

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

1000037805

52

Doctor Who and the Silurians

7

2

Color

mono

34.98

E2667

54

Inferno

7

2

Color

mono

29.98

E2398

57

The Claws of Axos

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

1000037740

62

The Sea Devils

6

1

Color

mono

24.98

E1925

65

The Three Doctors

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

E1758

66

Carnival of Monsters

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

E2156

69

The Green Death

6

1

Color

mono

19.98

1000035800

70

The Time Warrior

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

 

 

starring TOM BAKER

 

 

 

 

 

E4112

75

Robot

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E1162

76

The Ark in Space

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

E2859

77

The Sontaran Experiment

2

1

Color

mono

14.98

E2503

78

Genesis of the Daleks

6

2

Color

mono

29.98

1000036283

81

Planet of Evil

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E2023

82

Pyramids of Mars

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

1000039823

84

The Brain of Morbius

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E2731

87

The Hand of Fear

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

E1120

90

The Robots of Death

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

E1814

91

The Talons of Weng-Chiang

6

2

Color

mono

24.98

E2317

92

Horror of Fang Rock

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

1000040097

93

The Invisible Enemy 

(with K9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend)

4 + 50 min special

2

Color

mono

34.98

1000039686

97

The Invasion of Time

6

2

Color

mono

34.98

1000036458

98

The Ribos Operation Special Edition

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

1000036459

99

The Pirate Planet Special Edition

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

1000036550

100

The Stones of Blood Special Edition

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

1000036223

101

The Androids of Tara Special Edition

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

1000036457

102

The Power of Kroll Special Edition

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

1000036480

103

The Armageddon Factor Special Edition

6

1

Color

mono

34.98

1000088287

98-103

The Key to Time Special Edition

26

 

7

Color

mono

99.98

E1336

98

The Ribos Operation

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

E1338

99

The Pirate Planet

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

E1314

100

The Stones of Blood

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

E1310

101

The Androids of Tara

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

E1337

102

The Power of Kroll

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

E1340

103

The Armageddon Factor

6

1

Color

mono

19.98

E1692

98-103

The Key to Time – The Complete 

Adventure (Box Set of Nos. 98-103)

26

 

6

Color

mono

99.98

1000036282

104

Destiny of the Daleks

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E2399

105

City of Death

4

2

Color

mono

29.98

E2217

110

The Leisure Hive

4

1

Color

mono & Dolby 5.1

19.98

1000094920

112-114

The E-Space Trilogy (Box Set containing Full Circle, State of Decay, and Warriors’ Gate)

12

3

Color

mono

49.98

E4010

115

The Keeper of Traken

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E4011

116

Logopolis

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E4013

115-117

New Beginnings Box Set

(Box Set of Nos. 115-117. Tom Baker’s in

115-116, Peter Davison in 117)

12

3

Color

mono

49.98

 

 

starring PETER DAVISON

 

 

 

 

 

E4012

117

Castrovalva

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

1000043537

118

Four to Doomsday

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E2157

120

The Visitation

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

1000038779

121

Black Orchid

2

1

Color

mono

14.98

E2022

122

Earthshock

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

E4191

123

Time-Flight

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

 

E4190

124

Arc of Infinity

4

1

Color

mono

19.98

1000038866

130

The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Edition

90 minutes & 100 minutes

2

Color

Dolby 5.1

34.98

E1596

130

The Five Doctors Special Edition THIS WAS THE 2001 DVD RELEASE, ONLY SELLING WHILE STOCKS LAST - BEING REPLACED WITH 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

100 minutes

1

Color

Dolby 5.1

14.98

1000037649

131

Warriors of the Deep

4

1

Color

mono

24.98

E1759

134

Resurrection of the Daleks

4

1

Color

Dolby 5.1

14.98

E1183

136

The Caves of Androzani

4

1

Color

mono

14.98

 

 

starring COLIN BAKER

 

 

 

 

 

3000021802

138

Attack of the Cybermen

2 45-min. eps.

1

Color

mono

24.98

E1718

139

Vengeance on Varos

2 45-min. eps.

1

Color

mono

14.98

E2732

140

The Mark of the Rani

2 45-min. eps.

1

Color

mono

19.98

E1994

141

The Two Doctors

3 45-min. eps.

2

Color

mono

29.98

1000035899

142

Timelash

2 45-min. eps.

1

Color

mono

24.98

E2504

143

Revelation of the Daleks

2 45-min.

eps.

1

Color

Dolby 5.1

19.98

1000039713

144-147

The Trial of a Time Lord

14 25-min. eps.

4

Color

mono

59.98

 

 

starring SYLVESTER McCOY

 

 

 

 

 

E1608

152

Remembrance of the Daleks

4

1

Color

stereo

14.98

1000093206

156

Battlefield

4 & 1:35 movie

2

Color

stereo & Dolby 5.1

34.98

E2218

157

Ghost Light

3

1

Color

stereo & Dolby 5.1

19.98

E1993

158

The Curse of Fenric

4 & 1:44 movie

2

Color

stereo & Dolby 5.1

29.98

E2915

159

Survival

3

2

Color

Stereo & Dolby 5.1

34.98

 

 

starring PAUL McGANN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

None to date

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

starring CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON

Episodes from here on are 45 minutes or longer

 

 

 

 

E2501

161-170

The Complete First Series Box Set

13

5

Color

Dolby 5.1

99.98

E2733

161-163

Series One: Volume One

(Rose, The End of the World, The Unquiet Dead)  

(no extras)

3.

1

Color

Dolby 5.1

19.98

E2734

164-165

Series One: Volume Two

(Aliens of London/World War Three, Dalek) (no extras)

3

1

Color

Dolby 5.1

19.98

E2735

166-168

Series One: Volume Three (The Long Game, Father’s Day, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances) (no extras)

4

1

Color

Dolby 5.1

19.98

E2736

169-170

Series One: Volume Four (Boom Town, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways) (no extras)

3

1

Color

Dolby 5.1

19.98

 

 

starring DAVID TENNANT

 

 

 

 

 

E2786

171-181

The Complete Second Series Box Set

14

6

Color

Dolby

5.1

99.98

E4202

182-191

The Complete Third Series Box Set

14

6

Color

Dolby 5.1

99.98

3000018377

192-202

The Complete Fourth Series Box Set

14

6

Color

Dolby 5.1

99.98

 

 

THE THEATRICAL MOVIES

 

Doctor Who and the Daleks starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who    Suggested retail price of $14.98

- Widescreen presentation 2.35:1, enhanced for 16x9 TVs

- commentary by actors Jennie Linden (Barbara) and Roberta Tovey (Susan) moderated by journalist Jonathan Sothcott

- theatrical trailer

- poster and photo gallery

- photo essay : a History of Doctor Who

- Peter Cushing bio

- This is the complete theatrical release with no edits or changes.

 

Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who    Suggested retail price of $14.98

- Widescreen presentation 2.35:1, enhanced for 16x9 TVs

- theatrical trailer

- poster and photo gallery

- Peter Cushing bio

- optional French language soundtrack

- The entire theatrical release is here, but with one change.  The first scene with Tom Campbell trying to catch the jewel thieves and

   stumbling into the TARDIS was originally a pre-credits sequence, but in this print, it’s been pushed to behind the credits.  No

   footage is missing, it’s just rearranged.

 

The Dr. Who Collection   Suggested retail price of $39.98

-         This is a box set of both of the Peter Cushing movies, plus a third disc that contains a 60-minute documentary about the making

      of the films called Dalekmania. 

 

THE SPINOFF SERIES

 

Torchwood – The Complete First Season   Suggested retail price of $79.98. 

For complete details, click here.

 

Torchwood – The Complete Second Season   Suggested retail price of $79.98. 

For complete details, click here.

 

K9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend  

This is sold with the Doctor Who story The Invisible Enemy.  Suggested retail price of $34.98. 

 

The Sarah Jane Adventures – The Complete First Season   Suggested retail price of $49.98.

For complete details, click the name.

 

Doctor Who – The Infinite Quest  animated episode starring David Tennant and Freema Agyeman.

Suggested retail price of $9.98.  Catalog no. 3000018108.  Click the title for details.

 

17.  Why are the pictures on the back of the Inferno all in black-and-white?  I thought this story was in color.

It is in color, just like the caption on the box says.  The pictures on the back of all the Doctor Who DVDs come from photographic

stills that were taken during production.  The only existing photo stills for Inferno were all taken with black-and-white cameras,

apart from some rehearsal shots, but though those are in color, they can’t be used as the cast are not in full costume. 

(You see some of these in the photo gallery on Disc 2.)  Why were they all black-and-white photos when the show was made in color?

This is probably because this was the first year of full color for BBC1 and for Doctor Who and there was still a transition of equipment

taking place.   Why didn’t they use screen grabs from the color episodes?  The production deadlines that BBC Worldwide Americas

must meet for Warner’s manufacturing schedule regarding the packaging came earlier than when the finished DVD assets were made

available to them from the UK, so they used the real photos that they did have on hand, which were all black-and-white.   A very

similar thing happened on the VHS release of this story, only in that instance, the caption on the back of the box actually read

black and white” as well, when it should have said color. 

 

18.  Are there any episodes that will never be released?

There are still 108 episodes missing from the BBC Archives. The missing episodes are scattered across the first six seasons,

with William Hartnell's last and Patrick Troughton's first two being the hardest hit. 

 

The soundtracks to all of the missing episodes still exist, however, and these have been released on official BBC
CDs with narration from cast members to explain visual action not apparent from the dialog.    

All of the missing episodes have now been released in the CD format.  If you’re interested in picking these up, I can suggest you

shop online at either www.whona.com or at www.alienentertainment.com    They usually have these titles in stock.  

All of these releases are now also available for download from iTunes.

 

The surviving episodes from stories with half or less of their episodes still remaining have been released on DVD in North America

on Nov. 2, 2004, in the Lost in Time DVD set, described above.

 

There has been a new development in the missing episodes saga.  The Patrick Troughton story The Invasion, which is missing 2

of its 8 episodes has been DVD-released with the two missing episodes replaced with Flash animation by Cosgrove Hall, done in

black and white, matching the original camera shots that were scripted, and mated to the still-existing original soundtracks.  

It is conceivable that the rest of the missing episodes could eventually see release in a similar fashion, however this has been

suspended for now for lack of funding. 

 

Here's a complete list of what we'll likely never see in its original form though:

 

starring WILLIAM HARTNELL
4. Marco Polo (7 episodes, all missing)
8. The Reign of Terror (6 episodes, missing episodes 4 and 5 - could be released with narration i.e. The Crusade VHS)
14. The Crusade (4 episodes, missing episodes 2 and 4; 1 and 3 are on the Lost in Time DVD set)
18. Galaxy 4 (4 episodes, all missing)
19. Mission to the Unknown (1 episode, missing)
20. The Myth Makers (4 episodes, all missing)
21. The Daleks' Master Plan (12 episodes, all missing bar 2, 5 & 10.  Those are on the Lost in Time DVD set)
22. The Massacre (of St. Bartholomew's Eve) (4 episodes, all missing)
24.
The Celestial Toymaker
(4 episodes, all missing bar 4.  4 in release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)
26. The Savages (4 episodes, all missing)
28. The Smugglers (4 episodes, all missing)
29. The Tenth Planet (4 episodes, number 4 is missing. In VHS release in North America as of May 8, 2001.)

 

starring PATRICK TROUGHTON
30. The Power of the Daleks (6 episodes, all missing)
31. The Highlanders (4 episodes, all missing)
32. The Underwater Menace (4 episodes, all missing bar 3. 3 in release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)
33. The Moonbase (4 episodes, numbers 1 and 3 are missing.  2 & 4 are in DVD release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)
34. The Macra Terror (4 episodes, all missing)
35. The Faceless Ones (6 episodes, all missing bar 1 and 3.  Those are on the DVD Lost in Time set.)
36. The Evil of the Daleks (7 episodes, all missing bar 2.  2 in release on the DVD Lost in Time set.)
38. The Abominable Snowmen (6 episodes, all missing bar 2.  2 in release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)
39. The Ice Warriors (6 episodes, numbers 2 and 3 are missing.  Others in VHS release w/soundtracks to 2 & 3 - see catalog)
40. The Enemy of the World (6 episodes, all missing bar 3.  3 in release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)
41. The Web of Fear (6 episodes, all missing bar 1.  1 in release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)
42. Fury From the Deep (6 episodes, all missing)
43. The Wheel in Space (6 episodes, all missing bar 3 and 6. 3 & 6 in release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)
46. The Invasion (8 episodes, numbers 1 and 4 are missing.  Others in VHS release - see catalog)
49. The Space Pirates (6 episodes, all missing bar 2.  2 in release on the Lost in Time DVD set.)

 

Additionally, there are 13 episodes starring JON PERTWEE that were originally shot in color that only exist presently
in black and white.  These are:
53. The Ambassadors of Death (7 episodes, 1 and 5 completely color, 4 b&w, others a mix of restored color and b&w )
56. The Mind of Evil (6 episodes, all b&w - in release in b&w)
68.
Planet of the Daleks (6 episodes, number 3 is b&w - in release with episode 3 in b&w)
71. Invasion of the Dinosaurs (6 episodes, number 1 is b&w)

 

There is always the possibility that some or all of these could be restored to color with future technology, but at
present the process for a complete restoration from scratch as would be required with these 13 is not cost-effective
for BBC Video.

 

Also, I suspect that due to the "flop" status of the 1996 TV Movie in Universal's eyes, together with the complicated
rights issues that exist between Universal, Fox, and BBC Worldwide make a  DVD release of this in North America
unlikely.

 

The UK has also seen the release of a Doctor Who-themed Scene It DVD video clips game based on the new series. 

This is probably also not going to see the light of day in North America.

 

19.  How long is it going to take before we can get the whole series on DVD?

If the BBC maintains its current pace of release, everything that still exists of the classic series should be available in the UK

by the end of 2013 (just in time for the series’ 50th anniversary), with North America following on shortly after that. 

If missing episodes turn up or get the animation treatment, that could extend the time.  And of course we all hope that

the new series is still making episodes indefinitely, so we’d rather not ever have a “complete” set.  J

 

20.  How do you know all this?  (about this site)

I own a complete collection of the entire video catalog, and have been watching the series avidly and repeatedly since 1982.

I may in fact have seen every still-existing episode of the TV series more times than anyone else on the North American

continent, and I've got lots of trivia contest victories under my belt to back it up.  For crying out loud, I even went

and bought a Doctor Who pinball machine!  J

This video FAQ started life as a simple listing of all the videos that were in release at the time I first found the Usenet

newsgroup rec.arts.drwho, sometime circa 1991/92.  For years it was posted regularly to that newsgroup in plain

text format, and when the world wide web started a friend named Bill Thompson put up a web version of that text FAQ

on his website.  After a little while I put up a web page of my own, this one, and the FAQ has continued to evolve and be
updated here ever since.
 

Doctor Who is the copyright of the BBC, BBC Worldwide, BBC Video, and is released on home video in North America by Warner Home Video under license. 

It was previously released on home video by CBS/Fox. No infringement upon this copyright is intended in any way by this site. 

This site is a purely volunteer effort to inform consumers as to where they can find Doctor Who videos, and it details what is on each video.  

All images used by this site are also the copyright of the BBC and/or CBS/Fox Video and/or Warner Home Video and are taken from Steve Hill's Doctor Who

Image Archive at http://www.shillpages.com/dw/dwia.htm, so sue him first. J

 

I hope this all helps!
Steve Manfred

email address:  smanfred   at  comcast.net   (remove the spaces and substitute an @ to email me)