Doctor Who Video FAQ

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,

or here to return to the TITLE PAGE.

Last updated May 11, 2013. 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

May 14, 2013

Doctor Who: The Visitation Special Edition starring Peter Davison

(4 25-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $34.95)

May 28, 2013

Doctor Who: The Snowmen starring Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman

(1 60-minute episode, 1 DVD disc for $14.98 or

1 high-definition Blu-Ray disc for $19.98)

Doctor Who: Series 7, Part 2 starring Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman

(8 45-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs for $24.98 or

2 high-definition Blu-Ray discs for $29.98)

June 11, 2013

Doctor Who: Inferno Special Edition starring Jon Pertwee

(7 25-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $34.95)

Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil starring Jon Pertwee

(6 25-minute episodes, restored to full color, 2 DVD discs, $34.95)

Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited: 1-4

(4 DVD discs, $39.98) Further details still forthcoming.

LATEST RELEASES

April 2013 had no new release.

March 12, 2013

Doctor Who: The Aztecs Special Edition starring William Hartnell

Includes Episode 3 of Galaxy 4.

(5 25-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $33.95. Also includes

a stills reconstruction of the rest of Galaxy 4.)

Doctor Who: The Ark in Space Special Edition starring Tom Baker

(4 25-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $33.95.)

February 12, 2013

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror starring William Hartnell

(6 25-minute episodes, 1 DVD disc, $23.95. Episodes 4 and 5

are newly-made animations made to the original recorded-off-the-

air soundtracks of the two missing episodes.)

January 8, 2013

Doctor Who: Shada with More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS

Shada starring Tom Baker, the latter starring just about everyone

in the show’s history who was alive in 1993.

(6 unfinished 25-minute episodes and a 90-minute documentary,

3 DVD discs, $37.98)

November 20, 2012

Doctor Who: The Limited Edition Gift Set starring Christopher Eccleston,

David Tennant, and Matt Smith

(87 mostly 45-minute episodes, 41 DVD discs, $249.99)

November 13, 2012

Doctor Who: Series 7 Part 1 starring Matt Smith

(5 45-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs for $23.95 or 2 Blu-Ray discs

for $28.95)

Doctor Who: The Claws of Axos Special Edition starring Jon Pertwee

(4 25-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $33.98)

October 9, 2012

Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death starring Jon Pertwee

(7 25-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $33.98)

RECENT RELEASES

September 11, 2012

Doctor Who: Planet of Giants starring William Hartnell

(3 25-minute episodes, 1 DVD disc, $23.98) and

Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos Special Edition starring Colin Baker

(2 45-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $33.98)

August 14, 2012

Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space Special Edition starring Jon Pertwee

(4 25-minute episodes, 1 DVD disc, $23.98) and

Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy starring Sylvester McCoy

(4 25-minute episodes, 1 DVD disc, $23.98)

July 10, 2012

Doctor Who: The Krotons starring Patrick Troughton

(4 25-minute episodes, 1 DVD disc, $23.98) and

Doctor Who: Death to the Daleks starring Jon Pertwee

(4 25-minute episodes, 1 DVD disc, $23.98)

June 12, 2012

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Fifth Season

(6 30-minute episodes comprising 3 stories, 1 DVD disc, $18.98)

Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death Special Edition starring Patrick Troughton

(6 25-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $33.98)

Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks Special Edition starring Peter Davison

(2 50-minute episodes, 2 DVD discs, $33.98)

***THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS LIST***

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

Yes! Nearly all of the existing Doctor Who stories are available now on DVD, and by the end of

2013, the entire extant series should be available. Their content comes from BBC Worldwide

Americas in partnership with their counterparts at BBC Worldwide in the UK.

The manufacturing and distribution is accomplished by Warner Home Video.

The DVDs are available from both brick-and-mortar video sales stores like Best Buy and from

online sellers such as amazon.com or BBC Worldwide America’s sales site,

http://www.bbcamericashop.com/ or independent sellers such as Who North America, whona.com,

or Alien Entertainment, alienentertainment.com .

BEWARE. There is a Doctor Who DVD counterfeiting operation underway sourcing from

southeast Asia that has taken in several consumers trying to buy the DVDs on eBay. These discs

are not the real thing and are a very inferior product with terrible picture quality, missing booklets,

packaging goofs, and more. I recommend not buying from eBay or other internet resellers due to

this. This youtube video demonstrates one unfortunate purchaser’s experience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGcbIwaefJ0&feature=related

2. 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 from the classic series

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 (or in the case of the new series, none at all, because they’re brand new). We’ve never

seen Doctor Who look this good – it’s much better than the old PBS broadcasts, or indeed,

the current reruns of classic stories being done by BBC America under the banner of

“The Doctors Revisited.” Their broadcast masters are the unrestored versions.

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

available on the VHS tapes.

When it comes to the classic series, 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 ended

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 (and some other

lengths were mixed in here and there too.) 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 the original 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 two versions

always has to be left out.

The standard episode length of the classic series’ 22^nd 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.

3. 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. 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.

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).

4. What’s with these “Special Edition” titles?

“Special Editions” are re-releases of stories that were originally released in the early years of the

DVD range.

4a. Why re-release those early titles?

The cynical answer is “to make more money,” and while that’s a part of the reasoning certainly, it’s

not the whole story, or else they’d be re-releasing the entire range.

Re-releases have been concentrated on stories where it was felt the original DVD release could be

considerably improved-upon if done again using their current techniques and policies. Either the

restoration work could be done better using tools that are now available that weren’t 10 or more

years ago, or the number of special features on the original release was lacking compared to today’s

releases, or some combination of both. In a few cases, there were some outright mistakes made in

the original release that the Special Edition gets a chance to correct.

Most of these titles come out in the UK under the moniker of “Revisitations.” BBC Worldwide

Americas chose to call them “Special Editions” instead. Their content is otherwise identical.

5. Is Doctor Who being released in a high-definition format, i.e. on BluRay?

Beginning with the 2009 Easter special, Planet of the Dead, the new series of Doctor Who

switched up to high-definition, and from there on, high-definition Blu-Ray releases have been

sold alongside standard-definition DVDs.

Prior to that the new series had been shot at the British standard-definition of the time, which

was 576i and 16:9 widescreen. The North American DVDs were released in North America’s

standard definition of 480i, but they did preserve the wider aspect ratio. (North American TVs

didn’t go 16:9 widescreen until high-definition came in, but British TVs went widescreen

earlier.)

The classic series, with one exception, was shot principally on videotape, using the UK’s

standard definitions of the time. The picture definition on those is therefore locked-in to

those levels and can’t be made better. (376i and 4:3 ratio from 1963 to 1967, 576i and 4:3 ratio

from 1967 onwards.)

Yes, their standard-definition was 20% better than North America’s, and yes, they could

theoretically upscale these shows from 576i to 1080i for Blu-Ray and therefore North

Americans would get the 20% benefit, but these releases are always led by the needs of the

UK market, and they would see no benefit. There are, in fact, consumer protection rules

that require their Blu-Rays to have a majority percentage of true high-definition content,

which classic Doctor Who re-releases could not be. It’s therefore now thought to be very

unlikely to happen.

*There is one single story of the classic series that was shot completely on film, meaning

that high-definition pictures were preserved in those original film negatives.

That one was Jon Pertwee’s debut story, Spearhead from Space. And in fact a BluRay

Special Edition of it is being prepared and should see release in the summer of 2013.

6. Were the spinoff series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures released on

DVD and/or Blu-Ray?

Both series, which are now finished, got standard-definition DVD releases in North America.

Torchwood was entirely shot in 1080i high-definition and had Blu-Ray releases in addition

to DVD releases for all four of its seasons.

The Sarah Jane Adventures did not see Blu-Ray releases owing to their selling in small

volumes at children's TV prices. (Its first two seasons were only shot at standard-definition

in any case, and thus wouldn’t benefit.) Reportedly, region-free Blu-Ray releases of the

fourth and fifth series of SJA happened in the UK.

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

SciFi Channel did and like BBC America sometimes 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 did/does to it to accommodate their network’s commercial loads. The running times

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

BBC America, 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.

Another small, curious change is on Dalek in the Complete First Series Box Set.

When the Dalek exits to confront Henry Van Statten over his torturing him, a different

vocal take of the Dalek voice has been used versus what was heard on the original BBC

broadcast. Last-minute dialogue retakes before broadcast apparently didn't filter back to

the versions that were being prepped for the DVD.

Similarly, a last-minute change to the closing credits of The Doctor's Wife to include

Susannah Leah, the Junkyard Console Designer, also didn't filter back to the versions

on the DVD/Blu-Ray.

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 Chase

In the 1960s, the Beatles were making regular appearances on the BBC’s Top of the Pops,

often in the same studio where Doctor Who was being produced at the time. These appearances

were often what were called “mime performances,” where the band basically lip-synced and

pretended to play their instruments to one of their original recordings. In the first episode of

The Chase, the Doctor has obtained a time-space visualiser, a device that allows you to tune

in and watch any event in history like it was on TV. Each of his three companions gets a turn

at it, and the third, Vicki, chooses to watch a Beatles concert. The footage they used was a

30-second clip of one of these Top of the Pops mime performances of Ticket to Ride recorded

there the previous week. The fact that the footage uses an original Beatles recording causes a

rights problem. All Beatles original recordings are managed by the Beatles’ own company,

Apple Corps, and for many years now, they have not permitted any of those original recordings

to be republished by anyone for any reason as they feel they were being used for not-very-good

purposes in earlier years. This includes DVD releases, and for this reason, the footage containing

Ticket to Ride has been removed from the DVD of The Chase, as well as the parts of the scene

that led into it and led out of it. Exactly 2 minutes of footage has been removed.

This scene is included in its entirety in the Region 2 UK edition of this release. Differences in

interpretation of the different countries’ copyright laws have meant the BBC felt safe in not

cutting it in the UK, but less so for the North American market.

The Region 2 edition is, of course, importable and usable if you have a region free DVD player.

See Question and Answer 13 below for discussion on this topic.

(The 1993 VHS edition of The Chase did include the scene intact, as the Beatles had not yet

clamped down on the archive republishing at that time.)

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

cuts from the original version.

The Seeds of Death (original release, not the Special Edition)

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. This mistake was corrected on the Special Edition re-release.

Spearhead From Space (original release, not the Special Edition)

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?

When this DVD was first released, the cost to copyright-clear that track was very high, so

it was removed and replaced with some of the background sound effects.

When the Special Edition came out, the BBC were able to get affordable terms, and the track

was replaced. It should also appear on the Blu-Ray edition in 2013.

The Caves of Androzani (Original Edition from 2001, not the Special Edition)

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 Caves of Androzani Special Edition (2012)

The shaking film image/seamless branching issue from the earlier release has been solved by new

restoration techniques that have allowed the original scene to be presented without all that

alternate version malarkey. However, elsewhere on the release, a new error crept in where the

transition from one scene to another that was originally done with a dissolve was changed to a

jump cut instead.

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 – Special Edition (and also the original edition)

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.

In the new Special Edition, the music has been replaced again, but with different 60s tracks to that

used in the 2002 DVD edition.

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/

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 Starz/Anchor Bay Entertainment. The first film was released in

1965 and is in DVD release in North America as "Dr. Who and the Daleks". 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 release in North America as

"Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D." 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.

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

character is an eccentric 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.

These films are being re-released on Blu-Ray for the UK market in May of 2013. No

announcement has yet been made of their release in North America, however.

10. My favorite story hasn't been released yet! Would writing to the BBC or Warner

help to get it released soon?

Well, there are only 2 stories complete in the archives that haven’t been released as of

January 2013, and both of those are on the 2013 schedules. So save your stamps or emails.

They’re almost all out!

You could help to get some of the stories that are incomplete in the archives released, though,

by buying The Reign of Terror starring William Hartnell. Here’s why:

Some years ago, some one-time spend-it-or-lose-it funding became available to the BBC’s

Doctor Who website presence. They chose to spend it on funding animations for the two

missing episodes of the Second Doctor/UNIT/Cyberman adventure The Invasion, utilizing

their surviving soundtracks. For organizational reasons, they were unable to utilize these

animations themselves on the website, but they sold them at a bargain to the DVD department.

While this was popular and the DVD sold well, it wasn’t well enough for the DVD branch

to be able to afford further animations to complete other incomplete stories, at the time.

They think they’ve found a more affordable way to do it now and are trying again, starting

with the First Doctor historical adventure The Reign of Terror, which needed 2 episodes

animated to finish it. BBC Worldwide have stated that if this production sells well enough,

then the other stories that need animation of only 1 or 2 episodes will also get completed

and released.

So, if the First Doctor or historical stories aren’t your usual cup of tea and you weren’t going

to get this, please think again, because it’s success could lead to up to five other stories

being animated-to-completion and released.

The five such stories that need just 1 or 2 episodes animated to get them back to completion

are:

The Crusade starring William Hartnell (historical)

The Tenth Planet starring William Hartnell (last story of the First Doctor & Cybermen’s debut)

The Underwater Menace starring Patrick Troughton (Doctor visits Atlantis)

The Moonbase starring Patrick Troughton (Cybermen attack a human base on the Moon) and

The Ice Warriors starring Patrick Troughton (debut of Ice Warriors, future Earth in new Ice Age)

So if you’d like to see some or all of those on DVD someday, support the effort by buying

The Reign of Terror, and the sooner the better.

These efforts have already borne some fruit, as both The Tenth Planet and The Ice Warriors

are now on the docket for animation-completed release later in 2013. The future fates of

those remaining two possible stories are unknown, however, so keep at it everyone!

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 did the 1996 Fox TV Movie with Paul McGann take so long to come out on DVD?

It had been out since 2001 in the UK.

Dan Hall, Commissioning Editor in the UK, announced on August 25, 2010 that

they had at last obtained the rights from Universal to release the McGann TV Movie in countries

outside the UK including North America. It came out in North America in 2011.

Under the co-production deal between the Fox TV Network, Universal, and BBC Worldwide,

the North American video release rested with Universal, and until Dan Hall’s negotiations,

they had shown no interest in either releasing it themselves or in licensing it back to BBC

Worldwide. The situation changed.

13. I want to order 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.” This 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 commercial 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” used 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.

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 some computer monitors don’t use interlaced frames, whereas standard

television does. This means that motion from a videotape source will look like film 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

1/60^th of a second by lighting up only the even-numbered lines of pixels in its screen in that 60^th

of a second. In the next 60^th, 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.

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

Actually, it might. 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

25^th 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 contain?

There are now (or just about to be) 130 DVD releases of the Doctor Who TV series available

(excluding the second format of stories available in more than one), 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 adventures The Infinite Quest and Dreamland.

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

Stories 1-50 are in black and white. All others are in color. Suggested retail prices are given in

US dollars. Episodes are 25 minutes each for stories 1-159 except where noted, and 45

minutes each for everything else, again except where noted.

Some of the releases are now being allowed to go out-of-print and are in limited supply.

Prices on these becoming-rare titles are starting to rise as a result from resellers. They could

see re-release in the long term, but this will not be happening in 2013.

Releases that have gone or are going out-of-print are highlighted in grey in the table below.

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

Story No.	Title	# of Eps.	# of Discs	sound	Price
	starring WILLIAM HARTNELL
1-3	The Beginning Box Set (Box set of An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, and The Edge of Destruction)	14	3	mono	35.98
5	The Keys of Marinus	6	1	mono	23.98
6, 18	The Aztecs Special Edition (includes Galaxy 4)	4 + 1	2	mono	33.95
7	The Sensorites	6	1	mono	23.98
8	The Reign of Terror	6	1	mono	24.98
9	Planet of Giants	3	1	mono	23.98
10	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	6	2	mono	23.98
11,12	The Rescue / The Romans	6	2	mono	32.98
13	The Web Planet	6	1	mono	18.98
15, 16	The Space Museum and The Chase	4 & 6	3	mono	47.98
17	The Time Meddler	4	1	mono	23.98
23	The Ark	4	1	mono	23.98
25	The Gunfighters	4	1	mono	23.98
27	The War Machines	4	1	mono	23.98
14,21, 24	Lost in Time	6 + 2 audio	1	mono	18.98
	starring PATRICK TROUGHTON
32,33, 35,36, 38,40, 41,43, 49	Lost in Time	12 + 2 audio	2	mono	28.98
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	mono	42.98
37	The Tomb of the Cybermen Special Edition	4	2	mono	32.98
44	The Dominators	5	1	mono	23.98
45	The Mind Robber	5	1	mono	18.98
46	The Invasion	8	2	mono	28.98
47	The Krotons	4	1	Mono	23.98
48	The Seeds of Death Special Edition	6	2	mono	32.98
50	The War Games	10	3	mono	47.98
	starring JON PERTWEE
51	Spearhead From Space Special Edition	4	1	mono	22.98
52	Doctor Who and the Silurians	7	2	mono	32.98
53	The Ambassadors of Death	7	2	mono	32.98
54	Inferno	7	2	mono	28.98
55	Terror of the Autons	4	1	mono	23.98
57	The Claws of Axos Special Edition	4	2	mono	32.98
58	Colony in Space	6	1	mono	28.98
59	The Dæmons	5	2	Mono	32.98
60	Day of the Daleks	4 + special edition	2	mono	32.98
61	The Curse of Peladon	4	1	mono	23.98
62	The Sea Devils	6	1	mono	23.98
63	The Mutants	6	2	mono	32.98
64	The Time Monster	6	1	mono	24.98
65	The Three Doctors Special Edition	4	2	mono	32.98
66	Carnival of Monsters Special Edition	4	2	mono	32.98
67,68	Dalek War Box Set Contains 2 stories: Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks	12	4	mono	56.98
69	The Green Death	6	1	mono	18.98
70	The Time Warrior	4	1	mono	23.98
71	Invasion of the Dinosaurs	6	2	mono	32.98
72	Death to the Daleks	4	1	Mono	23.98
73	The Monster of Peladon	6	2	mono	34.98
74	Planet of the Spiders	6	2	mono	32.98
	starring TOM BAKER
75	Robot	4	1	mono	18.98
76	The Ark in Space Special Edition	4	2	mono	33.95
77	The Sontaran Experiment	2	1	mono	8.98
78	Genesis of the Daleks	6	2	mono	28.98
79	Revenge of the Cybermen	4	1	mono	23.98
81	Planet of Evil	4	1	mono	23.98
82	Pyramids of Mars	4	1	mono	18.98
83	The Android Invasion	4	1	mono	23.98
84	The Brain of Morbius	4	1	mono	23.98
85	The Seeds of Doom	6	2	mono	32.98
86	The Masque of Mandragora	4	1	mono	24.98
87	The Hand of Fear	4	1	mono	18.98
88	The Deadly Assassin	4	1	mono	23.98
89	The Face of Evil	4	1	mono	23.98
90	The Robots of Death Special Edition	4	2	mono	23.98
91	The Talons of Weng-Chiang Special Edition	6	3	mono	32.98
92	Horror of Fang Rock	4	1	mono	18.98
93	The Invisible Enemy (with K9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend)	4 + 50 min special	2	mono	32.98
94	Image of the Fendahl	4	1	mono	23.98
95	The Sun Makers	4	1	mono	23.98
96	Underworld	4	1	mono	23.98
97	The Invasion of Time	6	2	mono	32.98
98	The Ribos Operation Special Edition	4	1	mono	24.98
99	The Pirate Planet Special Edition	4	1	mono	24.98
100	The Stones of Blood Special Edition	4	1	mono	23.98
101	The Androids of Tara Special Edition	4	1	mono	24.98
102	The Power of Kroll Special Edition	4	1	mono	24.98
103	The Armageddon Factor Special Edition	6	1	mono	32.98
98-103	The Key to Time Special Edition	26	7	mono	94.98
104	Destiny of the Daleks	4	1	mono	23.98
105	City of Death	4	2	mono	28.98
106	The Creature from the Pit	4	1	Mono	23.98
107	Nightmare of Eden	4	1	Mono	23.98
108	The Horns of Nimon	4	1	mono	23.98
109	Shada with More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS	6 unfinished episodes + 90 min. documentary	3	Stereo	37.98
110	The Leisure Hive	4	1	mono & Dolby 5.1	18.98
111	Meglos	4	1	Mono	23.98
112-114	The E-Space Trilogy (Box Set containing Full Circle, State of Decay, and Warriors’ Gate)	12	3	mono	47.98
115	The Keeper of Traken	4	1	mono	18.98
116	Logopolis	4	1	mono	18.98
115-117	New Beginnings Box Set (Box Set of Nos. 115-117. Tom Baker’s in 115-116, Peter Davison in 117)	12	3	mono	42.98
	starring PETER DAVISON
117	Castrovalva	4	1	mono	24.98
118	Four to Doomsday	4	1	mono	23.98
119	Kinda	4	1	mono	23.98
120	The Visitation Special Edition	4	2	mono	34.98
121	Black Orchid	2	1	mono	13.98
122	Earthshock	4	1	mono	18.98
123	Time-Flight	4	1	mono	18.98
124	Arc of Infinity	4	1	mono	18.98
125	Snakedance	4	1	mono	23.98
126-128	The Black Guardian Trilogy (Box Set of Nos.126 Mawdryn Undead, 127 Terminus, and 128 Enlightenment)	12	4	Mono & Dolby 5.1 Sp. Edit.	56.98
129	The King’s Demons	2	1	Mono	13.98
130	The Five Doctors 25^th Anniversary Edition	90 minutes & 100 minutes	2	Dolby 5.1	32.98
131	Warriors of the Deep	4	1	mono	23.98
132	The Awakening	2	1	mono	13.98
133	Frontios	4	1	Mono	23.98
134	Resurrection of the Daleks - Special Edition	2 x 47 min. & 4 x 25 min.	2	Dolby 5.1	32.98
135	Planet of Fire	4 + 66-min.SE	2	Mono & Dolby 5.1 sp.ed.	32.98
136	The Caves of Androzani - Special Edition	4	2	mono	32.98
	starring COLIN BAKER
137	The Twin Dilemma	4	1	Mono	23.98
138	Attack of the Cybermen	2 45-min. eps.	1	mono	23.98
139	Vengeance on Varos - Special Edition	2 45-min. eps.	2	Mono & Dolby 5.1	32.98
140	The Mark of the Rani	2 45-min. eps.	1	mono	19.98
141	The Two Doctors	3 45-min. eps.	2	mono	28.98
142	Timelash	2 45-min. eps.	1	mono	23.98
143	Revelation of the Daleks	2 45-min. eps.	1	Dolby 5.1	18.98
144-147	The Trial of a Time Lord	14 25-min. eps.	4	mono	56.98
	starring SYLVESTER McCOY
148	Time and the Rani	4	1	mono	23.98
149	Paradise Towers	4	1	mono	23.98
150	Delta and the Bannermen	3	1	Mono	23.98
151	Dragonfire	3	1	Mono	23.98
152	Remembrance of the Daleks – Special Edition	4	2	Stereo & Dolby 5.1	21.98
153	The Happiness Patrol	3	1	Stereo	23.98
154	Silver Nemesis	3	1	Stereo & Dolby 5.1	23.98
155	The Greatest Show in the Galaxy	4	1	Stereo & Dolby 5.1	23.98
156	Battlefield	4 & 1:35 movie	2	stereo & Dolby 5.1	32.98
157	Ghost Light	3	1	stereo & Dolby 5.1	19.98
158	The Curse of Fenric	4 & 1:44 movie	2	stereo & Dolby 5.1	29.98
159	Survival	3	2	Stereo & Dolby 5.1	28.98
	starring PAUL McGANN
160	The Movie: Special Edition	86-min movie	2	Stereo	32.98
	starring CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON	(45 min eps start here)
161-170	The Complete First Series Box Set	13	5	Dolby 5.1	94.98
161-163	Series One: Volume One (Rose, The End of the World, The Unquiet Dead) (no extras)	3.	1	Dolby 5.1	19.98
164-165	Series One: Volume Two (Aliens of London/World War Three, Dalek) (no extras)	3	1	Dolby 5.1	19.98
166-168	Series One: Volume Three (The Long Game, Father’s Day, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances) (no extras)	4	1	Dolby 5.1	19.98
169-170	Series One: Volume Four (Boom Town, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways) (no extras)	3	1	Dolby 5.1	19.98
	starring DAVID TENNANT
171-181	The Complete Second Series Box Set	14	6	Dolby 5.1	94.98
182-191	The Complete Third Series Box Set	14	6	Dolby 5.1	94.98
192-202	The Complete Fourth Series Box Set	14	6	Dolby 5.1	94.98
203	The Next Doctor	1	1	Stereo	13.98
204	Planet of the Dead	1	1	Stereo	13.98DVD 18.98BD
205	The Waters of Mars	1	1	Dolby 5.1	13.98DVD 18.98BD
206	The End of Time	2	2	Dolby 5.1	23.98DVD 23.98BD
203-206	The Complete Specials	5	5	Dolby 5.1	47.98DVD 56.98BD
171-206	The David Tennant Years Gift Set (all of the above Tennant sets in one set)	47	26	Dolby 5.1	199.98
	starring MATT SMITH
207-216	The Complete Fifth Series Box Set	13	6	DTS 5.1	75.98DVD 84.89BD
217	A Christmas Carol	1 62-min. special	1	DTS 5.1	13.98DVD 18.98BD
218-222.5	Series Six, Part One	7	2	DTS 5.1	23.98DVD 28.98BD
222.5-227	Series Six, Part Two	6	2	DTS 5.1	12.49DVD 29.98BD
218-227	The Complete Sixth Series Box Set	14	6	DTS 5.1	75.98DVD 84.98BD
228	The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe	1 60-min. special	1	DTS 5.1	13.98DVD 18.98BD
229-233	Series 7 Part 1	5	1	DTS 5.1	23.98DVD 28.98BD

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 DVD, $99.98 for Blu-Ray.

For complete details, click here.

Torchwood – The Complete Second Season

Suggested retail price of $75.98 for DVD or for Blu-Ray.

For complete details, click here.

Torchwood – Children of Earth

Suggested retail price of $29.98 for DVD, $34.98 for Blu-Ray.

For complete details, click here.

Torchwood - Miracle Day

Suggested retail price of $49.98 for DVD, $59.99 for Blu-Ray.

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 $37.98.