The Frequently Asked Questions Lists for
Doctor Who
Home Videos and DVDs and Blu-Ray
Discs in the
LATEST NEWS
Last updated
Compiled by Steve Manfred, smanfred at comcast.net (change at to @ and remove the spaces to email me)
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE MAIN DVD FAQ LIST. or CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE VHS HOME VIDEO FAQ LIST.
FINALE FOR THE TENTH DOCTOR ON DISC IN
FEBRUARY
BBC Worldwide
as the Doctor that are soon to air on the BBC in the
On
Doctor Who: The
Waters of Mars starring David Tennant
(1 60-min. episode, 1 disc, $14.98 DVD or $19.98 Blu-Ray)
Doctor Who: The
End of Time 2-part special starring David Tennant (1 60-min. episode and 1
75-min. episode, 2 discs,
$24.98 DVD or $29.99 Blu-Ray. The End of Time is the title for the 2nd
part; the title for the 1st part hasn’t
yet been revealed)
Doctor Who: Specials Collection
5-disc release of all five of the
standalone David Tennant specials. $49.98 DVD or
$59.99 Blu-Ray.
The five specials are The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, The
Waters of Mars, and the two-part
The
End of Time finale. (The first two of these are already available
by themselves.)
(Note: The Next Doctor was shot at PAL
standard-definition. It’s not yet
known how this will be handled
in
this Blu-Ray disc set. Watch this space for further updates,
hopefully soon.)
NOVEMBER’s NEW TITLES
Two new Doctor Who titles and
one of its Sarah Jane Adventures spinoff were released in
in November.
The Doctor Who titles are from
the classic series, and came out on Tuesday, November 3. They are:
Doctor Who: The War Games starring Patrick Troughton
(10 25-minute episodes, 3 discs, $49.98) and
Doctor
Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy starring Peter
Davison (12 25-minute episodes plus a special edition,
4 discs, $59.98)
And on Tuesday, November 10, they released:
The Sarah Jane
Adventures: The Complete Second Season starring
Elisabeth Sladen (3 discs, $39.98)
Doctor Who: The War Games is the landmark classic story that
ended the era of the Second Doctor, saw the departure of
companions Jamie and Zoe, and introduced by name and en masse the Doctor’s own people,
the Time Lords. (It was also
the last story made in the 1960s and in black-and-white.) In this 10-episode epic, the TARDIS crew arrive in a First
World War battlefield, or so they think at
first. They have in fact stumbled on a vast war game
engineered by aliens
with technology provided by a criminal from the Doctor’s own people,
and it will take his own people to finally sort it out.
But what will that mean for the Doctor’s own freedom?
Doctor
Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy is a box set
of three 4-episode stories from the middle of the series’ 20th
season (which was the middle year of the Fifth Doctor’s tenure). They tell a story arc of the Doctor’s
old enemy,
the Black Guardian, and his attempts to destroy the Doctor using his new
“companion” Turlough (played by Mark
Strickson) as his agent. All
three stories also star Janet Fielding as Tegan, and
the first two also star Sarah Sutton
as Nyssa. The second story is
Nyssa’s departure story.
In the first story, Mawdryn Undead, Turlough is guided by the Black Guardian to a transmat capsule that leads in turn
to an alien ship passengered by undead mutants
who crave the Doctor’s life force to end their own torment.
This story also features the return of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
In the second story, Terminus,
Turlough’s sabotage to the TARDIS causes it to
dock with a spacecraft full of lepers
en
route to a supposed cure at Terminus, a space station at the very center of
the universe with the power to destroy it.
In the third story, Enlightenment, the White Guardian brings
the Doctor to a contest between Eternal creatures:
a race through space on ships modeled after Earth sailing vessels, where
the prize is Enlightenment: “the wisdom which
knows all things.”
This set will contain a 4th disc with a new edit of Enlightenment, where the entire story
has been treated with a more modern
editing eye, including changing it to a 16:9 aspect ratio, tightening of
scenes, and new CGI. The idea is
basically to try
and take a classic series story and post-produce it in the style of the
new series.
The stories in this set will NOT be sold separately.
The Sarah Jane
Adventures: The Complete Second Season is, as
the title says, the whole of the second season of this
spinoff series from Doctor Who that aired on the BBC in the autumn of 2008. It has not yet been shown on any cable or
other network channel in the
It stars Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane
Smith, Tommy Knight as Luke, Daniel Anthony as
Rani, Alexander Armstrong as the voice of Mr. Smith, and guest appearances
by Yasmin Paige as Maria and
Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and John Leeson
as the voice of K9.
Further details of these releases can be found below.
UPCOMING RELEASE CALENDAR
Doctor Who: The
Twin Dilemma starring Colin Baker (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98)
$19.98
Blu-Ray)
Doctor Who: The End
of Time 2-part special starring David Tennant (1 60-min. episode and 1
75-min.
episode, 2 discs, $24.98
DVD or $29.99 Blu-Ray. The End
of Time is the title for the 2nd part;
the title for the 1st
part hasn’t yet been revealed)
Doctor Who: Specials Collection
5-disc release of all five of the standalone David Tennant specials. $49.98 DVD or $59.99 Blu-Ray.
The
five specials are The Next Doctor, Planet
of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, and the two-part
The End of Time finale.
(Note:
The Next Doctor was shot at PAL
standard-definition. It’s not yet
known how this will be handled
in this Blu-Ray disc set. Watch this space for further updates,
hopefully soon.)
Contains the consecutive 6-part stories Frontier in Space and Planet
of the Daleks.
Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks Special Edition starring Sylvester McCoy
(4
25-minute episodes, 2 discs, $24.98)
Doctor Who: The
Keys of Marinus is a 6-part story from 1964, in
the middle of the series’ very first season. The
original TARDIS crew find an enormous building on an island surrounded by acid,
and its sole proprietor tasks them
against their will to scour various locations on his planet for the missing microkeys to a justice machine that will save
his civilization from the machinations of Yartek,
criminal mastermind and leader of the alien Voord. It stars William
Hartnell as the Doctor, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Jacqueline Hill as
Barbara Wright, and Carole Ann Ford
as Susan Foreman.
Doctor Who: The
Twin Dilemma is the debut 4-part adventure for Colin Baker as the Sixth
Doctor, which came at
the close of the series’ 21st season in 1984. The Doctor’s regeneration leaves him
mentally unstable, and in a fit of
rage he attempts to kill Peri. Seeking atonement, he decides to become a
hermit and retreats to a barren wasteland
called Titan 3. There he unwittingly
crosses paths with a plot to kidnap two mathematical geniuses whose skill is
required for a scheme of vast consequence.
With this release, all of the stories starring Colin Baker as the Sixth
Doctor will have been released.
The February titles are the “special” Doctor Who episodes that will see out David Tennant as the Tenth
Doctor.
The last three of these have yet to air anywhere, but will be doing so
in the coming months.
Doctor Who: Dalek
War is a box set of two linked stories from 1973 in the middle of the
series’ tenth season.
In the first, Frontier in Space, the
Doctor and Jo are caught up in a cold war between the galactic empires of Earth
and Draconia, who are being driven to war by
attacks fomented by the Doctor’s archenemy, the Master, who himself
is in the employ of… the Daleks! And in the second story, Planet of the Daleks,
the Doctor and Jo pursue the
Daleks to their base of operations
where the greatest army of Daleks that has ever been
is being assembled.
Planet of the Daleks
used to suffer from having one episode, its third, exist in the BBC
archives only in black and
White even though it was originally made in color. A remarkable new restoration technique (which
is detailed in the
extra features) has enabled this episode to be restored to full color for
the first time since the 1970s, and is presented
here on this DVD.
Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks Special Edition is a 2-disc set of the opening
story of the series’ 25th season.
In this, the Doctor returns to the site of the very first episode of
the series to retrieve a powerful artifact that he left
behind, and finds that two rival factions of Daleks
are seeking it too…
This edition has been remastered from scratch
and will include a 5.1 sound mix and a copious amount of new extra
features that were not in the first edition of this story from 2002, as well as
all the extras that were in the original version.
This was originally released in the
released on its own there, and this is the North American edition of the single
release.
OTHER RECENT RELEASES
November 10 The Sarah Jane
Adventures: The Complete Second Season starring
Elisabeth Sladen (12 30-minute
episodes, 3 discs, $39.98)
November 3 Doctor Who: The War
Games starring Patrick Troughton (10
25-minute episodes, 3 discs, $49.98) and
Doctor
Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy starring Peter
Davison (12 25-minute episodes plus a special
edition, 4 discs, $59.98)
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)
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
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)
3
discs, $49.98) and
Doctor Who –
Battlefield starring Sylvester McCoy (4 25-min. episodes and a 95-min.
Special
Edition, 2 discs, $34.98)
March 3, 2009 Doctor Who: The
Key to Time Special Edition starring Tom Baker (26 25-min. eps, 7 discs, $99.98)
Contains
all six stories of the 1978-79 season, also available
separately:
Doctor Who:
The Ribos Operation Special Edition (4
25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98),
Doctor Who: The
Pirate Planet Special Edition (4 25-minute episodes.,
1 disc, $24.98),
Doctor Who:
The Stones of Blood Special Edition (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98),
Doctor Who:
The Androids of Tara Special Edition (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98),
Doctor Who: The
Power of Kroll Special Edition (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98),
and
Doctor
Who: The Armageddon Factor Special Edition (6 25-minute episodes, 2
discs, $34.98)
Doctor Who: Four
to Doomsday starring Peter Davison (4 25-minute episodes, 1 disc, $24.98).
NOVEMBER RELEASES IN DETAIL
Doctor Who: The War Games starring Patrick Troughton
as Dr. Who, Frazer Hines as Jamie, and Wendy Padbury
as Zoe.
3-disc set. The episodes are
split across the first two discs, the first five on Disc 1 and the remaining
five on Disc 2.
On Discs 1 and 2, you
will find:
- The episodes of the
story with full restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors
Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Philip Madoc (the War Lord),
Jane
Sherwin (Lady Jennifer), and Graham Weston (Russell), co-writer Terrance Dicks,
and producer Derrick Sherwin. Commentary is on all 10 episodes, but the
participants rotate in
and out as it goes.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
- 1 Easter Egg on Disc 1.
Highlight the area of blank text below to see how to find it and what it
is.
From the main
menu, go the Subtitles selection and press the down arrow. The Doctor
Who
logo on the top of the screen will be highlighted. Click this and you will hear 20 minutes of
“wild
track” sound that was recorded during the original
1969 location filming.
On Disc 3, the extras:
-
“War
Zone” A 36-minute
behind-the-scenes documentary on the recording of the story, featuring
interviews with director David Maloney, producer
Derrick Sherwin, co-writer Terrance Dicks,
designer Roger Cheveley,
actors Wendy Padbury (Zoe),
Frazer Hines (Jamie), Bernard Horsfall
(1st
Time Lord), and Jane Sherwin (Lady Jennifer), and further discussion with
recent Doctor Who
canon writers Paul Cornell, James Moran, and
Joseph Lidster, and Doctor Who Magazine editor
Tom Spilsbury.
-
“Shades of
Grey” A
22-minute featurette about the era of black-and-white
television at the BBC.
Discussing this
are most of the “War Zone” interviewees, plus director Timothy Combe,
graphic designer Bernard Lodge, and BBC Radiophonic Workshop maestros Delia Derbyshire and
Brian Hodgson.
-
“Now and
Then” A 10-minute featurette looking at the locations used for the filming
and showing what
they look like at the time of the DVD’s
making.
-
“The
Doctor’s Composer” (Part
One) An 18-minute interview with
stalwart Doctor Who incidental
musician Dudley Simpson, here covering his
contributions to 1960s Doctor Who. (Further parts
of this interview covering the rest of his Who career will appear on later DVDs
from those eras.)
-
“Sylvia
James – In Conversation” An
8-minute interview with 1960s Doctor Who Make-Up
Artist
Sylvia James.
-
“Talking
About Regeneration” A 24-minute featurette that covers all of the Doctor’s
regenerations
as seen throughout Doctor Who up to and including the change from the Ninth Doctor to
the Tenth.
Featuring actors
Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor) and Kate O’Mara (the Rani),
and new series
canon writers Rob Shearman, Joseph Lidster, and Gareth Roberts.
-
“Time
Zones” A 15-minute featurette where historians educate us a bit on the main
wars featured
in The
War Games, namely World War One, the
-
“Stripped
for Action – The Second Doctor”
A 14-minute featurette about the TV Comic comic
strips
that covered the era of the Second Doctor. Featuring Doctor
Who comics writers and experts
Alan
Barnes, Jeremy Bentham, Gary Russell, and John
Ainsworth.
-
“On Target
– Malcolm Hulke” A 20-minute featurette
about the Doctor Who novelizations written
by Malcolm Hulke
(co-writer of The War Games). Features Terrance Dicks, Alan Barnes, Gary
Russell, guide
author David Howe, illustrator Chris Achilleos, and
readings by actors Katy Manning
(Jo
Grant in the Third Doctor’s era) and Peter Miles (Nyder
in Genesis of the Daleks
amongst others).
-
“Devious” A 12-minute Doctor Who production homemade by fans in 1995 which was supposed
to be set
immediately after the events of The War Games, but unlike most fan videos, this one landed none
other
than Jon Pertwee
himself in the title part. Also features
an optional commentary by the producers.
-
Photo
Gallery. A 6-minute gallery of still
photographs taken throughout the production, some in color.
-
PDF Files. Place this disc into the DVD-ROM drive of
your home computer and you can view the following
Files: the original 1969 Radio Times billings, a BBC Enterprises sales document for the
story, and
production designs of the SIDRATs.
- 1 Easter Egg. Highlight the area of blank text below to see
how to find it and what it is.
From the main
menu, go the Subtitles selection and press the down arrow. The Doctor
Who
logo on the top of the screen will be highlighted. Click this and you will see the animated
effect
that was used to represent the force fields we see in the
story, but all by itself with no other picture
underneath it.
Doctor
Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy
A 3-disc box set of
three consecutive, linked stories from the middle of the 1983 season (the twentieth).
Each story comes in
its own Amaray clamshell box, with all three
surrounded by an outer box.
Story 1: Doctor
Who – Mawdryn Undead starring Peter
Davison as the Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa,
Janet
Fielding as Tegan, introducing Mark Strickson as Turlough, and guest
starring
Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and Valentine Dyall as the Black Guardian.
- All four episodes of the story with full
restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors
Peter Davison, Nicholas Courtney, and Mark Strickson,
and script editor Eric Saward.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
- Isolated Music option.
Plays the entire story with only the incidental music
soundtrack playing.
-
“Who Wants to Live Forever?”
A 25-minute behind-the-scenes documentary featuring interviews
with actors Peter Davison, Mark Strickson,
David Collings (Mawdryn)
and Lucy Benjamin
(Young Nyssa), script editor Eric Saward,
director Peter Moffatt, and a plastic surgeon.
- “Liberty
Hall” A
7-minute featurette where a journalist
“interviews” Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
about his career.
- Deleted and
Extended Scenes. 5 minutes worth of 13
different deleted or extended scenes.
- Film
Trims. 4 minutes of silent film footage
from the tops and tails of location recorded scenes.
- Outtakes. 6 minutes worth of
bloopers.
- CGI Effects
Option. Plays the story with some of the
special effects replaced by new CGI ones.
-
Continuity. 1-minute featurette that plays the original BBC intro and outros for the episodes.
-
Photo Gallery. 7 minutes of production stills taken
throughout the production.
-
Set Photo Gallery. Another 1 minute of stills taken of the sets
by themselves.
- PDF
Materials. Place this disc into the
DVD-ROM drive of your home computer and you can
view the following files: the original 1983 Radio Times billings, CGI storyboards, and studio
floor plans.
- Coming Soon
trailer advertising the forthcoming release of The Twin Dilemma.
- 2 Easter Eggs. Highlight the
area of blank text below to see how to find them and what they are.
- Egg 1. Highlight
the Deleted and Extended Scenes option and press the left arrow. A Doctor
Who
logo will appear.
Click on this and you’ll see the TARDIS Information System come
online
and give you a few more bits of production trivia and
continuity points for about one minute.
- Egg 2. Highlight
the Set Photo Gallery option and press the left arrow. A Doctor
Who logo will
appear. Click on this
and you’ll see a 30 second video showing off the studio floor plans.
Story 2: Doctor Who –
Terminus starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa,
Janet Fielding
as
Tegan, Mark Strickson as Turlough, and guest starring Valentine Dyall
as the Black Guardian.
- All four episodes of the story with full
restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors
Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, and Mark Strickson,
and writer Stephen Gallagher.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
- Isolated Music option.
Plays the entire story with only the incidental music
soundtrack playing.
- “Breaking
Point” A
23-minute behind-the-scenes featurette about the
particularly troubled production
of this story, featuring actors Peter Davison, Mark Strickson, Sarah Sutton, and Martin
Potter (Eirak), camera supervisor Alec Wheal, sound man Scott Talbott, designer Dick Coles,
and director Fiona Cumming.
- “Origins
of the Universe”
A 6-minute featurette featuring real
astronomers Sir Patrick Moore and
John
Mason discussing current cosmological thinking about the real Big Bang.
- Unused Model
Shots. 3 minutes of model footage that
didn’t make it into the finished story.
- CGI Effects
Option. Plays the story with some of the
special effects replaced by new CGI ones.
- Continuity. 2
minutes of the original BBC intro and outtro
announcements from 1983.
-
Photo Gallery. 8 minutes of stills taken throughout the
production.
- PDF
Materials. Place this disc into the
DVD-ROM drive of your home computer and you can
view the following files: the original 1983 Radio Times billings, and CGI storyboards.
- Coming Soon
trailer advertising the forthcoming release of The Twin Dilemma.
- 2 Easter Eggs.
Highlight the area of blank text below to see how to find them and what they
are.
- Egg 1. Go into the first page of Special Features, highlight Audio Options, then press the up arrow.
A Doctor Who logo will appear. Click on this and you will see all four of
the studio countdown
clocks from the master tapes of all four episodes.
- Egg 2. Go into the second page of Special Features and
highlight the Menu button. Press the
Down arrow. A Doctor Who logo will appear. Click on this and you will see another
1-minute
round of trivia from the TARDIS Information System.
Story 3: Doctor Who –
Enlightenment starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan,
Mark Strickson as Turlough, and guest
starring Valentine Dyall as the Black Guardian and
Cyril
Luckham as the White Guardian.
On Disc 1:
- All four episodes of the story with full
restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors
Peter Davison, and Mark Strickson, director Fiona
Cumming
and writer Barbara Clegg.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
- Isolated Music option.
Plays the entire story with only the incidental music
soundtrack playing.
- “Winner Takes
All” A
24-minute behind-the-scenes documentary featuring interviews with
actors Peter Davison, Mark Strickson,
Janet Fielding, Keith Barron (Striker),
Christopher
Brown (Marriner), and Leee
John (Mansell), camera supervisor Alec Wheal,
costume designer
Dinah Collin, and director Fiona Cumming.
- “Casting
Off!” An 11-minute featurette about the casting of this story, featuring
actors Mark Strickson,
Janet
Fielding, Keith Barron, Christopher Brown, and Leee
John, and director Fiona Cumming.
-
“Single Write Female” A 5-minute featurette
interviewing writer Barbara Clegg.
- “The
Story of the Guardians”
A 12-minute featurette about the two
Guardians’ appearances in this
trilogy and
in the previous Key to Time season. Featuring Robert Luckham
(son of Cyril Luckham),
Sarah Leppard
(daughter of Valentine Dyall), editor
Tom Spilsbury of Doctor
Who Magazine,
and editor Moray Laing of Doctor Who
Adventures.
-
Storyboards. A
6-minute featurette of the storyboards used for the
spaceship shots.
-
Photo Gallery. 7 minutes of stills taken throughout the
production.
- PDF Materials. Place this disc into the DVD-ROM drive of
your home computer and you can
view the following files: the original 1983 Radio Times billings, and CGI storyboards.
- Coming Soon
trailer advertising the forthcoming release of The Twin Dilemma.
- 2 Easter Eggs. Highlight the area of blank text below to see
how to find them and what they are.
- Egg 1.
Go to the Single Write Female selection and then press the left
arrow. A Doctor Who
logo will appear.
Click on this and the TARDIS Information System will come online and
tell
you a few more fun facts about the story.
-
Egg 2. Go to the
Coming Soon selection and then press the left arrow. A Doctor
Who
Log will appear.
Click on this and you’ll see Peter Davison and Janet Fielding
recount a
well-known tale they’ve told for years on the
convention circuit about what happened one
day when Janet was wearing her “boob tube” and
Peter asked her to put her arms up in the air…
On Disc 2:
- Doctor
Who: Enlightenment – The Special Edition.
A
new, tighter, 74-minute version of the story, supervised by original director
Fiona Cumming, and
now presented with Dolby 5.1 sound (or 2.0 if you so
choose), with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and new
CGI effects replacing the original video and model effects.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- “Reenlightenment” 14 minutes of highlights of a
production meeting about the making of the special edition.
- Original Edit
Comparison. A 3-minute comparison of an
early edit of the story versus what actually
transmitted
(not the special edition).
- Film
Trims. 6 minutes from the tops and tails
of filmed takes.
- Finding Mark Strickson. An
8-minute interview with Mark Strickson about his life
before, during, and after
Doctor
Who.
- Finding Sarah
Sutton. An 8-minute
interview with Sarah Sutton doing the same.
- “Russell
Harry Christmas Party”
A 4-minute segment from a Christmas 1982 BBC program featuring
Peter Davison and
then-wife Sandra Dickinson doing a pantomime musical number. Have aspirin handy.
-
Continuity. 2 minutes of the original
BBC intro and outtros for this story.
- PDF
Materials. Place this disc into the
DVD-ROM drive of your home computer and you can
view the following files: the original 1983 Radio Times billings, and a Production Bible.
- Coming Soon
trailer advertising the forthcoming release of The Twin Dilemma.
- 1 Easter Egg. Highlight the area of blank text below to see
how to find it and what it is.
- Highlight the Finding Mark Strickson selection and press the left arrow. A Doctor Who logo will
appear. Click on this
and you’ll see 2 minutes of stills taking during production of the extras
from throughout this box set.
The Sarah Jane
Adventures: The Complete Second Season starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith,
Tommy
Knight as Luke Smith, Daniel Anthony as
Alexander
Armstrong as the voice of Mr. Smith, and guest starring Yasmin
Paige as Maria Jackson,
Nicholas
Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and John Leeson as the
voice of K9.
A 3-disc box set of all 12 episodes (6 two-part
stories) of the second season of this series.
On all three discs, you will find:
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection features, and
subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Sarah’s PC. A
menu leading to three sections of text files:
o Character Profiles
(bios of all the regular characters seen so far on the disc in question)
o Investigating Tools
(descriptions of alien artifacts and gear seen so far)
o Alien Profiles
(descriptions of the alien creatures seen so far)
-
Mr. Smith. Sarah Jane’s
super-computer opens up to play the extra videos for you. See below.
On Disc 1:
-
Episode 1: The Last Sontaran and
Episode 2: Day of the Clown
-
The Sofa Area. We
visit a virtual book near Sarah Jane’s sofa and read a synopsis of the
episodes from the first season.
-
Mr. Smith Videos: “Blue Peter Footage” 5 minutes of chat on BBC magazine show Blue Peter
with Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony, and Anji
Mohindra.
-
Audio Adventures: A
five-minute extract from a Sarah Jane
Adventures audio book called
“The Time Capsule,” read by Elisabeth Sladen.
On Disc 2:
-
Episode 3: Secrets of the Stars and Episode 4: The Mark of the Berserker
-
Mr. Smith Videos:
“Me and My Movie Monday”
Three different segments from a CBBC
magazine series.
Two are
is a 2-minute visit with Sound Engineer Julian Howarth.
On Disc 3:
-
Episode 5: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and Episode 6: Enemy of the Bane
-
The Sofa Area. We
visit a virtual book near Sarah Jane’s sofa and read a synopsis of the
episodes of the second season.
-
Telescope. Plays two
videos: Season 2 Cinema Advertisement (
(
-
Mr. Smith Videos:
Series Scenes (a 1-minute photo gallery from the episodes) and
Behind the Scenes (a 1-minute photo gallery from
behind-the-scenes)
-
Quiz Area. You are
presented with five multiple choice questions about the episodes on these
discs, and if you get all five correct, you will see an extra
video. (Get it wrong and you have
to start over with a different set of questions.)
The video is a 5-minute special mini-episode called From Raxacoricofallapatorius
With Love
that ran as part of the BBC’s “Comic Relief”
charity telethon in March 2009.
SEPTEMBER RELEASES IN DETAIL
Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who
and Peter Pratt as the Master.
- All four 25-minute episodes with full
restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors Tom
Baker and Bernard Horsfall (Chancellor Goth),
and producer Philip Hinchcliffe.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
- “The Matrix
Revisited” A
29-minute featurette about the making of the story,
featuring interviews
with Tom Baker, Bernard Horsfall,
Philip Hinchcliffe, the late director David Maloney,
production designer Roger Murray-Leach, anti-violence
activist Mary Whitehouse, and
longtime fan Jan Vincent-Rudzki.
- “The Gallifreyan Candidate” An 11-minute featurette
where media studies experts compare
this Doctor Who story to the film The Manchurian Candidate and find
numerous parallels.
- “The
Frighten Factor” A 17-minute featurette
examining the nature of fear and how Doctor
Who
stories
have exploited basic fears through its history. Includes interviews with former
producer
Barry Letts and former script editor Terrance Dicks.
-
Photo Gallery. 6 minutes of
still photos taken throughout the production of the story.
- PDF
Materials. Readable by your computer, a pdf file containing the original Radio Times billings
for this
story.
- 1 Easter Egg. Highlight the
blank area of text below to see what it is and how to find it.
Go into the Special Features menu and
highlight the Photo Gallery selection.
Press the left
arrow and a Doctor Who
logo will appear. Click on this and a 30-second featurette
will play
showing the continuity announcement that advertised this
story at the conclusion of the
preceding one.
Doctor Who:
Image of the Fendahl starring Tom Baker as
Doctor Who and Louise Jameson as Leela.
- All four
25-minute episodes with full restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors Tom
Baker, Louise Jameson, Edward Arthur (Adam),
and Wanda Ventham (Thea).
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
- “After Image” A 26-minute featurette about the making of the story, featuring
interviews with
Louise
Jameson, Edward Arthur, Wanda Ventham, visual effects
designer Colin Mapson,
and script editor Anthony Read.
- Deleted and
Extended Scenes. An 11-minute featurette compiling fourteen extended or outright
deleted scenes from the location filming that has
survived on a low-quality black and white
videotape.
- Trailer. A 20-second trailer that
promoted the story on BBC1 in 1977.
-
Photo Gallery. 6 minutes of
still photos taken throughout the production of the story.
- PDF
Materials. Readable by your computer, a pdf file containing the original Radio Times billings
for this
story.
- 1 Easter Egg. Highlight the blank area of text below to see what it
is and how to find it.
Go into the Special Features menu and
highlight the Trailer option. Press the left arrow and
a Doctor Who logo
will appear. Click on this and
you’ll see an additional 40 seconds of
interview material with Louise Jameson discussing the Leela doll that was released to toy
stores in 1977.
Doctor Who:
Delta and the Bannermen starring Sylvester
McCoy as the Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Melanie.
- All three
25-minute episodes with full restoration treatment.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Optional commentary track with actors
Sylvester McCoy and Sara Griffiths (Ray), script editor
Andrew
Cartmel,
and director Chris Clough.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
- Episode One First
Edit. This is the first edit of the
first episode compiled during the post-production
process before all
sound effects and any of the music had been added. It’s also six minutes
longer than the final
version, including several scenes that had to be trimmed before broadcast.
- “But
First This” A
6-minute segment from a 1987 BBC magazine show that visited the production
of this story and
interviewed Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, and Ken Dodd (the Tollmaster).
- Wales
Today. A 2-minute segment from a 1987
Welsh news program that also visited the production
and talked to Sylvester McCoy, producer John
Nathan-Turner, and Stubby Kaye (Weismuller).
- Interview
Rushes. 17 minutes of film footage that
covers all of the interview footage that the “But
First This” crew shot and only took highlights of for their
final item.
- “Hugh and
Us” A
7-minute interview with the late actor Hugh Lloyd (Goronwy)
shortly before his
death in 1988.
- Clown
Court. A 6-minute sketch comedy segment
starring Noel
where McCoy is put on a mock trial for
impersonating a Time Lord, and then plays a lot of
blooper footage from his acting as evidence, most
of it from this story.
- Stripped for
Action. A 22-minute featurette
about the comic strip adventures of the Seventh Doctor in
Doctor Who Magazine featuring interviews
with most of the important writers, editors, and
artists of the period.
- Trails and
Continuity. A 3-minute
compilation of the broadcast intros for this story from 1987 on BBC1.
-
Photo Gallery. An 8-minute featurette of still photos taken throughout the story.
- Coming Soon
Trailer. A
Patrick Troughton.
Doctor Who: The Next Doctor starring David Tennant as the Doctor
and David Morrissey as … the next Doctor?
- The 60-minute
episode in stereo sound.
- Doctor Who at the Proms – Music From the Series composed by
from a live
orchestral concert held at the Royal Albert Hall in
where
musical highlights from the series from 2005-2008 were played to a packed
audience.
Hosted by Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones). Features appearances by Catherine Tate (Donna
Noble), Camille Coduri
(Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), and numerous monsters
including
Julian Bleach in character as Davros.
The highlight is a mini-episode that
was played into the concert hall about halfway through the program
called Music of the Spheres starring David
Tennant as the Doctor trying to compose music of his own
when the TARDIS is invaded
by a Graske (Jimmy Vee). It’s six
minutes in length.
JULY RELEASES IN DETAIL
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead starring
David Tennant as the Doctor and Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina.
Available in both
standard-definition (480i) DVD and high-definition (1080i) Blu-Ray
formats.
Contains
the 60-minute episode, graphical menus, scene selection features, and subtitles
for the hearing impaired.
Also contains a full
60-minute Doctor Who Confidential
behind-the-scenes documentary about the
particularly
arduous making of this episode. There
are no other extra features.
16:9 aspect ratio and
DTS HD sound (2-channel stereo).
Torchwood: Children of Earth starring John
Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as
Gwen,
Gareth
David-Lloyd as Ianto, and Kai Owen as Rhys.
Available in both
standard definition (480i) DVD and high-definition (1080i) Blu-Ray
formats.
2
discs. Disc 1 contains the
episodes “Day One,” “Day Two,” and “Day
Three,” and no other extra features.
Disc 2 contains the
episodes “Day Four” and “Day Five,” and a 31-minute Torchwood Declassified
behind-the-scenes
documentary, but no other extra features beyond this.
Both discs have
graphical menus, scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing
impaired.
The Blu-Ray edition also has a “high definition set-up
guide” feature to help you fine tune your system.
16:9 aspect ratio and
DTS HD 5.1 sound.
The edition available
exclusively at Best Buy stores comes with a bonus CD on which is the 44-minute
Torchwood radio episode called “Lost Souls” that
broadcast on the BBC in 2008 to coincide with the
switch-on
of the CERN cyclotron in
regulars
that survived season two, and guest stars Freema Agyeman as Dr. Martha Jones.
The back of the cover
notes that “music in episode 5 differs from broadcast
version.” Based on reports
I have read and my own
comparison of the broadcast and on-disc versions, it seems that a complete
score
for this episode was finished and supplied to the disc manufacturers at a time
just barely sufficient
to
meet their deadline. Sometime after
that, the producers or director decided they wanted a few changes
in
four particular sequences, and these were made to the version as-broadcast, but
it was too late to change
the
discs as well. In the first two
instances, music was simply removed so that the scenes on the broadcast
version
played out without any music at all. The
first bit was a 30-second section that starts at about the
mark,
but the second is a longer section where music was removed on transmission from
the second half of
the
scene where Frobisher has his final meeting with the
Prime Minister. The other two sequences
are
outright
changes in the score during the climactic, dramatic scenes that start at about
the 44:15 mark.
The transmission
version changes to a haunting female voice on the soundtrack, while the on-disc
music stays
more
in the intense, rhythmic style of the rest of the episode. I also think I spotted a change in a sound
effect,
which I’m going to hide in invisible text as it’s a very big
spoiler. Highlight the blank area next
to see
what
is is: in the scene
where we hear the four gunshots of Frobisher killing
his own family and then himself,
the timing of the fourth gunshot has been moved to a
fraction of a second later on the broadcast version versus
the on-disc version.
Doctor Who: The Rescue / The Romans starring William Hartnell as Doctor Who, William Russell as Ian Chesterton,
Jacqueline Hill as
Barbara Wright, and introducing Maureen O’Brien
as Vicki.
Contains two
consecutive stories from the middle of the 1964-1965 (2nd) season. Each is on
its own disc,
sold
together in one 2-disc Amaray case. The stories are NOT sold separately.
Contained on each
disc:
Disc 1: The Rescue
-
Both 25-minute
episodes with full restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Optional
commentary track with actor William Russell, designer Raymond Cusick, and
director Christopher Barry. Moderated by Doctor Who expert Toby Hadoke.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production
trivia throughout the story.
-
“Mounting
the Rescue” A 22-minute making-of
documentary featuring interviews with
actors William Russell, Maureen O’Brien and
Ray Barrett (Bennett), designer Raymond
Cusick, director Christopher Barry, and avid
viewer Ian McLachlan.
-
Photo Gallery. An 8-minute montage of still photographs from
the production.
-
PDF
Materials. Two pdf
files that your home computer can read from the disc if you put it
into your computer’s DVD-ROM drive. One is the Radio Times TV listings for this
story
from 1965 (with a feature article about Maureen
O’Brien), and the other is a set of Design
Drawings
from the time made by RaymondCusick for the sets and
a model of the TARDIS.
-
The disc boots
up with trailers for the Complete Fourth Series DVD set, and one for the BBC
America cable
channel, but these are skipable with your remote.
Disc 2: The Romans
-
All four
25-minute episodes with full restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Optional commentary
track with actors William Russell, Barry Jackson (Ascaris),
and Nick Evans
(Didius), designer Raymond Cusick,
and director Christopher Barry.
-
Information Text
subtitles option. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
“What Has
‘The Romans’ Ever Done For Us?” A 34-minute featurette
about the making
of this story, and also about depictions of
Caesar Nero in other BBC productions, and
the true history of
William
Russell, Barry Jackson, Kay Patrick (Poppea), Anthony
Andrews (Nero in A.D.
Anno Domini),
Christopher Biggins (Nero in I, Claudius), historian Dr. Mark Bradley,
avid viewer Ian McLachlan,
designer Raymond Cusick, new series Doctor Who writer
James Moran, and Doctor Who
Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury.
-
Roma Pava. 3-minute featurette where director Christopher Barry shows off the
designer’s
original set design model from the 1964/65
production that he’s kept all these years.
- Blue Peter. 7-minute featurette
from a 1970s segment of children’s magazine show Blue Peter
where the hosts enjoy a Roman banquet.
- Dennis Spooner – Wanna
Write a Television Series? 18-minute featurette about the career
of Dennis Spooner, writer of The Romans (amongst others) and the series’ second Story
Editor.
Features
interviews with actors William Russell and Peter Purves
(Steven Taylor),
Story
Editor Donald Tosh, friends and colleagues Brian and
Janet Clemens, and new
Doctor Who series writer
Robert Shearman.
-
Girls! Girls!
Girls! The 1960s. An 18-minute featurette
looking at all of the Doctor’s female
companions from the 1960s. Features interviews with Carole Ann Ford
(Susan), Jean Marsh
(Sara Kingdom), Anneke Wills (Polly), Deborah Watling
(Victoria), Honor Blackman
(Cathy Gale from The Avengers), William Russell (Ian), Peter
Purves (Steven), Frazer
Hines
(Jamie), Story Editor Donald Tosh, and director
Christopher Barry.
-
Photo
Gallery. A 6-minute montage of still
photos taken during the production.
-
PDF
Materials. One pdf
files that your home computer can read from the disc if you put it
into your computer’s DVD-ROM drive. It is the Radio Times TV listings for this
story
from 1965.
-
The disc boots
up with trailers for the Complete Fourth Series DVD set, and one for the BBC
America cable
channel, but these are skipable with your remote.
Doctor Who:
Attack of the Cybermen starring Colin Baker
as the Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri.
-
Both 45-minute
episodes with full restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Optional
commentary track with actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy
(Russell),
and Sarah Berger (Rost)
-
Optional
isolated music track, that plays the episodes with
only the music soundtrack playing.
-
Information Text
subtitles option. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
“The Cold
War” 27-minute making-of
documentary featuring interviews with actors
Colin Baker,
Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy, and Sarah Berger, Script Editor and
surreptitious writer Eric Saward,
fan consultant Ian Levine, Film Cameraman Godfrey
Johnson, and Director Matthew Robinson.
-
“The Cyber
Story” 23-minute featurette about all of the Cybermen’s
appearances
throughout all of Doctor
Who through 2007. Features
interviews with their original
Costume Designer
Sandra Reid, original voice actor Roy Skelton, Director Morris Barry,
Writer/Script
Editor Eric Saward, Earthshock Costume Designer Dinah Collin,
Cyber-actor Mark
Hardy, and Kevin Warwick, a scientist attempting to become the world’s
first real cyborg.
-
“Human Cyborg”
8-minute featurette about scientist Kevin
Warwick’s efforts to become the
world’s first real cyborg.
-
Photo
Gallery. 8-minute photo montage of
stills taken throughout the production.
-
The
Cyber-Generations. A second 8-minute
photo montage of the Cybermen as they appeared
in every classic series story.
-
Trails and
Continuity. 3-minute featurette
of the advertising and introduction materials from
the original 1985 broadcasts.
-
Coming Soon
trailer. A 1-minute trailer for the
forthcoming DVD of Image of the Fendahl
starring Tom Baker.
-
PDF
Materials. Three pdf
files that your home computer can read from the disc if you put it
into your computer’s DVD-ROM drive. One is the Radio Times TV listings for this
story
from 1985, including feature articles. The other two are files that were originally
intended
to appear in the DVD of the Patrick Troughton Cybermen story The Invasion but were left
out by error (an error common to every edition
in every region around the world). The
first of these are the Radio Times TV listings
and features for the 1968 Invasion broadcast.
The second is a
feature article for a magazine called The
Listener about the future of
robotics written by Dr. Kit Pedler,
the co-creator of the Cybermen.
-
The disc boots
up with trailers for the Complete Fourth Series DVD set, and one for the BBC
America cable
channel, but these are skipable with your remote.
-
1 Easter Egg. Highlight the
blank area below to reveal the invisible text and see what this is and
how to find it.
Go into the second page of the Special Features menu, then
highlight the Cyber-Generations
Option and press the left arrow. A Doctor
Who logo will appear. Click on this
and you’ll
see a 1-minute featurette about an
autonomous Dalek that Kevin Warwick has built in his
lab.
MAY RELEASES IN DETAIL
Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy
starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Lalla Ward as Romana, John Leeson
as
the Voice of K9, and introducing Matthew Waterhouse as Adric.
Contains three consecutive
stories from the middle of the 1980-81 (18th) season. Each is in its own
Amaray
case, and all three are sold together inside an outer slipcase. They are NOT sold separately.
Contained on each:
Disc 1: Full
Circle
-
All four
25-minute episodes with full restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Optional
commentary track with actor Matthew Waterhouse, writer Andrew Smith, and
Script Editor
Christopher H. Bidmead.
-
Information Text
subtitles option. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
Isolated Music
option. Plays the story with only the
music soundtrack playing by itself.
-
“All
Aboard the Starliner” 24-minute featurette
about the making of the story, featuring
interviews with actors Lalla
Ward, John Leeson, George Baker (Login),
Bernard Padden (Tylos), writer Andrew
Smith, script editor Christopher H. Bidmead,
film cameraman Max Samett,
and an archival interview with director Peter Grimwade.
-
“K9 in
E-Space” A 5-minute featurette about K9’s final three stories of the
classic series,
featuring interviews with Christopher H. Bidmead, Lalla Ward, Andrew
Smith, John Leeson,
and writer Terrance Dicks.
-
“Swap
Shop” An 8-minute segment from a
1980 edition of Multi-Coloured
Swap Shop where
Matthew
Waterhouse was interviewed shortly after getting the part of Adric.
-
“E-Space:
Fact or Fiction?” A 15-minute featurette narrated by Sophie Aldred
speculating
on the real-life possibilities of there being
other universes. Features interviews
with
Doctor Who cast and crew, other science
fiction authors, and real scientists, including
Sir Patrick
Moore.
-
Continuity. 3 minutes of the BBC’s introductions
and trailers for the episodes on their original
1980 broadcasts.
- Photo Gallery with Info
Text option. 6 minutes of still
photographs from the production, now with
the option to display descriptive captions as subtitles.
-
Radio Times
Listings. PDF files for your computer
containing the original Radio Times TV
listings for this story, as well as some
contemporaneous articles about it they ran.
Disc 2: State
of
-
All four
25-minute episodes with full restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Optional
commentary track with actor Matthew Waterhouse, Writer Terrance Dicks, and
Director Peter Moffatt.
-
Information Text
subtitles option. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
Isolated Music
option. Plays the story with only the
music soundtrack playing by itself.
-
“The
Vampire Lovers”
20-minute featurette about the making
of the story. Features interviews
with actors Lalla Ward, John Leeson, and
Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead,
Designer Christine Ruscoe, and Director Peter Moffatt.
-
Film Trims. 5 minutes of silent film from the modelwork sessions of the Tower and the Great Vampire.
-
“Leaves of
Blood” 17-minute featurette about the historical depiction of vampires in
literature
including interviews
with historians and published authors such as Kim Newman.
-
“The Blood
Show” 10-minute
featurette about blood itself and its uses in our
diets. Has nothing
t o
do with Doctor Who.
-
“The Frayling Reading”
5-minute featurette where Sir Christopher Frayling analyzes where
State of Decay fits into the more general mythology of vampires.
-
Continuity. 4 minutes of the BBC’s introductions
and trailers for the episodes on their original
1980 broadcasts.
- Photo Gallery with Info
Text option. 6 minutes of still
photographs from the production, now with
the option to display descriptive captions as subtitles.
-
Radio Times
Listings. PDF files for your computer
containing the original Radio Times TV
listings for this story, as well as some
contemporaneous articles about it they ran.
Disc 3: Warriors’
Gate
-
All four
25-minute episodes with full restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Optional
commentary track with actors Lalla Ward and John Leeson, Visual Effects Designer
Mat
-
Information Text
subtitles option. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
Isolated Music
option. Plays the story with only the
music soundtrack playing by itself.
-
“The
Dreaming” 27-minute
featurette about the making of the story. Features interviews with
Actors Lalla Ward, John Leeson, David
Weston (Biroc), and Clifford Rose (Rorvik),
Writer Steve
Gallagher, Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead,
Visual Effects Designer
Mat
-
“The Boy
With the Golden Star” 20-minute
interview with Matthew Waterhouse covering all
of Adric’s
stories in the series.
-
“Lalla’s Wardrobe” A 19-minute featurette
about the various outfits worn by Lalla Ward as
Romana throughout the series, with interviews
with Ward herself, classic series costume
designer June Hudson, new series costume designer
Louise Page, writers
Jonathan Morris, and some ordinary girls in the street.
-
Extended and
Deleted Scenes. 4 minute assembly of
eight different scenes that were trimmed
or removed altogether from the finished
story.
-
Continuity. 2 minutes of the BBC’s introductions
and trailers for the episodes on their original
1981 broadcasts.
- Photo Gallery with Info
Text option. 6 minutes of still
photographs from the production, now with
the option to display descriptive captions as subtitles.
-
Radio Times
Listings. PDF files for your computer
containing the original Radio Times TV
listings for this story, as well as some
contemporaneous articles about it they ran.
Doctor Who: Battlefield starring
Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace,
and guest starring
Nicholas
Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. 2 discs.
On Disc 1:
-
All four
25-minute episodes (the original 1989 versions) with full restoration
treatment.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Optional
commentary track with actors Sophie Aldred, Nicholas
Courtney, and Angela Bruce
(Brigadier
Winifred Bambera), Writer Ben Aaronovitch,
and Script Editor Andrew Cartmel.
-
Information Text
subtitles option. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
Isolated Music
option. Plays the story with only the
music soundtrack playing by itself.
-
“Storm
Over Avallion”
23-minute featurette about the making of the
story, featuring interviews
with Actors Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Angela Bruce, Nicholas Courtney, and
Jean Marsh (Morgaine), Writer Ben Aaronovitch,
Script Editor Andrew Cartmel, and
Director Michael
Kerrigan.
-
“Past and
Future King” 12-minute featurette about the writing of this story, featuring
interviews with Ben Aaronovitch,
Andrew Cartmel, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred,
Angela Bruce, and Michael Kerrigan.
-
“Watertank”
7-minute featurette that goes into detail
about the near-fatal accident that
occurred during the scene of Ace trapped in the
flooding spacecraft airlock when the
glass in the tank she was in cracked open.
-
Studio
Recording. 19 minutes of raw footage
from the studio floor during the original studio
recording session for this story.
-
“From
Kingdom to Queen” 8-minute
interview with Jean Marsh charting her 1965, 1966,
and 1989 appearances in Doctor Who.
- Radio Times Listings. PDF files for your computer containing the
original Radio Times TV
listings for this story, as well as some
contemporaneous articles about it they ran.
On Disc 2:
-
Battlefield Special Edition.
A 95-minute
movie-format version of the story, with numerous deleted scenes edited
back into the action, other reediting of the
action and the music, boosted CGI effects,
and a Dolby 5.1 sound mix. Comes with graphical menus, scene selection
menu,
and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Season 26
Trailer
A 1:30 trailer
for the entire 26th season that was shown to the press in 1989.
THE WHATs and WHYs of THE KEY TO
TIME – SPECIAL EDITION
A very Frequently Asked Question I’ve
been getting lately is “Why are they re-releasing 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
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
late 2002 in
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
had the old edition on the market, and also they’d fallen behind the
increased pace of releases coming from the
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
begin selling it in
it from the original edition.
Descriptions of the contents of each title in the set follow
below.
Extras and features that appeared on the
2002 editions are listed in italics.
Doctor Who: The Key to Time Special
Edition starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Mary Tamm as Romana, and
John
Leeson as the Voice of K9.
-
Available as a
single digistack box set containing 7 discs for the
suggested retail price of $99.98.
-
The individual
stories are also available separately in single Amaray
cases for $24.98 each, except
The Armageddon Factor which contains 2
discs and is priced at $34.98.
Descriptions of the individual
titles follow, but remember that everything in
the individual titles is also on the discs in the box set.
The only thing
you miss out on in the box set is the individual title covers.
-
The box set
contains an 8-page booklet that contains the text details on one page each that
are on the
back covers of the separate Amaray
box releases, so you don’t miss out on any of that if you buy the box.
Doctor Who: The Ribos
Operation Special Edition starring Tom Baker as Doctor
Who, Mary Tamm as Romana,
and
John
Leeson as the Voice of K9. Guest starring Cyril Luckham as the White Guardian.
-
All four 25-minute episodes with full
restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection
features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Commentary
with actors Tom Baker and Mary Tamm
-
Production
Notes subtitles. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
- “A Matter of Time” 60-minute
documentary about the whole of Graham Williams' producer-ship.
Features
interviews with actors Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Louise Jameson (Leela),
Lalla Ward (the
second Romana), Paul Seed (Graff Vynda-K),
writers Bob Baker, Dave Martin,
Gareth
Roberts, David Fisher, Douglas Adams, script editor Anthony Read, visual effects designers
Colin
Mapson and Mat Irvine, Doctor Who Appreciation
Society Founder Jeremy Bentham,
Production
designers Richard McManon-Smith and Dick Coles,
directors Pennant Roberts,
Darrol Blake, Michael
Hayes, Ken Grieve, and Christopher Barry, and Graham Williams’ widow
Jackie
Williams. Narrated by
Toby Longworth.
- “The Ribos File” 20-minute featurette
about the making of The Ribos Operation.
Features interviews
with actors Mary Tamm, Paul Seed, Nigel Plaskitt (Unstoffe), and Prentis Hancock
(Captain of the
Shrieves), stuntman Stuart Fell, and
Doctor Who Magazine editor Clayton Hickman.
- Continuities. 2 minutes of the
intro and outros from the BBC broadcasts.
- Season 16 Trailer.
40 seconds.
- Photo Gallery.
6 minutes of stills. (Not the same ones as on the old set. This is true for all
the discs.)
- Radio Times Listings. A pdf
file on the disc of the TV listings for this story, readable by a computer.
Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet Special
Edition starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Mary Tamm as Romana, and
John
Leeson as the Voice of K9.
-
All four 25-minute episodes with full
restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection
features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Commentary 1 with director Pennant
Roberts and actor Bruce Purchase (the Captain)
- Commentary 2 with actors Tom Baker
and Mary Tamm, and script editor Anthony Read.
-
Production
Notes subtitles. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
“Parrot
Fashion” 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary. Features interviews with writer Douglas Adams
(archival footage),
Tamm, Bruce Purchase, Primi
Townsend (Mula), Rosalind Lloyd (Nurse/Xanxia), and John Leeson,
script editor Anthony Read, Visual Effects
Designer Colin Mapson, Film Cameraman Elmer Cassey,
and Director Pennant Roberts.
-
Film Inserts, Deleted Scenes,
and Outtakes. 13 minutes. Over twenty
deleted scenes, alternative
takes, or
outtakes. (Most of the ones from film
inserts also appeared on the 2002 edition.)
- “Weird Science” 17-minute
spoof science show that takes the mickey out of the
science in 70s s.f. shows.
Starring David Graham, Matthew Irvine, and STEVII the super-computer.
- Continuities. 4 minutes. (These are the BBC introductions and trailers
for the episodes.)
- Photo Gallery.
7 minutes.
- Radio Times Listings. A pdf
file on the disc of the TV listings for this story, readable by a computer.
Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood Special
Edition starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Mary Tamm as Romana, and
John
Leeson as the Voice of K9.
-
All four 25-minute episodes with full
restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection
features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Commentary 1 with actor Mary Tamm and director Darrol Blake
- Commentary 2 with actors Tom Baker,
Mary Tamm, and Susan Engel (Vivien Fey), and writer
David Fisher.
-
Production
Notes subtitles. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
“Getting
Blood From the Stones” 27-minute making-of
documentary. Features interviews with
actors Mary
Tamm, John Leeson,
and Susan Engel, writer David Fisher, script editor Anthony Read, Doctor Who Magazine
Editor
Clayton Hickman, SFX Magazine’s
Steve O’Brien, and director Darrol Blake.
-
“Hammer
Horror” 13-minute documentary looking at links between Hammer horror
movies and Doctor Who.
Features
interviews with actor Tom Baker, writers Terrance Dicks and Anthony Read, Shivers’ magazine’s
David Miller, and
English Gothic magazine’s
Jonathan Rigby.
-
“Stones
Free” 9-minute documentary about the real life stone circle in the story,
hosted by Mary Tamm,
where she talks to local historians about the
site.
- Deleted Scenes. Two scenes taken out of
Part Two. 2
minutes’ duration.
- Continuities. 2-1/2
minutes. (These are the BBC
introductions and trailers for the episodes.)
- Model World. 2-1/2 minute excerpt from a contemporaneous
show that looked at the model work in this story.
- Blue Peter. 6-minute segment from
1978 that spotlighted Doctor Who's 15th anniversary.
- Nationwide. 9-minute
segment from 1978, again about the anniversary. Interviews Tom Baker,
Mary Tamm,
and Carole Ann Ford.
- Photo Gallery.
8 minutes.
- Radio Times Listings. A pdf
file on the disc of the TV listings for this story, readable by a computer.
Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara Special
Edition starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Mary Tamm as Romana, and
John
Leeson as the Voice of K9.
-
All four 25-minute episodes with full restoration
treatment.
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection
features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Commentary
with actors Tom Baker and
Mary Tamm, and director Michael Hayes.
-
Production
Notes subtitles. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
- “The Humans of
Paul
Lavers (Farrah), and Neville Jason (Prince Reynart), writer David Fisher, script editor
Anthony Read,
and director Michael
Hayes.
- “Now and Then: The Androids of
Tara” 10-minute featurette on Leeds Castle in
Kent, the primary location used
in the making of this
story, spotlighting how it looked in 1978 compared to the present.
- “Double
Trouble” 11-minute featurette on the history of
doubles in Doctor Who. With
interviews with Tom
Spilsbury of Doctor Who Magazine, and Paul Lang and Moray Laing
from Doctor Who Adventures.
- Photo Gallery.
8 minutes.
- Radio Times Listings. A pdf
file on the disc of the TV listings for this story, readable by a computer.
Doctor Who: The Power of Kroll
Special Edition starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who and Mary Tamm as Romana.
-
All four 25-minute episodes with full
restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection
features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Commentary
with actors Tom Baker and John Leeson
-
Production
Notes subtitles. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
- “In Studio” 11 minutes of the
raw studio recording taken from a surviving black and white videotape of the
session, featuring
the making of two scenes from late in the story in the refinery control room.
- Variations. 6-minute
segment from a local news program that visited the location filming.
- “There's Something
About Mary” 10 minute featurette spotlighting
Mary Tamm's year on the show, featuring
interviews with her.
- “Philip Madoc:
A Villain for All Seasons” 10-minute featurette
about Philip Madoc's four roles in the series
and his one in the
second
- Continuities. 3 minutes. (These are
the BBC introductions and trailers for the episodes.)
- Photo Gallery.
5 minutes.
- Radio Times Listings. A pdf
file on the disc of the TV listings for this story, readable by a computer.
Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor Special
Edition starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Mary Tamm as Romana,
John Leeson as the Voice of K9, and
guest starring Valentine Dyall as the Black Guardian.
2
discs.
On Disc 1:
-
All six 25-minute episodes with full
restoration treatment.
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection
features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
- Commentary 1 with actors Mary Tamm and John Woodvine (the
Marshal) and director Michael Hayes.
- Commentary 2 with actors Tom Baker,
Mary Tamm, and John Leeson.
-
Production
Notes subtitles. Displays pop-up
production trivia throughout the story.
-
PDF Files. Two pdf files on
the disc: one of the Radio Times TV listings for this story, and the 1979
Doctor
Who Annual. The files are readable by a
computer.
On Disc 2:
-
“Defining
Shadows" 16-minute making-of featurette,
featuring interviews with writers Bob Baker and
Dave
Martin, actors Lalla Ward (Princess Astra), Barry Jackson (Drax), Davyd Harries (Shapp),
designer Richard McManan-Smith, and director Michael Hayes.
- Alternative/Extended Scene. 3 minutes
from a black and white videotape of a scene that was truncated
a bit in the final
edit in Part Three of the Doctor meeting up with Shapp
on Zeos.
- Directing Who. 8-minute featurette about Michael Hayes' three stories as the
director (those were
The Androids of Tara, The
Armageddon Factor, and City of Death), featuring an interview with
Hayes
himself.
- “Rogue Time Lords” 13-minute featurette about all the renegade Time Lords we've met down
the years.
- Pebble Mill at One. 8-minute
interview with Tom Baker from 1979 tying in to the series hitting its 500th
episode as of Part
One of this story.
- Radiophonic
Feature. 4-minute segment from Pebble Mill in 1979 that visited the BBC Radiophonic
Workshop. Features interviews with
Dick Mills and Brian Hodgson of the Workshop.
- The New Sound of Music. 1-minute bit
from the cutting room floor of that same BBC RW feature.
- Merry Christmas, Doctor Who. Special
1-minute sketch recorded from the Armageddon
Factor set where
K9
asks the Doctor what he most desires at Christmas... and then he has a look at Romana....
- Continuities. 3 minutes. (These are the BBC introductions and trailers
for the episodes.)
- Photo Gallery.
5 minutes.
- Late Night Stories. Five children’s short story readings by Tom Baker for a short
TV series.
Each
is about 15 minutes. The titles are The Photograph, The Emissary, Nursery Tea, The End
of the
Party, and Sredni Vashtar.
- Easter Egg. Highlight the blank area below to reveal the
invisible text and find out what this is and where…
Highlight the “Continuities” selection on page
2 of the Special Features, then press the right arrow.
A Doctor Who logo
will appear up in the top right corner.
Select this and you will see a reconstruction
of a technical fault that occurred during the
original 1979 broadcast that interrupted the program for
a minute as the video playback machine jammed
and they put up some music to cover the dead air.
The only things that were on the 2002 edition that are not in the
Special Edition are the original photo galleries
(which were very minimal and have been
replaced by much better ones on the special edition) and the Who’s Who
text file biographies of the principal cast members, which were
discontinued from all releases some time ago.
JANUARY CLASSIC SERIES DVDs IN DETAIL
Here’s what you’ll find in the two January classic series Doctor Who releases:
Doctor Who: The War Machines starring William Hartnell as Dr. Who, Jackie Lane as Dodo, and
introducing Anneke Wills as Polly, and Michael Craze as
Ben.
-
All four
25-minute episodes.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Commentary track
by actor Anneke Wills (Polly) and Director Michael
Ferguson.
-
“Now and
Then” A 7-minute featurette looking at the locations used for the filming in
1966 and how they
look in the present-day.
- Blue Peter.
A 16-minute featurette presenting three
different segments from then-contemporary episodes of
the children’s magazine show Blue Peter. The first is a
segment on the completion of the Post Office Tower.
The second is a segment where a War
Machine invaded their studio. The third
is a segment where they
present a school
class that built its own Dalek
- “One Foot in the Past” An 8-minute featurette hosted by
shows us around the
what it’s still used for now.
- “WOTAN Assembly” A 9-minute featurette
about the extensive restoration given to these episodes film prints.
-
Information Text. Selecting this
displays pop-up production notes trivia as the story plays.
- Photo Gallery with Info Text Option. Displays 4 minutes worth of
production stills. New to this
DVD is an option
to turn on descriptive captions as the stills play out.
- PDF Materials. Place this DVD into the DVD-ROM drive of a
computer and you can look at two different PDF
files. One is the
original Radio Times TV listings for
this story. The other is a production
design drawing
giving specifications to the independent contractor on how
to build the War Machine for the story.
- 1 Easter Egg. Highlight the area of blank space below to
see what it is and how to find it.
Go into the Episode Selection menu. Highlight the selection for Episode 2, and
then press the right arrow
on
your remote. A Doctor Who logo will appear.
Click on this and you will see a 1 minute 35 mm film reel
that
was shot on location of the War Machine attacking the army.
-
The disc boots up with an ads for the Complete Fourth Series Box Set and
for BBC America, both of which are
skippable with your remote.
Doctor Who: Four
to Doomsday starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan,
Sarah
Sutton as Nyssa, and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric.
-
All four
25-minute episodes.
-
Graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for the hearing impaired.
-
Commentary track
by actors Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse,
and
Director John Black.
-
“Studio
Recording” A 27-minute featurette of footage from Peter Davison’s first day
in the studio playing
the Doctor, showing
highlights of what went on between takes on the studio floor.
- “Saturday
Night at the Mill” A 14-minute TV
interview recorded with Peter Davison in 1980 just after his
casting as the
Doctor.
-
Theme Music
Video. A 3-1/2 minute featurette presenting a mix of the “starfield” title sequences used for
Tom Baker’s final season and all of
Peter Davison’s era to the accompaniment of a new Dolby 5.1 extended
remix of the theme
music from this era. This featurette has been previously seen in the “New
Beginnings”
box set.
-
Photo
Gallery. A 7-minute featurette
showing production stills taken during the making of the story.
-
Information
Text. Selecting this displays pop-up
production notes trivia as the story plays.
-
Radio Times PDF
Files. If you place this DVD into the
DVD-ROM drive of a computer, you can find and view
a PDF file
containing the original Radio Times TV
schedule listings for this story.
- The disc boots up
with an ads for the Complete Fourth Series Box Set and for BBC America, both of
which are
skippable
with your remote.
UK DVD RELEASES
Though we can’t play the UK’s Region 2 DVDs on our ordinary
North American DVD players and TV sets, it’s still
worth our while to keep an eye on what they’re getting over there, as
the titles we get are usually what’s first been
released over there, and usually with the same sets of bonus features, and
usually (but not always) in the same order
they got it.
The titles they’ve got that we haven’t yet are as follows:
Remembrance of the Daleks: Special Edition starring Sylvester McCoy (UK in
July 2009. Was originally part of the
Davros Box Set.
The Twin Dilemma starring
Colin Baker (UK in September 2009. North America in January 2010.)
The Keys of Marinus
starring William Hartnell (UK in September 2009.
North America in January 2010.)
Dalek War
Box Set starring Jon Pertwee (
Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks. The third episode of Planet of the Daleks has been restored
to
full color for the first time in 30 years for this DVD release.
Upcoming…
Peladon starring
Jon Pertwee (2-story
set of both stories set on the planet Peladon and
featuring the Ice Warriors.
These are The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon.
UK in January 2010.)
The Masque of Mandragora
starring Tom Baker
(
The Space
Museum / The Chase starring William Hartnell
(2-story set of consecutive stories.
Myths and
Other Legends Box set of three
(non-consecutive) stories based on classical myths.
These
are The Time Monster starring Jon Pertwee and Underworld
and The Horns of Nimon,
both starring Tom Baker.
(
Time and the Rani
starring Sylvester McCoy
(
The King’s Demons / Planet
of Fire starring Peter Davison. 2-story set of the stories featuring the
shapeshifting robot Kamelion. (
The Dominators starring
Patrick Troughton (
There are two titles the
Doctor Who (the TV Movie)
starring Paul McGann (
This may never be released in North America
due to the complicated rights issues surrounding
this production.
Davros Box
Set (
Doctor
Who is the copyright of the BBC, BBC Worldwide, BBC Video, and is distributed
on VHS and DVD 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!
Compiled by Steve Manfred, smanfred at
comcast.net (change at to @ and remove
the spaces to email me)