Classic Doctor Who seasons on Blu-Ray

State of Decay is one of my favourite 80s Who stories, even if it’s cheating by being a 70s story.

There’s some nice stuff about that in the novels, which generally do a good job of fleshing out some of the less well developed companions.

Not a big fan of 18, other than Warriors Gate and Logopolis. I really enjoy 17 though.

I’m in the ‘fucks sake why aren’t the BBC re-pressing any of the already released BluRays’ camp, though. I’d like to buy them but haven’t had the cash this year. And I definitely won’t have the cash for a £350 second hand one in the future. So fuck ’em.

It seems that it’s not being repressed at all. Which is pretty bonkers, given that the second hand prices suggest there’s definitely an audience for it. I mean, physical releases of film & TV are definitely becoming a niche market, but Who is the exact kind of show that has a fanbase who would collect it. I think most people were expecting a non-limited second release in normal packaging, but apparently it’s not coming.

I don’t understand TV frame rates and so on, but I believe the more easily available US version is going to be a pain to watch on UK TVs, which means it’s basically a case of sourcing an Australian version of 12 & 19 now if you want them – and as they go out of print, their prices will rocket. I’m out of work, so it’s just an impossibility for me at the minute. But it’d be nice to get all the new extras, and it’d be nice to have some much more compact boxsets for the future, and it’d be nice to have HD where it’s available… but, y’know, when I can actually afford it.

I’m in the exact same boat, Lily. It’s stupid. And I do wonder whether the whole “limited edition packaging” thing is them hedging their bets, so that *if* they change their mind later, they can release the exact same contents in a not-limited-edition box. Which, to be honest, I hope they do.

Although let’s be honest, *everything* is limited edition really isn’t it? There aren’t infinite quantities of anything.

That’s nothing compared to him trying to free himself from prehistoric Earth in disguise, despite the fact that nobody there knew who he was.

Having looked up his bio, it appears he was gay so let me format my previous post.

Wonder if he told fellas down the gay disco he was the big boss of Doctor Who, which at the time was seen as the Beeb’s embarrassing little diversion.

You know there was a sound problem with a couple of discs in the s12 sets? (They kept sending me replacement discs – I had to email them to get them to stop).
I’ve started watching s19, and already found a couple of problems on Disc One. I think there might have to be replacement discs going out there, too.

>I’d kind of prefer if BBC Video focused on making animated reconstructions of missing episodes for DVD (as with Power of the Daleks, Shada and The Macra Terror) instead of this. Plenty to cover there.

The animated releases are done by a different team to the Blu-Ray sets (with some crossover of personnel). One doesn’t have a bearing on the other aside from avoiding each other in the release window.

They have made a commitment to release the first 26 seasons. They are already filming extras for releases way into the future. Season 17 has had stuff filmed for it even though that won’t be out until likely 2020 at the earliest (2019 is Season 18, 10, 26 with 14 also rumoured).

The release order makes sense to me. The first season they wanted a popular set of stories with the most popular classic Doctor. It makes sense to go for the shortest and first. Then with the second release, they want to show off the format so it makes sense to go for the one with the most existing film which can be presented as true HD. From then on it is about varying it up with lesser seasons amongst more popular seasons (a less popular Tom Baker with a popular McCoy) and also about tackling the more troublesome seasons later (hence Season 10 being the first Pertwee).

They definitely need to stop referring to it as Limited Edition Packaging. I’d dare say they’ll wait until everything is out and release complete sets for each Doctor in none limited packaging.

The animated releases are done by a different team to the Blu-Ray sets (with some crossover of personnel). One doesn’t have a bearing on the other aside from avoiding each other in the release window.

Yes, but presumably the budgets for both of these teams come from the BBC at large, which has limited resources. It’s certainly true that they could release more missing episode DVDs per year without releasing fewer classic Blu rays, but “How much money do we want to spend on Doctor Who home video releases?” has got to be a question that’s discussed before the question of how much each sub-team should do.

OK, I probably am just wrong about that, but still: they should do more missing episode DVDs. 1 of them every 1-2 years is just not getting it done.

They have made a commitment to release the first 26 seasons. They are already filming extras for releases way into the future. Season 17 has had stuff filmed for it even though that won’t be out until likely 2020 at the earliest (2019 is Season 18, 10, 26 with 14 also rumoured).

Whoa, where did you hear all this?! If that’s true, it’s good to know. Given how long that’ll take, I wonder where the Blu ray format will be by the end of it.

I’m fascinated to know how they plan do to Seasons 1-6, too. Animated reconstructions for all the missing episodes? Still image/telesnap/arration reconstructions? Just not including the missing episodes at all?

Also, Seasons 4 and 21 will somewhat mess with the US “Lead Actor’s Name – Season X” labelling, won’t it?

They definitely need to stop referring to it as Limited Edition Packaging. I’d dare say they’ll wait until everything is out and release complete sets for each Doctor in none limited packaging.

You’d think they wouldn’t repeat this mistake after Season 12 pissed people off, and YET.

The fact that they’re planning Blu rays for all of Classic Who actually makes it far more weird that they’re limited edition. You’d think they’d want these new HD versions to be the standard versions of the stories going forward, and so they’d want people to, you know, actually be able to buy and watch them.

Of course they might well do non-limited versions in the future, but it just seems so arbitrary. Especially if they’re only in the form of complete sets for each Doctor. With this non-chronological release order, those will take flipping ages.

>Upscaling only goes so far, colour grading only goes so far and enhancing certain VFX shots only goes so far.

My copy of Season 19 hasn’t arrived yet but the Season 12 release looked superb. Massive step up from the DVD. It is the definitive way of watching Season 12 and will never look better. At under £40, it is an absolute bargain IMO.

All of this (as well as the Dwarf release) means they have an HD version of these shows for broadcast and streaming and pay for it using physical releases (as with TNG).

>Whoa, where did you hear all this?! If that’s true, it’s good to know. Given how long that’ll take, I wonder where the Blu ray format will be by the end of it.

Season 26 has had features filmed for it and Season 10 has been mentioned by the Australian Distributor as coming up (I think it has also been mentioned as having features filmed). Season 26 was mooted for the end of the year. Season 14 has been mentioned on Zeta Minor by somebody who had previously provided information on Season 19 and 18 being next.

They can only make around 3 or 4 per year by the production team’s estimates. At 4 per year it will take 6 years for this range to complete.