The 2008 Doctor Who DVD thread (R1 & R2) TV Movie in USA

[2099net]

I'm surprised your housemates didn't fall asleep watching The Invasion! It is rather slow moving. How do you feel about the animated episodes?

I'm looking forward to Black Orchid. It's a nice little two parter and it is virtually an Agatha Christie style story. And by strange co-incidence, it's coming out around the time the 10th Doctor will meet Agatha Christie on UK TV. Odd that.

I'm most looking forward to the Stripped for Action featurette on the disc, as Davison's Doctor had the epic "Tides of Time" strip which to this day, is considered one of the greatest Doctor Who comic strips ever produced.

A few other notes on recent releases:

Sarah Jane Adventures: Revenge of the Slitheen and Eye of the Gorgon
It appears the Sarah Jane Adventures releases have been pulled. Just after I deleted them from my PVR expecting to get the DVDs. I hope this means a boxset is soon to be announced. I can't believe I deleted them, especially as I have an urge to rewatch Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (As I suspect the Trickster, introduced in that episode will be showing his [non] face in this year's Doctor Who).

Voyage of the Damned
Sadly, this comes with the Christmas Doctor Who Confidential in "cutdown" format. A major disappointment, as I actually skipped watching the Christmas Confidential expecting it to be on the DVD (and because of other family commitments). However it does come with Time Crash which is on second viewing even more perfect and clever that it was on first viewing.

As for the actual Christmas special itself, I'm still somewhat neutral to it - it does to a certain extent seem to be just going through the motions and conventions of disaster movies, without actually adding anything new.

The Five Doctors: 25th Aniversary Special Edition
25 years. How old do I feel now?

This is perhaps the best Doctor Who DVD release to date, its such a complete package - surpassing even The Beginning and New Beginnings collections. It does seem that the Doctor Who releases just get better and better. Highlights of this release include the 3rd "Easter Egg" commentary, the alternative take on "No, not the mind probe!", The studio filming footage and more, so much more...

Really, compared to 101 Dalmatians, this Five Doctors release has had much more content and care involved in it's creation: 2 versions of the story, 3 commentaries, 2 isolated score soundtracks, 2 production notes subtitles, new documentries and heaps of archive footage, behind the scenes footage, trailers and continuities...

Check out the production notes on the Special Edition too - I actually though having two subtitled information tracks was overkill, but the Special Edition notes and facts are absolutely facinating.

You only have to see how the Restoration Team have VIDfired the opening Hartnell clip on the Special Edition, but left it as transmitted on the TV version to know every decision was made with love and respect for the programme and its fans.

...and it already looks like The Trial of a Time Lord set will surpass even this! 2008 will be the best year for Doctor Who on DVD yet, and that's not even considering the new series or the spin-offs!

[Escapay]

I'm surprised your housemates didn't fall asleep watching The Invasion! It is rather slow moving. How do you feel about the animated episodes?

I've watched the entire thing (without commentaries or subtitles) probably twice on my own, but whenever/if ever I watch it now, I just watch the second disc. It's a bit jarring to go from animation to live action to animation again, but I enjoyed the animated episodes. I really hope they find a way to keep doing them (I think I read that it was too cost prohibitive given the sales figures of the DVDs) for future stories.

I'm looking forward to Black Orchid. It's a nice little two parter and it is virtually an Agatha Christie style story. And by strange co-incidence, it's coming out around the time the 10th Doctor will meet Agatha Christie on UK TV. Odd that.

I'm looking forward to it too. I suspect that after Beneath the Surface in June, they'll release Five Doctors and Black Orchid in a release slot together (skipping over Time Meddler, since North American always seems to delay the 1st and 6th doctor stories).

Sadly, this comes with the Christmas Doctor Who Confidential in "cutdown" format.

Why would they bother cutting down the Confidential at all? According to wikipedia, it's only 20 minutes, so what's there to cut? Then again, it takes a look at the previous two specials as well, so that's probably stuff they cut out. I'm likely going to have to wait for the entire Series 4 boxset to come out (probably by Christmas) to get any new stuff from new Who.

As for the actual Christmas special itself, I'm still somewhat neutral to it - it does to a certain extent seem to be just going through the motions and conventions of disaster movies, without actually adding anything new.

I watched it on youtube (dodgy quality regarding both the special and the video!), and it's a fun adventure, but it doesn't really have a lot to show for it at the end of the day. Kind of like Destiny of the Daleks. It was a great adventure, but rather empty. Almost like a "why exactly did we do this again?" feeling.

And all this talk about the new Five Doctors DVD is making me more impatient for it to come here! Along with Trial! I'm really enjoying the Sixth Doctor's stories more than I should/expected.

Question: is the easter egg commentary on the transmission version or on the special edition?

Albert

[2099net]

The New Production Team Easter Egg commentary is on the Transmitted version and is in the style of the Fan commentary on Survival - and David Tennant shows his Doctor Who nerd credentials throughout.

[Escapay]

BBFC passed specs for K-9 and Company (which is being paired with The Invisible Enemy) and the coming soon trailer reveals another upcoming serial: FOUR TO DOOMSDAY

THE K9 FILES Video Feature
Classified 02 April, 2008 . Run Time 23m 51s

00:11:42:01 THE K-9 FILES (FEATURETTE)
00:03:24:23 K-9 - A DOG'S TALE (INTERVIEW)
00:02:39:08 PEBBLE MILL AT 1 (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:02:09:06 (TRAILS AND CONTINUITY)
00:03:00:00 K-9 AND COMPANY - PHOTO GALLERY
00:00:55:04 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - FOUR TO DOOMSDAY

It seems like a rather paltry set of features, so K-9 is probably the "standard" in the two-pack while Invisible Enemy is the "special".

And it looks like they're getting closer and closer to completing Season 19. With Four to Doomsday coming later this year, all that's left is Kinda. I guess that'll be a 2009 title (perhaps paired with Snakedance, since both feature The Mara), concurrent with a Season 19 boxset.

I wonder if they'll go Special or Standard Edition for Four to Doomsday. It's not that great a story (I've watched it a few times on veoh, and burned episodes 1/2/4 on DVD - 3 got screwed up in the DVD-burning process so I can't watch it), but an interesting one (especially with the Tegan/Adric arguments, the Doctor going out into the vacuum of space to get to the TARDIS, and Nyssa being the smart one when with the Doctor). I hope it's a Special Edition, simply because there's really no "Season 19" documentary yet and it'd make sense to put it on this serial since it's the first Fifth Doctor story recorded.

And netty, you'll be happy to know I finally saw Timelash. Will have my full report later, though let me just say that I now see why it's considered Lame SH!t.

Albert

[2099net]

Because I can, some covers for upcoming R2 releases



Re: Timelash

Actually, its not quite totally terrible. We just love to hate it. Every show, especially one running for 30 years off and on, has its fair share of "Spock's Brain"s.

For all it's sins Timelash is never non-entertaining. I'd rather watch Timelash on continuous loop than Revenge of the Cybermen for example. And it is - believe it or not - a much more highly regarded story by the general public of that season. Yes, people people "enjoyed" Timelash than Revelation of the Daleks. Maybe they enjoyed it for all the wrong reasons, but as I say, it does entertain. And the Borad is one of the best Monster make-up jobs of the period.

Regardless of the actual story though, Timelash is a great DVD. Because it's frank and acknowledges its faults - some would say its over frank and acknowledges too much. But much like the House of the Dead movie DVD, it's facinating to hear what exactly went wrong, when and why. Why are none of the Disney DVDs as honest?

Re: Four to Doomsday

I am very surprised this is coming out soon. We seem to be getting a glut of Davisons all of a sudden (especially if you regard The Five Doctors as a Davison). Much as I like the Fifth Doctor, Four to Doomsday is far from the top of my (or I expect anybody else's) list. It's one of those stories that just "is" - it doesn't do anything, say anything or inspire anything. It's just filler. I expect this will get a Special Edition though, because as you say it was Davison's first story filmed.

Where's Frontios damn it?

Re: K9 and Company

Have you seen K9 and Company? It is an experience! It really doesn't know what it is. Don't think of this as a pilot for the Sarah Jane Adventures. In many respects is more like a Campion episode, just without the period setting.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a standard release as I currently have the twin-pack on order for just £15. I can't complain about K9 and Co. being a standard release - I'm sure the commentary will be rewarding enough. I also suspect they will put it on a DVD5 disc as the episode is only 50mins if I remember correctly.

I'm pretty sure The Invisible Enemy ("I am not a shrimp! <strike>I am a king prawn!</strike> I am a deadly virus!") will be a Special Edition release.

(Incidently, I nabbed the 5 disc Torchwood S2 for a £15 pre-order just today, but I suspect this will be cancelled as it is quite clearly a misprice.)

[Escapay]

I really love the Black Orchid cover. The Invasion of Time looks good too, but the Bred for War boxset looks awesome over it. I wonder if I could just get the box separately, since I have the other 3 Sontaran stories (well, once IoT comes here, and once Time Warrior arrives at my local video store where I pre-ordered it).

Actually, its not quite totally terrible. We just love to hate it. Every show, especially one running for 30 years off and on, has its fair share of "Spock's Brain"s.

I've actually never seen "Spock's Brain".

But I didn't hate "Timelash" in the sense of "OMG, I can't believe Doctor who has become THIS!" I went into the story knowing what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised to find it to be a misunderstood adventure that can get thrilling at times, but is still so horribly cliched in many aspects.

And it is - believe it or not - a much more highly regarded story by the general public of that season. Yes, people people "enjoyed" Timelash than Revelation of the Daleks. Maybe they enjoyed it for all the wrong reasons, but as I say, it does entertain.

Wow...all I have to say...wow. Timelash over Revelation? Just boggles the mind. Of course, I prefer Vengeance on Varos, but that's just me.

And the Borad is one of the best Monster make-up jobs of the period.

True.

Regardless of the actual story though, Timelash is a great DVD. Because it's frank and acknowledges its faults - some would say its over frank and acknowledges too much. But much like the House of the Dead movie DVD, it's facinating to hear what exactly went wrong, when and why.

I loved the DVD (well, the documentary, which is all from the bonus features that I've seen). I wonder why they didn't include some of the existing studio footage. There's glimpses of it in the doc, so it's known to exist, surely they could have found 10-15 minutes of interesting bits and put it in there.

If it weren't a Standard Edition, it would have been interesting if they offered the "original" versions of the two episodes, with the first not containing the newly shot filler TARDIS scenes, and the second being the underrun episode that it was.

Why are none of the Disney DVDs as honest?

Because they pander to parents.

Have you seen K9 and Company?

Not yet. I've only seen the first few minutes on youtube, but never get around to watching the whole thing.

I also suspect they will put it on a DVD5 disc as the episode is only 50mins if I remember correctly.

Sontaran Experiment is on a DVD-9, I think, and that's also 50 minutes. I'd have to check my case at home, though.

Albert

[2099net]

I really love the Black Orchid cover. The Invasion of Time looks good too, but the Bred for War boxset looks awesome over it. I wonder if I could just get the box separately, since I have the other 3 Sontaran stories (well, once IoT comes here, and once Time Warrior arrives at my local video store where I pre-ordered it).

Sadly, only with a five-finger discount. Oh, they're Sontarans... three-finger discount. Unless were talking about The Invasion of Time, then its back to five.

For a clone race, they sure have a lot of diversity as the Bred for War cover clearly shows...

[Escapay]

YES YES YES YES YES!!!

AUGUST 5!!!!!

The Time Meddler!
Black Orchid!
The Five Doctors: 25th Anniversary Edition!







Albert

[Escapay]

Coming in June (for R2) is K9 Tales, a two-pack featuring The Invisible Enemy and K9 and Company.

RT Article

Both contain the usual production note subtitles, photo gallery, coming soon trailer, and Radio Times PDF, as well as the following...

The Invisible Enemy (Special Edition)
-Commentary - with actors Louise Jameson and John Leeson, visual effects designer Mat Irvine and co-writer Bob Baker.
-Dreams and Fantasy - making-of documentary (20:35)
-Studio Sweepings - behind-the-scenes footage (20:31)
-Visual Effect - featurette (16:24)
-Blue Peter - excerpt with K9 (4:30)
-CGI Effects
-Trailers and Continuity (3:45)

K9 and Company (Standard Edition)
-Commentary - with actors Elisabeth Sladen, John Leeson, Linda Polan and script editor Eric Saward.
-The K9 Files - making-of featurette. By Phoenix Media (11:41)
-K9 - A Dog's Tale - interview with K9 (3:25)
-Pebble Mill at One - excerpt from Christmas 1981 (2:40)
-Trails and Continuities (2:10)
-K9 Stories - PDFs of four books - 'K9 and the Beasts of Vega', 'K9 and the Missing Planet', 'K9 and the Time Trap' and 'K9 and the Zeta Rescue'
-K9 Annual - PDF

Since the schedule seems to be reshuffled a bit, I think it's something along the lines of this...

June - K9 Tales
July - Four to Doomsday
August - The Brain of Morbius
September - The Trial of a Time Lord
October - ?
November - ?
December - ?

Could the November slot go to a very special and highly-regarded story in order to celebrate Doctor Who's 45th Anniversary? ISTR The War Games being rumored for an anniversary release. And I read somewhere that Anneke Wills (Polly) recorded commentary (and interviews?) for The War Machines as well do interviews for a documentary about the 1960s female companions (with an odd title like "Kinky Boots" or "Girls Girls Girls") that's supposed to appear on an eventual The Rescue/The Romans two-pack.

Albert

[2099net]

I'm a little disappointed with that K9 package to be honest.

I would have thought that they could have done a little more for K9 and Company. The Making Of seems incredibly short when I would imagine that there's a lot more to say than for a normal story, being as this is the show's first spin-off. Surely they could fill out ten minutes just on the history behind the decision, and what the production team planned to do has the pilot led to a series?

I must also say, I have found the Phoenix Media supplements to be poor relations to those done by Restoration Team members, which makes me think it may be 11 minutes of not that good content.

The rest of the K9 and company disc is just filler really - the odd minute of stuff here and there. How disappointing. Why isn't there a definitive K9 documentary on either of the discs? What about building K9? Operating K9? Playing K9? Could they be saving it for the Warriors' Gate release (K9's last apperance in Who before School Reunion, The Five Doctors not withstanding).

Oh well, I managed to nip in and order it for £15 before the price went up, so I can't complain too much. Invasion of time still looks like a solid disc (discs, as I believe its a 2 discer in itself) and the sneak peeks at the "new" visual effects look like being the best yet.

[Escapay]

I must also say, I have found the Phoenix Media supplements to be poor relations to those done by Restoration Team members, which makes me think it may be 11 minutes of not that good content.

I haven't seen any PM supplements yet (since Key to Time and Invasion of Time haven't reached Stateside yet), but if they're as mediocre/bad as I've read from some OG and RT forum members, I have a feeling I'll really be dreading them.

And the entire extras package for both sets seem rather...well, lighter than I'd expect from Doctor Who. Looking forward to "Studio Sweepings", though. I love behind-the-scenes/shooting footage.

I like the idea of a "How the K9 robot worked" featurette/documentary, and it does sound like it'd be best for Warriors Gate (or any K9 story, really. Doesn't The Creature From The Pit have a line where Romana goes "Don't worry, Doctor, it's all rightl, I've got K9!" or something like that? To show how he became the easy way out, much like the sonic screwdriver.)

Invasion of time still looks like a solid disc (discs, as I believe its a 2 discer in itself) and the sneak peeks at the "new" visual effects look like being the best yet.

The RT website says it's a 2-disc now (and the decision was made when/before the discs were being authored). Pity they didn't decide to make it a 2-disc all along, maybe then we could have had a longer making-of documentary and a couple more featurettes (like a one-on-one interview with Louise Jameson, though that could probably be better on The Face of Evil). And the new CGI effects look amazing based on the clips at the RT site!

Albert

[2099net]

The BBFC has just passed THE SARAH JANE ADVENTUES - COMPLETE SERIES 1. "Marvelous" (as RTD may say). I'll be getting some SJA goodness soon!

...being as I wiped them from by PVR when Vol 1 was about to be released.

[2099net]

Re: Phoenix Media's Featurettes

I got the Invasion of Time today, and I've just watched The Rise and Fall of Gallifrey featurette which was made by Phoenix Media and it's a vast improvement on the previous PM efforts. Much more professional (better captions, interesting visuals and no echoing in the interviews) and doesn't end with the annoying "xxx is also available on DVD" most (all?) of their other restrospectives had. It's still a little short (the "fall" is hardly mentioned bar a few snide comments at the Davison era Gallifrey (I do understand BBC policy on Classic and New Who stopped them from talking about the Time War and the planet's destruction).

But it's hard to critisise the shortness when presumably PM are comissioned to produce content of a set length. Also, the fact Invasion of Time was due to be a 6 episode story on a single disc would have limited the time available in the planning stages.

They also did the David Agnew featurette, which is a spoof - but funny enough (and again, production values are high).

[Escapay]

September 2
-The Invasion of Time
-The Invisible Enemy (with K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend as a second disc instead of an individual release)

SRP $34.98 each

Albert

[2099net]

Meanwhile the R2 releases continue...

K9 and Company included in the K9 Tales set in the UK has a reversable cover, which echoes the Doctor Who DVD covers.

Play now has The Trial of a Time Lord set up for a mid-August release. And a price of £38 (discounted from £50!). Sounds expensive (I estimate this will be a four disc set), but as we know from the BBFC listing, the extras sound incredible. (According to BBFC, we may even have some episodes with more than one commentary track?)

This issue of Doctor Who magazine also has various DVD news:

Trial of a Time Lord on 18th August "This bumper release will include a comprehensive set of extras, including the definitive documentary on the Sixth Doctor's era, produced by Ed Stradling".

Other releases mentioned with a provisional release diary are Four to Doomsday (September), The War Machines (October) and Battlefield (November).

Also in the yearly survey results, one of the categories was "Most Wanted DVD release" with the following results (note some are tied). Stories with an asterisk (*) are on the upcoming release schedule (Note: The War Games - the most likely release window for this is for it to be January 2009's 'special' release)

01 The War Games*
02 The Trial of a Time Lord*
03 The Seeds of Doom
04 Terror of the Zygons
05 Planet of the Daleks
06 The Deamons
07 Terror of the Autons
08 Kinda
09 Day of the Daleks
09 Greatest Show in the Galaxy
09 Revenge of the Cybermen (are these people mad?)
12 The Ice Warriors (incomplete)
13 Image of the Fendahl
14 The War Machines*
14 Frontios
16 The Keys of Marinus
16 The Ark
16 The Dominators
16 Death to the Daleks
16 Planet of the Spiders
16 The Brain of Morbius*
16 The Deadly Assassin
16 The Happiness Patrol
16 Battlefield*

[Escapay]

Trial of a Time Lord on 18th August "This bumper release will include a comprehensive set of extras, including the definitive documentary on the Sixth Doctor's era, produced by Ed Stradling".

I take it that's the "Trials & Tribulations" feature?

Anyway, I read over at the RT forum that Bonnie Langford won't be part of any of the DVD features, which is a pity.

I'm finding myself really enjoying the Sixth Doctor stories more than I thought I would. Perhaps because it's easier for me to sit through something like Vengeance on Varos than it is to watch The Green Death in its entirety (I've tried probably four times to get through that one, and always end up spreading the episodes over a few days rather than all six in one sitting!).

Other releases mentioned with a provisional release diary are Four to Doomsday (September), The War Machines (October) and Battlefield (November).

I'm hoping (and probably already said it in this thread) that Four to Doomsday is a Special Edition and not a Standard Edition.

09 Revenge of the Cybermen (are these people mad?)

Perhaps it's new fans who haven't yet seen it and figure "Hey, an unreleased Cybermen story with the Fourth Doctor! It must be awesome!"

In three days, I'll have Beneath the Surface, which will likely take me away from UD for a few days as I go over all of it.

Albert

[2099net]

I think it must be Trials & Tribulations. As I said before I predict a total bitch-fest. I'm not a JNT defender, but I'm not a JNT distractor either, and I must admit some of the recent JNT era releases have made be a little uncomfortable watching them as poor John seems to get a lot of blame for certain events, some of which seems unfair - and of course, JNT can't answer back now. I don't know how much you know about the JNT/Eric Saward falling out (look up Starburst and Eric Saward, it should have the basics), but its bound to be covered in this doc. But when I hear Saward complaining all the time on these commentaries or featurettes, I do have to wonder why he wasn't more proactive. Saward must shoulder half of the blame - perhaps more, being as JNT seemed to let his script editors have a large influence on the programme. I certainly blame Saward for the whole violence controversy.

And according to the BBFC Eric Saward has recorded commentaries for certain episodes solo, as well as the normal group commentaries. This is no doubt because Colin Baker and Eric Saward no longer get on, and I guess they refused to record a commentary together.

Still, I was a little shocked when I saw the £50 price tag - I know its discounted to £37, but I was expecting to pick it up for £30. Oh well, I did some calculations earlier on this thread I think, and runtime wise you get new featurettes which total a runtime the same as the episodes, plus commentaries on every episode plus additional commentaries on selected episodes (?) - so the extras are actually over twice as long as the episodes, which is incredible really. The Who releases are hardly massive sellers, so I sort of do understand the pricing when they do all the work that they do.

The older episodes especially were designed to be watched an episode a week, with no repeats, and often I find that if I want to watch a story, I will watch one of two episodes a night only. If I want to watch the commentary, or sometimes even the story with the production subtitles on I'll do it in one or two sittings though.

I suspect you'll want to ration Doctor Who and the Sillurians in rations. Perhaps you'll be able to manage The Sea Devils in one go (if you can stand the 'music') due to Delgardo's perfomance as the Master.

[Escapay]

I don't know how much you know about the JNT/Eric Saward falling out (look up Starburst and Eric Saward, it should have the basics), but its bound to be covered in this doc. But when I hear Saward complaining all the time on these commentaries or featurettes, I do have to wonder why he wasn't more proactive. Saward must shoulder half of the blame - perhaps more, being as JNT seemed to let his script editors have a large influence on the programme. I certainly blame Saward for the whole violence controversy.

At first I didn't really notice Saward's attitudes in the documentaries, but when I was re-watching Anti-Matter from Amsterdam, it really became apparent. He made it sound like JNT did things on a whim based on ideas that a little voice was giving him, and it really didn't portray either in a good light (JNT if he really did have ideas that way and Saward for being blatantly nasty). I'm kind of glad he's not in the Warriors of the Deep documentary (which I'm probably looking forward to the most regarding the Beneath the Surface documentaries), I shudder to think what he would have said about it.

The older episodes especially were designed to be watched an episode a week, with no repeats, and often I find that if I want to watch a story, I will watch one of two episodes a night only. If I want to watch the commentary, or sometimes even the story with the production subtitles on I'll do it in one or two sittings though.

That makes sense, because it only really happens when I try to watch a Hartnell or Pertwee story (except for The Claws of Axos, which I can watch in one sitting without batting an eye).

Albert

[2099net]

Well Escapay, I assume you got Beneath The Surface. I'm just wondering where you stand on the whole Sea Devils "NTSC > PAL > NTSC" controversy?

[Escapay]

Well Escapay, I assume you got Beneath The Surface.

Yep, and it cost me $49.99 since I pre-ordered it at MovieStop. Of course, a couple days later after I opened it, I found it on first-week sale at BestBuy for $10 less, go figure. Still, it was worth it!

*sigh* if only Disney would put this kind of effort into their DVDs. I wouldn't mind a "What Lies Beneath"-esque documentary to show how World War II and its aftermath affected the Disney studios during their "package films" era.

I'm just wondering where you stand on the whole Sea Devils "NTSC > PAL > NTSC" controversy?

There's a controversy?

I watched the first episode for all three stories, but haven't had a chance to continue on to 2-7/2-6/2-4.

Albert