DVDizzy Forum

I believe it has been mentioned on the restoration team forum - I'll have to go and check - but it's certainly been mentioned on the Doctor Who Forum.

Being as the DVD masters (no pun intended!) are made for the UK market and the first 3 episodes of The Sea Devils only exists in NTSC format, the masters are RSC'ed to PAL for the home market. Those PAL masters are then reconverted to NTSC for the R1 DVD - and some people are very vocal that it is introducing faults and, even that the DVD looks worse than the NTSC VHS. The fact episode one of The Sea Devils is in such bad shape makes it particularly bad

As I think I said on this thread Doctor Who And The Silurians, is visibly the worst of the restored Doctor Who DVDs to date, but when you consider what they had to work with, the results are astonishing.

The care and attention that goes into these releases in incredible (which makes it more annoying when the authoring house sometimes mess it all up!)

Although I must confess I was expecting more on the Sea Devils disc – I don't see why this wasn't a five disc set really – the Sea Devils could have benefited from a double disc too. For starters, as this will be the definitive Silurian/Sea Devil classic series release, we should have had a feature looking at both monsters outside of the series – in the novels, comic strips and Big Finish audios. Davros (and Omega) got features on such "non-canon" works.

Stop Press: The RT Trial of a Time Lord article is now up, and yes, we get a couple of extra commentaries with Eric Saward!
http://www.purpleville.pwp.blueyonder.c ... meLord.htm

Re: What Lies Beneath - this is something like I would love to see done on a Universal Horror collection, followed perhaps by a Universal Sci-Fi collection. I'm sure there's some relationship between the depression and the rise of Universal's horror classics in the 1930's (in fact, there's more than that, there's the impact of the 1st world war, returning maimed solders and their horrific appearances, the desire to subvert the Hays code and more) just as we all know the relationship between the giant insect/flying saucer movies of the 1950's to the atomic bomb and the threat of communism.

Despite the collection with the bust "gubbins", and the sequel films included, I still feel we have yet to see a definitive Universal Horror home video collection.

The Silurians DVD looks fine to me (then again, I have nothing to compare it to) and I'm always amazed at how good the quality is in both a/v and extras.

When I saw the TOATL article, it made me go watch Vengeance on Varos in anticipation.

Anyway...

Extras for The War Machines have been passed by BBFC...

DOCTOR WHO - THE WAR MACHINES - DVD EXTRAS
Video Feature
Classified 09 June, 2008 .
Run Time 44m 55s

00:04:11:00 PHOTO GALLERY
00:16:13:17 BLUE PETER - 11.10.65
BLUE PETER 20.6.66
BLUE PETER 27.6.66 (CLIPS FROM BLUE PETER)
00:07:35:22 (ONE FOOT IN THE PAST) (FEATURETTE)
00:06:38:21 THE WAR MACHINES - NOW & THEN (FEATURETTE)
00:09:13:04 WOTAN ASSEMBLY (FEATURETTE)
00:01:01:24 (EASTER EGG) (DELETED SCENE - NO AUDIO)

In addition, all four episodes were passed for audio commentaries, but it doesn't list who's in them.

I'm a bit concerned for Four to Doomsday now. The commentaries for it was passed already, but there's no DVD extras passed yet. I hope that doesn't mean it's a no-frills Standard Edition.

Albert

Just a quick question: Do both the R2 and the R1 sets of Doctor Who have English subititles?
Even after watching loads of British movies and TV series I still sometimes have a hard time understanding everything when people talk with a British accent (although I love people talking like that, especially men )
Is there any chance I might get the R1 Season 1 set cheaper than the current amazon.com price (76$ I think)?

Dottie wrote:Just a quick question: Do both the R2 and the R1 sets of Doctor Who have English subititles?

Yes. There's subtitles on the episodes and the special features, but (at least on R1) there are no subtitles on the commentaries.

Dottie wrote:Is there any chance I might get the R1 Season 1 set cheaper than the current amazon.com price (76$ I think)?

DeepDiscount has it for $70

Albert

Escapay wrote:

Dottie wrote:Just a quick question: Do both the R2 and the R1 sets of Doctor Who have English subititles?

Yes. There's subtitles on the episodes and the special features, but (at least on R1) there are no subtitles on the commentaries.

Dottie wrote:Is there any chance I might get the R1 Season 1 set cheaper than the current amazon.com price (76$ I think)?

DeepDiscount has it for $70

Albert

Thank you. I am not a big fan of commentaries anyway, so I don't really mind that much if they are not subtitled. Usually I listen to half of the track and then I get bored (I know, shame on me)

Actually Dotte, most of the commentaries on the S1 DVD set are really good (We'll ignore The Long Game's commentary as its as poor as the episode) but the rest are really re-listenable. You'll actually fall in love with the behind the scenes people, as they're all so passionate and enthusiastic about the programme.

Now some bad news (but good news for Escapay). It appears the forthcoming Invisible Enemy DVD is - to be blunt - screwed.

See Restoration Team Forum Thread

It's too late now, what's on the test disc is on the master that has gone to replication. Yet another 2|entertain cock-up (made I should add, by processes in the chain after the Restoration Team's excellent work). Its getting a bit tiresome now

On the plus side, it makes Escapay's wait for the R1 release a little more bareable. They get their R1 releases after they have been beta tested on R2 customers.

That's perhaps the only advantage of being an R1 Doctor Who fan without multi-region capabilities. R2 cock-ups get fixed in time for us (though I think I read somewhere that we've had one or two bad ones as well - Lost in Time has a glitch, and there's something apparently wrong with "The Invasion" though I don't really know what it is).

Still, I feel bad for the RT who put so much work into these releases only to have the authoring house cock it up time and time again.

Albert

My K9 Tales boxset came today!

While I never bothered to get the replacements for Destiny of the Daleks or the Davros Collection's Remembrance of the Daleks discs, I'm definitely going to send off for the replacement for the Invisible Enemy.

However, the double sided K9 and Company cover cheered me up (it really is superb and even made me laugh with pleasure, and again shows how much the producers care about the fans' needs, which makes disc screw-ups even more frustrating). And yes, K9 and Company is a DVD5 (although, as Escapay points out previous 2 episode (50min) stories have been on DVD9s.

It should be noted Season/Series 2 of Torchwood on DVD has no commentaries. This is a major disapointment, especially as the classic WHO range and the new WHO boxsets go out of their way to have a commentary on every episode (a couple of classic WHO boxsets excepted).

It's a shame, as I was hoping to hear from Burn Gorman and especially Naoko Mori on Exit Wounds (or even just Chris Chibnall discussing the decision to kill them off in more detail than we get in the "Declassified" episode for the story).

We all know a Blu-ray release will come (why they couldn't just release both at the same time is beyond me) but I foresee Commentaries appearing on the Blu-ray set whenever that arrives.

netty wrote:It should be noted Season/Series 2 of Torchwood on DVD has no commentaries. This is a major disapointment, especially as the classic WHO range and the new WHO boxsets go out of their way to have a commentary on every episode (a couple of classic WHO boxsets excepted).

That's disappointing. The second season was better than the first, and I would have preferred commentaries on the episodes. I'm also a bit upset that beyond the expected extras of deleted scenes, outtakes, and Torchwood Declassified, there's no new featurettes except for "The Lives and Deaths of Captain Jack".

I still have to get the first season on DVD, I'll probably pick it up same time as the second season.

netty wrote:We all know a Blu-ray release will come (why they couldn't just release both at the same time is beyond me) but I foresee Commentaries appearing on the Blu-ray set whenever that arrives.

Perhaps they'll release it when Season 3 premieres.

Unfortunately, there's no news on the DVD front from me as I haven't made any Who purchases since Beneath the Surface, even though there's still 8 titles I have yet to get on DVD ("The Aztecs", "The Seeds of Death", "Inferno", "The Three Doctors", "Pyramids of Mars", "The Robots of Death", "Ghost Light", and "The Curse of Fenric").

Albert

Woohoo!

TVShowsonDVD have announced that The Brain of Morbius and The Trial of a Time Lord are coming stateside on October 7!!

Looking forward to Trial, especially the "Trials and Tribulations" documentary.

The article seems to have forgotten the "Getting A Head" documentary for Morbius, though.

Either way, I'm a happy camper!

With Trial released, that leaves only two stories left for the Sixth Doctor. I'm hoping that when Attack of the Cybermen gets released (and completing the Season 22 boxset) they also give Vengeance on Varos a new SE treatment with a documentary and featurettes (like how Remembrance of the Daleks got one for the Davros boxset). Maybe even some studio footage beyond the short clips that are already included. Twin Dilemma can be last as I'm sure there wouldn't be much anyone would want to say about it (unless they were to do another "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" type documentary). But I'm sure there's also some 1983/1984 TV excerpts and studio footage that can be included.

Albert

Play have the supplements for the UK War Machines release up

* Commentary with Anneke Wills and Director Michael Ferguson.
* Now & Then - featurette
* Blue Peter - A compilation of related articles from the popular children's magazine show.
* One Foot in the Past - Politician and ex-Postmaster General Tony Benn investigates the history of the Post Office Tower
* WOTAN Assembly - featurette explaining how the DVD was created from disparate sources, after the original series fell victim to overseas censorship in the sixties.
* Coming Soon Trailer
* War Machine Design Plan
* Photo Gallery

and add to that production notes subtitles (I assume)

A few interesting points on these extras.

Firstly the One Foot in the Past featurette looks like it may be similar to What Lies Beneath as it could possibly be contextualizing the story with events, aspirations and scientific achievements of the day. Or it could just be about the post office tower (as it says).

Secondly, the restoration documentary sounds fascinating. I hope this goes into a little more depth than the previous restoration featurettes. We really do need a definitive account of the work the restoration team do on our behalf, and I hope this is it. It sounds like The War Machines may be one of their most challenging restorations to date.

Finally, no "Kinky Boots" featurette looking at Girls and 60's fashion, which was reported to have been shot and featuring Anneke Wills (and other 60's companions). I'm thinking that if The War Games is coming out early 2009, it may now be on that release, as thematically the War Games is the last of 60's Who, so would be ideal for such a retrospective. The 60's are strongly associated with miniskirts and thigh-high boots after all.

I was hoping that being as this was the "first" contemporary adventure for the Doctor since An Unearthly Child (although conventional wisdom is wrong about that, Planet of Giants counts as the first in my book – unless conventional wisdom means "contemporary with threat of invasion") we could have a feature about this decision and how it helped or hindered the filming.

One of David Tennant's Video Diaries have been passed by BBFC:

Category
DAVID TENNANT'S VIDEO DIARY
Video Feature
Classified 16 July, 2008 .
Run Time 30m 36s

Video 16/07/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 30m 36s DAVID TENNANT'S VIDEO DIARY

Albert

I've just started my Classic Who collection with the Davros boxset which was £39.99 from Big Finish. Love Genesis, still have to watch the rest.

I hope lots of Classic Who next year, I really want:

First:
The Space Museum
The Chase

Second:
The War Games

Third:
Season 8 (Master Boxset?)
Curse of Peladon

Fourth:
Revenge of the Cybermen
Terror of the Zygons
Image of the Fendahl
Not-limited edition The Key to Time
The E-Space Trilogy

Fifth:
The Black Guardian Trilogy

Sixth:
The Twin Dilemma
Attack of the Cybermen

Seventh:
Time and the Rani

The sometimes-shaky camera is great!

yamiiguy wrote:I've just started my Classic Who collection with the Davros boxset which was £39.99 from Big Finish. Love Genesis, still have to watch the rest.

"Destiny.." is okay, I tried watching it last night but fell asleep (because I was tired, not because I was bored!). It's not my favorite of the five (that'd be "Remembrance").

"Resurrection..." has a hokey story, IMO. It could have been done better, and Tegan's exit was sloppy (it makes sense, but is still sloppy).

"Revelation..." is an acquired taste, but I think it made for a great (and not very Who-ish) story. It doesn't answer some questions left hanging at the end of "Resurrection of the Daleks", but still works.

"Remembrance..." is my favorite (it's also the first McCoy story I saw). And it's got one of the best lines ever: "Unlimited rice pudding! Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!"

yamiiguy wrote:Fourth:
Revenge of the Cybermen

As netty would say:

Still, I wouldn't mind it coming out, if only so that they'd release a Season Twelve boxset with a new Special Edition DVD of "Ark in Space". Of course, being an R1-er, I'd have to wait several more months to get it...

yamiiguy wrote:Sixth:
The Twin Dilemma
Attack of the Cybermen

That's all that's left, really. Well, a Special Edition "Vengeance on Varos" would be great (my favorite C. Baker story).

Albert

What missing episode do you want to be found the most? Just out of curiosity of course, I'd love to see Mission to the Unknown, just to see a classic Who doctor-lite episode, and of course The Tenth Planet Part 4

Being a huge Cybermen fan (bar "Revenge..."), I'd love for all their stories to be complete, and would love for Tenth Planet 4, Moonbase 1 and 3, Wheel in Space 1, 2, 4, and 5, and Invasion 1 and 4 to all be found.

In addition, it'd be great to see the rest of "The Crusade" and "The Faceless Ones". As for missing stories (entirely), I'd love for "Power of the Daleks" and "The Macra Terror" to be recovered.

Also, I'd love for color episodes of some of the Pertwee stories to come up.

Albert

Stories I would like to see on DVD (and reasons) are:

Planet of Giants 1st Doctor
(it was The Rescue but this is apparently coming soon with The Romans).

Why? Because I love Barbera in this. I love Barbera generally but she's great in this (she's better in The Rescue killing the Sandbeast while doing the washing-up (how British) and creating a strong maternal relationship with Viki) but she's great in Planet of Giants too. Also, it has potential to have a good making of, what with an episode being dropped late in the day and episodes 3 and 4 being merged into one episode.

War Games 2nd Doctor
We're running out of 2nd Doctor stories - I think more animations or telesnap reconstructions will be coming to the range sooner than some people think. I shouldn't really pick this as like The Rescue it is down to be released soon, but really, I can't recommend The Dominators much (but I do love the Quarks) or The Krotons.

Terror of the Autons 3rd Doctor
Well, we need the Master's first appearance and we also need a definitive documentary on the character.

The Deadly Assasin 4th Doctor
Again, we've got to have the definitive "fried egg" Master, a depiction that still looks effective today (Sadly, his deterioration was played down in Keeper of Traken, but at least there is a possible story reason why - he managed to harness some of the power of the Eye of Harmony to start to regenerate at the end of Deadly Assasin?).

The Horns of Nimon 4th Doctor
Yes, this is pure trash on many levels and its something to laugh at, but that's fine. Doctor Who fandom has a huge tradition of laughing *with* the series as well as being thrilled with it. Who can resist shouting out along to "Lord Niiiiiiiiimon, it is I, Soldeed!"?

On a more serious note, in this story Lalla Ward's Romana plays the Doctor, and does so perfectly. Lalla's Romana is terribly underappreciated in my eyes.

Frontios 5th Doctor
My second favourite story (after Castrovalva) of my favourite Doctor. Considering its a Bidmead script, its quite traditional and has lots of humour (but quite subtle). I also love the Tractators, and the cliff-hanger of the TARDIS being destroyed traumatised me when I was a kid!

The Twin Dilemma 6th Doctor
Again, not much left. Attack of the Cybermen is nothing but fan-service, and as a result the story is... is there a story? It's pretty poor - if you're making a story for a 1985 audience, its not a good idea to have plot point dependent on stories from the 1960's like The Tenth Planet or Tomb of the Cybermen and even the Invasion to some extent. I guess Attack could have a good special feature looking at the continuity though.

Yes, The Twin Dilemma is poor, but that's okay. At least its fun and colourful to watch.

The Happiness Patrol 7th Doctor
My love of The Happiness Patrol knows no limit. Every time I see it, it gets better and better. While its so far over the top in some respects, its incredibly clever in others. A prime example of what Sci-Fi can do when it does social commentary. The closing minutes bring the tone straight down to Earth and hammer home the message running throughout without excessive preaching.

The Movie 8th Doctor
We need a better release of this, much more in the style of the current discs from the Restoration Team. And that 8th Doctor "Stripped for Action" needs to go somewhere, as I will be most upset if the excellent 8th Doctor and Izzy strips don't get a documentary. And there's still those rumours of one of the specials before 2010 featuring Tennant and McGann...

As for missing episodes, please, please, please can somebody find one (or all) of the missing episode for The Web of Fear?

2099net,

No offense, but I think you are the first Who fan to ever praise "The Happiness Patrol." Seriously a villian named the Kandyman, who looks like a cheap Halloween costume, that executes unhappy people in a stream of molten candy is ridiculous! The only statement that episode made was how bad the series had become under JNT.

p.s. Do you know when the complete Series #4 will be released on DVD?

Prince Charming 12 wrote:2099net,

No offense, but I think you are the first Who fan to ever praise "The Happiness Patrol." Seriously a villian named the Kandyman, who looks like a cheap Halloween costume, that executes unhappy people in a stream of molten candy is ridiculous! The only statement that episode made was how bad the series had become under JNT.

There's actually a few positive reviews for it at Outpost Gallifrey, with Robert Tymec calling it a "sheer work of art".

Prince Charming 12 wrote:p.s. Do you know when the complete Series #4 will be released on DVD?

Amazon.co.uk lists it as November 18, and given that R1 got Series 3 the same time as R2 (as opposed to delayed for Series 1 and Series 2), maybe we'll get it the same day too. Or, if we're lucky, we'll get it a week earlier on November 11, as that's when Torchwood S1 Blu-Ray comes out.

Albert