DVDizzy Forum

I'm not sure 100% where this fits... being as it will discuss both regions (with an emphasis on R2 probably). If any other mod wants to move this, then please do.

Anyhow, looks like Escapay will be happy. Black Orchid is coming in 2008 - a story he did a "Ultimate DVD" listing on in the Ultimate DVD thread.

Here's what's been passed by the BBFC* so far:

00:09:01:10 NOW & THEN - THE LOCATIONS OF BLACK ORCHID (DISC 1)
00:01:02:09 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - THE INVASION OF TIME
00:04:38:14 BLACK ORCHID - PHOTO GALLERY
00:01:27:11 DELETED SCENE 1
00:04:04:22 DELETED SCENE 2
00:01:09:08 DELETED SCENE 3
00:00:20:15 DELETED SCENE 4
00:00:48:11 (EASTER EGG)
00:02:38:23 BLACK ORCHID - FILM RESTORATION
00:08:36:09 (BLUE PETER ITEM)
00:02:23:23 POINTS OF VIEW
00:16:05:15 STRIPPED FOR ACTION - THE STORY OF DOCTOR WHO COMICS - THE FIFTH DOCTOR
00:24:55:13 DOCTOR WHO - BLACK ORCHID - PART ONE (AUDIO COMMENTARY) (DISC 2)
00:24:39:22 DOCTOR WHO - BLACK ORCHID - PART TWO (AUDIO COMMENTARY)

No "new" featurettes apart from the "Stripped for Action" one (yay! Davison's period was perhaps the most creative and innovative time in Doctor Who comicbook history). I see this being a "Standard Edition" in the UK.

And of course, it also shows the BBC are going to capitalise on the return of the Sontarans in New Who series 4 with a release of The Invasion of Time.

* Note The BBC and 2|entertain have a policy of making R2 and R1 releases identical. These extras should also appear on the R1 release later in 2008.

So far the R2 Classic Who release schedule consists of:

Beneath The Surface Boxset (4 discs) ([and] The Silurians, The Sea Devils and Warrirors of the Deep)
The Time Meddler
The Five Doctors: 25th Anniversary Edition (2 discs)
Black Orchid
The Invasion of Time

All should be released on R1 before the end of 2008, given that BBC America has comitted itself to a faster release schedule in the US.

Upcoming R1 Classic Who releases are:

Planet of Evil
Destiny of the Daleks
The Time Warrior

Sadly, no sign of the cancelled/delayed Rememberance of the Daleks Special Edition and Complete Davros Collection Boxset.

In addition R1's Torchwood S1 comes out at the end of this month (January)

The Doctor Who Restoration Team have posted their article on the new Five Doctors DVD release:

Clicky Here!
http://www.purpleville.pwp.blueyonder.c ... sRedux.htm

2099net wrote:I'm not sure 100% where this fits... being as it will discuss both regions (with an emphasis on R2 probably). If any other mod wants to move this, then please do.

Emphasis on R2 only for a few months, then it also becomes R1 discussion!

netty wrote:Anyhow, looks like Escapay will be happy. Black Orchid is coming in 2008 - a story he did a "Ultimate DVD" listing on in the Ultimate DVD thread.

Happy is an understatement, lol. But yeah, I did do an Ultimate DVD, which unfortunately will only exist in my mind as there's no making-of feature. Then again, Black Orchid is such a...simple story that the making-of would probably just consist of 15 minutes of them saying "yeah, this was a fun little change" and a few minutes of story development comments. I do like what's offered though, the Now & Then features are some of my favorites, and I'm curious about the Stripped for Action series.

netty wrote:And of course, it also shows the BBC are going to capitalise on the return of the Sontarans in New Who series 4 with a release of The Invasion of Time.

I just watched Horror of Fang Rock, and Leela has easily become one of the more interesting companions I've ever seen. Pity she wasn't in her wild girl loincloths, though.

netty wrote:Upcoming R1 Classic Who releases are:

Planet of Evil
Destiny of the Daleks
The Time Warrior

Purposely forget Timelash or wanted me to call you out on it? I don't know why I'm so giddy for it to street.

netty wrote:In addition R1's Torchwood S1 comes out at the end of this month (January)

It came out this past Tuesday, but I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. Right now it's only $54.99 at BestBuy, but that sale ends Saturday so I'll either have to pick it up tomorrow or order it online if it's ever that cheap again. (then again, I said the same thing for DWS3 and I still have to get that and S2).

And I just read the RT article, and now I'm more impatient for Five Doctors to come here than I am for Black Orchid and Timelash combined!

Scaps
(and how did I miss this thread when it was started in early January???)

Escapay wrote:

2099net wrote:I'm not sure 100% where this fits... being as it will discuss both regions (with an emphasis on R2 probably). If any other mod wants to move this, then please do.

Emphasis on R2 only for a few months, then it also becomes R1 discussion!

And hopefully by the end of 2008, with the sped-up US release schedule the R2 and R1 releases will be closer together.

Cyberpay wrote:Happy is an understatement, lol. But yeah, I did do an Ultimate DVD, which unfortunately will only exist in my mind as there's no making-of feature. Then again, Black Orchid is such a...simple story that the making-of would probably just consist of 15 minutes of them saying "yeah, this was a fun little change" and a few minutes of story development comments. I do like what's offered though, the Now & Then features are some of my favorites, and I'm curious about the Stripped for Action series.

Well, if nothing else, you'll get to see cricket being played which may be interesting being as it will only be shown for a few minutes. Totally incomprehensible to a non-commonwealth viewer, but probably intresting.

Black Orchid is a nice little "Agatha Christie" type story. It's also noticable for not having any sci-fi elements beyond the TARDIS and its crew (although the concept of a double is - if possible - rather fantastical). I was hoping this year's new series' Pompeii story would be purely historical (but apparently it does have aliens). Its about time we had a non-sci-fi Who story again.

Peter Davison's Marvel comic strips are generally accepted as being superb - especially The Tides of Time. They're noticable for introducing the often talked about Rassilon (who would later appear in The Five Doctors looking totally different from his non-canon comic strip apperance). Many of the innovations and creations of the Davison era strip survived for a long time in the Doctor Who Magazine until the birth of the New Series required a tonal shift of the comic strip. If ever you get the chance to check out the McGann comic strip tradepaperbacks do so.

Eye of Harm-apay wrote:I just watched Horror of Fang Rock, and Leela has easily become one of the more interesting companions I've ever seen. Pity she wasn't in her wild girl loincloths, though.

How many Leela stories are out? Just Talons of Weng-Chiang and Horror of Fang Rock I think. I'm not sure what you'll make of Invasion of Time and Leela in it. It's not her strongest written part (her departure is really quite illogical and clearly added on simply to write her out). However, Invasion of Time is notable for its inclusion of a "prototype" Romana character. Romana was, of course, introduced in the next story at the start of the following year's series.

Talking of Horror of Fang Rock and Sontarans... Have you noticed Terrance Dicks is looking more and more like a Sontaran as each DVD release supplement is filmed?

Ace-pay wrote:Purposely forget Timelash or wanted me to call you out on it? I don't know why I'm so giddy for it to street.

I was hoping to blot Timelash from my mind. I thought the cancellation of the Davros set put Timelash in semi-limbo (was the new release date actually confirmed?) All I will say is it's rather a good disc, but a bad story. It's also rather a good disc BECAUSE it's a bad story - there's lots to examine.

As for Torchwood, I still have mixed feelings about this. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a "blind buy". However I have just read about lots of R1 Doctor Who DVDs being repriced:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Doctor ... eases/8851

netty wrote:

Escapay wrote: Emphasis on R2 only for a few months, then it also becomes R1 discussion!

And hopefully by the end of 2008, with the sped-up US release schedule the R2 and R1 releases will be closer together.

Definitely. I never liked the quarterly schedule, it'd be great to have a new Who a month.

netty wrote:

Eye of Harm-apay wrote:I just watched Horror of Fang Rock, and Leela has easily become one of the more interesting companions I've ever seen. Pity she wasn't in her wild girl loincloths, though.

How many Leela stories are out? Just Talons of Weng-Chiang and Horror of Fang Rock I think.

Robots of Death? It's one of the DVDs I have yet to get, partly because I want to see it get an upgrade first.

netty wrote:Talking of Horror of Fang Rock and Sontarans... Have you noticed Terrance Dicks is looking more and more like a Sontaran as each DVD release supplement is filmed?

netty wrote:

Ace-pay wrote:Purposely forget Timelash or wanted me to call you out on it? I don't know why I'm so giddy for it to street.

I was hoping to blot Timelash from my mind. I thought the cancellation of the Davros set put Timelash in semi-limbo (was the new release date actually confirmed?) All I will say is it's rather a good disc, but a bad story. It's also rather a good disc BECAUSE it's a bad story - there's lots to examine.

Yeah, they chose to release Timelash with The Time Warrior in April, and bumped up Planet of Evil to March with the already-pencilled-in Destiny of the Daleks.

netty wrote:As for Torchwood, I still have mixed feelings about this. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a "blind buy". However I have just read about lots of R1 Doctor Who DVDs being repriced:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Doctor ... eases/8851

I read about the price reductions shortly after I already bought and opened Horror of Fang Rock and The Web Planet, and immediately kicked myself in the rear. Then again, I got them both with another DVD in a Buy-Two-Get-One-Free deal, so I really only paid about $16.66 for all three DVDs, which is pretty good.

Still, I'm glad there's more price reductions, it'll be discounted even more online, so when I eventually get money into my online bank account I can just order from Deep Discount or Amazon.

And I just caught the first episode of Torchwood Series 2, the one with James Marsters, who I didn't recognize until about halfway through. It was actually better than I expected, and felt like strong start. I didn't like how Tosh and Owen didn't have as much to do/say as the others, though.

Scaps

BBFC passed listings for the first three episodes of The Brain of Morbius, so it may be the next UK release after The Invasion of Time. They've also passed Time Crash, maybe it'll be in the Voyage of the Damned DVD?

Video 06/02/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 25m 25s DOCTOR WHO - THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - PART ONE
Video 06/02/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 24m 46s DOCTOR WHO - THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - PART TWO
Video 06/02/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 25m 7s DOCTOR WHO - THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - PART THREE

Video 06/02/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 8m 27s DOCTOR WHO - TIME CRASH

Stateside, we're gonna get Beneath the Surface on June 3 (SRP $59.98 ), it'll make a nice birthday present to myself.

Scaps

UPDATE:

BBFC passed the extras for The Invasion of Time, looks like it's a standard edition...

Video 07/02/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 32m 9s DOCTOR WHO - INVASION OF TIME - DVD EXTRAS

00:07:03:13 THE INVASION OF TIME - PHOTO GALLERY
00:00:54:07 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - BLACK ORCHID
00:05:15:07 THE ELUSIVE DAVID AGNEW
00:09:56:21 THE RISE & FALL OF GALLIFREY
00:03:24:07 (CONTINUITY)
00:00:24:01 (DELETED SCENE 1 - EPISODE FIVE)
00:00:55:02 (DELETED SCENE 2 - EPISODE SIX)
00:01:16:03 (DELETED SCENE 3 - EPISODE SIX)
00:00:37:10 (DELETED SCENE 4 - EPISODE SIX)
00:02:22:14 (DELETED SCENE 5 - EPISODE SIX)

And for The Brain of Morbius (along with part 4)

Video 07/02/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 24m 17s DOCTOR WHO - THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - PART FOUR

Video 07/02/2008 2 entertain Video Ltd. 51m 24s DOCTOR WHO DVD EXTRAS - THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS

00:32:04:01 GETTING A HEAD
00:06:08:11 DESIGNS ON KARN
00:01:40:10 (EASTER EGG 1)
00:01:10:15 A LETTER TO ROBERT HOLMES (EASTER EGG 2)
00:02:20:19 SKETCH GALLERY
00:02:11:19 THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - SET TOUR
00:04:33:23 THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS - PHOTO GALLERY
00:01:14:05 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - THE INVISIBLE ENEMY & K9 AND COMPANY

What's puzzling is that the coming soon trailer for Black Orchid is for The Invasion of Time...but the coming soon trailer for The Invasion of Time is...Black Orchid! So maybe they decided to switch it around? Either way, April or May is when one or the other comes out, and May or April is when the other of the one comes out (that makes no sense...). Or perhaps they're going to time the Invasion of Time release with "The Sontaran Strategem" when it airs...

So it looks like the UK schedule for 2008 is as follows:

January - Beneath the Surface Boxset (DW& The Silurians, The Sea Devils, Warriors of the Deep) - all Special Edition
February - The Time Meddler - Standard Edition
March - The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Edition - Special Edition
April/May - Black Orchid/The Invasion of Time - both Standard Edition
June - The Brain of Morbius - Special Edition
July - The Invisible Enemy/K-9 & Company - Special Edition & Standard Edition?

Scaps

Scaps

Thexy canceled Doctor Who here in Germany after withholding it for like two years and now they only showed 6 episodes. Can you imagine hoe much that sucks. Now Germany will never encounter the most evil of all creatures- the Daleks.
I' d totally buy the Season 1 set right away from amazon.co.uk if it wasn't so freakin' expensive, but I guess I'll have to invest that money. Stupid German TV.
Sorry about the rant, but I thought our Doctor-Who experts might understand.

One more question: Is there any difference between the R1 Season On set and the R2 Season 1 Set?

Dottie wrote:One more question: Is there any difference between the R1 Season On set and the R2 Season 1 Set?

It's in NTSC?

Packaging-wise, the R2 set used to be this big TARDIS box. But it's been slimmed down like the R1 set.

R2's S2 set has a "temp" audio track on the Children in Need special, but R1's is fixed.

R1's S3 is missing the "One Year Later" caption for the episode "Blink", and has the podcast commentary for "Last of the Time Lords" instead of the cast one (which I so want to hear but don't want to get via torrent, would rather get as a straight mp3), due to licensing issues.

Scaps

Okay, so what do you mean by slimmed down? I hope not slim-cases
I saw pictures of the TARDIS box and thought it looked really nice, but if it's not like that anymore I might get the R1 Season 1 set, since that's cheaper for me because of the Euro-Dollar exchange rate.
Thanks for the info.

Dottie wrote:Okay, so what do you mean by slimmed down? I hope not slim-cases

No, it's just a standard digipak, with the overlapping discs. The original R2 was...well, it looked like this...

Dottie wrote:Thanks for the info.

No problem!

Scaps

Hmmm, it's turning into another very Tom-intensive year. We need more monochrome goodness. The Time Meddler is OK, but it doesn't go far enough. A good solid restorified Trout sometime this year would be grand.

I'll just have to keep lobbying for that Mervyn Pinfield tribute box set containing The Sensorites, Planet Of Giants and The Space Museum. C'mon everybody, you know it makes sense!

Dottie, the TARDIS box is prone to falling apart (mine is just about still together, but the door won't shut anymore) so you're not missing anything.

It sucks that German TV stopped half-way through the season. You may have missed the Daleks, but at least you manged to experience the wit and wisdom of Jackie Tyler in two of her best episodes (Aliens of London/World War III). Good old Jackie. How I miss her.

As for the Daleks, it wouldn't be giving too much away to say "The Doctor Won".

As for other posts:

According to the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine I picked up last night, Time Crash is indeed on the "vanilla" Voyage of the Damned DVD. Also included is the Christmas Doctor Who Confidential (1 hour). In addition to what DWM confirms, judging from my own on-line detective work, the on-line Time Crash Doctor Who Confidential may also be included (a short Doctor Who Confidential was also recently passed by the BBFC).

Sorry Escapay, but I think your list has too many standard editions in it. I'm not going to quibble over the dates, but having three standard editions so close to each other doesn't quite seem right to me. Hopefully there's an extra reel of special edition content to be passed for either Black Orchid or Invasion of Time.

A special edition of Invaison of Time appears more likely if the rumoured "Built for War" Sontaran boxset to be released at the same time as Invasion of Time is true.

Brain of Morbius... well obviously 2|entertain are serious about getting those season box sets out sooner rather then later. I'm sort of indifferent to this news. I'm not particularly excited about another Fourth Doctor/Sarah Jane story. I'm much rather have a Lalla Romana release, ideally from the Williams era.

As for Troughton, I believe The War Games is lined up for November-ish 2008, as the show's 45th anniversary release. If not, perhaps The Dominators will be released, as this is the most logical disc for the Second Doctor's Stripped for Action featurette to appear on (being as the Quarks appeared in several of the TV Comic picture strips with the Second Doctor).

I think we may yet get another Hartnell this year too - again to semi tie-in with the 45th anniversary. The Sensorites seems to be the most likely (to tie-in with the Planet of the Ood) but personally I'd prefer Planet of the Giants. I just love Barbara in PotG, refusing to tell the others that she's done something monumentally stupid - its a superb charactisation both in acting and writing, and so just like the no-nonsense Barbara.

I just saw they're gonna show the Daleks episode tomorrow as the last one to be broadcast on German TV, but I found it on the internet anyway, watched it yesterday and absolutely loved it. Of all the episodes I've seen so far it's definitely the best (I've only seen Season 1 Episode 1-6 ). Can't wait to get it on DVD. Thanks for the pics of the TARDIS Box, it looks really cool but not really "safe", so I'm fine with the new Digipacks.

Escapay [who's not here] will be disappointed to learn the UK Five Doctors: 25th Anniversary Special Edition comes in a... slipcover.

Well 2008 is shaping up to be a massive year for Doctor Who on DVD.

The BBFC have revealed that the 14 part "Trial of a Time Lord" is going through classification now, and presumably this will be August or September's boxset (the slot taken by the Key to Time last year).

BBFC listings for Trial of a Time Lord extras:
00:02:16:15 DOCTOR WHO (TITLE SEQUENCE - TEXTLESS)
00:03:06:10 DOCTOR WHO (THEME MUSIC REMIX)
00:02:47:12 UNTITLED (THE TRIAL THEME)
00:06:29:12 THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - COLLECTION 1 - PHOTO GALLERY
00:14:22:11 WOGAN (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:06:49:08 UNTITLED (BLUE PETER - 18/09/86 - ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:09:57:14 DOCTOR WHO (TRAILS AND CONTINUITIES)
00:01:13:06 UNTITLED (35MM FILM SEQUENCE)
00:02:21:10 POINTS OF VIEW
00:08:26:14 DOCTOR WHO - THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET - DELETED & EXTENDED SCENES
00:24:58:12 THE MAKING OF THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - PART ONE - MYSTERIOUS PLANET

00:06:55:06 THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - COLLECTION 2 - PHOTO GALLERY
00:03:14:22 BBC CHILDREN IN NEED (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:04:33:16 DOCTOR WHO (LENNY HENRY SKETCH)
00:21:00:10 DOCTOR WHO - NOW AND THEN - ON THE TRAIL OF A TIME LORD (FEATURETTE)
00:03:29:22 UNTITLED (TRAILS AND CONTINUITIES)
00:05:34:11 TV TALKBACK (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:09:01:15 DOCTOR WHO - MINDWARP - DELETED AND EXTENDED SCENES
00:02:21:17 UNTITLED (A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH - FEATURETTE)
00:20:20:15 THE MAKING OF THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - PART TWO - MINDWARP

00:05:53:16 THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - COLLECTION 3 - PHOTO GALLERY
00:07:30:10 UNTITLED (SATURDAY PICTURE SHOW - ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:28:18:05 NOW
GET OUT OF THAT - DOCTOR WHO CLIFFHANGERS (FEATURETTE)
00:03:12:11 DOCTOR WHO (TRAILS AND CONTINUITIES)
00:14:02:23 DOCTOR WHO - TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS - DELETED & EXTENDED SCENES
00:10:55:24 DOCTOR WHO - THE LOST SEASON (FEATURETTE)
00:19:14:18 THE MAKING OF THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - PART THREE - TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS

00:04:59:15 THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - COLLECTION 4 - PHOTO GALLERY
00:10:27:10 OPEN AIR (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:13:30:17 SATURDAY SUPERSTORE (ARCHIVAL TELEVISION FOOTAGE)
00:55:04:08 TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS (BEHIND THE SCENES)
00:03:53:05 UNTITLED (1985 HIATUS - MEDIA FOOTAGE)
00:00:57:23 DOCTOR WHO - COMING SOON TO DVD... - THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS (TRAILER)
00:00:13:20 DOCTOR WHO(TRAILS AND CONTINUITIES 1)
00:00:22:03 UNTITLED (TRAILS AND CONTINUITIES 2)
00:00:33:15 UNTITLED (TRAILS AND CONTINUITIES 3)
00:04:35:01 DOCTOR WHO - THE ULTIMATE FOE - DELETED & EXTENDED SCENES
00:03:43:12 UNTITLED (DOCTOR IN DISTRESS - MUSIC VIDEO)
00:15:11:03 THE MAKING OF THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - PART FOUR - THE ULTIMATE FOE

That's over six and a half hours of extras, without the commentaries!

00:55:04:08 TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS (BEHIND THE SCENES)
I expect the above to be a 55 minute bitch-fest.

In addition it has been revealed that the Restoration Team are working on Patrick Troughton's swansong, The War Games and are requesting people to lend them photographs etc for inclusion on the DVD. This is likely to be the November release, to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

So to expand on Escapay's deductions.

'Classic' Who

Escapay wrote: January - Beneath the Surface Boxset (DW& The Silurians, The Sea Devils, Warriors of the Deep) - all Special Edition
February - The Time Meddler - Standard Edition
March - The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Edition - Special Edition
April/May - Black Orchid/The Invasion of Time - both Standard Edition
June - The Brain of Morbius - Special Edition
July - The Invisible Enemy/K-9 & Company - Special Edition & Standard Edition?

In addition we have:
August/September - The Trial of a Time Lord Boxset (The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe) - all Special Edition
Nov? - The War Games - Special Edition

'New' Who
March - Voyage of the Damned Xmas Special (with Time Crash)
Followed by 4 other stand-alone volumes starting in May.

The Sarah Jane Adventures
March - Vol 1 Revenge of the Slitheen and Eye of the Gorgon (4 episodes)
Unknown number of further volumes - probably 1 (with six episodes)

Torchwood
It appears S2 will be released as a boxset only, close to the end of the year for the Christmas market. Rumours are S1 will be released in High Definition soon.

I have all the 'new' Doctor Who season sets but is there any plans for season boxsets for the old Doctor Who? I know there's loads of separate episodes/serials released but will there ever be a season boxset or even boxsets for different Doctors?

Yes. Technically the Key to Time set and the upcoming Trial of a Time Lord set are season sets.

However, many seasons are close to being fully released. Especially Tom Baker's early seasons. When all titles are available for a season, a season set will also be released, in a digipack. We'll probably begin to see these next year.

I'm constantly amazed by the restoration work that is put into the Doctor Who DVDs. Really - some of the DVDs have literally stunning images - not bad for TV episodes made upto 40+ years ago. They put most TV on DVD releases to shame on both sides of the Atlantic.

Of course, the so called Restoration Team consist of a number of TV professionals who are driven to work the Doctor Who restorations and restoration techique more out of love than money.

Lots of techniques and processes have been developed by the restoration team specifically for the Doctor Who DVDs (although of course the work will benefit all TV restorations in the future). And now it appears another groundbreaking technique has been developed: Restoring colour to black and white film copies!

Read all about it here:

Episodes of Doctor Who that were originally colour but now only exist in black and white could be restored to their former glory.

In a major piece headlined Putting colour back in the Doctor's cheeks, today's Guardian reports how the colour recovery process has been made possible thanks to an error by technicians when 16mm black-and-white film recordings were made from the original colour master tapes for overseas sales before the masters were purged.

These telerecordings were liable to interference from the colour-encoded video signal, and this pattern of grey dots - called chromadots - would normally be eliminated with a filter.

However, filters were not always used, meaning the chromadots were often burnt into the film, and while at BBC Research engineer James Insell theorised that it was possible to extract the original colour pattern and decode it.

Insell, who subsequently set up an independent group to work on the technology, points out in the article: "The quality of the film has got to be good enough to have captured this pattern. We're really talking about working from the original negatives and having an HD scan made to get as much information as possible from the film."

The piece stresses that this is not colourisation, whereby colour reference material is used or colour is invented. It quotes Insell as saying: "In the colour recovery process, what you get out are the original colours."

Such is the potential that software for large-scale colour recovery is being developed, and he adds: "BBC Worldwide is obviously quite interested in releasing archive content, notably with Doctor Who and various programmes like that."

Insell also worked on the reverse standards conversion process, which was used to great effect on various DVD releases, such as The Claws of Axos.

Just goes to show you don't need shed loads of money or DTSImages to have good restoration work or innovation in the restoration field.

Great article find, netty! I'm constantly amazed by the sheer quality of DW restorations, especially since it's for a rather limited audience. I still remember showing The Invasion to a couple of my roommates (who apparently never heard of Doctor Who until I came along) in Florida last summer, and before I told them it was from 1968, they actually asked if it was some new purposely-retro-looking show that was shot recently! They were surprised when they found out it was nearly 40 years old, and I was surprised that they thought it was recent!

In addition, the article for April's Black Orchid is up, and instead of providing a "here" link, I took this extract of dialogue that was posted at IMDB...

Adric: So, what is a railway station?
The Doctor: Well, a place where one embarks and disembarks from compartments on wheels drawn along these tracks by a steam engine - rarely on time
Nyssa: What a very silly activity.
The Doctor: You think so? As a boy, I always wanted to drive one.

Anyway, it pretty much confirms everything that was passed by BBFC, and makes note that the commentary includes Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Matthew Waterhouse (The Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, Adric). Given the fact that everything Waterhouse has done for the DVDs was from like...5 years ago, I'm assuming this commentary was done way back in 2003 and just saved until now? But it would be great if it was a recent one, hopefully he was also able to do new interviews for eventual releases of the E-Space trilogy, Four to Doomsday, and Kinda.

Albert