Doctor Who '05 - perhaps October? (1 Viewer)

[Jake Yenor]

Thanks! I'll make sure to do that when this is up on the site.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

For anyone who has seen the series all ready, you can vote for your favorite episodes...

http://www.gallifreyone.com/poll2005.php

 

[Tony J Case]

So I was surfing about, and found this article about the commentary on The Long Game. Not much news, but a fun read:

More Time Lord for your money? We delve into the wealth of extras contained on the Doctor Who Series One box set
It’s a pleasant August Saturday and the day of the recording of the final Commentary track for the long-awaited Doctor Who box set, containing all 13 episodes of the wildly popular new series and a host of extras. This track is for episode seven The Long Game, in which the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companions Rose (Billie Piper) and Adam (Bruno Langley) arrive on Satellite 5 and discover a news-gathering collective. Reporting to The Editor (Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg), on close examination the Doctor realizes something is seriously amiss…

The Commentary features director Brian Grant, and actors Langley and Christine Adams (information downloader Cathica), the last of whom is very excited about the prospect when she’s told exactly what she’s doing.

“I have a tendency to finish watching a good film and go straight on to the Director’s Commentary, which actually I’m starting to realize is not always the best idea. I’m a film buff and an actor and I always like to know how directors approach something and how actors approach something.”

Langley is also enthusiastic, if a little disconcerted, by the BBC’s rock solid security procedures just to get into the building. His concerns are alleviated when we make it to a marked out ‘safe area’ of Television Centre, which is apparently impregnable. Relaxed, he and Adams discuss the amount of fan mail they’ve received since being on the show. Langley admits that he’s no longer getting any mail about playing Todd on Coronation Street (in which he appeared for three years) but receives at least four letters a day about Doctor Who (in which he appeared for two episodes). Adams says she only gets a couple per week, but is worried about having the time to keep replying to them all.

During the Commentary, Grant admits to borrowing much of the style of the show from Blade Runner. Langley claims his character is “a bit of a wimp” and Adams thanks the quality of the lighting for her on-screen attractiveness. With the track recorded, they settle down for a supplementary chat with Ultimate DVD.

“It was fun!” says Adams gleefully. “It’s actually nice to watch it back with the director because obviously an actor never gets to see that. Watching it with Brian, because he’s seen the whole thing from beginning to end, it’s quite interesting to hear his comments on certain things which as an actor you’re not always aware of when you’re doing it.”

“I think the hard thing,” Grant considers, “because there’s so many DVDs out there, is somehow not to be derivative. You want to get the balance right between giving information which people who will watch this are interested in, but not repeating yourself and not saying things that they already know. People are very educated out there now because of this tech-nology, and people who are film buffs know what a green screen is, know what you’re doing, and yet some people don’t. So I think getting that balance is the trickiest bit, without sounding condescending. I always think it’s important you keep a balance between the technical side of things and the character side of things and what the story’s about, or my, as a director, interpretation of the story. Because somebody else directing this would have done something different.”

 

[Lord Dalek]

As it looks more likely that this set ain't comming out in the States anytime soon (thanks BBCWA, you've got the RT forum guys making fun of us!) I guess I'll have to import from Canada.

 

[Tory]

I already preordered the UK one which will have some things not on the Canadian one:

http://www.gallifreyone.com/news-arc...php?id=10-2005


By the by check that site for pics of the new design of classic Doctor Who villains.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Unfortunately, the UK set also has some other things that the Canadian set does not, which are dealbreakers for me:

1. A PAL picture (that will have to be converted by the serviceable, but inferior to broadcast-quality, converters built into DVD players) versus a broadcast-quality NTSC picture on the Canadian set.

2. Likely to have a much higher price tag, given the strong pound and weak Canadian dollar against the US dollar.

Unless you're hard of hearing, I can't see how losing subtitles on the commentary can be a fair trade-off for having to convert the PAL picture into NTSC. Unless, of course, you own a multi-standard TV, to which I would say, get the British set if you can afford it.

Are the audio description tracks all that important? I could see if substantial extras, such as extra footage or documentaries went missing, but really, is it worth it?

 

[Tory]

I don't care much about audio description but subtitling the commentary is a great idea that should be used more often.

From what amazon.co.uk tells me my cost will be $66.66 / £38.29,it is higher now at £44.99. I ordered this with another preorder that shipped a month ago, I combined them to shrink some shipping costs. They already charged the shipping, I do think I will be losing out if I were to cancel and I feel as though I have waited long enough. How much do you reckon this set will be selling for in Canada or the US if it ever comes around?

Oddly enough I have received imports faster from the U.K. than Canada and in a much better state of being as well. Sadly, I do not have a multi standard TV but I have noticed no problems with my PIONEER DV-383S Multi-Zone DVD Player and I have seen some bad conversions on other players.

 

[RickER]

What are the restoration guys saying about us? I want the damn thing!
They do great work by the way. Love how the classic shows are looking on DVD.

 

[Tony J Case]

Just another reason that I'm glad I didnt get the R2 version:

 

[Malcolm Cleugh]

They have stopped subtitling the commentaries on the DW DVDs. This was done as a cost saving when the BBC stopped releasing DVDs themselves and switched to the 2Entertain joint venture. I read it costs a few thousand pounds to produce subtitles, although there has never been official confirmation of cost.

We still get commentaries subtitled by other distributors eg Fox and Paramount in UK R2. I like it as you can watch the film with its original soundtrack whilst reading the commentary, saves having to watch the film twice.

Audio descriptive tracks are growing in popularity in the UK as many of the major studios (Disney being most keen), now include them on their new feature film releases.

 

[Clay_E]

Unfortunately, this is not listed for pre-order on Amazon.ca yet...still, I suppose we *do* have a little time yet!

 

[andrew markworthy]

Got it, seen it, it's excellent. I didn't notice any particular problems with any of it, and if the music has changed on one trailer I frankly couldn't give a fig.

My one criticism is the box which is way too unwieldy. I'm already short of shelf space and frankly a slimmer design would have been very welcome.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I'm waiting for the r4 to be released, so I haven't actually seen it yet, but I am dreading the packaging. The idea of a TARDIS-shaped box is awful, and results in a package much larger than 5 discs actually demand. Plus, what about the season 2 release? Whatever design they come up with for that will immeidatey be inconsistent with the TARDIS-package for season 1.

 

[alan halvorson]

This set was delivered yesterday and I had time to watch about 1 1/2 episodes. The box is neat but where to put it? I'm not impressed with the encoding at all, plus there was a glitch at the end of Ep. 1, between the end of the show and the credits. I "Played All". For some reason, the navigation buttons on my machine would not function with disc 1 so there was no other choices for me. Were that the main problem I would be happy, but this set has the worst moire I have seen for quite a while. Very distracting. For the price charged, the encoding should have been much better.

I did like the new Dr. Who.

 

[Anthony W]

The Sci Fi Channel newssite is reporting that BBC told them the US will get the DVD release for the S1 box set on Feb 14. msrp= $ 99.98

Good... now I wont have to wait on shipping from Canada

 

[Derek_J]

I hope that part's false.

 

[Malcolm Cleugh]

This is comparable to the UK price which has an rrp of GBP 70 but is on sale for around GBP 45 online and GBP 50 to 55 in B&M stores.
Converting these to a USD price gives just under USD 100.

The price however is very over priced for a 5 disk set of a TV series.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Just because the suggested retail price is 99.98 doesn't mean that's what it's going to actually cost.

Most online retailers charge quite a bit below list price. The suggested retail for the average Dr. Who release is $24.95, but Deep Discount is selling them for $18.73, or about 25% off of list.

If a similar discount holds true for this set, expect to actually pay about $75.00, which is about what you'd pay to import the UK set (technically, an import from amazon.co.uk--less VAT--is about $69, but you have to take into account that this title has been on release a little while and is probably discounted further than its original price, plus you've got the PAL picture and disc defect to contend with).

Hopefully, the disc fault on the first release that keeps the end of one episode from playing properly wthout a workaround will be fixed for the US release.

Maybe we'll even be luckier and get a decent Amaray-type case for this instead of the hated cardboard "tardis" box.

I'm glad I waited. See, it pays to be patient!

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Boy is that good news. Looking forward to hearing other people's comments once they finally get to see it.

I went to Amazon and I guess it is not up for preorder yet.

 

[Derek_J]

Still too much. The most I've paid for a full (22+) season of any series is about $60 + tax CAD.