Doctor Who Lost In Time Collection question (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Kaye]

There is a special release in 2005. It's a big boxed set of all 13 episodes of the new series, and is coming out in November, which is when we would normally see a special release! BBC Worldwide were hardly likely to release a boxed set of old Doctor Who at the same time, were they?

What with the barebones releases of the new episodes over the next few months, and the ongoing classic Who releases which seem to be at the same rate as last year, there's more Doctor Who coming out on DVD this year than at any time other than the 40th anniversary in 2003.

 

[Tony J Case]

*boggle*

420 lines of resoultion on crappy video tape from old broadcast masters vs lovingly restored, chocked full of extras. . . .

Sounds like it's YOUR loss.

 

[Mark Lx]

"lovingly restored, chocked full of extras"

But these don't exist yet Tony. That's my point. There's only a handful. I've bought many of the DVDs. What if I don't want to wait 20 years to watch a favourite again. Most Doctor Who WILL NOT be released on DVD, while far lesser shows have being released in full (including several incomplete BBC series).

Sorry Jonathan, but that's a completely different show, and the classic show release schedule is being slowed as a result of it. As I predicted.

 

[Martin Rendall]

Also, watching Doctor Who is about, well, watching Doctor Who. Let's be honest here - who cares if it's crappy VHS quality? The point is to enjoy a great! (and yes, cheesy) show. Watching on VHS doesn't really diminish this experience. It's still looking better than you saw it when originally broadcast in the UK.. He he.

I too would be snapping up cheap VHS's if I could find them around here...

Martin.

 

[Tony J Case]

Um, what? No it's not. The Claws of Axos is next month, Revelation of the Daleks in July, Web Planet or Frontios in September and City of Death in November.

Thats the same by-monthly release schedual we've always had. The only disc that has slipped was the In the Beginning set.

 

[Lord Dalek]

And we in Region 1 are getting Liesure Hive and Ghost Light in June. What's so slow?

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Is there an official online statement anywhere that proves this, or this just fan assumption? I've not heard of any official "decree."

The only problem in it taking as long as the VHS releases did is that DVD-Video probably won't survive as a retail format for nearly as long as VHS has. DVD-Video will likely be replaced by one of the two competing "high def" formats within the next decade. It took almost 20 years to release the whole series on VHS, although I will admit that first several years only saw a handful of releases.

As long as sales are healthy, I'm sure Doctor Who releases will continue and the whole series will be rolled out on some sort of shiny disc, but it's a little early to expect that every story will be released on the present DVD-VIdeo format.

The BBC's "every story on VHS" pledge has to be seen in context: most of the series had already been released by the time DVD was becoming a standard, so there wasn't much to lose by going ahead and releasing the last couple dozen stories onto tape. If we were only halfway through the series on VHS today, you can bet the BBC wouldn't be releasing the other half on video. They'd simply move on to the next consumer format.

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Steve Roberts (of the Restoration Team) has stated on more than one occasion on the Doctor Who Technical Forum that the BBC has committed to release every title on DVD. Since it's the Team that restores the episodes and produces the extras, I'm inclined to believe him!

As for HD superceding DVD, even ignoring the "is DVD doomed?" arguments (both for and against), the fact is that Doctor Who (and other video-acquired programmes) does not need any more resolution than DVD. Yes, HD formats will allow better compression, but Doctor Who on DVD looks as good as the source material allows.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Some sort of DVD (be it the current form, or an HD form) I will believe. The current standard? I'm sure that remains to be seen. That may be the official line, but it's vague enough that changing over to a new standard a few years down the road can happen and still make that statement true.

Of course, none of this is anything we should worry about for the forseeable future. Just enjoy your tapes of unreleased stories for now and as the discs eventually materialise, get the disc if you so desire.

 

[Martin Rendall]

Hey, if they get half way though the catalog on DVD, and switch to a HD disc format and continue the catalog, I'll be happy. You know that the players will all be "universal" anyway.

Martin.

 

[Mark Lx]

You guys are dreaming. You can't even conceive of what format you'll be watching in 20 years, which is the pace they are on. Steve Roberts won't be working then, so it doesn't what he of any other corporate representative says about it.

Again, other lesser shows are released in full. Other BBC incomplete/missing shows have been released. Release what you have and then put new editions as they are improved. If it wasn't Doctor Who, you'd be shaking your head. But we expect it.

 

[Tony J Case]

Ok, then - how do you release the show? Boxed sets starting from the beginning? Well, overlooking that pesky problem of incomplete seasons, what if McCoy is my favorite Doctor? That means I have to wait years before I even get to season 24.

Even if they stepped up the release rate to a season boxed set quarterly, it'll still be 6 years out before the whole series is done. And can you honestly say that you'd be willing to drop that kind of bread that quickly?

Sure I'd love to have the whole show out NOW, but I'm willing to be patient. Theres more than enough now to give me the quick fix, if I need a shot of Who.

 

[JasonLa]

I concur on having patience I'd rather a company take the time to release a show rather than push it out to satisfy the consumer and then end up with a hack job of a set with music replacements and syndicated episodes and whatever stuff ends up happening when stuff gets pushed out too quickly.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Plus, the simple fact is that if we were to increase the volume of releases, then the episodes simply could not have the restoration work done for them. The Doctor Who Restoration Team is a group of guys that do the work as a second job. They all have day jobs in the BBC, and then they work on the DW releases out of a love for the show. And the show looks great as a result. It hurts to go and watch other unrestored BBC titles after watching Doctor Who. If I had to sacrifice restoration just to increase speed of release, I would definitely choose restoration.

Plus, my wallet couldn't afford a large volume of Doctor Who box sets in a short space of time.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Yeah, I'm all for restoration over speed. If they didn't take the trouble to restore/repair the episodes (even if you don't count the extras), just think as the state that the black-and-white episodes would be in. Would there really be much of a reason for most of us to upgrade from our VHS copies if they were going to use the same old crappy transfers?

If it weren't for the quality of restoration, I doubt I'd have bought any of the Who DVDs by now. As it stands, I have a small handful that I'm adding to gradually. Works for me.

As I (and others) have already said, if you have gaps in your collection that aren't on DVD, for Heaven's sake, buy the VHSes (they're certainly cheap enough on the used market). They're good enough for "viewing copies" until you can gradually replace them with DVDs.

Despite what we Who fans would like to believe, the Doctor Who DVDs are not "best sellers," not even in the UK, where in the '80s and early '90s, the VHSes regularly placed in the top 10 video sell-through charts. If I recall correctly, not even a single Who DVD has placed in the top 20 charts, or if they have, it was for a single week only, then fading into obscurity.

A big increase in the quantity of Who releases might please some of the fans, but would most likely be catastrophic for sales, and could see the BBC deciding the DVD range is a financial disaster and be discontinued. The BBC are releasing exactly the amount of shows that they think the (UK) market will bear.

The show's been out of the public profile for a good many years now, and was in decline in its latter years, so there is not the large fan base that there once was. Perhaps the new show will bring in a lot of fans, but most likely, the new bods will only be interested in the new show.

 

[Tony J Case]

Actually the RT has said that they could easily increase the output without the restoration quality suffering - so at least THIS factor is not holding us back.

(And before someone points to the Key to Time set, that wasnt them. That was the provence of BBCWW and the R1 mastering division. They used the same process, but not nearly to the level of detail that the RT does)

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

You know, you're right. I don't remember them saying it before, but the day after I made that post, that was stated on the DW Restoration Team forum. I withdraw and apologise.

The big question is, by how much could the output increase without impairing restoration?

 

[PhilipG]

I don't want the output to increase any faster than one every other month. It's hard enough keeping up with releases as it is (what with all my other DVDs to watch as well). They ramped up the speed of the Doctor Who VHS releases to the point where I couldn't keep up, so I stopped collecting them entirely.

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Exactly why the current DVD release rate is what it is. And the last week on the RT forum there was confirmation that the release rate will continue as is for the foreseeable future and will not be affected by new series DVD releases.

 

[Howard Glenn]

Doctor Who on DVD is an absolute treat for any fans of the show.

I had the entire series run on VHS, but as the discs began coming out I realised my tapes were destined to sit and rot for all time...and last year I finally gave them all away.

I'm also willing to be patient with the releases, especially given the first rate job being done by the restoration team. At the same time, it would make sense that a story arc such as Trial of a Time Lord came as a box set.

I know it seems unlikely, but when next season comes along, it would be great to see another story with multiple Doctors...and or even a guest shot with some old companions such as Jamie or Sarah Jane Smith. For that matter, I'd love to see appearances by the original doctors. I'm still impressed by Richard Hurndall's performance as the first Doctor...I'm sure there there are some fine actors out there who could reprise William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, or Jon Pertwee's doctors.

There are so many great stories...I'm dying to see The War Games on dvd!


Howie