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Tentative Doctor Who Release List for 2004 (1 Viewer)

Michael Sliger

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http://www.gallifreyone.net/news.php...pAVpkEygkjXhRj

More info should appear later this week, but here is what is expected Doctor Who-wise from BBC Video for Region 1 this year.

March 2: The Seeds of Death and The Three Doctors old news
June 1: The Curse of Fenric and The Two Doctors
Later in 2004: The Visitation, Pyramids of Mars, The Green Death and The Beginning boxset (with An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction) dates to be set later

Sadly, no sign of Earthshock. I was looking forward to that one the most out of the Region 2 release list.

Update: Fenric and Two Doctors are locked in for June 1. Earthshock should now be stuck into the list of potential titles for 2004. The Green Death and The Beginning should both be considered very tentative (and possibly unlikely) for this year.
http://www.gallifreyone.net/news.php...kupyAZmpjSwmMW
 

Will_B

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How lame. At this rate, the human race will have died out and been replaced by another species by the time we get even up to our ankles in the Who catalog.
 

Michael Sliger

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With the stunning level of restoration work being done to these episodes (VidFIRE, manual deblobbing on thousands of video frames per episode) along with all of the deleted scenes, documentaries, interviews, commentaries (verbal and text) and other extras (like alternate CGI effect sequences, isolated music tracks, raw studio footage, etc.), I can put up with the slow release schedule. The extreme level of quality in these releases offsets any concerns over quantity in my book.

http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/
 

James Reader

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Not really. See here especially

And I believe there are various hints about such a release on the restoration team forum - including it as a supplement is their chosen release method (although of course, it's not their ultimate decision, and The Beginning boxset is only rumoured for the UK, not confirmed).

In the past the BBC have been quick to commercially release recovered episodes quickly (Tomb of the Cybermen VHS and the Crusade/Space Museam VHS set). The Beginning really does seem to be the most obvious match for such a relase.
 

Michael Sliger

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James, the "statement" from Steve Roberts was completely fabricated IIRC. He had no idea how the article author came up with that idea as he couldn't think of a proper way to stick a lone episode into a DVD release at that point. I'd point you to his exact quote, but it scrolled off of the Restoration Team message board earlier today.

I take Steve Roberts and Paul Vanesis' posts today as statements that they have not made any real decisions on any extra content for The Beginning boxset. In fact, Steve hints that the Team may not have time to do any restoration work for that set this year. That would mean either a change in the US schedule or that someone else would need to prep those episodes for a Region 1 only release (meaning probably no VidFIRE processing, which will keep me from buying that set). Steve Manfred's contacts at BBC Worldwide Americas suggest the former would most likely happen.

http://www.rtforum.co.uk/read.php?id=59681
 

MatthewLouwrens

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Michael beat me to it - I was about to post the exact same comment.

What Steve Roberts actually said was:
http://www.rtforum.co.uk/read.php?id=59774

So from what he said, it seems pretty clear that there is not going to be a UK release of a Beginning box, and the quality would be lower than if the RT had worked on them. And given the fact that these will be the oldest episodes of the series, they will probably be the titles most in need of work.

Hard to know if I would get it if it is in fact released. The idea of a Beginning DVD Box does appeal to me (even if I can't stand the first story - other than the An Unearthly Child episode, obviously), but if it is poor quality, I wonder what the point would be.
 

James Reader

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Obviously I cannot argue with the current posts on the team's own forum, but immediately after the announcement there were a few posts from Steve Roberts were posted around the web, such as this on the Outpost Gallifrey forum


I'm not so sure an official UK release of the Beginning boxset is "off the cards", it's been rumoured for months - ever since the non-apperance of the VHS set really, but picking up in intensity over the past 6 months or so. For some reason the BBC in the UK are paranoid about announcing their upcoming titles... often BBC America announces the DVDs first (not just Dr Who DVD's but all BBC America DVDs). The denials from the Restoration Team could just be at the BBC's request, after all they don't talk about any upcoming release until the official BBC Press Release has been issued.
 

MatthewLouwrens

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Could be, but there is a lot more in Steve Roberts statement than they usually make. Usually, they will say "We cannot comment on releases before they are announced." But with this comment, while he did start with the qualification "If the UK don't do 'The Beginning'", he then continued with statements like "we don't have any time to work on it for them, we're too busy with the UK projects", which sounds to me like some kind of confirmation that they're not working on it.

Oh well, time will tell.
 

Randy_M

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I'm totally juiced for The Two Doctors , one of my all time favorites, and IHMO the best of the Colin Baker stories (gotta love them Sontarans).

Try as I might, I just have trouble getting into the Hartnell stories, other than as curiosities. Maybe that's because I cut my teeth on the Tom Baker and Peter Davison episodes...seems like they just didn't have enought money to properly flesh out the productions to the required time, and the stories have an 'unfinished' feel to them...
 

Andrew_PD

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I can't decide which region to collector for these DVDs R1 or R2

Any suggestions to which are best or which region has the most DVDs available?
 

RichardCrowther

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Depends where you come from, really.

If you live in the US, it might be an idea to stick with the local releases - they are on a par with the UK releases, just converted to NTSC (but the conversion is VERY good indeed). Same extras, etc.

The UK ones get better covers, if that matters to you - the USA ones tend to look very cut-and-paste.

The only real differences I can think of off the top of my head are that the R1 The Five Doctors has a commentary the R2 doesn't have, and the USA also have the "Key to Time" season (Season 16) in a boxset, which R2 doesn't - and isn't likely to for some time. Oh, and the R1 of Remembrance of the Daleks has had some special effects that were missing from the R2, put back where they should be. But that's about it. There might be other little niggles that I have forgotten, but nothing to worry about, I don't think.

As for the rest, well, the UK might have more out, but that's only because the US is a little behind in its schedule.

Hope this helps.

:)
 

Michael Sliger

Second Unit
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To add to Richard's comments, there are some reports stating that the VidFIRE processing on the Region 2 Hartnell/Troughton disks gets washed out if you watch them on a NTSC set (letting the DVD player do the conversion). You don't want to lose that restoration effect, so one should stick with their own region for those titles.

And of course, the 1996 TV movie is only available in Regions 2 and 4 (in all formats). The Region 1 rights are stuck in legal hell right now (co-ownership between Universal, BBC Worldwide and possibly still Fox) and that isn't expected to change anytime soon. If the movie didn't have the PAL speedup issue, I would have imported it a while ago.

I updated the first post of this thread to show the confirmed June 1 release date for The Curse of Fenric and The Two Doctors. I also pointed out confirmation that Earthshock still may see a DVD release here this year.
 

Howard Glenn

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For anyone interested, Gallifrey One now has the cover art posted for both The Curse of Fenric and The Two Doctors. They are both listed as two disc sets.

An additional note about the Region 1 versions; the Tom Baker episodes also include the Howard Da Silva narrations that we part of the U.S. airings.
 

Michael Sliger

Second Unit
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When the Tom Baker episodes were first sold to the US, it was decided to edit the stories a bit to make them easier to sell to commercial TV stations. Something else they decided to do was make clip montages at the start and finish of each episode to help remind people what happened previously and hint at what would happen in future episodes. Howard DaSilva recorded the voiceovers for them. To be frank, they are quite awful, pointless and are of little interest to anyone who didn't see them when they aired in the country. BBC Worldwide has only added these to the appropriate Region 1 disks (all collected back to back in a short feature) for those reasons.
 

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