A Doctor Who tidbit for you: The Leisure Hive (1 Viewer)

[Tony J Case]

Now, this announcement is about the forthcoming UK release, but since the US releases are right behind (and exactly the same), the news carries over to us. This comes to us from Restoration Team


This looks like another top notch disc with a superb selection of extras there. The RT has done us proud again.

 

[Deb Walsh]

I know these releases ultimately come out here in the US, but I've been getting them as they're released in the UK. It was interesting comparing my commercial videotape of Tomb of the Cybermen to the restored version - wow. The Doctor Who DVD releases have been consistently excellent. I don't generally collect Tom Baker serials, but I've kept up with the DVD releases of them because they are *so* worth having.

Now, if only we could track down more Troughton ...

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

The above is from the Restoration Team's Technical Forum. The full article about the release is here.

 

[Will_B]

Which Dr Who is in this one?

Update: I learned from Amazon.com that it is Tom Baker's final season.

 

[Tony J Case]

The Leisure Hive is Tom Baker/The 4th Doctor/The one with the scarf. From his very last season infact, season 18.

Pretty good story, if I recall correctly. I havent seen it in years.

 

[Howard Glenn]

H

 

[Joshua_W]

The John-Nathan Turner era of Dr. Who has its detractors, but I loved it as a kid. The show became so creepy and bizarre during that last Tom Baker year, that it was absolutely fascinating to my then ten year old mind.

Especially "Logopolis." The society that used mathematics for a language, the Cloister Bell signalling impending doom, "entropy," the universe collapsing, and The Watcher. Freaky stuff.

 

[Mark Lx]

Reminds me. I still haven't sent tapes for my Dalek MasterPlan Reconstruction.

 

[david_slater]

the rt team has been doing a great job restoreing dr. who.
the only bad thing is by the time everything is on dvd ill be dead more then likely.

 

[Mark Lx]

Yes, I'm not too sure about the BBC's slow release stradegy. Dr.Who is becoming more distant and foreign to younger people with passing time. I know the new show is coming out, but there is no guarantee a younger generation will be interested. I know it takes time to restore and add features, but I'm sure real fans would quite happily buy one a month. Many 60s and 70s fans will quite literally be dead and buried by the time they are done releasing the DVDs.

 

[Tony J Case]

Well, one could argue that VHS was dead by the time that the last release rolled around. The End of the Universe boxed set was released - what, about 6 months ago or so? Well after the point where the shelf life of VHS had expired.

No, I'm sure that we'll see the entire run - Horns of Nimon and all - out on DVD someday.

 

[Malcolm Cleugh]

I think the slow release schedule is due to the low level of sales, it means the BBC can not justify a faster release schedule. As a public broadcaster their commercial arm which releases DVDs can only justify DVDs if they make money. That's why their main releases are costume drama, comedy and science / natural history all of which sell much higher volumes.
Without the DW Restoration Team giving their time to produce the DVDs we would be unlikely to see them or would just get rehashes of the old video master with no bonus features.

There was an article in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper in the UK a few weeks ago talking about the new Doctor. In it it mentioned there are only approx 5,000 active DW fans in the UK who buy all the DVDs, CDs etc. Not sure what North American & Australiasian sales are like.
The only ones that sell well are the Daleks (appeal to more people but there are rights issues with releasing more of these episodes)
This is very small compared to the 100,000s of copies of the BBC comedies sold on DVD without extras eg Fawlty Towers & Blackadder so little cost but big profit.
The only comparable BBC series is Red Dwarf which also comes with superb extras but this is a comedy and as newer probably has a bigger fan base.

Hopefully with the new Doctor sales will pick up.

 

[James Reader]

Malcolm as far as I know, the Dr Who releases sell about 30-40,000 copies in the UK. Small number when compared to titles like The Office (didn't that sell ten times that amount on the first day?). Even the BBC's incredibly poor Only Fools and Horses releases sell about 60,000 in the first week alone.

However, I understand the BBC are keen to keep releasing high-quality Doctor Who DVDs. Firstly because initial research suggested most people wouldn't upgrade from VHS for barebones releases (so perhaps the fan's aren't as gullible as they once were) and secondly, and most importantly, the releases have long shelf-life in the UK and, critically, overseas. While sales may be small in America, they still (most likely) dwarf the UK sales.

 

[david_slater]

myself im not worryed about the extras, extras is just iceing. i can live with out it.
i even like dr.who in the movie format better as long nothing is cut out.
the only thing is you cant do a movie format on the first two doctors with out cuting some out so id keep the first two doctors in Episode format after that in movie format.
but i know its not going to happen. ill just have to live with the Episode format. :rolleyes

 

[Tony J Case]

One other thing to consider is that not only are the episodes being released on a nice format, the episodes get restored and cleaned up all nice and shiney.

That means that future broadcasts of the show are that much more attractive, and that the episodes will be ready to go whenever the next home format rolls around, be it HD-DVD or Holographic Crystal.

As for movie format vs episodic - actually a great many cluiffhangers were diffrent from the reprisal in the following episode. If they went movie format, a goodly chunk of footage would be missing from many episodes.

 

[Will_B]

Maybe they should treat each of the doctor's incarnations as a different series, so each month they'd release one episode from each of the doctors.

Sure, it would quintuple the Restoration Team's workload, but maybe the BBC could pay them instead of having them just working odd hours as a volunteers or whatever arrangement they have currently.

 

[MartinMcNally]

"Without the DW Restoration Team giving their time to produce the DVDs we would be unlikely to see them or would just get rehashes of the old video master with no bonus features."

For example, compare one of "The Key to Time" DVDs to any other DVD and you will notice a difference. KtT was rush released to the US by BBCAmerica to try and cash in on the Americans favorite Doctor. No extras, commentary was OK, but the video/audio was not as good.

The DVDs are in episodic format due to customer feedback on the movie format videotapes. I like it better in episodic form.

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Quite right too, since that's how they were originally made! The end-of-episode cliffhanger is one of the show's signatures.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

From the above-mentioned article:



A comparison between the old footage and the new can be seen here.

Incidentally, according to reports, the members of the RT bought the film with their own money - none of that BBC funding. That's dedication for you, and hopefully it is appreciated by the wider Who community.

 

[Randy_M]

Regarding the "Key to Time" commentaries, I personally think they are delightful, every bit as good as the commentaries on other Dr Who titles.

IMHO, Dr Who has the best commentaries in the DVD world.

Randy