The Gunfighters?

Who the hell wants The Gunfighters?

No-one, that's who, and that's why they are packaging it up with another story.

And now if I want to get Terror of the Autons, I have to buy Spearhead from Space. Again. Oh yeah, a different VERSION, but still the same story as I already have.

Where are:

Terror of the Zygons
The Daemons
and
The Android Invasion?

It's like they're purposely milking the release schedule for all they can get.

You know all the fans will end up buying them all over again when they come out on Blu-Ray anyways.

AND we all payed for it the first time round in the license fee, not to mention all the VHS releases.

The BBC, what a bunch of twisters.

i see your point and completley agree with you they do it in other media as well.

Actually, I want The Gunfighters. It's one of my favourite Hartnells. Why do you assume everyone has the same tastes as you?
Umm...hello? Not 'nobody'. I far prefer The Gunfighters to The Awakening.
Yeah, that's annoying, I'll grant you...
Many people would say The android Invasion was not exactly a priority. I quite like it myself, but really it isn't that highly regarded-don't assume everyone has the same tastes as you.
Yes. That's because they're running a business.
Which is their choice. And yours.
Wait...you're suggesting they should give the stories away for free because we've already paid for them via the licence fee? Or that they shouldn't try to make money on DVDs if the stories were released on VHS?

What drugs are you on?

The Gunfighters is a masterpiece.

Well in any case it's not boring and that's the worst sin classic who can commit. It's nowhere near being the worst Doctor Who story. Victory of the Daleks is worse for a start.

And as I said on the other thread, The End of the Line documentary on the dvd is really good. Worth the price on it's own.

Maybe not a masterpiece, but it's great fun!

Is that the version of "Spearhead" that was done up by the Doctor Who Restoration Team? I saw some screencaps from
the RT version and I felt the colours in it were turned up
too bright-I preferred the grey-ish tones of the original "Spearhead".

Me, actually.

The Spearhead/Terror set will likely be under a tenner in 6 months anyway. Just wait for the price to go down.

Like it or hate it, The Gunfighters has to come out at some time on DVD and there will be fans out there who will buy it. Not one of my favourite Hartnell stories, mainly because of the pointless singing that accompanies the story but it still better than The Web Planet.

As for the Auton Double Release, I haven't actually got Spearhead From Space on DVD yet so when I can afford this release will come in handy.

Yes, it may be annoying for there to be a re-release but there'll always be someone out there who will buy it for one reason or another.

Why are you blaming the BBC???

It's got nothing to do with the BBC. 2Entertain are responsible for the release schedule and they have learnt from the debacle of releasing the most popular stories on VHS first went on to hit the sales badly later on...

Well to be fair, I've only ever seen The Gunfighters when they showed it on UK Gold years ago, and yes, the only thing I can really remember is that stupid singing all the time.

Maybe some people do like it, and that is fair enough, but for anyone to suggest it is better than the ALL TIME CLASSIC The Daemons, they must just be on the wind-up.

There are a lot of classic stories still to be released, and while it is probably good business sense to disperse less good stories in amongst the better ones in the schedule, they are taking it a bit too far, roping in new releases with stories that were released ages ago and most people have already bought.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get to 2015 and they eventually release Terror of the Zygons only in a limited edition 8 disc box set called 'Let Zygons be Bygones' including all the stories where William Hartnell forgot some of his lines, for £80.

They are becoming more and more transparent with these tenuous-connection box-sets.

They should just release them all as individual discs.

Sheesh, I'd probably buy them all eventually anyways.

P.S. I don't think the reason the VHS tailed off was due to all the best stories being released first, I reckon it was more to do with the fact they took so long to actually release them all, that most people had moved onto DVD and thrown their VHS players in the bin by the time it came to the end of the run. I remember getting the Five Doctors on DVD (another one they re-released later) in like 1998 or something, and they were still no-where near to having all the other episodes released on VHS at that point, despite having started in 1983 or 1984 or something.

That was the original premise for instigation of the license fee.

It's since been ignored by the media moguls in their mad rush to get as much or our hard earned money as they possibly can.

It really is amazing how people will happily pay over and over again for the same thing.

Maybe only in terms of the live transmission of the TV picture into peoples' homes. In the days before video recorders.

The licence fee has never been meant to pay for the production of the same material on formats that can be replayed time & time again.

So essentially your complaint is that you don't like some of the stories they're releasing? Well, that's hardly their fault, is it?

Me too. Though I think I've got it on video somewhere.

Very true. The gunfighters was FUN!! The singing added that little bit extra and made it an "away from the normal" episode.

Then perhaps you should watch it again?
I personally prefer The Gunfighters to The Daemons, and I'm not on a wind-up. In fact, while The Daemons is OK, it's certainly nowhere near my personal top twenty and I actually prefer most of the Hartnell era to any of the Pertwee era despite having grown up in the 70's. Is that OK by you? We don't all like the same things.
Who decides what are the 'less good' ones? You? Some people might love the McCoy era and think the 1970's stuff was dreadfully tedious, if they're of the age where they were getting into Who in 1987. Are they wrong because they don't share your personal preferences?
Ah. Cheap shots at Bill Hartnell. Nice.
Most people had not 'thrown their VHS players in the bin' by 1998. I still have mine. I can still buy new blank tapes for it, too. You seem to me to, like, make an awful lot of baseless assumptions based on your own life.

Or something.

The Five Doctors was initially released on DVD in November 1999.

Relevant release info for all formats is detailed here:

http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/vi...ds/index2.html

Iv'e noticed that very often on ebay you can buy the individual dvds from boxed sets seperately, often a lot cheaper than buying them as a boxed set in the first place. I bought The Romans and The rescue seperately and only paid a couple of quid each for them. OK i don't have the "box" but apart from that they are fine.

Too be honest, the story isn't that bad, but as discussed, the singing really ruins. I know it was trying to be different but it didn't work for me.


Maybe they have a reason for not releasing The Daemons yet. Episode 4 was in Black and White form only at one time. maybe they are trying to recolourise it to get it right for release.



Very surprised they haven't released Terror Of The Zygons yet. I thought they might have released it with Revenge Of The Cybermen.


Tell you what I do with Box-Sets. Let's take the Mara ones for example. I took Snakedance out of the box, put The Visitation in the box with Kinda and have Snakedance separately where it should be. Not for everyone to do that I know but it works for me.

Almost all of the original series and the first four new series were shot on standard definition video. The only story which might look better on Blu-ray is, ironically enough, Spearhead from Space which was shot on film. Even then, the original film would need to have been kept in a decent-enough condition to be cleaned-up for Blu-ray.

So, it seems the fans won't end up buying them all over again when they come out on Blu-ray because there would be no point whatsoever in Blu-ray releases.

Absolutely. When I've got all the DVD releases that is it. I collected them all on video, now I've done it again on DVD to gain space. Not only that, considering the slow release rate, I really can't be bothered to wait years for another set of releases.

I love The Gunfighters. It's fun. Some bits are laugh-out-loud funny (the Doctor calling Wyatt Earp "Mister Werp"). In amiongst the laughs, there are some really nasty bits (poor Charlie the barman). The Gunfighters is great entertainment. I'm terribly sorry that you don't like it, 8balls.

Yes, it was paid for by the licence fee in 1966. Does that mean that we should all be given a free copy of it now? If I paid to see Star Wars on the big screen, should I expect George Lucas to drive up to my front door and give me a personal copy of it? I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

I can understand your grumble about Spearhead re-release, but there are extra extras on it, and the PQ really is amazing. i don't normally get worked up about PQ, but I was impressed here. You could hang on a bit and get it off Ebay for cheapness.

As for re-releasing on Bluray: I don't have a Bluray player and don't intend to get one. If the DVDs are shoved out on Bluray, and are exactly the same releases (with the same extras etc) as on DVD, you are a fool if you buy them. I am still happy with my old VHSs and am only getting the DVDs for all the extra features on them. Upgrading stuff to new technology doesn't make any difference to me. It's the story that counts.



I rather like the song. It underlines the fun, and underlines the nastiness. The song changes from funny to grim, and has a real impact on the storytelling. it's unique. Great fun. Technically, the story is fine: the sets are good, the design is good, the story makes sense and the dialogue is pretty good. I can only apologise to 8balls that they forgot to put the Master in it.



I see the same happening with DVD as happened with VHS, even though they said it wouldn't happen. They've ended up leaving a load of Pertwee til the end because they're trying to jiggerypoke the technology to colour in the B&W episodes. The same happened with VHS: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Mind of Evil, Ambassadors of Death left til the end, with some random Hartnells shoved together in a boxset.

They have left some of the big-hitters til late on: The Daemons (maybe a colour issue again?) and Terror of the Zygons are the obvious examples of "big" stories not yet available. No need to rush these things though. It can't be a peach of a DVD every month. There are some ropey DW stories (naming no names ... Planet of Giants ...), and it wouldn't be right to same the worst til last.



I don't think anyone did suggest that Gunfighters is better than Daemons. Although, when I first saw The Daemons, it wasn't nearly as good as Received Wisdom suggested. It's very good, but not that good. Tomb of the Cybermen syndrome all over again ...

Why would you throw your videoplayer in the bin if you're still buying videoes? It makes no sense. All this rush to upgrade to the next technology when there's nowt wrong with the current technology. Frankly, Magic8ball, you've only got yourself to blame in this instance.

There was an issue with the VHS releases petering out because they took too ong to release them. The schedule got v unpredictable towards the end. they won't be doing that with the DVDs.

Some of the DVD boxsets are very tenuous. I love The Gunfighters and The Awakening, but pairing them up and pretending they're connected is a bit desperate. Especially when it would make more sense to pair Awakening with Frontios ...



I think you've hit the nail on the head here, Fuzoid, especially as Magic8ball has backtracked and admitted to only ever having seen the Gunfighters once, on satellite telly, a few years back. Has Magic8ball seen The Daemons? I only have it taped from telly, from its mid 90s repeat. It's in a box in the attic somewhere and I haven't seen it for years. I am sure a lot of people (not all people) are only thrilled by the thought of it because (a) they haven't seen it, and (b) they are accepting the word of people who saw it when they were 8yrs old in the mid 70s. The Daemons has always had this weird effect on DW fans. Tomb of the Cybermen syndrome!

Hartnell really shines in this story-and, in fact, in any story where he's given a bit of comedy to do!
I'm exactly the same. I buy the DVDs basically for the commentaries. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.


What's wrong with Planet of Giants!!?

I could understand it if you'd said Colony in Space...
I did. And I stand by that.
>applauds loudly<
The same received wisdom which states that Genesis of the Daleks is terrific when it actually runs out of steam around episode 3, and that the TV Movie is abysmal when it's actually quite fun.

Not to throw a spanner into the works of this argument or anything but... go look at a recent Who DVD release. Have a look at the special features list. Commentaries, documentaries, outtakes, restorations even replacement effects (and in the case of some stories were not every episode has survived replacement material). This stuff does not come free and is NOT covered by the licence fee. Nor is the cost of transfering the material to DVD in the first place, nor is distribution of physical media nor... well, you get the idea.

Now if the BBC was charging to view these shows over the air you may have a point but as they're not...