On a more positive note, I'd recommend a listen to the Arc Of Infinity audio commentary. Listened to it last night and the rapport between Peter Davison and Colin Baker is just awesome!

Colin Baker has some amusing anecdotes over his hat(Esmeralda) complete with chicken noises and his jokey disdain of Part Four(Which he didn't appear in) is hilarious!

There's also some great banter with Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton as well.

Is it 'Esmerelda' or 'Ermentrude'? Ol' Colin skips between the two!

John Levines ones have always been a bit bonkers

I like the ones moderated by toby hadoake.

I love the DVD audio commentaries although after a while due to them being repetitive I kind of know that to expect from participants:

1) Tom Baker's story of grandmothers loving him

2) Matthew Waterhouse bored "oh look I'm back"

3) Lalla Ward complaining about Tom Baker or Waterhouse

4) Barry Letts still plugging "colour...separation...overlay".

5) Terrance Dicks Jon Pertwee season hairstyle story

6) Peter Davison taking potshots at his stories and annoyance over Terrence Dudley

7) John Levine's using unnecessarily pretentious words to describe him doing something like walking through a door

8) McCoy was a hero because he saved Sophie Aldred. Didn't you know that? He'll happily tell you the story again.

9) Colin Baker's bitterness over Eric Saward

10) Eric Saward's "it must have been JNT's fault."

Fun to listen to regardless of these although admittedly some of these list points are more annoying than others.

So true... he always spoke about it like nobody else in the world knew what it is.

There's also another director somewhere on the commentaries who starts talking in very authorative terms about technical matters, but unfortunately he gets his 625 and 405-lines muddled and ends up talking about 605-lines (or was it 425-lines?)

There are also occasional observations like, "Of course, this is on film," when it's on tape, or vice-versa. It wouldn't be so bad if these people left the "of course" out of their observations.

Big fan of the commentaries and I revisit them a lot.

Particularly love the Pertwee ones with Dicks & Letts because they obviously had such a love for the show. Yes they are repetitive but in my case that's often as much my fault as theirs. I tend to watch them in story order so hear most of theirs together when they would have recorded them months or years in between so it's easier to forgive the repeats of old stories. Goes with all of of those guilty this, Louise Jameson springs to mind.

I actually look forward to hearing all the stories.

Favourites are
Dicks - aliens are green
Dicks - (or Letts) - Pertwee's hairstyle &
Jameson - Janice Thorn the out of work actress.

Loved the Davison ones, yes they are overtly critical and Fielding with her constant talk of blocking and the fourth wall can get of the nerves but they bring life to some of the stories. Four to Doomsday, Time-Flight and Warriors of the Deep spring to mnd.

Davison doesn't miss a thing, Earthshock is one of my favourites and I love it when he spots the woman in shot reading a script. Also his story of one of the production staff telling Stratford Johns to tone it down a bit is a joy.

I wished they'd say when they were speaking as going back now the commentaries can lose a bit of context.

Didn't like the the moderated ones unti Toby Hadoke started doing them but he nails them.

Random favourite list
The Seeds of Death
The Sea Devils
Robot
Talons of Weng Chiang (also liked David Maloney)
Logopolis
Four to Doomsday
Earthshock

Got to say Terrance Dicks is by far the most entertaining of all the people who've done the commentaries. I know he does mention the hair and aliens are green things a lot but some of his anecdotes are priceless.

My favourite one so far is the from The Five Doctors where he commented on the scene between the Third Doctor and The Master. Dicks states on the commentary how he got 'Writer's Revenge' on Pertwee where he made the Third Doctor's stubborn pig headed attitude towards The Master a reflection of how Pertwee could be himself at times during his time on the show!

I also love how Dicks will quite jollily take the mickey out of scenes such as in the same story, he laughs about how The Doctor saves Sarah from being rescued from a slope using Bessie when it's obvious Sarah could have just got up and walked of that hill!

That's what I love about his commentaries, they are lovable mockery without a hint of contempt.

I agree it's disappointing. My guess as to why it happens is that it's just another symptom of the stage-managed press everyone who contributes to Doctor Who participates in. Everything and everyone is 'super' and 'wonderful', and occasionally 'bonkers'. It's all 'state approved' talk basically. No talking out of class. I totally understand why they 'control' all of the contributors in this way; Doctor Who is difficult enough to produce and has a difficult enough audience anyway that they don't need rogue shots across the bow from contributors and confidential information given out but it translates into very bland commentary.

Even those contributors from the RTD era still keep schtum and don't criticize, let alone those more recent. The truth is they don't really want candid opinions being put out there by the cast, crew and writers and most seem happy to play along.

That's my feeling on the major reason for the paucity of commentaries by major cast members. It's tricky for them to know what to say and not say. Look at how stage managed their responses are at conventions. It's also quite likely that the financial incentive to do commentaries is not very great for actors in the prime of their careers. Although if they really wanted to get them to contribute it would be very easy to put a couple of commentaries per series into their contracts. Thus, I assume it's mainly the former reason.

Give it ten to twenty years. They'll do commentaries for episodes and you can bet there's some great behind the scenes stuff they're keeping secret.

Dvds are on the way out though. 10 years time you won't get msny DVDs, so how can they do commentaries on them?

Must admit I prefer production info text.

Have to agree with you on this one Westy2.

As second audio track? Or a second download of the same visuals with a different audio track?

Picked up The Beginning box set recently.

Wheres the production info text on Edge Of Destruction?

No, I don't like them at all. I find the commentaries highly distracting. I think they ruin the whole feature that's on the DVD.

What is the point in having people talking over the programme? All you want to do is just watch what's on the DVD.

Thank goodness you can just press the audio button on your remote and change to the original broadcast audio.

What is the point in having people talking over the programme? Isn't that the whole point of an audio commentary though. To talk over it and discuss things while it's running.

All you want to do is just watch what's on the DVD. Not necessarily though. You might want to also find out why certain scenes are shot or funny stories. Not all DVDs have a making of or a feature that explains things and if you get say a director commentary you can hear how it's made while the film is running.

Im re watching the odd few I've got at the moment.

I've got to the Two Doctors & obviously had a look at a 'certain' item.

Has the Dvd been reissued, to remove that item, since that certain individual's death & subsequent fall from grace or is the version that might still be available in the shops still the original version?

Yeah it was. A year or 2 ago.

Bit of shame for Gareth Jenkins if it was removed from the reissue.

Wonder what both Colin & Janet made of that certain individual kissing Janet's hand?

Have never listened to an audio commentary on any DVD never mind a Who one. I love the production subtitles though. Quite often put them up during a rewatch.

Yeah DVDs may be on the way out but they could always record them for blu-ray. Somewhere done down the line they probably will release the show on blu-ray, maybe without a difference in picture quality but blu-ray can hold more so I see this happening.