Likewise - funnily enough, I prefer this boxset over every other Classic Series DVD released or scheduled for release this year, with the exception of 'The Deadly Assassin' and 'The War Games'.

IMHO, Nimon, Underworld and The Time Monster are infinitely more entertaining that Delta, Attack, Planet, Frontier or the entire E-Space Trilogy.

In fact, the Planet / Frontier boxset should come with a medal to reward those who manage to sit through 'em without slipping into a coma...

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that this new boxset is a wind-up...

Regards,

Cypher

oooh..... could this be another one of those boxset predicitons????? RTD did mention the Nimon last december, i have a friend in Edinburgh who would Love to see them return!

The documentary on the romans is kinda wierd, it's got Christopher Biggins talking about costume design in I Claudius at one point. All well and good, but I'm not sure it's that relevant to dr who.

Just to further that JCR.
(Sorry if it's already been posted)

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id...-in-april.html

Me too but PLEASE no digi pack!

Not classic series but 2entertain are releasing Doctor Who: The Cybermen on 13th April. It has Rise of the Cyberman, The Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts and Doomsday, a 10 minute interview with David Tennant and a Cybermen documentary showing the 25 best Cybermen moments.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id...-in-april.html

But not "The Next Doctor"? Bit odd to put out a dvd which is essentially just bits of the Series 2 boxset.

I'm really pleased that Tom Baker and Louise Jameson have recorded their first commentary together for Image of the Fendahl. That should be good. I'm sad, though, that Chris Boucher is apparently not on the DVD. Since the director and producer are both dead, it would have been nice to get something from the writer on this DVD, especially since he only wrote three Doctor Who scripts and they were all pretty good.

I'm sure Christopher Biggins is a big Doctor Who fan though!

I think this can be the problem with DVD retrospectives that go back as far as the early serials. There aren't necessarily too many people involved who are either a) still alive or b) have any clear and interesting recollections. So you end up with padding.

They apparently did one for Robots of Death as well at the same time.

Really? Is Robots of Death expected to get a second issue on DVD then?

According to Play.com

Image of the Fendahl - April 20th
Deadly Assassin - May 11th

I half expected all those original releases with no frills on and silver (not picture) discs to get a reissue.

They've said they'll reissue the early ones- Caves of Androzani, Robots of Death, Spearhead, The TVM etcra- as they had limited extras and picture remastering techniques have got a lot better since they came out.

Play now have Delta and the Bannermen up for preorder, out 22nd June.

Any news on any decent stories this year?

Me luuuuuuuuuuuuurve Delta and the Bannermen!

The DVDs are whizzing out this year, aren't they?! Haven't watched any of the Warriors/Decay extras yet, and have now got Rescue and Romans sitting on the shelf.

Not surprised to read the suggestion that Planet of the Daleks / Frontier in Space is hard work. I remember Planet being the boggest of bog standard Terry Nation scripts, but haven't seen it for years. I don't remember ever having watched Frontier in Space!

The BBC seem to be going out of their way to release the crappiest stories to make fans think they are lucky when these titles appear.

Delta and The Bannermen FFS

Even when they get round to releasing quality from Pertwee and Baker they choose the poorest stories.

I guess the Planet of the Daleks was chosen simply to brag about being able to return episode 3 to colour after 3.5 decades
And its a neat way of palming off Frontier In Space too.

Ironically Terry Nation only ever wrote 2 decent Dalek stories - the first one in 1963 then Genesis in 1975

The only other decent Dalek stories were written by other writers.

Come on BBC.

You recorded the commentaries for Terror of the Autons about 5 years ago.

Where's the dvd?

Deadly Assasin and Image of The Fendahl are two of the best old Who stories.

Good to see Wanda Ventham is doing the commentary on Fendahl - hopefully there will be a passing reference to the fact she and Dr Fendahlman (Denis Lill) wound up playing husband and wife in Only Fools and Horses.

They do seem to be releasing some very poor stuff this year - the only one i'm looking forward to is 'The War games'.

And no five-era stuff at all this year! Why have they released all the dross and none of the good stuff?! There's something very wrong about the idea that 'Time-flight' and 'Warriors of the deep' have been released, whilst the Black Guardian trilogy and the Mara stories haven't. Craziness!

I can't agree with that. As far as I and many others are concerned, the best Tom Baker seasons were the first three and most of the stories from them have been released on DVD already. In fact, the number of releases from the Tom Baker era has been pretty generous considering how many stories were made during those seven years. I don't think you've got much to complain about there.


I don't think Planet and Frontier are as bad as you are making out.


The problem with the Pertwee era is that the copies of many of the stories are not in a good condition. Many of the original tapes were wiped and the episodes currently exist in variable states and qualities. Some episodes still only exist in black and white, some exist as colour restorations made in the early 1990s and some exist as conversions from American copies. The quality of these is not brilliant in many cases and I think that is probably why there are still plenty of Pertwee stories that have not come out on DVD. They are not considered to be of DVD quality and need more work.

I imagine that commentaries and extra features have been recorded in advance in many cases because people like Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks are quite old now. We are just fortunate that they are still around.

I'm amazed by the negativity on this board. I am looking forward to ALL the DVD releases this year, especially Image of the Fendahl, The War Games, The Deadly Assassin and Frontier in Space. And there's more to come later in the year with titles yet to be confirmed.

Its just a shame that with so many interesting stories in the collection left that they are piling up the junk.

They have to keep a steady flow of junk, classics and curiosities* to maintain interest in the series over the next few years. Fans would lose interest altogether if all the pure junk like Timelash and Time and the Rani was saved 'til last.




* such as the animated episodes of The Invasion and the colourised episode of Planet of the Daleks.

So why your complaint that "Even when they get round to releasing quality from Baker they choose the poorest stories" when they have released most of the stories from his first three years?


Terror of the Autons, Colony in Space, The Daemons, The Curse of Peladon, The Mutants and The Time Monster are all either colour restorations or NTSC conversions, probably not really up to DVD standard without further work. Then there's also Ambassadors, Mind of Evil and Dinosaurs as you already mention which are still not in full colour.


Sure about that? From what I have heard, some of the Pertwees have required more restoration attention than some from the black and white era. Restoring poor quality colour footage to DVD standard can be one of the hardest tasks.


I certainly would not dismiss most of the DVD releases this year as junk.