Complete season 24 boxset? Wha?

[Doctorwhovian]

Well, it looks like Germany will be getting it, but it's still kind of an odd choice for a season release: http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2014/09/germany-s24-dvd-060914124008.html

Season 24 is often considered the worst of the classic series, with McCoy having trouble finding his feet and accompained by the shrill Mel, a general disinterest in the show by the BBC and the show's campiness at an all time high. Things would improve in the next and (last, for the classic series) two seasons IMO.


I wonder why this season was chosen, is McCoy really popular in Germany? I know his career has had a bit of a resurgence with his role in the Hobbit trilogy, but still seems a bit odd.

Also gotta wonder, although this is a German release, if this means we will be getting season omnibuses of the classic Doctors (well, at least those that are complete)?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

If I had to guess, I would say, because it is one of the few if not the only classic series of the show that had a release in Germany TV before and thus is dubbed.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Yep, Seasons 24 and 25 were heavily promoted in Germany back in the day, so there are dubbed versions.

(The guy dubbing Sylv was actually better then Sylv, IIRC, but the German Dalek voiced are hilariously rubbish)

 

[diankra]

ISTR that it was popular enough in Germany for them to run a few Tom Baker stories as well, but with a new title that put Tom's face into the McCoy era titles the Germany audience knew. Only vague memories of seeing a satellite recording of a Baker episode with those titles though.

 

[zarkon]

(The guy dubbing Sylv was actually better then Sylv, IIRC, but the German Dalek voiced are hilariously rubbish)

bet he couldn't roll his r's like Sylv though

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

From what I recall, Germany started broadcasting DW with the Sixth Doctor. I think.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

From what I recall, Germany started broadcasting DW with the Sixth Doctor. I think.

You are right. Though not sure if the Sixth Doctor was first broadcast. They might have started with 7 and gone back later.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VujXTkjxp0c[/yt]

 

[Sean_McCormick]

German Wikipedia claims, that McCoy was shown first and then Colin Baker. There is no mention of Tom Baker episodes being broadcast on german TV. It is mentioned that ca. 1970 a few novelizations were published and that from the same time the BFBS showed Doctor Who.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I found a clip from the Five Doctors in german. Horribly dubbed.
The Dalek sounded like a smurf on helium and that was the extension of the sound effect.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I found a clip from the Five Doctors in german. Horribly dubbed.
The Dalek sounded like a smurf on helium and that was the extension of the sound effect.

Yeah, for some reason they didn't modulate the Daleks in German, just did high nasal voices.

Great soundalike for Colin in that clip upthread though.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The voice actor doing the Dalek in that clip would not have been a bad fit for K-9 actually!

 

[StalwartUK]

Yeah, for some reason they didn't modulate the Daleks in German, just did high nasal voices.

I wonder if that was done on purpose. The Daleks were based on... a certain group after all.

Still, it wouldn't be too hard for the BBC in the UK to repack the individual stories into seasons. From the looks of it the German DVDs (4 in this set) will be nearly identical apart from the German audio tracks.

 

[inflatabledalek]

There was actually a call put out earlier this year to German fans with VHS recordings of the series so the company releasing this could get hold of the Deutsch soundtrack to various episodes, I'm glad they appear to have succeeded (for McCoy at least). It seems, in the grand Who tradition, whoever originally did the dubs didn't keep hold of the soundtracks...

The downside is, the German audio quality may not be brilliant.

I would love to see something like season collections happen in the UK. The DVD range as it is is great for hardcore fans who really love documentaries and special features. And to be fair, when the DVD's started that was the bulk of the buying audience (even though individual story/episode releases had very quickly become an anachronistic way of releasing a show on DVD I remember fandom being very, very loud about not wanting boxsets in the early 2000's).

But today, if you're someone just getting into Doctor Who and want to try some of the old stuff, or an ageing Tom Baker fan wanting to get the show you remember as a child on disc... The current range is a massive "Fuck off". You're better off just sneakily downloading one of the torrents that have everything in neat and easy order.

I think it's too late in the day for a "Non hardcore fan" version of the DVD's, but I hope that the opportunities presented by things like Itunes means we'll have all the seasons laid out in neat order that can be seen at a glance on a store screen (with the Hartnell and Troughton stuff being listed as something like "The Surviving Season 3 and 4" or whatever), with handy subheadings. "Tom Baker Year One" and so on, so anyone after a particular Doctor, be it because that's the one they remember as a kid or they've heard it's a good place to start, know exactly what to aim at.

As opposed to now, where anyone wanting to try some old Doctor Who will be confronted with over a 100 releases, with no obvious clue at to the order, with the price and the length of what you're getting fluctuating wildly.

 

[Lance]

I would love to see something like season collections happen in the UK. The DVD range as it is is great for hardcore fans who really love documentaries and special features. And to be fair, when the DVD's started that was the bulk of the buying audience (even though individual story/episode releases had very quickly become an anachronistic way of releasing a show on DVD I remember fandom being very, very loud about not wanting boxsets in the early 2000's).

But today, if you're someone just getting into Doctor Who and want to try some of the old stuff, or an ageing Tom Baker fan wanting to get the show you remember as a child on disc... The current range is a massive "Fuck off". You're better off just sneakily downloading one of the torrents that have everything in neat and easy order.

I think it's too late in the day for a "Non hardcore fan" version of the DVD's, but I hope that the opportunities presented by things like Itunes means we'll have all the seasons laid out in neat order that can be seen at a glance on a store screen (with the Hartnell and Troughton stuff being listed as something like "The Surviving Season 3 and 4" or whatever), with handy subheadings. "Tom Baker Year One" and so on, so anyone after a particular Doctor, be it because that's the one they remember as a kid or they've heard it's a good place to start, know exactly what to aim at.

As opposed to now, where anyone wanting to try some old Doctor Who will be confronted with over a 100 releases, with no obvious clue at to the order, with the price and the length of what you're getting fluctuating wildly.

Completely agree. For all the claims of "The Sky Is Falling!" about the death of physical media, I actually think there is still very much a market out there for season sets, now more than ever. Especially with the 50th anniversary having just been and gone, I think they missed an opportunity to capitalize on people who might be looking to give Classic Who a chance, but with this huge range of individual releases don't know where to start.

In many ways, Doctor Who on DVD simply inherited its release strategy from the VHS's. Hard as it is to believe now, in the early days of DVD it was still the accepted norm. Even Star Trek: The Original Series was originally released (in Region 1) on DVD in individual volumes containing two episodes per disc, long before being repackaged as season boxes. Practically nobody anticipated the TV-On-DVD phenomenon, nor the desirability of being able to buy entire seasons of a show in boxsets. So when it became clear that this was the direction it was going, Doctor Who was kind of..... stuck with what they'd started.

On the plus side though, each individual release was given a care and attention that maybe wouldn't have been possible if they'd produced them "mass market" as season sets. Only the Key To Time Special Edition boxset gives us a glimpse into a possible alternative universe where all Doctor Who releases were season sets, with six discs each plus a seventh 'special features' disc.

 

[Marc]

From what I recall, Germany started broadcasting DW with the Sixth Doctor. I think.

You are right. Though not sure if the Sixth Doctor was first broadcast. They might have started with 7 and gone back later.

Boy those Dalek voices were bad!!

I was wanting to hear Peri have an American accent in German.

Also Trevor Cooper (the taller of the two Tranquil Repose workers was Friar Tuck in Robot of Sherwood).