Where are his eyebrows? How does this pass any sort of quality inspection? They've even done it to the titles which exist in native HD!
New Classic Who Blu-Ray Sets (2021 edition)
- Thread starter Nightowl1701
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Where are his eyebrows? How does this pass any sort of quality inspection? They've even done it to the titles which exist in native HD!
Hair is a bit shonky too.
What's really galling is the Blakes 7 blu-rays look great and don't use AI at all.
Fair enough. I haven't watched that serial in many years. Either way, it's still a nice touch.
Me either, but I had the soundtracks on cassette in the nineties. It’s weird, because listening to the music over and over separately really makes it stand out more on rewatches.
Where are his eyebrows? How does this pass any sort of quality inspection? They've even done it to the titles which exist in native HD!
If that doesn't redefine "smoother than a baby's butt" then what does?
Too much noise removal, possible contrast issue, and - oddly - no digital noise layer to shroud the cleanup and resize (from 576i to 1080p) job. The hair has a soft glow that looks odd as well, unless that's down to the studio lighting.
Seasons 15 and 25 also had AI work done yet those don't look like season 13's (and 21's based on that screencap).
The telecine stuff, certainly. The real 16mm film elements just need scanning and color fixing if the film negs were fading due to age. There is no way that S13's location filming should have looked smeared at all.
I'd have hoped they had remastered the footage years ago while waiting for getting Mark Strickson for his interviews and related content. Almost looks as if they waited and did this now as a rush job.
The VAM is lovely, but not if the tradeoff is lesser video quality when a dozen releases have demonstrably higher video quality. And yet, seasons 15 and 25 were also have said to have had the AI treatment and yet they don't have the same problems? Settings had to have been tinkered with between then and now, but what was wrong with the old restoration methods?
I was just at Gallifrey One and they had a panel about the Blu-Ray line with Pete McTighe. Interesting panel where he talked a bit about the process of choosing the order of releases and which specials go where, etc. They are going to release more seasons from the first two Doctors but they're waiting for more animations to be complete first. The release of those earlier seasons has been delayed due to the slower than expected animation rate.
He also showed two exclusive clips from the upcoming Season 21 Blu Ray. One was behind the scenes footage of filming the Season 21 trailer with Davison and Fielding. Let's just say, it looks like they had a blast filming it. Fun and funny stuff.
The other clip was from Warriors of the Deep. Apparently, that episode has the most new SFx for that season. They've redone the Myrka of course but other aspects like improved the lighting and various other obvious tweaks with things like the laser fire.
They also shot new scenes to insert into the existing "big" battle with the Myrka. And they've re-edited the existing footage so that it plays out better and builds up more logically than the original. There was no additional, previously unused footage they could use, so that just involved a new edit of the existing but it does work better.
Of course, as usual, that's all on the special edition of the episode but you can see the original as well.
The magma creature in Caves of Androzani has also been redone but very little else has been done with that episode.
He also showed two exclusive clips from the upcoming Season 21 Blu Ray. One was behind the scenes footage of filming the Season 21 trailer with Davison and Fielding. Let's just say, it looks like they had a blast filming it. Fun and funny stuff.
The other clip was from Warriors of the Deep. Apparently, that episode has the most new SFx for that season. They've redone the Myrka of course but other aspects like improved the lighting and various other obvious tweaks with things like the laser fire.
They also shot new scenes to insert into the existing "big" battle with the Myrka. And they've re-edited the existing footage so that it plays out better and builds up more logically than the original. There was no additional, previously unused footage they could use, so that just involved a new edit of the existing but it does work better.
Of course, as usual, that's all on the special edition of the episode but you can see the original as well.
The magma creature in Caves of Androzani has also been redone but very little else has been done with that episode.
The bit in that interview where he confirms what we all suspected about Kerblam! ("the system is not the problem" third act) was basically re-written by Chibnall has actually kinda gone viral on twitter. Very revealing, kinda like wanting to distance himself from that decision.
Sweet! I suspected for a while that waiting for the animations was a reason, though with the increased possibility of actual episodes (if they've not turned to vinegar goo yet) that would be another reason, as if people would mind buying a set now then swapping discs if a story is recovered after the fact. Theoretically speaking; given the decades now passed the chances of usable material still exists, but is lower. Depends in part on how it was stored.
Nice!
They're always wonderful to watch together, great chemistry.
Nice!! The story was a rush job in 1984, so any tweaks to improve will be quite nice. I'd read that they did a big edit with the kick and created a CGI wall with computer screen giving it a security camera POV and the camera goes out due to the Silurian battle elsewhere.
Awesome. It's the best of both worlds.
Cool. IIt'll be interesting to see how the new changes make it better - sadly there's no way to fully remove it, and adding the monster as background CGI (just for the sake of dialogue hinting at it being... out there) would be pointless as it still makes its full view for a cliffhanger and it'd be impossible to effectively remove it...
Well he would say that wouldn't he, since he's angling for the top job.
I'd argue he'd say that regardless, seeing as how the episode is infamous for its fan reaction on broadcast.
He was very emphatic about wanting to release all the classic seasons on Blu-Ray. But he wants them to be as definitive and complete as possible. Hence, the wait. He didn't mention anything about waiting for new finds but I'm sure they'd be included if found. But, a slower than anticipated release of animations has already caused delays in when they wanted to release the earlier seasons.
He also talked about how Warriors of the Deep was rushed and they tried lots of little things to undo that. For example, the set lighting itself was rushed. They just put up the full flood lighting quickly which produces a flat look. For the Blu-Ray, they adjusted the lighting somewhat throughout to make it moodier. Although, there's only so much they can do with their own limited budget.
I predict somewhat of a re-appraisal of Warriors of the Deep, certainly visually more coherent and what not. Which would be a really welcome change - they REALLY rushed that one out - and if there's any top five serials that would require and be improved by CGI makeover additions, this one would be there for sure.*
*(The Invisible Enemy, Kinda, Logopolis and hopefully Invasion of the Dinosaurs would make the rest of that list up)
*(The Invisible Enemy, Kinda, Logopolis and hopefully Invasion of the Dinosaurs would make the rest of that list up)
Warriors of the Deep is a better story than the dreadful production suggests. It's not amazing, but is one that was really let down by the lack of money, and especially time.
So I'm looking forward to the Blu-ray special edition. The DWM preview of this set was great, it looks like a wonderful package.
On the subject of animations/sixties seasons - I think it's reasonable to delay them whilst there are still complete seasons to release, but those are running out quickly. After Season 21, there's just two left, plus the putative McGann/Wilderness Years set. Which might see us into 2028.
There's no animation currently announced. We might assume there is one (or more) currently in the works, but the strongest rumours have been for The Smugglers and The Myth Makers, neither of which would complete a season.
It's also complicated by the missing episode situation - we know some are known to exist, but are currently in a Schroedinger's Cat state of limbo. So I don't mind waiting, but there probably needs to be a reasonable balance in approach.
The Sixties sets will always be "As complete as possible - at this point in time". Season 2 is out with a couple of episodes that might eventually be animated, or if we are very lucky, recovered. I'd still prefer to have it on my shelf now than not. I'd take Season 1, 5 and 6 with one incomplete story each. If they're animated or recovered later, I'll just buy them again!
So I'm looking forward to the Blu-ray special edition. The DWM preview of this set was great, it looks like a wonderful package.
On the subject of animations/sixties seasons - I think it's reasonable to delay them whilst there are still complete seasons to release, but those are running out quickly. After Season 21, there's just two left, plus the putative McGann/Wilderness Years set. Which might see us into 2028.
There's no animation currently announced. We might assume there is one (or more) currently in the works, but the strongest rumours have been for The Smugglers and The Myth Makers, neither of which would complete a season.
It's also complicated by the missing episode situation - we know some are known to exist, but are currently in a Schroedinger's Cat state of limbo. So I don't mind waiting, but there probably needs to be a reasonable balance in approach.
The Sixties sets will always be "As complete as possible - at this point in time". Season 2 is out with a couple of episodes that might eventually be animated, or if we are very lucky, recovered. I'd still prefer to have it on my shelf now than not. I'd take Season 1, 5 and 6 with one incomplete story each. If they're animated or recovered later, I'll just buy them again!
On the subject of set releases, I wish they'd speed up the release of the standard editions, 21 months is too long. to wait for them. Its three months from cinema to physical home media and twelve from hardback to paperback. Surely enough of the limited edition sets have been released by now that if given a same day choice between limited and standard editions, the vast majority of limited edition buyers will stick to the former. There are six colour + the Wilderness Years seasons left to be released by my calculation as standard editions - 7, 11, 13, 16, 21 & 25. Hurry it up BBC.
There are a bunch of limited editions still widely in stock even after the standard editions are released.
In the early days it was a mad rush to get your pre-order in, but now there are no issues. So the standard editions have worked from that perspective.
I agree that they should narrow the window and maybe reduce the number of limited editions produced.
In the early days it was a mad rush to get your pre-order in, but now there are no issues. So the standard editions have worked from that perspective.
I agree that they should narrow the window and maybe reduce the number of limited editions produced.
Do we know for sure they don't use AI at all? The reason they look better might simply be that there are significantly fewer episodes and they simply have more time to pay attention to every single one. Doctor Who released roughly twice the amount of new HD content in 2024 and 2025 compared to Blake's 7.
They could release those newly recovered or animated serials as single releases, presumably serials only existing as reconstructions partially or completely would still get their own discs in the season sets so they could be swapped out easily at a later point.
They don't look like AI upscales. There's a visible difference between the videotaped and filmed footage, and the videotape looks about as bad as you'd expect from a conventional upscale. There aren't tell-tales of overly-aggressive AI filtering like Davison's skin being ultra-smooth but a lot of sharp texture in his hair in that screencap.
I think your idea about the narrower scope has more to it, especially in terms of the redone VFX. Blake's 7 has a mostly-consistent, relatively limited set of models doing straightforward things like flying in a straight line through space. Doctor Who, on the other hand, has different spaceships and/or monsters in every serial, and they're usually in more technically-challenging shots.