In another thread the upcoming Series 5 box set is discussed, along with the extras, etc. And it got me to thinking about recent Doctor Who-related productions could potentially join the ranks of, say, Power of the Daleks and Tenth Planet Episode 4 as lost, or at least super-obscure, items in the future because they never received release beyond the BBC's infamously geolocked website, or other media.
Of course no one can predict what BBC Video might do in the future. For example, back in 1985 most people assumed that the "In a Fix with Sontarans" skit would air the once and be forgotten. But it got dug out and released on DVD as a bonus. Stuff like the Pescatons story record and the 1985 Slipback radio play turned up on CD. And of course thanks to YouTube any video content posted to the BBC's site ends up in circulation within minutes (so much for geolocking).
But I thought it would still be interesting to compile a list of some of the "rare items" that might only be available online, or which perhaps were broadcast but are not easily available. Much of this is probably still available, such as the webcast animations, though likely unavailable outside the UK. And they'll only be available until such a time as the BBC web people decide to clean out the archives or a server crashes or something.
Please add to this list - maybe there might be other items folks don't know about. I'm including text items here, but omitting "behind the scenes" stuff like "Big Questions" as they're too hard to keep track of.
1. Dimensions in Time: infamous, two-part 1993 charity special featuring all the surviving Doctors from Pertwee to McCoy (yes, even Tom Baker), and a ton of companions and the cast of EastEnders. It's a mess, but the only time we ever got a "Seven Doctors" scenario. Due to its non-profit nature, home video release is forbidden. But never say never as what it lacks in story quality it makes up for in historical interest. And it was shot in 3-D, and of course everyone's ga-ga over 3-D these days...
2. The TARDISodes: a series of 13 webisodes created as prologues to each episode of Series 2 and available on the website and also distributed via mobile phone. At least one of them actually fills plot holes (the School Reunion one explains why the Doctor and Rose were at the school and working with Mickey). Why these weren't included on the DVD remains a mystery.
3. Attack of the Graske: the interactive David Tennant game initially released on the BBC's "red button" service and online. (But not outside the UK). Introduced the Graske to the world. I've viewed this on YouTube and it could easily be converted to a set-top DVD game.
4. Scream of the Shalka. The 2003 animated serial featuring Richard E. Grant as the Ninth Doctor (!) and a pre-Liz Ten Sophie Okonedo as his companion Alison. This was going to be released on DVD at one point, but the launch of the live-action revival killed those plans.
5. Other webcasts: Death Comes to Time (starring McCoy), Real Time (starring Colin Baker) and Shada (a remake of the unfinished story starring McGann and Lalla Ward) were additional animated webcast stories. Their soundtracks have been released by BBC Audio and Big Finish, but the footage itself hasn't.
6. Captain Jack's Monster Files: a series of Webisodes produced over the last few years narrated by John Barrowman (and featuring newly shot footage of Captain Jack in the hub) discussing various monsters featured on the series. The most recent editions have featured Alex Kingston as River Song. There was also a standalone put out last Christmas, "A Ghost Story for Christmas" which was a bona fide mini-episode detailing a young woman's encounter with the Weeping Angels.
7. Short stories: A number of original short stories have been featured on the BBC website (fortunately, these are not geolocked). You just have to go looking for them. So far, about a half-dozen featuring the Tenth Doctor have been released, plus there's a Richard E. Grant Doctor short story hidden away on an old page about vampires ("Feast of the Stone") which is the only other appearance of that Doctor outside "Shalka".
8. Curse of Fatal Death. Now that Steven Moffat's in charge I'm sure it's only a matter of time before his first Doctor Who script, this spoof for Comedy Relief starring Rowan Atkinson, gets reissued. BBC Video put it out on VHS about 10 years ago, so hopefully it'll get a DVD reissue too. I remember being able to watch this on Real Player (remember that thing?) back when it was first broadcast.
9. The History Hunt. This isn't out yet, but the BBC has announced that Karen Gillan appears as Amy Pond in a new interactive adventure that is to be released on the BBC website. I'm assuming it's another Attack of the Graske scenario (except without the Red Button access).
10. BBC Writers Comics. This was an odd one. During Season 4 the BBC website had a program (for UK users only) called Comic Maker that allowed people to create their own comic strips using clip-art rendered in similar animation style to The Infinite Quest. The BBC site invited a number of noted Doctor Who writers to create their own, and released one per week during Season 4. They're still online, and some of the stories are rather dumb. A couple, though, are interesting like one that's actually a sequel to Voyage of the Damned. Paul Cornell and James Moran were among the writers. They do some weird things to Martha in these stories. Fortunately these were viewable worldwide.
11. Virgin Novels e-books. I find it very uncomfortable to read novels on a computer screen, so I've never gotten into this myself, but a number of the hyper-rare Virgin Books New Adventures novels have been posted online at the BBC site. Most have undergone revisions/updating, and often the pages include behind-the-scenes material and annotations. Quite cool and I'll concede that e-books are very handy if you're looking for books that either "no longer exist" for all intents and purposes, or are hyper-expensive if you find one. (A local bookstore had a copy of Lungbarrow for $50 a few months ago - insane!). I honestly have no idea if this material is still available online after the redesign.
12. The Christmas promo that got away. Although the Specials box set included the main 2009 Christmas promos featuring David Tennant, it omitted an additional one in which the Doctor speaks to the viewers, wishes them Merry Christmas, and cracks a joke. Nothing spectacular, but it does complete the set.
13. Clean version of Music of the Spheres. The version released on DVD cuts between views of the mini-episode and audience reaction and such. But on YouTube there circulated a "clean" version that was just the video - some versions included audience sounds, some didn't. Most notably, the circulated version included an opening credits sequence, and ended with the original Delia Derbyshire theme arrangement which was cool to hear and seemed to have been included in the original broadcast, but is omitted from the DVD release.
14. I haven't kept track in the same way as DW, but there's also some online-exclusive Torchwood material out there, too, such as a game. And when the UK digital channel Watch began airing reruns, it posted an original comic strip, Return of the Vostok, to its website (with art by Adrian Salmon).
15. Big Finish download-only stories. Aside from the occasional exclusive story included on CD with Doctor Who Magazine, Big Finish has also released at least two exclusive Companion Chronicles stories exclusively as MP3 downloads, for a limited time. The Mists of Time (featuring Jo Grant) and Freakshow (featuring Turlough) have so far been released, with no word yet as to whether they'll be issued in a permanent medium (i.e. professionally burned CD). So for now, officially at least, the only way to have got them is through downloads from Big Finish by way of DWM.
16. Independent spin-off videos. BBV and Reeltime produced a number of independent films during the 1990s and early 2000s utilizing a wonderful loophole that allowed them to licence non-BBC-owned characters direct from the writers. As a result a series of Auton and Sontaran productions were made, many featuring Doctor Who actors in lead and supporting roles. And there was Wartime, a UNIT story starring John Levene as Benton. Many of the names associated with the revival series - Nicholas Briggs, Mark Gatiss to name two - worked on these. And there was even a "series" called PROBE, which was sort of a Fringe/Threshold/X-Files type of thing starring Caroline John as Liz Shaw (with Louise Jameson as her associate, but not playing Leela). Another notable release was 1995's Downtime featuring Debbie Watling as Victoria in an adventure alongside Nick Courtney as the Brigadier and Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane! And this was years before James Cawley came on the scene with his Star Trek productions. A few of these I believe have received limited DVD release aside from VHS issue, but by their very nature they're pretty rare. These companies also released audio dramas which likewise are hard to come by. (And I won't even go into the other spinoffs - Kaldor City, Time Hunter and Faction Paradox.)
Any other rare Doctor Who material out there? (As you can tell by this list, I'm interested in material involving actual stories/production, as opposed to behind-the-scenes stuff, that hasn't been published in print or on DVD/CD.)
Alex
Of course no one can predict what BBC Video might do in the future. For example, back in 1985 most people assumed that the "In a Fix with Sontarans" skit would air the once and be forgotten. But it got dug out and released on DVD as a bonus. Stuff like the Pescatons story record and the 1985 Slipback radio play turned up on CD. And of course thanks to YouTube any video content posted to the BBC's site ends up in circulation within minutes (so much for geolocking).
But I thought it would still be interesting to compile a list of some of the "rare items" that might only be available online, or which perhaps were broadcast but are not easily available. Much of this is probably still available, such as the webcast animations, though likely unavailable outside the UK. And they'll only be available until such a time as the BBC web people decide to clean out the archives or a server crashes or something.
Please add to this list - maybe there might be other items folks don't know about. I'm including text items here, but omitting "behind the scenes" stuff like "Big Questions" as they're too hard to keep track of.
1. Dimensions in Time: infamous, two-part 1993 charity special featuring all the surviving Doctors from Pertwee to McCoy (yes, even Tom Baker), and a ton of companions and the cast of EastEnders. It's a mess, but the only time we ever got a "Seven Doctors" scenario. Due to its non-profit nature, home video release is forbidden. But never say never as what it lacks in story quality it makes up for in historical interest. And it was shot in 3-D, and of course everyone's ga-ga over 3-D these days...
2. The TARDISodes: a series of 13 webisodes created as prologues to each episode of Series 2 and available on the website and also distributed via mobile phone. At least one of them actually fills plot holes (the School Reunion one explains why the Doctor and Rose were at the school and working with Mickey). Why these weren't included on the DVD remains a mystery.
3. Attack of the Graske: the interactive David Tennant game initially released on the BBC's "red button" service and online. (But not outside the UK). Introduced the Graske to the world. I've viewed this on YouTube and it could easily be converted to a set-top DVD game.
4. Scream of the Shalka. The 2003 animated serial featuring Richard E. Grant as the Ninth Doctor (!) and a pre-Liz Ten Sophie Okonedo as his companion Alison. This was going to be released on DVD at one point, but the launch of the live-action revival killed those plans.
5. Other webcasts: Death Comes to Time (starring McCoy), Real Time (starring Colin Baker) and Shada (a remake of the unfinished story starring McGann and Lalla Ward) were additional animated webcast stories. Their soundtracks have been released by BBC Audio and Big Finish, but the footage itself hasn't.
6. Captain Jack's Monster Files: a series of Webisodes produced over the last few years narrated by John Barrowman (and featuring newly shot footage of Captain Jack in the hub) discussing various monsters featured on the series. The most recent editions have featured Alex Kingston as River Song. There was also a standalone put out last Christmas, "A Ghost Story for Christmas" which was a bona fide mini-episode detailing a young woman's encounter with the Weeping Angels.
7. Short stories: A number of original short stories have been featured on the BBC website (fortunately, these are not geolocked). You just have to go looking for them. So far, about a half-dozen featuring the Tenth Doctor have been released, plus there's a Richard E. Grant Doctor short story hidden away on an old page about vampires ("Feast of the Stone") which is the only other appearance of that Doctor outside "Shalka".
8. Curse of Fatal Death. Now that Steven Moffat's in charge I'm sure it's only a matter of time before his first Doctor Who script, this spoof for Comedy Relief starring Rowan Atkinson, gets reissued. BBC Video put it out on VHS about 10 years ago, so hopefully it'll get a DVD reissue too. I remember being able to watch this on Real Player (remember that thing?) back when it was first broadcast.
9. The History Hunt. This isn't out yet, but the BBC has announced that Karen Gillan appears as Amy Pond in a new interactive adventure that is to be released on the BBC website. I'm assuming it's another Attack of the Graske scenario (except without the Red Button access).
10. BBC Writers Comics. This was an odd one. During Season 4 the BBC website had a program (for UK users only) called Comic Maker that allowed people to create their own comic strips using clip-art rendered in similar animation style to The Infinite Quest. The BBC site invited a number of noted Doctor Who writers to create their own, and released one per week during Season 4. They're still online, and some of the stories are rather dumb. A couple, though, are interesting like one that's actually a sequel to Voyage of the Damned. Paul Cornell and James Moran were among the writers. They do some weird things to Martha in these stories. Fortunately these were viewable worldwide.
11. Virgin Novels e-books. I find it very uncomfortable to read novels on a computer screen, so I've never gotten into this myself, but a number of the hyper-rare Virgin Books New Adventures novels have been posted online at the BBC site. Most have undergone revisions/updating, and often the pages include behind-the-scenes material and annotations. Quite cool and I'll concede that e-books are very handy if you're looking for books that either "no longer exist" for all intents and purposes, or are hyper-expensive if you find one. (A local bookstore had a copy of Lungbarrow for $50 a few months ago - insane!). I honestly have no idea if this material is still available online after the redesign.
12. The Christmas promo that got away. Although the Specials box set included the main 2009 Christmas promos featuring David Tennant, it omitted an additional one in which the Doctor speaks to the viewers, wishes them Merry Christmas, and cracks a joke. Nothing spectacular, but it does complete the set.
13. Clean version of Music of the Spheres. The version released on DVD cuts between views of the mini-episode and audience reaction and such. But on YouTube there circulated a "clean" version that was just the video - some versions included audience sounds, some didn't. Most notably, the circulated version included an opening credits sequence, and ended with the original Delia Derbyshire theme arrangement which was cool to hear and seemed to have been included in the original broadcast, but is omitted from the DVD release.
14. I haven't kept track in the same way as DW, but there's also some online-exclusive Torchwood material out there, too, such as a game. And when the UK digital channel Watch began airing reruns, it posted an original comic strip, Return of the Vostok, to its website (with art by Adrian Salmon).
15. Big Finish download-only stories. Aside from the occasional exclusive story included on CD with Doctor Who Magazine, Big Finish has also released at least two exclusive Companion Chronicles stories exclusively as MP3 downloads, for a limited time. The Mists of Time (featuring Jo Grant) and Freakshow (featuring Turlough) have so far been released, with no word yet as to whether they'll be issued in a permanent medium (i.e. professionally burned CD). So for now, officially at least, the only way to have got them is through downloads from Big Finish by way of DWM.
16. Independent spin-off videos. BBV and Reeltime produced a number of independent films during the 1990s and early 2000s utilizing a wonderful loophole that allowed them to licence non-BBC-owned characters direct from the writers. As a result a series of Auton and Sontaran productions were made, many featuring Doctor Who actors in lead and supporting roles. And there was Wartime, a UNIT story starring John Levene as Benton. Many of the names associated with the revival series - Nicholas Briggs, Mark Gatiss to name two - worked on these. And there was even a "series" called PROBE, which was sort of a Fringe/Threshold/X-Files type of thing starring Caroline John as Liz Shaw (with Louise Jameson as her associate, but not playing Leela). Another notable release was 1995's Downtime featuring Debbie Watling as Victoria in an adventure alongside Nick Courtney as the Brigadier and Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane! And this was years before James Cawley came on the scene with his Star Trek productions. A few of these I believe have received limited DVD release aside from VHS issue, but by their very nature they're pretty rare. These companies also released audio dramas which likewise are hard to come by. (And I won't even go into the other spinoffs - Kaldor City, Time Hunter and Faction Paradox.)
Any other rare Doctor Who material out there? (As you can tell by this list, I'm interested in material involving actual stories/production, as opposed to behind-the-scenes stuff, that hasn't been published in print or on DVD/CD.)
Alex
Last edited:
