Re: Commetaries for The Sensorites & Colony in Space being recorded to
Do i recall reading somewhere (perhaps in another thread here) that all existing surviving stories will have been released on DVD this year? I wonder if they will do a mammoth box set?
Steve Roberts of the Restoration Team was quoted in the Canadian Doctor Who Information Network newsletter a year or so ago that the DVD releases are scheduled to wrap up around November 2013. Obviously they are starting to reissue older titles, so I imagine that takes into account things like Revisitations. And the latest announcement shows they're doubling up a bit more than usual on releases (including the bizarre pairing of The Awakening and The Gunfighters). So I'd say by 2012 we'll have all the available ones out. I wonder if we'll see a Blu-ray test at some point too: the 1996 TV movie and Spearhead From Space (the only all-film Doctor Who serial) would be the logical choices.
After that, I hope they'll be able to put their efforts towards restoring with animation or something the missing stories (since all the soundtracks still exist). They could issue the fantastic fan-made restorations by Loose Cannon (who also managed to score interviews with cast members who died before 2 Entertain could interview them regarding certain stories, such as Kevin Stoney on Daleks Master Plan), or they could animate them.
I really don't understand (nor, frankly, buy) the argument that it's too expensive to animate - if they're that hard up for cash, you'd have thought 2 Entertain would have simply cancelled future DVD releases. If it cost too much to animate those 2 episodes of The Invasion, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but the accountant in me is suggesting they simply hired a company that charged too much. Ever since I saw the fantastic fan-animated CGI recreation of the Web of Fear trailer (it's on YouTube), and have seen other impressive recreations, I've been convinced that if 2 Entertain put out the call, they'd get someone to animate, say, Tenth Planet, quickly, skilfully, and for a reasonable cost. I mean, if I were an up-and-coming animator, I'd kill to have that sort of project on my showreel.
As for mammoth box set -- well, a few years back Amazon did offer a huge DW collection for about a grand ...
I'm also half-expecting, following the appearance of the incomplete fan film Devious on The War Games set, to see 2 Entertain strike a deal that'll allow DVD distribution of some of the creator-licensed independent films that were made in the 1990s by Reeltime Pictures and BBV, such as Shakedown: Return of the Sonatarans, Downtime (starring Nicholas Courtney, Deborah Watling and Elisabeth Sladen), PROBE (the made-for-video series starring Caroline John as Liz Shaw in a Torchwood/X-Files-type scenario), Wartime with John Levene as Benton, and the Mindgame stories starring Sophie Aldred as Ace. Doctor Who fans had the market cornered on fan films years before Star Trek Phase II came along! Most of these are on DVD if you know where to look, but I was very impressed with these efforts (which involved guys like Nick Briggs and Mark Gatiss before they went on to work for the TV series; a couple were written by Terrance Dicks, for pete's sake) and they deserve wider distribution.
Weren't there a couple instances of the dvds with commentaries being released long after the person had passed away? I'm almost sure there was one that came out with Verity Lambert after she had passed, and possibly Anthony Ainley as well.
Correct on both, I believe (Ainley's was on The Keeper of Traken, which included a tribute to his memory). There have also been a number of "nick of time" commentaries, where individuals have recorded them, their stories have been released, and they passed away soon after. One example that comes to mind is Graham Crowden on The Horns of Nimon.
Alex