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It begins: 19 Classic DVDs going out-of-print in R1.

Turbo

Turbo

Changeling
Premium Member
Per Steve Manfred's website, BBC Worldwide has decided that 19 current DVDs will not be reprinted when stocks are exhausted:

First Doctor
The Rescue/The Romans
The Web Planet
The Time Meddler
The Gunfighters

Second Doctor
The Invasion
The War Games

Third Doctor
Terror of the Autons
The Time Monster
Planet of the Spiders

Fifth Doctor
Black Orchid
Time-Flight
The Awakening
Frontios
Planet of Fire

Sixth Doctor
The Mark of the Rani
The Two Doctors*

Seventh Doctor
Battlefield
Ghost Light
The Curse of Fenric

*Apparently The Two Doctors is a special case; BBCWA confirmed that it will reprint this eventually, but only once a new version is issued which excludes the material with Jimmy Saville. (Steve didn't post this on the website; only over on Gallifrey Base.) The Two Doctors is also the only one of these which appears to have been deleted in the UK as well.

The Two Doctors and Battlefield are already gone, it seems; they're going for crazy prices on Amazon and WhoNA has no more in stock. (Though I managed to find Battlefield for MSRP at a local Barnes & Noble last night. :D) But as one of those who is just now starting to collect the DVDs, this doesn't look good for the future of the range over here.

Some of the deletions make sense, especially if season sets are coming soon: Seasons 2, 21, and 26 are all heavily hit. But others make no sense - Terror of the Autons and Planet of the Spiders are both very recent releases. I suppose discontinuing the DVDs in R1 was inevitable, but here's hoping it's not a very fast process.
 
They've been letting titles go out of print as special editions are announced, but this is a much bigger deletion. Presumably, the sales just aren't worth it for them to keep going. The only DVD that they confirmed a reason for was The Two Doctors.
 
My hope, and I suspect it's unlikely to happen, is that once the individual feature-laden releases are finished BBC Worldwide will issue budget-priced complete season box sets.

The reason I think it's unlikely? It makes too much sense.
 
Allyn Gibson said:
My hope, and I suspect it's unlikely to happen, is that once the individual feature-laden releases are finished BBC Worldwide will issue budget-priced complete season box sets.

The reason I think it's unlikely? It makes too much sense.
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I'm hoping that too, and I've got a couple friends who are big DW fans who also enjoy the classic series, but don't want to start collecting until season sets are out. In the meantime, I'm definitely trying to complete the seasons in which I already own stories right now.
Pingfah said:
There's really no need to revise history because of fucking Jimmy Savile.
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This seems to be the prevailing opinion on GB as well, but I could not disagree with it more. Omitting a segment of his show from a DVD is hardly revising history.
 
Oh, he's not IN the show? I thought they were editing him out of the actual show. I thought I didn't remember Savile appearing in Doctor Who, but then I haven't seen all of the old ones by any means.

Carry on then.
 
Pingfah said:
Oh, he's not IN the show? I thought they were editing him out of the actual show. I thought I didn't remember Savile appearing in Doctor Who, but then I haven't seen all of the old ones by any means.

Carry on then.
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While the Two Doctors was airing, there was a specially filmed skit in "Jim'll Fix It" ... A young boy named Gareth Jenkins was a huge fan of DW. His Nan made him a Sixth Doctor costume. Gareth wrote a letter to Jim asking to meet Colin Baker and go inside the Tardis.

They wrote a short skit where that happens ... Two Sontarans are trapped inside the Tardis. The Doctor uses a transporter (seriously) to beam up help from Earth. Who appears but Tegan* (which immediately makes this an awesome skit). Then a second person beams up - a "mini clone" named Gareth. The two adults bicker, Gareth presses a button and saves the day, then Jim enters the set and breaks down the fourth wall.

Gareth gets a "full functioning BBC Mezon gun" (not sure on the spelling), a medal of some sort, and we cut to commercial.

It's about six minutes long in total, and the skit is called "A Fix With Sontarans." It is probably up on youtube if you search for it.


* They wanted Peri, but Nicola Bryant was not available for filming, so the script was re-written for Tegan.
 
The bickering is awesome, really well written skit, the comedy is a lot of fun, plus this version already has Savile's end bit edited out.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz_cKKfwY5c[/yt]
 
Thanks for posting the list. It prompted me to order a couple that I've been meaning to! Wanted to get them before the supply is gone!
 
Mr Awe said:
Thanks for posting the list. It prompted me to order a couple that I've been meaning to! Wanted to get them before the supply is gone!
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I have everything that's been released before 2011. Economy sucked, prices rose, and I haven't bought as many since then. I have some, but am missing 14 of the released stories - most of them Third Doctor stories, which are absurdly over-priced.

Fortunately, I had everything on the list except Terror of the Autons, which I was just able to find for $13 including shipping.

Curiously not on the list is The Beginning box set, which has also gone out of print. Perhaps they will be re-releasing it in November?
 
I'm sure they will all be available again in some form. But, it's possible they'll only be in season sets, or something like that. I didn't want to risk having to buy a bunch just get a couple!

I too picked up Terror of the Autons, along with Planet of the Spiders.
 
OmahaStar said:
Mr Awe said:
Thanks for posting the list. It prompted me to order a couple that I've been meaning to! Wanted to get them before the supply is gone!
Click to expand...

I have everything that's been released before 2011. Economy sucked, prices rose, and I haven't bought as many since then. I have some, but am missing 14 of the released stories - most of them Third Doctor stories, which are absurdly over-priced.
Click to expand...

Annoyingly, a number of the titles on this list are from 2011.

Curiously not on the list is The Beginning box set, which has also gone out of print. Perhaps they will be re-releasing it in November?
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It has been re-released in smaller packaging; the box is clear instead of black.

I've picked up Terror of the Autons, Planet of the Spiders, Black Orchid, and Battlefield. I think I'm gonna chance it and hold on most of the others, to see if we get season sets next year. Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric are also probably candidates for SE rereleases, considering how much picture quality has improved over the last several years.
 
Damn, this really sucks. I haven't been purchasing many DVDs for the last few years with the exception of serials I've been waiting for a long time like The War Games, The Face of Evil, The Sun Makers, and The Reign of Terror. I've been far too focused on Big Finish audios which are quite pricy. I guess I'll have to make an inventory of which serials I have when I visit stateside (where my collection is located) before I move to Belgium.
 
On the other hand, since you're going to be in Belgium, you might want to consider just filling in the gaps with R2 releases. From what I can tell, they're cheaper from Amazon UK and shipping to Belgium would probably be cheaper than shipping to the US.

Unrelated: Congrats on the new assignment! When-ish are you heading that way?
 
Turbo said:
On the other hand, since you're going to be in Belgium, you might want to consider just filling in the gaps with R2 releases. From what I can tell, they're cheaper from Amazon UK and shipping to Belgium would probably be cheaper than shipping to the US.
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True, but since I already have a large collection as R1, it would look weird in my library to mix it with R2 releases. I'm anal that way. :lol:

Turbo said:
Unrelated: Congrats on the new assignment! When-ish are you heading that way?
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Thanks, I'm pretty excited about it. I'll be moving over there late June.
 
Well damn.

I only just started buying Doctor Who last year and my collection is pretty small still. The money just isn't there right now to go on a spending spree. I guess I'll just have to wait and hope they release them again sometime in the future.
 
The good news is that some of the Davison stuff still goes for pretty cheap sometimes. Currently, "Time-Flight," "Frontios," & "Planet of Fire" are all available at Amazon for under $30. I already have "Time-Flight" but I decided to pick up the other 2.

And, for some odd reason, they've discounted the special edition of "Vengeance on Varos" down to only $10.
 
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