New Classic Who Blu-Ray Sets (2021 edition)

[Nightowl1701]

Production has resumed on the Classic DW Collection series. And, as next year is the 50th birthday of a certain bad guy with a naff beard, the choice for the next set was obvious... Season 8 (1971) is on the way.

Season 20 (1983, Peter Davison's second) and Season 2 (London, 1965!!! The first B&W set, with something being done re: "The Crusade") were said to be almost ready before you-know-what happened, so hopefully we'll have those to look forward to in the not-too-distant future.

 

[diankra]

20... the film for Mawdryn definitely exists, not sure about the others (which includes three all studio stories that had some filmed inserts, probably the last in the series).

 

[Mr Awe]

Thanks for the updates. I'd been wondering!

I'm not seeing a release date for season 8. Hopefully, it's early 2021 because it'll take longer to get to the U.S.!

 

[Nightowl1701]

Keeping up with the Joneses (again)...

 

[JD]

8, 20, and 2? Sounds like their jumping around quite a bit. Is there a reason they're doing that way rather than just going in chronological order?

 

[Brendan Moody]

They’ve never done DVD or Blu-ray releases in chronological order. Because different eras have different fanbases and there’s very little continuity between stories/seasons, they don’t have much incentive to do so. Also, going chronologically would have meant starting with the black and white stories, which (a) I believe sold a bit less on average than color stories and (b) some of which are still being released individually as animations.

 

[JD]

That makes sense then.

 

[VDCNI]

Is there any other TV series that jumps around in its release schedule like Who I wonder?

It makes sense that they don't go chronologically, and this is the first time we've even had full series released at once, and we're conditioned to it as they've been doing it since the VHS releases but they might be unique in this approach.

Season 8 isn't my favourite year with a few stinkers like Axos and Daemons but, as ever, the extras look interesting. Nice to see Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton together, well separated by perspex, on Behind The Sofa and Sacha Dhawan & Anjli Mohindra should be a fun pairing. I wonder if in the future they could get Anjli and her Sarah Jane co stars to do one of Lis Sladen's seasons.

 

[Qonundrum]

With any luck, Marco Polo is still out there and recoverable (and repairable). Season 2 is not without its share of classics, but season 1 is - of course - that much more special.

"The Crusade" surely isn't being animated due to the complexity of the costumes' patterns?

Season 8 will certainly look better on Blu with less compression artifacting, and it'll be fun to see how the episodes that were colorized (didn't the special editions ditch the reverse standards conversion from NTSC to PAL because they were just too jagged around the edges? "Claws of Axos" had a special edition that used the color dot restoration process from the 16mm and it looked far better... )

And it'll be great to see season 20 out, in chronological order, next. Like being partially-disappointed again for the very first time. (I liked it, but Davison had decided to leave after the next season because of it... but he was so happy with season 21 that he fathomed changing his mind... or so the story goes.)

 

[VDCNI]

I thought it was more that Caves was so good that he said if more had been like that he would have stayed.

Yes, one of the big issues with animating the historicals is the number and complexity of costumes. A shame as they really are the best of the Hartnel era. I'd love for Marco Polo to come back.

 

[N-121973]

Just saw this on Amazon now. I haven't bought any of these box-sets as I've only just got up-to-date with the DVDs. I own Shada and the first edition of Power of the Daleks on Blu-Ray. But one day when all twenty-six are out, I'd like to get them.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Keeping up with the Joneses (again)...

Are we ever going to have a normal weekend....brilliant.

 

[VDCNI]

Season 24 has been announced with another great trailer and fantastic collection of extras. Particularly the BTS line up,

Sylvester, Bonnie and Sophie. Peter, Janet & Sarah. Colin & Michael Jayston!

 

[Nightowl1701]

May have been the classic show’s nadir, but damned if they ain’t gonna give it all the love they can!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Just amazing, and the minute i saw the spoons i knew it was McCoy, and whoever is making these trailers for the new BR boxsets, give them the job next at running Who. lol

 

[Qonundrum]

May have been the classic show’s nadir, but damned if they ain’t gonna give it all the love they can!

Much thanks for putting that up!

Wow, they keep the late-80s aesthetic - it's quite good.

Season 24 needed some love at the time, and at the time it's amazing anything got made - but the seeds for greatness are in amongst the (mountains of) chaff. Definitely great to see the season getting some love now.

Loved McCoy's introduction. Charming as ever, he is. Like he'd never left the role. Very seamless. He really ought to be in the 60th anniversary special. Still, he's in his late-70s. Which makes me cry just thinking about it. But you know me, I hate emotions and that makes me sad...

I was expecting season 25 to be first, so this is a nice surprise.

Extended versions for every story - that alone will be worth the price, but their blu-ray sets have all been well above average, if not trendsetters. Mark Ayres really does some fantastic 5.1 mixes as well...

The Behind the Sofa bits are always enjoyable. Like audio commentaries except we see them in present day (and the content is sadly limited to 30 minutes.)

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I, er, don't really like season 24? I appreciated it more this time around when I rewatched it, but I definitely am not one of its ardent fans. I loathe Delta and the Bannermen and am continually astonished how much love it continues to get.

I have, however, finally grown fond of Dragonfire. Not a masterpiece but its a very effective and nice entry. The real beginning of the Cartmel era for me.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^^And the only Who story with a literal cliffhanger. lol.

 

[kirk55555]

I, er, don't really like season 24? I appreciated it more this time around when I rewatched it, but I definitely am not one of its ardent fans. I loathe Delta and the Bannermen and am continually astonished how much love it continues to get.

Honestly, I consider Delta and the Bannermen one of McCoy's best, and it features the 7th Doctor I wish we'd have gotten for his whole run. A jovial, friendly guy, not an abusive asshole who was basically just a slightly less murderous version of The Master using The Doctor's name. Technically speaking Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield were probably better stories then Delta and the Bannermen, but that story had the version of the 7th Doctor that I prefer.

After that, through no fault of McCoy's, the 7th Doctor became a miserable asshole, so much so that I actually laughed when he got shot in the movie. That is still the most satisfying Doctor death to me, the "always one step ahead" asshole, who was constantly shown to almost magically have some plan or scheme that he set up to beat the villain before the story even started, getting randomly shot right outside the TARDIS and then killed by medical malpractice

 

[Qonundrum]

I, er, don't really like season 24? I appreciated it more this time around when I rewatched it, but I definitely am not one of its ardent fans. I loathe Delta and the Bannermen and am continually astonished how much love it continues to get.

I have, however, finally grown fond of Dragonfire. Not a masterpiece but its a very effective and nice entry. The real beginning of the Cartmel era for me.

"Dragonfire" is the most traditional story of the season, and feels confidently made. There was a technicality that forced the cliffhanger to be moved to that infamous one.

"Paradise Towers" is too simplified, considering it has 4 episodes plus extra footage left on the cutting room floor, but has the makings of a rather good story. It's a little too camp that's typical of season 24 (thank Michael Grade for the tone of the show at that point, Colin's era was deemed "too violent" and they demanded it be made more lighthearted. And considering the themes of season 24's stories, they really had to camp it up...)

"Time and the Rani" is a mess, originally meant for Colin Baker and went through a few rewrites to adjust to changing conditions behind the scenes, but it's oddly enjoyable despite it all - and has a few interesting themes running through the mess. The ending is unexpectedly but positively dour as Ikona pretty much condemns his entire species to extinction and such. Pip and Jane often put in subtle little themes into their Doctor Who stories and that one is the biggie.

It baffles me as well, how "Delta and the Bannermen" is so loved. The incidental music riffing on the 50s is actually quite good, McCoy and Henderson cearly shine in their roles (both of which get some truly terrific moments), but for a story that should have been played straight, a lot of it is played for ridiculous laughs... or lacks any substance... and the level of logic gaffes is astounding. The obvious example is "New queen bee is made by giving any ol' worker bee some queen bee food so obvs. a human eating alien Chimeron food will turn human into alien Chimeron to repopulate the species with." Gag me with a spoon (which is what the human would do before going to the hospital due to the alien food poisoning and pretty much killing him like how you don't feed a dog chocolate)... Okay, that might work for anyone young enough who hasn't attended any grade school biology classes, but that's about it. Stubby Kaye deserved much better too... If Henderson didn't play it straight it would have been far worse...