Season 8 looks and sounds fantastic on blu-ray. All the stories look the best of any release so far, which is saying something since the DVD releases were phenomenal in their own rights - the makers spent a lot of technical time to improve on something that was already passable and the result is amazing.
Some of the restoration tricks and even the colorized b/w film where the phosphors from the telecine can be seen on blu easier. It's 99% not detracting, only a battle in "Terror of the Autons" with the converted NTSC color with occasional/rare color bleed and blooming reds/purples in a couple areas try to detract but it's nominal at worst. The tweaks done for blu-ray significantly improve on the DVD release, which itself was very strong in its own right with the effort and time and care put into it. A lot of scenes look almost indistinguishable from original 625 line VT. The story will never look better unless there's a copy of the original VT hanging around that can be archived to D3, which is more than unlikely a possibility at this point.
If I had a complaint, it would be "why not do a special edition of 'The Claws of Axos' where they removed the back-and-forth of green and Jo aging to death, which might sell the horror a bit better. With computers able to construct missing frames (useful in remastering damaged film cels or shifting FPS), it'd be a breeze. At least coneptually; in practice, the effects used helped the problems with camera lock and mixing, as well as making use of late 60s/early 70s fads with color, camera close-ups on swirling gels, and so on, to sell "organic space vampires". The fringing is much improved on the blu-ray as well; Axos' interiors are largely and virtually seamless now. Really a great release. (The bonus of that story's RSC treated episodes on a supplemental disc was a nice touch to compare, but the main disc content is always going to be best...)
Some of the restoration tricks and even the colorized b/w film where the phosphors from the telecine can be seen on blu easier. It's 99% not detracting, only a battle in "Terror of the Autons" with the converted NTSC color with occasional/rare color bleed and blooming reds/purples in a couple areas try to detract but it's nominal at worst. The tweaks done for blu-ray significantly improve on the DVD release, which itself was very strong in its own right with the effort and time and care put into it. A lot of scenes look almost indistinguishable from original 625 line VT. The story will never look better unless there's a copy of the original VT hanging around that can be archived to D3, which is more than unlikely a possibility at this point.
If I had a complaint, it would be "why not do a special edition of 'The Claws of Axos' where they removed the back-and-forth of green and Jo aging to death, which might sell the horror a bit better. With computers able to construct missing frames (useful in remastering damaged film cels or shifting FPS), it'd be a breeze. At least coneptually; in practice, the effects used helped the problems with camera lock and mixing, as well as making use of late 60s/early 70s fads with color, camera close-ups on swirling gels, and so on, to sell "organic space vampires". The fringing is much improved on the blu-ray as well; Axos' interiors are largely and virtually seamless now. Really a great release. (The bonus of that story's RSC treated episodes on a supplemental disc was a nice touch to compare, but the main disc content is always going to be best...)
