Possible Ice Warriors DVD on the horizon

[23skidoo]

Interesting tidbit reported from the Gallifrey One Convention via the Doctor Who News Page: Michael Troughton (son of Patrick) indicated he had recently recorded a commentary for a biography of his dad being included on the DVD release of The Ice Warriors.

Ice Warriors is one of the lost stories, so it's unknown if this is going to be a restoration job like Reign of Terror and The Invasion, or a Lost in Time-style compilation. According to DWM the two recently discovered episodes from lost stories are being released to DVD separately. So it would make sense for The Underwater Menace episode to be slapped onto an Ice Warriors DVD.

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2012/02/dwn190212220008-dvds-ice-warriors.html

The news report also includes updates on the upcoming Shada, Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Face of Evil and Terror of the Zygons releases, plus a hint of what we might see in possible new editions of Vengeance on Varos and Robot.

Alex

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I can't wait for The Face of Evil release...finally! I know a lot of people don't rate it high, but not only is it one of my favorite Fourth Doctor stories, it's one of my favorite serials period.

 

[DWF]

I too am looing forward to the release of The Face Of Evil, it'll finally complete the 14th season which is my favorite season of the entire series.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Great minds think alike. Season 14 is my favorite as well.

 

[Candlelight]

According to DWM the two recently discovered episodes from lost stories are being released to DVD separately. So it would make sense for The Underwater Menace episode to be slapped onto an Ice Warriors DVD.

This is probably why it's being bumped up / announced now.

Or just coincidence.

 

[23skidoo]

I just looked up The Ice Warriors on the Tardis Index File Wiki. There are currently 2 episodes of the 6 missing. It was released on VHS with what the site described as a "mini-reconstruction". Interestingly, the article (now since updated) also stated that it will never be released to DVD. I guess that's wrong then.

I personally don't buy into any "it will never be released" talk. With the 50th anniversary coming up, and people still buying the DVDs, and with the complete stories almost all used up, they'll be doing more Reign of Terror-style releases. Certainly it doesn't make any sane sense for them not to at least release The Tenth Planet since it's missing only one episode (and it got a VHS release, to boot).

Of course if there's such a thing as a "positive conspiracy" it would be nice to speculate that the reason they've refused to do a DVD release of The Tenth Planet is that they're in secret talks with some collector in Liverpool who has episode 4 in a strongbox in his basement...

Alex

 

[Mr Awe]

I personally don't buy into any "it will never be released" talk.

Me either. I remember people thinking they were "in the know" proclaiming that animations would never be done again (after Invasion) because it was too expensive.

It seemed obvious that the cost of animating is always dropping and that at some point the cost-benefit tradeoff of animating missing episodes will tilt towards doing them.

It's a matter of when, not if. And, we've already passed that point!

Mr Awe

 

[Candlelight]

There's only four incomplete stories that'll get their own DVD release. The rest are missing too much to warrant an animated style release. I believe the general rule is "50% or more original material must exist" or words to that effect.

Why people are suddenly gasping for The Underwater Menace to be animated is beyond me.

 

[Mr Awe]

I don't know if that rule is official, or just something the fans came up with. However, either way, as the cost falls, it becomes more financially justifiable to animate stories even if more than 50% are missing. We might not be there yet, but it's just a matter of time.

I have no particular interest in The Underwater Menace, myself.

Mr Awe

 

[Candlelight]

I personally wouldn't care for any animated episodes. Just the originals.

 

[The Wormhole]

Animated reconstructions are cool. I really enjoyed the work they did on The Invasion.

 

[Winterwind]

As did I. But I wouldn't want to see a higher ratio than what we got with The Invasion for live vs animated.

 

[Turbo]

I was under the impression that the RT had said there would be no animated recon for "The Ice Warriors" after the one for "The Invasion" was so expensive, but that was several years ago and obviously things have changed. Never heard from anyone official that it would never be released.

 

[Takeru]

If it's too expensive they should just switch to cheaper animation, simplify the character designs etc., they don't have to look at pictures or existing footage and recreate the original look as closely as possible.

 

[Stevil2001]

I personally don't buy into any "it will never be released" talk.

Me either. I remember people thinking they were "in the know" proclaiming that animations would never be done again (after Invasion) because it was too expensive.

Those "in the know" people were quoting the folks at 2|entertain and the Restoration Team. Obviously things changed... but it took over 5 years!

I don't know if that rule is official, or just something the fans came up with. However, either way, as the cost falls, it becomes more financially justifiable to animate stories even if more than 50% are missing. We might not be there yet, but it's just a matter of time.

I think the rule is indicated by which ones are on the Lost in Time set. If they thought they could sell it on its own, it's not on there.

 

[Christopher]

If it's too expensive they should just switch to cheaper animation, simplify the character designs etc., they don't have to look at pictures or existing footage and recreate the original look as closely as possible.

I don't see how you could get much simpler than the animation they used in the reconstructions of "The Invasion." It was basically the digital-era equivalent of the limited animation Filmation used in the '70s, with mostly static head shots aside from mouth and eye movement, the same drawings of the characters constantly being reused, the same motions being replayed, etc. And judging from the parts where the action overlapped between the end of one episode and the beginning of the next, it didn't recreate the original shots all that closely. (Not that I can see why consulting and replicating existing footage or stills would be any more expensive than storyboarding new sequences.)

 

[DWF]

If it's too expensive they should just switch to cheaper animation, simplify the character designs etc., they don't have to look at pictures or existing footage and recreate the original look as closely as possible.

I don't see how you could get much simpler than the animation they used in the reconstructions of "The Invasion."

Wait til The Reign Of Terror comes out and you can see bad the animation could be.

 

[Mr Awe]

I personally don't buy into any "it will never be released" talk.

Me either. I remember people thinking they were "in the know" proclaiming that animations would never be done again (after Invasion) because it was too expensive.

Those "in the know" people were quoting the folks at 2|entertain and the Restoration Team. Obviously things changed... but it took over 5 years!

So, "never" means 5 years, apparently! Ha! Seriously short term thinking at play. They should be looking at trends and seeing where things are going, not just where things are at right now.

Mr Awe

 

[23skidoo]

So, "never" means 5 years, apparently! Ha! Seriously short term thinking at play. They should be looking at trends and seeing where things are going, not just where things are at right now.

Mr Awe

At times I get the impression from comments on forums and by "insiders" that no one buys Doctor Who DVDs. That they're barely scraping by and we're lucky any are being released at all. I remember reading something to that effect a few years back when we were told outright to say goodbye to any special features, forever. Well, except for a couple minor releases that had not much more than a Radio Times listings PDF, I haven't noticed a huge deficit of special features. And The Sensorites' feature on Toby Hadoke's search for information about its writer is IMO one of the best ever produced for the line.

I got the same impression from the really negative-sounding naysayers (if you'll pardon the redundancy) who suggested The Invasion bombed and sold, apparently, zero copies and, therefore, we'll never ever ever ever ever see any more animated recreations because a) they apparently cost a billion dollars to make and b) no one wants them.

But then I look at the fact 2 Entertain (or whatever they call themselves this week) continues to release the damn things. And not only that, they've got more coming on the horizon, and they're reissuing older releases, and they're shelling out for animating Reign of Terror. It just doesn't make sense if we're to believe those who seem to be utterly convinced that the DVD line should have been abandoned a decade ago.

If no one is buying them, then stop releasing them. it's simple. But I for one buy them regularly, and maybe I'm imagining things, but they do seem to be kinda popular. So what do I know? But from where I stand there is plenty of fan and consumer support for either partial releases of stories or recreations using animation (and in a bit of response to a couple of snarky remarks about the animated Reign of Terror I've seen, as long as the original soundtrack is used I personally don't care if they got the guys from South Park to animate it).

Alex

 

[Candlelight]

If no one is buying them, then stop releasing them.

2Entertain have a 'Doctor Who budget' which they use each year. They'll keep releasing them regardless (at least until someone cottons on and kills the budget).

That said, I doubt the DVD sales are as dire as people make out. Make a thread on Gallifrey Base and ask hwo many DVDs people buy and a majority will say 'all of them'.