Season sets proposal

[mythme]

Physical media dead? well maybe. But for Doctor Who (or any long-running show with a big fan-base) I think there is still a market for discs. Not only for convenience (the sheer number of episodes) but since it seems nowhere can you see EVERYTHING. It comes and goes on streaming sites, the classics are never all there, plus what about all that bonus material? One thing I've always admired about the Classic Who DVDs is the generosity of bonus material, however the DVDs are fading away and its a pity that fans might miss out. On the other hand, the new series sets have been woefully inadequate in their bonuses. Seriously, so many confidentials, behind the scenes, interviews, Tardisodes, prequels, minisodes - every episode could have its own release packed with stuff. (I've done my own rough drafts of this, and yes every NuWho story could have easily been a 2-disc DVD). Therefore, here's little wish I would love to see happen; season(ish) box sets for Doctor Who. (I say "ish" mostly for the Hartnell/Troughton overlap in season 4. Better to keep each Doctor to his own set. Plus missing stories are an issue).

Now firstly, I believe the material would have to be put on Blu-Ray. I do not expect, not do I think there is a need for remastering, but this is just because of space, running time and the amount of material . Of course, anything NEW would be most welcome, but we know how corporate repackaging works, so basically what I have here are re-releases of the DVD material (much like the Trek NexGen blu-rays - all the DVD stuff with a few new features). The only major difference is that I would like recons of ALL the missing stories. BUT they would have to be better than that awful half-assed mess they did with "The Underwater Menace". I don't know about the logistics of these things, but would the BBC be able to buy out, hire or work in conjunction with Ian Levine and the old Loose Cannon folks in this regard? I think they did a marvelous job in the past. Plus they did their own interviews with cast members that might be of interest to fandom at large.

Here's an example of the contents of a 4-Disc Blu-ray set for what amounts to Harnell's first season. As I said, you will see that the contents are pretty much what was already on the DVDs. (Some material could be moved around to more appropriate stories.) But there's a few little tidbits of interest I've added that are floating around out there (Adding PDFs of scripts, expanding the photo galleries and extra interview or two are basically easy tasks, but who knows how much more archival things can be found) and the Blu-ray disc gives ample room for adding more.

SEASON 1 BOX SET
Disc One (approx 365 minutes)
AN UNEARTHLY CHILD (4 Episodes, 95 minutes)
1 & 4 commentary (w. Russell, Ford, Lambert and Hussein)
information text
* unaired Pilot*
Pilot Episode Studio Recording (35.36)
commentary
* Theme Music Video (2.36)
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono
* Doctor Who - Origins (moved here from Edge of Destruction disc)
* Comedy Sketches
The Pitch of Fear
The Corridor Sketch
* Photo Gallery
* PDF materials - Radio times billings and script) on EoD disc)
THE DALEKS (7 Episodes, 169 minutes)
2, 4 & 7 commentary (w.Barry, Martin, Russell & Ford)
information text
* Creation of the Daleks
Gallery
* PDF material - script, radio times listing, Dalek sketches

DISC TWO (approx 500 minutes)
THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION (2 Episodes, 47 minutes)
Information text
Episode 2 Arabic soundtrack
* Over the Edge - making of
* Inside the TARDIS
* Masters of Sound
* PDF materials - script, radio times listings
MARCO POLO (7 epsiodes, 171 minutes) (B&W production stills and photosnap reconstruction - Loose Cannon version?)
* making of (Loose Cannon? quite good)
* Colour version with Mark Eden's intro/outro - Loose Cannon)
* Historical overview
* PDF materials - radio times listings, script, map of Cathay, costume/set sketches?

DISC THREE (approx 412 minutes)
THE KEYS OF MARINUS (6 episodes, 145 minutes)
commentary (w. Russell, Ford, John zgorrie, Raymond Cusick)
information text
* Sets of Marinus
* Photo Gallery (7.25)
* PDF materials - radio times listings, script, Cadet Sweets "Doctor Who & the Daleks" cards
THE AZTECS (4 episodes, 99 minutes)
Commentary (w. Russell, Ford & Lambert)
Episode 4 Arabic soundtrack
production notes subtitles
6 introductions from Tlotoxl, Tonila and Ixta in "Play All" function
* Remembering the Aztecs
* Designing the Aztecs
* Cortez and Montezuma - Blue Peter
* Restoring the Aztecs
* Making Cocoa
* Chronicle - The Realms of Gold
* Doctor Forever! - The Celestial Toyroom
* It's a Square World - First Skit
* Photo Gallery
* PDF Material - radio times listings, script

DISC FOUR (approx 425 minutes)
THE SENSORITES (6 episodes, 150 minutes)
Audio Commentary (Russell, Ford, Joe Greig, Martyn Huntley, Giles Phibbs, Frank Cox, Raymond Cusick and Sonia Markham)
Production notes subtitles
* Looking for Peter
* Vision On
* Secret Voices of the Sense Sphere
* Photo Gallery (2 min)
* PDF materials - Radio Times Listings, script, design drawings)
THE REIGN OF TERROR (6 episodes, 148 minutes)
audio commentary 1-3 & 6 (w Ford, Neville Smith, Jeffery Wickham, Caroline Hunt, Patrick Marley & Tim Combe)
audio commentary animated 4 (w. Ronald Pickup)
audio commentary animated 5 (Philip Morris & Paul Vanezis)
information text
* telesnap alternative episodes 4 & 5) (Loose Cannon versions?)
* 8mm cine film clips from 4 & 5 (as seen on Lost in Time DVD)
* Carole Anne Ford interview (from audio soundtrack release)
* Don't Lose Your Head - Making of
* Set Tour (virtual tour of the 2 sets for animated episodes)
* Animation design Gallery
* Photo Gallery
* PDF materials: Radio Times Listings, script

 

[mythme]

no comments or opinions?

 

[Chaos Descending]

What is there to say? It's never going to happen.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Yeah, it's a nice theoretical, but that's all that it is. OTOH, if sets like what you proposed became available, I would definitely be interested in them.

 

[Lance]

I'm not wholely convinced physical media is dead.

It's definitely declining from it's peak over the last decade and a half, but the reality is that said peak was unprecedented -- the 'DVD Boom' was HUGE, and in some ways, the market is actually now just returning to something resembling the way it was back in the 1980s and 1990s, with physical media becoming more of a niche "collector's" market, and internet streaming being (in effect) a successor to renting movies (the prefered method of the larger 'mainstream' audience for watching films and TV.)

So, the question simply becomes about whether the smaller collector's market can sustain releases like this. In terms of Doctor Who Classic I think there's definitely a market for season sets, as the show has hithero only been available as pricey "individual story" releases, and I think there would definitely be logic at this stage in repackaging them in this way.

Also, in terms of the American fanbase, so many of the titles have now gone out of print, that I would think season sets would be a welcome chance for the fans on the American side of the pond to complete their collections in a native format, given they are now unable to do so (at reasonable prices.)

I do agree with you mythme that I'd personally rather see them on Blu Ray instead of DVD, if only for the convenience that more content can actually be crammed onto less discs, which (of course) would also have the cross-benefit of making production costs smaller, which would also make the retail price lower as well. In theory. And a lower retail price point would be more attractive to a smaller physical media marketplace. That's what we call a win/win.

**EDIT** I will add that a new round of bonus features being commissioned is unlikely. They may choose to port the existing DVD features over like they did with the New Series on Blu Ray, but for cost saving reasons (and the dwindling physical media market) I'd say paying for new documentaries, commentaries, recons of the missing episodes, etc etc to be made would really be pushing it.

 

[Lance]

As another side note, it is worth noting that over in Germany, the BBC has already started releasing the classic series as Season Sets.....in reverse order. So far, they've managed to repackage Seasons 26, 25, 24, 23, 22 and 21. So there's already a release model there, including very lovely new artwork, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they might ultimately do so in English-speaking regions as well in the near future.

 

[RoJoHen]

no comments or opinions?

Well, nobody here actually has the power to make this happen, so your "proposal" kind of stops there.

 

[mythme]

As another side note, it is worth noting that over in Germany, the BBC has already started releasing the classic series as Season Sets.....in reverse order. So far, they've managed to repackage Seasons 26, 25, 24, 23, 22 and 21. So there's already a release model there, including very lovely new artwork, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they might ultimately do so in English-speaking regions as well in the near future.

What's on those German sets in the way of bonuses and how do they stack up to the individual releases?

 

[Sybok Was Wrong]

Season sets would have been a great idea 5-10 years ago. They missed the boat on that.

Most of us who would have bought Classic Who have already purchased many individual stories- you'd be buying those stories again, but with likely less extra features on theoretical season boxes. What's the point.

They should have started season sets to take advantage of the popularity of the new series, but that popularity has peaked.

Deleting titles altogether makes Zero sense. I can't complete my collection, and I'm not sucker enough, or so big a nerd to pay the prices I see on Amazon or Ebay for "The Two Doctors", or "Planet of the Spiders".

BBC should go the route of "Manufacturing On Demand" instead of 100% deletion. There's still sales to be had, and they'd stop the secondary market from making over $100 for "Terror of the Autons".

 

[Lance]

What's on those German sets in the way of bonuses and how do they stack up to the individual releases?

As I understand it, they're identical in terms of special features, but they've been localized with a couple of German language things. Namely, German language soundtracks are available on each episode, but the English versions are there as well. They don't use the same menu designs etc because they've been localized for Germany. But all of the content is the same. All of the special features have been faithfully ported over from the original releases. Apart from the German language tracks there are no other brand new bonuses.

Here's the 25th season, so you can get an idea of what the artwork looks like (front and back):

http://www.amazon.de/Doctor-Who-Sie..._74_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1RBMERYS2VNKN0DASNT8

It's a 5-disc set, reflecting that Remembrance of the Daleks was re-released as two-discs, and the rest of the season were one disc stories. Season 26 is a 7-disc set, again the individual releases were 7 discs in total (2+2+1+2), and Season 24 is 4-discs (likewise). So it seems that they're direct ports of the existing releases in terms of actual disc content, only localized for Germany.

My point is that given the BBC are already repackaging them as Season Sets, in Germany, I take that as an indication they could very simply do the same in English-speaking regions. As I say, they've even got newly commissioned cover artwork ready to go. And it's certainly 'value for money', the German sets are selling entire seasons for a mere fraction of the price that the individual story releases sell for.

And of course, with the American retailer pulling so many of them out of print, a series of 'Season Sets' would give people an opportunity to (legitimately) complete their collections without paying the eBay sharks hundreds of dollars too much. Win/win.

Season sets would have been a great idea 5-10 years ago. They missed the boat on that.

I'm not so sure about that. The home media market still exists, albeit releases need to be relatively cheap to compete, and at this late stage it would seem the most logical time to pull all those old individiual stories from sale and repackage them as cheap-but-value-for-money Season Sets. If they procrastinate any longer they will probably miss the boat, but they've still got time right now. That they're still finding ways to repackage the modern show in Season Sets on Blu Ray is an indication that a market still exists there. Why not do the same with Classic Who?

 

[mythme]

Of course its just a dream of "new" stuff to be produced for Who products; it was more my point is that the BBC is sitting on lots of stuff that already in their possession (just look at the DW clip section on the BBC website and you'll see when I mean). They were generous with Classic Who discs. Friends that borrow my DVDs always comment of this and I think its a pity for new fans to miss out of them as the DVDs become unavailable. It is disappointing this value for money trend didn't carry on with NuWho. Again, the BBC is sitting on TONS of material; some rather "essential" like minisodes, some which still need to see official release to the public at large (how many people even know about "P.S." or "A Ghost Story for Christmas"?). I hope if the new series are ever re-released in some fashion they would add all those Confidentials, Extras, behind-the-scenes, etc., which, again, have already been made, produced and are just sitting "in the can".

And as for season sets - they kinda did an example of this for "The Key to Time". The stories were originally separate but they put them all together in a nice, space-saving flip-case. As stated above, this sort of treatment alone would be an acceptable compromise.

 

[Lance]

And as for season sets - they kinda did an example of this for "The Key to Time". The stories were originally separate but they put them all together in a nice, space-saving flip-case. As stated above, this sort of treatment alone would be an acceptable compromise.

I actually thought that might be an interesting way to go. Repackage them all as 'digipaks' like they already did with "The Key To Time" (which is, as you say, essentially a existing ready-made 'Season Set' already.)

They key thing is that they must be a 'value added' proposition when compared to the individual story releases. Bunging them into a box and then charging the equivalent of the seperate releases wouldn't be in anybody's benefit. It sure wouldn't help sales.

 

[Lance]

The German sets:

They don't look too bad lined up together, do they? I definitely think with these sets coming out right now in Germany, there's still an even-chance of the BBC doing likewise in English-speaking regions. Physical media isn't quite dead yet, and the value-added proposition of getting entire seasons (or half-seasons) packaged together for a mere fraction of the individual retail price of the seperate DVDs would make them much more attractive and accessible for consumers. Win/Win.

 

[Phillip Culley]

Although to be fair that's pretty much all you're getting in Germany - they're only releasing the stories which had German dubs.