Special edition TV Movie DVD coming (R2)

[23skidoo]

According to the Doctor Who News Page, citing the latest issue of DWM, the upcoming "Revisitations" box set (which is to feature new DVD editions of stories released in more bare-bones versions early in the DVD run) is going to include a special edition of the Paul McGann TV movie with some new features:

http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2009/12/tv-movie-re-released-on-dvd.html

Needless to say, this is for the UK only. I imagine it's too much to hope that BBC Video and 2 Entertain have managed to sort out the Batman-like licensing issues that have prevented any legal North American/R1 release of the TV movie. Hopefully it won't scuttle a North American release of the other Revisitations stories the way the Davros box set got trashed because of rights issues involving one of the stories.

I still say these squabbles over rights are doing nothing but costing BBC Video money, because we know that within hours of the new DVD hitting the stores in the UK there'll be AVIs of it crossing the pond at the speed of light if there's no release happening over here.

Alex

 

[Turbo]

The rumors I've seen is that the Davros boxset was not trashed due to rights issues but due to poor sales in the UK and that the BBC didn't want people importing the boxset from the US for about half the cost.

I'll bet they have a TVM-less version of this boxset ready to go for R1, but that's no guarantee we'll get it. I hope we do!

 

[Worf2DS9]

I would love for the S.E. of the TVM to be released here in North America. I have a copy of the original DVD by way of the R2 release, so that's better than nothing. Still, a proper release over here would be great.

Pigs may start flying soon as well.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I imagine it's too much to hope that BBC Video and 2 Entertain have managed to sort out the Batman-like licensing issues that have prevented any legal North American/R1 release of the TV movie.

Vivendi Universal holds the video rights to the television movie in North America. The ideal time for them to release the DVD would have been when they started showing the new series on Sci-Fi. (Indeed, I wonder why VU didn't flog the television movie on Sci-Fi with multiple showings at the time.) At this point, with the new series going to a competing network, there's no compelling reason for VU to release it. Yes, it sucks. But it's also business.

 

[wamdue]

im really surprised BBC 3 has not aired the TV movie, is there some legal reason they cant?

 

[ClayinCA]

Glad to hear this is coming out. I bought the original R2 release, and as long as my multi-region player holds out, I'll buy this one too.

 

[23skidoo]

Vivendi Universal holds the video rights to the television movie in North America. The ideal time for them to release the DVD would have been when they started showing the new series on Sci-Fi. (Indeed, I wonder why VU didn't flog the television movie on Sci-Fi with multiple showings at the time.) At this point, with the new series going to a competing network, there's no compelling reason for VU to release it. Yes, it sucks. But it's also business.

It's also stupid because rather than making a few bucks off the sales, they're basically giving up any profit they might have gotten. Those who want to get the show and the extra features will get the show and its extra DVD features over the Internet, and no amount of tut-tutting will stop them. This also goes for Batman, Six Million Dollar Man, etc. I saw a calculation once of how much money could have been made through VHS and DVD sales of the original Batman and it would have more than covered the costs of licenses and rights by something like a factor of 4.

The rumors I've seen is that the Davros boxset was not trashed due to rights issues but due to poor sales in the UK and that the BBC didn't want people importing the boxset from the US for about half the cost.

Nah, that's nonsense. There's never been a case of a US release being cancelled for that reason. The decision was made months before the Davros set was even released in the UK, so how could it have been based on sales? It was because of the music rights regarding Remembrance of the Daleks (which have since been sorted out):

http://www.thelogbook.com/dvd/doctor-who-davros/

(This was the first Google hit on the topic, but there are plenty of others.)

Also, individual releases still occurred, just the box set idea was dropped.

Alex

 

[Turbo]

The rumors I've seen is that the Davros boxset was not trashed due to rights issues but due to poor sales in the UK and that the BBC didn't want people importing the boxset from the US for about half the cost.

Nah, that's nonsense. There's never been a case of a US release being cancelled for that reason. The decision was made months before the Davros set was even released in the UK, so how could it have been based on sales? It was because of the music rights regarding Remembrance of the Daleks (which have since been sorted out):

http://www.thelogbook.com/dvd/doctor-who-davros/

(This was the first Google hit on the topic, but there are plenty of others.)

Also, individual releases still occurred, just the box set idea was dropped.

Alex

Okay, that reasoning is probably rumor-mongering I picked up from Outpost Gallifrey; my bad.

However, Mark Ayres did state that he had made an international mix of Remembrance of the Daleks using the generic music. That plus the earlier R1 release makes me suspect there was some other reason the boxset was scrapped. At least they've finally fixed whatever was going on and we're getting Remembrance next year.

 

[Captain Pike]

Screw R1, I'm still waiting for a R4 release.

Incidently, the Davros box set was released here shortly after it's UK release.

The reasoning seems inconsistent - sometimes we are told R4 releases are being held back on the same grounds as R1 releases, but that doesn't always ring true.

David Attenborough's landmark series Life On Earth is absent a R1 (and presumably R4) release due to it's endorsement of evolution and the fact that this challenges the views of creationists . Though there are probably a few idiot fundies living here they are most definitely the extreme minority in this country and I don't see why the rest of us should have to suffer for their willful ignorance.

 

[Kirks_Flying_Wig]

im really surprised BBC 3 has not aired the TV movie, is there some legal reason they cant?

I doubt there's a legal reason but it's probably not a BBC Three kind of programme -- more like Two on a Sunday morning like how the Cushing films were often scheduled.

 

[Turbo]

Screw R1, I'm still waiting for a R4 release.

Incidently, the Davros box set was released here shortly after it's UK release.

The reasoning seems inconsistent - sometimes we are told R4 releases are being held back on the same grounds as R1 releases, but that doesn't always ring true.

I know that for Doctor Who, all of the R2 releases are dual-coded with R4. (The only two that aren't are Vengeance on Varos to fix an R2 error, and Remembrance of the Daleks for the music.) IIRC, this includes the TVM, even though it hasn't been released in R4.

David Attenborough's landmark series Life On Earth is absent a R1 (and presumably R4) release due to it's endorsement of evolution and the fact that this challenges the views of creationists . Though there are probably a few idiot fundies living here they are most definitely the extreme minority in this country and I don't see why the rest of us should have to suffer for their willful ignorance.

Wikipedia says that Life on Earth was released in R4 as part of a larger collection.

ETA: Never mind, I'm an idiot, just saw the last sentence. But the Life on Earth page says that the DVDs are dual-coded, like the Doctor Who DVDs. So yeah, that doesn't make much sense.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

im really surprised BBC 3 has not aired the TV movie, is there some legal reason they cant?

I doubt there's a legal reason but it's probably not a BBC Three kind of programme -- more like Two on a Sunday morning like how the Cushing films were often scheduled.

It's been a while, but I think Sci-fi channel had the rights, I think they showed it right before the new series started.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Bah, humbug. For the briefest of moments, I thought it was finally being released here (until I got to the "(R2)" bit in the title). *sigh*

Yet again, I find myself hating the idiocy of region discs.

 

[Turbo]

Unfortunately, fights over the distribution rights like this are exactly why the region coding exists in the first place. And everybody loses.

 

[Captain Pike]

Screw R1, I'm still waiting for a R4 release.

Incidently, the Davros box set was released here shortly after it's UK release.

The reasoning seems inconsistent - sometimes we are told R4 releases are being held back on the same grounds as R1 releases, but that doesn't always ring true.

I know that for Doctor Who, all of the R2 releases are dual-coded with R4. (The only two that aren't are Vengeance on Varos to fix an R2 error, and Remembrance of the Daleks for the music.) IIRC, this includes the TVM, even though it hasn't been released in R4.

David Attenborough's landmark series Life On Earth is absent a R1 (and presumably R4) release due to it's endorsement of evolution and the fact that this challenges the views of creationists . Though there are probably a few idiot fundies living here they are most definitely the extreme minority in this country and I don't see why the rest of us should have to suffer for their willful ignorance.

Wikipedia says that Life on Earth was released in R4 as part of a larger collection.

ETA: Never mind, I'm an idiot, just saw the last sentence. But the Life on Earth page says that the DVDs are dual-coded, like the Doctor Who DVDs. So yeah, that doesn't make much sense.

Thing is though if they have gone to the trouble to double-encode them why not just release them here as well? I should be able to just walk into a shop and buy them, but you cant - instead you have to go through the convoluted process of importing them.

 

[Rosalind]

Screw R1, I'm still waiting for a R4 release.

Incidently, the Davros box set was released here shortly after it's UK release.

The reasoning seems inconsistent - sometimes we are told R4 releases are being held back on the same grounds as R1 releases, but that doesn't always ring true.

I know that for Doctor Who, all of the R2 releases are dual-coded with R4. (The only two that aren't are Vengeance on Varos to fix an R2 error, and Remembrance of the Daleks for the music.) IIRC, this includes the TVM, even though it hasn't been released in R4.

And The War Game, I bought a UK copy because it was cheaper than buying them in Oz, since I've done this before, but it was R2 only.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Unfortunately, fights over the distribution rights like this are exactly why the region coding exists in the first place. And everybody loses.

I'll say it again. Bah. Humbug.

 

[Stevil2001]

I still say these squabbles over rights are doing nothing but costing BBC Video money, because we know that within hours of the new DVD hitting the stores in the UK there'll be AVIs of it crossing the pond at the speed of light if there's no release happening over here.

Well, it's not costing them a thing-- there's nothing for those downloaders to buy, so they woudn't've made a thing anyway.

 

[Tomalak]

Unfortunately, fights over the distribution rights like this are exactly why the region coding exists in the first place. And everybody loses.

Isn't it because of TV standards as well? Not everyone in R1 land could watch a PAL disc anyway. Obviously this one is due to rights, but in general.

 

[Cutter John]

Indeed, screw region coding. Bought a $35 bit of software a few years ago that lets me watch any region disk I want. Not that I've bought many R2 disks (War of the Worlds live, and the Flash Gordon movie with commentaries), but looks like I'll have to pick this one up.