The Underwater Menace DVD pulled... again...

[Candlelight]

Someone on the missing episodes Facebook page mentioned 2Entertain has stated that The Underwater Menace DVD "has been removed from DVD release schedules and the viability of the release is being reassessed".

And thus, this has been set up:

https://www.change.org/p/bbc-worldwide-please-release-doctor-who-the-underwater-menace-on-dvd

 

[StCoop]

If they thought they could make a profit from it, it would be released but the reality is physical media is a dying medium. Even the box sets of the current series sell a fraction of what they used to.

Expect the episodes to appear on the forthcoming digital-only BBC Store instead.

 

[Mr Soak]

but the reality is physical media is a dying medium.

The death of physical media is an exageration. There will always be people who cannot, or do not wish to use digital services. Yes, the market is diminishing, but it will not disappear anytime soon, if at all.

This "rumour" really needs to be squashed. It's a tired, long-used excuse that has continually failed to eventuate.

As to The Underwater Menace, I would hope that it does get a DVD release. I will not be buying any digital version.

 

[Candlelight]

but the reality is physical media is a dying medium.

The death of physical media is an exageration. There will always be people who cannot, or do not wish to use digital services. Yes, the market is diminishing, but it will not disappear anytime soon, if at all.

This "rumour" really needs to be squashed. It's a tired, long-used excuse that has continually failed to eventuate.

As to The Underwater Menace, I would hope that it does get a DVD release. I will not be buying any digital version.

There's always been a format which has superseded another, from beta to vhs to dvd to blu-ray. This time the next format isn't physical, and eventually dvd will be replaced, if not by another physical format but by technological advances like HD, 4K etc renders standard def medium obsolete.

We're talking about a 50 year old television show which has been released twice in its entirety in both VHS and DVD. Highly unlikely the BBC will release it again physically.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

As long as there is DW to be released, why not? I just think there's something else involved... and naturally, I hope its about recovered eps.

 

[StCoop]

The death of physical media is an exaggeration. There will always be people who cannot, or do not wish to use digital services. Yes, the market is diminishing, but it will not disappear anytime soon, if at all..

There'll always be a niche audience who want physical media, just like there is still a niche an audience for music on Vinyl. But for the vast majority of people streaming and downloads are the future.

Midlist/catalogue releases are rapidly diminishing for DVD and never really took off for Blu-Ray (which is why you find companies like Twilight Time specialising in 3000 copy print runs of cult titles that would once have received normal releases), so we will reach a point in the next few years where the only things sitting on physical shelves for sale will be new releases. (And anything else you'll pay through the nose for.)

Web & Enemy did well thanks to the huge publicity surrounding them but a physical release of TUM would be lucky to hit Moonbase level sales, especially since two of the episodes would be just recons and not even animated.

Like I said, I'd be amazed if they don't show up on the BBC Store when it launches in the near future.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

While it's good that we've gotten some more season 5 lately, it's a shame that so much of season 4 is still lost

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

It just bugs the crap out of me that there's one surviving episode (and a Troughton episode no less) that I still can't get on DVD. Even if they don't do a separate release for the entire story, I would still like to see Part 2 included as a bonus feature on some future release, even if it's on a new series DVD.

 

[ClayinCA]

It just bugs the crap out of me that there's one surviving episode (and a Troughton episode no less) that I still can't get on DVD.

This, times a thousand.

 

[Relayer1]

There's got to be something they could tag it onto - a documentary or something...

 

[Lakenheath 72]

Digital media is dependent on a strong, stable, fast network. The United States, where I live, is near the bottom of the developed nations. I don't see this improving anytime soon - the country's money is going into anything save infrastructure.

 

[mythme]

very frustrating. I have a slot reserved for it on my Doctor Who DVD shelf!

 

[The Wormhole]

So Underwater Menace isn't getting a DVD release, allegedly because physical media is becoming a dinosaur, yet we are getting a new DVD release devoted to the Cybermen, which at the moment just looks like a special edition re-release of Earthshock. Okay.

 

[Saga]

for years now people have been saying physical media is dead. clearly, it isn't.

 

[Relayer1]

So Underwater Menace isn't getting a DVD release, allegedly because physical media is becoming a dinosaur, yet we are getting a new DVD release devoted to the Cybermen, which at the moment just looks like a special edition re-release of Earthshock. Okay.

Maybe they'll tag it onto a special edition.

Or maybe they've got a lead on the rest of it.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

An Earthshock special edition has been in the works for a while (The original DVD I think is out of print, and unavailable on most streaming/DVD rental sites), but it was delayed for some reason until now.

 

[Mr Awe]

They need to get off their derrieres and get this thing released. Enough with the excuses. No, physical media is not dead yet.

Mr Awe

 

[Doctorwhovian]

Kind of weird they're using the Moffat-era Cybermen design, when the content of the disc has the 80's Cybermen who are very different, both in design and vocally.

 

[mythme]

heck if they really wanted to, they could put the unreleased episode of UM on THIS, just as they included Galaxy 5 on the Deluxe Aztecs. It wouldn't make much sense in terms of theme but it would be an extra selling point to get people to "double dip"

 

[Turtletrekker]

An Earthshock special edition has been in the works for a while (The original DVD I think is out of print, and unavailable on most streaming/DVD rental sites), but it was delayed for some reason until now.

It's available through Amazon Prime streaming. I watched it a few weeks ago.