The BBC has released confirmation of the classic Doctor Who DVD and Blu-ray release calendar for 2013 (as far as September), featuring Terror of the Zygons and The Mind of Evil – as well as the HD release of Spearhead from Space!
Making for interesting reading, the list also includes The Ice Warriors, a polished version of the 1998 VHS release which featured a photo/audio reconstruction of missing episodes two and three, a special edition of The Green Death and The Visitation and – perhaps most curiously – Scream of the Shalka, in which Doctor Who fans met the original Ninth Doctor in Autumn 2003!
- February 25: The Ark in Space: Special Edition
- March 11: The Aztecs: Special Edition (plus Galaxy 4 reconstruction)
- May 6: The Visitation: Special Edition
- May 27: Inferno: Special Edition
- June 3: The Mind of Evil
- June 24: Terror of the Zygons
- July 15: Spearhead from Space Blu-Ray
- August 5: The Green Death: Special Edition
- August 26: The Ice Warriors
- September 16: Scream of the Shalka
The presence of Shalka in the calendar is particularly interesting, and raises the possibility that following the release of the previous BBCi webcast Shada (as part of the Legacy boxset) that we might also be lucky enough to have DVD releases of Real Time and Death Comes to Time.
Time, of course, will tell…
The missing eps from The Ice Warriors will, reportedly, be telesnaps, not animation… but apparently, there’s a big animation festival thingy somewhere later this month – so maybe it’s a smokescreen and they’ll announce that they actually will be animated! Fingers crossed, anyhoo!
According to Amazon the Ark in Space special edition has been put back to 8th April. There are a lot of re-releases (oh alright- Special Editions!) in this schedule. I had also read that the missing episodes of the Ice Warriors will be the condensed versions that appear on the video release.
I’ll keep an eye on that. My preview copy is fine, however, so I don’t think it is due to any errors in the manufacture.
The reason for that can only be that we’re reaching the end of the range. The RT said last year that they would be revisiting earlier releases as the end of the catalog is released, in order to give them the same quality of extras and audio/visual polish as laterones.
That’s certainly what it says in the article above…
It is possible that Amazon have got it wrong. I have it on pre-order so the next couple of weeks should show. I do recall reading about plans to re-issue old stories. Not sure how cynical I am about this. My comment about the Ice Warriors was intended more as a reply to Philip. I too would love to see animations (or even better the recovered episodes) but I am not optimistic.
I think the Ice Warriors being released sans animation is a bit of a cynical move–the BBC has stated that they will consider animating stories with a maximum of two episodes missing, for which this story obviously qualifies, and for Rassilon’s sake it’s the Ice Warriors! They’re still in the top 10 favorite adversaries despite not appearing since 1974. It’s also their first appearance and a golden opportunity to give the fans a complete Troughton story–something all-too-rare to begin with. I feel as if this is just a temporary version for when they inevitably release an animation-enhanced edition down the line. If there’s one thing the Beeb knows it’s that Whovians are a reliable market. I just wish that didn’t entail us being viewed as a cash cow. Sadly should we make our preferences known by not purchasing this edition it would doubtless kill all hope of a complete edition being made. It’s a corporate-engineered catch-22.
What I want to know is, once they’ve released all classic stories, will they start releasing box sets of complete seasons? That’s the only way I buy TV shows, and I’m not about to change that, not even for Doctor Who.