Warner Home Video has announced two new DVD releases for the US and Canada coming this fall: Inferno starring Jon Pertwee and The Web Planet starring William Hartnell will both be out on September 5, 2006. "Inferno" is a two-disc set featuring commentary by Nicholas Courtney, John Levene, script editor Terrance Dicks and producer/director Barry Letts; "Can You Hear the Earth Scream?," a 35-minute "making of" documentary which includes interviews with Dicks, Letts, Levene, Courtney, Caroline John, Ian Fairbairn and stunt arranger Derek Ware; "The UNIT Family (Part One)", a 36-minute documentary featuring a look at the first half of the "UNIT family" from the Third Doctor's era with interviews with Letts, Courtney, Levene, Dicks, John, Ware and UNIT Creator Derrick Sherwin; "Visual Effects Promo Film," an excerpt from an early sales pitch from the BBC Visual Effects department featuring rare Doctor Who footage; "The Pertwee Years Intro," a short intro by Jon Pertwee originally included on BBC Video's "The Pertwee Years"; a Jon Pertwee radio announcement; a PDF of the 1971 Doctor Who Annual; Radio Times billings; plus photo gallery and production notes. "The Web Planet" features commentary by producer Verity Lambert, director Richard Martin and stars William Russell and Martin Jarvis, with Gary Russell moderating; a making-of featurette called "Tales of Isop" produced by Andrew Beech and edited by John Kelly, which features the four production people in the commentary, plus Maureen O'Brien (interviewed in France), Sonia Markham (make-up) and John Wood (designer); a reading by William Russell of the short story "The Lair of Zarbi Supremo" from the first Doctor Who annual (with the entire annual being made available on the disc in Adobe PDF format); an alternate soundtrack in Spanish for episode six; plus production notes and photo gallery. Cover illustrations are below; click on each thumbnail for a larger version.

Amazon is now listing the DVD releases of Inferno and Series 2 Volume 2for with release dates of 19 and 5 June respectively, as well as a UMD release of Series 2 Volume 1, also on 5 June. This is the first indication that the UMD releases will continue for Series 2.

Also, the Galaxy 4 shop is listing a Talking Doctor Who Pen Set: large pens with SFX. Both play the theme tune and additionally have the TARDIS materialisation noise or Dalek voice.

Finally, various retailers, including Argos, seem to have "withdrawn"Character Options Dalek Battle Packs. Although these packs were limited editions anyway, at least one retailer is reporting that they have been withdrawn from sale "by the manufacturer", because of "problems with the electronic features". (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

00:06:09:17 INFERNO - PHOTO GALLERY
00:02:43:06 PERTWEE YEARS INTRO
00:35:34:18 THE UNIT FAMILY - PART 1
00:34:44:07 CAN YOU HEAR THE EARTH SCREAM? - MAKING INFERNO
00:05:59:16 VISUAL EFFECTS IN TELEVISION
00:01:55:16 DELETED SCENE
00:01:01:02 EASTER EGG

Outpost Gallifrey has learned that June 6 is the release date for this summer's pair of classic Doctor Who serials in North America, which are now confirmed as the Colin Baker serial Revelation of the Daleks and the Tom Baker classicGenesis of the Daleks. Both releases will have the same extras as their UK counterparts. We also have the full cover illustrations for both releases; click on each thumbnail below for a larger version.

"Revelation" features commentary by Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy (Davros), script editor Eric Saward and director Graeme Harper; Revelation Exhumed, a 45-minute documentary featuring interviews with Saward, Harper, Alan Spalding (designer), John Brace (Visual Effects), Roger Limb (incidental music) and Pat Godfrey (costumer designer), plus cast members Trevor Cooper (Takis), Clive Swift (Jobel), Roy Skelton (Dalek voices), Terry Molloy (Davros), William Gaunt (Orcini), Hugh Walters (Vogel) and Colin Spaull (Lilt), as well as archive interview footage with Alexei Sayle; In Studio, a 15-minute look behind the scenes during some of the studio recording sessions, culled from the single-surviving tape of studio material that was originally pulled together for video effects work; Optional Replacement Effects, an alternative (non-default) set of alternate effects ranging from simple replacement of the ray-gun and blaster effects, through to a complex reshoot involving a model Dalek (notes about which are included in the RT article); an isolated music score (mono only); an optional Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix; off-air continuity announcements; three short deleted scenes; plus the usual photo gallery, production notes and an easter egg.

"Genesis" includes commentary by Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Peter Miles (Nyder) and director David Maloney; "Genesis of a Classic," a 62-minute featurette looking at the making of the story, produced by Ian Levine and edited by Adi Denney, and featuring interviews with Baker, Sladen, Miles, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, executive producer Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks, actors Guy Siner, James Garbutt, Dennis Chinnery, Roy Skelton, Cy Town, John Scott Martin and Michael Wisher, BBC sound person Dick Mills, lighting director Duncan Brown, visual effects designer Peter Day and makeup artist Sylvia James; "The Dalek Tapes," a 53-minute documentary produced by John Kelly, "which looks at the history of the Daleks and covers all of their appearances in the classic series" and includes rare Dalek clips and classic interviews and is narrated by Terry Molloy; a 7-minute featurette about Doctor Who models; a 6-minute continuity compilation which includes voice-overs; production text and photo gallery. Also included are PDF versions of the 1976 Doctor Who Annual and the Radio Times billings for the original transmission.

(Thanks to BBC Worldwide and Steve Manfred)