Posted By John Bowman

The Restoration Team today released details of the forthcoming DVD releases of The War Machines and Four To Doomsday.

The War Machines, which the team first looked at 11 years ago, proved to be quite a problem, and Restoration Team member Steve Roberts goes into great detail regarding the work that has been done on the story.

The feature also includes a link to the 1min 3sec "Coming Soon" trailer for The War Machines that never made it to previous DVD releases because of last-minute schedule changes.

Extras include a then-and-now comparison of locations plus related excerpts from Blue Peter.

The extras on Four To Doomsday will include material from Peter Davison's first day in the studios as the Doctor, which has come from late producer John Nathan-Turner's personal archive, Davison's Boxing Day 1980 appearance on magazine show Saturday Night At The Mill plus a theme music video featuring a new remix of Peter Howell's arrangement.

Videotape dropout had affected the studio block 1 material but otherwise it proved to be what Roberts called "a very standard restoration job".

The War Machines will be released in the UK on August 25 and Four To Doomsday on September 15.

(With thanks to Tony Clark.)

The official BBC website has announced that the forthcoming DVD release of the 1986 Sixth Doctor epic The Trial of a Time Lord has been delayed from its intended August 25th release date. It will now be released on September 29th, though no reason has been given for the delay. In its place, the First Doctor serial The War Machines starring William Hartnell, Jackie Lane, Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, will now be released on August 25th.

Also released in the same article is a a better-quality scan of the cover illustration for the forthcoming UK DVD release of the Fifth Doctor serial Four to Doomsday starring Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and Sarah Sutton, which is out this autumn. The cover art was originally revealed yesterday on the Amazon.co.uk website. Click on the thumbnail image below for a larger version.

Delia Derbyshire's extensive collection of recordings has been taken up by academics at Manchester University for cataloguing and digital conversion.After she died in 2001, the recordings were entrusted to composerMark Ayres by her estate, as he was a friend of hers and because of his involvement with the Radiophonic Workshop archive.Derbyshire, who created the original arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music, composed by Ron Grainer, left behind a stockpile of 267 tapes. Her groundbreaking work is credited as having influenced the likes of The Crystal Method and Portishead.David Butler, a lecturer in screen studies at the university's School of Art, Histories and Culture, said: "We have just started to scratch the surface. The collection includes her freelance work and really does give us a better sense of her range. Many of the tapes have no labels so it is a case of using detective work to find out what they are.
"Delia Derbyshire never really received the recognition she deserved as one of our most influential composers of the past 30 or so years.

"Though brilliant, the Doctor Who theme is just one small example of her genius which was held in high esteem by figures across music, television, theatre and film, including Paul McCartney and John Peel, the disc jockey."

Ayres told The Doctor Who News Page: "Unfortunately, it became apparent that I was not going to be able to find the many months (possibly years) of time that researching the material properly would take, so I have passed the material on to the University of Manchester and David Butler on permanent loan so that they can do it properly."

He remains the titular owner of the material on behalf of Derbyshire's estate and is working closely with Butler as a consultant on the collection.

Ayres said: "The aim is to cross-reference it with the Radiophonic Workshop archive and hopefully end up, in due course, with a definitive study of Delia's life and work."

Probably the most surprising discovery in the collection is a piece of music that sounds like a contemporary dance track which was recorded, it is believed, in the late-Sixties.

Paul Hartnoll, formerly of the dance group Orbital and a great admirer of Derbyshire's work, said the track was "quite amazing".

"That could be coming out next week on [left-field dance label] Warp Records," he noted. "It's incredible when you think when it comes from. Timeless, really. It could be now as much as then."

For the full story and to listen to sound clips from the collection, visit the BBC News website.

The story is also covered by The Times and The Daily Telegraph.

On Saturday, Doctor Who News featured a forthcoming schedule for Doctor Who DVD titles for North America. After receiving several queries from UK readers, following is the current forthcoming DVD schedule for the United Kingdom (Updated on July 7th with further information):
Recent UK releases (in case you haven't picked them up) included the "Beneath the Surface" Boxed Set (which included "Doctor Who and the Silurians," "The Sea Devils" and "Warriors of the Deep") on 14 January, "The Time Meddler" on 4 February, "The Five Doctors: 25th Anniversary Edition" on 3 March, "Black Orchid" on 14 April, "The Invasion of Time" on 5 May and "K9 Tales" (featuring "The Invisible Enemy" and "K9 and Company") on 16 June.

The TV Shows on DVD website has provided a preview of the latest announced DVDs for the North American market, both due in October: The Trial of a Time Lord Boxed Set, starring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Bonnie Langford, and The Brain of Morbius starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. The box covers for the North America (US/Canada) releases are below; click on each for a larger version. (A new version of the "Morbius" disc release has now been uploaded). The "Trial of a Time Lord" set (four discs) includes commentaries by C. Baker, Bryant, Tony Selby (Glitz), script editor Eric Saward, writers Pip & Jane Baker, director Chris Clough and others, as well as "Making Of" featurettes, deleted and extended scenes, interview features, trailers, news coverage and documentaries (and even the famous "Doctor in Distress" music video!) The "Morbius" disc includes commentaries by T. Baker, Sladen, Philip Madoc (Solon), director Christopher Barry and producer Philip Hinchcliffe, a short documentary, trailers and photos.
Recent North America releases (in case you haven't picked them up) included "The Time Warrior" and "Timelash" in April, "Planet of Evil" and "Destiny of the Daleks" before that in March, and "Torchwood: The Complete First Series" back in January.
With thanks to the Doctor Who DVD FAQ.

The June 26th edition of The Guardian features an article describing the efforts of a very talented group of fans who have taken inspiration from the 2006 DVD release of 1968's "The Invasion" and are animating lost episodes of Doctor Who.

Garrett Gilchrist is a director and artist based in the US. For the past eight months he has been working on an ambitious project to restore to life an episode of the lost 1967 Patrick Troughton epic, "Evil of the Daleks."

"'The Invasion' DVD was such a gift to fans, such a wonderful project," he says. "The first thought in everyone's mind was, 'So, when are you animating the rest of them, then?' "

Gilchrist is taking a very loyalist approach to the project. "They (the animations) have to match the original episodes as closely as possible, and feel like the 60s Doctor Who, not updated," says Gilchrist. "Just recreated with new technology. Recreated, not updated."

The article includes a 'sample reel' of scenes from various episodes, ranging from "Marco Polo" to "The Wheel in Space"

Posted By John Bowman

Two items from the 1980s era of Doctor Who were sold for more than 3,000 pounds yesterday.

An entertainment memorabilia auction at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, London, saw a moulded and painted foam baby Tyrannosaurus rex in a jar from the 1985 Colin Baker story The Mark of the Rani go for 1,080 pounds, while a Dalek guard costume from the 1984 Peter Davison adventureResurrection of the Daleks sold for 2,040 pounds.

As reported by this site last month, the model T rex had an estimate of 600 to 800 pounds, while the Dalek guard costume's estimate was 800 to 1,200 pounds. The guard costume had 'Rula Lenska' plus a measurement inscribed in ballpoint on the neck and came with a moulded weapon plus background paperwork, including a copy of a note by Lenska, who played Styles, and a signed photo (believed to be of Lenska)

2 entertain, the company which produces the classic series DVDs, has confirmed there is an authoring error with the latest release, The Invisible Enemy, out this week as part of the K9-Tales disc set. The error is towards the end of Episode Three and causes the disc to skip part of the episode.

2 entertain will replace all faulty discs and have set up a helpline which will be active from Monday. Customers with faulty discs are advised to either emaildvd.support@bbc.co.uk (NOTE CORRECTED ADDRESS!) or call 020 7612 3186. Instructions on what to do are on the voicemail of the phone line and on the auto reply from the email.

The current DVD release schedule is listed below. Schedule is not confirmed and may change.

• 16 June - K9 Tales
• 21 July - The Brain of Morbius
• 18 August - Trial of a Time Lord
• September - Four to Doomsday
• October - The War Machines
• November - Battlefield

The Restoration Team has released details of the forthcoming four-disc release of the Trial of a Time Lord DVD box set in the UK.

The 14 episodes, comprising season 23 of the classic era, originally aired between September and December 1986 and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor.

There is a host of extras with the set, including extracts from Blue Peter, Wogan, Points of View, Children In Need, Saturday Picture Show andOpen Air.

It will also have deleted and extended scenes, plus the video for the 1985 charity song Doctor In Distress - the celebrity single that was released under the group name Who Cares? in protest at the show's suspension and feared cancellation.

In addition, there is a 55-minute documentary that takes a look at Colin Baker's time as the Doctor. Among those featured are Baker, Nicola Bryant, John Nathan-Turner, Eric Saward and former BBC heads of series and serialsDavid Reid and Jonathan Powell.

The box set is due to be released on August 18.

Posted By John Bowman

Two items from the 1980s era of Doctor Who are to be auctioned at the Knightsbridge branch of Bonhams next month.

A moulded and painted foam baby Tyrannosaurus rex in a jar from the 1985 Colin Baker story The Mark of the Ranicarries an estimate of 600 to 800 pounds.

The lot originally came from the collection of the late producer John Nathan-Turner.

Also going under the hammer in the entertainment memorabilia sale on June 18 is a Dalek guard costume from thePeter Davison adventure Resurrection of the Daleks.

This particular lot has 'Rula Lenska' plus a measurement inscribed in ballpoint on the neck and comes with a moulded weapon plus background paperwork, including a copy of a note by Lenska, who played Styles in the 1984 story, and a signed photo (of whom is unclear but a good guess would be Lenska).

The estimate placed on the costume is 800 to 1,200 pounds.