Posted By John Bowman

The forthcoming DVD release of The Brain of Morbius in the UK will see the story presented as originally transmitted for the first time in more than 30 years, thanks to work by the Restoration Team and, in particular,Mark Ayres.

In an update to the team's website, Steve Roberts tells how they solved the mystery of a short section of incidental music that was there in episode one when the story was broadcast in January 1976 but never made it to subsequent releases, transmissions and even the BBC transmission masters.

The four-part Tom Baker story is due to be released on July 21.

Extras will include:

A commentary by Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Philip Madoc, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and directorChristopher Barry.

 A 32-minute feature entitled Getting A Head, in which the making of the story is recalled by the production team and cast.

A six-minute feature called Designs on Karn that sees Barry Newbery talk about how he created the planet on which the story is set.

 A 3D CGI tour of the BBC Television Centre studio in which the adventure was taped, showing how the sets were arranged and built.

(With thanks to Tony Clark.)

Posted By John Bowman

DVD site Zeta Minor has given UK release dates for various classic-era stories later this year. According to its newly updated releases page, they are as follows:

K-9 Tales - box set comprising The Invisible Enemy and K-9 plus Sarah Jane Smith spin-off story K-9 And Company: June 16

The Brain of Morbius: July 21

The Trial of a Time Lord box set: August 18

Four To Doomsday: September 15

The War Machines: October 13

Battlefield: November 17

In addition, Revenge of the Slitheen and Eye of the Gorgon, both from spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures, are slated to be released on one DVD on January 12, 2009.

Please note, however, that the information has been gathered from various sources and the dates could change.

(With thanks to Tony Clark.)

The Doctor Who Restoration Team website has published an article confirming the release of the K9 Tales box set later this year, and announcing the extras package being provided for the two stories - 1977's The Invisible Enemy and 1981 spin-off adventure K9 and Company.

The extras for The Invisible Enemy are:

A commentary Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Mat Irvine and Bob Baker.

Documentary feature Dreams and Fantasy, looking back at the making of the story.

Studio Sweepings - behind-the-scenes studio footage.

Visual Effect - a look at the visual effects work on this and other stories.

Blue Peter - an extract showing K9's first appearance on the famous children's magazine show.

Optional CGI effects.

Trailers and continuity announcements, on-screen production notes, a photo gallery, coming soon trailer, and PDF files of Radio Times billings.


On K9 and Company:

A commentary with Elisabeth Sladen, John Leeson, Linda Polan and Eric Saward.

The K9 Files - a documentary looking at the making of this production.

K9 - A Dog's Tale, K9 is interviewed about his life.

Pebble Mill at One - K9 appears on the BBC1 lunchtime chat show.

BBC trailers and continuity announements.

PDF files of K9 Stories, four books starring the dog originally published in the 1970s.

A Photo Gallery, Coming Soon trailer, Radio Times Billings PDFs, Programme subtitles and Subtitle Production Notes.

Several sources are reporting the death yesterday (April 3) of Johnny Byrne. Byrne penned three stories for the classic Doctor Who series: The Keeper of Traken starring Tom Baker (in which the character Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton, eventually became a companion), Arc of Infinity and Warriors of the Deep starring Peter Davison.

Byrne also penned a film script for the series which was not used. In addition, he wrote eleven episodes of "Space: 1999" as well as episodes of "All Creatures Great and Small", which co-starred Davison, and "Heartbeat" as well as other series and miniseries.

According to his entry on Wikipedia, Byrne "traveled extensively in his youth as a traveling poet. In the 1960s he worked as a literary editor and wrote poetry and short stories which was [sic] published in Science Fantasy Magazine.

"His other works include Groupie (1969), Season Of The Witch (1971). and the scripts for the films Adolf Hitler, My Part In His Downfall (1972), and Rosie Is My Relative (1976)."

Born in 1935, he died on April 3 due to undisclosed causes.

The schedule for BBC Four's tribute season to Verity Lambert has been revealed.

The evening of Saturday 5th April will look back at the work of Doctor Who's first producer and feature classic episodes from some of the major series for which she was responsible.

The first three episodes of the second Doctor Who story, The Daleks will be shown. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Christopher Barry andRichard Martin, the story was first shown in December 1963 and featured the debut of the Doctor's greatest foe.

The evening will feature a documentary, Verity Lambert: Drama Queen, in which friends and colleagues - including John Hurt, Alan Davies, Lynda La Plante and David Renwick - pay their respects to the woman who helped transform the face of popular television.

BBC Four - Saturday 5th April 2008
• 7.10pm The Naked Civil Servant
  Emmy award-winning film biography of Quentin Crisp
• 8.30pm Doctor Who: The Dead Planet
• 8.55pm Doctor Who: The Survivors
• 9.20pm Doctor Who: The Escape
• 9.50pm Verity Lambert: Drama Queen
  Tribute to the woman whose work ranged from the original Doctor Who to Jonathan Creek and included The Naked Civil Servant, Edward and Mrs Simpson, Minder, May To December and Eldorado.
• 10.50pm Minder
  Senior Citizen Caine
• 11.45pm Jonathan Creek
  The Scented Room

The season continues over the next week with the remaining four episodes of The Daleks as well as an episode of Adam Adamant Lives.

• Monday 7th - 7.35 pm Doctor Who: The Ambush
• Monday 7th - 11.20 pm The Cult of... Adam Adamant Lives!
• Monday 7th - 11.50 pm Adam Adamant Lives
  A Vintage Year for Scoundrels
• Tuesday 8th - 7.35 pm Doctor Who: The Expedition
• Wednesday 9th - 7.25 pm Doctor Who: The Ordeal
• Wednesday 9th - 7.55 pm Doctor Who: The Rescue

Several DVD sites are now listing K-9 Tales, a double bill consisting of the Invisible Enemy and K-9 And Company, for release in the United Kingdom on 16th June 2008.

Doctor number four, Tom Baker, today opened the latest official Doctor Who Exhibition which takes place at the Earls Court exhibition centre in West London.

The exhibition which occupies the the Museum Hall beneath the centre, runs from March 20th until 19th September 2008 and features actual props from the set as well as costumes and monsters from the show. Over 100 exhibits will be on display including the TARDIS, Daleks, Cybermen and many of the Doctor's other enemies from across time and space.

The exhibition is open 7 days a week 10am - 6pm.

The BBC has confirmed that the 1978 Tom Baker story The Invasion of Time is due for release in the UK on 5th May 2008. The release is being timed to coincide with the appearance of the Sontarans in Series Four. Extras on the disc include a commentary with actors Louise Jameson andJohn Leeson, the script editor Anthony Read and visual effects designer Matt Irvine.

As previously announced a number of documentaries are included. Out of Time is a look at the making of the story, The Changing face of Gallifrey, asks how the portrayal of the Time Lords has changed over the years, The Elusive David Agnew investigates the mysterious writer of the story andDeleted Scenes has previously cut scenes from the film inserts in Episodes five and six.

May will also see the release of a box set entitled Bred for War. This will include the new release of The Invasion of Time along with the previously released Sontaran stories, The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment and The Two Doctors. The box set will contain no additional extras.

As previously announced the release date of the Peter Davison story, Black Orchid, will be the 14th April 2008. The Restoration Team website now has an article on this story. It confirms the commentary team of Peter Davison,Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse.

Stories in preparation but unscheduled include The Brain of Morbius and The Trial of a TimeLord as well as a double issue entitled K9 Tales, comprising of the 1977 story The Invisible Enemy and the 1981 special K-9 and Company.

Episodes of Doctor Who that were originally colour but now only exist in black and white could be restored to their former glory.

In a major piece headlined Putting colour back in the Doctor's cheeks, today's Guardian reports how the colour recovery process has been made possible thanks to an error by technicians when 16mm black-and-white film recordings were made from the original colour master tapes for overseas sales before the masters were purged.

These telerecordings were liable to interference from the colour-encoded video signal, and this pattern of grey dots - called chromadots - would normally be eliminated with a filter.

However, filters were not always used, meaning the chromadots were often burnt into the film, and while at BBC Research engineer James Inselltheorised that it was possible to extract the original colour pattern and decode it.

Insell, who subsequently set up an independent group to work on the technology, points out in the article: "The quality of the film has got to be good enough to have captured this pattern. We're really talking about working from the original negatives and having an HD scan made to get as much information as possible from the film."

The piece stresses that this is not colourisation, whereby colour reference material is used or colour is invented. It quotes Insell as saying: "In the colour recovery process, what you get out are the original colours."

Such is the potential that software for large-scale colour recovery is being developed, and he adds: "BBC Worldwide is obviously quite interested in releasing archive content, notably with Doctor Who and various programmes like that."

Insell also worked on the reverse standards conversion process, which was used to great effect on various DVD releases, such as The Claws of Axos.

(With thanks to Tony Clark and Luke McCullough.)

Posted By John Bowman

The forthcoming DVD release of Fourth Doctor story The Invasion of Time will have CGI effects as optional extras.

The British Board of Film Classification today passed a total of 33 effects for the six-part adventure, comprising three for episode one, five for episode two, five for episode three, nine for episode four, three for episode five, and eight for episode six.

As well as the mini-documentaries The Elusive David Agnew and The Rise and Fall of Gallifrey, reported earlier this month by this site, today's announcement stated that the DVD would also have a "making of" mini-documentary entitled Out of Time plus an Easter Egg.

A date for the DVD's release has yet to be announced.