Season 17, the penultimate season starring Tom Baker as the Doctor, will be the next to be released as part of the Doctor Who Collection series.  

Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 17 was originally shown between September 1979 and January 1980 consists of the following stories
 

In 1979, Tom Baker’s Doctor was in full flight. With Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) as script editor, the series leaned into Baker’s penchant for humour and paired his Doctor with a regenerated Romana (Lalla Ward) as his travelling companion. Together, they would form one of the most popular Doctor/companion duos of all time.

Although Season 17 was halted behind-the-scenes by strike action (resulting in the season finale being abandoned part-way through production), it remains a beloved slice of Doctor Who history, featuring the return of Davros and the Daleks, and one of the all-time classic stories, Douglas Adams’ own City Of Death.

With all episodes newly remastered from the best available sources, this Blu-ray box set also includes extensive and exclusive Special Features including:

 

• BRAND NEW DOCUMENTARIES
• Including a Making-Of documentary for Destiny Of The Daleks, and new featurette for The Creature From The Pit.
• TOM TALKS
• A candid interview with Tom Baker as he gives us his unique take on life, the universe and everything.
• DOUGLAS ADAMS TRIBUTE
• Friends and colleagues remember the Doctor Who writer/script editor and creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
• IN CONVERSATION
• Matthew Sweet chats to Bob Baker, writer of Nightmare Of Eden, co-creator of K9 and one of the creative forces behind Wallace & Gromit.
•  BEHIND THE SOFA
• New episodes with actors Colin Baker, Katy Manning, Matthew Waterhouse, Nicola Bryant, June Hudson, Graeme Harper & Mat Irvine
•  LALLA WARD INTERVIEW
• An extensive interview discussing her first year on the programme.
• UPDATED SPECIAL EFFECTS
• View Nightmare Of Eden with optional new effects
• SHADA
• An updated version of the ‘lost’ story, completed with enhanced animation and presented in six episodes for the very first time, alongside the original 1992 VHS and 2017 versions
• EXCLUSIVE NEW AUDIO COMMENTARIES
• With Tom Baker on episodes of Destiny Of The Daleks and City Of Death, and Lalla Ward & Catherine Schell on City Of Death
• EXTENDED EPISODE
• An early cut of The Creature From The Pit Part Three
• BLU-RAY TRAILER
• A familiar face returns in a brand new mini-episode of classic Doctor Who
• IMMERSIVE 5.1 SURROUND SOUND
• On Destiny Of The Daleks and Shada
• RARE GEMS FROM THE ARCHIVES
• BBC archive material covering the promotion of this season
• CONVENTION FOOTAGE
• A triumphant 1997 appearance from Tom Baker
• HD PHOTO GALLERIES
• Including many previously unseen images
•  PRODUCTION SUBTITLES
• Behind-the-scenes information and trivia on every episode
•  SCRIPTS, COSTUME DESIGNS, RARE BBC PRODUCTION FILES AND OTHER RARITIES FROM OUR PDF ARCHIVE

 

 

The Collection will be released on 13th December 2021 and is available to pre-order on Amazon

The TV Director Frank Cox has died at the age of 80.

 

Frank Cox worked on two early stories of Doctor Who.

In 1964 at the age of 23, he became Doctor Who's fourth Director, taking charge for the episode The Brink of Disaster, the second part of The Edge of Destruction, and an episode that involved just the four main cast members. 

He returned to the series later that year looking after the final two episodes of The Sensorites, Kidnap and A Desperate Venture. 

 

Doctor Who was one of the first programmes Cox worked on following completion of the BBC Directors training course. He went on to direct programmes such as The Revenue Men,  Mogul, Warship, Sutherland's Law, Softly Softly: Task Force, EastEnders and High Road. 

He also worked as a producer on many series throughout the 1980s and 90s

The last programme he directed was Taggart for STV

Frank Cox was married to the actress Bridget Turner, who played Alice Cassini in the 2007 story Gridlock. She died in 2014

 

BBC Studios has announced a new standard packaging range to Doctor Who: The Collection  

The first titles to join this standard packaging range will be Season 12 and Season 19, which are available to pre-order now.  

Doctor Who: The Collection offers fans the opportunity to build their own home archive of classic content, and has proved hugely popular with collectors and fans of the TV series. The new standard packaging range is being introduced in response to this success, offering fans a second opportunity to fill gaps in their collection, and enjoy the classic era of Doctor Who.  

New releases within the Collection range will be marketed as Doctor Who: The Collection Limited  Edition Packaging, with the standard edition range marketed as Doctor Who: The Collection.  

Releases within the Doctor Who: The Collection Limited Edition Packaging range will continue to offer fans bespoke, premium packaging featuring a beautifully presented box containing the discs and a  full-length, premium-printed booklet that includes illustrations and in-depth, behind the scenes insight.

Releases within the new, standard packaging Doctor Who: The Collection range will feature a  standard, plastic Blu-ray case inside a slipcase, with a condensed, standard-printed 12-page booklet featuring disc-breakdowns and selected illustrations. The new range will include all of the watchable content and special features included in the Limited Edition Packaging release and will be available ongoing.  

Season 12 sees Tom Baker’s first outing as the Doctor and features five stories over 20 episodes,  including The Ark in Space and Genesis of the Daleks. The Doctor is accompanied by Sarah Jane  Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) and was first broadcast on the BBC between  December 1974 and May 1975.  

Season 19 introduces fans to Peter Davison’s first series as the Fifth Doctor, and sees the Doctor and his companions Tegan (Janet Fielding), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) face off against The Master, the terrifying Mara, the Terileptils, the Plasmatons, Monarch and the revamped Cybermen, in seven stories across 26 episodes. 

Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 12 (£51.05 RRP) and Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 19  (£51.05 RRP) can be pre-ordered now from Amazon and will be available from Monday 31 May  2021.  

The Blu-ray collecion of stories from Season 12 of Doctor Who is being re-released by the BBC.

The collection was first released in 2018 and quickly sold out, despite technical problems with one of the discs, leading to copies being exchanged for highly inflated ammounts on resale sites. The re-release by BBC Studios will bring the total number of copies into line with other seasons in the classic collection.

The second edition of Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 12 will be released on 2nd March 2020, and is now available to pre-order on Amazon

All content, extras and artwork will remain the same as the 1st edition.

Season 12 features five stories over 20 episodes, including The Ark in Space and Genesis of the Daleks. The Doctor is accompanied by Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) and was first broadcast on the BBC between December 1974 and May 1975.

Bonus material includes:

• TOM BAKER IN CONVERSATION A candid new one-hour interview with the Fourth Doctor.
• BEHIND THE SOFA Classic clips from Season 12, viewed by Tom Baker, Philip Hinchcliffe, Louise Jameson, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Sadie Miller
• NEW MAKING-OF DOCUMENTARIES For The Sontaran Experiment and Revenge of the Cybermen
• IMMERSIVE 5.1 SURROUND SOUND MIXES For The Ark in Space and Genesis of the Daleks
• OPTIONAL BRAND NEW UPDATED SPECIAL EFFECTS For Revenge of the Cybermen
• GENESIS OF THE DALEKS - OMNIBUS MOVIE VERSION Unseen since broadcast in 1975
• THE TOM BAKER YEARS The 1991 VHS release, on disc for the first time
• PRODUCTION ARCHIVE MATERIAL
• PDF files from the BBC Archives

BBC Studios have announced that Season 14 will be the next instalment in the DOCTOR WHO: THE COLLECTION Blu-ray range, now available to pre-order from Amazon:

BBC Studios have annnounced that the next release in their Doctor Who: The Collection will be the tenth anniversary series of advantures, starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor:


The six disc Blu-ray collection includes all five of the stories comprising this season, plus a bonus disc of extras. As well as features previously available on the DVD releases, the set will include:

• A brand new feature-length documentary examining the Third Doctor’s Era, with archival contributions from Jon Pertwee, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks plus all-new interviews with Katy Manning, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, presented by Matthew Sweet.
• Updated special effects and surround sound mix for Planet of the Daleks.
• Five new instalments of Behind the Sofa, featuring Katy Manning, Richard Franklin (Captain Yates) and John Levene (Sergeant Benton), along with 21st century Doctor Who panel Phil Collinson (Producer/Executive Producer), Pete McTighe (Writer) and Joy Wilkinson (Writer).
• Looking for Lennie, a documentary investigating the life of director Lennie Mayne.
• Keeping up with the Jones’, which sees Katy Manning with Stewart Bevan (Cliff Jones) pay a return visit to the Welsh locations from The Green Death.
• Plus: a repeat omnibus of The Green Death unseen since Christmas 1973, rare Panopticon convention footage, Blu-ray trailer, HD photo galleries plus scripts, production files and rare documentation provided as PDFs.

The set will also include Death Of The Doctor, which featured Katy Manning reprising her role as Jo in The Sarah Jane Adventures.


Doctor Who: The Collection: Season Ten is due to be released on Monday 8th July 2019 (the day after what would have been Jon Pertwee's 100th birthday), and is available to pre-order in the UK from our Amazon Shop.

BBC Studios have announced the next Blu-ray release in their 'classic' season boxed sets will be Tom Baker's final year as the Doctor, the 1980/81 Season Eighteen.

As well as the seven stories from the season, the set will also include the Christmas spin-off special, K9 & Company.

As with the previous release of Season Twelve and the imminent release of Season Nineteen, this new collection will feature a host of new features to supplement the remastered high-definition upscaled episodes themselves:

• revealing new 2019 commentaries moderated by Matthew Sweet (Tom Baker on The Leisure Hive, Lalla Ward and Rachel Davies on State Of Decay)
• rare behind-the-scenes footage from The Leisure Hive, Full Circle and Logopolis
• surround sound mix for Warriors’ Gate
• new special effects for Logopolis, including new especially shot footage at the originally planned but ultimately unused University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory for the Pharos Project location
• a new Making-Of documentary for Logopolis
• eight more editions of Behind The Sofa
• brand new documentaries The Writers Room and Weekend With Waterhouse
• a new interview with K9 & Company’s Ian Sears
• another dip into the Panopticon convention archives with Tom Baker
• HD photo galleries plus scripts, production files and rare documentation provided as PDFs
• plus extensive features previously released on DVD

The material has been remastered by Peter Crocker and Mark Ayres, with packaging/artwork by Lee Binding; the set will also feature a booklet by new series writer and content consultant Pete McTighe.

Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 18 is currently scheduled for the UK on 25th February 2019, though as with the previous volumes the date may change before its intended release.

You can pre-order the set from our Amazon Shop.

The 1982 Fifth Doctor story Earthshock is to be screened at the British Film Instute, the BFI, on London's South Bank this November.

The screening, on Saturday 17 November 2018, at midday, will be the new upscaled HD version, due for release as part of the Season 19 Blu-ray released that weekend.

The screening will be followed by a Question and Answer session with actor Matthew Waterhouse, who played Adric in the story, and writer Eric Saward, who wrote the story.

Tickets go on general sale on 25th September.

BFI Website

BBC Worldwide have provided clarification on how to get replacements for the faulty discs within the recently released Season Twelve Collection can be requested.


Owing to an administrative issue, some customers erroneously did not receive the correct replacement of Revenge of the Cybermen; DVD Support have apologised for the error, and advise:

BBC Studios have announced Doctor Who Season 19 will be the next release in the Doctor Who: The Collection range.

Season 19 is Peter Davison’s first series as the Fifth Doctor and this edition follows the success of Tom Baker’s first season on Blu-ray which sold out within days of release.

The set will be released on the 19th November 2018, as a collector’s edition limited run.

The title will be available to pre-order from HMV and Amazon from tomorrow.

The Limited Edition Blu-ray includes brand new ‘Special Features’ exclusive to this set include: Five new ‘Making-Of’ documentaries for Castrovalva, Four To Doomsday, Black Orchid, Earthshock and Time-Flight, surround sound mixes for Kinda and Earthshock, an Extended Version of Black Orchid Part One, rare studio footage from Castrovalva, Four To Doomsday, Earthshock and Time-Flight, updated special effects for Castrovalva, seven more editions of Behind The Sofa and a newly-shot one-hour interview Peter Davison In Conversation with Matthew Sweet, and much more.

The eight-disc box set also includes the Peter Davison/David Tennant mini-episode Time Crash, plus hours of extensive special features previously released on DVD.

All 26 episodes are being remastered from scratch by Peter Crocker and Mark Ayres. With this season’s original 16mm film elements still in existence, the location material can be presented in true HD, with studio material upscaled. Lee Binding is again providing stunning packaging design and Pete McTighe has written extensive booklet notes and is the content consultant for the title.

Doctor Who: The Collection is executively produced for BBC Studios by Russell Minton.

Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 19 is available in the UK from November 19, 2018 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon

Details of the international release will be available soon.

The Season 19 Safety Video with Tegan Jovanka