Hello, my fellow wanton Whovians!
If you just can’t take the waiting for the new Doctor Who to start (which is probably going to get a mid-April start date), wrap your Time Lord-craving mandibles around these new DVD releases:
First up is Doctor Who – The TV Movie: Special Edition. This is the first time in North America that the Eighth Doctor’s sole screen outing has been released after years for licensing bollocks. Lucky for us, this isn’t a paltry vanilla release. Oh, no! This is a super-awesome special edition that they got in the UK some months back.
The extras on this two disc set are truly amazing, including (but not limited to):
– Audio Commentary by Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy, moderated by current Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs
-“The Seven-Year Hitch” a documentary about the producer’s struggles to bring DW back after its cancellation by the BBC.
-“The Wilderness Years” a doc about how the show survived in print, video, and audio format during the cancelled years, thanks to fans in various media.
-“Stripped for Action” another in an excellent series about the Doctor’s adventures in comic strip/book format, this time focusing on the Eighth Doctor.
Those are just my favorites; this set has literally dozens of extras of various length and content. Even if you’re not a big fan of the TV movie, and truthfully it’s kind of hard to be, you’ll find more than enough interesting material to keep your attention.
If that release wasn’t enough to satiate your Who-appetite, there’s also the release of the Third Doctor story, The Mutants, from 1972. It’s an allegory for colonialism disguised, as all good sci-fi is, as a story about aliens.
It’s a six-part adventure, which means we get a second disc for extras, and this set has some good ones. Aside from the obligatory making-of featurette, there’s also an audio commentary featuring a bevy of people who worked on the serial; “Dressing Doctor Who,” a short doc about the costumes designed for the show by James Acheson; and, finally, a documentary called “Race Against Time,” which talks about the representation of black actors on British television from the 1960s through the present, focusing on The Mutants specifically. This documentary is already being nominated for various awards and is truly one of the best produced for the Classic DVD range.
And just because I’m nice, I’ll tell you about a release happening next week. On February 15th, the Doctor Who Christmas special, A Christmas Carol, will be released. It’s a fairly bare-bones release, with the only extras being the “Doctor Who: Confidential” episode about the making of the thing and “Doctor Who at the Proms,” which is a concert performance of music from Doctor Who recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC’s annual Proms concerts. As was common with the previous Christmas specials, A Christmas Carol will more than likely be released on the Series 6 box set, but if you can’t wait until next November to watch it again, it won’t set you back too far, as Amazon.com has it priced at an affordable $9.99.
Okay, so that’s quite a lot for you all, so I don’t want to hear any whining that you don’t have any Doctor Who to watch. We’re going to be getting some really great releases this year, so DVD collectors should have much to cheer about.
-Kanderson
Images: BBC
@ Max
Self-deprecation was my aim with the IQ plus 2 remark.
@ Isaac
Come on Isaac old bean, does a troll say “Thanks and have a swell day.” ?? Is a troll self-deprecating?? Do any trolls prefer Stargate over Doctor Who?? Real head scratchers eh?
On a slightly related note we can all agree that Fringe is the best show on TV, right??
Anyways thanks and have a swell Wednesday everyone!
@ Everyone but Tired C
DNFTT
*shudder at anyone thinking anything with the word “Stargate” in it is good sci-fi. And yes I’m including the movie. Awful.
But this makes me tempted to get the 8th Doctor DVD. Hrmm… I’ll at least rent it.
Isnt it rather pointless to bitch about Doctor Who on a site whos owner is a huge Who nerd and is visited by even more Who nerds?
Anyways thanks for the notice that A Christmas Carol is being released Kyle! Just had to do a quick tab over to Amazon.
@Tired C
You know what i hate, that Sex and the City, i’d much prefer to watch Breaking Bad.
See what i did there, i compared two shows that are completely different and appeal to two different audiences and said that one was better than the other. So you don’t like doctor who, that doesn’t mean that no one else should.
Also you said you got “15 years” by taking you IQ and adding 2, does that mean your IQ is 13? Please explain
@ Isaac
Can’t entertainment be enough of a cause?
@ Sawyer
I said “at least 15 years” not “exactly 15 years”. As for the equation used I simply took my IQ and added 2.
@ Sean
I agree with you in your opinion of Firefly but can not agree with you when you try to shoehorn Doctor Who into the same category as Firefly. Doctor Who enjoys the same lowest rung of sci-fi TV dreck as Red Dwarf, Blake’s 7, The Starlost and Babylon 5.
Thanks and have a swell day.
@ Tired C
Stargate: Universe? oh you mean Stargate: No Fun, which I believe was canceled. I think the pitch for that show went a little something like this, lets make Stargate with little or no gate travel, aliens, adventure, or fun and super antsy like BattleStar Galactica. In fact just because it worked on BSG lets copy their entire style. I wish Syfy would stop trying to make Sci-Fi shows without Sci-Fi in them. I am tried of antsy soap opera bitch-fests. Antsy soap opera worked once with BSG but what I want something fun to watch again and Doctor Who is that fun. Completely random thought, I wish FOX kept Firefly on because that show had a good balance between sci-fi, action, and fun which is a formula that Doctor Who does so well.
It may feel bare-bones, but getting the Proms recording is a pretty sweet extra. You’re basically getting an episode and an album of music for $10, which ain’t bad.
@ Isaac
Look on the bright side. Having a troll means Nerdist has finally made it in the internet.
On the other hand, I’m wondering what algorithm or equation was used to determine that the sci-fi cause was set back 15 years, because that’s a pretty specific number. Also, does it increase the longer Doctor Who is on the air, or is it a constant number now that Who has extended past the 60s? I feel like these questions are crucial for our understanding.
OMFG Woooooooooooooooooooot! Stop me from one-clicking this…
@ Tired C
Trolling Nerdist.com??
*sigh* If you must..
Also, sci-fi on television has a “cause?”
Like, other than “entertainment??”
You don’t say…
Doctor Who should have died in the 1960s. Its an abortion that refuses to die!! Doctor Who has set back the cause of sci-fi on television at least 15 years. To all Doctor Who fans all I can say is FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS GOOD IN THE UNIVERSE PLEASE TURN AWAY FROM DOCTOR WHO AND GO WATCH STARGATE SG-1 OR STARGATE:ATLANTIS OR STARGATE:UNIVERSE !!!
Thanks and have a swell day.
Those documentaries sound great.
Here’s something swell, Doctor Who-related: http://kpwerker.tumblr.com/post/3167237193/daleks-we-were-in-your-home-today