Tuesday 24 August 2010

What's left for DVD?

We do like our lists, us fans. Being it was stated that all (complete) stories will be out on DVD by the time of the 50th anniversary, what have we got left to go? It's certainly getting short for some Doctors, and not including the known releases in the next few months we have left:

William Hartnell: The Sensorites, Planet of Giants, The Ark, The Gunfighters.
Patrick Troughton: The Krotons.
Jon Pertwee: The Ambassadors of Death, Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, The Dæmons, Day of the Daleks, The Mutants, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Death to the Daleks.
Tom Baker: Terror of the Zygons, The Android Invasion, The Face of Evil, The Sunmakers, Nightmare of Eden.
Peter Davison: The Awakening, Frontios.
Sylvester McCoy: Paradise Towers, Dragonfire, The Happiness Patrol, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

That's it, 26 to be scheduled. Assuming the The Dæmons comes out on the 50th anniversary itself as Steve Roberts intimated in an interview last year, then that means there are 30 other months to fill out 25 releases ... though of course with their penchant for boxed sets it seems 2Entertain will have some more of those, too. Jon Pertwee has the most to be released, and has likely candidates for a double release (e.g. Day of the Daleks/Death to the Daleks and Colony in Space/The Mutants). Also The Awakening/Frontios seems possible, too. So what will fill up the other gaps in the schedules, or will we simply see a slow-down in the release schedule?

All speculation, of course, but if The Revisitations set does the business then others seem likely to follow (Tomb of the Cybermen/Spearhead from Space/The Robots of Death have been doing the rumour rounds as the next set), so they may fill up the gaps until the anniversary - and if they are doing well then I wouldn't have thought the Doctor Who collection would end there.

There's also the incomplete stories to consider. It would be a real shame if we didn't get to see these, too (The Reign of Terror, The Tenth Planet, The Ice Warriors), even as another "Lost in Time" collection if 2Entertain really won't give us animated reconstructions as with The Invasion.

Such a shame the other stories seem unlikely to ever see the light of day as reconstructions - thank goodness for Loose Cannon!