Saturday, July 31, 2004
When rumours of a "Doctor Who" 'missing episodes' collection began to surface, I wasn't overly keen. Obviously I wanted to see the recovered 'Day of Armageddon', but given the choice between, say, the first 13 episodes plus the pilot or a collection of odd episodes from otherwise missing stories, I'd have taken the former.
However, the specs for the 'Lost In Time' collection are far more than I'd imagined they'd be. Of course, I'd been expecting the episodes to be cleaned up and VidFIREd - we've come to expect that from the Restoration Team. Putting the surviving clips from otherwise missing episodes onto the discs also seemed logical enough.
But commentaries on episodes? No chance - I wouldn't have dreamed we'd get them. The same goes for the soundtracks to the missing episodes of 'The Crusade' and 'The Moonbase'.
Admittedly, it's a little disappointing that there doesn't appear to be any linking material to account for the missing episodes, but hopefully the stories that have more episodes extant than missing ('The Reign of Terror', 'The Tenth Planet' and 'The Invasion') will have some sort of reconstructions when they are eventually released on DVD. Hopefully the new series will attract new fans who are prepared to check out the original series, making such reconstructions more viable when these stories are released.
Fingers crossed too for future boxed sets to help speed up the series' release. With the 2005 series likely to be released on DVD next year, we could have a couple of boxed sets (one classic, one new series) per year, as well as 3-4 standard releases. The rumoured 'Beginning' set, the Key to Time season and other related arcs such as the E-Space or Black Guardian trilogies would be ideal boxed sets, rather than being released one story at a time (given the BBC's attempt to give us a mix of Doctors, something like the season 16 would take several years to release on that basis).
However, the specs for the 'Lost In Time' collection are far more than I'd imagined they'd be. Of course, I'd been expecting the episodes to be cleaned up and VidFIREd - we've come to expect that from the Restoration Team. Putting the surviving clips from otherwise missing episodes onto the discs also seemed logical enough.
But commentaries on episodes? No chance - I wouldn't have dreamed we'd get them. The same goes for the soundtracks to the missing episodes of 'The Crusade' and 'The Moonbase'.
Admittedly, it's a little disappointing that there doesn't appear to be any linking material to account for the missing episodes, but hopefully the stories that have more episodes extant than missing ('The Reign of Terror', 'The Tenth Planet' and 'The Invasion') will have some sort of reconstructions when they are eventually released on DVD. Hopefully the new series will attract new fans who are prepared to check out the original series, making such reconstructions more viable when these stories are released.
Fingers crossed too for future boxed sets to help speed up the series' release. With the 2005 series likely to be released on DVD next year, we could have a couple of boxed sets (one classic, one new series) per year, as well as 3-4 standard releases. The rumoured 'Beginning' set, the Key to Time season and other related arcs such as the E-Space or Black Guardian trilogies would be ideal boxed sets, rather than being released one story at a time (given the BBC's attempt to give us a mix of Doctors, something like the season 16 would take several years to release on that basis).
