BLOG A Doctor Who DVD Re-Release Too Soon

Blogger John Cooper spouts off about The Doctor Who Revisitations DVD box set

Damn you 2 Entertain! Thanks to your Revisitations box set I now own both “Caves of Androzani” and “The Talons Of Weng Chiang” twice. And while I love Doctor Who and love the extra features and clever vid-fire process that makes all the old telly look like it was newly minted yesterday, I’m not sure I need a three-disc version of the “The Talons Of Weng Chiang”. There, I said it.

I love how the boxes still retain the same design so they look good on the shelf, and for no discernible reason have reversible sleeves that are identical apart from the BBC logo (?), but I think the thing that bugs me is re-releasing stuff on DVD that’s already available when there’s still loads of lovely stuff still to be released.

Okay, I am chuffed that you’ve bumped up the release date of “Seeds Of Doom” to later this month. It’s one of the few VHS adventures I have and since the announcement I’ve forbidden my recently-converted mate Sean from borrowing it, making him wait for the DVD so we can watch together and I can get a passive hit of watching both the story on DVD, and him enjoy it for the first time, while nodding sagely (or probably smugly) in approval and shock while doctor number four pistol whips a guard to the floor.

There’s still so much more to see, as yet unreleased on DVD. “The Daemons” or “Terror Of The Autons”? “The Day Of The Daleks” or “The Sunmakers”? Please, please where is the double set of Mara Stories? I suppose I’ll just have to wait.

Or will I? I could just have a look on Ebay at the old VHS’s. Just a quick look, not to buy or anything, oh no. I’d never give in a buy it VHS on the cheap, just to have it now and watch it now then have to buy it again on DVD . I’d want it all shiny and DVDy. Damn.

Looking at that there Ebay, what's this? 33 copies of “The Talons of Weng Chiang” for sale on DVD? Oh, I see what they've done there, clever people.

Dave Golder
Freelance Writer

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.