This beautifully-packaged individually numbered and limited edition coffee table book-styled collectors’ album is every DOCTOR WHO fan’s dream possession.
Individually numbered and boasting six DVDs with over 1000 minutes of DOCTOR WHO footage, it brings together every Doctor’s regeneration episode: from the first Doctor, exhausted from battling the Cyberman, to Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor suffering from radiation unleashed by the Great One (a giant spider); and from the spectacular transformation of the Ninth Doctor to David Tennant’s emotional farewell as the Tenth. The album is adorned with superb photography from across the era and features detailed and informative accounts of every regeneration.
And if that wasn’t enough, new to DVD is DOCTOR WHO - THE TENTH PLANET featuring the Doctor’s first regeneration – beautifully restored with the missing fourth episode now brought to life with stunning animation.
Utilising the original soundtrack, off-screen photographs and a short surviving sequence of the Doctor’s regeneration the episode has been now reconstructed in animated form, incorporating the restored version of the surviving sequence.
DVD CONTENT
- THE TENTH PLANET - including episode four animation
- THE WAR GAMES
- PLANET OF THE SPIDERS
- LOGOPOLIS
- THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI
- TIME AND THE RANI
- DOCTOR WHO - THE TV MOVIE
- BAD WOLF - THE PARTING OF THE WAYS
- THE END OF TIME
Other DVD EXTRAS includes:
COMMENT
I’m slightly either (a) confused or (b) bemused or (c) amused why BBC DVD has released DOCTOR WHO - REGENERATION exactly at this time (24 June 2013).
Mistimed due to Matt Smith’s 1 June announcement that he will be regenerating on 25 December, this colossus ‘coffee table book-styled collector’ album including six DVDs’ may not be as successful as it be if it had been ‘suspended’ until January or February 2014 (to include Smith’s own regeneration story). Is the Cardiff-based BBC Brand Manager for DOCTOR WHO too preoccupied to liaise with BBC WALES Production Office and BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS (DVD) to discuss more realistic release schedules?
Why release it now; mid-year? Surely, this is a Christmastime release, or nearer to the 23 November 2013 50th. Anniversary date? Or is there another ‘special release’ for later in the year.
Nonetheless, DOCTOR WHO – REGENERATION is an unreserved success and an indispensable gazetteer for both those fans who have accompanied the series from the days of flickering, indistinct 405-lines and distorted, tinny sounds to fans that discovered the imitable Time Lord’s adventures inhabiting thousands of LED pixels and 5.1 surround sound.
Focused on its intent and definitive in its realisation, the release encapsulates the protagonist’s - and for the viewer too - most traumatic moments in an enduring career as a well-meaning time traveller who inherently sees & knows the universe like the back of his hand (even “…the one in the jar…”).
And let me mention the elephant in the room; depressingly, Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor is underserved in the DVD collection. Yes, I know that episode 14 of THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD (TTOFTL) is not a regeneration episode but to merely ‘tick-the-box’ for the Sixth Doctor by including the woeful TIME AND THE RANI is not worthy of Baker’s overall contribution to the series (and, more importantly, beyond it). Personally, I would have included that final TTOFTL episode and, at its conclusion, insert a ‘caption-slide’ stating why a specific Sixth Doctor/Colin Baker regeneration story was not recorded by the BBC in 1985/86. Historically, the-regeneration-that-never-was is just as important as the others.
Prophetically, the release’s DVD design, heralded by the 11th. Doctor’s regeneration Christ-like vulnerable glowing “explosion”, is stunning and highly detailed, adopting to use Gallifreyan Script logograms and (frequently) unused photographs from the BBC Picture Archive. However, it is a shame that neither Colin Baker, Paul McGann are featured (even as 'ghost-shadows’) on the McCoy DVD menu graphic. But that’s niggling nit-picking (as there is very little criticise about the release).
Naturally, the highlight of DOCTOR WHO – REGENERATION is a “preview” (without any DVD Extras or On-Screen Information Text) of Kit(t) Pedler’s four-parter, DOCTOR WHO – THE TENTH PLANET ahead of its full Autumn DVD release.
With only three of the four episodes remaining intact, BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS has taken the long-waited yet arduous task to animate the final, iconic episode using a re-mastered audio track (courtesy of Mark Ayres) and off-screen photographs (courtesy of fan, Derek Handley). The result is a remarkable exposition that is a serviceable vehicle to replace that missing jigsaw piece and should be the template for future CLASSIC SERIES DVD releases that have had the ignominy of being discarded unceremoniously into the BBC skip back in the 1970s.
Certainly, the ‘digital animation’ is not patronising or undermines the original series in any way, and is faultless in its creativity and design content (for example, the background illustration of Base Missile Room is impressive as is interior console dais of the TARDIS). Would this approach be too expensive to animate a full four-parter or, even, a six-parter only time (and sales figures) will tell?
Whilst it is not presented in this release, I would expect that the ‘surviving’ regeneration William Hartnell/Patrick Troughton live-actor sequence will be included on the forthcoming seminal DVD.
With the epic DOCTOR WHO – THE WAR GAMES viewers are treated to an acting masterclass by Troughton as he heads towards his own ‘trial of a Time Lord’, whilst Pertwee gallops with effortless flare from one gratuitously self-indulgent chase sequence to an arthritic judo-inspired fight sequence in PLANET OF THE SPIDERS.
The intelligent, thought-provoking (without the far too prevalent “ deus ex machine” hastiness of the NEW SERIES writers), LOGOPOLIS witnesses a more subdued face-weary and thread-bare Fourth Doctor in his last ditch attempt to save the universe from the life-long nemesis, whilst the Fifth Doctor sacrificing himself to Spextrox toxaemia in saving his companion, Peri, with the final drops of bat milk.
Battle scarred by bullets and, probably, energy weapons whilst fighting in the final assault of The Time War, the Seventh and Eighth Doctors conclude the CLASSIC SERIES history in memorable style.
Following a truncated incarnation, the Ninth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor - once again - sacrifices himself to save his companions (Rose Tyler and Wilf Mott) in two of the most traumatic regenerations that viewers have seen so far. Explosive, painful and truly heart-breaking & memorable (“I don’t want to go”).
The six-disc set is accompanied by a beautifully designed (including the stylish vector-created illustrations of the 11 Doctors from Anthony Dry) and diligently written details the characterisation of each incarnation, the stories featured and the actors themselves. Yes, the ‘booklet’ is not comprehensive but like an apple pie & custard dessert it’s just a very comforting and very satisfying and very British.
Initially, I said I was either (a) confused or (b) bemused or (c) amused by this release but having experienced our favourite Time Lord’s regeneration adventures yet again (yes, it’s been a long but enjoyable week to re-watch all the stories) you are struck by the earnestness of the scripting, the actor’s conviction in the role and the indelibleness of the seemingly so innocuous, so simple plot device ever created for television. Regeneration, and to misquote that much cited advertising phrase; this new, collectable DVD assimilation “…does exactly what it says on the box…” which is undoubtedly, in this instance, bigger on the inside.
Quintessentially, DOCTOR WHO – REGENERATION is a definitive memoir of a Time Lord.
