September 3rd, 2026
66 comments
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Doctor Who The Collection Season 7 UK Standard Packaging
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk
The USA release of this season is available from www.amazon.com
BUILD YOUR OWN DOCTOR WHO ARCHIVE WITH THE ULTIMATE COLLECTORS’ SET!
SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE
DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS
THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH
INFERNO
All 4 classic stories newly restored for Blu-ray and packed with extra material including:
NEW DOCUMENTARIES / SPLENDID CHAP: A profile of beloved actor Nicholas Courtney
LOOKING FOR MAC / Uncovering the story of writer Malcolm Hulke
TERROR IN THE SUBURBS: When Doctor Who came down to Earth
LUCKY 13: ROCKETS, ALIENS AND SPARE PARTS / How the science of the day influenced Doctor Who
BEHIND THE SOFA: Four new episodes with stars of Doctor Who
IN CONVERSATION: Matthew Sweet chats to John Levene
THE DOCTOR WHO ESCAPE ROOM
MOVIE-LENGTH OMNIBUS EDITIONS: The Silurians and Inferno
EXCLUSIVE CONVENTION FOOTAGE
This seven-disc box set also includes hours of special features previously released on DVD including: DOCUMENTARIES, FEATURETTES, AUDIO COMMENTARIES AND MORE.
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Doctorwhat1944
September 16th, 2026 - 5:53amThere are strong rumours that Zavvi is about to go into administration. I’m not sure what this will mean for pre orders if you’ve paid upfront.
booboo
September 16th, 2026 - 7:16amthe Zavvi Group seem to have filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, gives them some time to sort things if they can, but i noticed a couple of days ago all pre orders have vanished, depends on how long stuff has been on pre order for most will be able to claim via your card provider if it comes to it.
Gordon
September 16th, 2026 - 8:55amThanks for the heads up. I got most of my orders cancelled. Had Blake’s 7 and 2 Gerry Anderson blu ray’s on order. The 1 I couldn’t is due next week so maybe it’s too far along
Alex
September 16th, 2026 - 12:21pmZavvi is going into administration I’ve just read
booboo
September 16th, 2026 - 12:24pmIts possible they might come to an arrangement with creditors yet. Notice of intention gives them breathing space from forced liquidation.
Andrew Peppitt
September 4th, 2026 - 7:41amHOW IS IT SEASON 7 GETS A RELEASE DATE AND 25 DOESN’T????????
Gordon
September 4th, 2026 - 8:02amBecause post Christmas is pretty quiet and season 25 which is due out pre Christmas is harder to place down due to how busy it is
Oscar
September 7th, 2026 - 9:06pmWhen is Season 11 or 16 being released?
Gordon
September 8th, 2026 - 10:47amSeason 16 rumoured for an early 2027 (March?) release. Season 11 probably second half 2027/early 2028 depending on the release schedule.
Joe Thomas
September 4th, 2026 - 1:33amStill need season 12 here
Gordon
September 4th, 2026 - 8:03amSeason 12 was released years back
James
September 5th, 2026 - 1:00amWe’ve had it years ago. Limited Edition (Original) Limited Edition (2nd Edition/Reprint) and the Standard Edition.
D84
September 9th, 2026 - 10:15amI also missed the original release of Season 12, but managed to get hold of the 2nd Edition – that came out early 2020 so my set is so far – complete
James
September 9th, 2026 - 11:26amA lot of people were caught out on the first release. As it being a test product the BBC were also surprised about how quick it sold. Glad they saw sense to do a reprint.
Do we know how many copies were actually produced on the first version?
Am quite surprised it took 2 years though. First version was out in march 2018 and second edition was in march 2020 with the standard version following a year later in may 2021.
The Unlicensed Physician
September 9th, 2026 - 2:21pm12000 total, 8000 (the same as initially pressed for DVD titles) for the first run apparently. 8000 was BBC Worldwide’s (as then was) magic number for Who merchandise – Steve Roberts mentioned it in an interview once.
James
September 9th, 2026 - 3:12pmThanks The Unlicnsed Physician
Surprising only did 4000 more. Has it stayed the same/similar amount since the standard editions came into the equastion or has the amount been the same for each?
The Unlicensed Physician
September 9th, 2026 - 10:17pmI lied – it must have been 5,000 extra because they produce 13,000 in total. There was a post on here but it must have got caught up in some nonsense that had to be purged… Fortunately I was able to find the source: BBC Studios Home Ent Director Lesley Johnson at the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) AGM, 18 Sept 2019.
Another factoid, from The Official UK Charts Company: In total, Doctor Who sold 282,000 units in the UK in 2021.
The ergon
September 3rd, 2026 - 11:00pmThat was quick. Need to get selling the season 7 and 13 collection sets quick as a pair.
Andy
September 3rd, 2026 - 8:28pmWow that was quick onky got the announcement for season 25 Standard now a week on Season 7 is announced.
I don’t think we gonna get another Limited Edition this year guys. I think it might be Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, and Jodie Whittaker sets that were announced for USA releases. So I think those 3 sets will get a UK release spread out over a couple of months apart.
I expected with the collections near been completed they would slow down, as for the animations I think these on hold after the discovery of the recent two missing episodes of the The Daleks Master Plan turning up.
But I don’t know about the 60’s box sets some of you guys seem to think we are going to get 60s box sets with complete animation or reconstruction episodes for the missing ones. Even so we not gonna see any of those for quite so time unless they go with like they did with Season 2 with out the two missing episodes from The Crusade. So Season 1 without Marco Polo for example. Then Season 3, 4, 5 and 6 with a mix of complete, animation and surviving episodes.
But the question still remains as the BBC are in a financial trouble at the moment if they have the funds to do any more animations. They are hoping to close all of their linear channels by 2034 with the BBC online only through their iPlayer this is just a way of seeing whos watching with or without a TV Licence.
With only 11, and 16 to yet to be released on these Collection Sets they might be issues with 11 as the Invasion Of The Dinosaurs ep 1 failed the colour test on DVD could that be the same problem or something else. Season 16 am not sure why this is a problem as every ep is complete.
If they do eventually release the remaining animations they will all need a stand alone release first before adding them to these Collection Sets.
Season 1
Marco Polo
Season 2 possible a re-release
The Crusade
Season 3
Mission To The Unknown
The Myth Makers
The Daleks Master Plan
The Massacre
Season 4
The Smugglers
The Highlanders
Season 5
The Wheel In Space
Season 6
The Space Pirates
Those are possible feature animation releases not many of them when it is broken down it would make sense if they are going to animate the remaining episodes. If they went for a season that is nearly completed like season 1, 5 and 6 and possibly a reissue of Season 2 with The Crusade. For example release The Wheel In Space for a Stand alone release than a year or two later release The Collection Season 5.
But that is my humble opinion but again it’s all depends on the BBC having the funds to pay for someone to work on them.
Bookcollector
September 3rd, 2026 - 8:50pmThe animations are not on hold due to returned episodes. You do realise that the chances of missing episodes being found are still extremely low? Yes some are known to exist but knowing they are in collections and actually having them returned are two very different things. For many stories the animations will be the only way to watch them. As Gordon has frequently pointed out animations are to his knowledge being actively worked on. But it takes time. We have to be patient for announcements. Just because two episodes were returned doesn’t mean they are all going to be returned. Remember it’s been 13 years since enemy and web were returned. That’s a big gap. Waiting for returned episodes to complete stories is just not practical.
Professor Flibble
September 3rd, 2026 - 9:05pmAs far as I’m aware, Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part One has already been worked on. If not, they’ve said it’s not an issue.
Gordon
September 4th, 2026 - 1:36amThe animations are not on hold. Simply put unless it’s full or almost full stories that turns up it’s unlikely to have much if any effect on the animations due to the funding model ie all eps get animated. The main bbc in financial trouble has zero to do with the animations and neither does the licence fee. BBC studios which is run independently of the licence fee produce them and they are completely funded through selling through dvd/blu ray as well as selling them to other streamers like Tubi etc.
ClassicTardis
September 4th, 2026 - 7:49amWell, technically we have a good animation for Wheel so Season 5 is complete. They’d just have to buy it off the team that made it.
Gordon
September 4th, 2026 - 8:59amThey won’t simply “buy it off the team that made it”. It does not work like that at all
As I’ve said before it’s pretty good for a freebie but put a price tag and I can guarantee it will be crapped on as much as some of the others. It’s not perfect and definetly need some extra work and budget put towards it for an official disc release something the skinners said themselves.
Prowl1701
September 4th, 2026 - 5:11pmAnd I think Iz and Steven would be fine with refining it if asked. They are currently working on animating a fan release of The Highlanders now.
bookcollector
September 4th, 2026 - 6:15pmI do think people are underestimating how much it would cost to bring the wheel 3d up to a commercial release. There is a lot of work on characters for instance. It won’t be a simple task. I image we will get an animation of wheel with a standard reconstruction. Oh and by the way I really like the 3d wheel but it would need a lot of work to make it commercially viable.
Prowl 1701
September 4th, 2026 - 8:57pm@cyberplanner
Here is a link to the Tardistimegirl playlist for their animation on YouTube. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqhDJB-bsNeY9jWKYIyJARdLoO4A0h6cQ&si=0t_6pL1p0R81fMaR
James
September 5th, 2026 - 1:09amLook up TARDIS Time Girl on YouTube. Iz and Steve Skinner have created a 3d animation of the full story. It’s on YouTube in segments due to copyright. Iz was also involved in the 2018 cutdown animation of ep 1 for a Missing Believed Wiped event.
It was offered to BBc Studios but they’re turned it down due to knowing fans didn’t want 3d animations due to the backlash of ep Web for Fear.
. (Yet they then released Toymaker in 3d).
It’s watchable but it would need alot of cash behind it to make it commercially viable. Can be seen as being an added extra though if/when they do do a animation release. Also on the S5 Collection set
Gordon
September 5th, 2026 - 8:45amToymaker came out before wheel was offered.
The bbc representive that turned it down said “we have to listen to fans. And the fans don’t want 3d” To be fair it was Josh snares in the video narating said “that it was sad that the negative reception to the web 3 animation has made the bbc believe that the fans don’t want 3d animations rather than the fact they don’t want THAT perticular animation.
The bbc representivive never brought up web specifically and before it even came out certain fans were absolutely vicious on toymaker based upon the trailer and stills.
DeliveryRus
September 14th, 2026 - 9:24amWell the tease for the next release is out now.
So… I guess preorder announcement soon
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 7:11pmIf the animations exist they will most certainly be included alongside the recons and quite possibly with both b and w as well as colour versions with maybe the exception of the power 2016 versions . Season 5 will probably be 9-10 discs depending on if wheel gets animated so there is certainly space to include them.
As for space pirates I’m pretty certain and been told that’s on the list to be animated even if it doesn’t end up being next.
I’m fairly certain if wheel or pirates wasn’t on the list to be animated they probably would have released at least 1 of those Troughton seasons by now
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 7:12pmThat’s in response to Duncan
Duncan
September 3rd, 2026 - 7:16pmThanks Gordon. I await some news with baited breath 🙂
Prowl 1701
September 3rd, 2026 - 8:13pmWould definitely explain why we haven’t gotten 5 or 6 yet.
Professor Flibble
September 4th, 2026 - 2:20amI’d quite like Space Pirates to be the next one, they’ve done a bit of Hartnell and they’ve yet to complete a season. Also generally, Troughton is well overdue a collection set.
I do hope they can make adjustments to the disc trays for the 60s seasons, maybe add some double disc trays so they don’t break the box.
Prowl 1701
September 4th, 2026 - 5:16pmI’d love to get space pirates next. It’s a very visually story and some creative liberties could really turn it into a good animation.
RPG74
September 3rd, 2026 - 6:26pmInteresting that this has a release date, but not 25. I’m wondering if 16 was supposed to be released in January, and when it was pulled they decided to swap release dates with 7 standard?. Might mean that 16 could turn up in March then. In any case I’m happy it’s being released early. Be good to have better looking copies of these stories, (if only marginally).
bryan
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:10pmI am minded to let the BBC maximise its return by releasing a brand new (space pirates for example only) animation, in a box set,they are LTD. With the full box set extras. Then in a years time a single release set.
It’s like the Hardback then a year 18 months the paperback. LTD then the lesser prices single release. I know there would be moaning, but it makes sense to me. More LTDs would sell at the higher price point . I know lots won’t like it. But it would add some prestige into the LTD range after a long good run. As lots wait for the cheaper standard box edition. So would be 2 yrs to get DMP(example)
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:17pmThe budget for the collection sets simply isn’t there to debut brand new animations on the collection sets. Nowhere close to that. It needs to pay for itself first before it can be included
bryan
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:32pmHi Gordon. Nothing is set in stone. Only the B/W version keeps colour for solo release
Charge more for a premium lTD box £69.99 for season 6 loads of episodes already +6 new animated ones(It’s full with ep 2 as alt) were heading there price wise already, or toward it.
Around a £10 more than last box. It’s a new BBC studios product. Sell more for exclusive content. Make people wait for the new solo release,and third bite of the cherry in standard pkg.
Make it a test release. At the rate we are going, Season 3 is going to be mostly animations we have, so good sales pitch for DMP.
Sorry this was all meant to be lower down in response to Releases of the 60’s
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:48pmEach animation costs a significant 6 figure sum to produce and that’s before you take into account audio remastering surviving eps and all the bonus features that each release has. Plus as the animated releases are out in dvd blu ray and steelbook and digital sales are far high than the limited edition sets. £10 extra won’t cover the shortfall in not selling individually first or the cost of producing the animation. No where near it. The set would be £80-90 minimum which would price most people out
Bob
September 3rd, 2026 - 1:37pmI wonder if this will be a straight repackaging. Season 7 was the first boxset to have noticeable AI upscaling, it broke my immersion when watching The Ambassadors of Death, albeit its usage was still more restrained than in the two that followed. Even without the AI, Silurians and Ambassadors had some very strange choices of colour grading compared to the DVDs, I don’t buy the claim that it’s more faithful to the original broadcast, none of Pertwee’s stories with surviving master tapes look like that.
DanielM
September 3rd, 2026 - 1:47pmThey still look better then the muddy Colours on the DVDs particularly Ambassadors Episode 3 which looked especially bad on the DVD
Bob
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:07pmThe episodes are an overall improvement and I would choose the Blu-Rays over the DVDs but at times it feels like an unnecessary compromise. While Ambassador’s studio scenes are mostly improved, the location scenes honestly look worse. Sure, they’re sharper but the colours are washed out and dominated by pinks and greens.
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:10pmIt was also applied subtly to 15 and 25
Season 7 is never going to look brilliant due to the quality of Silurians, 2-7 of ambasssadors and the whole of inferno. Even Crocker said it wouldn’t be perfect if ambassadors had another 5 years to work on it. Its not perfect but 2-7 are probably the best it’s gonna look outside of the master tapes turning up
Bob
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:50pm15 and 25 did look smoother than I would’ve preferred but not to the point where faces looked uncanny. The reduction in compression artefacts still made them an upgrade over the DVDs, especially given how old some of those Tom Baker DVDs were. However I still think Season 20 marks a clear a cut-off point in quality with the problems increasing with each subsequent release. Still, the fact the next set should’ve been announced by now is giving me hope they’re addressing the image quality complaints.
Duncan
September 3rd, 2026 - 4:43pmI prefer the blu rays to the old VHS releases of this season. Some of the episodes on video were a bit hard on the eyes. Saying that, I do look back fondly on those releases. Season 7 was one I vividly remember from the time so to actually get hold of those stories was wonderful, blur-o-vision or no blur-o-vision.
It feels like an age since the Ltd edition set of this came out ! Thank Heaven we are able to actually watch them. There was a time when they technically didn’t exist. To have all the Third Doctor’s adventures is fantastic, and has made this old fan very happy. Just wish Jon was still around to get involved 🙁
Babelbro
September 3rd, 2026 - 5:34pm@Bob you’ve hit the nail on the head.
I ended up going back to the previous dvds, expecting them to be a lot worse based on the regular discussions around ‘upgrading to the Blu-rays’ but I was genuinely impressed with Silurians – far inkier blacks on the dvd that I would imagine existed on the original broadcast master tapes, while the Blu-ray really pulls all the darkness out of the caves, barn and house scenes, for some bizarre reason.
I hadn’t given it serious thought re: Ambassador’s colour grade on the Blu-ray. I was more put off by the AI tomfoolery, but again I’d heard the change of grading being discussed so I checked out the dvd – again I prefer the dvd, despite the absence of the new colour restoration on the Blu-ray, the colours and grading is just better on the dvd.
Aside from various tiny well looked after chunks of 16mm + 35mm of Classic Who, and of course ‘Spearhead from Space’ & ‘The TV Movie’ that are improved on Blu-ray – most of ‘The Collection’ versions of all these episodes just give off a really uncanny valley effect, not just the AI but also the heavy DNR almost makes you want to rub your eyes, it’s like seeing something blurry, and that goes as far back as the Season 18 Collection set.
Wheras if you go back to the dvds, even the 2010’s dvds, there’s far less DNR, so the dvds preserve more detail and sharpness.
There’s some stories today with much better picture + sound sources – most of Season 9 comes to mind – but knowing how much heavy filtering, softening, denoising, just makes this range far too much of a mixed bag that I feel all the earlier dvds are so much more reliable to stick on and watch.
Here’s hoping that the delay is at least in part to a wider review going on behind the scenes with the Collection range team. If they were to re-release the whole range again as ‘Special Editions’ with all these pointless destructive filters turned off, I’d pre-order them all straight away.
Duncan
September 3rd, 2026 - 7:23pm@ Babelbro
I love how Spearhead looks now ! Its such a great story and to see it all shiny and glossy makes me smile whenever I watch it.
You’re right about The Silurians. That one was always a bit flaky on video but it looks great now. Theyve done such a good job on those stories.
It still blows my mind how wonderful Mind Of Evil looks. Took a long time to get to the standard it is now. Wasn’t the video B&W apart from one episode ?
Prowl 1701
September 3rd, 2026 - 8:16pmI feel like, especially for ambassadors, that the Blueray restoration uses “cooler” colors, while the DVD restoration used “warmer” colors. I like the warmer colors better.
Babelbro
September 3rd, 2026 - 8:32pm@ Duncan, I absolutely agree on Spearhead, and on the likes of Season 19 that retained a lot of native 16mm footage, it looks gorgeous, and again same goes for the tv movie.
Season 8, like Season 9, I believe have benefited the most thanks to the fact new footage sources have been found / used that didn’t exist prior to the Blu-rays. So there’s definitely an improvement with ‘The Mind of Evil’, and ‘The Sea Devils’ – those sets are also pre-Ai, but, I’m willing to bet actually look even better quality without the typical Collection Blu-ray DNR.
Re. Silurians, I more meant that the dvd colour grade is much better. You can find a direct comparison between the dvd + blu-ray. For reasons beyond my understanding the Blu-ray lifts the black level until the dark areas of the caves almost look grey, while the naturally brighter areas in the cave are normal. It’s like they’ve been clipped and forced the cave to be brighter, despite clearly that wasn’t the intention by the Director or lighting crew, because none of the surviving Pertwee broadcast masters around that story have weird black levels like that at all.
Re. The Mind of Evil – it’s a bit of a haze for me, but I remember the dvd version was a manual hand coloured frame by frame work by Stuart Humphreys (I believe that was the Artist’s name). Now I stress I might be wrong but I *think* the Blu-rays used a colour recovery method with / without combining it with Humphrey’s work, and applied an overall colour regrade, that credit where due, looks much better blended onto the monochrome footage (on the Blu-ray).
We’ve discussed it here a million times, but ultimately it makes sense to me to simply get these stories as close to what the o.g broadcast masters *would’ve* looked like, as opposed to doing a James Cameron and trying to ‘enhance’ them with AI, DNR, reinventing drastically different colour grades like blowing out and clipping black levels.
Prowl 1701
September 4th, 2026 - 5:15pmBabelcolour only had to work on episode 1 of The Mind of Evil, as its chromia dots were missing. Episodes 2-6 had their chromia dots intact and used the chromia recovery methods that other stories have used.
Babelbro
September 4th, 2026 - 8:58pm@ Prowl 1701 Ah many thanks for confirming that.
Yeah the Blu-ray of The Mind of Evil did a regrade on Stuart Humphrey’s hand colourisation and it is a step up from the dvd. The colourising was done perfectly well but that dvd grade caused the colours to look a bit too uncanny valley / cartoon-y, but the Blu-ray regrade really nicely blends the colours into the black and white footage and all the episodes’ grades match identically.
SV7
September 3rd, 2026 - 1:29pmWow, that was quick! Just one week since S25 got its standard edition announced 😀
Prof Horner
September 3rd, 2026 - 12:51pmSo does anyone know when this is coming out. Before the end of the year perhaps? Are they releasing this one early because there is no other limited edition set this year? Maybe we will get animation announcement next Thursday.
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 12:54pmJanuary 11th according to the preorder listings
Prof Horner
September 3rd, 2026 - 1:00pmAre, that’s nearly two since the original limited release. Let’s hope they are getting these announcements out of the way now. Hopefully we will get some exciting new releases announcements soon.
DalekAgent
September 3rd, 2026 - 11:38amI hope they announce season 11 or 16 soon or any 60s season
Fred
September 3rd, 2026 - 12:26pmSeasons 3, 4 and 5 would surely not be worth doing individually—maybe a “Lost in Time” remaster with all the surviving episodes?
Seasons 1 and 6 would be worthwhile, but I don’t blame them for holding on as long as possible to see if there’s any more episodes to be recovered.
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 12:29pmWell it’s animations as well. There is more to come
DalekAgent
September 3rd, 2026 - 1:08pmYeah i definitely understand why they are holding off doing a 60s set but i just wish we had at least one 2nd doctor box set by now as he is the only one without a season release but between season 11 and 16 i hope we see season 11 first with hopefully a updated special effects version for invasion of the dinosaurs
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 1:21pmIt’s 16 then 11
Bob
September 3rd, 2026 - 1:21pmIf the animations didn’t exist, I could see them grouping all of the surviving episodes of Seasons 3-5 into one or two boxsets, but since missing stories do get animated, there’s now enough for each of the 60’s seasons to warrant an individual release. Troughton at the very least should get his run completed.
Gordon
September 3rd, 2026 - 2:14pmIt would still get seperate releases according to Bignell with recons filling the gaps. If we are lucky we will end up with both on the sets
Duncan
September 3rd, 2026 - 4:48pmA Season 6 set would be great. I appreciate its a perennial question but I wonder what they’ll do with The Space Pirates ?
What do people think about a Season 5 set filled up with the animations on top of the existing stories ? Im not sure I want to buy the animations again, so it all hangs on the extras for me. Fraser and Wendy Behind The Sofa is a must. David and Michael Troughton too, perhaps ? And dear Janet, Sarah and maybe a floating guest à la Season 21 collection ? Im sure Toby could track down some behind the scenes people, or other relevant actors.
Amypondfan
September 3rd, 2026 - 5:57pmDuncan season 5 needs the animations. Otherwise you just get reconstructions of abominable and fury.