April 11th, 2024
39 comments
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Doctor Who The Celestial Toymaker Animated Blu-ray
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk, www.zavvi.com, www.hive.co.uk and HMV via www.ebay.co.uk
Available to order from www.amazon.com #ad
BBC Studios continues to offer Doctor Who fans the opportunity to extend their collection by announcing the latest release Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker on DVD and Blu-Ray. The two-disc set contains the third season story as well as special features. This classic series stars the First Doctor, William Hartnell and companions Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet, with Michael Gough as the Toymaker.
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Fans of Doctor Who have long lamented the loss of the original 1966 master recordings of all except one of The Celestial Toymaker. BBC Studios have carefully created an animated presentation of this lost classic story using off-air audio recordings of the missing three episodes.
The Celestial Toymaker sees the Doctor and companions separated when they come up against The Toymaker. While the Doctor plays the Trilogic Game, Steven and Dodo are forced to play seemingly childish but ultimately dangerous games with the aim of being reunited and getting back to the TARDIS.
All episodes have been animated in both colour and black and white and include original film elements which have been fully restored.
Special features include:
Disc One
- Episodes 1-4 – Animation – Black and White
- Episodes 1-3 – Reconstruction
- Episode 4 – Original 1966 Episode newly restored
- New Audio Commentaries
Disc Two
- Episodes 1-4 – Animation – Colour
- Making The Animation
- Doctor Who Escape Room – Team First Doctor
- Sylvester McCoy Introduction for episode 4 as per the original VHS release
- Photo Gallery
- PDF Material including camera scripts
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Glenn
March 23rd, 2024 - 12:39amAny word on a release date?
Gordon
March 23rd, 2024 - 9:14amNot yet but I’m sure they will announce it when it’s ready
GA
April 11th, 2024 - 11:16am10th June as per HMV
Ian Cotterill
April 12th, 2024 - 10:03amAmazon also gives 10th June as the release date.
Gordon
February 17th, 2024 - 7:27amThe blu ray cover is up on the American Amazon website. The tardis has the St John ambulance sign on it. Just why?
Gordon
February 17th, 2024 - 7:28amhttp://www.amazon.com
Anon
February 17th, 2024 - 10:02amWell that is a dreadful cover…
Gordon
February 17th, 2024 - 10:18amI don’t think it’s a terrible cover per say as I think it’s better than almost any of the 2016 onward animated covers (power and web special editions excluded) but considering how bad they normally are it’s not a high bar. I’m just absolutely baffled they got the tardis wrong. Was there nobody at all checking that?
SV7
February 17th, 2024 - 10:51amThe St. John Ambulance logo is on the TARDIS in the trailer as well.
Rex F
February 17th, 2024 - 11:51amIt also has square new series panels.
Rob
February 17th, 2024 - 11:57amDreadful cover, looks nothing like Gough. More like the Joker, is that what they are aiming at?
Gordon
February 18th, 2024 - 3:43pmApparently it was there in the original episodes but the tardis was so dirty at this point it was barely visible. Rob Ritchie has fixed the badge off the cover on twitter which does improve things slightly.
Bobby Davros
April 11th, 2024 - 9:48pmOh dear, eating your words there, Gord. The badge wasnt painted over till the last episode of the War Machines when the white window frames were blued out for the rest of the props life.
David Minter
January 20th, 2024 - 2:46pmIt appears that in the North American market, the Blu-Ray is the ONLY option for The Celestial Toymaker. At least thus far, the Blu-Ray is the only option for purchase on Amazon.com. No DVD offering as of now.
Sofia Fox
January 21st, 2024 - 1:29amThis has been the case since Galaxy 4.
David Minter
January 21st, 2024 - 8:40pmI hadn’t really paid attention since The Evil Of The Daleks was the last animated reconstruction I bought and that was released on both DVD and Blu-Ray.
Sofia Fox
February 17th, 2024 - 5:49pmEvil of the Daleks was only on DVD in North America.
Time Agent
December 10th, 2023 - 10:30pmIf people continue to complain about the animation then the makers will think is it worth the effort.
A lot of work goes into these releases.
You do not have to buy them
.But please don’t ruin it for others who are very grateful for something we may never get otherwise. Time Agent
Rory
December 11th, 2023 - 11:13amI agree to an extent.
Money matters, and if the sales justify it then they’ll keep making the animations. As has been said before, how many other TV shows get this much merchandise? The animations, the Collections, the novelisations, unlimited rice pudding, etc. etc.
While fandom has sometimes influenced products, such as getting the right version of the Master onto the S3 steelbook, it will ultimately be the money that decides.
Rob
December 11th, 2023 - 11:28amPeople can complain, it’s their hard earned money that they chose to spend.
I will probably buy yes, but I don’t feel it looks very good. Many I know are on the fence about buying it.
Rex F
December 11th, 2023 - 12:07pmNone of the animations have been great, but clearly enough people are still buying them new to make it financially viable. Pointing out the (obvious) shortcomings has absolutely no effect, so stop worrying – it’s all about the cash, not hurt feelings. They don’t even take notice of the regular complaints about the arms always being too long.
Gordon
December 11th, 2023 - 12:36pmI don’t think there has been any animation where there has not been things people have complained about. Even invasion, moonbase and evil which were the most critically acclaimed got things people complained about. As long as they remain profitable they will continue. Only 10 to go. 11 if you count mission as an individual story.
D84
December 11th, 2023 - 4:00pmI quite agree Time Agent, surely anything is better than nothing right?
Rex F
December 11th, 2023 - 7:50pmD84: So it is worth me pitching my idea for sock puppet reconstructions? Sock puppets have no problems rendering tartan.
More then 2 alphabets
December 13th, 2023 - 3:53pmBBC and those working on it don’t care about comments/blogs – its all about the sales.
All those haters will still buy it and those that actually want to enjoy it will buy it. It will get streamed on iPlayer/ disney+
contrary to belief, the 2% of keyboard warriors have no impact on this or anything else they elect to trash
Robert
December 13th, 2023 - 9:05pmMore then 2 alphabets
It’s not about “hating” or “keyboard warriors”. It’s about the disappointment of the quality of the animation in the trailer. I buy all the range, but I am still entitled to an opinion on my purchases.
Duncan
December 16th, 2023 - 11:42amWell, I never hand over my hard earned without reading reviews or checking out You Tube videos about the product. Do that with everything- records, CDs, Blu rays. I can’t say I like what I see in the one clip so may end up sticking with the soundtrack CDs. Ive got to be honest with myself- if I bought this I know Id watch it once and that would be it so I suspect Ill either keep my £s or buy something else. Alternatively this may be praised to the Heavens in which case Id probably bite.
My personal feelings are that they’re so far into the animation range now, its not a good time to start experimenting. First time I watched the clip I immediately thought of a 90s computer game that I used to play. I think it was called Little Big Adventure? The character had a similar look if I remember correctly. Ill look forward to hearing what you guys say about it as and when.
Duncan
December 16th, 2023 - 11:44amSo, everyone is welcome, but not people who have a different opinion to yours ? Hmm.
Yep. It’s definitely still 2023.
Gordon
December 19th, 2023 - 12:18pmMy opinion is we haven’t seen enough of it yet. 30 seconds of footage and a handful of stills is all we have seen. There is still 97 minutes of soundtrack in which we haven’t seen anything from. Those 30 seconds of shots are only 7 shots and only 2 of those look like consecutive shots. We don’t know how the animation is when flowing from scene to scene. It doesn’t really give us much of a feel how the animation is going to work in actual scenes. Reign of terror looked great but let’s not forget the constant cutting was highly criticised. People have already prejudged this as terrible despite only seeing 30 seconds. Ian Levine has already posted a review on it on Amazon. Personally I feel reviews are pointless on there. I don’t think is them experimenting. I feel the 3d style was deliberately chosen as it feels like a better way of telling the story and especially as they aren’t exactly going to be faithful to the sets. Considering how cheap the original sets were I’m very open to doing their own thing on this one. Plus let’s not forget this 3d style is supposed to make the ones that are supposedly too expensive and time consuming easier. Personally I feel they need to really up their game before they go anywhere near Marco Polo, crusade or the massacre
Rob
December 19th, 2023 - 10:29pmAt the time I saw Reign of Terror at Riverside and had a chat with Dan Hall afterwards about the range. He took my aside opened his Mac to show me some footage of Tenth Planet 4 and I was more blown away, some of that footage didn’t make it to the release and it was incredible. Hope they can include it when it comes to the boxsets. It’s funny because I think this was the same event that Ian Levine tried to press a copy of the animated Evil of the Daleks 7 into Dan’s hand.
I will always try to be constructive about the releases, as I know many of the people who work on are fans and without them they range wouldnt be as good. We are so lucky that Who fandom has people in all professional services with audio, video, production and animation skills. All are fans, working within a budget and I am sure if I had a skill I would love to contribute to the range for nothing. But that 3D animation on Web 3 was awful and I thought they’d leave that way of doing things well alone.
Gordon
December 20th, 2023 - 10:06amIan Levine trying to get the bbc to take animations that they didn’t ask for or commission. Some things never change.
David
December 10th, 2023 - 9:42pmThere’s some animation of TCT on YT by Dinopuff that’s far superior to this.
Time Agent
December 10th, 2023 - 10:31pmWatch that instead then.
Gordon
December 11th, 2023 - 9:15amI like dinopuff’s version but it’s only part 1 that was done and even then it was split into 2 episodes and had bits cut out. We aren’t getting the rest. YouTubers can take as much time as is necessary to get it right but the official animations are on a strict deadline. If they run out of time on a shot or a section well tough. They have to move on to the next bit.
I know some have said why didn’t they get dinopuff in to finish/oversee his version but being realistic that was never going to happen. Firstly the official animation was already commissioned paid for and was quite well on in production by the time they had even heard of dinopuff and second of all he was 17 at the time of making his version and was still at school with zero professional animating experience under his belt. An impressive achievement but they aren’t going to hire school kids with zero professional animation experience to oversee giant productions like this no matter how good or professional it looked.
Secondly these animations are team led and despite what you think of the likes of Chloe grech and Anne Marie Walsh’s work they had a bunch of experience in other roles before they were given the reigns the chance to lead and oversee it.
Once he builds up his cv with professional jobs like a meeting on the common he just did for vworp magazine they might hire him and he can maybe work his way up from there
Rob
January 12th, 2024 - 3:09pmif you like dino puff his work is on the dvd free with fanzine Wvorp Wvorp 6, it’s amazing and so it the magazine.
Kenny
December 8th, 2023 - 3:31pmLove this.
Hope it’s out soon
davidhhh
December 8th, 2023 - 12:17pmHave we gotten a date for the download/streaming release yet?
The unknown Timelord
December 7th, 2023 - 6:53pmThis looks awful, surely they can at least get the animation to look like the characters
Rob
December 7th, 2023 - 2:51pmI wish they’d work more on the faces to make them like the characters.