September 15th, 2023
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Doctor Who The Collection Season 20 Limited Edition Packaging
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk, www.zavvi.com and various retailers on www.ebay.co.uk
BBC Studios continues to offer Doctor Who fans the opportunity to build their own home archive on Blu-ray with a limited edition NINE DISC box set of the 20th Season from 1983, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. This set is the most jam-packed release yet, with hours and hours of new and exclusive material.
- Arc Of Infinity
- Snakedance
- Mawdryn Undead
- Terminus
- Enlightenment
- The King’s Demons
- The Five Doctors (20th Anniversary Special)
Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the programme, these stories feature the return of old friends, enemies and even past Doctors! Over seven exciting stories, the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) face off against the Black Guardian, Omega, the Mara, the Master, Cybermen and the Time Lords themselves!
All episodes have been newly remastered from the best available sources including original film elements for The Five Doctors – these classic adventures have never looked or sounded so good on home media.
The Collection: Season 20 Blu-ray box set also includes extensive Special Features including:
THE FIVE DOCTORS – 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
- A brand new version of the 90-minute anniversary special, with updated special effects,
- Dolby Atmos & surround sound, plus an exclusive new commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson.
UPDATED 2023 SPECIAL EFFECTS
- Exclusive to Blu-ray, on Snakedance and Enlightenment.
BEHIND THE SOFA
- Seven new episodes with Peter Davison, Colin Baker (The Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor),
- Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Katy Maning (Jo) and Sophie Aldred (Ace).
BLU-RAY TRAILER
- A brand new episode of classic Doctor Who.
IN CONVERSATION
- Interviewer Matthew Sweet chats to Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton.
LET’S GO DUTCH!
- The TARDIS crew travel to Amsterdam to revisit locations and reminisce about Season 20 and their time on the programme.
LOOK WHO’S DRIVING
- Join Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton on an hilarious European Road Trip.
WHEN JANET MET MARTIN
- Janet Fielding chats to Martin Clunes, 40 years on from his appearance in Snakedance.
MAKING THE KING’S DEMONS
- The regular cast return to the castle location and reminisce.
MAKING THE SEASON 20 TRAILER
- A look behind the scenes
LONGLEAT CELEBRATION FOOTAGE
- A previously-unreleased look at the iconic 1983 convention, plus panels featuring Peter Davison, Tom Baker, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and many more.
STUDIO FOOTAGE
- Hours of material going behind-the-scenes on production of Arc Of Infinity, Snakedance and The Five Doctors.
LOCATION FILM RUSHES
- From The Five Doctors.
RARE CONVENTION FOOTAGE
- Including Australian interviews with Peter Davison and Janet Fielding shot during production of this season.
ONCE UPON A TIME LORD
- A rare US documentary from the 1980s.
NEW 5.1 SURROUND SOUND MIXES
- On Snakedance and The Five Doctors. Plus Dolby Atmos mixes on The Five Doctors.
ARCHIVE TREATS
- Hours of rare and previously unreleased material from the BBC Archives.
HD PHOTO GALLERIES
- Including many previously unseen images.
INFO TEXT
- Behind-the-scenes information and trivia on every episode.
PDF ARCHIVE
- Including scripts, exclusive unseen BBC production files, the Radio Times 20th Anniversary Special and other rarities.
PLUS LOTS MORE!
This nine-disc box set also includes hours of special features previously released on DVD including Documentaries, Featurettes, Audio Commentaries, The Five Doctors Special Edition and more.
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Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 5:18pmGood we’ve finally got another Davison season since the last one came out the year the range started. Also aptly timed, good it’s an anniversary season, the 60th anniversary year hasn’t felt like much of an anniversary *year* this time around
Chibb
July 13th, 2023 - 5:11pmEnjoyed the shirt trip ‘The Passenger’ – but does this mean we have now retconned the whole Tegan & Nyssa relationship? I mean…
Prof Horner
July 13th, 2023 - 5:24pmI think Tegan and me share the same secret desire!
Bobby Fackrell
July 13th, 2023 - 5:49pmIs Tegan a McCoy fan too prof?
Prof Horner
July 13th, 2023 - 5:51pmNaughty boy Bobby !
Prowl 1701
July 13th, 2023 - 9:07pmYou two get along like Peter Davison and Janet Fielding, lol.
Super exited about this set, looking forward to the updated effect for 5 doctors.
Prof Horner
July 13th, 2023 - 5:05pmWell I have just order my copy off Amazon. Unfortunately the release date is December 31! which I hope isn’t right!
The cover looks fantastic. I must say how much I am looking forward to this as I haven’t seen most of the stories in along time. I only have Five Doctors on the original DVD. Extras look great too and trailer is fantastic. I hope Tegan finds Nyssa, I certainly would like to! Maybe in the specials or the planned spin off. Again only disappointment is no confirmed release date.
booboo
July 13th, 2023 - 5:07pmholding date, they have to put something
WhoMore
July 13th, 2023 - 5:29pmWell it also says 2025 so def holding date.
Bobby Fackrell
July 13th, 2023 - 5:48pmProf you have ordered 25 by mistake
D84
July 13th, 2023 - 8:43pmIt’s a holding date, it will change once a release date is more nailed on. Hope it’s not too long
Tom Williams
July 13th, 2023 - 4:30pmFinally the wait is over but shame had no email from hmv :/
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:35pmI had an email immediately from HMV.
It’s a shame HMV isn’t do the sets cheaper anymore. The last few sets were a few quid cheaper to buy on HMV rather than anywhere else but now it’s the same price
Samuel
July 13th, 2023 - 4:22pmAnother beautiful art cover by Lee Binding.
I guess it’s too late to speculate, but I have wondered if the disc tray glue/adhesive would ever be revised on these sets. The amount of unboxing videos on youtube of the disc trays falling out and ripping half the interior artwork out, followed by a “oh well never mind” despite paying £55 for a luxury item, I don’t feel is very fair on the consumer let alone collector.
Fair enough, the design idea was from 2018, but we’ve had 5 years now for someone to just have a rethink at least on the concept of maybe using superglue instead of pritt stick.
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:28pmIt’s a bit of a lottery.
You just have to return the item and they will give you a free replacement. These sets don’t sell out anymore so there’s no rush.
I don’t think there’s a better glue solution really unless you can come up with one?
Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 4:42pmI honestly wonder if they should’ve been designed to be detachable from the case, because the heavier they get the more risk there is of damaging the case
Samuel
July 13th, 2023 - 4:50pm@Jake E – I remember having to order and return 5x copies of Season 17 over the Xmas break, having collected all the Limited Editions and made sure my copies had no glue trouble, it honestly felt monumentally stressful and unpleasant, spending that amount of money on a broken product.
There’s a very well informed Youtube video by Taylor’d Vision that mentions the Collection using pretty much the exact same boxset tray design as Torchwood’s dvd boxsets, and apparently how flimsy those tray sets were from back then.
Visually, the limited edition boxsets are stunning. Practically, I wouldn’t keep the discs in them, defeating most of the purpose of them.
Again, if the box design was revised today, I would completely accept it as a hindsight improvement, after looking back on the last 5 years of, as you’ve pointed out, total lottery on the glue quality. If it doesn’t change, then for me this is really letting down the rest of the quality and workmanship that goes into the actual art and media of these sets.
The whole inner back panel could be plastic, Doctor face card inside the plastic, and have that layer properly glued down to the card backing with the Tardis, instead of 4x tiny droplets of weak glue.
I’m convinced a really subtle, seamless design improvement could be made on these boxsets, and blend in fine with the earlier sets. I don’t think it will happen now, and I think for me it really questions if I can keep going with ordering, knowing I will 99.9% end up with discs and trays falling about, and a half ripped face of Peter Davison inside.
Darren
July 13th, 2023 - 5:52pmI stopped getting the Limited edition versions as of season 2, after having to reorder 8 or 9 times and still getting detatched trays with torn artwork.
So I gave up, sold all the ltd ones to that point and bought the whole collection again in standard edt format.
Samuel
July 13th, 2023 - 9:00pm@Darren that’s what I’m seriously considering doing now.
Before collecting the Limiteds, I was already aware of the standards, but I made a conscious decision to support the range by directly purchasing the main product on pre order. Obviously the amount of repeat customers is what funds the range, but I personally felt I was making an important contribution by helping back it.
I guess the overall (almost) half a year silence has really given me time to rethink if I’ve been truly happy with the physical sets themselves. To be clear this isn’t bashing the artwork or disc content in any way shape or form. For me personally, I want a boxset I can take off of the shelf, like a photo album, admire the booklet and artwork, get straight to a specific story disc, and pop it out, watch it, then put that disc back in with full confidence, just as I would with any other Blu Ray case on my shelf. Unfortunately due to the sheer fragility of these boxsets, I felt really excluded from being able to do any of that, unless I spent one single occasion getting all the discs out, put them into a zip wallet, take photos of the booklet pages, then pop the box back on the shelf to gather dust.
The very thought of that felt really wrong to me. New Who famously also has previous with making eiffy product designs for limited edition sets, so ultimately on balance, I guess I was drawn to the marketing and usp of the limited Collection, part of it felt good to fund it up-front, and having the luxury product in my hands felt like the real deal, and today in 2023 I just don’t get that feeling anymore.
I agree with you Darren, I’ll be going for the standards from now on. Aside from paper booklet any paper inlays, the rest of the actual casing can be easily replaced, though it’s just stronger, better to hold, open, shut. Same disc content, if not improved / corrected from any human-errors on the limiteds.
It’s really the disc content and Lee Binding artwork that matters to me, that’s why I’ll continue to go for these sets, but in standard format.
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:16pmThe new snippets of CGI we saw all looked fantastic!
So excited. I’ve only seen Five Doctors before so this has been a set I’ve been eagerly anticipating for years.
Super pumped 🙂
David
July 13th, 2023 - 4:09pmIs the original version of The Five Doctors included along with the other two versions.
Auton
July 13th, 2023 - 4:26pmYes
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:09pmIt looks so good. Maybe a tad overcrowded with Monsters but no it looks fantastic.
An 80’s set being 9 discs is so cool.
3 stories with new CGI.
2 stories with new Sound including Five Doctors in Dolby Atmos which is sweet.
Over 5 hours of studio footage, I wonder if that includes the Season 19 footage that’s been found since the set came out. Probably won’t include the season 18 footage?
The Road Trips look perfect. I hope they are really long videos each.
5 hours of blooming convention footage now that’s crazy
interesting that the in conversation has both Janet and Sarah together. I think I would have preferred them to do separate ones but okay
Overall I’m ecstatic. The front cover looks amazing. I love Season 9 and 2s cover but it’s nice that the Doctor looks completely like the Doctor again. Even if he has long hair never mind haha. The disc art and the booklet etc all look fantastic.
I can see why this took them so long to make and with all the CGI etc I do think this will be the last set for the year.
I’m very happy with this 🙂
Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 4:26pmThe photos used for the Doctor come from Snakedance
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:36pmI’m aware. It looks good 🙂
I just prefer him with slightly less long and messy hair haha
Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 4:39pmOh I just clarified that cause his hair literally does just look like that in the story lol
Makes sense for me, Davison’s hair always had inconsistent lengths. At least one of these covers needed his longer hair. I’m expecting Season 21 to have his Warriors of the Deep really short haircut
Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 4:46pmActually, saying that, he still wears his S19-20 outfit in that story, so it’d make more sense if it was his Awakening-Caves of Androzani outfit on that cover (with the green collar and the different bands on the jumper). Maybe he’ll wear his hat on that one, or he’ll be injured and muddy like in Caves
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:49pmIt’s all good. I haven’t seen the story yet so I wonder how it looks in motion haha
His hair wasn’t great in Season 19 either so I can’t believe they let it get even more out of control in Season 20 haha
Rex Farrel
July 13th, 2023 - 5:26pmThey’ve definitely tried to make this one special: Might it be the first sell out in a while? As a nerd, I would have liked more Five Docs studio footage (there are spools of it). Otherwise, the only thing that comes to mind is not having Tony Virgo do a commentary on King’s Demons part two – why they just had him do part one for the dvd, when he had loads of Kamelion stories, I’ve no idea (if they could only do one ep for whatever reason, it should have been ep two). I’m actually temped to preorder this set…
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 6:01pmDefinitely you should pre-order this set.
Surely they are using all the Five Doctors Studio footage they have? They did 24hrs of studio/ location footage for Season 24 so no reason not to hear. It’s nine discs after all. Unless it’s all bad or has video/ audio issues.
I want EVERYTHING haha 🙂
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 6:02pmMaybe the majority of the 5 hours of studio footage is Five Doctors and the other 2 stories don’t have much footage?
No idea
Anewset
July 13th, 2023 - 4:05pmA new set at last….. as the 6th dr might say
Rory
July 13th, 2023 - 4:05pmTo all of the doubters, S20 being released this summer (ish). Davison was right (ish).
Very much looking forward to this one.
Who is Who?
July 13th, 2023 - 4:03pmHooray!
Mac
July 13th, 2023 - 4:01pmGod that cliffhanger had me
Robert Sienicki
July 13th, 2023 - 4:00pmI am so incredibly happy the suspicions were true and we are getting this season along with Five Doctors. Very fitting for a Anniversary Year. This season, together with three brand new specials with David Tennant, that seems like a fine ending of this year!
Lewis Frisby
July 13th, 2023 - 3:59pmI am so happy this is definitely my favourite artwork so far in the collection range my favourite story in this season is ark of infinity I love the trailer also do we have a release date
Eccentric_Umbrella_Man_1987
July 13th, 2023 - 5:50pmThe Blu-Ray Box Set has only just been announced. so I believe we’ll most likely get a release date by the end of month.
Note: Please be aware this is just my opinion and not an official source of information.
Blueboy
July 13th, 2023 - 3:53pmWell this set has everything i would have wanted but i would really have liked updated special effects for Kamelion to have matched those for Planet of Fire. Still, to get the updated effects for The Five Doctors (Goodbye Swirly Vortex) and new for both Snakedance (which didn,t really require an update but is very much welcome) and enlightenment are a massive consolation. Do we get the Enlightenment effects on the four parter rather than the Special Edition?
Gordon
July 13th, 2023 - 4:26pmIt will be on the 4 part version. The special edition I heard is included but unaultered from the original dvd
Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 4:48pmYeah wasn’t a big fan of the 2009 effects, but honestly it’s remarkable that with this box set alone we’ve had two updates to stories that’ve already been updated haha
Gordon
July 13th, 2023 - 3:50pmYes gordon that is a big one!
D84
July 13th, 2023 - 3:43pmLooks like a great set, wasn’t expecting 9 discs – thought it would be 8.
Amazing trailer, love it
And 3 versions of “The Five Doctors” – amazing, can’t wait
Hopefully we don’t have too long of a wait before this lands on the doormat
Early September maybe?
Mark
July 16th, 2023 - 8:24pmGood guess! According to the manufacturer of the outer boxes, its 13th september 2023.
Nathan
July 13th, 2023 - 3:43pm£55? I’m glad I dipped out of these sets ages ago now but it’s a bit messed up how they are upping the price for standards now meaning they cost about 39.99 at this point would rather get back on BritBox the updates and stuff isn’t worth these awfully expensive prices
booboo
July 13th, 2023 - 3:47pmclearly you have been oblivious to the spiralling inflation of late.
Auton
July 13th, 2023 - 4:07pmThese sets are easily worth more than the retail price due to how much love and care goes into them and the amount of new special features. £55 is a bargain
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:15pmI would pay double that for these sets but yes the price increases aren’t ideal but I will happily still collect them all 🙂
Gordon
July 13th, 2023 - 4:24pmProduction costs have spiralled with inflation. Still more than worth for what we are getting
Rex Farrel
July 13th, 2023 - 4:26pmA single VHS would be £23 today with inflation. A single movie on boutique blu-ray (with extras) is usually at least £17 on release. They’re definitely doing all they can here to keep the prices as low as possible for what you get, and I suspect the royalty payments are miserable – I’d think the cast get more for the new extras than they do for clearing all the old episodes. People not wanting to pay fair value is why so much stuff never got/gets released.
MJS
July 13th, 2023 - 4:32pmThe price usually drops when released
booboo
July 13th, 2023 - 4:32pmdont think it will to be honest as all retailers have the same price
Jake E
July 13th, 2023 - 4:40pmYeah the last 2 or 3 sets were some amount of pounds cheaper on HMV than anywhere else for pre-order.
But now unfortunately even they are the same price as everyone else. Still very, very much worth it to me 🙂
Eccentric_Umbrella_Man_1987
July 13th, 2023 - 7:05pmThis is the way I see it. I can either:
Give into temptation, go on Amazon and pay the £55 to pre-order my copy of “Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 20” Box Set (Limited Edition Packaging) LE Box Set.
OR:
Hold off purchasing for now and risk having to pay extortionate scalper prices further down the line as the Box Set is almost guaranteed to increase in both value and rarity as / when it becomes out of print (OOP)
Either way, I’m buying my set right now whilst I type this message as I made myself a promise that if any new Doctor Who media (DVDs / Blu-Ray / Steelbook / 4K / Box Sets) is released going forward that I will buy all of it so I never miss out and have to pay ridiculous prices again.
Mark Belsom
July 13th, 2023 - 3:40pmLove season 20,some good stories. Will be interesting to see what SFX has been updated on The Five Doctors.
Daniel
July 13th, 2023 - 3:37pmwoo pre-ordered from Amazon. The link worked after 20 mins for me. The trailer is amazing
Auton
July 13th, 2023 - 3:36pmThis looks absolutely amazing, as always everyone involved has outdone themselves, really look forward to this set
Dylan Goodfellow
July 13th, 2023 - 3:31pm3 new cgi options when season 9 had none
Gordon
July 13th, 2023 - 3:57pmMajority of the budget for season 9 went on restoring it. The cost of restoring the likes of curse, sea devils, mutants and time monster was like 3 times the cost of a normal episode
Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 5:15pmThis makes me wonder what they’re going to do for Season 11. It’s the perfect opportunity to do updated effects for Invasion of the Dinosaurs but there’s also issues like doing a new colour version of Part One, since it was the one they had the most difficulty doing. Hopefully they can do both and maybe after this box set’s standards, an update for Planet of the Spiders too? But they’ve definitely got to update Invasion of the Dinosaurs, it’s one of those things that most of the fanbase have wanted for years.
I have wondered if it would’ve been good to do individual special editions of stories to give them things like updated effects a few years before their season comes out on blu-ray so that when they work on the relevant box set, they can distribute their money across other features. I’d like the rumours that An Unearthly Child is getting a colourisation to be true. I mean, a colourised AUC would be a perfect release for the 60th anniversary, and an opportunity to give it new extra content that could be ported over to the eventual Season 1 box set. While The Beginning box set was the first one so they didn’t have much money to spread across all three DVDs, it is a bit of a shame that AUC and The Daleks are so scarse in extra content for how important they are, and Edge of Destruction doesn’t have a commentary. OK, bit of a ramble but my point is, when the earlier seasons have more problems with remastering, it does make me think individual releases beforehand with new content would be a benefit.
Spiridon86
July 13th, 2023 - 3:30pmIt looks superb! Been waiting for this for so long.
I was at the convention in Germany where Davison and co finished their road trip, way back in 2019. In fact I was part of the crowd that greeted them on their arrival, so I cannot wait to see that doc.
Though I am kinda disappointed I didn’t make it onto the cover of the box set!
Rory
July 13th, 2023 - 3:42pmWe’re you a villain?
Spiridon86
July 13th, 2023 - 3:49pmIn costume as the Master!
All 3 of them were hilarious on their very late arrival. Gloriously bickering as usual.
Paddy Troughton
July 13th, 2023 - 3:30pmExcited for on the road. As when I met Peter earlier this year he talked fondly about it. Also interested in the Five Doctors 40th year anniversary. Instant preorder
Ian
July 13th, 2023 - 3:29pmAt last! Can’t wait
daz
July 13th, 2023 - 3:28pmFantastic.
Great trailer/mini episode. Looking forward to this and not just because of the wait.
Darren
July 13th, 2023 - 3:15pmHopefully this means standard editions of season’s 17 and 22 will be released soon…
Cutwillrise
July 13th, 2023 - 3:17pm17 maybe wouldn’t expect 22 to December this year at the earliest
I’m Batman
July 13th, 2023 - 3:07pmOnly Zavvi?
I do hope it will come to Amazon too.
booboo
July 13th, 2023 - 3:10pmamazon screwed up again
James
July 13th, 2023 - 3:10pmHopefully have link comes up soon
Anonymous
July 13th, 2023 - 3:33pmamazon now live for pre order
Chris Howarth
July 13th, 2023 - 3:53pmIt’s now on Amazon. I just ordered.
Eccentric_Umbrella_Man_1987
July 13th, 2023 - 6:32pmThere’s always issues with Amazon when they announce a new Blu-Ray Collection Set. It’s most likely down to all the high traffic their system is experiencing as I’m pretty certain that most Doctor Who fan will all rushing as fast as then to pre-order a copy. Refresh the page, wait for a few minutes and then try the link again.
I’m just hoping and praying that for everyone that wants one, gets one as I know for a fact scalpers will charge extortionate rates for people who missed out.
I’m Batman
July 13th, 2023 - 3:07pmFinally
James
July 13th, 2023 - 3:06pmWahoo. Can’t wait. Only zavvi ATM with date of December 2025. Obviously to be checked and related