September 15th, 2023
1,334 comments
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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Bobby Fackrell
November 30th, 2023 - 12:13pmI don’t know if it’s the magic of late November or just not liking series 21 and 22 but I’ve stopping complete run and gone right back to the beginning again
No hurry for series 25 anymore
Prof Horner
November 30th, 2023 - 2:03pmWatched Delta and the Bannerman the other night, for first time in 36 years. Don’t tell me the series could ever fall lower than this. Nobodies finest hour. From dear old Doddie to the ridiculous so called American agents to the Dick Barton theme tune. Worst of all is McCoys dreadful acting and the fact he can never hold the umbrella by it’s handle. Or the fact on beautiful clear day , a bus drops out of the sky next to a holiday camp and no one noticed. This farce destroyed the shows reputation for many a long year. At the time it was the final straw as as far I was concerned. Now after all these years I can enjoy the sheer awfulness of it. Thanks for iPlayer for letting me watch stories I won’t waste my money on. I may watch Two Doctors tonight. My favourite Doctor Pat and my second least favourite Baker C. Keep enjoying whatever Who you like.
Capybara
November 28th, 2023 - 4:05amSo as of 28th Nov, no update re. Season 20 picture juddering, and no announcement re. the next ‘Sandard edition’.
Also, sadly no improvement re. Series 1-4 Blu Ray sound mix or upscale. Near identical upscale method, and exactly the same uneven sound mix from 2013. Shocking oversight to be honest, particularly the off-putting sound mix for new generations of fans.
As a fan, I want to collect and help fund these projects, and I know there’s people working hard making these sets – but seriously – why isn’t anyone doing any final quality control checks on this stuff? Why has there just been total silence on a limited edition set giving seriously bad juddering, at the retail purchase of almost £60?
There’s already YouTube review comments already saying “ah well, at least we have a base editing source to start fixing, be it remuxing dvd sound mixes from almost friggin 20 years ago – or using purchased ai software to deliver a vastly better / noticeable upscale improvement” – defeating the entire purpose of a value for money physical media home entertainment product – it shouldn’t have to be fixed by the paying customer. That’s hours and hours of unpaid time mending something already paid out of pocket.
Up to a point I understand it comes down to time, expense, marketing, profit, nothing more or less – but as someone that wants to back these sets – c’mon, it’s 2023. Just give us a modern day motive.
Matthew Sayes
November 28th, 2023 - 9:34amWell said. 100% agree.
Jake E
November 28th, 2023 - 4:44pmAgreed! Pathetic that they still haven’t responded to the Season 20 problems and allowed the exact same problem to happen to Underwater Menace!
I returned The Underwater Menace Steelbook because it’s unacceptable at this point.
Gordon
November 28th, 2023 - 11:11pmFrom what I gather the series 1-4 box set is a mixed bag. It sounds better in some ways and worse than others. Not the definitive version it should have been but it’s probably the best in terms of picture quality you can currently get and it’s finally on blu ray in the right speed. I’ll get it but once it drops to about £40. I ain’t in a rush
Matthew purchase (cyberdevil on twitter/x) has labeled out the pros and cons:
Pros
All episodes presented in 50i at the correct speed
Born Again (2005 Children in Need Special) presented with correct sound for the first time
Several faults from previous releases corrected (e.g. – Missing One Year
Later Caption from Blink, Sound Fault on Rose, To Be Continued caption on The End of Time)
Whilst not a massive upgrade, it’s still the best picture quality offered.
Sound slightly better quality than previous Blu-ray releases (still has issues)
NEW! 17 minute Documentary with RTD and David Tennant looking back at this era (and looking forward)
Podcasts Commentaries for The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead and The Waters of Mars included. First time they’ve had a commentary on disc.
Audio Description on every episode (missing from previous Blu-rays)
Quicker to use DVD Menus
Scene Selection (missing on some original Blu-rays)
Easter Eggs now listed as a Special Feature rather than being a hidden item
Cons
The Next Doctor + specials missing as broadcasts credits (except The End of Time Part 1). The next doctor used the correct as broadcast version “stacked” version on the 2010 and 2013 blu rays. Planet of the dead, waters of mars and the end of time 2 uses 2 Column style credits (like those from Series 1-3)
Bonus Disc from the Steelbook release with The Infinite Quest, Dreamland, The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and a David Tennant interview not included
New Podcast Commentaries out of sync with visuals
Some edits not fixed to match as broadcast (Dalek “You Tortured Me” Voice in Dalek, Gramophone Music in The Unicorn and The Wasp, Cyber stops in The Next Doctor)
Two Episodes of Confidential edited for compliance reasons (The World of Who cuts out about 2 minutes featuring the filming of Captain Jack’s naked scenes.
Why on Earth? has a tiny edit. Intact on iPlayer)
Episode Selection Menus now gone (easy enough to get to using scene selection though)
Menu designs more basic
Blink Easter Egg joke now lost due to no longer being hidden
Stereo mix offered on DVDs missing
The Last of the Time Lords commentary with Tennant | Agyeman | Barrowman is missing. In its place is the podcast one with RTD, Julie and Phil. The cast commentary was replaced on the original US release due to John Barrowman breaking into song, which prevented licensing abroad.
Capybara
November 29th, 2023 - 2:05am@Jake E – The Underwater Menace also has the same judder issue? Wow.
@Gordon – It’s cheapskating, cutting corners, being honest – feeling misold by initial marketing tricks, that’s really making me reconsider today’s Dr. Who physical media.
I feel similarly with the latest iterations of the 4k Star Wars saga from 2020 – similar issues, laziness to fix previous editing errors, poor colour grading, worst of all; there’s literally much clearer frames in the 2011 non-4k boxset.
Saying “this is the best picture we have” now for Series 1-4 is a conclusion based on a bare minimum pittance upscale algorithm, of which hardly compares to an algorithm from 2013.
I highly, highly recommend everyone to take a look on YouTube for “Doctor Who | Children in Need Special 2005 | AI Upscale” by the channel “Season26B”, uploaded 2 years ago – a ground up overhaul; colour grading, new faithful sound mix, far better upscale (unsurprisingly, the reviews I’ve seen, claim that this new official 2023 boxset hasn’t even upscaled the 2005 CIN special)
Also recommend on YouTube “Comparison of Doctor Who The Movie Blu-Ray vs 4k” by the channel “TJ DW” – again, a visually outstanding upscale edit considering the condition of that official retail Blu Ray transfer.
As a fan since 2005, having collected all the dvd range, for it’s time being a vastly impressive range – It really pains me to see the latest Blu Ray range in such a pickle, only for some YouTube channels to come along and make better copies of the same episodes.
There’s people out there such as Rob Ritchie giving the official sets every ounce of their time and energy – only for, presumably the higher ups in charge deciding it’s not in the customer’s interest to just give the discs a check – tell you what, I wouldn’t trust any of them to help run a butchers shop at Christmas time, I’ll say that much.
@Matthew Sayes – Thanks for the kind words, appreciated
Gordon
November 29th, 2023 - 2:24pmI can’t say I’m a fan of ai upscaling or ai involvement in general. Looking at born again by season 26b it’s very sharp but tenant’s face looks very waxy in places. Almost if they used dnr on it. Not a huge fan of TJDW ai 4k work either. A few of his 4k restorations have artifacts which are distracting. His 4k version of the movie should have grain as it was originally recorded on film. His version has none of that.
Regarding the tv movie blu ray. It wasn’t restrored by the restoration team (neither was the s1-4 box set) unlike the collection range. It was a botch job and will probably be done properly done when they get round to the wilderness years set.
As for the juddering the issue with sorting it out is it doesn’t affect all players. The discs are absolutely checked by multiple people. I can confirm that. Richard bignall is one of them that does it. If he’s using a player that doesnt cause the juddering issue of course it’s going to get missed. I got both season 20 and underwater menace and I can confidently say my copies do not judder in the slightest.
Capybara
November 29th, 2023 - 3:54pmAi video / audio editing has been involved in pretty much all re-released dvd/blu ray media, including Doctor Who.
Mark Ayers mentioned on Twitter that ai is generally involved on soundtrack / dialogue tracks.
I understand ‘The Collection’ range itself receives criticism for overly-softening the visuals – however what many don’t realise is the sheer lack of image resolution, let alone the amount of original image noise that simply would be too distracting to watch. Again, similarly with Star Wars with Harmy’s Despecialized editions – ai noise reduction and softening was still applied in Harmy’s hd edits of Star Wars, because of the overwhelming amount of noise and artefacts on the source videos.
For me The Collection, so far, has done a best-as-possible job with ai upscaling / tidying the video and audio of Classic Who.
What I feel misold on, is the latest claim by the Doctor Who Blu Ray range, and I quote, “first four series freshly upscaled to high definition using the latest technology” – when, honestly, it is clear as day that is simply not been the case.
Likewise, the first four series’ audio tracks are the exact same poor quality as the 2013 Blu Ray range.
While I do highly recommend the work by Youtubers ‘season26b’ and ‘TJDW’ (TJDW’s 4k upscale of The Runaway Bride is leaps and bounds better than the official latest Blu Ray boxset – season26b’s edit of ‘Born Again’ and TJDW’s ‘tv movie’ edit might not be your own cup of tea, but as an HD presentation, they are both a million times better quality than the so called “upscales using the latest technology” of the BBC.
Also TJDW’s work on ‘The Seeds of Doom’ – using a dvd resolution source – wow. To my eyes it looks magnificent.
Regarding juddering – then why is it that many people are suddenly experiencing these playback issues with Season 20 and Underwater Menace? Why wasn’t this ever a widespread issue before as it suddenly is within the last couple of months?
Collectively, for me it just feels like, as much as there is dedicated, passionate people actually working on improving the source material for these Blu Rays – it either comes down to not properly checking the picture and sound of these sets before they go out to retailers – or it’s mad dash cost cutting, corner cutting business decisions to avoid properly sorting out vital stuff such as audio – without good audio, everything on screen simply isn’t going to be appreciated for what it is, good and/or bad.
It’s got to the point for me that I can now see channels on Youtube, while are still naturally self improving on their own work – are already delivering far better quality results compared to the official Blu Ray range. That’s not to talk down those genuinely capable and highly respected artists such as Mark Ayers and Rob Ritchie, especially given the latter’s personal story in his interview with Josh Snares with regards to the work loads – but I genuinely get the feeling that higher ups are either being ignorant or unaware when making these big final decisions of not properly reviewing these products – only for the masses and masses of paying customers – be it many like myself have followed Doctor Who’s media range for the last 20+ years, or simply customers that deserve a product that stands up to the competition / convenience of streaming, popping that first disc in, and within 5 minutes feeling like “wait, what the heck is this?”
To me that sense of feeling unsure about a product I’ve paid £60 for – when I can easily spend maybe a fraction of that amount for a 2005 edition of the dvd boxset from CEX with a far more decent sound mix, that doesn’t mis-sell me on a “latest technological upscale innovation via the BBC” slogan – is unfortunately now more palpable than ever. It’s a matter of trust – the dvd range had that trust over the course of almost 20 years, but from about 2017, with the Shada dvd encoding errors, I suppose that was the start of the warning signs, sadly.
I really feel for the customers here of the Season 20 Limited Edition boxset – the lack of updates and communication, and now to have that juddering effect happen to copies of ‘The Underwater Menace’ – it’s a heavy shame.
Gordon
November 30th, 2023 - 3:02am“first four series freshly upscaled to high definition using the latest technology” Clearly it’s marketing and pr speak. Pretty much the norm when trying to sell a new remaster. BBC ain’t the first company to claim that and they won’t be the last either.
Not even the first this year to claim it either. Robocop the 1994 series was supposedly digitally remastered and enhanced with the best possible equipment but with ramming 21 45 minute episodes and a 90 minute pilot on 2 discs it was barely better than vhs. Trust me this season 1-4 release could have been way worse.
I suspect if it had been remastered to the state that the pr had advertised it would have been a lot more costly than the £55 for 4 seasons advertised. Look at other recent shows that got blu ray remasters like stingray or worzel gummidge down under they are charging like £55- £60 and that is for 22/32 25 minute episodes. A fraction of runtime of the season 1-4 set.
For products like this where the quality of upgrade is in question it’s always advisable to wait for reviews. Mind you If you are unahappy with the quality of this you are more than free to send it back and claim a refund. As I never bothered with the 2013 blu rays due to the slowdown and other issues that have been fixed and despite it not living to the hype it’s still a step up from the dvds though I will be upgrading once it comes down to a price which I feel is appropriate (£40)
Regarding the juddering how many people that it effects is many? If it’s even as many as 100 it’s still like less than 1 percent of the people that bought the release. That’s not really widespread. The point I was trying to make when I said the juddering did not effect me was that for those that are complaining that the juddering was not spotted in checks and people questioning if there was checks at all. If it affects less than 1 percent of copies bought it can easily be missed if the players used in checking that cause the problem were not used. You brought up the shada dvd. You wanna know how many people actually complained about it. Steve Roberts said the total was 8.
Jake E
November 30th, 2023 - 10:04amYes, it has the juddering issues unfortunately. Not on the animation just on the surviving episodes
Gordon
November 30th, 2023 - 2:55pmWhich suggests it’s a player issue. If it was a disc issue I’d be having problems with it.
David Minter
November 21st, 2023 - 2:34pmDoes anyone know if there’s a street date set for the North American release of this season on Blu-Ray?
Thanks!
Matt L
November 21st, 2023 - 7:01pmSo does everyone think we will get an announcement/trailer of the next box set in December?
D84
November 21st, 2023 - 7:39pmI think something will get announced on Thursday afternoon
DW day + it’s a Thursday
SV7
November 24th, 2023 - 3:07pmVery disappointed that we didn’t get any new DVD/Blu-ray announcements for the 60th. 🙁
Rex Farrel
November 24th, 2023 - 5:56pmWaiting because of the judder issue maybe?
David Minter
November 24th, 2023 - 8:58pmI think we “technically” did with the announcement of the 60th Anniversary Specials DVD, Blu-Ray, and Steelbook releases.
Prof Horner
November 21st, 2023 - 12:02pmWell replying to my post on his Facebook group site. Ian Levine says Jeremy Bentham told him that there is going to be announcement of a missing episode on Thursday. As Ian says, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Prof Horner
November 21st, 2023 - 12:23pmCorrection, Jeremy Bentham told Ian that someone told him that there was going to be announcement on Thursday about a missing episode. Wishful thinking perhaps? Let’s see. I hope there will be something exciting.
Gordon
November 21st, 2023 - 5:29pmNot going to 100 percent dismiss it but it sounds very a friend of a friend. Could easily have been misquoted.
Alzie Who 66
November 20th, 2023 - 9:25pmBest announcement this week is confirming the find of lost episodes….
Rex F
November 20th, 2023 - 9:42pmIf they did have anything, anniversary week would not be the time to announce it. It would distract from promoting the new stuff, or get lost amongst the new stuff. Hence Web and Enemy being announced in October for the 50th.
Craig
November 20th, 2023 - 10:34pmIf it Happens it with be on the Thursday 23rd.
Gordon
November 21st, 2023 - 8:31amI doubt we will get anything. There has been very little hype over legit rumours plus I’d have thought they would have wanted a physical release about now so it would have had to have had an announcement before that. There is no buzz about a find either. Unless it’s a random missing episode of a completely or almost completely missing story I ain’t expecting anything
D84
November 21st, 2023 - 9:44amIf anything, I’m expecting either a Collection set – or an animation – or both
Prof Horner
November 20th, 2023 - 11:54amAny chance we might get announcement on Thursday about the next season Boxset or next animation? Enjoying watching stories I haven’t got on DVD on iPlayer. Even watched a couple of McCoy’s! Silver Nemesis is a good laugh . But of dear Ghost Light! What hell is going on there! It looks good, there are some good actors in it . But the script was total gibberish. Needed Robert Holmes to rewrite it. Still each to its own.
D84
November 20th, 2023 - 12:35pmI would imagine yes something will be announced on DW day – it has been for the past few years – and with RTD involved – he knows the fan base as he is one of us
This year – it also falls on a Thursday which seems to be a favoured BBC Studio’s announcement day too regardless of how the dates fall – alot gets unveiled and put up for pre order on a Thursday
My guess is yes, something will be announced but have no clues as to what
Collection Set, Animation, both, lost episodes recovered (doubtful) – new colourisations (possible) we will see something i am sure
Bobby Fackrell
November 20th, 2023 - 5:47pmProf behave!
How can you rate Silver Nemesis and slag off Ghost Light in the same breath?
Silver Nemesis is dreadful and Ghost Light is a belter, nothing wrong with that script at all it’s one of the very few in the 80s with a decent script
And why are you watching series 25 on iPlayer?
Don’t be impatient it’ll be out soon
Happiness will Prevail
Prof Horner
November 20th, 2023 - 8:10pmDear Bobby, how dull this site would be without are bit of banter.
I didn’t say I thought Silver Nemesis was a classic. All I said was it was fun in the same Horns of Nimon is fun. Sorry, but I still say Ghost Light is a mess. Why does nobody ask why The Doctor and Ace are wandering around the house and how did they get in.
Hopefully we will hear something positive on Thursday.
Rex F
November 20th, 2023 - 9:36pmProf: It’s Victorian times, everybody’s too polite to ask.
Samuel
November 21st, 2023 - 1:27am@Prof Horner – Well said reg. Silver Nemesis.
I rate Silver Nemesis highly myself. I fully acknowledge the similarities with Remembrance of The Daleks – however given how much New Who has really revved up the level of humour to the extremes (particularly the recent Children in Need episode, though not complaining at all about that) I’d argue Nemesis was ahead of its time where comedy in Doctor Who is concerned.
In terms of non 60’s composers – I utterly love listening to Keff McCulloch’s tracks. Maybe it’s a guilty pleasure – but then again so is Murray Gold. McCulloch just knocks it out the park yet again. It isn’t just Cybermen, it’s Cybermen kicking arse against machine guns and flying arrows. It’s Ace singlehandedly getting chased around a factory by endless Cybermen – the immense filmwork on that chase. Nobody online that I’ve seen bats an eyelid at Ace being badass with a catapult! Sylvester McCoy, as usual being the icing on the cake, delivering that haunting figure decades ahead of David Tennant’s ‘lonely God’ pose.
Stories like Silver Nemesis and Delta & The Bannermen can be considered a laugh, and why not – but my word do they both go hell for leather on entertainment factor. It’s like a shot of decent adrenaline to watch. It just scratches an itch for me that no other era can quite do in the same way.
It kind of throws everything including the kitchen sink and pipes, and out of nowhere develops ideas decades ahead of its time.
Gordon
November 21st, 2023 - 8:48amI suspect it will be a collection set or an animation but perhaps not both unless it’s a standard release. I Remember in 2020 they held back the s8 announcement till the Wednesday as they revealed the web of fear special edition and the 50th steelbook on the Monday.
As for ghost light I feel it makes sense when you watch the work print version on the s26 set where it adds the deleted scenes in
Bobby Fackrell
November 21st, 2023 - 11:08amIt’s true, it gets quiet for a while, we get a few
‘when is the next announcement’ messages which you have to love people’s enthusiasm but you can only really reply with ‘I don’t know’ but then along comes Prof with his love of McCoy and boom we have exciting debates
Now did someone mention ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Anon
November 21st, 2023 - 12:42pmThe standard edition season 17 should be due December. Almost 2 years since the collection boxset.
Season 22 standard probably around june 2024.