February 21st, 2026
806 comments
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Doctor Who The Collection Season 21 Limited Edition
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk, www.zavvi.com, www.rarewaves.com and various retailers on www.ebay.co.uk
Protective Slipcovers and Sleeves can now be ordered from the Steelbook Central ebay store.
Doctor Who fans can continue to build their own home archive on Blu-ray with a ten-disc box set of the climactic 21st Season, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and introducing Colin Baker as the Sixth incarnation.
- WARRIORS OF THE DEEP
- THE AWAKENING
- FRONTIOS
- RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS
- PLANET OF FIRE
- THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI
- THE TWIN DILEMMA
In his final season, the action ramps up for Peter Davison’s Doctor as he faces terrors from his past, invaders from the future, arch enemies and a battle to the death. With companions Tegan (Janet Fielding), Turlough (Mark Strickson), Peri (Nicola Bryant) and robot Kamelion (Gerald Flood) the Doctor journeys from an underwater seabase to contemporary England, from a devastated Earth colony to the beaches of Lanzarote, from a volcanic alien world to the deadly caves on Androzani.
Along the way, the TARDIS crew confront Daleks, Sea Devils, Silurians, Tractators, slug-like Gastropods, the evil Malus and the vengeful Master!
All episodes have been newly remastered from the best available sources – these classic adventures have never looked or sounded so good on home media.
The Collection: Season 21 is also jam-packed with hours of new and exclusive material including:
UPDATED SPECIAL EFFECTS
On The Awakening, Frontios, Resurrection Of The Daleks and The Caves Of Androzani
WARRIORS OF THE DEEP: SPECIAL EDITION
An exciting four-part re-edit with updated special effects and immersive 5.1 surround sound mix
IN CONVERSATION
Matthew Sweet chats to Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric)
NEW MAKING-OF DOCUMENTARIES
For Resurrection Of The Daleks and The Twin Dilemma
LOOK WHO’S BOATING
Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton take to the River for an epic adventure.
48 HOURS WITH FIELDING
Toby Hadoke crashes at Janet Fielding’s
BEHIND THE SOFA
New episodes with Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Wendy Padbury (Zoe), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Tara Ward (Preston), Keith Jayne (Will), Jeff Rawle (Plantagenet), Rula Lenska (Styles), director Graeme Harper, Paul Conrad (Romulus) and Andrew Conrad (Remus).
THE DOCTOR WHO ESCAPE ROOM
Two new teams battle it out
BRAND NEW AUDIO COMMENTARY
On The Awakening
NEW SURROUND SOUND MIXES
On Warriors Of The Deep, The Awakening and The Caves Of Androzani.
TALES OF THE TARDIS
A 2023 edit of Earthshock with new linking material from Peter Davison and Janet Fielding
THE FIVE(ISH) DOCTORS REBOOT
With brand new audio commentary
EXCLUSIVE ARCHIVE TREATS
Including never-before-released TV appearances and studio footage
HD PHOTO GALLERIES
INFO TEXT
PDF ARCHIVE
PLUS LOTS MORE!
This ten-disc box set also includes hours of special features previously released on DVD including Documentaries, Featurettes, Audio Commentaries and more.
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Babelbro
March 31st, 2026 - 9:21pmJust to add to the topic of video tape digitising I’ve just found this truly spectacular example, using a 1987 VHS Tape recording of ‘The Cure’, a consumer VHS player and deinterlacing software readily available and free in the public domain; ( Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks1wE_NXWv8 )
Even though this deinterlacer is prone to noise reduction if unchecked, and even though the recording has been upscaled to 4k, the original visual quality appears to be completely intact and not drastically altered.
This is a 1987 consumer grade VHS tape, as opposed to a BBC studio tape used on the 1980’s Classic Doctor Who production, yet *this* is what can be acheived from a home computer and much older second hand equipment compared to modern day eye-wateringly expensive software like Blackmagic and Topaz that the Restoration Team have been using on Doctor Who.
The close-ups on this video are just mind blowing, there’s visible texture and detail on the skin and hair of the lead singer Robert Smith, while far away shapes such as the individual mic stands are completely visible, nothing vanishing or turning to mush – all of the typical VHS / SD Broadcast signal quirks are all left in, and all of that beautiful analogue signal noise containing so much original detail is left completely well alone.
Anyway just thought I’d share. Imagine how good Classic Who’s broadcast tapes could look if treated with the exact same care and attention.
James Spackman
March 31st, 2026 - 12:22amJust commenting on Series 20 , I bought the limited edition on Ebay , contacted the BBC for a replacement , attached a web capture of the transaction from Ebay and actually got the standard edition posted to me , was quite surprised.
Dunc
March 30th, 2026 - 11:54pmExcuse my ignorance. But can someone tell me where the issues with A.I are on this set please? I’ve not noticed anything.
Erato
March 30th, 2026 - 2:03pmMr Range’s disappearing glasses are hilarious!
daz
March 30th, 2026 - 5:55pmHappens in the dvd too though.
Babelbro
March 31st, 2026 - 12:18amSo apparently the Frontios dvd released in 2011, so quite a bit later nearer the end of the dvd range, about 4-5 years away from the 2017 Shada Blu-ray that itself has excessive DNR.
Peter Crocker mentioned on Twitter that the whole dvd range has had DNR applied, and this matches up with the earliest entry titles on the Restoration Team’s archived website articles.
So my best guess would be that the Frontios DVD would’ve had some of the strongest levels of DNR, coupled with Mpeg2 compression, definitely would’ve caused visual glitches like Mr Range’s glasses seemingly vanishing due to the detail being blurred out.
So therefore whatever Ai + DNR processing they’ve redone to the Blu-ray transfer has maybe essentially repeated the same cause to effect (the vanishing glasses) because the DNR is blurring that detail away and the Ai tries and fails to build anything from the crumbs of pixels left over that would have been the glasses.
Ultimately as well it comes back round to the original studio camera tape analogue noise – that noise would contain fine detail such as bits of the glasses, and you can’t perfectly replicate the glasses if you’ve already erased chunks of them by removing that noise.
Philip Shaw
March 31st, 2026 - 8:38amI never noticed his missing glasses, and i did look out for it. His glasses are knocked off at one point and he finds them on the ground,
COMICshopsDontStand
March 29th, 2026 - 12:15pmWith regarda AI look
It appears to be only people that have forgot to turn off the auto upscaling on their bluray players that are noticing the side effects of ai.
Ricky
March 29th, 2026 - 12:28pmUninformed and inaccurate , upscaling is either done in the player or the TV itself ,as these are 1080i full HD resolution ,nearly everyone will be watching these on a 4k resolution TV these days . Upscaling the resolution of the material on a disc to fit a panels native resolution has absolutely nothing to do with AI or the native material on a disc itself,if it wasn’t upscaled from full HD to 4k the picture would be a small square in the middle of the tv display .
Babelbro
March 29th, 2026 - 1:04pmTVs won’t upscale *any* episodes on the Collection Blu-rays because they have already been upscaled to 1080i.
If the info on Twitter is correct, the source tapes are digitised directly to 1080p using a Blackmagic Terranex, so the upscaling is the very first step applied to the source material.
I will say that as a video editor myself this does confuse me. The typical practice is to digitise tapes directly to their original resolution, in this case 576p, therefore you’re not stuck with a video file with baked in upscaling artefacts, let alone needlessly ballooning the file sizes. Maybe there’s a logical explanation that I’m unaware of but yeah.
The real culprit to the messy final product is the AI. I see NickD below has said that this range is fast becoming an industry joke, and across several forums many are stating that they can clearly visually tell that the AI comes from Topaz software via a quick and lazy one click effect with next to no manual control.
It’s one thing for one single Twitter user to say that Peter Crocker allgedly can’t notice the AI with his own eyes and needs someone next to him to tell him if it’s a bit too much, but again I seriously cannot understand how a formal ‘peer review process’ completely failed to pick up on this AI filter.
What’s more is that the AI process itself in terms of processing takes a huge amount of computer power, resources, a ton of rendering time, especially if you’re working with lossless high bitrate captures from a Blackmagic Terranex – to not check any of that before clicking render just blows my mind.
What also takes the biscuit is that the DWM prior to Season 21’s release literally stated that no AI or uncanny valley-ness was used – so whoever said that, and whoever printed that and signed that article off was directly misrepresenting the actual product and no doubt would’ve duped many Doctor Who fans already concerned about the poor AI in Season 13 to fall for it a second time for a further £60 a head.
As many including Gordon have said, the real deal will be the next Collection boxset. Personally although I didn’t imagine Season 13 would turn out as bad as it did, I felt things were gradually getting worse since about Season 17, which quickly got uncanny by Seasons 15 & 25 onwards – and as discussed a few days ago, this AI filter has been around at least since the 2017 Shada Blu-ray where so many close ups are knocked out of focus compared to the 2013 dvd.
Ricky
March 29th, 2026 - 5:21pmI get what your saying ,but if a standard Blu-ray player is set to output 1080i/p and this is connected to a 4k television the TV has to upscale the 1080 image to full 4k resolution, it has to add the extra pixels to fill the 4k pixel count of the display device
If a 4k uhd Blu-ray player is connected to a 4k TV ,the only.discs that wouldn’t require any upscaling is 4k UHD discs themselves as the source would be native 4k along with the display device at the other end .
So all dr who.discs from the latest collection sets get upscaled at home ,unless your viewing them on a older TV with 1080 as it’s maximum resolution .
So basically ,the 576 native material is upscaled to 1080 for the Blu-ray format in the studio ,then the material is then upscaled again at home if your viewing them on a 4k TV. The OP was suggesting that our players and the way we have them set up at home is causing these ai issues ,which is simply a ludicrous suggestion,although quite amusing .
Babelbro
March 29th, 2026 - 5:41pmMany thanks for the reply Ricky, and for the really clear concise explanation here, as I was kicking myself later realising I should’ve specified that ‘4k tvs’ are doing upscaling from the 1080i Blu-rays, not the original 576p resolution of the captured source material.
Modern 4k tvs and 4k players will do a very decent job upscaling 1080p Blu-rays, and in my experience with a 65 inch LG 4k (non-oled) 4k tv and LG 4k player it upscales my Doctor Who dvds from 20+ years ago exceedingly well.
My original point basically was that to pin the issue on the consumer’s tvs and players is a weak argument given the enormous amount of digital and AI processing that’s already broked the footage on the Blu-rays themselves.
The industry standard, to my understanding, would be to digitise the source tapes at 576p interlaced as a raw .avi or .mxf, and keep a copy of it on a hard drive, you then would make a new encoded copy for your project work, which should be where the upscaling, deinterlacing, and filter presets all come in that you would check right up close and get right, before encoding it and sending it off to the editing project.
My understanding is that the BBC does keep a substantial number of it’s own tv shows as 576p interlaced .mxf files in its archive, so that’s just the bit that confuses me – surely the Restoration Team are making those same spec digitisations of the physical tapes for the BBC archive, and not jumping the gun and upscaling/filtering/baking-in those quirks while digitising those tapes?
Apologies if this is a bit of a o.t.t. topic but as you can see I still haven’t had a registration link reply from GallifreyBase haha!
Ricky
March 30th, 2026 - 10:00amMany thanks for your I interesting and informative reply also ,indeed a decent Panasonic,lg etc 4k uhd TV or player does a fantastic job with even 576 material found on dvds , considering these images are being blown up to 65 inches they look great,then 1080 bluray is again another level of quality.
I’m not sure about how the BBC are treating /storing their material but I’d be surprised if they added these tweaks as permanent , I should imagine the originals stay just that ,original 576 interlaced .
I agree also that whether a disc is deinterlaced ,upscaled ,or even a players picture is tweaked within the player/TVs menus there is no way it can possibly change the native content to such an extent as to morph the image into ai territory,yes you can manipulate the images to look smooth,softer ,sharper etc ,one example is the soap opera effect with frame interpolation etc ,but it still doesn’t change the native material . If it did ,every disc played would look AI enhanced :-;
Ricky
March 30th, 2026 - 10:03am😉
Rob Watkins
March 30th, 2026 - 3:12pmMore wax on these collection sets pictures than Auto Plastics had for the Nestene invasion
DeliveryRus
March 30th, 2026 - 7:05pm@ricky lol indeed you ill informed.
Not everyone has a 4k tv and not everyone has noticed any issues DEPENDING ON THEIR BLURAY set up.
Which would indecate some people dont appear to know how to set up their bluray equipment.
The bluray is not in 4k
Barney
March 27th, 2026 - 1:55amReally nit picky kind of moan….but does anyone k ow why the planet of fire bonus disk is after caves and twin? Like just seems like an odd way to order the disks….especially with daleks having 2 disks and them being right next to each other. Loved all the set ive watched so far just thought it was a bit of a odd choice. I even checked the disk numbers encase mine had just been packaged out of order. Or does anyone know a plausible reason why……they’ve never done it before
Prowl 1701
March 27th, 2026 - 3:42amIs that Special Edition just in SD?
Gordon
March 27th, 2026 - 6:23amNo space on the planet of fire disc so moved to disc 9 ie the first bonus disc
daz
March 27th, 2026 - 11:53amSpecial Edition is just in SD dvd version unfortunately and still has 5.1 sound but the normal ‘hd’ episodes only have mono.
I watched disc 6 yesterday. I wish they’d put the special edition on disc 6 and moved the bts footage to disc 9. That and also upscaled the special edition to hd.
Minor gripe.
D84
March 27th, 2026 - 11:55amI thought it was odd to have that at the very end too
DanielM
March 28th, 2026 - 5:09pmThe Genesis of the Daleks Omnibus was on the Season 12 Bonus Disc but I don’t seem to remember anyone complaining about that?
Auton
March 28th, 2026 - 8:51pmI really don’t think what disk the Planet of Fire Special Edition is on is the main problem of this set
Peter
March 29th, 2026 - 9:16amYeah good point. I’m not an editing expert but surely it wouldn’t have taken much effort to “4 part-ify” the new effects version for inclusion?
I just wish everything wasn’t looking like it had been smeared through wax. 🙁 Tried to watch Resurrection last night…
Gordon
March 29th, 2026 - 9:38amI could be wrong but the same with the enlightenment special edition fx I believe the original files weren’t kept. That plus the new fx wasn’t popular.
Bob
March 29th, 2026 - 10:30amI did think Enlightenment’s new effects were a bit of a waste since the DVD effects still held up, unlike The Five Doctors Special Edition which somehow looks worse than the ’83 version in some aspects.
It’s a massive shame how much effort was put into the new VFX for this boxset only for them to be paired with such a botched restoration. At least Terror of the Zygon’s new effects were incredibly underwhelming so you don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything by sticking with the DVD.
Daver1974
March 26th, 2026 - 7:13pmIssue with either disc 5 or the booklet. The booklet states that disc 5 (Resurrection Of The Daleks 4 part version) should have updated special effects, but there are none.
Prowl 1701
March 26th, 2026 - 7:17pmThat’s frustrating as the 4 part version is how I like to watch the story (and how it was originally filmed to be seen.)
Gordon
March 27th, 2026 - 6:24amIt’s a misprint in the booklet
DPHill
March 27th, 2026 - 3:14pmSlight misprint on the back j card sleeve, says 26 episodes when i guess there were supposed to be, but adding the disc info episodes there are of course 24, again nothing as annoying as not having Special features on the 4 part version
Peter
March 28th, 2026 - 1:03pmProwl – doers it matter if that’s how it was originally planned to be seen? It wasn’t seen originally that way in the end. I thought fans liked things “as broadcast”?
Prowl1701
March 28th, 2026 - 2:06pmWell I would prefer having the updated effects option for both version. So people could watch whichever version they prefer with them.
DanielM
March 26th, 2026 - 10:56am@Babelbro – The 2013 DVD Shada on Season 17 is the exact same as the 2013 DVD without any noticeable DNR.
Matt L
March 25th, 2026 - 8:24amHi Gordon, once season 16 is out later this year and season 11 spring 2027c so you think season 6 will be next? Also do you think they will leave the 1990-2004 dr who legacy box set till after the remaining 60s season are all out? Thanks
D84
March 25th, 2026 - 9:49amThat seems to be the thinking, that a WY or whatever they call it will be towards the end and used as a mop up for odds and sods that don’t find another obvious home or that turn up since a particular season went out
simon.ss1
March 25th, 2026 - 11:41amMatt L, I love your term, ‘legacy’ for a potential box set for 1990-2004 Dr Who. Have always hated constant references to a possible title of ‘The Wilderness Years’ for that period. The term ‘wilderness’ has so many negative implications to it, like ‘neglected’. ‘Legacy’ is so much more positive: something that’s become part of history. Which is what those years really were, whether at the time we realised it, or felt neglected, or not. Otherwise, why would we want a Legacy box set?
Gordon
March 25th, 2026 - 1:13pmStill hear it’s 16,11,6 though the latter 2 could always change if need be. I’ll be surprised if wilderness/legacy set comes before 2028. If I was going to guess (and I want to state I know nothing) we are probably getting either 1 or a legacy set after season 6 so to not get 2 doctors in a row though if season 5 was ready I could see that being a reason to break the 2 doctors in a row tradition. That may all depend on whether or not they have plans in the works to animate Marco Polo. If they don’t I could see it next plus it would be around the 65th though they don’t deliberately plan around these things.
Jack
March 26th, 2026 - 12:17pmI seem to recall a rumour swirling around roughly 12 months ago about The Space Pirates being animated soon(ish) can anyone else recall/ shed some light on the rumour?
DPHill
March 26th, 2026 - 2:26pmThere was a little leak odd an online YouTube channel for the Doctor Who escape rooms where all seven appeared, back then five and six as well as two weren’t yet on a release but it said that that five and six would be related in April, given that this set came it this month, it fits, it said the second Doctor episode would come it in October so very possibly a September release for a Troughton animation (more likely than a collection set but still could be), i don’t know if there’s anymore info on a specific title for animation but it seems likely Troughton will be coming next
Prowl1701
March 26th, 2026 - 3:02pm@DPhill, I remember doing a video about that youtube “leak”. The channel removed those videos super fast and changed its name. Still never knew if it was actually official or not.
Tom Williams
March 26th, 2026 - 3:53pm@Dphill gordan did say too me the other day that there is always chance off a collection and animation coming out in both months when i asked if it could be june or November if it was the case they could bring out season 16 and a animation togther in October and announce either one in may or june and july
Tom Williams
March 26th, 2026 - 3:55pmMent both in a same month auto correct
DPHill
March 26th, 2026 - 9:30pm@prowl, i did see that video – was literally one of the only ways of seeing it after the pulled the leak
@tom, well in March 2019 a week apart, Animated Mara Terror and Collection Season 18 came out, so it has happened, I just think they may keep the announcements a little apart, I’m not sure if it was say Season 6 and Space Pirates releasing in the same month they would do that, but certainly if it was a Troughton animation and a Baker collection as that has already happened
Personally, i think they’ll get around to every one eventually, just not in time for the collection but Space Pirates, Wheel, Smugglers, and Myth Makers seem like great options (i mean they all do for me). Would be lovely to get either Troughton, but Wheel would be great seen as it will be sixty years of the cybermen – not that they do too much in the way of anniversaries home media wise as it is tricky
Prowl 1701
March 27th, 2026 - 3:40amI’d love to get an animation for The Space Pirates, especially if they took some liberties like they did with Macra.
Rex F
March 27th, 2026 - 4:57amIt was a hoax posted from a non-official account, using previously released Escape Rooms only.
James
March 24th, 2026 - 9:52pmJust a thought. With regards to S20 being sent out in standard box sets for replacements in mass. Would that mean the future releases will go up in price (more than already due to regular cost increases) to recoup money?
Gordon
March 24th, 2026 - 10:01pmIt’s probably going to go up anyway at some point in the 60s sets due to the size of them anyway.
D84
March 25th, 2026 - 7:58amI think the first sets to come out were £39.99
Now at £67.99 for S21 (although it was 10 Discs vs 6 for the early sets) given the backdrop of ridiculous cost increases in the world in that time im kinda “ok” with that but its alot
On a separate note, only 8 sets to go if you include a WY (Wilderness Years) set
Nearly there guys, although arguably the final 5 BW are tricky for the team to handle
D84
March 25th, 2026 - 9:50amAlthough if the current rate of 2 releases a year remains and doesn’t extend with extra time for the BW sets – its still around 4yrs before the range completes
daz
March 25th, 2026 - 12:41pmI still think after 2027 (Season 16 and possibly Wilderness) we’ll get 1 release per year.
This gives them time to release animations solo and catch up with the S3 ones to fill out Season 3 a bit more for a collection release.
So 2032 for the final end maybe.
Gordon
March 25th, 2026 - 1:39pmI could see 1 and 6 being one a year as that’s got more eps than most. 3-5 actually don’t need as much work as you think due to the blu ray animations and releases over the past couple of years. 3 for instance could only need 12 picture eps and 20 audio eps if mission/masterplan gets some sort of blu ray remastered release prior. Both airlock and 4 as it currently stands needs 9 picture eps and 16 audio eps (evil 2 got remastered for blu the rest didn’t). 5 needs 10 picture eps and 16 audio eps but could drop to 8 and 10 if wheel gets a remastered release with animation
Bob
March 25th, 2026 - 5:51pmSeasons 3-5 do feel a bit less exciting due to the already existing HD animations. Perhaps they could revamp some of them like with The Power of the Daleks and Shada, maybe at a push animate the missing scene from The Macra Terror. I’d personally like to see the TARDIS landing at the start of Fury from the Deep redone.
DeliveryRus
March 26th, 2026 - 9:07am@d84 – £57 in most places
D84
March 26th, 2026 - 9:18amSorry £57.99 yes on the last one, not £69.99
BW
March 24th, 2026 - 3:50pmThe quality of these sets has nosedived. AI denoising/upscaling is perfectly acceptable as a tool for old VT show, but it’s being used aggressively, seemingly with no QC or safeguards, and the results are horrendous. Apart from not being faithful to the source material, it looks plain ugly.
Gordon
March 24th, 2026 - 4:36pmIf the results had been good and it had been a noticeable improvement it would have maybe cut down some of the complaining. Instead we are ending up with a set that is worse than the DVDs. Still not sure what I’m doing with the remaining 2 colour sets. On the one hand I want to support the hard work on the bonus features as I do think they do a superb job on that. Same with the audio work. Mark ayres is superb at audio restoration. Same with the artwork and booklet from Lee binding. However it’s hard to support when the picture quality has went off a cliff. Unlike 21 where they were perhaps too far on to remove the ai16 wouldnt have been started when the complaints started rolling in. There will be no excuse there if it’s bad.
Bob
March 24th, 2026 - 5:46pmAI upscaling has been used as part of the restoration for quite a few movie releases now, seemingly out of laziness. I’m willing to give Doctor Who some benefit of the doubt due to the lower fidelity of videotape, especially since surviving film sequences continue to be scanned in HD and look great even on Season 13 and 21. But the AI results aren’t great and aren’t what the audience for these sets wants. The next season, whether that be 11 or 16 or randomly a 60’s one, is their last opportunity to prove they can meet their customers demands.
Auton
March 24th, 2026 - 6:02pmThe new special features has always been the main reason I buy these sets. That won’t change. However, I really hope they ditch the AI approach.
NickD
March 24th, 2026 - 8:57pmWell in the industry they are regarded as a joke. A few people have said they are just adding an AI filter to the standard DVD picture. No true restoration. I have seen a few tests on HD sources and they while not ideal are far superior to these last few sets.