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January 24th, 2020 423 comments

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Doctor Who The Collection Season 26 Blu-ray

Available to order while stocks last from www.amazon.co.uk

Also available to order while stocks last from www.zoom.co.uk and www.zavvi.com


On Saturday 23rd November, the BFI Southbank will be screening Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric (from the Special Edition Blu-ray) and holding a Q&A with actor Sophie Aldred and script editor Andrew Cartmel. Tickets are available from the BFI on the following dates:

  • Monday 16th September – BFI Patrons and Champions
  • Tuesday 17th September – BFI Members
  • Tuesday 24th September – public booking

Season 26 features four epic adventures traversing a future Britain invaded by inter-dimensional knights, a strange Victorian house haunted by ghosts from Ace’s past, an alien world populated by Cheetah People and a 1940s army camp under siege from monstrous vampires.

With guest stars including Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Anthony Ainley (The Master), Jean Marsh, Nicholas Parsons, Anne Reid, Ian Hogg, Sylvia Syms and comedy duo Hale & Pace, this fondly-remembered set of stories saw the end of an era for Doctor Who, and set the stage for its hugely successful revival.

Doctor Who: The Collection Season 26 contains several special features, including:

Rare Restored Extended Cuts

  • The Curse Of Fenric VHS Extended Version
  • The Curse Of Fenric DVD Special Edition
  • Battlefield VHS Extended Version
  • Battlefield DVD Special Edition

5.1 surround sound & isolated scores

  • On all 14 broadcast episodes, plus 5.1 sound on all extended versions of The Curse Of Fenric and Battlefield.

Behind the Sofa

  • New episodes with Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, plus companions Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Anneke Wills and Jodie-Whittaker-era writers Pete McTighe & Joy Wilkinson.

Showman – the Life of John Nathan-Turner

  • A feature-length look at the life and career of Doctor Who’s longest-serving producer, who fought to keep the programme on-air during the 1980s. Contributors include Peter Davison and Colin Baker.

Making ‘The Curse of Fenric’

  • A brand new documentary featuring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Tomek Bork, Nicholas Parsons, Cory Pulman, Marek Anton, Ian Briggs, Andrew Cartmel, Mark Ayres and Ian Collins featuring unseen behind-the-scenes footage and photographs.

In Conversation

  • Matthew Sweet chats to companion Sophie Aldred.

The Writers’ Room

  • Ben Aaronovitch, Marc Platt, Ian Briggs, Rona Munro and Andrew Cartmel discuss their work on Season 26.

Becoming The Destroyer

  • Actor Marek Anton and prosthetics designer Stephen Mansfield recall the creation of one of Doctor Who’s best ever monsters.

Blu-Ray trailer

  • Sophie Aldred back in character as Ace.

Plus

  • Brand new Ghost Light extended workprint
  • Unseen studio footage
  • Rare archive treats
  • Convention footage
  • HD photo galleries
  • Scripts, costume designs, rare BBC production files
    and other gems from our PDF archive

And lots more!


Categorised under: Blu-ray, DVD

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423 comments

  • Serge8

    June 14th, 2020 - 11:42am

    Anyone know where I can find this box set online? I pre-ordered on Amazon an by the time Corona struck in my country (march), it was not delivered and I’ve been searching ever since. Thank you.

    Reply
    • daz

      June 24th, 2020 - 11:36am

      There’s one on eBay due to end tomorrow. Currently has 1 bid at £50. If you want to try and win that one.

    • Serge8

      June 24th, 2020 - 12:22pm

      Thanks daz,

    • daz

      June 26th, 2020 - 5:09pm

      Did you win it?

    • Serge8

      June 29th, 2020 - 9:23am

      Unfortunately no (66 at the end), but there are several buy now options for 70 and I’m gonna go with. Thanks for the heads-up!

    • daz

      June 29th, 2020 - 9:37am

      To me anything upto £80 is reasonable.

      Yes, double the original price but as I paid £265 for the 1st edition of Season 12 after being told by the BBC on email that no more were to be made it seems like a good deal.

      Once 2nd edition was announced I traded it at CEX to make a good chunk of the money back though. But still annoys me. Lol

    • Serge8

      June 29th, 2020 - 11:18pm

      I get your pain daz 🙁

  • DPHill

    May 11th, 2020 - 10:45pm

    Anyone saw the season 26 titles on the boxset anywhere – i can’t find them??

    Reply
    • Gordon

      May 11th, 2020 - 10:54pm

      Seeing as they seem to like keeping the titles for the season that appears earliest it’s probably going on season 24

  • Antonio Zambonini

    February 20th, 2020 - 11:09pm

    Anyone still in need of this and can’t get luck I saw this in foops in London

    Reply
  • Prowl 1701

    February 19th, 2020 - 5:01am

    Just came back in stock at retail price on amazon uk.

    Reply
    • Prowl 1701

      February 19th, 2020 - 4:32pm

      And gone again.

  • midmon

    February 7th, 2020 - 5:27am

    Back in stock at Zavvi. Excited to get this one with the slightly-nicer UK packaging as opposed to the Australian packaging and sooner as it’s one of my favourite seasons. Didn’t feel the need with Season 23 and just got the Australian relase.

    Reply
  • Jordan9364

    February 2nd, 2020 - 2:32pm

    Any ideas / evidence as to when the next Third Doctor season will be released? Or even First / Second Doctor ones, as it’s these I’m most interested in. Would get all of them if I could afford to but trying to narrow it down to just those, thanks.

    Reply
    • Bobby Fackrell

      February 2nd, 2020 - 3:36pm

      The next series after 14 is unofficially confirmed as 20 this will be around July/August then the rumour is series 2 is being released later in the year. Series 11 is another rumour for late 2020 or early 2121

      6 is the most obvious Troughton release as it is the most complete so may materialise in the next couple of years

    • Jordan9364

      February 2nd, 2020 - 10:58pm

      Ooh Season 2 would be nice. Shame we can’t have all the missing stories animated for these though, that’s assuming they’ll use the ones already animated?

    • Gordon

      February 3rd, 2020 - 12:02am

      Any animated story will be included. It’s just the story’s that haven’t been animated will be included by a recon of some description. The budget won’t stretch to include animations made specifically for the box sets. The big question for me is if they will include all versions of the animations on the sets? Season 3 4 and 5 could be massive sets if they include both black and white and colour versions and possibly even recons as well.
      For example season 4:
      Disc 1-2: the smugglers
      Disc 3: tenth planet
      Disc 4-5: the highlanders
      Disc 6-7 the underwater menace
      Disc 8: moonbase
      Disc 9-10: macra terror
      Disc 11-12: faceless ones
      Disc 13-14: evil of the Daleks
      Disc 15: bonus

    • Kenman

      February 3rd, 2020 - 12:29am

      I know they’ve taken to animating whole stories to make them more accessible, but by my count (excluding the already announced animations) there are only 16 missing episodes left to animate for Season 4 to be completed via animation. Of those stories the most likely to animate is obviously Evil of the Daleks, as it is a super popular story that has easy to sell Daleks they can advertise with. As it isn’t a great story it would be nice if they just animate the two missing episodes for Underwater Menace. I would obviously like to see Smugglers and Highlanders brought to life as well. Who knows though.

      I know they’ve currently said they wont likely animate it all due to budgets. But I think the 60th is a good excuse to throw a bit of money towards something like Marco Polo AND the First Season in the Collection. And When they get to the end of the obvious animation candidates they could possibly take their time in something like the Crusade…a 6 episode budget for 2 episodes!

    • Anonymous

      February 3rd, 2020 - 3:11am

      The problem isn’t that there’s only two episodes so they’d have a tiny budget, The Crusade is one of the most resource intensive projects imaginable. Their current estimates and inability to do it are based on a “6 episode budget”. It’s so bad that even if one of the two episodes miraculously showed up in a vault in Africa, they’d still be struggling to cover whichever one was left.

    • Kenman

      February 3rd, 2020 - 4:47am

      I get that. It was a flippant comment really. My premise was that if the range is essentially done…okay you throw more money and time at a two episode nightmare. But I know it is unlikely at this point.

    • Gordon

      February 3rd, 2020 - 10:36am

      There is probably still about 8 -10 stories they could probably still do in the current time/budget before they run out of easy to do stories.

      Galaxy 4
      Savages
      Underwater menace
      Evil of the Daleks (it’s 7 eps but it’s a small cast and the Daleks are a big sell)
      Abominable snowman
      Web of fear
      Wheel in space
      Space pirates
      Potentially toymaker (there is a lot of assets which might push it over the time/budget)
      Masterplan if it’s split in 2

      They are going to run out of those in the next 5 or so years especially when they take into account there is 2 animation teams and each tackling 1 a year and also the likes of galaxy 4 savages underwater menace and web aren’t going to take a year. If the animations are still profitable I’d imagine they would want these releases to continue and that would mean an increased budget. I can’t see them doing Marco at this point (it’s honestly too far of a jump in budget wise) but I could see them trying something like the smugglers and if that’s profitable that could be the key to getting the likes of myth makers highlanders and the massacre. And if it’s still profitable at this point then they may consider crusade and Marco but that’s probably a good 7 years off at this point.

  • Gordon

    February 2nd, 2020 - 11:12am

    The us version has been confirmed as 7 discs

    Reply
  • Sarge

    January 31st, 2020 - 8:46am

    Totally of topic, but did anyone else realize in the opening title sequence of the TV movie that the chained up master resembles Anthony Ainley . For some reason I always remember him being completely blurry. Thoughts?

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      January 31st, 2020 - 11:45am

      The comparison is quite common (also that his eyes still show signs of the Cheetah infection). It is a totally different actor though.

    • Bobby Fackrell

      February 1st, 2020 - 8:34am

      JNT’s first two series were very good, series 26 is excellent and 25 is good apart from Silver Nemesis that would suggest Eric Saward is largely at fault for the 80s nosedive

    • Anonymous

      February 1st, 2020 - 9:58am

      Are there still videos or recorded voices of the master in the TV movie?

  • Anonymous

    January 30th, 2020 - 11:53am

    Has anyone else order from amazon and not had there’s shipped yet?

    Reply
    • Demdike@CultLabs

      January 30th, 2020 - 11:04pm

      I was in the same boat so canceled it yesterday and bought it from my local Argos today.

  • Gordon

    January 30th, 2020 - 12:35am

    The jnt documentary was absolutely superb. It should have been broadcast on terrestrial tv it’s that good. One of the best things the range has ever done. A rollercoaster of emotions . I laughed and cried in equal measures. Such a shame he never lived to see the show return in 05. Some blame him for the show ending in 89 but he was the guy who kept the showing when no one else would

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      January 30th, 2020 - 8:23am

      I mean I don’t think it looks good enough to be broadcast. It’s just the cameras really. Also no one would really watch it if it was on BBC Two. It’s a fan thing. No causal viewer would get it.

    • Gordon

      January 30th, 2020 - 10:50am

      It was filmed in hd. Just the archive stuff isn’t. If it hadn’t been on the blu ray set I Think it would have gotten a decent audience from fans on bbc4 with a little publicity.

    • Prof Horner

      January 30th, 2020 - 12:13pm

      Michael Bryant wanted to produced Doctor Who and Derrek Sherwin wanted make it then sell it back to the BBC. JNT should have left Doctor Who after The Five Doctors and if he had the thing’s would have been different . Grade hated the series and treated the series badly.But the series was tired and out dated in 1985.

    • Gordon

      January 30th, 2020 - 1:55pm

      i doubt things would have played out any different if he had left after 5 doctors. Michael grade still hated sci-fi and still wanted the show dead. If we had went for Derrick’s idea of producing it independently and selling it to the bbc that would have suicide. The powers that be detested the show and had no interest in bringing it back on air. The only thing that kept it afloat was the fan outrage over its cancellation. I don’t agree with it being tired and outdated in 1985. It was still putting out quality stories like varos and revelation. Sure you had the odd clanger like timelash but every era has its clangers. I think the issue was producing too many episodes with not enough money. Season 22 had 13 x45 episodes or 26 x 25 minute episodes. Think if they had cut out 1 story and was able to keep the same budget it might have made a difference. Don’t forget jnt was helping Ian Levine in his campaign to bring the show back when it was canceled in 1985 even if he couldn’t actually get involved with it and without him helping we may have never have gotten seasons 23-26 which would mean no McCoy especially his last 2 seasons when the show was turning the corner and had become good again. Also don’t forget he wanted to leave after trial and got told no as there was no one that wanted to do it

    • Anonymous

      January 30th, 2020 - 3:43pm

      There’s no point in playing what if? For me, JNT was good at publicity, good at marketing who. He understood that side of the programme. I think though that he did lack an eye for story. I don’t think he quite had the drama side down. Here’s the thing though, a lot of that’s down to script editing. A stronger script editor would have made a world of difference to the fifth and sixth doctor eras. The likes of Terrance dicks, Robert Holmes, bidmead and Carmel fixed problems with scripts I always got the impression saward just didn’t bother. An impression confirmed by interviews. JNT wasn’t perfect but he produced some great stuff. And he continued to do so even when he wanted to move on. Personally I think he was the right producer but with the wrong script editor.

    • Anonymous

      January 30th, 2020 - 7:22pm

      The HD cameras were terrible. It’s good the sil look

    • Anonymous

      January 30th, 2020 - 7:44pm

      Ok am I not gonna lie. I was probably about to cry at the end of that documentary. He seemed such a nice man!

    • Anonymous

      January 30th, 2020 - 8:50pm

      I honestly disagree with one of the people above. JNT should get a biopical drama from the 60th. Not RTD.

    • Anonymous

      January 30th, 2020 - 10:13pm

      To be honest I’m not sure any producer or script editor or showrunner should have a drama about them. We had the creation of who so I’m not convinced there is a subject that the casual viewer would find interesting beyond perhaps the bringing back of who. Even then I don’t think we need one about that.

    • Anonymous

      January 30th, 2020 - 11:59pm

      I have to agree with Gordon, I think mccoys last two seasons are brilliant. You can see with dragonfire in season 24 that cartmel is starting to get to grips with things and then it just takes off. I love McCoys era. So as much as I think JNT wasn’t perfect I’ll always be grateful to him for those seasons. Also for his doctor casting. Davison, Baker and McCoy. All great as the doctor but with varied story quality.

    • prof Horner

      January 31st, 2020 - 12:16pm

      Well I respect all the opinions , but we will agree to disagree.I thank JNT for his first couple seasons but after that things started to go wrong for me.

    • Bobby Fackrell

      January 31st, 2020 - 9:21pm

      The only problem with this wonderful box set is I really want series 25 to come out now 🙂

  • DWS

    January 28th, 2020 - 3:45pm

    Sad to hear that Nicholas Parsons, who played The Vicar in Curse of Fenric, has died. Ironic, considering the release of this boxset! 🙁

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      January 29th, 2020 - 10:48am

      Thank goodness they had the opportunity to record special features with him in time

    • Anonymous

      January 29th, 2020 - 10:49am

      Thank goodness they had the opportunity to record special features with him in time.

    • Bobby Fackrell

      January 31st, 2020 - 9:26pm

      So sad

      Watched the Fenric documentary and they fondly recalled how much he loved doing it.

      Remarkable man, I loved that he still did ‘Just a minute’ well into his mid 90s and was still as sharp as a pencil

      RIP x

  • Richard

    January 28th, 2020 - 2:33pm

    Received my copy of season 26 today from Amazon. Small bit of damage to the top left corner which is annoying. My copy of season 23 was also damaged from hmv. I guess I really should have just gone to Argos to get these. I’ve had so many items damaged in the post recently and they say online shopping is better…

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    January 28th, 2020 - 11:20am

    RIP Nicohlas Parsons

    Reply
  • The Ergon

    January 28th, 2020 - 11:20am

    Dear old Nicholas Parsons has died. 96. I was just watching the feature with him on yesterday.

    Reply
    • Gordon

      January 28th, 2020 - 11:33am

      One of the better performers in curse

      RIP

  • Things that go bump in the night

    January 28th, 2020 - 8:11am

    Amazon delivered yesterday and I had a look through some of it last night. I have to say, like the other sets, it’s a thing of beauty…

    I scanned through some of the new VAM and I have to say it certainly doesn’t disappoint. I enjoyed reading the essays on the included booklet too. Very informative.

    As an aside, I recall someone on these forums mentioning the disc trays coming dislodged from the back of the box and can pull the glue away…. I don’t have this issue, however, I did find – when placing Season 26 into my disc storage shelf yesterday – that the front of box flap for Season 23 had warped quite a bit with the top showing the warp the most (because, I suppose, the bottom is still in the J card). The warp is ‘outwards’ and it means that the front of box flap and the folded holder which contains the booklet have become separated despite the glue to hold them together. I looked at the other sets and they appear to be fine. Temperature and humidity in the disc storage room seem to measure fine. It’s not a big deal, but just a bit strange. Anyone else experienced this?

    Anyway, enjoy your Season 26 sets!

    Reply
    • Richard

      January 28th, 2020 - 2:36pm

      Yes my copy of season 23 is very warped also and the glue completely come away from the back. It’s a bit of a mess especially with the damage also.

  • Anonymous

    January 27th, 2020 - 10:36pm

    Was the spine art for season 23 a mistake that got through likely from rushing as it included the enemies and villains from the front art that the other seasons and now season 26 also omitted on the spine.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      January 28th, 2020 - 8:14am

      I believe so, oh well…

  • Things that go bump in the night

    January 27th, 2020 - 10:20pm

    Delivery from Amazon earlier this evening…. The new Season 26 set is a thing of beauty… Excellent essays too in the included booklet. Another winner!

    Reply

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