How did I get into Doctor Who? I blame the Science Fiction Book Club, which offered a 3-in-1 hardcover of Target novelizations. Just as I was devouring those Terence Dicks novels, which was pretty much a greatest hits of Doctor Who monsters — Cybermen, Sontarans, and Daleks — Channel 54 in San Jose started showing Series 12. That was the Doctor featured in the novels, the beginning of the Tom Baker years.
So though I can’t get my son particularly interested in the Fourth Doctor (he prefers the Seventh) from the classic series, Baker is my Doctor. The way he first said “Brigadier” still echoes in my head. And encountering Davros for the first time admittedly doesn’t stick in my memory as strongly as a Sontaran warrior hissing “alike, yes, identical, NO!”
I’ve resisted buying classic Doctor Who DVDs, but the BBC archivists know how to get me. This June, they will be releasing [amazon text=Series 12 specially restored for Blu-Ray&asin=B079PT1N7W]. How’s that going to look? I’m betting pretty sharp. Or at least, my mind will sharpen it. Six discs with all the episodes that forged my lifelong love of Doctor Who, though I admit that I had seen an episode or two with Jon Pertwee.
[amazon template=image&asin=B079PT1N7W]
What’s included? Everything I could want — including an attempt to update the special effects on ‘Revenge of the Cybermen.’ (I’m glad that it’s just the one — it will be interesting to see if it works.)
- Existing bonus material from the original DVD’s
- Brand new one hour interview – ‘Tom Baker in conversation
- Behind The Sofa – classic clips from season 12 viewed by Tom Baker, Philip Hinchcliffe, Louise Jameson, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Sadie Miller
- New making-of documentaries for ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ and ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’
- Optional brand new updated special effects for Revenge of the Cybermen
- Genesis of the Daleks – omnibus movie version
- The Tom Baker Years VHS release on disc for the first time
- Production archive material and scripts from the BBC Archives
- Some other archive treats to be announced
This set will be released on June 19, 2018, but you can pre-order now by clicking on the links above!
