2011 DVD's announced! (And I for one am not happy)

New DVD releases

So firstly we have Terror of the Autons at double the price because you have to re-buy Spearhead From Space to have the pleasure of owning it.

Secondly we have the much-anticipated release of Ambassadors of Death (Insert TWANG if desired) lumbered with the not-so anticipated release of he Sun Makers. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't released under the title of 'Set within a billion light years of each other' box set.

I'm not even sure I'll buy the latter, while I do like the extras I'm not willing to buy another DVD just for the sake of having them. Plenty of Terror DVD's will pop up on ebay.

Not cool 2 Entertain, and this is coming from someone who supports and enjoys the releases. We didn't have any of this crap when they were linked to Woolworths.

That does seem rather money-grabbing of them. Especially Ambassadors boxed with Sun Makers. I mean, c'mon: that link isn't even tenuous - just totally cynical and non-existent.

Indeed.

On the plus side, Planet of the Spiders, probably my most wanted DVD release since The Deadly Assassin.

Well Planet is fair enough. But that still doesn't excuse this ridiculous trend of bunging unconnected stories together in a boxset just to levy a higher profit out of us poor sods fans.

Ultimately, they run the risk of driving a lot of potential buys to seek out those releases by "other means".

Agreed, it's not encouraging, is it. Especially when you consider the fact that other means are very easy to do. 'The Solar-System' set is a pile of bollocks though. As is Earthstory. 'Stories set on Earth' could be about 75% of all Doctor Who.

I'm almost surprised that the Auton set doesn't include a re-release of Rose and The Pandorica Opens too.

"Earthstory" is the most ludicrous package I've ever heard of!

Day of the Daleks is the only 2011 DVD I'm intending to buy upon release, and that isn't coming till the end of the year.

Prices of things such as Myths & Legends aren't really reducing either, so my DVD library will not be growing in size much in the next 12 months.

Myths and legends for £30 is a joke. I bought 3 series of Deep Space Nine for that and the latter has considerably more content (and considering the stories in M&L the quality of the DS9 episodes were better too.)

Give them time- they'll probably release a second Auton set just to include those stories.

At least with the single releases you had the choice of being able to cherry-pick what you wanted/needed/were interested in. This proliferation of question boxset releases benefits no one. Well, except 2 Entertains accountants. But as we're agreed, that could so easily backfire on them in the long run.

Hmmm...perhaps this question actually merits a poll to give us a clearer view of how others feel about the subject?

Will set one up then

This thread now comes as a special edition with a poll, however it's been released with a previously unreleased thread.

Excellent, young Modster!

I'm dying to own The Gunfighters, but aren't that arsed that it comes in a box with the Awakening.

No real matter, though - good shopping around can get you whatever box sets you want for the price of a single disc in WHSmith. I say good shopping around, but you need go no further than Amazon.

Doctor Who: Revisitations Box Set £22.49
Doctor Who - The Cybermen Box Set 15.49
Doctor Who - Kamelion Tales 13.49
Doctor Who - Myths And Legends 22.99
Doctor Who - The Space Museum/The Chase 15.49
Doctor Who - Peladon Tales 15.49
Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set 29.49
Doctor Who - Dalek War 15.49
Doctor Who - The Black Guardian Trilogy 15.93
Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy 11.93
Doctor Who : Bred for War 12.49
Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface 10.93
Doctor Who : The Davros Collection 36.79
Doctor Who - New Beginnings 8.49

To be honest I'm more upset about the latest new series boxsets. I bought them mainly for the commentaries and if the commentaries aren't on every episode... I haven't bought the Specials or Series Five yet. Is it correct that the ones on series 5 are those awful distracting and generally unbearable 'in-vision' commentaries? Plus the extras have never been very good since the ones about modelmaking on the series one set (Deconstructing Big Ben being my favourite).

Those amazon prices do look very tempting Rich.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:"Earthstory" is the most ludicrous package I've ever heard of!

Yeah, that's not much of a set concept. Coming soon, "DoctorSerials"...a boxset of stories that have The Doctor in them!

andrea wrote:Is it correct that the ones on series 5 are those awful distracting and generally unbearable 'in-vision' commentaries?

I haven't checked any of the commentaries. But taking a glance at the box, it does say they're "in-vision", yep.

andrea wrote:To be honest I'm more upset about the latest new series boxsets. I bought them mainly for the commentaries and if the commentaries aren't on every episode... I haven't bought the Specials or Series Five yet. Is it correct that the ones on series 5 are those awful distracting and generally unbearable 'in-vision' commentaries? Plus the extras have never been very good since the ones about modelmaking on the series one set (Deconstructing Big Ben being my favourite).

Andrea, with Series 5, I'm afraid not only do they have commentaries as "in vision," they only have them on six episodes for the whole series.

Disc 1: The Eleventh Hour
Disc 2: Victory of the Daleks & The Time of Angels
Disc 3: The Vampires of Venice
Disc 4: Cold Blood
Disc 5: The Big Bang

Like you, I'm not a fan of the "in vision" mini-screen. I much prefered the audio commentaries on every episode that featured guest actors, special effects folks, directors, producers and main cast. That mini screen doesn't do much for me to enhance the viewing experience. I thought it was a bad idea when they attempted it with the Box Set for Series 2, and I'd hoped it was scrapped back in 2006 as a bad idea.

Patrick wrote:Like you, I'm not a fan of the "in vision" mini-screen. I much prefered the audio commentaries on every episode that featured guest actors, special effects folks, directors, producers and main cast. That mini screen doesn't do much for me to enhance the viewing experience. I thought it was a bad idea when they attempted it with the Box Set for Series 2, and I'd hoped it was scrapped back in 2006 as a bad idea.

About sums up my opinion as well.

Probably shan't buy The Complete Specials or Series Five then. I've put all the episodes and all the Confidentials on to DVDs. Usually I then buy the sets when they get cheaper come out but it's hard to motivate oneself to do that when it feels as though what one liked (in addition to the episodes!) has been removed.

I'll be able to spend my money on some of those old series DVDs (trying to get johnstone's thread back on track...)

I can't seem to summon up any strong feelings about the release news but I voted for option 3 as having Terror of the Autons in with Spearhead from Space is rather annoying for those with little spare cash. To be fair, I suppose it is also annoying to have Gunfighters in with Awakening and so on for those who don't want both. Then again, there are people who want vanilla type releases at a cheaper price or series boxsets - I've seen both suggested - so where do you draw the line?

Well, I haven't got a DVD later than 2009 (I've just got The Keys of Marinus through the door), so it probably won't affect me for another couple of years, but I have to say I'm more perplexed than annoyed. I assume that Earth History/Solar System has been done for financial rather than artistic reasons (because if it is done for artistic reasons, there's someone at 2:Entertain that's stark raving bonkers) but I don't understand the logic. Earth History is especially confusing as both stories have logical boxset partners. Is it to provoke completists from one era to shell out money for the other?

I can't say I'm annoyed about the Spearhead/Terror package. They belong together and I look forward to the upgrade.

Still, the stories of 2011 absolute kick those of 2010 into orbit.

No tenuous links in boxsets for me, and that's how I voted. As for 2in-vision" commentaries. No thanks. Feel free to brand me as a traditionalist if you must - but I want to listen to commentaries as as I'm watching the action on the screen. And only the action.

Johnstone McGuckian wrote:Secondly we have the much-anticipated release of Ambassadors of Death (Insert TWANG if desired) lumbered with the not-so anticipated release of he Sun Makers. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't released under the title of 'Set within a billion light years of each other' box set.

Bollocks is the Sunmakers not anticipated: I've been looking forward to its release for years and it ranks as one of my top ten classic era stories. It's a good job that, for all its faults I like Ambassadors of Death as well, and would agree that their paring is a tad strange (although thinking about it, the mannered acting of Ronald Allen, nor the variable accent of whoever it was playing Taltalian wouldn't look at all out of place in the Sunmakers).

There are some bizarre pairings there! But it's no matter as I won't be getting them until they become really cheap whether together or not, and then the pairing box goes in a cupboard and the stories fit in chronologically amongst the others. Is it really more expensive to buy two stories in one release? The Mutants and The Ark are RRP £19.99 each whilst Mara Tales is RRP £29.99, which makes the latter better value. Although I appreciate if you don't want all the stories, and just want one of the two in a multipack, then that's no good.

Looking at the news today it would appear that we're paying an extra fiver for an extract of a Fleetwood Mac track re-inserted.

I don't care about authenticity that!

Johnstone McGuckian wrote:Looking at the news today it would appear that we're paying an extra fiver for an extract of a Fleetwood Mac track re-inserted.

As well as two new documentaries, a new commentary and a new restoration.