More 2013 Doctor Who DVD news

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine confirms the DVD releases for the first part of 2013.

So that's how Shada's coming out on
DVD...

Next year's release schedule will begin on 7 January with The Legacy Box, containing the unfinished story Shada and Kevin Davies' 1994 documentary More than 30 Years in the TARDIS. Recording began for Tom Baker serial Shada in 1979, with the intention to air the story in 1980. However, after all the location filming in Cambridge and one of the three planned studio sessions had been completed, industrial strike action forced the remainder of the production to be abandoned. After months of speculation, the magazine confirms that the DVD will be a restored version of the 1992 VHS release, which featured narration and in-vision links by Tom Baker to summarise the missing material. North American DVD website TV Shows on DVD lists a "Flash version" among the special features, referring to the 2003 webcast of Big Finish's Paul McGann version of the story (still available to view on the BBC's website). However, it is understood that this will be computer-oriented DVD-ROM content, not viewable on a lot of DVD players. Released straight to VHS in 1994, More than 30 Years in the TARDIS is an extended version of 30 Years in the TARDIS, which was broadcast the previous year to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Doctor Who.

Animation brings the two missing
episodes of The Reign of Terror back
to life.

Later that month, on 28 January, the 1964 William Hartnell story The Reign of Terror will be released. The fourth and fifth episodes of the six-part finale of Doctor Who's first series are missing from the BBC's archives, so they are represented here by brand-new animation by Theta-Sigma, using off-air soundtrack recordings. This will be the first time that missing episodes have been reconstructed in this manner since the Patrick Troughton serial The Invasion was released on DVD in 2006.




On 18 February, the 1975 Tom Baker story The Ark in Space will be re-released on DVD as a Special Edition title. In addition to sporting brand new special features, the restoration of the story will be improved over the 2002 release, as that original DVD did not make use of a bit of restoration kit called the Transform PAL Decoder (this is now the only colour story from 1963-1989 for which this is the case).

1964's William Hartnell story The Aztecs will also be re-released on 11 March. As with The Ark in Space, more special features will be included, along with a new restoration of the serial to take advantage of the significant advances in restoration technology since the original DVD release in 2002. Most significantly, this release will include Air Lock, the third episode of the 1965 story Galaxy 4, which was discovered in 2011 after being missing from the archives for decades previously.

The magazine also reveals two releases for June 2013. One of these is 1975's Terror of the Zygons, which will complete the Tom Baker era on DVD. The other is a Blu-ray release of Jon Pertwee's first story, 1970's Spearhead from Space. This was the only Doctor Who story to be shot entirely on film between 1963 and 1989, so a high definition transfer is possible. The Blu-ray will also include two exclusive features. A Dandy and a Clown: The Life of Jon Pertwee will be a biography of the third actor to play the Doctor, produced and directed by Chris Chapman, while a tribute to the late Caroline John (who played companion Liz Shaw in this story and the rest of Season Seven) will also be presented.

There is one classic release remaining for 2012. The DVD range continues with the Special Edition re-release of The Claws of Axos on 22 October, while the recently-broadcast first part of Series Seven will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 29 October.

Sources: Doctor Who Magazine, TV Shows on DVD, Chris Chapman, Steve Manfred