Dear 2Entertain...

[thisbluespirit]

... January is always a bleak time of year; 2011 does not promise to be better for many people than 2010, so thank you for so throughtfully starting the year by releasing those renowned classics Meglos, The Mutants and The Ark. That will jolly everything along!

Thank you also for the news that there are going to be further not-available-separately Revisitations box sets (even though if you had a buy-individually option, it would actually get you more money in the long run, and possibly the short run) and also I am very happy to hear that Terror of the Autons will finally be released this year, but can only be purchased by also buying Spearhead in Space. As for the boring idea of releasing the two Mara stories* together when compared to the that natural pairing of The Sun Makers and The Ambassadors in Space ('The Solar System' box-set), what can I say? (I'm not even mentioning the even more thoughtful pairing of The Gunfighters and The Awakening - 'Earth-Tales' - here.)

Could you really not have come up with anything to spice up the Frontios release? Surely you could have paired it with The Happiness Patrol under the title 'The Lesley Dunlop Tales'? #

lost_spook

(who is not getting at any of these stories, but, seriously, WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? And if some of those 'Revisitations' were single-releases, I would buy them for their shiny extras. *sighs again over The TV Movie* Plus, I want The Happiness Patrol and Greatest Show, because now my video player has broken.)


*Okay, if this was the January release, I would be out there with my Christmas money, so happy I would not be writing this, but that's sort of what I mean. I want options, and box-sets should not come with a tenuous 'spot the connection' theme!)

(Yes, DWM arrived. If anyone wants more details on the 2Entertain list, or shiny extras on the re-releases, I will look when I've stopped hitting myself over the head with a rolled up copy of the magazine. Seriously, how can this not be obvious to people? Some people only like one era of the show! And, yes, they should be made to appreciate it all, of course, but... not like this.)

#ETA: Actually, this would have made me laugh so hard, I'd love it. Plus, Happiness Patrol...

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Bwuh?!

In unrelated DVD news, I've ordered the first season of 'House of Eliot'... Not that I've got any more time to watch it than I have to watch Inspector Alleyn, or indeed The Guardian... *sighs*

[thisbluespirit]

There will come a day when you can! *fingers crossed*

Still, you are not missing out on any interesting DW releases in the meantime - the Mara box-set isn't till March. And while I quite like The Ark, and probably shouldn't comment on the other two, as I haven't seen them, the only thing that even sparks my interest is their sneaky trick of putting a Jacqueline Hill tribute documentary on Meglos.

Yay, HoE! I cannot help but love it even now. :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I hope so - though I'm beginning to have serious doubts about the boss ever coming back - or if he does, that I'll be compos mentis when the time comes!

Watching HoE will be a serious blast from the past!

[pitry.livejournal.com]

I'm still waiting for them to release The Time Monster without Nimon.

I mean, really. NIMON. WHY?!

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. I would rather get my hands on Nimon than The Time Monster, so was stymied for the opposite reason! (I think Nimons sounds kind of fun. The Time Monster sounds as if it might be sort of embarrassing in places.)

Either way, the mad decision that any old pairing will make a nice box-set is getting beyond me!

[pitry.livejournal.com]

NOOOOOOO.

Nimon LIES!

I tried watching it in the height of my Tom Baker love and couldn't finish the serial. It was THAT bad. :P

[infinitejoys.livejournal.com]

The true abomination of that set is UNDERWORLD.

(The Time Monster is sort of embarrassing in places, but it's so cracky, I don't care.)

[thisbluespirit]

I actually kind of like Underworld. :-D

(Hey, we could buy this set between the three of us happily, in that case...! :lol:)

[paranoidangel]

I really must get round to joining an online video rental thing again soon because some of those I'd like to see the extras/commentaries on, but don't want to own.

Although what these people don't consider when they come up with the names for the extras, is that they're only explained in the box - and online DVD rentals don't come with the box.

I liked The Ark and Terror of the Autons and Spearhead from Space.

[thisbluespirit]

I like the Ark, but it is not top of my list for must-get releases! I love Spearhead From Space, but I don't really want to have to buy it for a second time in order to get my hands on the long-awaited Terror of the Autons, which I have never seen and so want to - first ep for Jo, Yates and the Master! (I am not so miffed about that one, as Spearhead was an early release and might have some tempting extras, but even so, it's a bit of a cheek, when you don't have the option of buying them separately. They seem to be assuming that DW fans will just buy anything loads of times over.)

[paranoidangel]

Ah, I didn't know they'd already released Spearhead From Space. If I'd really wanted Terror of the Autons enough to buy it and not Spearhead From Space, then I'd either see if someone's selling the one I want on ebay, or buy them both and sell the one I don't want on ebay.

I think the DVD releases are assuming that people are buying them anyway. Which isn't the case for people like me who rent them. If I really want to see the extras and am interested enough to listen to the commentary.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, but everyone's going to want the same one, pretty much, and no one's going to want the old edition of Spearhead. I wondered about that with the first Revisitations set, because I really do want The TV Movie (despite all), and I held off buying it in the hope they would finally do a commentary (or something) with Paul McGann on it, and now there's a release with a Sylvester and Paul commentary and all sorts, and I have to also rebuy Caves and Talons to get it. :-( *is miffed* (And some of the Caves extras sound enticing, but Talons... it was already a 2 disc release and there's nothing exciting on offer with the new one.)

Renting is probably a good idea, except the DW stuff is the ones I really would want to own if it all possible.

[infinitejoys.livejournal.com]

I will say that that we've been very lucky in R1, because what's been released as box sets in the UK recently have been released in the US separately (though our release of The Space Museum/The Chase lacks the Beatles :(). Hopefully that is a trend that will continue for us, because The Gunfighters and The Awakening? The Ambassadors of Death and The Sun Makers? It's like they drew random stories out of a hat.

And YES, Happiness Patrol and Greatest Show in the Galaxy need to be released. (And while I'm here let's throw in The Daemons, too.)

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I'd quite liked some of the box-sets - they were cheaper that way, in the end, if you wnated them all, and I understood things like Trial, the Key to Time and other releases, but this is getting completely random. I still can't buy The Invisible Enemy because I don't particularly want K9 and Company, too. I was reasonably happy to buy Revenge of the Cybermen and Silver Nemesis, but there must have been quite a lot of people who wouldn't have been!

Yes. I'm very happy to see the remaining Five stories I've been missing, although it does seem a bit uneven - that must be all of his now? (Kinda, Snakedance, Frontios and The Awakening are all on the list.)

Hartnell is Frowning!

[derekmetaltron.livejournal.com]

Good. freaking. grief. And I thought I was spent moaning at them after what I had to put up with the Series 5 Boxset (No deleted scenes, Time of Angels split in HALF on two discs, only SIX commemataries in the derided Visual treatment, the music issue on Vincent and the Doctor, Confidential cut far too much out, not to mention the price they expected people to fork out after all that and STILL insanely priced) but some of these bite the cake. Whatever that even means.

Spearhead and Terror is no problem to me since I don't have the old copy - the only ones so far I seem I may need to repurchase are Resurrection, Androzani and Remembrance. But I'm laughing at the way they're trying to squeeze releases in now they have some sort of deadline, and why on Earth (Tales) are they having Gunfighters and Awakening together? Nevermind the fact that it would make way more sense for the latter to be with Frontios. Maybe we should have seen Myths and Legends as a bit of a sign...

At the end of the day this is weird, but the New Series 5 boxset grates me a LOT more.

Re: Hartnell is Frowning!

[thisbluespirit]

I'm beginning to feel a bit cynical about the whole thing, really...

Re: Hartnell is (Not Quite So) Frowning!

[derekmetaltron.livejournal.com]

Hm, perhaps you're right. I've just also learnt that it's going to be Three Doctors and not Varos in R3 as I suspected... which means that ANOTHER story I'm going to have to rebuy since I really like Tomb of the Cybermen and Robots of Death and don't own the old versions... that's four at the count now.

Signed up for a Facebook thing to see Vegenance on Varos released, possibly with Ark in Space and Aztecs redone too for a fourth Revisitations... granted none of those REALLY need revisiting bar perhaps Varos but I don't own any of them presently so it's no real biggie if they do or don't. Quite happy with the mass of Classic Who I've acquired lately (Dalek War Boxset, Key To Time Boxset, Beneath The Surface Boxset, War Games, all of Season 26) to be honest, so I can be sated for some time yet! :)

Actually wondering if in future I might not elect to getting as much of one Doctor's stories as possible sorted rather than the pick and mix I usually do. That or focus on boxsets. hm...

[john_amend_all]

I think I've managed to replicate how they allocated discs to box sets. It's come up with some interesting suggestions:

• The 'suspended animation' Box Set: The Curse of Fenric and The Silurians
• The 'transformed' Box Set: Castrovalva and The Tenth Planet
• The 'enticing' Box Set: The Smugglers, The Androids of Tara and Terror of the Autons
• The 'miles to go' Box Set: The Sensorites and The Claws of Axos
• The 'paranoia' Box Set: The Ribos Operation, Horror of Fang Rock and The Ultimate Foe
• The 'insane' Box Set: Attack of the Cybermen, Arc of Infinity and Underworld

... I couldn't possibly comment.

[thisbluespirit]

LOL You've let their secrets out! Oh, dear... that is pretty amusing.

Well, it would be more amusing if the actual boxsets weren't just as bizarre.

I think I need to find the actual email for 2Entertain or write to DWM, because this is just getting weird... Even for DW!

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Sensorites/Axos could also qualify under the "especially terrible monster suits" Box Set. ;-)

I just tried your link (which is massively amusing) and got this: The 'locked in a cell' Box Set: Terror of the Vervoids, An Unearthly Child and The Mark of the Rani

[ravenskyewalker.livejournal.com]

Well, it's funny -- I'm being a completist, so I bought "Dominators" and "Meglos" today at work, along with "Battlestar Galactica: The Plan," to take advantage of a Buy 2, Get the 3rd Free sale ("The Plan" was the free one, and it may be worth what I paid for it, not certain). I won't object to "The Mutants," because it's Pertwee, though it's not the best of his. (I pine for "Mind of Evil" and "The Daemons"... "Terror of the Autons" and "Planet of the Spiders" wouldn't be bad, either.)

But yeah, some of those 2Entertain choices are strange, and I hope that weird box sets are separate releases when they make it to the USA!

ETA -- yes, want "Happiness Patrol" and "Greatest Show in the Galaxy""! Please, people, hurry up with that...

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, like I said, don't get me wrong - I hope to own pretty much all stories one day, but I don't appreciate having to buy stories again to get other stories. If they weren't doing this, there are some of them that, individually, might tempt me because there are some nice new extras on offer, but the weird lack of connection between any of the selected stories is just mind-boggling now.

Now, if they had released Terror of the Automs, Mind of Evil and The Daemons together, one could see the logic. These (and the others we've had lately - The Time Monster, Horns of Nimon and Underworld; Silver Nemesis and Revenge of the Cybermen...) are just getting random.

It does sound like the US aren't getting the boxsets, though. Which, when they do nice ones, is also a shame, as they're cheaper that way when you do want them all, but erm..?! *shrugs*

[clocketpatch]

The Earth and sun stories are... uh... what?

And what's with the forcing you to buy episodes which have already been released to get Terror of the Autons? Are they thinking that will net them more money? face!palm

[thisbluespirit]

I don't know why they didn't come out and just call them 'we couldn't think of an actual connection box sets', but there you go. :-) I suppose i9t does at least continue the DW tradition of being random and weird.

They should start selling New Who seasons paired with old ones while they're at it...

I suppose Spearhead was one of those that would have been definitely up for a 'Revisitation' - and one that would tempt me to buy again, if shiny enough - but yes, it is a bit of a cheek. Maybe I am wronging them - maybe they will start making them available separately presently, but... erm... !?

[clocketpatch]

They should start selling New Who seasons paired with old ones while they're at it...

Speaking of that...

I don't know if this is a glitch unique to my boxset or if they're all like that, but okay, Doctor Who and the Silurians is a long episode yes? So it's split across two disks... and part two has an UNSKIPPABLE preview for Series 3.

D:

Dear 2Entertain, I do NOT want to have to sit through an unskippable prieview for something I already own mid-way through a story. D: D: D:

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: Oh, dear, yes, I think maybe you should have taken the DVD back - I don't remember that happening (but, of course, I might have been too distracted wondering when they were ever going to let Nicholas Courtney join the commentary...)