The Doctor Who TV movie is heading to Blu-ray, with extensive extras, on Monday the 19th of September...
Paul McGann's Doctor has enjoyed a relative surge in popularity with his starring turn in mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" and his Big Finish adventures giving him additional Doctor Who cred. Perhaps this is why we're getting a Blu-ray release of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, packed with extensive extras, to add to the Eighth Doctor collection.
Though the Doctor Who TV movie that introduced McGann as the Eighth Doctor did fairly well in the U.K. when it was released, it did terribly in the U.S. with only 5.6 million viewers tuning in at a time in TV history when that wasn't very good. However, in that time, the popularity of both Doctor Who as a franchise and McGann as a Doctor, have risen.
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This Blu-ray — which not only gives us McGann's introduction as the Doctor, but Sylvester McCoy's farewell — could be the thing we need to jumpstart the Eighth Doctor fandom. The "upscaled" version of the Doctor Who TV movie will be available on Blu-ray disc on September 19th, with a rather extensive list of extras...
Commentary tracks...
The Doctor Who TV movie Blu-ray will include two commentary tracks. The first will be from director Geoffrey Sax, as recorded in 2001. The second will be from McGann and McCoy, as moderated by Nicolas Briggs (aka voice of the Daleks and Cybermen) and recorded in 2009. For all of you music-lovers out there, there will be an option to view the TV movie with the isolated music soundtrack.
TV movie media context...
As a nerdy TV blogger, I am particularly looking forward to checking out the extras that have to do with the publicity and promotion of the Doctor Who TV movie — which obviously could have used some more of both to help get it off the ground in America.
The Blu-ray included a documentary called "Tomorrow's Times — The Eighth Doctor," which is a look at the contemporary coverage of the TV movie in newspapers and other publications. It also includes an electric press kit (a short documentary & some interviews) used by Fox in 1996 and sent out to other broadcasters for them to put together their own promotion about the movie. The Blu-ray also features the obligatory BBC trailers.
Behind-the-scenes...
What good is a commemorative Blu-ray without some fun behind-the-scenes features? The Doctor Who TV movie will include some on-set peeks into the filming of the movie in Vancouver, as well as Philip Segals'"Tour of the TARDIS."
Documentaries...
The Doctor Who TV movie Blu-ray is packed with Doctor Who documentaries. We've got "The Wilderness Years," about the period between the end of the classic series and the Doctor Who TV movie and how fans kept the story alive.
We also have "The Seven Year Hitch," which documents the return of Doctor Who to the screen. "The Doctor's Strange Love" has writers Joe Lidster and Simon Guerrier discussing the TV movie with comedian Josie Long, while "Who Peter, 1989-2009" is the second part of the documentary about the "special relationship" between Doctor Who and long-running British children's TV show Blue Peter.
A look at the special effects...
The TV and film special effects industry has changed a nearly incomprehensible amount since Doctor Who first appeared on TV screens in the 1960s. The Doctor Who TV movie has been part of that transition, which is what could potentially make the visual effects tests included on the Blu-ray fasinating.
The Blu-ray includes two tests: The first, from June 1994, is early video effects tests from Amblin Imaging featuring the "Spider Dalek" design. The second, from March 1996, is video effects presented as mute, time-coded "work-in-progress" shots from the CGI department. Yes, this is probably for the Doctor Who fan more specifically interested in visual effects, but it's a fun feature to see included on the Blu-ray nonetheless.
More extras...
Elsewhere on the Blu-ray, we've got Paul McGann's audition tape for the Eighth Doctor, alternate takes from the film, and the obligatory photo gallery.
The Blu-ray will also include "The Night of the Doctor," the mini-episode released in the run-up to the show's 50th anniversary episode, "The Day of the Doctor," which features McGann's second on-screen appearance as The Doctor in what is an all-around good mini-story. "Stripped for Action — The Eighth Doctor" looks at the Eighth Doctor's adventures in comic-strip form because that is a thing that exists.
Finally, we have four music tracks from the TV movie presented in full: "In a Dream,""All Dressed Up,""Ride into the Moonlight," and "Auld Lang Syne."
And, if you are the type to have this affect your decision, here's what the box will look like, with art from Lee Binding...
That release date again is Monday the 19th of September 2016.
