Talk:The Appliance of Science (home video)

Was this actually licensed and officially released?

I have to call into question the matter of whether or not this was licensed. It was, after all, a corporate video made for and meant only to be played behind closed doors. We know from the folks who worked on Devious that Pertwee was open to reprising his role as the Doctor for a fee, even when the project in question wasn't actually overseen by the BBC or licensed in any manner. Do we have any evidence to show that this was infact a licensed appearance of the Doctor?

Further to that, there is of course the issue of T:OFF REL to contend with. I cannot find any listing of this video having been included on a DVD or VHS release. Indeed, the only copy I can find of this is on a YouTube channel dedicated to uploading TV archival clips they've recovered.

Most of the adverts we've covered on the Wiki have been released via official online channels (the BF Christmas advert, Meet the Thirteenth Doctor), or been released on an official DVD or Bluray release (Prime Computer adverts, Superannuation, the Sky Ray advert), or come from a business venture that is obviously clear in its licensed nature. (Denys Fisher figure advert, the Character Options adverts, Who on HORROR's repeat season)

This, on the other hand, seems to be in the same level of presumption as the Vodafone adverts Pertwee starred in - but without even the solidness of an intended public showing. JDPManjoume ☎ 11:51, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

Hm. Well, if it was licensed, then I don't think T:OFF REL is necessarily an issue. It's not like it's waiting on an official release, so we'd just cover it as that peculiar edge-case of {{invalid}} and/or {{unprod}} already represented on the Wiki by Journey into Time (and which we have resolved to apply to to Absent Friends, although I see its page has not been created yet). But yeah, would appreciate more research into its licensing status. Surely this has been documented in DWM or some trustworthy fanzine?

Not sure this is an advert in any case, though. It was produced as an in-house corporate video, yea? If that is so, then it's not really advertising the company at all. Indeed, if it were fully licensed and officially released, then I see no reason this couldn't be valid. I won't remove the invalid tag now, though, since it appears that this story will at best be covered-as-invalid like Journey. Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 12:41, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

A fair point regarding T: OFF REL. And I guess it is far more accurate to consider an in-house corporate video than an advert, yes.

Well, regarding finding any history on it... it's not mentioned in any section of the DWM 40th anniversary index mini-magazine (that came with the 40th anniversary issue of DWM - that's DWM 544), and given that Jo Hillman was comprehensive and thorough enough on that to include listings of issues that had mentioned things as niche as The Empress of Othernow... I'd be surprised if she had missed any notable mention of this.

So that would mean no notable mention of Zanussi until then (17 October 2019) in DWM. The clip coincidentally surfaced on that YouTube channel just a few days later on 23 October.

But just to cover myself, and also to check for any instances that could've occurred since, the DWM app rather handily allows you to search all of their digitised purchasable issues for a search term (An underrated feature that I've grown to appreciate about going digital with them!). 'Zanussi' raises three results - all prior to this clip being uploaded - in DWM 458, 468 & 479.

458 is a quote from Mat Irvine about how he won a recipe competition run by them. 468 lifts that quote for use in a Christmas Quiz question. (they often do it in their Christmas Quizzes...) And 479 is mentioning it in a Time Heist review as the brand of washing machine that Clara has.

So it doesn't seem to have ever made any mention in DWM. Fanzines is a more complicated matter to pin down, but for what it's worth, doing a Google search for any results for "Doctor Who Zanussi" with a search filter to show only results from before the 23 of October 2019... brings up nothing related at all, and neither does "Doctor Who Zanussi Pertwee". I can't find anything on it from before that YouTube channel uploaded it. So at present, I'm not personally convinced we have any reasonable assurance at all about it being licensed. JDPManjoume ☎ 13:17, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

Oh, I wasn't expecting any information from before two years ago, but rather, coverage of the minor brouhaha caused by the video's resurfacing on YouTube. Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 13:20, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

I see. Well, in that case, I can be clear in saying - nope, nothing in DWM about it whatsoever since. And I've not seen any fan publications discuss it at all at length, nevermind researching it to determine if it was licensed. All the results I've found have been fan blogs and forum posts with people questioning the content of the video. JDPManjoume ☎ 13:27, 31 May 2021 (UTC)