Promotional 40th Anniversary Disc
The Collection
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Doctor Who: The Collection is an ongoing series of Blu-ray boxsets. Each set collects a season from Doctor Who.
Set description
UK releases
Sets were released in the UK as "Doctor Who: The Collection" followed by the season number.
For the initial Collector's Edition release, each set came in identical cardboard packaging, with artwork displaying the Doctor superimposed by villains from the season on the front and a notable moment from the season on the back. The spine of each box featured clean artwork of the Doctor's face from the cover (except season 23 and the early 2020 re-release of season 12 where due to an oversight the villains were added by mistake, and season 8 and season 24 where the top of the Master and Chief Caretaker are visible), the Blu-ray, BBC and Doctor Who logos, the words "The Collection", the season number and another BBC logo at the bottom.
Opening the box reveals the discs, which each have an image featuring characters from the specific story, and are stored in a flippable disc tray stuck to the right side of the interior. Behind the disc tray is an image of the face of the relevant Doctor, which can be seen by removing the last disc.
On the left side of the box interior, there is an openable card case, which is sealed with plastic Velcro and opens horizontally. The front of this case features artwork with the TARDIS, taken from a memorable or significant moment from the season. Behind this cover is another piece of artwork, with the type of artwork varying from season to season. Some seasons, such as 12 and 19, used a montage of the main characters from the season. Usually though, they featured another memorable or significant moment from the season. This artwork is on two flaps, which open out vertically. Stored underneath is a booklet, which featured the same artwork as the vertical flaps. This booklet contained an introduction to the season, lists of special features and a detailed article on each story, along with various images. This booklet is tucked in front of a small diorama of the TARDIS console room from the season.
The box has a cardboard wrap, called a J-card, which helps protect the box from wear and tear. The back of the J-card is the same height as the box, while the front and sides are about a quarter of the height. The back of the J-card features a description of the season, a list of new special features and technical specifications. The J-card can be removed and optionally discarded, revealing the cover unencumbered by branding, logos or text. The spine of the J-card features the season number, the BBFC age rating and the BBC logo.
Due to authoring errors, replacement discs were made available for seasons 12 and 18 to correct audio mixing issues. Reissues of these sets included the replacement discs.
In 2021, BBC Studios started releasing reissues of sets in standard Blu-ray packaging. These come in a standard 22mm-thick Bluray case designed to accommodate the number of discs in the set with a cover showing the clean artwork and cardboard slipcase showing the logos and text. These releases come with an abridged booklet.
Australian releases
In Australia, the logo and cover text were reduced in size to accommodate the Australian age rating on the front cover. The Season 12 and 19 releases matched that of the UK Collectors Edition releases, minus the J-card, which was slightly different. Subsequent releases, starting with season 18, were put out in a slipcase style, with a grey sleeve replacing the interior card case, resulting in a loss of several pieces of artwork.
US releases
In the US, sets typically release a few months after the UK release, with the exception of seasons 12, 19 and 18 which were released closer to, or in some cases before, the UK release.
Each set was numbered based on the actor playing the Doctor - for example, season 12 was released in the US as "Doctor Who: Tom Baker Complete Season One". These sets come in standard Blu-ray packaging, however varied widths are used depending on the number of discs when compared to the UK standard packaging reissues.
The discs were slightly different all simply showing the cover art instead of individualised art per disc, and with a small number of special features absent due to rights issues. Seasons 12, 19 and 18 were originally released with card slipcases, however no slipcase was included with the release of season 10 onward, and reissues of seasons 12, 19 and 18 also did not include slipcases. No booklets or additional physical materials were included with the US release, with the exception of a single double-sided paper listing the special features on each disc included in Seasons 12 and 18.
Similar to the classic series DVD range in the US, cover art for the US releases was not always consistent - the font size for the actor's name on the cover and spine has been shown at various sizes, becoming noticeably smaller following the release of season 26 (Sylvester McCoy's name being the longest of the classic series actors to play the Doctor, requiring a reduction in font size that was not changed back for later releases). The Doctor Who logo has been shown at differing sizes and occasionally with an irregular dropshadow effect, and the back cover text is seldom uniform. While UK releases typically show the Doctor without the enemies that appear in the season, US sets simply crop the existing cover art.
For Season 10, Jon Pertwee's face was reversed on the US cover - when the set was initially announced in the UK and the cover art revealed, someone on Twitter asked cover artist Lee Binding if he'd noticed Pertwee's face was reversed. Binding had not, and corrected the issue for the UK and Australian sets. However, the US version of the set did not use the corrected artwork, despite being a couple of months after the UK Release which had it fixed, resulting in Pertwee's face remaining flipped on the front cover.
For season 18, the disc for Logopolis erroneously contains the rehearsal scripts for Earthshock instead of the scripts for this story. This error is not present in the UK or Australian releases.
For season 22, the original cover art has been artificially extended vertically with the addition of a colour-matched grey-blue space above the Sixth Doctor's head. This was odd as the original artwork would have had enough headroom to justify the Doctor Who logo, it is presumed the cover designers weren't supplied with the full artwork.
As with the UK releases, disc replacements were made available for seasons 12 and 18, and reissues included the replacement discs.
Content
Each set contains every serial from the season in question, along with most of the previous bonus content produced for the DVD range. These specials, like the show itself, are upscaled. Additionally, new features such as Behind the Sofa are produced in HD, and where possible previously unreleased versions of serials, such as the omnibus edition of Genesis of the Daleks, are included as well.
Occasionally, material from the standalone DVD releases of serials is moved to a particular season release if it is deemed a more appropriate fit. For example, Tomorrow's Times: The Sixth Doctor, originally included on the Vengeance on Varos Special Edition DVD, was included instead on the Bluray release of Season 23. Most notably, Coming Soon trailer for at-the-time forthcoming DVD releases of serials have been moved to the disc for the preceding story. For example, the trailer for The E-Space Trilogy box set, originally included on the DVD release for Battlefield, is included in the Season 18 set on the disc for Meglos.
In some cases, visual effects have been improved - improved exterior shots of the Pharos Project were used to replace models in some instances, including brand-new location shots filmed using drones. As with such improvements on the DVD range, these changes are optional and can be enabled or disabled at will. Serials have also been remixed in 5.1 surround where possible.
Occasionally, relevant additional material is included. For instance, season 18 also included K9 and Company, having aired in the gap between seasons 18 and 19, and season 19 included Time Crash. Notably, Season 17 included the 2017 animated reconstruction of Shada, split into six separate episodes as opposed to its initial feature-length release.
A promotional DVD was released in DWM 544 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the magazine. It featured shortened cuts of selected bonus material from previous boxsets, as well as an exclusive bonus feature, "Doctor Who: Messages From Space".
Marketing
Starting with season 19, the second set released in the collection, BBC Video began producing short videos promoting the upcoming release. This initially began with a tongue-in-cheek airline safety video presented by Tegan Jovanka, and eventually evolved into videos such as Jo Grant Returns (Hello Boys! ) and Ace Returns (The Promise), which depict present-day adventures with the characters that hark back to the adventures contained in the sets they were produced to market.
In the US, the release of Tom Baker - Complete Season One was marked with a screening of the aforementioned omnibus edition of Genesis of the Daleks in theatres across the country. The release of Tom Baker - Complete Season Seven was similarly promoted with an omnibus screening of Logopolis, demonstrating the revised visual effects. Both screenings featured exclusive bonus content after the showing, and were organised by Fathom Events in partnership with BBC Studios.
Release & reception
In the UK, the initial Collector's Edition releases of each Collection set would sell out almost immediately, resulting in a high resale value. Season 12 was reissued, with near identical packaging and contents (the only changes being that the set was marked as a second edition on the bottom of the J-card and slightly altered artwork on the spine), in 2020. This too sold out incredibly quickly.
Sets would also sell out quickly in Australia, where, beginning with season 18, standard slipcase-packaged versions were released alongside the specially-packaged versions. As sets were more readily available in the US and were often more affordable, collectors who missed the chance to buy in the UK and Australia often resorted to importing their sets from the US. After the UK sets had sold out, both Amazon UK and Amazon Australia listed the US sets more readily.
In 2021, the BBC announced reissues of simpler packaging with a standard slipcase, starting with seasons 12 and 19. These reissues included a "condensed" booklet and the same disc content (although a typo in the end credits of Meglos was corrected on the Season 18 set), and were released on 31 May. They later announced similar reissues for seasons 10 and 18, scheduled for release slightly over a month later on 5 July, and more seasons have been re-released since. According to the BBC, the plan was to continue to release the specially-packaged editions, but to rebrand them as "Doctor Who: The Collection Limited Edition Packaging". This branding became the standard as of the release of Season 8.
Published titles
An additional promotional DVD was released in DWM 544 on 17 October 2019 as part of the magazine's 40th anniversary, though it is not part of the official 'The Collection' boxset run.
Cover gallery
UK Limited Edition releases
Promotional 40th Anniversary Disc
