Pieces of Eight (in North America!)
May 1996: The Doctor Who TV movie starring Paul McGann and featuring a TARDIS console room that has been the source of pleasurable dreams for sad fans who weren’t turned on by McGann airs on FOX (and later that month on the BBC). It does okay-ish ratings but gets passed to go to series by FOX, who decides to renew Sliders instead.
Late 1996: The VHS version, already released in the UK in May, is talked about getting a North American release. Some American SF magazines even review the release in the issue coincident with the alleged release date. It isn’t released.
1999: There’s a rumour that it might get released or even air on TV to coincide with the millennium vibe going on. It doesn’t.
2001: The DVD comes out in Britain on Region 2. It’s got a commentary by Geoffrey Sax and the FOX Electronic Press Kit and a couple of deleted scenes. Nothing to write home about, but…they have it. And North Americans don’t.
2000s: The only way to see the TV Movie on DVD is to buy it in Region 2 and use a multi-region player. The division of rights on the project between the BBC and Universal means that Universal has exploitation rights for video in North America. Which they refuse to use.
2010: Holy Smoke! Universal and 2 Entertain have come to an agreement and the Special Edition of the TV Movie is coming to North America!. Took them long enough…
Posted by Graeme on Wednesday, August 25 at 9:26 am
8 Comments...
I know it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I for one am glad to finally see the film being made available over here. It’s still an important part of the franchise’s history, it introduced us to Paul McGann’s Doctor (who went on to thrive in the audio dramas for more than a decade and who technically features in more stories and novels than any other Doctor - add them up and compare the numbers if you don’t believe me), and, let’s not forget, this was mostly a Canadian production, shot in Vancouver. The odds of that happening again are pretty slim. Plus, I believe this will be (for us anyway) the last story to feature Sylvester McCoy to be released to DVD, and I’d rather have this be the last one released than Time and the Rani!
Posted by Alex on 08/25 at 04:05 PM
I thought pigs would fly and hell would freeze over before this was ever released on DVD in NA.
THIS IS BLOODY AWESOME!!
BTW BBC make sure to adjust the speed for NTSC playback.
Posted by Ryan on 08/26 at 09:37 AM
Early reports suggest that unfortunately it will come from the UK master and therefore will be 3% speeded up. Argh.
Posted by Graeme on 08/26 at 10:01 AM
I am definately glad it is finally becoming available as far as collecting Doctor Who DVD’s go. It definately wasn’t great but not horrible. I do have a confession to make however and some may think I am crazy. If it was up to me, I would have made Christopher Eccelston the 8th Doctor and would not even acknowledge this movie as official Who. As far as I am concerned it should be filed with the Peter Cushing Movies.
Posted by Doug Grandy on 08/26 at 10:06 AM
This is the first I’ve heard of a speed issue. Is this a problem with other Doctor Who releases? I’ve never noticed, personally. I can’t imagine this happening since the Doctor Who Restoration Team is behind the release and they’re quite thorough when it comes to making sure things synch up. Or so I thought!
Posted by Alex on 08/26 at 10:36 AM
Alex, the standard for playback of programs made on film in the UK are at 25 frames per second instead of 24. This results in most american series to sound slightly high pitched. It doesn’t affect other Who because its a) mostly video and b) natively shot at 25 fps. The masters for the TV movie are the upcoverted 24 to 25. I have no idea why.
Posted by graeme on 08/26 at 10:57 AM
I don’t think most viewers will notice. Without giving the gory details, back when I thought we’d never see the TVM on DVD, I, er, reversed the polarity of the neutron flow and obtained a magical copy of the UK DVD and I didn’t notice anything, not even in the opening theme and I’m usually pretty sensitive to speed ups and slow downs in music. So it might not be an issue this time around. I remember reading back when TNG and DS9 episodes were being released on VHS in the UK prior to their broadcast over there that people were complaining about the noticeable speed-ups. But I also was under the impression that this had been rectified once DVDs began to appear over there…
Posted by Alex on 08/30 at 01:09 PM
That’s great that it is coming to DVD here! I thought it would never be released here and I was considering buying a UK copy. Well, not no more!:)
Oh BTW, CHCH did show the the TV Movie New years 1999 and is was great to watch it that New Years.
Posted by Sean on 09/06 at 06:51 PM
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