Survival released on DVD!

[Andrew Curnow]

I'm still waiting to find out whether the over-zealous Mr Ayres has 'corrected' the errors in the imminent "Logopolis" - ie, where Tegan stumbles over the word 'name' and where the Monitor gets stuck on 4242. We shall see...

[Si Hunt]

He probably actually plays Tegan now.

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

Why, Mark Ayres could have viewers leaping for the back of the couch, merely by putting his air hostess uniform on...

[Simon R]

I wonder if the cob web/snot has been edited out of Tom's nose on "Traken"?

[Andrew Curnow]

It would be a travesty of justice if it has, denying a whole generation of fans the chance to go 'euch'!

[Andrew Curnow]

Do we have any idea yet who the 'fan commentators' are? In the old days, it would be three anonymous somebodies, but almost certainly nowadays, they'll be Who fans with an online identity.

[Milky Tears]

Fan commentary info (posted by Daniel Hall from 2Entertain) just appeared on the RT Forum about five minutes ago:

http://www.rtforum.co.uk/read.php?id=182818

I'm getting quicker!

[Andrew Curnow]

Don't know any of those (unless one of them has a cunning online alias, like Milky Tears...). But what's the betting that Niall Boyce is the cause of at least one "Doctor Who?" gag on the commentary track.

[Pip Madeley]

Perhaps Boycie will be going on about Marlene.

[Pip Madeley]

Patience:

Classic series DVD release pushed back.

2entertain have advised that the DVD release date of the Seventh Doctor's final adventure, Survival, has been postponed by a fortnight.

The two-disc set will now hit the shelves on Monday 16 April 2006.

[Captain Tancredi]

They really need to start getting their scheduling and distribution sorted out, don't they? It hardly gives the impression of a professional outfit that they never seem to know what they're doing more than three months in advance, and when they do, they can't organise getting the discs pressed and ready for the shops so dates keep slipping.

That said, half the problem is that there's Easter in the middle. If Jesus had kept quiet about the whole Son of God thing and stuck to the carpentry, none of this need have happened.

[Andrew Curnow]

16th April is the day before Little Miss' birthday - now, do I genuinely think she'll be pleased to unwrap her present to find it's a 1989 Sylvester McCoy story? Hmm...

[Matthew T]

Is she more of a season 25 girl?

[Andrew Curnow]

I think she considers anything made in the last century to be too old to dignify with a viewing!

[Pip Madeley]

Tell her she's missing out, not checking out The Time Monster.

[Captain Tancredi]

I think she considers anything made in the last century to be too old to dignify with a viewing!

Andrew, that reminds me of a horrible moment the other week when I was in the Disney Store in Leeds with a reasonably tuneful bit of music playing in the background...except after about thirty seconds I realised to my despair and embarrassment that it was the Hannah Montana theme...

[Andrew Curnow]

To paraphrase The Ark in Space, "that's all down to our influence of course, you mustn't take any of the blame..."

It could be worse, you could regularly use London Tipton's "Yay me!" catchphrase from "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" which both Zel & I have found ourselves doing. Oh the shame...

[brandynigma]

They really need to start getting their scheduling and distribution sorted out, don't they? It hardly gives the impression of a professional outfit that they never seem to know what they're doing more than three months in advance, and when they do, they can't organise getting the discs pressed and ready for the shops so dates keep slipping.

It does make them look a bit dodgy, doesn't it? Twice in a row, I mean.

The ABC over here have done something similar. They produced their own version of Operatunity, and knowing it would be popular, made sure the CD was available in stores the day after the final.

Did you think they made provision for a DVD to be available leading up to Christmas? Why would anyone want that?

So, after we turned away about 50 customers, we get an email from head office telling us the DVD will be out in January, and is available for preorder. This was in November.

In December, it was pushed back to February. Last week it was pushed back to April!

Mind you, this is the same corporation that buys the New Series audio books, but not the books themselves, as the Book Buyer thinks they won't sell. Also, the audio buyer got every audiobook except The Stone Rose because it's a historical.

Did I mention Doctor Who rates amazingly well for an ABC program?!

[Larry]

They really need to start getting their scheduling and distribution sorted out, don't they? It hardly gives the impression of a professional outfit that they never seem to know what they're doing more than three months in advance, and when they do, they can't organise getting the discs pressed and ready for the shops so dates keep slipping.

That said, half the problem is that there's Easter in the middle. If Jesus had kept quiet about the whole Son of God thing and stuck to the carpentry, none of this need have happened.

There all ways seems to be some excuse - this is becoming a regular thing with 2/Entertain in that they always seem to have some problem in the run up to a release.

[Dave Tudor]

16th April is the day before Little Miss' birthday - now, do I genuinely think she'll be pleased to unwrap her present to find it's a 1989 Sylvester McCoy story? Hmm...

Well, if you offer to watch it with her, with all her favourite snacks and snacks at hand, it would make for a nice daddy/daughter bonding session.

You could also show her how much she means to you by offering to look after her 'Survival' DVD and giving it pride of place on your own video shelf...

[Phillip Culley]

There all ways seems to be some excuse - this is becoming a regular thing with 2/Entertain in that they always seem to have some problem in the run up to a release.

At the same time you can argue that we as fans have been nagging 2|e for a release date and story details for Survival for ages, so they rushed out the release details to placate fans. Now something has happened, and it's been pushed back. There's a reason we don't know when the new series starting, and this is it.

Of course, at the same time it could be linked to the launch date for Series 3 - perhaps it was planned for March 24th (as has been suggested), so they had Survival planned for a week after. Then if the launch date is moved back a few weeks, the release date for Survival is similarly adjusted.

But to be honest, all this whining (moreso on other forums) about a postponed release date of a DVD is really ridiculous, and it just shows that there are sadly still some elements of fandom who will complain about anything .....

[Captain Tancredi]

I don't think I'm really whining or complaining- after all, it's 2e who now risk losing a release slot and with it 10% of the projected revenue from the classic Who range this year. They're just making a rod for their own backs by creating an expectation which their production and distribution network clearly isn't set up to deliver. It may well be that part of it is that Worldwide operated in terms of doing everything in-house and having control over all the aspects of the operation and the new way of doing things hasn't bedded in yet. Or that the idea of ten slots a year is ultimately unrealistic given schedules for getting commentaries recorded, extras produced and so on.

The canny thing to do would be for 2e to have one or two stories in the "basic" range all recorded and on standby ready to be rush-released at, say, two months' notice if a projected release looks like missing its slot. Either that, or I can't help wondering whether this hasn't brought us slightly closer to having three or four box sets a year instead.

[Perry Vale]

But to be honest, all this whining (moreso on other forums) about a postponed release date of a DVD is really ridiculous, and it just shows that there are sadly still some elements of fandom who will complain about anything .....

So true. Release dates change ALL THE TIME, from every company, not just 2|e. Yeah, if it had changed close to release date, and you'd perhaps made a special trip to your local retailer only to be disappointed to find it wasn't there on a planned date, fair enough, but what the flip does this matter, it's two months away!

[Rob McCow]

I'm usually aware of the upcoming DVD's, but the first I know about the release date is when I come home from work and find Simon watching the commentary track!

I'm sure whatever day they choose to release Survival, it'll be very nice for everyone

[Si Hunt]

it's 2e who now risk losing a release slot and with it 10% of the projected revenue from the classic Who range this year.

Hasn't the release date just slipped back a fortnight? I can't think of a single previous occasion when a release was cancelled because the preceding one was delayed. And if that happened, it would only be because we're now getting something like 13 stories this year, rather than the 8 of a few years ago.

2 Entertain really can't win. When they released less stories a year, there was obviously more room for slippage but we complained there wern't enough releases. When we arn't told the release dates quick enough, we complain, and now we complain when we do know them and therefore find out that they slip.

In the real world, a DVD is coming out, it's released and then everyone buys it. It's only in Who fandom that there's mass panic/cries of heresay/changing pre-orders when something's release date slips by a few days. Likewise we were surprised to find that our world didn't crumble when "New Beginnings" had a couple of days holiday at Gatwick airport last week before finding us.

Si.