I Can't Believe It's Not Buddha - Planet of the Spiders DVD 18 April

[Rob McCow]

Y'know, I bought the video of this when it came out, with my first ever dole cheque - which was twenty years ago!

That's a long time to spend on the dole!

The one advantage to being unemployed is having the time to watch Pertwee 6-parters in one sitting. I couldn't imagine waking up and thinking 'I'm going to watch the whole of the Sea Devils today', much as I'd like to.

Of course, there were the heady student days where The War Games was acheivable within a single day.

[P-Bal]

Sendit are offering this and Frontios to pre-order at £11.49.

[Jonno]

Cheaper than The Mutants - truly it's a mad, mad world! Thanks for the tip off - I've preordered this, which I believe is the first time I've done that since The War Games.

[SiHart]

Full details:

Disc 1:

• 6 x 25 mins approx colour episodes with mono audio.

• Commentary - stereo. With actors Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney and Richard Franklin, producer / director Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.

• Coming Soon - a trailer for a forthcoming DVD release.

• Programme subtitles.

• Subtitle Production Notes.

Disc 2:

• The Final Curtain – five years after its re-invention in colour and its rise to massive popularity, it was time for Doctor Who’s charismatic lead actor Jon Pertwee to move on… and with him the production team that had guided the show throughout that period. This documentary looks at the background to the Third Doctor’s swansong. With actors Jon Pertwee and Richard Franklin, producer / director Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks, designer Rochelle Selwyn, visual effects assistant Mat Irvine and actor and author Mark Gatiss. Narrated by Glen Allen.

• John Kane Remembers… – actor John Kane memorably played the gentle, slow-witted Tommy, reborn through the power of the Metebelis crystal. An accomplished writer and series creator, Kane now lives in France, from where he looks back on his memories of the story.

• Directing Who with Barry Letts – Barry Letts is perhaps most famous as producer of Doctor Who, but he was also responsible for directing some of the show’s best-loved stories. Barry looks back on his career as a director in this documentary.

• Now & Then – the latest instalment in our ongoing series takes a trip back to some of the locations used during production of the story.

• ‘Planet of the Spiders’ Omnibus Edition – the full-length omnibus edit of the story, presented here totally unrestored.

• Omnibus Trailer

• Photo Gallery - production, design and publicity photos from the story.

• Radio Times Listings in Adobe pdf format.

Si xx

[Paul Monk]

That looks good. I love this story. I was one of the first videos I bought myself. Bought in Sharrett and Hughes in Croydon along with the first Timewyrm book!
Not that thats of any interest to anyone.

[Martin Penny]

The image of the Spider on the spine of the VHS for this one always used to unnerve me a little - when I first saw the video in a shop I must have been about 6 year old, and I thought this looked like the scariest story ever!

[SiHart]

textless image (thanks to Lee Binding)



Si xx

[Dave Tudor]

It's a far more striking image without the text, but I can't help thinking that Pertwee should be central to the composition rather than looking slightly uninterested and walking out of shot. And the crystal which appears to have been pasted on there brings back memories of the old 'Ark in Space' VHS cover with a random strange sci-fi tool drawn into Tom Baker's hand. Happy days!

[Si Hunt]

Surely that Crystal is way too big?

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

There's no answer to that!

[SiHart]

It's on its way!

[Si Hunt]

I just went onto Sendit to check our order, and they're offering the DVD today for £9.49p.

It's a little annoying to order a DVD from somewhere, then on the day they are preparing to dispatch the order, they have reduced the price by £2 but are charging you the higher price.

I'm tempted to quickly cancel and re-order before ours is dispatched.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

You have nothing to lose, Mr Hunt. You should give the process a little... push?

[Si Hunt]

I fear I might spend the week chasing the DVD pointlessly (in a speedboat, a gyrocopter and an old Edwardian Roadster) only for it to vanish and leave me feeling the time has been completely wasted.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

We've kidnapped Professor Clegg and wired him up to our TV set. He's going to be our DVD player when the brown parcel arrives from The Amazon.

[SiHart]

Boo to Sendit!

[Jon Masters]

I just went onto Sendit to check our order, and they're offering the DVD today for £9.49p.

It's a little annoying to order a DVD from somewhere, then on the day they are preparing to dispatch the order, they have reduced the price by £2 but are charging you the higher price.

I'm tempted to quickly cancel and re-order before ours is dispatched.

Si.

Looking at Compare DVD , they suggest Sendit are going to charge you £1.99 postage, so you are going to be no worse off - unless you were paying that already.....

[Si Hunt]

You're right Jon! Re-ordering saves you a penny.

Si.

[SiHart]

Apparently this is Sendits way to get round the new rules on trading out of Jersey. The postage charge covers the loophole or something. It's all quite involved.

[Si Hunt]

Good plan! I'll pay £2 postage if the DVD's are £2 cheaper.

Stick that up yer arse killjoys trying to take away our cheap DVDs!

Si.

[Larry]

my copy arrived yesterday

[Rob McCow]

Larry wins, yet again!

I believe Si picked up ours today.

[SiHart]

I did. I have watched the photo gallery! some lovely Dudley Simpson goodies on it!

[SiHart]

I rather liked the omnibus edition of the story. It leaves all the best bits in but cuts out some of the more tedious moments. It worked well and I can see why all those who saw it at the time remember it fondly.

Now I'm saving the rest to watch with Steve.

[Stephen Morgan]

Mine arrived this morning. I haven't seen this story for a long time so I'm looking forward to watching it over the weekend.
Oh! and Si. I remember watching the omnibus version over Christmas 1974, just the day before Tom Baker debuted, I've not seen that version of it since then, it was rather exciting and gave me that warm comfortable feeling, memories that shall no doubt resurface as I go through it again.
This is one story I've been looking so much forward to and I'll savour every minute of it.