Inferno Special Edition With Free Eyepatch!* (27/5/13)

[Matthew T]

I couldn't find a thread for this!

It's out on May 27th. Here's the cover, revealed today:

[Anthony Williams]

That's a GORGEOUS cover!

[Dave Tudor]

Aside from the fact that The Brig's head looks a bit odd and that there are no Primords (possibly a good thing), that is a brilliant cover!

[Stuart Wallis]

There's nowt like a good piece of bad Photoshop, is there?

[SiHart]

Full details of the extras:

Commentary with actors Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier) and John Levene (Sergeant Benton), producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.
Production Notes New
Digitally remastered picture and sound quality New
Can You Hear the Earth Scream? (dur. 34'45") Actors and production team recall working on the story in this specially-shot featurette.
Hadoke versus HAVOC (dur 27’33”) – Presenter Toby Hadoke reunites surviving members of the HAVOC stunt team and trains with them to perform a stunt himself. Will he survive to become an honorary member of HAVOC? With stunt arranger Derek Ware and stunt men Roy Scammell, Derek Martin and Stuart Fell. New
Doctor Forever – Lost in the Dark Dimension (dur 27’26”) - the penultimate instalment of our new five part series looking at how Doctor Who was kept alive in the years between the end of the classic series and the beginning of the new. In this episode we look at the various attempts to bring the show back during that period. With current and former Doctor Who Magazine editors Tom Spilsbury, John Freeman and Gary Russell, former BBC range editor Steve Cole, actor David Burton, writer Adrian Rigelsford, director Graeme Harper and new series executive producer Russell T Davies. Narrated by Zeb Soanes. New
The UNIT Family - Part One (dur 35'35") - a featurette looking at the Earthbound Doctor's 'family' during his exile to Earth and his new role as the scientific advisor to the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.
Visual Effects Promo Film (dur 6'00") - an excerpt from an early attempt to 'sell' the experience and facilities of the BBC Visual Effects Department to new clients. This short film features model effects filming from the Doctor Who stories The Ambassadors of Death and Inferno, a watertank sketch from Marty Amok featuring Marty Feldman, model shots from The Caves of Steel and the filming of the forced-perspective model pier for the explosive finale of the missing Doomwatch episode, Survival Code.
Deleted Scene (dur 1'56") - a short deleted scene which was never seen in the original BBC transmission of the story, featuring a rather too obvious Jon Pertwee as the voice of a radio presenter.
The Pertwee Years Intro (dur 2'43") - a short introduction to the story's final episode from Jon Pertwee, originally presented as part of BBC Video's The Pertwee Years VHS release.
Photo Gallery (dur 6'10")
Easter Egg 1 (dur 1'01") - clean opening title backgrounds including the special 'volcano' graphics used for this story.
Easter Egg 2 (dur 0'40") - VT countdown clock for episode 7.
Easter Egg 3 – Being David Burton (dur 5’20”) – actor David Burton talks at greater length about his career and casting as the Doctor. New
Doctor Who Annual - an Adobe PDF version of the 1971 Doctor Who Annual, supplied as a PC-ROM feature for access by PC and Mac users.
Coming Soon - a trailer for a forthcoming DVD release. New
Radio Times Listings in Adobe PDF format.
Programme subtitles.

[Jon Masters]

Can I have a special Special edition that cuts out about 3 episodes in the middle ?

[Dirk Gently]

[Stuart Wallis]

For that matter, can those of us who bought the original DVD and who object to having to buy it again have a straight swap please?

[Stephen Morgan]

I've just got an e-mail to say this has been despatched from The BBC shop, very nice, but I won't get to see it anytime next week as I'll be away before the post arrives on Saturday morning.

[Paul Monk]

Its probably on the internet somewhere but I'm too lazy to look, but what are the main differences between this one and the old one?
Also will branches of CEX now be flooded with copies of the original version?

[Stephen Morgan]

When I knew this was being re-issued I got rid of the old one via Music Magpie, I think I got £3.99 for it, only got 99p for Varos though, but that was after the new issue.

[SiHart]

Well goodness me, Inferno has never looked as good as it does on this DVD. The restoration via the recolourisation of the B&W film prints and 525 line version is so much better than the old RSC version. It looks great- far crisper and sharper than it's ever looked before. This revisitation was well worth while from that point of view.

And Hadoke vs Havoc was rather lovely as a special feature. Nice to see the old gang back together (minus Chuntzy and Walsh though).

And astonishing to see an interview with Proton's New Dr Who, David Burton! Who'd have thought it? Oddly though, despite him apparently recording two new Doctor Who stories, no film, scripts or photos exist from the project (from Paul "Day, Time Monster, Frontier) Bernard... Hmmm!

[Si Hunt]

So have they used chroma dot to recolour it rather than using the reverse NTSC conversion then Si?

Si.

[SiHart]

No- they used the 525 line videotapes colour combined with the b&W film, like they did with The Daemons etc, only, of course, the 525 line video was a higher resolution than the betamax tapes they used for those ones. It's a better version of the old process!

[Jeff]

Do very many of the Special Editions have improved visual quality? I thought the SE's were mainly for the extras, and do not plan to get most of them as I usually watch the extras one time and then never again, but improved quality would be something that would tempt me to buy again if it was a drastic improvement.

[SiHart]

I think they remaster most of them again.

[Jeff]

But how often does it result in a drastic improvement? I take it this one did at any rate..

[Simon R]

I wouldn't say it's drastic but it's certainly better or at least from what I remember. I'd have to see the two versions side by side to say for sure. One bit that looks a bit off now are the brief location scenes with the red filter in Episode 6. They look very grainy now.

[Matthew T]

Here's some picture comparisons between old DVD and new:





Pinched from http://www.tellytechblog.com/2013/05...ition-dvd.html

[Matthew T]

You can see the lines on Pertwee's face far more clearly now.

[Rob McCow]

Looking good actually! The colour is still a little odd, especially noticable in the skin tones.

[Antony Cox]

Mmm...

I wouldn't usually dream of getting the revised special editions such as these but perhaps I will on this occasion. The picture quality does look much improved, especially on the exterior shots, and this is one of my favourite stories...

[Rob McCow]

Reminds me of trips to the opticians - "Does it look better with lens A here, or with lens B... here?"