The BBC VHS Video Cover thread

[MacNimon]

A thread to celebrate those old VHS video covers! Let's try to post a cover for each classic Doctor Who story in broadcast order - or on occasion even production order - (rather than VHS release order. Do these covers bring back any memories? Are there better covers out there?

Of course, the obvious place to start is with An Unearthly Child, but as the pilot episode appeared on The Hartnell Years we'll go with that first...

[MacNimon]

Next up was the first 2 video set...

[Dirk Gently]

These really do bring back some memories. The chance to see 'lost' footage was just awsome. And this was the first time I'd seen any of the B&W stuff. So to be able to go back & see stories from the very start of the Timelords journey was excitement beyond description.

I loved my VHS collecting. It was much simpler times.

[MacNimon]

I particularly loved that Dalek set. At that time, I wasn't a regular reader of any genre magazine so I wasn't actually aware that it was coming out...when I saw it on the shelf at HMV that Saturday afternoon I just snatched them up! If I remember correctly they were released on the same day as The Time Warrior (if not, I must just have came across the releases at the same time) as I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands....but the chance to see such a famed part of Doctor Who history was too much to resist!

I can still remember how much I enjoyed this story that first time, it was the perfect antidote to my general feeling of the show at the time. I was feeling rather jaded by the Colin Baker/McCoy years (and obviously had no idea of the forthcoming significant gap in the series broadcast) and given it's timing I credit this release, more than any other, reinvigorating my love for the series

[MacNimon]

Next up is The Edge Of Destruction, paired here with the pilot episode. I was never as keen on these post-TVM photoshopped covers...I much preferred the earlier painted ones (in the style of An Unearthly Child)

[MacNimon]

We have one of my favourites today, Andrew Skilleter's cover for The Aztecs...

[Dirk Gently]

I have to admit that this cover is one of my favourites.

[Dino]

I can't remember the last Doctor Who video I bought! The last two covers are amazing. Was BSB then UK Gold repeats around this time? The Aztecs was released in 1992. That narrows it down! I remember I'd left School by then.
I can't read the year of release of The Edge of Destruction, but loving the story chronology as opposed to release order. (Yeah, not an exciting enough thread idea compared to how thread is)
Please keep them coming, will be quiet and just watch! Great thread!

[MacNimon]

I've already got the story order wrong! The missing episodes from Marco Polo threw me a bit; of course after The Edge Of destruction The Keys Of Marinus was the next (existing and released on VHS) story broadcast, then The Aztecs. So today we have...



I much prefer this fan version myself though, based on Andrew Skilleter's unused painting...

[Dirk Gently]

Yes, I prefer that fan one to the official. I really hated the change after 1997 when the TV movie logo was used. The Diamond logo was so much more iconic.

[MacNimon]

Today, we move on to The Sensorites...



And once again, I prefer this fan edit which utilises the Target novelisation cover to great effect...

[Stuart Wallis]

The fan edit's much better - the one that was used looks more like a lazily-knocked-up PDA cover.

[Dirk Gently]

Indeed Monitor, Indeed.

[MacNimon]

It's The Reign Of Terror today...again, the official post-TVM release, as well as a fan edit based on the Target novelisation cover...

[Dirk Gently]

I actually like the official cover this time. Nice little story.

[MacNimon]

Moving on to Season 2 now, with Planet Of Giants...



with the fan version below:

[MacNimon]

Next up is another one of my favourites, both in terms of story and cover...another two-video release here for Dalek Invasion Of Earth...

[MacNimon]

The next story, The Rescue, appeared as part of a two-story 2-tape release paired with the next broadcast story, The Romans...



Here are a couple of alternative covers, one for each story in the set...

[Dirk Gently]

Yes, the Dalek Invasion has powerful memories attached to it. The anticipation I had when going to WHSmiths to pick up £19.99 worth of Doctor Who I'd never seen before was immense.

Although I have always thought they missed a trick by not having a different cover picture on each box.

[MacNimon]

It's The Web Planet today, with a cover which I always felt was much better than the story itself! It was worth buying just for the cover itself! I really should give this story another go one of these days...

[Stuart Wallis]

Somehow, the monochrome top half of the artwork and the colour in the lower half - such as it is - work well together.

[MacNimon]

The next two stories were released together in one box-set, ie the existing episodes of tThe Crusade paired with The Space Museum

[Dirk Gently]

A very nice set, even by today's standards.

[MacNimon]

It's one of the few VHS releases which I still have

[Dirk Gently]

I still have them all.