Moving into the 1990s, BBC Video began a more robust release schedule of their VHS range, no longer in omnibus form, and now sporting regular art-based covers from Alistair Pearson and Andrew Skilleter. Releases were generally in pairs every other month, but with an extra month after the Feb 1990 and Oct 1991 releases, and no less than three in the Mar, May and Jul 1992 blocks.
The order was still haphazard for the most part, although it should be highlighted that Logopolis and Castrovalva were released on the same day as each other, providing an 8-episode arc for those that purchased both, and Mawdryn Undead was followed in early 1993 with the remainder of the Black Guardian trilogy.
Producer John-Nathan Turner, with no new episodes to oversee, began a brief involvement in the BBC Video output. Under his supervision were released an extended version of The Curse of Fenric (with new music by Mark Ayres), several ‘Years‘ videos (mostly enabling the release of ‘orphaned’ b/w episodes that would not carry releases themselves, but then later including compilations of Pertwee episodes and Tom Baker clips) and a presentation of Shada, with the unfilmed material covered by on-screen narration from Tom Baker.
The Deadly Assassin received its first release in the US, as an omnibus, in March 1989. Concerns over the violent end to the third episode postponed its release here until 1991.
| # | Date | BBCV | Title | Cover Art [U] = Uncredited | Length* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 017 | 05/02/1990 | 4310 | The War Games | Alister Pearson [U] | 02:03:29 02:01:08 |
| 018 | 05/02/1990 | 4311 | An Unearthly Child | Alister Pearson [U] | 01:37:54 |
| 019 | 07/05/1990 | 4352 | The Mind Robber | Alister Pearson [U] | 01;41:23 |
| 020 | 07/05/1990 | 4353 | The Dalek Invasion of Earth | Alister Pearson [U] | 01:16:51 01:15:40 |
| 021 | 09/07/1990 | 4388 | The Brain of Morbius | Alister Pearson [U] | 01:41:40 |
| 022 | 09/07/1990 | 4387 | The Five Doctors | Alister Pearson [U] | 01:32:09 |
| 023 | 10/09/1990 | 4405 | The Web Planet | Alister Pearson [U] | 01:12:40 01:18:24 |
| 024 | 10/09/1990 | 4406 | The Dominators | Alister Pearson [U] | 02:02:16 |
| 025 | 04/02/1991 | 4452 | The Krotons | Alister Pearson [U] | 01:32:07 |
| 026 | 04/02/1991 | 4453 | The Curse of Fenric | Alister Pearson [U] | 01:45:05 |
| 027 | 08/04/1991 | 4491 | Planet of the Spiders | Andrew Skilleter [U] | 01:16:17 01:14:33 |
| 028 | 08/04/1991 | 4492 | City of Death | Andrew Skilleter [U] | 01:41:02 |
| 029 | 03/06/1991 | 4608 | The Hartnell Years | Photographic | 01:28:46 |
| 030 | 03/06/1991 | 4609 | The Troughton Years | Photographic | 01:25:06 |
| 031 | 05/08/1991 | 4642 | The Masque of Mandragora | Alistair Pearson [sic] | 01:39:59 |
| 032 | 05/08/1991 | 4650 | The Three Doctors | Alistair Pearson [sic] | 01:40:00 |
| 033 | 07/10/1991 | 4643 | The Sontaran Experiment Genesis of the Daleks | Andrew Skilleter | 01:39:43 01:27:50 |
| 034 | 07/10/1991 | 4645 | The Deadly Assassin | Andrew Skilleter | 01:35:53 |
| 035 | 13/01/1992 | 4713 | The Caves of Androzani | Andrew Skilleter | 01:41:03 |
| 036 | 13/01/1992 | 4714 | Robot | Alistair Pearson | 01:38:52 |
| 037 | 02/03/1992 | 4736 | Logopolis | Andrew Skilleter | 01:40:15 |
| 038 | 02/03/1992 | 4737 | Castrovalva | Andrew Skilleter | 01:37:45 |
| 039 | 02/03/1992 | 4756 | The Pertwee Years | Photographic | 01:29:22 |
| 040 | 11/05/1992 | 4742 | The Claws of Axos | Andrew Skilleter | 01:38:33 |
| 041 | 11/05/1992 | 4772 | The Tomb of the Cybermen | Alistair Pearson | 01:40:37 |
| 042 | 11/05/1992 | 4783 | The Twin Dilemma | Andrew Skilleter | 01:40:42 |
| 043 | 06/07/1992 | 4810 | Daleks: The Early Years | Photographic | 01:46:05 |
| 044 | 06/07/1992 | 4813 | Cybermen: The Early Years | Photographic | 01:59:58 |
| 045 | 06/07/1992 | 4814 | Shada | Photographic | 01:50:56 |
| 046 | 07/09/1992 | 4839 | The Tom Baker Years | Photographic | 01:30:11 01:26:51 |
| 047 | 07/09/1992 | 4840 | Earthshock | Andrew Skilleter | 01:38:51 |
| 048 | 02/11/1992 | 4873 | The Aztecs | Andrew Skilleter | 01:40:15 |
| 049 | 02/11/1992 | 4874 | Mawdryn Undead | Andrew Skilleter | 01:39:03 |
*from start of tape to end of outro.
The War Games, The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Web Planet all continued the trend began with The Daleks of splitting extra long stories across two-tapes, presented in separate cases with warnings not to be sold separately (this time backed up with stickers).
Planet of the Spiders and The Sontaran Experiment/Genesis of the Daleks were presented in double-size clamshell cases, negating the need for stickers and warnings. In the case of the latter, the episodes were evenly split, with the first two parts of Genesis of the Daleks joining Sontaran on the first tape, but the tape was still labelled simply ‘The Sontaran Experiment‘.
Shada also used a double-sized case, although the story was only on one tape. The other half of the package was filled with a scriptbook and some polystyrene. The case was adorned with a silver sticker explaining that Douglas Adams’s royalties would be donated to Comic Relief.
Although the episodes were now generally unedited, the closing cliffhangers of An Unearthly Child, The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Web Planet were all removed (and The Web Planet‘s final episode appeared to be taken from a US syndication print, with the end credits electronically generated and with a 1985 copyright date added). The Dominators fourth and fifth episodes were taken from an edited print – the only one available at the time – with just under two minutes missing:
July 1990 saw two reissues of edited 1980s releases: The Brain of Morbius and The Five Doctors now both complete at last.
The recovery in 1992 of The Tomb of the Cybermen saw a rush-release of the VHS, with an exclusive introduction filmed with director Morris Barry.
The Twin Dilemma was initially a Woolworth exclusive in May 1992, and then made available more widely from February 1993.
The Shada VHS was reissued later on DVD, and then again on Blu-ray, and each time was rebuilt with a slightly different approach to one sequence in the Part Three:
Unlike in the 1980s, the tape opening and closings were fairly consistent throughout this era. The globe introduced in Terror of the Zygons was used up until The Three Doctors (and again on the second tape of the Sontaran/Genesis package). Copyright dates generally matched the year of release, although The Curse of Fenric (1991) was copyrighted 1990.
The War Games, An Unearthly Child, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Brain of Morbius and The Web Planet all opened with a single title card on each tape immediately before the opening credits (and in the case of Morbius the sound from the globe mixed in). The first tapes of The War Games, The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Web Planet displayed an ‘end of part one’ caption immediately after the end credits.
The first tape in the Sontaran/Genesis set introduced a new rhombus-shaped BBC logo (although as noted this reverted to the globe for the second tape). Each tape from this point on opened with a message about how to resolve tracking issues, a copyright warning, and the rhombus logo. The tapes closed with a rhombus logo (with a copyright that generally matched the year of release) and then the copyright warning.
The new opening introduced from The Sontaran Experiment 
A number of tapes featured an ‘also available’ card after the logo and before the opening titles of the first episode:
- Logopolis: Star Cops, Adam Adamant Lives!, Blakes’ 7 (slightly animated)
- Castrovalva: Red Dwarf, Blakes’ 7, Star Cops (slightly animated)
- The Claws of Axos: Doomwatch, Quatermass, Star Cops
- Earthshock: Star Cops, Red Dwarf, Blakes’ 7
- The Aztecs: Star Cops, Doomwatch, Quatermass
- Mawdryn Undead: Hartnell/Troughton/Pertwee/Baker Years
The interiors continued to be used to advertise the BBC Video range, with a number of variations seen. We have a page dedicated to these here.
And finally: The interior labels were mostly green from The War Games to The Dominators, and black with the rhombus logo from The Krotons onwards (introduced several tapes before the rhombus logo appeared on the sleeve of The Sontaran Experiment/Genesis of the Daleks). Yellow exceptions were An Unearthly Child, The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Brain of Morbius.
