This will be the seventeenth season released, expected in the Spring of 2025 in the UK. It was announced in December.
Sources
Spearhead from Space is sourced from original 16mm colour film elements. The Ambassadors of Death Episode 1 is sourced from the original PAL transmission tape.
Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death exist as 16mm black and white film prints, as well as off-air NTSC colour copies taken from US broadcasts which have allowed for colourisation attempts. Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 5 has a fault on the colour recording for approximately 90 seconds, between the end of Episode 5 and start of Episode 6, which was computer colourised for the 1993 VHS. The Ambassadors of Death colour recording suffers from interference that reduces the colour to rainbow-like stripes, and so the 2002 VHS release dropped to black and white intermittently in Episodes 2, 3 and 7 to avoid the worst of this (with Episode 4 presented entirely in monochrome). Chroma dot recovery was achieved for the 2012 DVD release.
Inferno exists both as 16mm black and white film prints and colour NSTC-format videotapes returned from Canada, which have been reverse standards converted back to PAL.
New restorations and colourisations of these stories seem very likely for BD.
UK Release History
| VHS | VHS Art | DVD/BD | DVD/BD Art | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spearhead from Space | 1/2/88 13/2/95 | 29/1/01 9/5/11 (SE) 15/7/13 (BD) | Clayton Hickman (SE) Lee Binding (BD) | |
| Doctor Who and the Silurians | 12/7/93 | Andrew Skilleter | 14/1/08 | Clayton Hickman |
| The Ambassadors of Death | 20/5/02 | 1/10/12 | Lee Binding | |
| Inferno | 9/5/94 | Colin Howard | 6/11/06 27/5/13 (SE) | Clayton Hickman Lee Binding (SE) |
| The final episode of Inferno also appeared on The Pertwee Years VHS | 2/3/92 | Photographic |
For more information see our VHS guide.
The original releases of Spearhead from Space and Inferno were both included in the Amazon exclusive Third Doctor Collection DVD set, 6 November 2006. Spearhead was also reissued in a sleeve with the new series logo on 2 July 2007.
A Special Edition of Spearhead from Space was featured in the Mannequin Mania DVD set in 2011. The SE was then included in the US and Australia (but not the UK) omnibus format on the 2013 DVD The Doctors Revisited 1-4, and in the HMV exclusive An Introduction to the Third Doctor in 2015. The story also became the first release on Blu-ray in 2013.
Doctor Who and the Silurians was first released in the Beneath the Surface box set, with The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep. It was reissued paired with two new series episodes on the 2013 DVD The Monster Collection: The Silurians.
The restored episodes were issued as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files magazine (2009-14) across the following issues: 35 Spearhead from Space (May 5th 2010), 65 Doctor Who and the Silurians (Jun 29th 2011), 145 The Ambassadors of Death (July 23rd 2014) and 44 Inferno (Sep 8th 2010).
Summary
Information text was originally by Richard Molesworth (Spearhead from Space), Richard Bignell (Spearhead from Space SE), and Martin Wiggins (the rest of the season).
Doctor Who and the Silurians included an isolated soundtrack of Carey Blyton’s incidental music.
Disc Layout
Spearhead from Space
Commentary with Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John
Commentary #2 with Derrick Sherwin and Terrance Dicks
| Format | Length | Original DVD Souce & Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Making-of Documentary [Down to Earth] | SD | 22:40 | Spearhead from Space SE |
| Regenerations: From Black and White to Colour | SD | 18:42 | Spearhead from Space SE |
| A Dandy and a Clown | HD | 42:19 | Spearhead from Space BD |
| Carry On: The Life of Caroline John | HD | 29:07 | Spearhead from Space BD |
| Title Sequence Material | HD | 22:38 | Spearhead from Space BD |
| Restoration Comparison | HD | 2:13 | Spearhead from Space BD |
| Unused version of the title sequence | SD | 0:45 | Spearhead from Space (and SE) easter egg |
| UNIT Recruiting Film | SD | 4:48 | Spearhead from Space (and SE), updated from the broadcast version to remove the telephone number |
| Trailers [1999] | SD | 1:40 | Spearhead from Space (and SE). On the original DVD release these were presented across 3 menu items. |
| Photo Gallery | HD | Alternate 3:51 SD version on SE DVD, and static 56 photos on original DVD |
- Coming Soon: Frontios (from the SE) expected to move to Season 21
- Coming Soon: The Green Death SE (from the BD) already moved to Season 10
- Coming Soon: Beneath the Surface (Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep) (from Destiny of the Daleks) seems unlikely to appear here, as it did not appear on Seasons 9 or 20
- A widescreen, unrestored, omnibus version with introduction by Steven Moffat was released on the 2013 US/Australian DVD, The Doctors Revisted 1-4, though seems unlikely to be included as per Earthshock (Season 19), Vengeance on Varos (Season 22) and Remembrance of the Daleks (Season 25)
- The original US DVD included a text-only feature, Who’s Who, which is unlikely to be included
- UNIT Recruiting Film may be held back for a Wilderness Years set, as per The Antique Doctor Who Show (which didn’t appear on Horror of Fang Rock on BD), along with the other 1993 Doctor Who and the Daleks featurettes
Doctor Who and the Silurians
Commentary with Caroline John [1,2,3], Barry Letts [1,2,3,4], Timothy Combe [1,2,3,4], Peter Miles [1,2,4] and Terrance Dicks [1,3,4]
| Format | Length | Original DVD Source & Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Making-of Documentary [Going Underground] | SD | 19:09 | Doctor Who and the Silurians |
| What Lies Beneath | SD | 35:12 | Doctor Who and the Silurians |
| Now and Then | SD | 9:41 | Doctor Who and the Silurians |
| Colour Silurians Overlay | SD | 4:44 | Doctor Who and the Silurians |
| Reconstructed trailer for The Ambassadors of Death | SD | 1:34 | Doctor Who and the Silurians easter egg |
| Photo Gallery | HD | Alternate 6:03 SD version on original DVD | |
| Coming Soon: The Ambassadors of Death | SD | 1:06 | Vegeance on Varos: SE |
- Coming Soon: The Time Meddler already moved to Season 2
- Musical Scales featurette from the original DVD already moved to Season 9
- The commentary for Episode 7 continues over the trailer for The Ambassadors of Death, so it will be interesting to see whether it is kept for BD
- 2006 BBC Audiobooks version narrated by Caroline John is a potential bonus feature
The Ambassadors of Death
Commetary with Derek Ware [1,2,3,5], Terrance Dicks [1,4,5], Michael Ferguson [1,4,5,6,7], Nicholas Courtney, [1,4,6,7], Roy Scammell [2, 3], Derek Martin [2,3], Caroline John [3,5,7], Peter Halliday [6], Geoffrey Beevers (Private Johnson) [7].
| Format | Length | Original DVD Source & Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Making-of Documentary [Mars Probe 7] | SD | 25:51 | The Ambassadors of Death |
| Reconstructed trailer | SD | 1:28 | The Ambassadors of Death |
| Tomorrow’s Times – The Third Doctor | SD | 13:07 | The Ambassadors of Death |
| Photo Gallery | HD | Alternate 4:26 SD version on original DVD | |
| Coming Soon: Inferno SE | SD | 1:05 | The Visitation SE |
- Coming Soon: The Claws of Axos SE already moved to Season 8
- Tomorrow’s Times might be saved for Season 11 so it appears on the third Doctor’s last season, as per Seasons 18, 23 and 26
- 2009 BBC Audiobooks version narrated by Caroline John is a potential bonus feature
- The restoration feature from the 2002 VHS release could be included, as indeed could the mix of black and white and colour presented on VHS for Episodes 2, 3 and 7, for the sake of completism
Inferno
Commentary with Nicholas Courtney [1,2,3,4,6,7], Barry Letts [1,2,4,6,7], Terrance Dicks [1,2,4,6,7], John Levene [1,3,4,5,6,7]
| Format | Length | Original DVD Source & Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Making-of Documentary [Can You Hear the Earth Scream?] | SD | 33:48 | Inferno (and SE) |
| Hadoke versus HAVOC | SD | 27:34 | Inferno SE |
| Doctor Forever! – Lost in the Dark Dimension | SD | 27:26 | Inferno SE |
| The UNIT Family: Part One | SD | 35:36 | Inferno (and SE) |
| Visual Effects Promo Film | SD | 6:01 | Inferno (and SE) |
| Deleted Scene | SD | 1:57 | Inferno (and SE) |
| Pertwee Years Intro to Episode 7 | SD | 2:44 | Inferno (and SE) |
| Countdown clock for Episode 7 | SD | 0:26 | Inferno (and SE) easter egg |
| Clean opening titles, including lava footage | SD | 1:02 | Inferno (and SE) easter egg |
| David Burton interview | SD | 5:21 | Inferno SE easter egg |
| Photo Gallery | HD | Alternate 6:11 SD version on original DVD (and SE) | |
| Coming Soon: Mannequin Mania | SD | 1:33 | Planet of the Spiders |
- Coming Soon: The Mind of Evil (from the SE) already moved to Season 8
- Coming Soon features for multiple stories have generally been skipped in The Collection, though Mannequin Mania features only Terror of the Autons and Spearhead from Space SE, so it will be interesting to see whether it makes an appearance here
- There’s the potential for an extended version of Episode 5, as well as showcasing the single deleted scene separately
- The entirety of The Pertwee Years VHS may be included, negating the need for the short excerpt presented on DVD. This would match Seasons 12 (The Tom Baker Years) and 22 (The Colin Baker Years), where the Years tapes were presented on the first season of each Doctor (and which suggests that The Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee Years have been saved for Seasons 1, 4 and 7 respectively).
- Doctor Forever! may be held back for a Wilderness Years set, as per the installments on The Green Death SE, The Ark in Space SE, and The Visitation SE which were not carried across to BD
- The same can be said for the David Burton interview, which has no place on this particular story!
PDF Materials
Radio Times listings and associated articles were included on all the original DVDs. The 1971 Doctor Who Annual appeared on Inferno (and SE).
