Doctor Who | Five Reasons They Won't Make New Series Collection Sets

Benjamin breaks down the five reasons he believes BBC Studios won't continue the "Doctor Who: The Collection" Blu-ray range into the New Series, as some fans have speculated over the years.
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"Doctor Who: The Collection - Series 1" Artwork (as featured on the thumbnail) by @/TheCyberdevil
Title Sequence made by Benjamin Windibank
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[@danieljohnson6975]

I think at lot of the points you raised are issues in the present day. New Series Collection sets if they do happen, will likely not be made until after the Classic range has finished. If they continue at the rate of release so far then it's likely the range has 5+ years left. In many of the situations you outlined, RTD being the current showrunner, distance between original broadcast and the logo will most likely be different in 5-7 years time. Actor availability is in my opinion the only major issue

[@zachmegna7003]

Ill wait until they are all out

[@JackChristmas]

Good points. Although I personally think the logo issue isn't really an issue. In practice, hypothetical NuWho box sets would be part of a whole new series of releases, not just a continuation of the classic era "The Collection" series. No way are they releasing New Series 1 as "Season 27", that's just not going to happen. So it would be totally fine for the 2 different "Collection" series to have distinct brand identities and aesthetics - even if it would cause some weirdness with modern series having a more classic-inspired logo than the classic series. To counter that though, one other obstacle is the redundancy of doing another round of blu ray releases. Aside from Spearhead From Space, the classic serials have never been released in HD before these Collection sets. But the whole of the new series has, and Series 1-4 are even getting another shot soon. So it would be much harder to justify yet more new blu-ray versions of these episodes rather than just reprinting existing sets, regardless of whether blu-ray is still a current format.

[@CulturePhilter]

While I think there would be some notable differences between revival series sets and classic I don’t think it prohibits them behind made like you imply. It’s true that contributors to special features are less likely to speak as freely about behind the scenes issues as they do in the classic sets and while a shame (which of us wouldn’t love an honest look at why Eccleston left) that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of other interesting material for documentaries. And yes those busy actors won’t have AS MUCH time to film additional features don’t count them out completely. After all, they got Sacha Dhawan to do a sets worth of Behind the sofa and he’s never even been in classic who at all. So I think we’d have a lot more SUPPORTING actors In the features with some inclusions of the Doctor and companions (especially Tennant who would absolutely be up for it)

[@soarel325]

I think the Noel Clarke (and to a lesser extent John Barrowman) stuff might also play a role. Even if they’re not brought in themselves, I doubt it’ll be easy for the other actors to discuss working with them on set given the scandal that was their on-set behavior. Both of those actors have been blacklisted by the Beeb as a result, to the point where current media don’t even mention their characters.

[@rsienicki]

The thing is also that Classic Doctor Who was never released on blu-ray. And the DVD range was being released by stories (so 155 separate DVD boxes). The Collection now let's them release the episodes in the quality pretty much 1:1 as the episodes are preserved and then add a lot of bonus materials they can get access to. And maybe do some new ones. The New Who, was released on blu-ray. Twice. Once back in the days and new and upgraded version just now, last year. So I think that's pretty much says "no" to the Nu Who Collection. Also there is a lot of behind the scenes on those discs already. I don't see a reason to re-release them again. You also said a valid point that it's too early and there will be a veil of protection about people who work on the show today. It will be like Star Wars blu-ray extras, which is like 90% people kissing butts and praising Star Wars IP. I remember that there was a lot of info that Harrison Ford broke his leg on the set and it pushed it back few weeks and they rewrote a lot of Finn-Rey relationship. No mention of it in the extras. Because they had to own the fact that there was an accident. And I feel it would be like that on the promotional materials of the current era. No mention of the actual Christopher Eccleston drama and the BBC fake press release. No mention of the Barrowman controversies. So yeah, I don't think we're gonna get it anytime soon.

[@5SSS]

I think the problem I see coming up is format, The modern series isn't serialised like the classic series, it brings up the question, do they put multiple episodes on one disc or dedicate a whole disc to just 1 or 2 (maybe three) episodes? making the set 10+ discs

[@calumbishop7082]

I could see some New Series Boxsets coming out partially to bye themselves time for the animation teams to get the animations for the Hartnell and Troughton era done. The fact is with the exception of Season 2, all the Hartnell and Troughton seasons are just missing too much to justify a Collection release (especially Season 3). Adding the New Series into the mix will give them enough content to release for collections in the meantime.

[@dreameroutthere]

I dont think they would make new Who collection sets IE like the classic series, because there isnt a point to do so? All of the episodes and special features are already out on disc, as collection sets. The reason these sets are being done for the Classic Series is because all of the serials - IE The Tenth Planet Episodes 1 - 4 - used to be released as individual releases. These blu ray sets are bringing whole seasons of Classic Who together for the first time. New Who episodes have never been released individually. So of course they wouldnt do special New Who season sets as they do for the Classic Series.

[@leebarnard4564]

It won’t happen. They are all ready in Blu-ray sets. What’s the point of doing them again

[@joshuajoshua2732]

We already have NuWho on blu-ray anyway it's too small a series to have a collection unlike the classic series which i think needs more support than NuWho also the logo doesn't bother me.