DOCTOR WHO On VHS | How Long Did It Take?

[@AMTVWHO]

Thank you so much for watching this video! If you enjoyed it, please leave a like and share around with your friends! A lot of time and effort went into the making of this vid, so the more we can get it shared around the Whoniverse would be fantastic!

[@bigfanclub2020]

The story of doctor who

[@bigfanclub2020]

I'm the doctor and this is my story

[@bigfanclub2020]

Doctor who began 20 yes ago

[@emair97]

Imagine paying £40 for just Revenge of The Cybermen

[@callumsmclelland]

Worth it lol

[@macey74]

I signed up for BSB in 1990. The only unavailable story was going to be The Space Museum and it would cost £100.00.

[@Kriv]

Didn't need to imagine. I lived it!

[@garysharman3981]

I did !

[@the-np4mr]

Thank God for piracy

[@IanGorton]

Remember as a kid the release of Dr Who on official home video was very sporadic. Also bigger retailers rarely carried them here in Australia. You had to go to the ABC shops to get them.

[@aguideto....8738]

My first Dr Who VHS was Revenge of the Cyberman…I didn’t realise it was the first one ever on VHS! Loved it.

[@ThomCurley]

I still have my 1983 copy of Revenge complete with that cover using the current logo and Cybermen. Was indeed £40 and dead expensive!

[@AMTVWHO]

Bet its worth a lot more than £40 nowadays!

[@Rampy470]

Minor correction: the surviving "orphan" episodes DID get VHS releases, just not standalone. The surviving episodes of The Abominable Snowmen, Enemy of the World, and Space Pirates were released on VHS as part of The Troughton Years, The Moonbase and Wheel In Space episodes were released on Cybermen: The Early Years, and the two then surviving Daleks Masterplan episodes and Evil of the Daleks part 2 were released on Daleks: The Early Years.

[@Gallifreyforever97]

Amazing nostalgic look back at the VHS line, really unique way showing how long the gap was between original transmission & vhs release which some were decades! Have to appreciate how lucky we are now

[@dylanmcfarland8356]

Good to know you included the Worzel Gummidge era of Doctor Who (and by that I mean Jon Pertwee).

[@ReturnofTheBunny]

I think this is one of those rare cases where the US fans were a lot luckier in that if their PBS station was airing Doctor Who on the regular, they could just tape that so we got to have copies of those stories before an official release. I initially experienced most of the classic series via my brother's PBS recordings, including the Tom Baker stories that took until the turn of the Millennium to be released. Very cool video. 👍

[@nigelbarrett4936]

Yes I worked in the US on & off in the 90s and often caught some of the Tom Baker stories on PBS. Did experiment bringing a NTSC T180 tape home but it didn't go well :-)

[@jkmac625]

The first Doctor Who video I bought was The Seeds of Death in 1986 from the local WHSmiths when they were still very expensive to buy at £24.99. To put that price into perspective my school dinner money was £1 and you'd get change from that, so that VHS cost almost a month's worth of school dinners.

[@MSDOSProject]

Probably the most excited to have release on home media was enemy of the world and the web of fear. Super awesome to see those stories

[@L1RW]

From what I’ve heard, people didn’t buy VHS tapes, they rented them. Also, people used to buy blank videos and record them on their own video recorder. Physical media was expensive years ago.

[@jamespaton7841]

Yes the only video tape I had actually bought for years was the Omnibus edition of the PatrickTroughton story was The Seeds of Death. I think it ciost me £20. I started taping Doctor Who off the tv from 1981,

[@BobbyDazzler440]

My VHS Who Life just flashed before my eyes! Wonderful stuff. Great research and polished, friendly narration.

[@loftlegacy]

I've got a few of those really old anthology VHS tapes. They bring a different dynamic to the stories.

[@sebastiangreenan1774]

There's something endearing about that first Revenge Of The Cybermen VHS cover; they have the wrong Cybermen, the wrong logo and a shot of Tom Baker from his last series but bless you can't feel the enthusiasm of whoever cobbled that together from whatever archive photos they could find.

[@JAProductions494]

To be honest I was only really aware of the early days of the VHS range specifically Revenge of the Cybermen’s release because of my own videos on it As a result, I found this video absolutely fascinating

[@bicko_07]

Would you be interested in doing one for the DVD range mainly because I just want a bit of dvd nostalgia

[@AMTVWHO]

Definitely could be done in the future!

[@bigfanclub2020]

Yeah I want to hear about how the famous time lord known as the doctor reached the DVD format

[@Matthewbradley1983]

This is what I love about doctor who fans, so much passion for every aspect. Such a great video

[@AMTVWHO]

Thank you so much Matthew!

[@David315842]

This and your massive crate of Doctor Who VHS tapes unboxing was very interesting. :) Also, Doctor Who on ITVX? Really?! You probably meant to say that Brixbox was in part both the BBC iPlayer and ITVX?

[@whatsup4825]

Thoroughly delightful analysis and number crunching! Even the ‘not-we’ wife stuck around to watch this video. It’s made her appreciate BBC iPlayer.👌👌👌

[@Harbourmaster68]

This made me realise, as a teenager I bought dozens of Doctor Who VHS tapes. I don't know where i kept them all.

[@RebeccaPhythian]

That's bonkers!! I can't believe it took so long for the stories to go to VHS. A different time, ey?

[@chrisgerrardX]

I was a child in the late 90s/early 00s and always just thought my parents chose random stories for us to watch due to their personal tastes, because I assume a show that had ended 3 years before my birth would be completely available. It's funny to think that the month we bought Four to Doomsday in 2001, it was actually a new release! I'm curious about how many stories received a second release before others got their first? I know that I had later style covers for The War Games, etc before Meglos...

[@philippapworth8020]

In Australia Delta and the Bannermen was never released on VHS. Australian fans had to buy the imported copy if they wanted to complete their set. Congratulations on this vid, a brilliant idea. Maybe a DVD release date version could complement this subject. That's if you haven't done it yet. They only scary thing other than the time it took to complete seasons 1-26 was the amount of money it took to do so!!!

[@josephryan362]

I think Adam need to make a video like this but about the dvd releases of classic who and new who

[@whophd]

This is why there used to be a joke in the early days of the internet and Usenet, which was what to say if you were visited by religious fundamentalists knocking on your door: “No thank you, I own every episode of Doctor Who between 1974 and 1989, and my life is complete!”

[@georgelea4297]

I enjoyed watching Dr Who on VHS, just wondering why they used the ship of the "Red Dwarf" episode "Polymorph" to advertise BBC Video lol

[@EmployeeAMillion]

I casually hover around your main channel and wondered when there’d be more Doctor Who videos. Glad I found this channel by total accident. This is why subscriptions are useful. The timeframe of Doctor Who video releases is a new interest to me, but I’ve always found the breadth and long history of the range quite astounding. I’m working on my own dive into the covers of the novelisations, VHSes and DVDs, and how their art styles evolved over the decades. Happy to see others obsessed with that sort of minutiae that actually has a big impact on when and how we become fans.

[@TheatypicalLife]

Incredible work! Doctor Who was a massive part of my childhood and these VHS tapes were essential viewing for me ❤️ I was a great way to bond with my Aunts, one of which is no longer with us. I owe a lot to these releases

[@nigelmathewsnrm]

Thanks. This is priceless. It's like a video version of The Program Guide, which came out before the DVD and Blu-Ray releases, but oddly because it hit the shop shelves while the last adventures of the McCoy Era were still being transmitted, and so very little was known regarding the storyline, but it was invaluable to Whovians who wanted help getting a full set, and this is in very much a similar vein. Keep up the good work.

[@cliffchapman6604]

A lot of nostalgia here. I jumped on board in 1988, but we were renting a handful of 80s releases (sometimes several times) before. They didn't have all of them - I never saw the earliest Revenge, only the re-release, or either version of Five Doctors or Brain of Morbius, and they stopped turning up in rental shops once they started to go bimonthly/monthly. The high prices were with video rental shops in mind I think, ie priced so you were more likely to pass them over for purchase and use rental shops instead, till they dropped to a much more manageable tenner a piece. It was quite common to rent a player on hire/purchase from a TV shop too.

[@JamieBeeee]

I was ridiculously excited about the VHS release of The Ambassadors of Death because of the various technical aspects of the release. Who would know that it would be released as a fully colour DVD a few years later 👍🏻

[@capmodesty]

Kind of blows my mind that the BBC were still releasing new Doctor Who stories to VHS in the early 2000's

[@azraelvrykolakas157]

I've been watching the channel that plays dr who 24-7... and you are not kidding about some of those pertwee episode being colored questionably, one of them looks like they just used a noise map to guess the color.

[@gmask11]

I'd argue that Brain of Morbius didn't release as early as it did, given the incredible reduction in runtime. It might be better to say that half of Morbius released early, and half didn't appear to some time later...

[@AridersLifeYT]

My mother had 50+ original VHS tapes. We can only find 6 of them… sad times

[@SimonLeicester]

I remember buying some of the Doctor Who VHS titles in the 90’s, the excitement surrounding the VHS release of the newly rediscovered Tomb of The Cybermen and silver tins for some of the double sets. The BBC did seem to stagger good story/ bad story in their VHS release schedule. I remember selling off most of my VHS collection on eBay in the early 2000s as DVD took over. Those VHS titles didn’t half take up some space. I had bookcases full of Doctor Who and Star Trek videos. Great video. Thanks

[@jayadamone]

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. No other words, utterly lush. Thanks for this. Wonderful piece of work and research. Take a bow! 🫶.

[@smallpaul2923]

Fabulous video!!!! I used to order Dr Who on VHS from WHSmiths in the 90s. When I got a dvd machine in 2000, I was dead excited to see Dr Who come to DVD. When blu ray came out there was no way i could justify purchasing a story for the third time!!! I now just stream them via britbox on my ipad. To think I have access to every classic episode is amazing. Imagine going back in time (no pun intended!) and telling 18 year old me, stood in WHSmiths, that in the future I would have access to the whole collection of Dr Who at my fingertips!!! I know britbox is no good to an avid collector but it suits my needs perfectly.

[@garybryant5946]

It's only in retrospect that we look back at these statistical analysis of things you just collected until hopefully you had everything that existed and cheered when a personal favourite showed up 😄

[@mrburgess1698]

One thing you didn’t mention was that first Brain of Morbius release was an edited and truncated being only an hour long. The full version wasn’t released until 1990.

[@dylanhyatt5705]

Great retrospective - I missed out on the VHS era, but old enough to (just) remember the first Doctor. I think seeing the Invasion again (with the animated missing episodes) was my favourite release, followed by the Enemy of the World .

[@bananasaregood8655]

Another great video. I was first introduced to doctor who through the vhs range in the late 90s. My dad worked with someone who had collected a lot of videos from hartnell to mccoy and let us borrow them all, which i watched religiously. I then started trying to fill the gaps in stories i had not seen by asking for more videos for my birthdays and xmas throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. The stories i had on vhs were: The sensorites The reign of terror the time meddler the gun fighters the faceless ones/web of fear surviving episodes the war games the ambassadors of death the mind of evil colony in space the curse of peladon the sea devils the time monster the three doctors planet of the daleks the monster of peladon planet of the spiders genesis of the daleks revenge of the cybermen terror of the zygons the brain of morbius the seeds of doom the invasion of time destiny of the daleks meglos warriors of the deep resurrection of the daleks revelation of the daleks paradise towers remembrance of the daleks the happiness patrol Also the troughton years and the pertwee years. I eventually recorded some stories off uk gold omnibus versions such as the mutants, the time warrior, invasion of the dinosaurs and the sontaran experiment.

[@thatguyfromcetialphaV]

In the early 90s, I had to tape the reruns off the TV. A lot of the stories were just not available.

[@GrilloTheFlightless]

I remember when Twin Dilemma was first released. For some reason it was originally exclusive to Woolworths.

[@TheWilliShow-r4v]

I applaud how much research you had to do to make this.

[@arrivalofdoom7449]

Very informative video , Adam. From a very first viewing of Full Circle in 1980 when rather young , I can't say I was part of the proactive group , but I do remember the buzz when travelling out of my way to collect Earthshock on VHS in the 90s. And the wilderness years just bored a hole in my heart - I even wrecked an exam to pick up the TV movie at midnight lol. Having gone thru the whole list in our group between 2009 and 2012 in random , am now updating my collection with rewatches in a new group and the blu ray boxes. My selections and recons of Hartnell and Trout are very selected and much loved. Limited collections all the way - just picked up Toms s12 this week. And 💯 percent agree with Ambassadors - just a top notch story

[@MrMattias87]

I remember all this video covers as a kid, including the dalek tin box (which I eventually bought)

[@djpookie2000]

I love videos like this. I admire your passion for the show. I've been watching Who since 1980. I rented Revenge of the Cyberman several times back in the day. I think it has the best cybermat design.

[@chriswathen9612]

Much as I still have several Who VHS releases, I can't imagine what they were thinking with the way it was released. Many long running episodic BBC programmes were released in the 80's and 90's by just picking 3 random episodes then banging them out on a tape and doing the same once in a while for 3 more. Might have been fine for Dad's Army and Only Fools but didn't work with Who. They instead seemed to think they could replicate the experience by releasing complete stories but jumping all over the series with neither a chronological release from start to finish nor a release 'with intent' (eg chronological-ish, with a story from each Doctor in rotation - although by the end it would be all Tom Baker). Much of the artwork was nice but since there were 3 or 4 (was it even 5?) different basic sleeve designs over the years a full collection wouldn't match and you couldn't even organise them in chronological order on your shelves without them looking odd. Then completing the release was further delayed by re-releasing some of the by then deleted 80's-released omnibus format tapes (pretty much how all BBC shows were released originally) in episodic format before other stories had been released at all.

[@VIC-jk2qd]

Incredibly well produced video. Surprised your channel is so new/unknown.

[@roslyntrotter5025]

while doctor who was off the air and before i found out about big finish audios collecting the vhs's was one of the things that kept the fan flame burning i remember being on holiday and finding a abc ( australian broadcasting channel ) shop and finding a copy of the rescue / the romans i had not seen that many 1st doctor adventures out side of the 5 doctors so finding one was like gold its still one of my fav adventures well the rescue is ha ha good times

[@frankshailes3205]

That was bizarre with Hand of Fear being removed from sale so shortly after release. I had recently started buying the tapes again after a house move, and had to import it to the UK from Australia! I also had to source The Invasion (Cyberman story) from Australia because it couldn't be found in the UK; this was a gain because the Aussie one was on a single tape and not the daft double-packs used for even 6-parters in the UK and taking up way too much shelf space.

[@mwgary]

I'm fairly confident that in the late eighties or very early nineties, I saw both Seeds of Doom and Genesis of the Daleks videos on sale at Tower Records, Piccadilly Circus. Both were on sale at a quite a high price, and I think they were both omnibus editions, and had completely different covers from the later release. I did want to buy them, but they were too expensive for me at the time. I never saw them at another retailer, so they may have been intended for foreign markets, perhaps.

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

went full geek on old Who VHS? Sub earned.

[@stevedickson5853]

Didn't half fill my spare cupboards up those old vhs tapes ..

[@sg-zd8eb]

You should have included a bit about the TARDIS video cabinet that Doctor Who Magazine advertised in the early 90s.

[@lindseykaine-walley6339]

I have that!

[@calderarecords]

@@lindseykaine-walley6339 Same!

[@rogerrambo4172]

For Christmas 1991 I got Planet of the Spiders & The Curse of Fenric on VHS still one of my greatest ever Christmas memories

[@TheTitanicTardis]

I love the VHS range, a really interesting video!

[@AMTVWHO]

Thank you!

[@tinascousin]

Another amazing vid - thank you thank you thank you! Please keep them coming. I think an even more interesting analysis would be to look at the length of time that passed from the first VHS release until the date of each subsequent release. That was the real measure of fan anticipation and patience, since the vast majority of people wouldn’t have thought Doctor Who on home video was even a possibility until ROTC came along. But once it had, we felt, with every fibre of our being, the pain of waiting - every single second of every single week and month until the next one was released! Haha

[@GreatHealer.]

Great video Adam, always remember renting some of the early WHO omnibus video releases which cost 75p to rent over a few days, Ambassador's was one of my favourites near the end of the range to buy and experience for the first time. We have come a long way since..

[@robalt1983]

My collection wasn't very big. Only about twenty-something tapes. The only place to find them in the US in the 90s was Suncoast.

[@MultiShriek]

Fantastic research. A nostalgic trip for me. I started getting back into Who in late 91 and never stopped. Starting with mail order on the back of magazines followed by some delightful trips to the labyrinth of Tower Records and HMV in London. Happy days.

[@AMTVWHO]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@TheJaime9526]

Doesn’t McGanns entry achieve the Doctorish feat of having a negative time between VHS and transmission?

[@aLrgDck]

Also worth noting the orphan episodes on the Years VHS's? The survivng eps of The Abominable Snowmen, Space Pirates & Enemy of the World were all included on The Troughton Years and The Crusade and Celestial Toymaker were included with the unaired pilot on The Hartnell Years (both in 1991).

[@stevenmcnicoll5060]

We all had bootlegs from Australia and elsewhere back then. There was no hurry.

[@pcb1175]

It’s pretty wild to hear how long it actually took for some classic Who stories to get released on home media. Though if we’re including DVDs into this & disregarding animated recreations only including fully surviving episodes, the longest time between broadcast & release is currently the enemy of the world. Also I swear in the season 9 viewing figures video you said the mutants was the last serial to be released on the vhs range

[@outsideinside9990]

Time stamps for each doctor! 7th doctor: 2:42 6th doctor: 5:27 5th doctor: 7:48 4th doctor: 10:03 3rd doctor: 14:25 2nd doctor: 18:28 1st doctor: 22:03

[@jlbwho7913]

I've recently dusted out the old VHS and purchased a few from ebay. Such as downtime and curse of fatal death

[@lucaschapman2188]

My old Art Teacher was in The Greatest show in the Galaxy ( pit part) David Ashby

[@cyberendergamer0311]

Hey! Good for you!

[@MrKenichi22]

Hey buddy, I’m Yankanese from 2003-09

[@Jaketherobonrd]

Of course myself growing I watched episodes of Doctor Who on VHS, borrowing from my local library and I was fortunate to have a next door neighbour at the time, who was a doctor who fan as well and had a box mostly Tom Baker episodes which I watched at his. That was the only way I could the show before the new series was around.

[@thefonzkiss]

“Relatively easy” to view them, if you’re in the UK where the old episodes are on streaming I guess. Plenty of countries they’re not.

[@SamuelLove]

WTTW Chicago rarely showed the B&W episodes - the VHS tapes were crucial!

[@peterharrington7523]

Fantastic and thanks. God those facts make me feel old yet young. 😃 They give me a great pleasure and memories going into HMV and W.H.Smith's to find the latest release. They couldn't come quick enough. Pointing out the time lines and gaps,my god,was really like that? I just see covers now. I had them all,vhs I mean,but when I moved I found some with damaged through damp and they took up too much space. I kept the covers of 4,5,6 and 7,still have the first Three Doctor's vhs. Also any boxsets,tins,or specials,W H.Smiths did a few. Anyway many thanks for all that archive work,it is so much appreciated. I'm a collector,have all episodes dvds,audio's, recons etc. Thanks god for blu rays but this must be the last time I buy the same story. 😃 It's been a long time being a fan and wouldn't have missed a minute of it. 😄

[@callumeales1552]

Funny this video was recommend as i just completed the vhs collection myself. Hand of fear was still hard to find.

[@AMTVWHO]

Glad you were able to find a copy!

[@iant9461]

Mostly anticipated City of Death Logopolis Genesis of the Daleks

[@cbfall]

Amazingly interesting video indeed!!!!!

[@anonUK]

Home video wasn't a thing until the time of the Peter Davison/ Colin Baker transition.

[@ftumschk]

Pre-emptive "like". I know I'm going to enjoy this :)

[@charlessturge4911]

Great vid - one slight error though (yes, I'm a nerd, but I also had this VHS as a kid so fond memories...) the two surviving episodes of the Moonbase were released on VHS - there was a collection called "cybermen the early years" which had surviving episodes of The Moonbase, and the Wheel in Space

[@ilzg2000]

Interesting and informative as always :) on a side note, some of the orphan episodes did make it to vhs. The Hartnell years saw the Pilot, crusade 3, toymaker 4, the troughton years saw snowmen 2, enemy 3, pirates 2, Daleks early years saw master plan 5, 10 and evil 2, and Cybermen early years saw moonbase 2, 4 and wheel 3, 6. I loved my hartnell years tape, watch toymaker so often ha!

[@SGMiner21]

Not gonna lie, I was surprised that there were quite a few releases after I was born in 2002, especially as the DVD releases were starting to get more regular at that stage, I'm curious if this was for completions sake or were VHS players still popular around this time as I've always known DVDs!

[@AMTVWHO]

We were still predominately a VHS household until around 2006! Whilst I'd say the format dropped off sales wise around 2003/4, a lot of families still used their machines and tapes regularly!

[@DrWhoFanJ]

If you’d covered the entire range, you would’ve met the amusing oddity of the TVM having the gap between transmission and release being a negative value! 🤯 (Also, the pilot episode takes the crown for shortest gap between broadcast and VHS release at just five months!)

[@peterdixon7734]

The moment of liberation.

[@Kazuo1G]

What gets me is that we haven't gotten to see the "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" episode 1 recolo(u)riz(s)ation (Yes, I'm a Yank. XD Shaddap.) on Britbox. They put the color-recovered versions of "Ambassadors of Death", "Mind of Evil", and "The Dæmons" up there, but not the colorized version of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" Episode 1?

[@lordmastersXXX]

Adam are you doing the DVD range from The Five Doctors 1999 to The Abominable Snowmen 2022 and include revival Who 😊👍

[@romanschautfilme]

Some People waitet my WHOLE life to watch the edge of destruction again...poor souls...

[@Uzumakipavel]

But what was the first Doctor story that was released on DVD?

[@jasongoswelluk7475]

This was really interesting. 👍

[@AMTVWHO]

Thank you!

[@MadmanWthABox]

For some reason, I enjoy these videos, Also, do you think it's worth it since I have an old VHS TV to get all the episodes on it?

[@Magmaster13]

Surprised you didn't mention the weird release of Shada that had Tom Baker narrate to fill in the gaps.

[@AMTVWHO]

I only left it out as I thought it technically wasn't complete! But is a fun release!

[@MechaUsagi]

Still waiting for the Caterpillar Trails boxset.

[@owensalter227]

For me it was the dr who and the silurians when it was released 🙊🙈🙉

[@adamhenley8295]

I remember owning both the seeds of death and Pyramid of Mars back in the 80s So long ago now 😂😂

[@jamespaton7841]

I think Seeds of Death was the first VHS copy I bought. I remember being slightly disappointed it was an omnibus edition without the cliff hanger endings, Revenge of the Cyberman I had rented from my local library earlier and was so thrilled to watch it. I got my first video recorder in 1981 and taped the five faces of Doctor Who BBC transmissions at the end of 1981, before the Peter Davidson era started and I started recording on a Monday and a Tuesday nights.

[@willlovesgaz]

15:04 "Day TO the Daleks" ??? lol 🤣

[@lindseykaine-walley6339]

I started collecting these in 89, still have them all. The covers on some of them are fantastic. They were worth the wait!

[@josephryan362]

I have alot of classic who dvds and new who dvds and I am not going to get any classic doctor who storys of vhs because I really like watching my doctor who classic dvds and classic who is my favourite era of doctor who and I don't have any need for doctor who on vhs

[@outsideinside9990]

neat!

[@FaithfulJimmy]

Good but you have ignored the years tapes which in some cases included all surviving episodes of a number of stories.