As we come to the end of January, and the start of the 60th anniversary year: the official Doctor Who social channels have dropped us a wonderful treat! A brand-new announcement for the Doctor Who: The Collection blu-ray series… This time, we’re going back into the Jon Pertwee era for Season 9. Yes, that’s right – Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 9 has been revealed as the newest release, coming on March 20th!
The Collection – Season 9: A Behemoth
The set is a wonderful eight-discs, spreading the love for three of the five stories across multiple discs!
- Discs One & Two – Day of the Daleks
- Disc Three – The Curse of Peladon
- Discs Four & Five – The Sea Devils
- Disc Six – The Mutants
- Discs Seven & Eight – The Time Monster
The additional discs for Day of the Daleks and The Sea Devils allow for the inclusion of the previously-unreleased ‘movie/omnibus edits’ of the stories. Monumentally, we are also now thirteen releases into the series too… which means we’re halfway through the twenty-six Classic TV Seasons.(yes, we know the TV Movie & the ‘Wilderness Years’ will be a twenty-seventh piece of the puzzle…)
The Reveal
The set was officially revealed(yes, we know some eagle-eyed fans may have caught on a bit earlier than intended…) with a specially-made narrative trailer, as is the going tradition now. And this one was rather sweet. Pete McTighe writes and directs a nice little piece for Jo Grant, that features a Sea Devil & includes Sarah Jane’s trusty old sonic lipstick…
The Art
As always, the cover art for the set has been done by graphic designer Lee Binding. And oh, what a treat this is. Previously teased by Lee on Twitter – it is indeed very purple.
And there we have the glorious purple beauty! With all five stories getting fabulous creature-features upfront. The gold Supreme Dalek and Ogrons from Day of the Daleks… Alpha Centauri from The Curse of Peladon… the titular Sea Devils…(well, okay, they’re not really called that. But blame that oil-rig man for starting humanity on a trend…)
The Mutt from The Mutants looks particularly nice in purple, I must say… and of course, Kronos from The Time Monster is leading up the top! Alas, there’s no TOMTIT on the cover. (If you know, you know.) But the Third Doctor does something else on hand that allows for Aggedor to get a cheeky little peek in on the cover.
The bright blues of Jon Pertwee’s eyes are out in full force, and the Inverness-style cape of the Third Doctor is there in full detail. It’s a real beauty of a cover.
As Richard Bignell promised back in October when the Disney+ tied logo rebrand came along, Doctor Who: The Collection is indeed continuing with the ‘Jodie-era’ logo to maintain boxset continuity. Intriguingly, the old BBC logo is also present. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with that in releases after this one.
Mystery Solved
Speaking of Richard Bignell – archive file extraordinare & Doctor Who expert – his tease back in December now makes clear sense. It was in-fact the studio floor plan for Day of the Daleks that he was showing off!
The Collection – Season 9: Highlight Features
This new release certainly has some exciting things up its sleeve!
- MAKING THE TIME MONSTER – a look-back on the story with Katy Manning, John Levene and more.
- MICHAEL E BRIANT AT THE HELM – A profile of director Michael E. Briant.
- LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION Katy Manning and company revisit the filming locations of the season.
- THE FELL GUY A profile of prolific stuntman Stuart Fell.
- BEHIND THE SOFA Five new Behind the Sofa episodes, for each of the stories.
- MOVIE-LENGTH EDITIONS Those special versions of Day of the Daleks and The Sea Devils.
- PDF ARCHIVE Including scripts, exclusive unseen BBC production files and other rarities.
Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 9 is available to preorder now from Amazon here. This limited-edition collectors blu-ray boxset costs £49.99, and will be released in the UK on March 20th.
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