Bamboozled by Dr Who DVDs

[margaritasbythesea]

Can anyone help me? I am completely mystified.

DS has asked for seasons 1-8 of Dr Who on DVD for Christmas, by which he means the old ones beginning with Patrick Troughton. He sayas his friend has them. I have asked for a picture of the box cover but none forthcoming yet.

I keep trying to work out what it is I am supposed to buy and am completely bamboozled by the whole thing. There seem to be so many brandings and rebrandings. He just wants to watch the series, as he has been watching the modern ones on iplayer.

Could any kind person please link to a simple box set or site that will explain it to me?

Some are available on Amazon prime if you want to let him see them. Pick and choose stories, seasons can be expensive but it may give you an idea on whether subscribing to Britons is worth it.

You will find some on Ebay.

I think you are misunderstanding the ‘deleted’ bit here.

Many of the earlier episodes literally no longer exist. Tape was expensive in those days so they recorded over them. No one has seen them since broadcast.

This is a list of the first 8 Doctors episodes - not all are available any more but it’s a starting point

merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/features/dvd/

Oh so not all these dvds exist - real shame? Are these just the episodes that were made?

Can't understand why when they have other stuff preserved like On the Buses

On the Buses was ITV (made by London Weekend Television) - ITV kept hold of more of their stuff than the BBC.

things like on the buses were made, as I understand it, for sale to the various regional TV companies, who paid a fee to the maker. So there may have been more copies, and there would have been repeat fees for each showing, so a financial benefit from keeping copies available.

The BBC had a different business model. They sent copies to overseas broadcasters in the colonies, some of which did not return them after use, so occasionally copies have been found in old store rooms. I imagine it is increasingly unikely any more will be found.

Worth noting as well that although On the Buses has dated badly, the film was the highest grossing in the UK the year it came out.

It was a bit of a random example😊

Have caught DH watching the repeats before now

No, nobody has deleted any Tom Baker episodes. All the colour ones exist. It's only the B&W ones they 'wiped'. (See the chart I linked to above.) This wasn't unusual - it was standard practice for TV shows in the 60s. Nobody imagined thousands of people would want to see these shows again in forty years' time.