Season 17 next for Blu-ray?

According to a US YouTuber, who is usually fairly reliable on such matters, the next season to get the Blu-ray boxset treatment with be 17 -  Tom Baker's penultimate series. A date of 13th December is being mooted, but it probably won't be out until late January if previous boxsets are anything to go by.

Season 17 is regarded by many as the weakest of Baker's series, despite having Douglas Adams as script editor (or because of, depending on your sense of humour).

It was the final season to be produced by Graham Williams, and infamously remained incomplete after the story which was to end the season was cancelled due to industrial action.

This was Shada, and I think we can all agree that any Season 17 boxset is going to include this story. It was completed using animation not that long ago, and another version exists with Tom Baker filling in the missing sections, whilst visiting the old MOMI exhibition.

The other significant thing to say about Season 17 is that it saw the introduction of Lalla Ward as the second incarnation of Romana, whilst K9 was temporarily voiced by David Brierley (and Roy Skelton briefly).

The season opens with Destiny of the Daleks, which was the final story written by Terry Nation. It acts as a sequel to the far superior Genesis of the Daleks. Inflation was running rampant during Williams' time as producer, and budgets were stretched to breaking point - leading to some poor production values across this whole season. 

Whilst many dislike this season overall, they always claim that it does contain some good things. City of Death is definitely a "good thing". It's one of the greatest ever Doctor Who stories, and I suspect some people will buy this boxset just to get a lovely upscaled version of this story.

Quality dips for the next story - The Creature From The Pit - which is best known for its terrible monster. Even this story has its good points - with some nice performances and some atmospheric Ealing filming.

Nightmare of Eden is infamous for its nightmare final recording session, when it lost its director. The main reason people have problems with this season is that it was where Tom Baker was overindulged as the programme's star. He was allowed to go over the top too often, bullied cast and crew, and added too much humour which failed to be funny.

The season ended prematurely with The Horns of Nimon in the run up to Christmas, and many see it as a bit of a pantomime. It's actually one of those stories which is good on paper, but suffers from poor production values, and too much of that "humour".

As far as possible Extras go, the obvious big Matthew Sweet interview would be with Ward. Would she share a sofa with her ex-husband nowadays?

Destiny of the Daleks has already been given the new CGI effects treatment. I wouldn't touch the VFX for City of Death, so that leaves three stories that could potentially have new effects, and all three contain scenes set in outer space. Of the three, personally, I would pick Nightmare of Eden to get optional improved spaceship sequences.

In closing, just a reminder that this is not confirmed. However, Season 17 has been mentioned frequently when it comes to imminent releases - so it is a good bet that this will prove to be accurate.