I have often thought about what I'd like to see included on the First and Second Doctor Blu-ray collections, when they finally get round to releasing them. We were promised, way back when the first one came out, that the B&W seasons would not be held back to come out last, and yet are still waiting for one of these six sets.
Here is a bit of idle speculation, based on features which have been seen on existing releases.
SEASON 1
The picture quality on the "In the Beginning" DVD boxset wasn't terribly good, so cleaned up versions of the first three stories will be most welcome. Another thing about that earlier DVD set was that not every episode was granted a commentary track.
Marco Polo could be presented as a full audio, with telesnaps. The middle episode, which lacks telesnaps, could use other representative images, of which there are a great many, often in colour.
All the other stories in this season exist in their entirety, until you get to The Reign of Terror - but its two missing episodes have already animated. The Keys of Marinus lacks a proper making-of documentary, as does The Sensorites.
As far as other Extras go, the first season would benefit from a "Behind the Sofa" look by the final TARDIS team of the classic series - McCoy and Aldred, if not figures from 2005 onwards. We'd obviously like to see William Russell and Carole Ann Ford give their reactions.
If Matthew Sweet is going to interview anyone, it should be one of this pair. Ford would be the obvious choice, as this is her only full season. Russell could be the subject of a Season 2 boxset interview.
As it's Season 1, I'd expect a big new biographical piece on William Hartnell.
As it's their first appearance, a new documentary about the Daleks - perhaps part one of a series that would conclude on the Season 25 boxset.
Would any of these stories warrant a new CGI version? Only The Daleks might benefit (extermination effects, and Lake of Mutations creatures).
One concern about these earliest seasons is the number of discs they need. The complete stories alone would cover 7 discs, with a Marco Polo audio either confined to an 8th extras disc or given a disc of its own - making 9 discs in total. Depending on how many Extras they decide to include, might this even stretch to two volumes?
SEASON 2
As with Season 1, almost every story of this season exists in the archives. Indeed there are no stories missing in their entirety, just two episodes from The Crusade. These can be covered by audio and telesnaps. (I've read that the reason this story hasn't been considered for animation is that there are too many speaking characters, too many scenes / backgrounds - assuming that the audio is up to scratch).
As mentioned above, William Russell would be the obvious candidate for a Matthew Sweet interview, although Maureen O'Brien would also make for an interesting interviewee.
A decent biography of Verity Lambert would fit nicely on this set.
As far as CGI enhancement goes, I'd say The Chase would be best candidate for this season.
This time, the stories alone will take up 9 discs - so again you might be looking at splitting this over two volumes.
This or Season 1 is likely to be the first Hartnell boxset to be released, being the most complete, though I suspect that Season 1 might be held back until the 60th Anniversary year.
SEASON 3
After two almost complete seasons, we hit a major problem as far as these sets go. There's simply very little of Season 3 left in the archives. It's not just the episodes being missing - this season didn't get much in the way of telesnaps either, so there's no visual record at all for a lot of this.
Is there even enough to justify a Season 3 boxset?
We have a single episode from the first story - Galaxy 4 - plus several minutes from Episode One, but the missing episodes have now been animated. The next two stories are totally missing, although those Lancashire students did create a reconstruction of Mission to the Unknown.
Only three episodes out of twelve exist for The Dalek Master Plan. The next story, The Massacre, is also missing.
Things do pick up later in the season, coinciding with the arrival of Dodo Chaplet. We've got all of The Ark, The Gunfighters and The War Machines. Only one episode of The Celestial Toymaker survives, and none from The Savages.
That makes four stories that could be presented as "complete", with two orphan episodes only, three audio only, and one a modern reconstruction. Unlikely they're going to use 10 discs just for the stories.
The obvious candidate for a Matthew Sweet interview here would be Peter Purves, as this is his main season.
I can't really see them giving any of these episodes the enhanced CGI treatment.
Some sort of appreciation piece on the late Jackie Lane would be nice.
SEASON 4
Like the previous one, a great deal is missing from the archives, although this has partly been addressed by some animation. Unlike the previous season, this one is much better represented by telesnaps.
The first story (The Smugglers) is missing, and the second (The Tenth Planet) has lost its fourth episode - although this has already been animated. The Power of the Daleks is already fully animated. The Highlanders is missing, as is half of The Underwater Menace, and half of The Moonbase. The latter has its missing episodes already animated.
The next three stories have been animated, and two of them (The Faceless Ones and Evil of the Daleks) include orphan episodes.
There are no complete archive stories for this season, only a grand total of 10 surviving episodes for the whole season.
Nothing shouts out for CGI treatment, though I would have loved them to have gotten rid of the strings holding up the Cyberman saucers.
There should be a big new biographical documentary on Troughton, a Matthew Sweet interview with Anneke Wills, and a Michael Craze appreciation.
As it is their first appearance, something new on the Cybermen, similar to what I proposed for the Daleks on the Season 1 set.
SEASON 5
Like Season 4, this one has benefited lately from animation - plus that rediscovery of missing episodes back in 2013. This time we have two complete stories - Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World. The Web of Fear has only one episode missing (and that's been animated, albeit terribly so). The Ice Warriors is two thirds complete, and again the missing bits have already been animated (again rather badly). Fury from the Deep is now fully animated. The Abominable Snowmen has only one episode surviving, and The Wheel in Space has four parts missing. The former of these is due the animation treatment very soon, and the latter will surely get the same before too long.
Nothing jumps out as far as CGI enhancement goes.
The obvious Matthew Sweet interviewee is Frazer Hines. The Ice Warriors have never had the same attention as the Daleks and Cybermen, so a good documentary on them would be nice, and maybe one on the Great Intelligence. Both of these were brought back to the series in recent years.
SEASON 6
After the problems of Seasons 3 - 5, Season 6 sees a lot of stories surviving complete in the archives. No story is missing in its entirety, though we only have a single episode from The Space Pirates. Another problem with this one is that there aren't any telesnaps either.
The only other missing material is the two episodes of The Invasion, but these have already been animated.
A few candidates for new CGI effects. My only complaint about The Invasion is the overuse of stock footage in the concluding episodes, and the poor model work. You could also bulk out the invasion itself - with more Cybermen at more locations. The Dominators could also do with an alternative to the model work, especially in the first episode. The rocket stuff in The Seeds of Death is fine as it is, so I'd put those other two stories ahead of it.
The obvious candidate for interviewing by Matthew Sweet is Wendy Padbury. This season sees the first Doctor Who work by Robert Holmes (two stories), so it would be nice to see a comprehensive piece on him.
It's a fair guess that Season 6 will be the first Troughton boxset to be released, being the most complete.
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