Season 2 Extras

 

We have a bit more information now about the forthcoming Season 2 Blu-ray box set. I mentioned a couple of the Extras yesterday - such as the two interviews and the new documentary - but added to this we have more detail and some other items.

The documentary is specifically about the making of this season, and features Richard Martin among the participants. This was very much his season too, as he directed three six-part stories for it.

Another new item is Toby Hadoke doing another "Looking for..." piece - this time concerning David Whitaker, the series' first ever story editor. He had handed over the role to Dennis Spooner by this time, but had commissioned some of the stories and is the writer of both The Rescue and The Crusade.

We have no Doctors on any of the "Behind the Sofa" panels. Bonnie Langford joins Sophie Aldred as one panel, with Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Wendy Padbury as another. The most relevant panel is Peter Purves, Carole Ann Ford and Maureen O'Brien. A pity William Russell couldn't have participated.

The item on merchandising is presented by Emily Cook, late of DWM, and will no doubt mostly involve Dalek items.

There will also be some archive convention footage involving three Hartnell companions - Jacqueline Hill, Adrienne Hill and Michael Craze. I would have thought that the latter two would have been better kept for Season 3 or 4 box sets - unless it is some panel involving all three together.

The soundtrack for The Dalek Invasion of Earth has been "enhanced" in some way (pity they couldn't have given us improved CGI to provide a better climax. The small amount of new CGI from the DVD release is included).

The Lion episode has a new commentary track about its rediscovery back in 1999.

NB: The BFI have said that they will be holding a launch event just before it is released, showing one of the stories in the set (still to be announced). This might be our best way of finding out the true release date first - by keeping an eye on the NFT programme.

If you haven't seen the video which was released to advertise the set, you really ought to catch up as soon as possible. Once again written by Pete McTighe, "The Storyteller" features an elderly Vicki reminiscing with her grand-daughter about her TARDIS travels. It opens with some lovely CGI animation of the wrecked spaceship on Dido.

The choice of clips and the soundtrack make for a rather moving piece. Vicki's ending on the series was a huge disappointment at the time, so this provides a lovely coda.