The Celestial Toymaker in March

There's a screening at the BFI of the animated The Celestial Toymaker at the beginning of March, which is always a sign that the DVD / Blu-ray release is imminent.

As Amazon US had previously published 26th March as a release date (quickly deleted), I think we can safely assume that the UK release will be Monday 25th March.

I can't say that I'm a fan of this style of animation - The Web of Fear Ep 3 was atrocious - but if there's one story where it might work it's this one, having some surreal moments. The test will be in the motion, as we already know that the resemblances are poor.

I know for a fact that many fans are extremely angry about the animations. 

Of course we're grateful that they are being brought to us, but we would like some consistency in animation style (ideally of the quality we saw with The Moonbase and The Tenth Planet 4), and we'd like to see the animations do more to honour the original episodes in terms of character and setting.

It's very jarring to switch between the animated episodes of something like The Underwater Menace and its two surviving instalments.

I've read recently that An Unearthly Child has now been removed from Britbox, thanks to the copyright holder. It's one of the dangers of relying on streaming services, and why you really ought to try and invest in physical media, the current schedule for which, in the UK, is:

12th February: The Church on Ruby Road

26th February: The Daleks (In Colour)

18th March: The Collection - Season 15

25th March: The Celestial Toymaker

With regards the Collection box-sets, Pete McTighe has stated that they will be resting the specially filmed trailers, such as the fantastic Leela / Time War one for Season 15. The next couple have already been prepared, but thereafter they will simply be clip compilations.