In case you’re one of the three people left on the planet who are still unaware, November 23rd is the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who first appearing on our screens. The BBC, being the good television network that it is, will not be letting this fact go un-merchandised and so the first limited edition item is now available for pre-order – Doctor Who: Regeneration.
The Regeneration box set is a coffee table book and DVD set that covers each of The Doctor’s regenerations to date. The DVDs contain over 1000 minutes of footage and include each regeneration story, from “The Tenth Planet” (including the missing fourth episode recreated using the original soundtrack, a short surviving sequence and animation) to “The End of Time,” so you can follow the Doctor’s incarnations from beginning to end. The book contains never before seen images from the Doctor Who archives so fans can read all about their favourite transformations after watching the episodes.
Regeneration is limited to 1000 copies and is at this moment unavailable outside Europe. This seems a very odd move from the BBC considering the immense popularity of the show in the United States, I can only presume that BBC Worldwide have a similar release planned for the US or else they might soon have a lot of angry American Whovians on their hands.
The box set also seems to be in a spot of confusion about exactly who it is being marketed to. Fans of classic Who are likely to already own most of these stories on DVD and may well resent the hefty £50 price-tag just to get hold of the missing episode from “The Tenth Planet” prior to its release at the end of the year. NuWhovians on the other hand are frequently uninterested in watching Classic Who, especially at such a price, so presumably this set is aimed squarely at collectors who just need to have everything. Judging by comments on Amazon UK, the release has clearly split the audience with reviewers either giving five stars or just one in advance of release.
If you are unfamiliar with Classic Who then this set would be a great introduction to each Doctor, but at such a high cost is it really likely to attract many new viewers to this era?
The Doctor Who Regeneration Box Set is available to pre-order from Amazon UK and the BBC Shop prior to its release on June 24th.
The coffee-table book of each Doctor sounds great, but I could do without the episode collection dedicated to the ten times he’s been killed. Why can’t they focus on the greatest moments and achievements of each regeneration’s life?