Doctor Who on DVD for North America

I can say without a doubt that the classic Doctor Who is the most expensive series to buy today.  Twenty-six seasons (or portions thereof) are sold not in season/series box set like every other TV program released in the past decade, but by story.  Nor are complete seasons available for download.  Of the 157 stories produced before the year 2000 (including Shada and the TV Movie but not The Curse of the Fatal Death which had been released on VHS), 18 do not have a sufficient number of existing episodes to release separately, two stories with half their episodes can be released (The Underwater Menace & The Crusades), but only Underwater Menace will be released.  That leaves 137 stories that have been released on DVD since 1999.

As of October, 2015 all Classic Doctor Who stories will have been released with the exceptions noted above. Now is the best time to begin purchasing DVDs if you haven't already.  Unlike the VHS releases, which were released over a span of 21 years, the DVD releases were never released as movie editions which eliminated the cliffhangers (The Seeds of Death, Spearhead from Space, Day of the Daleks, The Time Warrior, Death to the Daleks, The Ark in Space, Revenge of the Cybermen, Terror of the Zygons, The Deadly Assassin, The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng-Chiang).  Other stories were noticeably edited (The Web Planet, Carnival of Monsters, Pyramids of Mars (also movie), The Brain of Morbius (also movie)).  Thus with DVDs you can have an almost totally consistent release of the series, (with the obnoxious release of The Chase in the US and Australia)  More importantly, for the First and Second Doctors, almost all of their episodes have been subject to the VidFIRE treatment to restore the video look to the film telecines that exist today (exceptions include The Time Meddler and Episode 1 of the Crusade. The Moonbase DVD in the U.S. should have had the process applied byt did not)  The Third Doctor's stories that are only available as B&W film telecine and poor quality NTSC tapes have also been colorized with the best technology available.  The Restoration Team that has supervised the releases of Doctor Who has done an extraordinary job with the existing library to produce the best quality releases.

The U.K., (Region 2/Region B) the U.S. (Region 1/Region A) and Australia (Region 4/Region B) are the three major markets for releases of Doctor Who (including the current series, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures).  Everything is available (except for Seasons 4 & 5 of Sarah Jane Blu-ray) in some form or another in each region.  Nonetheless, if you wish to purchase a uniform collection, you should really purchase the Region 2 U.K. releases.

First, new Doctor Who releases in the U.K. begin expensive, but within a few months the prices almost always fall sharply.  New Doctor Who releases in the U.S. begin expensive and seemingly remain expensive to purchase new, seemingly no matter how old.  Older titles (by DVD release date) in the U.K. are often extremely inexpensive (£5-6).

Second, every story is still in print and can be purchased new, today, in the U.K.  In the U.S., there are several stories that have gone out of print, and the prices for them can rise dramatically.  The stories that are out of print in the U.S., with no planned Special Edition to replace them, are :

The Sensorites
The Rescue / The Romans
The Web Planet
The Time Meddler
The Gunfighters
The Invasion
The Krotons
The War Games
Terror of the Autons
Colony in Space
The Time Monster
Planet of the Spiders
City of Death
Black Orchid
Earthshock (included in a barebones edition for The Doctors Revisited Volume Two)
Time-Flight
The Awakening
Frontios
Planet of Fire
Attack of the Cybermen
The Mark of the Rani
The Two Doctors
Happiness Patrol
Dragonfire

Battlefield

Ghost Light
The Curse of Fenric

2003 is the first year where prior DVD releases have not been superceded.  Here are the stories were originally released and have been later replaced with Special Editions :

The Aztecs
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Seeds of Death
Spearhead from Space
Inferno
The Claws of Axos
The Three Doctors
Carnival of Monsters
The Green Death
The Ark in Space
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The Ribos Operation	US Only Key to Time Box Set
The Pirate Planet	US Only Key to Time Box Set
The Stones of Blood	US Only Key to Time Box Set
The Androids of Tara	US Only Key to Time Box Set
The Power of Kroll	US Only Key to Time Box Set
The Armageddon Factor	US Only Key to Time Box Set
The Visitation
The Five Doctors
Resurrection of the Daleks
The Caves of Androzani
Vengeance on Varos
Remembrance of the Daleks
Doctor Who – The Movie	UK Only

Special Editions are more expensive than the earlier releases, but contain more extras (usually an extra disc) and improved picture and sound quality.  Most Special Editions today have dropped in price so much as to make them not any more expensive than buying now-OOP original DVD releases.

Third, copyright clearances are easiest in the U.K., which makes export versions for the U.S. and Australia comparatively more expensive.  Moreover, sometimes music cannot be cleared and must be replaced.  In one instance in the first episode of The Chase, two minutes had to be excised from the U.S. and Australian DVD releases because the Doctor and his companions were watching a concert of The Beatles.  The footage is available on the VHS version of these stories for each country.  Similarly, The Beatles can be heard on the soundtrack of Remembrance of the Daleks on all VHS copies, but that had to be replaced for the U.S. DVD releases.

Fourth, since 2006 the BBC has been releasing story collections of the classic serials in Region 2.  These collections can follow a particular monster like Beneath the Surface, which collects the Silurian and Sea Devil stories, a series of related stories, New Beginnings, which presents the stories surrounding the Fourth Doctor's regeneration, or a looser collection of weaker selling titles like Earthstory, which includes the First Doctor story The Gunfighters and the Fifth Doctor story The Awakening.  In the U.K., virtually none of these box sets had the stories released separately.  Most of the box sets that made it to the U.S. also allowed the stories to be purchased separately.  There are at least nine box sets that never saw a U.S. release, and while the prices may have been high in the beginning, the prices on them have so decreased as to make them very good bargains.  In the U.S. you would have to purchase these stories separately at increased cost.

	US Release	UK Release	Stories Available Separately in US?	Stories Available Separately in UK?
Earthstory	No	Yes	Yes	No
Bred for War	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mara Tales	No	Yes	Yes	No
Revisitations 1-3	No	Yes	Yes	No
Peladon Tales	No	Yes	Yes	No
Mannequin Mania	No	Yes	Yes	No
Time-Flight & Arc of Infinity	No	Yes	Yes	No
Beneath the Surface	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
New Beginnings	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
The Beginning	Yes	Yes	No	No
E-Space Trilogy	Yes	Yes	No	No
The Key to Time	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Lost in Time	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
The Invisible Enemy with K-9 and Company	Yes	Yes	No	No
The Black Guardian Trilogy	Yes	Yes	No	No
Dalek War	Yes	Yes	No	No
The Space Museum & The Chase	Yes	Yes	No	No
The Key to Time (Original Edition)	Yes	No	Yes	N/A
The Doctors Revisited 1-4	Yes	No	Yes	N/A
The Doctors Revisited 5-8	Yes	No	Yes	N/A

Finally, the packaging of the U.K. releases is superior to the U.S. releases.  Each U.K. release came with a booklet discussing the story and giving a listing and description of all the special features on the disc.  These booklets are not available as a paper copy on the U.S. releases.  Also, some U.S. box sets like The Beginning, The Invisible Enemy with K-9 and Company and The Space Museum & The Chase did not have separate cases for each story.

There are, however, a pair of hurdles if you wish to buy Region 2 DVDs outside of the U.K.  First, you must find a seller willing to ship to your country and be prepared to pay for shipping.  Amazon.co.uk. will ship Region 2 U.K. DVDs or Region B U.K. Blu-rays to the U.S., and their shipping charges are very reasonable.  There is a delivery charge of £0.99 per CD, DVD or Blu-ray and a £2.09 combined delivery charge.  This delivery charge does not increase on the number of items in the order.  The delivery time is 5-7 business days.  No VAT or U.S. state sales tax is collected unless perhaps you live in a state where Amazon.com collects the tax.

Second, you will need a region 2 or region free DVD player to play these discs.  I think that the vast majority of people who play Region 2 DVDs in a Region 1 country these days use VLC Player.  VLC will work fine with Doctor Who Region 2 DVDs, so long as the drive does not have a region code (RPC-1) is hard-coded to Region 2.  I now recommend using MakeMKV to backup your Doctor Who episodes.  MakeMKV is a modern program that is trialware, but you can always get a new trial period when it upgrades to a new version.  MakeMKV will easily rip all video and audio tracks losslessly from a disc.

Ripping four episodes of Doctor Who takes about 15 minutes on my PC.  To figure out what to rip, I use VLC or PowerDVD to select each individual episode and mark down the Title number when that episode plays.  Having a list of the episode times helps, which are provided at the excellent and venerable Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time Travel site : http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/

Even though the PS3 will not play PAL content from a DVD, even if the DVD is a region free copy, it has no problems playing the extracted, uncompressed content via a media server.  My flat screen LCD and my CRTs have no trouble displaying the resulting streamed video.  With the latter, presumably the PS3 is outputing an NTSC-compatible video signal (NTSC color encoding, 525 lines/59.94i), and it does it very well.  While the PS3 does not natively play MKV files, with PS3 Media Server, that is not a problem.

Last month, I began ordering all available DVDs from Amazon.co.uk, buying the regularly released boxsets (not limited editions) to save money. On Amazon.co.uk, you can only order 50 items at a time, so for a complete classic Doctor Who set you will need at least two orders.  I was able to get my first batch of purchases into two orders, but the site can get error prone when trying to order so many things at one time.  Prices fluctuate frequently on Doctor Who DVDs, so you may get a better or worse price depending on when you put an item in your shopping basket versus when you actually complete an order.

Fortunately, the value between the British Pound Sterling and the U.S. Dollar has been fairly favorable for the past three years, generally hovering around $1 USD equaling between £1.50-1.70.  However, your credit card will charge a fee to perform the conversion.  My card charged me approximately 3% of the total cost of the order, including shipping.

If you place a large order, Amazon will ship out DVDs several at a time.  You will not get one big box, but maybe eight smaller shipments.  Each time a shipment is sent from the factory, your card will get charged.  I have not encountered a damaged disc, but three cases have had some minor issues with damage.  Also, for one story, the DVD insert booklet was not present, but I understand that the issue does occasionally rear itself.

Having purchased all the Region 2 Doctor Who DVDs, I can definitely say that now is the time to buy.  The BBC apparently is not keen about producing new Special Editions of previously released stories.  The last was back in August, 2013.  Additionally, there are no classic episodes left to be released, save for The Underwater Menace Episode 2.  That story may receive a release with animation or telesnap reconstruction, probably the latter.  Buy before stories go out of print.

Godzilla on Disc - Criterion Blu-ray vs. Classic Media DVD

Godzilla was a big success when it was released in its native Japan in 1954, and one of the first elaborate special effects movies made in Japan since the end of World War II.  When it was released overseas, it was retitled Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, dubbed, cut and new footage of Raymond Burr "interacting" with the Japanese actors was added to make the film more marketable to Western audiences.  Outside of Japanese expatriate communities and in Asian countries, this was the version seen throughout the world beginning in 1956 and just about ever since.

The original Japanese version did make appearances in art-houses in 1982 and 2003.  The first time I saw Godzilla, King of the Monsters was on TV on TBS back in the late 1980s.  The first time I saw it on film it was in 2004 and it was the subtitled Japanese version.  The American version had been released many times on VHS and twice on DVD without the Japanese version.  These DVD versions (Scimitar, 1998; Classic Media, 2002) have long been considered inferior.  All you ever probably ever need to know about them can be found here : http://www.tohokingdom.com/dvds.htm

Specifications

I.  Gojira / Godzilla (Classic Media)

Released on September 5, 2006.  Two DVDs.

This was the first time the Japanese original was released in North America.  I own the DVD release.  DVD1 has Godzilla (labeled Gojira), DVD2 features Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (labeled Godzilla).  Aspect Ratio is 1.33:1.  Out of Print in single release shown above, but available as part of The Godzilla Collection (2012) with the other good Classic Media Godzilla DVD releases.  The DVDs, sans booklet, are available in a new reissue with a new cover :

Special Features :

Making of Godzilla Suit Featurette
Godzilla Story Development Featurette
Audio Commentary by Steve Ryfle & Ed Godziszewski
Trailers for Godzilla & Godzilla, King of the Monsters (DVD1 & DVD2, respectively)
"Godzilla's Footprint" by Steve Ryfle (Booklet discussing Making of the Film)

Released on September 22, 2009.  One Blu-ray disc.

The Blu-ray release uses an unnatural 1.47:1 picture frame, as the film was shot in the Academy Ratio of 1.37:1.  Only the Japanese original was included.  The Special Features from DVD1 are included (in Standard Definition), but the Booklet is not.  The Blu-ray is single layered.  The main feature uses a 1080i resolution.

You can purchase these discs from Amazon through these affiliate links :

Blu-ray :

Gojira [Blu-ray]

DVD :

Godzilla King of the Monsters

II.  Godzilla (Criterion Collection)

Released on January 24, 2012.  Two DVDs or One Blu-ray disc (separate packages).

This is the only other authorized release of the Japanese original in North America.  I own the Blu-ray (as do most other people who buy Criterion releases these days).  Both the DVD and Blu-ray offer Godzilla and Godzilla, King of the Monsters!.  The DVD presumably offers Godzilla on DVD1 and Godzilla, King of the Monsters! on DVD2.  The Blu-ray is dual-layered and both films are presented in 1080p.

Special Features (virtually all in 1080i):

Interview with Akira Takarada (Ogata)
Interview with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla)
Interview with Yoshio Irie & Eizo Kaimai (Special Effects Technicians)
Interview with Akira Ifukube (Composer)
Special Effects Photographic Featurette
Interview with Japanese Film Critic Tadao Sato
"The Unluckiest Dragon" - Audio Essay about the Fukuryu Maru incident
Audio Commentary of David Kalat on Both Godzilla and Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Trailers for Godzilla & Godzilla, King of the Monsters
"Poetry After the A-Bomb" by J. Hoberman (Booklet discussing History behind Film and Themes)

You can purchase these discs from Amazon through these affiliate links :

Blu-ray :

Godzilla (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

DVD

Godzilla (The Criterion Collection)

Video & Audio

There is no real comparison.  The Criterion Blu-ray shows a sharper image and shows far more detail than anything from Classic Media.  Both use a mono soundtrack, so there is no "tampering" with the soundtrack.  The soundtrack on the Criterion has been praised as bringing out the elements which have been buried under a layer of hiss and muffled sound.  Classic Media's releases are interlaced, which is easily noticeable when watching the movie on a computer monitor.  Criterion is not.

Here are screenshots from Classic Media's release : http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Gojira-Blu-ray/5496/ and Criterion's release : http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Godzilla-Blu-ray/31499/#Screenshots.  The Classic Media's image is stretched out, lacks detail and suffers from an overuse of DNR.  Criterion's image is sharp, but a tad dark in Godzilla's scenes.  I would adjust the brightness and contrast a little if you wanted to make out more detail for those scenes.  The clarity of image and sound is a noticeable improvement from Classic Media's DVD.

The Criterion includes the Transworld logo on Godzilla, King of the Monsters, which has not been seen on an official DVD release since the Scimitar disc in 1998.  Classic Media does not, and while the audio is there, the image where the logo would be is black.  Apparently Classic Media added three digital transitions in Godzilla, see here :  http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdreviews20/godzilla_dvd_review.htm

The subtitles on Classic Media are yellow and on Criterion they are white.  Note that Classic Media defaults to the subtitles being on, the Criterion default is off.  Criterion translates more of the opening credits than Classic Media.  Classic Media fails to give the credit for Akira Takarada!  However, neither provides a full credit translation.  There are forty-eight lines in the credit scroll with Kanji characters, each naming a different person.  Translating or transliterating the lesser-known names who worked on or acted in this film may not give accurate results, especially in comparison to some other variation of that person's name elsewhere in literature.  The Criterion booklet seems to give credits for all the production crew and almost all the cast, including all the major players.  (Toho's crediting policy apparently was to provide a credit for just about anyone with a speaking role at the time).  The translations are different.

Packaging

Classic Media had a very striking packaging for its time.  The image of Godzilla rising out of the sea, with the blood-red lettering, is instantly eye-catching.  Someone had the bright idea to use a picture of the real full-body suit, not a publicity shot with one of the inferior clay models.  The title would have been better as "Godzilla" in the large lettering and "Gojira" in small caps.  The backing is very sturdy, it feels like the cover of a hardcover book.  The sleeve is a little annoying.  However, this fits extremely well with Classic Media's later Godzilla releases.

Criterion uses a thinner cardboard material, and has a sleeve that encloses all but one side of the Blu-ray tri-fold.  When you open up the tri-fold, Godzilla's head pops out the top.  The artwork is original, but the pop-up seems a combination of the Heisei and Millenium era Godzillas, and the art on the exterior of the tri-fold seems taken from Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (a stupid title if ever there was one).  The booklet takes adapts some publicity stills.

Special Features

Unless price is the sole factor that will determine your purchase (Criterions always sell at a premium, but currently as of June 8, 2014 the price is very reasonable), both discs have unique features.  The features may be a little sparser on the Classic Media, but that company was testing the waters with the first quality production of Godzilla.  Moreover, features were planned to span the entire library to which Classic Media had rights.  Moreover, they did not want to pay Toho for the rights to use the special features on Toho's Region 2 DVD releases.  Criterion came up with different special features, as with maybe one exception (Akira Ifukube's interview), Toho's special features on its Godzilla DVD/Blu-ray are not to be found in the Criterion disc.

Both discs provide commentary for Godzilla and Godzilla, King of the Monsters.  David Kalat had previously provided commentary for Classic Media's release of Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster.  Kalat wrote "A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla series" which has had two editions.  The price dissuaded me from buying it when it was in print, and now it is Out of Print.  Ryfle wrote "Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G".  I own this book and it is a a reasonably comprehensive look at Godzilla's history until the end of the Heisei era; its now Out of Print.  Godziszewski wrote "The Illustrated History of Godzilla", a book that has long been Out of Print (observing a common theme with serious Godzilla books here?)  Ryfle and Godziszewski provided commentary for other Classic Media Godzilla DVDs.  The commentary for the original Japanese Godzilla can also be found on BFI's Region 2 Godzilla DVD.  The Classic Media DVD is very useful for people who do not own Ryfle's book, and I would assume the same could be said for Criterion and Kalat's book.

Both commentaries cover much of the same ground.  Ryfle includes audio interviews from people like Terry Morse Jr., son of the director for the American footage of Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and others instrumental in bring Godzilla to the U.S.  Kalat discusses certain cultural issues surrounding the film.  I would recommend starting with Ryfle's commentary, then proceeding with Kalat's since the former is more geared to the kaiju novice.