Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space (1970)

[KilloWertz]

Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space Blu-ray

The debut story of Jon Pertwee has been given the high-definition treatment for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.

Spearhead From Space - Doctor Who's first colour story - is the only adventure from the classic era that can be remastered into true HD say experts because, thanks to industrial action at BBC TV Centre, all four episodes were shot on location on 16mm film rather than being recorded on videotape - the only time this was ever done on the show.

The digital media services team of BBC Studios and Post Production was commissioned by BBC Worldwide to remaster the story, which was first broadcast in January 1970 and also introduced Caroline John as assistant Liz Shaw. The "facelift" has given the story a cinematic finish.

The original 16mm negatives were scanned and digitised using state-of-the-art equipment, and other work has included repairing damage done to one episode's negative caused by a reaction with chemicals during a printing process some years ago. Dirt has also been removed, grain lessened, joins cleaned up, and picture movement stabilised. The soundtrack, which had previously been remastered, was then added to the final master version.

Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Doc...#ixzz2PWW9Bfyw

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by KilloWertz

Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space Blu-ray

I'm biting.

[octagon]

I'm a Tom Baker man through and through but this is very cool.

Count me in.

[FruityOatyBar]

I've had my eye on this release for months now. Can't wait! This is probably my most seen John Pertwee story. So much fun. Pertwee was an awesome Doctor!

Looking forward to enjoying a classic Who in HD.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by FruityOatyBar

I've had my eye on this release for months now. Can't wait! This is probably my most seen John Pertwee story. So much fun. Pertwee was an awesome Doctor!

Looking forward to enjoying a classic Who in HD.

I don't think I've ever seen it, but the 70's shows that have gone from film to blu ray have yet to disappoint, and how fun is this one? It'll be a great blind buy.

[HDMe]

Hoping this will have all the extras on it that came with the recently released Special Edition DVD. Also would like to see the release date. I think it comes out in the UK in June.

[FruityOatyBar]

Originally Posted by popeflick

... how fun is this one? It'll be a great blind buy.

Well you're asking a classic Who devotee but I have always loved this story. It's a very historic story; Pertwee's first appearance as The Doctor, the first color episode of the series, the first to be shot almost entirely on location (if not all), the first (and only) to be shot on film.

If you've seen the Christopher Eccleston series, you should recognize the villains. There are cheese ball but oh-so-much-fun scenes of The Doctor discovering his new body and settling into it. Liz Shaw is introduced and she's always been a favorite of mine. Plus the Brigadier is in it too. Plenty to enjoy for classic Who lovers. Just don't expect a fast paced, humor filled romp. This is 1970 television sci-fi made for $2.75.

[sookie]

Jon was my favorite Dr and I am totally getting this since I only have it on vhs

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by HDMe

Hoping this will have all the extras on it that came with the recently released Special Edition DVD. Also would like to see the release date. I think it comes out in the UK in June.

It comes out in the UK on July 15. The exact date hasn't been confirmed for the US release yet.

[HDMe]

Originally Posted by KilloWertz

It comes out in the UK on July 15. The exact date hasn't been confirmed for the US release yet.

Thanks for that... I couldn't remember if I had read June or July for the UK... and for some reason I guess I was hoping June

Hopefully the US will get this sooner rather than later.

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by HDMe

Thanks for that... I couldn't remember if I had read June or July for the UK... and for some reason I guess I was hoping June

Hopefully the US will get this sooner rather than later.

No problem.

I don't see why we wouldn't get it at around the same time the UK does, but obviously who knows.

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by KilloWertz

No problem.

I don't see why we wouldn't get it at around the same time the UK does, but obviously who knows.

Sounds about right..if not it will only be shortly after, like most of the DVD releases.

[joltman]

I'm a fan of new Who, but have been wanting to watch some classic Who, only seen 1 story so far, but the fact that this is going to be on Blu-ray is enough reason for me to get it!

[HDMe]

I was a little disappointed we didn't see this last Sunday on BBC America. They ran the 3rd Doctor's Revisited special and Spearhead from Space. They used an SD transfer and stretched it so it looked kind of nasty... I had been hoping they might show is the new HD transfer but no such luck.

This is an easy decision to buy whenever it shows up.

[mar3o]

Wow. Very interesting. Tom Baker is my favorite, but I enjoyed Pertwee very much also. This seems like the only chance of seeing classic Who on Blu. But being shot on 16mm, will it really be much of an improvement over DVD? I suppose there should be some improvement I guess. It's still film, just very grainy.

[Rich65]

I will be getting this for sure. Jon Pertwee is my favorite doctor. I like all The Doctors but I enjoy his the most. My wife sums him up as The Doctor, who if he can't reason with you, will then proceed to kick your butt.

[Skorpius]

Got mine today! Will be throwing it in later to have a look.

[Rizor]

Surprised to see this at the Barnes and Noble earlier. Will likely wait for a better price though.

[arcane93]

I'm interested, but no way am I getting into paying this much for individual serials. I avoided it with the DVDs, and I'll avoid it with the blu-rays as well. If and when they finally start releasing them in whole season sets for a more reasonable price, I'm in. Until then, I'm totally cool with just watching them on Netflix or Amazon Prime, even if they're not remastered/in HD.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by arcane93

I'm interested, but no way am I getting into paying this much for individual serials. I avoided it with the DVDs, and I'll avoid it with the blu-rays as well. If and when they finally start releasing them in whole season sets for a more reasonable price, I'm in. Until then, I'm totally cool with just watching them on Netflix or Amazon Prime, even if they're not remastered/in HD.

The thing is, though the individual DVDs were expensive, each story was treated like a full movie, and most titles were given the deluxe treatment. The vast majority of stories each had their own documentaries, interviews, commentaries, behind-the-scenes, special effects tests, out-takes, deleted scenes, pdf extras, etc.

How many tv series give you that amount of additional content for each episode? And that was a lot of work they put into these extras, too. Some, like Planet of the Daleks (Pertwee), even had special treatment, like the brand-new colorization process created specifically to colorize the missing color episode that only exists in black and white due to the full color episode being lost. The DVDs are expensive but I gotta say they've done a phenomenal job over the years with this series. I bet if it was some major studio instead of the BBC these would have been dumped onto disc as full seasons with a small sprinkling of extras and that would be that. Of course the down side is that these DVDs are so expensive there's no way the average person could afford them all, where a cheap budget release as seasons could have made it more affordable.

And in this case, it seems like this can be the only classic episode to get released in true full HD, due to the 16mm filming, so this would be a special case and maybe worth purchasing, since they won't be doing this for all the episodes.