Season 13 Collection- new extras reviewed

 As the previous individual dvd releases for this season were fairly comprehensively packed with additional features- most included here- there’s not quite as much brand new material in this Collection as there have been in others. Of course, the sheer quality of the actual stories is enough in itself yet somehow the team has found some interesting new documentaries to present as well as cleaning up the episodes with AI. The method used has sparked some controversy with some people saying it has caused a loss of detail and some odd looking moments. I believe that, just like when there are new special effects options available, the original episode as it was should still be an option. Apparently, this was thought to be something people would not be interested in yet the large number of social media posts on the subject suggests otherwise. To be honest I didn’t notice that much on my nearly three year old tv, but some of the stills posted online suggest peoples faces are the most affected with them ending up looking too smooth and unnatural.

 

Revelation of the Daleks Set Visit

Genesis of Revelation
In 1985 I was lucky enough to go on a set visit at Television Centre to see `Revelation of the Daleks` being filmed in what turned out to be the last two days of production before the infamous eighteen month hiatus. (This account was originally published in the fanzine Zygon)

It’s 1985 on a warm and windy Thursday and we are about to enter a building that is familiar yet also unknown. That is to say its exterior is something everyone in the country knows but it’s interior is altogether more shrouded in secrecy. On Blue Peter when it looks like they’re going to show you what TV Centre is like it turns out that the big studio doors open onto the outside. In fact it is even more circular than it looks from the outside to the extent that if you start off anywhere and keep walking you will eventually return to your demarcation point after passing hundreds and hundreds of rooms. There are so many rooms that you wonder whether every single employee of the BBC is entitled to one!