It’s That Time of the Year…
After several leaks and rumours, Doctor Who Season 9 has been confirmed as the next entry to grace The Collection line.
The boxset sports new artwork by Lee Binding, and a special newly-filmed short has been produced to coincide with the announcement, penned by Pete McTighe and starring Katy Manning as Jo Grant:
Season 9 ran from 1st January 1972 to 24th June 1972, and comprised of five stories spread across 26 episodes. These stories are as follows:
- Day of the Daleks
- The Curse of Peladon
- The Sea Devils
- The Mutants
- The Time Monster.
This season marked Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s third year in the role and broke away more from the mostly-earthbound nature of Season 8, as The Doctor and Jo found themselves amongst the political tension of Peladon and the Mutant-related machinations on Solos, whilst also dealing with Earth-based battles with the Daleks (returning from a seven-year absence), the Sea Devils, and The Master (Roger Delgado), whose schemes involved escaping from prison and donning disguises in bids to invade the earth and conquer time itself.
The Collection: Season 9 Blu-ray box set also includes an extensive catalogue of special features including:
- MAKING THE TIME MONSTER: Looking back on the Season 9 finale with Katy Manning, John Levene and more.
- MICHAEL E BRIANT AT THE HELM: A profile of director Michael E Briant.
- LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION: Katy Manning and friends revisit the filming locations of Season 9.
- THE FELL GUY: A profile of prolific stuntman Stuart Fell.
- BEHIND THE SOFA: Five new Behind the Sofa episodes with commentary from Katy Manning (Jo), Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor) Wendy Padbury (Zoe) Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sophie Aldred (Ace), and director Michael E Briant. They’re noticeably also actually on sofas this time around which is nice.
- BLU-RAY TRAILER: A brand new slice of classic Doctor Who.
- MOVIE-LENGTH EDITIONS: Special repeat screenings of Day of the Daleks & The Sea Devils, previously unavailable on home media.
- CONVENTION FOOTAGE: A chance to hear from UNIT’s Nicholas Courtney and Richard Franklin, recorded in 1986.
- 5.1 SURROUND & DOLBY ATMOS SOUND for The Sea Devils (episodic and omnibus edition) from Mark Aryes.
- HD PHOTO GALLERIES Including many previously unseen images.
- AUDIO ARCHIVE Featuring many unreleased gems.
- INFO TEXT Behind-the-scenes information and trivia on every episode.
- PDF ARCHIVE Including scripts, exclusive unseen BBC production files and other rarities from Richard Bignell.
- Previously released special features including the Special Edition version of Day of the Daleks.
Based on the disc count, it’s likely that we’ll be getting multiple versions of certain episodes a la Colony in Space for Season 8, where the old restoration was included alongside the new.
Stay tuned for an in-depth review and unboxing around when the set releases on 20th March 2023!
By HW Reynolds
Images provided by the BBC