A Chronological List of all the Behind the Scenes Footage Included on the Doctor Who Collection Blu-ray Box Sets.



TV Find below exactly what it says in the title of the post, a chronological list of all the behind the scenes footage included on the Doctor Who collection blu-ray box sets. Who fans have always been spoilt in the kinds of special features the release of our show includes and in the Collection series, there's a sense that we're now getting the definite version of each of these stories.

This is especially true terms of includable behind the scenes material.  The recent release of season 24 has hours and hours of studio and location footage, what seems like entire recording sessions.  No need to rely on the fading memories of the cast and crew, now we can see them finding their characters and the show in take after take.  If only other releases were this open.

That's inspired me to go through the Collection releases so far and see what behind the scenes material is there and then put it all into chronological order by recording dates so that if someone wanted to, they could enjoy the history of Doctor Who in its rawest form.  To that end I've include the details of which disc in which season box the footage appears, so "s8, d2" means "season 8, disc 2" obviously.

The Collections have many treats but I've narrowed my focus to anything pertaining directly to the making of the programme, production footage, fx sessions and any audio material recorded on location, or in a couple of cases recorded at television centre in the lunch break during a recording session.  So even if the actors appeared on Swap Shop in the meantime, that doesn't count.

A quick note on the dates given.  Sometimes this was easy, the box set includes the date with the footage.  Sometimes I had to wade into the archive features from Doctor Who Magazine and the production documentation included on the blu-rays to try and work out which date that footage was recorded.  Even then it wasn't clear so some dates are still a bit rough.

Also, when its an external programme which has recorded the footage, the date given is when the footage was recorded rather than the transmission date.  Sometimes the DWM archives mention when the programme makers visited the set, thank goodness.  You'll see I completely wigged out on Whose Doctor Who and refer you to the work of Mr. Pixley.

One I'm especially proud of.  The location shoot for The Sontaran Experiment was covered by Morning Sou'West, a regional opt out programme which used to be broadcast instead of Today on Radio 4.  As the BD caption says you can hear the rain pouring in the background.  The DWM archive is unusually specific in describing the weather conditions and it only rained on the 29th September.

The quoted descriptions are directly from the BD booklets.  There is a version of this list in which that text instead itemises the content of each of the clips narrowing them down to session times and the source episode, but at a certain point you have to decided what the most important details are here and really its providing the basic dates, especially when they're not included on the BD itself.

Some thanks and references.  Thank you to @thejimsmith for helping with one particularly tricky date for the Drashig fx footage from Carnival of Monsters.  Two websites were especially useful, this page which indexes the DWM archive features and Shannon Sullivan's production history website was helpful for raw dates of recording blocks.

Is any of the following new information?  Any Who experts reading will be able to tell me and for all I know I've simply repeated work done elsewhere even if in a slightly more concise manner.  As each new Collection is released, I'll update the list if new footage is included and I may incorporate material from the DVDs or elsewhere if I can carve out some time in the future.

20 November 1970

The Mind of Evil
BBC Television Centre Documentary
"An edition of the children's documentary series Behind The Scenes focusing on the Television Centre building, shot during production" [s8, d2].

22 January 1971

The Claws of Axos
Studio Footage
"The full 72 minute studio recording at Television Centre" [s8, d3].

15 February 1971

Colony in Space
Location Film Trims
"23 minutes of mute film footage" [s8, d5].

04 February 1971

Colony in Space
Special Effects Film Trims
"35 minutes of model and effects shots" [s8, d5].

 

08 March 1971

The Mind of Evil
Blue Peter
"A look at make-up techniques employed on BBC programmes in the early 1970s" [s8, d2].

 

28-30 April 1971

The Daemons
Location Footage
"Silent 8mm colour footage recorded during the location filming" [s8, d6].

03 July 1972

Carnival of Monsters
Studio Footage
"Behind-the-scenes film originally recorded for a BBC documentary, Looking In" [s10, d2].

04 July 1972

Carnival of Monsters
Visual Effects Footage
"16mm film of model work including unused shots" [s10, d2].

19 September 1972

Frontier In Space
Visual Effects Footage
"57 minutes of mute special effects shots" [s10, d3].

14 March 1973

The Green Death
Wales Today
"Film shot on location" [s10, d5].

10 May 1974

Robot
Television Drama
"Over 25 minutes of raw footage recorded during the readthrough, for a documentary that was ultimately unfinished" [s12, d1].

30 April 1974

Robot
Location Footage
"Behind the scenes on the location shoot" [s12, d1].

October 1974

The Ark In Space
Model Effects Footage
"The original 16mm model film sequences for this story showing the exterior of the Ark, the shuttle taking off, and the Wirrn spacewalking [s12, d2].

29 September 1974

The Sontaran Experiment
Location Report
"Radio coverage of the Dartmoor location shoot broadcast on a BBC Radio 4 regional opt-out programme Morning Sou'West" [s12, d3].

10 February 1975

Genesis of the Daleks
Live from the TVC Canteen
"Keith Miller from the Doctor Who Fan Club interviews key cast during the production of Part Three" [s12, d4].

21 October 1974

Revenge of the Cybermen
Location Report
"BBC News interviews Tom Baker on location at the Wookey Hollow caves" [s12, d5].

20-23 September 1976

The Face of Evil
Film Trims: Unedited
"Behind the Scenes glimpse at studio work" [s14, d4].

2-5 November 1976

The Robots of Death
Model Footage
"Black and white timecoded recordings of the original film inserts." [s14, d5].

09 January 1977

The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Location Report
"An Interview with Tom Baker, screened on Look East on 14 January 1977" [s14, d6].

19 January - 15 February 1977

The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Whose Doctor Who
"Featuring behind the scenes footage from rehearsal and recording sessions."   See DWM #330 archive for a complete shot breakdown and recording dates [s14, d7].

8-10 February 1977

The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Studio Footage
"Rare black-and-white footage from the studio recording" [s14, d7].

11 August 1980

Full Circle
Studio Footage
"Silent behind-the-scene footage" [s18, d3].

21 May 1980

State of Decay
Film Trims
"Unused shots from the model filming sessions" [s18, d4].

09 January 1981

Logopolis
Studio Footage
"Go behind the scenes of the regeneration" [s18, d7].

29 September 1981

Castrovalva
Studio Footage (Part 1)
"Raw material from the recording sessions" [s19, d1].

30 September 1981

Castrovalva
Studio Footage (Part 2)
"Raw material from the recording sessions" [s19, d1].

01 October 1981

Castrovalva
Studio Footage (Part 3)
"Raw material from the recording sessions" [s19, d1].

13 April 1981

Four To Doomsday
Studio Footage
"From the studio recording, including Peter Davison's first scenes as the Doctor" [s19, d2].

04 June 1981

The Visitation
Studio Footage
"A quick glimpse of Terileptils in studio" [s19, d4].

5-8 May 1981

The Visitation
Film Trims
"Brief shots trimmed from the programme" [s19, d4].

25 November 1981

Earthshock
Studio Footage
"Raw material from the studio shoot" [s19, d5].

2 February 1982

Time-Flight
Studio Footage
"Highlights" differs from the "uncuts" in some respects by including shots from the Concorde interior dated for 2 February and footage from the Air traffic control footage set shot on the 20th January [s19, d6].

19 January 1982

Time-Flight
Studio Footage
"Uncuts" contains, in this order TARDIS scenes shot on 1 February, Heath Scenes set from 19 January, Kalid's Quarters set from 3 February and the Control Centre Office set from 20 January [s19, d6].

24-25 April 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Studio Footage
"Rare, never before released raw footage from the original studio recording sessions" [s23, d1].

08 April 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Location Footage
"Rare, never before released raw footage from the original location recording sessions (8-11 April)" [s23, d1].

 

10-12 May 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Studio Footage
"Rare, never before released raw footage from the original studio recording sessions" [s23, d1].

 

27-29 May 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Studio Footage
"Rare, never before released raw footage from the original location recording sessions" [s23, d2].


11-13 June 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Studio Footage
"Rare, never before released raw footage from the original location recording sessions" [s23, d2].

15-16 May 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Location Footage
"Rare, never before released raw footage from the original studio recording sessions" [s23, d2].

28 June 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Temp X
"A report from a French magazine programme that visited the set during production of this story" [s23, d2].

12-13 August 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Studio Footage
"Go behind the scenes of the studio sessions recorded in the Summer of 1986" [s23, d3].

23-24 June 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Location footage
From the Camber Sands shooting days [s23, d4].

 

30 June - 4 July 1986

The Trial of a Time Lord
Location footage
From the Gladstone Pottery Museum shooting days [s23, d4].

 

21 April 1987

Time and the Rani
Regeneration Studio Footage
"An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how the regeneration sequence was achieved, compiled from raw footage recently unearthed for this Blu-ray set" [s24, d1].

18 February 1987

Time and the Rani
Seventh Doctor Audition Tapes
"Full tapes for Seventh Doctor candidates Sylvester McCoy, Dermot Crowley and David Fielder - all reading opposite Janet Fielding, directed by Andrew Morgan" [s24, d1].

4-8 April 1987

Time and the Rani
Location Footage
"Nearly three hours of rare material unearthed especially for this set, providing a unique look at how Doctor Who was recorded in the 1980s" [s24, d2].

 

07 April 1987

Time and the Rani
Breakfast Time Rushes
"Raw footage from the report on Season 24's first location shoot" [s24, d1].

20-21 April 1987

Time and the Rani
Studio Footage
"More rare material; over four hours from the studio sessions" [s24, d2].

3-5 May 1987

Time and the Rani
Studio Footage
"More rare material; over four hours from the studio sessions" [s24, d2].

 

21-22 May 1987

Paradise Towers
Location Footage
"Nearly three hours of raw material from the location swimming pool scenes" [s24, d4].

4-5 June 1987

Paradise Towers
Studio Footage
"Behind the scenes in studio; over four hours of never-before-seen footage exclusive to this Blu-ray set" [s24, d4].

 

17-19 June 1987

Paradise Towers
Studio Footage
"Behind the scenes in studio; over four hours of never-before-seen footage exclusive to this Blu-ray set" [s24, d4].

24-29 June 1987

Delta and the Bannermen
Location Footage 1
"Three hours of raw location material" [s24, d6].

30 June - 7 July 1987

Delta and the Bannermen
Location Footage 2
"Three and a half hours of raw location material" [s24, d6].

3 July 1987

Delta and the Bannermen
Wales Today
"A location report broadcast 3 July 1987" [s24, d5].

07 July 1987

Delta and the Bannermen
But First This Rushes
"An extended compilation of location footage and interviews captured by the But First This crew" [s24, d5].


28-30 July 1987

Dragonfire
Studio Footage
"Hours of rare footage from the studio recordings" [s24, d7].

 

12-13 August 1987

Dragonfire
Studio Footage
"Hours of rare footage from the studio recordings" [s24, d7].

 


6-31 May & 1 June 1989

Battlefield
Studio & Location Footage
"Raw material captured during the recording of the story" [s26, d2].
Battlefield
Gallery FX Footage
"Special effects material compiled during post-production" [s26, d2].

09 March 1989

The Curse of Fenric
Location Recce & FX Footage
"9-10 March 1989. From the original 1989 location recce and special effects tests" [s26, d5].

20 April 1989

The Curse of Fenric
Location Footage
"Rare material from the location tapes, including the underwater photography supervised by producer John Nathan-Turner, and behind the scenes footage of Sophie Aldred's stunt dive sequence" [s26, d5].

08 April 1989

The Curse of Fenric
Take Two
"A location report screened as part of the BBC 2 children's show on 19 April 1989" [s26, d5].

14 June 1989

Survival
Location Footage
"Raw material from the location shoot, which exists only in black and white" [s26, d6].

18-19 July 1989

Ghost Light
Studio Footage
"Go behind the scenes of the final classic series recording sessions, with nearly three hours of rare footage from the studio floor" [s26, d3].

 

1-2 August 1989

Ghost Light
Studio Footage
"Go behind the scenes of the final classic series recording sessions, with nearly three hours of rare footage from the studio floor, including Katharine Schlesinger's complete performance of That's The Way To The Zoo" [s26, d3].