A
'hotch potch'
Yes, that's it in a nutshell.
But that's not enough is it really?
Here's a short history of the Doctor Who video
cover to date, so you know what I mean by
by that description... |
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The
early 1980's
VHS
is still slugging it out for 'most popular
format' with Video 2000 and good old Betamax. BBC
Video begins and the first releases are
compilations. These sported photographic covers,
often inaccurate - right, Revenge Of The Cybermen
has an |
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Earthshock-type
Cyberman on it - and the then-current 'neon tube'
logo. No great shakes. (Image courtesy of The
TARDIS Library)
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The
logo was dropped around 1984 in favour of a
multi-coloured version of the Pertwee / Baker
'diamond' logo and were used on re-releases like
Revenge Of The Cybermen and new compilations such
as The Brain Of Morbius - poor Morbius, cut to
only 60% of the original length! The BBC Video
'starburst' logo also disappeared and wasreplaced
just by BBC VIDEO at the bottom of the spine.
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Photographic
montages on the covers, all ostensibly designed
by Sid Sutton, continued until the late 1980's
ending with a two tape release of The Daleks.
This, however, also featured some artwork
( some previous covers had also utilised some,
but this was mainly to disguise lack of
photographic resource |
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or inept picture selection... ) The spines had
also changed slightly from The Talons of
Weng-Chiang, with the then-proper BBC logo being
used instead of the BBC VIDEO legend. |
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Into
the 1990's...
An Unearthly Child was released, along with a two
tape set of The War Games. This was where the
covers switched over to, in the main, excellent
artwork, with some of the best stuff coming from
Andrew Skilleter, Alister Pearson and Colin
Howard (which is why I use a lot of it!) The
'diamond' logo was retained. |
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| Stories
on two tapes were issued after early 1991 in a
double pack case, and when this happened a larger
'diamond' logo was used with the story title
below it and a picture from the story - or in the
case of the Sontaran Experiment/Genesis of the
Daleks double pack, a photo from each story. |
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In
1993, the 30th Anniversary caused a brief
'glitch' when the 'diamond' logo had the bottom
cut off it and a 30th Anniversary banner added.
The spines also changed; the VHS logo disappeared
- it was now the only format tapes were being
issued for by the BBC at this point, so no
distinction needed to be made any longer - the
'diamond' logo |
rotated
90 degrees and moved up the spine, the BBC logo
moved up to the top and the serial number and
certification symbol moved down. Hmm.
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After
1993 passed, the logo regained its bottom -
oo-er, missus! - and the covers carried on in the
same format as shown in the Vengeance On Varos
cover.
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| This
continued until D-Day 1996. That's Doctor McGann
day to you and me... |
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| Nice
performance, Paul, shame about the script IMHO.
And look what they did to the videos because of
you! |
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Firstly,
all the previously available stories were pulled
from the shelves. And I do mean ALL!
This was particularly unfortunate for people like
me who were unable to get a copy of the newly
released story The Hand Of Fear before it was
recalled, never to be seen again on VHS.
At least it has finally been re-released on DVD! |
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Then
a new video finally limped onto the shelves. The
aforementioned Mr McGann's only TV appearance as
the Doctor. And with it, a completely new cover
design. Back to photos, an inaccurately-drawn
police box on the spine, and a version of the
Pertwee logo in silver, as featured in the McGann
movie. Oh dear... |
A
couple of months later, and another video joins
it on the shop floor. The - IMHO - shameless
cash-in on Jon Pertwee's death known as The Green
Death double pack. This time we get some decent
artwork courtesy of Colin Howard, another McGann
logo in
silver ( but as |
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| it's
so similar to the original Pertwee logo featured
on this story I'll let that go... ) and a fairly
accurate police box. It's also the first double
pack to have any picture on its spine since 1993
when they packed in doing that after The
Silurians... |
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| After
this they finally got around to releasing videos
on a regular basis again. And guess what? It was
all change yet again! |
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The
last design started with a lovely Colin Howard
artwork cover for The Leisure Hive, then went
through a mix of artwork and photos (such as The
Happiness Patrol) until finally being pretty much
just photo-montages (such as The Horns of Nimon).
This design, produced by the Black Sheep company,
also used the McGann logo, but in all three
different versions were used as can be seen
above, the last one (on ...Nimon) being the
nicest IMHO; a dark blue variety.
And that's where the official history ends;
only a few more stories were left to be issued
after ...Nimon, with Invasion of the Dinosaurs
the last single release and The Reign of Terror
box set (together with the surviving episodes
from The Faceless Ones and The Web of Fear) being
the last 'pack'.
Sorry, did I say a brief history?
Well, at least it's accurate!
So as you'll appreciate, when all placed
together,
we have a right patchwork effect!
As Peri said about the Sixth Doctor's outfit -
"Yuk!"
So, like a lot of other sites, this is why this
site came to be born. Hope you enjoy the
contents!
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