Christ, it's like night and day. The chief memory of the VHS release (which I got for xmas 1987) is sitting and watching it with my mum and my older brother. When the warrior broke into the Solar Energy Storeroom he suddenly pointed at the set and went 'I remember that!' - he turned 61 this year...
Brilliant work, Pip. I'm sure there's a good reason, but I've never quite understood why the end credits have to be remade for commercial releases so often (as on the blu-rays). I remember watching the DVD release of this and being surprised when Harry Towb's character blows Gia Kelly a kiss as he T-Mats. The action is pretty much invisible in the VHS blur.
Fun thing I noticed: if you listen very carefully to the VHS side at 3:18, you can hear a very quiet half second of the Doctor Who theme from the episode 1 cliffhanger as they faded the sound out.
I was born, during transmission of this story, yet as an American, on Feb'19, 1969. between episodes. I first saw the 5 surviving Troughton stories, in movie-edit, like the vhs, on our PBS in the autumn of 1986. When I did get to visit, and wander on Hamstead Heath, London in 1990, I saw neither Martian or seeds of death. I did find a good south-Asian eatery near the Heath, for a curry! Fine comparison of the edits, and restoration.
This was the very first commercial VHS of "Doctor Who" I ever bought, back in 1985 for the princely sum of £25! I still remember the magical feeling of being able to watch a vintage "Doctor Who" story, whenever I wanted to. It's hard to comprehend that now, but it was very, very special back in the day. It has to be remembered but (as with all TV output back then) these productions were a "one off" and were never intended to be even repeated, let alone released for on-demand viewing. Huge credit to everyone involved for the sheer amount of work involved in making viewing so good that it still stands up to this day.
As a kid I had a copy of the second release of the VHS with the original credit stills. After a decade or so and with a new DVD copy of the story, said VHS ended up on a landfill. I instantly regretted this so bought a new copy online (which I still have) with the rather lazily typed credits! It really weirded me out at the time, I thought I must have imagined the still captures of the original credits! This comparison now provides the explanation and I will forever keep my copy of the first VHS release. Cheers Pip!
The Talons of Weng-Chiang too. All three were supposed to be reissued uncut over 1999/2000 but were cancelled. It was probably due to the fact DVD was slowly taking over and VHS would soon be dead. Therefore, the BBC decided to get every unavailable story out although in May 2001, they reissued City of Death. Bit pointless since the slot could have gone to an unreleased story or one of those three edited tales. Have heard that the Beeb planned on releasing The Seeds of Death on both VHS and DVD in August 2000 as an 'experiment' to see which of the two formats sold better but dropped the idea.
@@WhatHandlesAreAvailableI guess it's because the original credits in the black and white stories often look a bit distorted and messy, and they've got restored film versions of the visuals for all of the 1970-1986 title sequences. I do kind of wish they'd keep the originals, but the only time it has actually bothered me was in The Time Meddler episode 4, where they had a fairly wonky digital reconstruction of the backgound image (with some janky digital zooming) and the noticeably lower quality footage of the Doctor, Vicki and Steven pasted on top. They did include the original version in the special features, so I can't actually complain too much. I don't have the season 2 Blu-ray, so I have no idea if it's any different there.
Christ, it's like night and day. The chief memory of the VHS release (which I got for xmas 1987) is sitting and watching it with my mum and my older brother. When the warrior broke into the Solar Energy Storeroom he suddenly pointed at the set and went 'I remember that!' - he turned 61 this year...
Brilliant work, Pip. I'm sure there's a good reason, but I've never quite understood why the end credits have to be remade for commercial releases so often (as on the blu-rays). I remember watching the DVD release of this and being surprised when Harry Towb's character blows Gia Kelly a kiss as he T-Mats. The action is pretty much invisible in the VHS blur.
Fun thing I noticed: if you listen very carefully to the VHS side at 3:18, you can hear a very quiet half second of the Doctor Who theme from the episode 1 cliffhanger as they faded the sound out.
I was born, during transmission of this story, yet as an American, on Feb'19, 1969. between episodes. I first saw the 5 surviving Troughton stories, in movie-edit, like the vhs, on our PBS in the autumn of 1986. When I did get to visit, and wander on Hamstead Heath, London in 1990, I saw neither Martian or seeds of death. I did find a good south-Asian eatery near the Heath, for a curry!
Fine comparison of the edits, and restoration.
This was the very first commercial VHS of "Doctor Who" I ever bought, back in 1985 for the princely sum of £25! I still remember the magical feeling of being able to watch a vintage "Doctor Who" story, whenever I wanted to. It's hard to comprehend that now, but it was very, very special back in the day.
It has to be remembered but (as with all TV output back then) these productions were a "one off" and were never intended to be even repeated, let alone released for on-demand viewing. Huge credit to everyone involved for the sheer amount of work involved in making viewing so good that it still stands up to this day.
Great video - I’m glad you noted the work done on the soundtrack by Mark Ayres, as this was such an upgrade when the the story made it to DVD.
Excellent work! It really gives me the appreciation to see how much restoration the 60's stories went through for the DVD releases!
I am not joking here - I've been wanting a comparison video on this release for so long! Thank you.
As a kid I had a copy of the second release of the VHS with the original credit stills. After a decade or so and with a new DVD copy of the story, said VHS ended up on a landfill. I instantly regretted this so bought a new copy online (which I still have) with the rather lazily typed credits!
It really weirded me out at the time, I thought I must have imagined the still captures of the original credits! This comparison now provides the explanation and I will forever keep my copy of the first VHS release. Cheers Pip!
Really enjoying these comparison videos and looking forward to you maybe doing Death to the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen
Great work, Pip!
Excellent work, as always!! Very well done Pip!👍
Looking forward to watching this one :) great series and a lot of work put in - hat tipped
Quality comparisons mate keep it up :)
Everytime I hear the BBC Video credit theme, I just think of the Two Doctors.
Aww the awful quality of the VHS makes me nostalgic LOL.
We love an overly grainy VHS
@@DanTheMan2150ADIt really shows how awful the picture was on the early release. However we loved them too bits.
Loving these Doctor Who comparisons
The older the VHS releases the better the comparison is
This is fantatsic!!These would make for perfect VAM on the blu rays!
A shame that The Seeds of Death never gotten a 'Unedited' version on VHS much like The Time Warrior on VHS.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang too. All three were supposed to be reissued uncut over 1999/2000 but were cancelled. It was probably due to the fact DVD was slowly taking over and VHS would soon be dead. Therefore, the BBC decided to get every unavailable story out although in May 2001, they reissued City of Death. Bit pointless since the slot could have gone to an unreleased story or one of those three edited tales.
Have heard that the Beeb planned on releasing The Seeds of Death on both VHS and DVD in August 2000 as an 'experiment' to see which of the two formats sold better but dropped the idea.
Great comparison
My favorite of Pat's. Dudley is on fire!
I can't remember if the UKTV broadcast version in Australia included the original closing credits.
Do you happen to know what the difference is on the 2011 special edition DVD release compared to the 2003 DVD release?
I always include more info in the description :)
@@PipMadeleyOh yes I now know that there is a second more option after the first one 😂
Why do they not put the original credits on any releases?
It's just been Restoration Team policy to rebuild end credits wherever possible since the VHS release of Planet of Giants in 2002.
@@PipMadeley oh fair enough, thanks!
@@WhatHandlesAreAvailableI guess it's because the original credits in the black and white stories often look a bit distorted and messy, and they've got restored film versions of the visuals for all of the 1970-1986 title sequences. I do kind of wish they'd keep the originals, but the only time it has actually bothered me was in The Time Meddler episode 4, where they had a fairly wonky digital reconstruction of the backgound image (with some janky digital zooming) and the noticeably lower quality footage of the Doctor, Vicki and Steven pasted on top. They did include the original version in the special features, so I can't actually complain too much. I don't have the season 2 Blu-ray, so I have no idea if it's any different there.
Wow, the VHS version of episode one is so bad.
I remember Dr Who Magazine commenting on the upgrade in quality when reviewing the Vhs over the cliffhanger!
Here from twitter. Just started watching