List of BBC DVD releases

Doctor Who has been released by BBC DVD since 1999, with K9 and Company, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures also having been released on the DVD format by BBC DVD since their inceptions.

1999
Doctor Who was chosen as one of six DVDs released to represent the BBC as a "test" of the DVD market by BBC Worldwide. The other titles were The Black Adder, Noddy in Toyland, The Planets, Persuasion and Volume I of The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The title chosen for this test was The Five Doctors. This was picked because of it already existing in a "Special Edition" format from the BBC Video release of 1995. This permitted better use of the DVD format with 5.1 surround sound. The Region 1 release of this title featured a commentary not available on the Region 2 and 4 versions, which would later be included on the 2008 re-release.

2000
The Five Doctors was something of a false start. The range kicked off properly a year later with The Robots of Death with a different cover art template. Although the menu intro sequence was the same as for The Five Doctors, in all other respects the menu system was completely redesigned. It was planned for each disc to feature the story's theme music over the menu intro sequence. This was dropped early into 2001 as it was felt that the Howell version of the theme fitted the sequence best and has been used on every release since.

2001
Spearhead from Space was a last minute addition to the schedule and was primarily based on the restoration done for the 1999 repeat broadcast.

2002
Pyramids of Mars was originally to have been the Tom Baker title in the second slot. Issues with contract negotiations led to it being postponed and The Ark in Space put in its place.

The original plan was to release one title from each Doctor before releasing a second. This would have been achieved with the release of The Aztecs, however due to it being pushed down the schedule, firstly to avoid having two black & white stories being released back to back, and secondly to allow time for the new VidFIRE process to be applied to it; this did not happen. The Ark in Space and Carnival of Monsters were brought forward to compensate.

This year saw the first major discontinuity between UK (Region 2) and North American (Region 1) DVD releases. A box set of the six stories from the Key to Time season was released in Region 1 years before a similar release in Region 2.

2003
For Doctor Who's fortieth anniversary, BBC DVD planned to release one title from each Doctor. The Three Doctors was originally planned for the first release slot of the year, but was held back for the anniversary month.

Most releases included a special 3 minute long "40th Anniversary Celebration" montage, set to the popular cover version of the Doctor Who theme music by Orbital.

In Region 4 these releases, excluding The Curse of Fenric, had an additional slip cover fitted over the cases, which were covered in silver TARDIS roundels and replaced the standard DVD range logo with the Fortieth Anniversary variation.

The Dalek Collector's Edition was the first release to be a store exclusive (W H Smith) and the first to feature disc art. This was available only in the UK and limited to 5000 units.

2004
Pyramids of Mars was released after being voted most wanted DVD release in a 2003 Doctor Who Magazine poll and the Lost in Time set came about due to the recovery of the previously missing episode "Day of Armageddon" from The Daleks' Master Plan, which occurred in the January of 2004.

The release of Lost in Time marked the first DVD boxset, the first time two different Doctors were released together (without it being a multi-Doctor story), and the first standard release to have disc art.

2005
From Revelation of the Daleks onwards, releases bore the 2|entertain logo, a DVD release company formed by the BBC and Woolworths.

2006
The Sontaran Experiment in October 2006 marked the start of more frequent releases. Releases might be "Super Value Editions", like The Sontaran Experiment, with fewer extras. Others were "Special Editions" like the two disc releases of the past. Super Value Editions were abandoned around 2008.

The two missing episodes of The Invasion were animated for the story's DVD release.

The Mark of the Rani was a release brought forward to plug a gap created by the delay of Arc of Infinity.

The Beginning featured a reconstruction of the completely missing serial Marco Polo.

The Complete First Series DVD box set was re-released as a DigiPak after complaints from fans and retailers about the cumbersome size & shape of the initial TARDIS-shaped box. In the 2005 release, Disc 5 had different disc art from the others, for this release it was changed to match the disc art on Discs 1-4.

The Complete Second Series DVD box set was also available in a "Limited Edition", featuring a unique cover and lenticular Dalek Sec postcard housed inside a Cyberman head-shaped box, exclusive to Amazon.co.uk. The first pressings of the standard edition had lenticular front and back covers - the front featured the TARDIS spinning through the Time Vortex, and the back a Dalek and Cyberman with X-ray effect. Later pressings would simply have a standard printed cover.

2007
In July eight "Classic Series" stories were re-released with new cardboard sleeves which mimicked the design of the "New Series" vanilla releases. They were known as O-Ring editions and were intended to entice younger fans into watching older stories.

Beginning with Survival, Region 1 covers matched their Region 2 and 4 counterparts.

The Complete Third Series DVD box set was made available with the choice of two "Limited Edition" covers in addition to the standard one. The first, exclusive to Amazon.co.uk, had a lenticular front cover showing holding a poster with text switching between "Saxon is your man" & "I am the Master", and printed back cover showing the Tenth Doctor & Martha Jones. The second, exclusive to Woolworths, featured the Tenth Doctor & Martha Jones on the front cover and the Cult of Skaro on the back, with Dalek vision printed on the plastic sleeve.

The Complete Davros Collection DVD box set marked the first example of the range re-visiting an earlier release, with errors on the original Remembrance of the Daleks release being corrected and new special features being added for its re-release.

2008
The 25th Anniversary release of The Five Doctors was the second re-release of the series. This made the original 1983 version of the story available on DVD for the first time.

The Sarah Jane Adventures - Series 1 Volume 1, containing Revenge of the Slitheen & Eye of the Gorgon, was scheduled for release on 18 March but was cancelled.

The release of The Invisible Enemy featured an authoring error on the Region 2 release. A replacement disc could be obtained directly from 2|entertain and the error was corrected for later pressings.

2009
The Special Edition release of Remembrance of the Daleks, part of the 2007 Davros box set, was released separately this year. This was in addition to the regular releases.

The Dalek War box set had been planned as a late December release; it was brought forward to fill a hole created by the Torchwood: Children of Earth box set being released closer to the broadcast date. It saw the first release of episode 3 of Planet of the Daleks in colour through new colourisation techniques. Dalek War was also the first release featuring the new purple BBC Worldwide logo and as such the Region 2 edition came with reversible covers with the old BBC logo on the other side; this was so that fans could have the spines in their DVD collections match up.

A box set containing the vanilla releases of The Next Doctor & Planet of the Dead was scheduled for release on 7 December but was cancelled.

2010
The Kamelion Tales DVD box set was originally scheduled for the January 2010 release slot. It was pushed back due to an administrative error. Its replacement, the Peladon Tales box set, had originally been planned for 2008, but was also held back until this year. Three new special editions of stories released early in the range appeared in Revisitations 1 box set. The rights issues with the 1996 TV movie were cleared and it was released on DVD for the first time in Regions 1 & 4.

2011
For 2011, 2|entertain switched to unified release dates. Titles were generally released worldwide within a few weeks of each other.

The Solar System box set containing The Ambassadors of Death & The Sun Makers was cancelled due to issues with the colour restoration for Ambassadors. The Sun Makers was instead released individually in its place.

New special editions of three previously available stories were released in the Revisitations 2 box set. A new special edition of Spearhead from Space was paired with Terror of the Autons for the Mannequin Mania boxset.

2012
The three stories in Revisitations 3, plus Vengeance on Varos and The Claws of Axos were new special editions of stories released early in the range.

Vengeance on Varos wasn't originally going to be re-released, however Dan Hall stated in DWM 430 that if there was enough fan support he would reconsider; he told fans to use the hashtag #releasevaros on Twitter to show support for its re-release.

The U.N.I.T Files box contains an alternate colour version of Invasion of the Dinosaurs part 1 achieved through new colourisation techniques in addition to the surviving black & white copy. The same techniques enabled the release of The Ambassadors of Death in full colour for the first time.

Beginning with the Ace Adventures releases would no longer carry the 2|entertain logo, although it would remain on the reverse side of the sleeve for Region 2 releases.

2013
This year saw the release of five special editions of previously released titles: The Aztecs, Inferno, The Green Death, The Ark in Space and The Visitation. The Big Finish Productions webcast version of Shada was included on the DVD release of the incomplete television story. The missing episodes of The Reign of Terror, The Tenth Planet and The Ice Warriors were animated for release. The release of The Aztecs featured a reconstruction of the three missing episodes of Galaxy 4 and the surviving third episode.

2014
The missing episodes of The Moonbase were animated its the release, whilst the missing episode of The Web of Fear was included on its release as a reconstruction.

2015
The Underwater Menace had originally been scheduled for 2014 with animated versions of the missing two episodes. It was then cancelled (confirmation appearing in DWM issue 488) before eventually being scheduled for release in late 2015 minus the animated episodes.

DVD covers

 * The covers for all BBC DVD releases can be found here.