Myth Makers



Myth Makers was a semi-professional series of documentaries about the principal creatives of the 1963 version of Doctor Who. It was produced for the direct-to-video market by Reeltime Pictures — with most releases being interviews of a single cast or crew member conducted by Nick Briggs. The vast majority of the original interviews were conducted between the mid-1980s and the early 2000s. A few more volumes surfaced until the late 2000s, but most of the releases in the 2000s were actually remastered — and often re-edited — versions of the the interviews that had originally been recorded in the 1980s or 1990s.

The series was notable for being the first video series about the production of Doctor Who. Its longevity proved there was an appetite for such information, and it is probably fair to say that it helped pave the way for Doctor Who Confidential, as well as the audio interviews that became commonplace on most Big Finish audio CDs.

Availability
Most of the Myth Makers releases were never made available in North America, in part due to the expense of PAL to NTSC conversion. However, in the mid-late 1980s, there was some limited distribution to comic book shops through the American-based company Pleiades.

UK
In the United Kingdom, the first 25 releases had at least two, and sometimes three, VHS editions. First edition covers were the only ones to indicate the number of the tape, and it is from this first edition numbering that the numbers of the remaining 32 tapes are inferred.

Nothing in the footage of any video indicated a particular number.

In general, UK editions varied only in that the covers were different. The one exception to this was the Elisabeth Sladen interview which had two editions released simultaneously in April 2001. The "Special Edition" had 15 minutes of additional footage over the normal version.

US
Because the UK numbering scheme was based upon the UK first edition covers, the numbers were meaningless for the US editions, which were always compilations of the UK originals.

The following chart attempts to explain which British tapes were used to comprise the American editions.

Video on demand
In 2015, Reeltime Pictures relaunched as Time Travel TV, and began to offer old and new releases on DVD and through video on demand service Vimeo, to rent or own. Some new releases issued archival material for the first time.

Music
Mark Ayres, a composer for the Doctor Who series during its final seasons, was commissioned to write music for the videos, and this later resulted in the release of a soundtrack album, Myths and Other Legends on Silva Screen Records (FILMCD 088).