The Omnibus Edit: A Doctor Who History
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- Classic Doctor Who was originally broadcast as multi episode serials, but for one reason or another they have been frequently edited into movie length "omnibus" edits. This is a quick history as to what these edits were made for.
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Footage used from:
Doctor Who.
Music:
"Polaris" by Downtown Binary
Theme Song:
"Doctor Who Theme" by Ron Grainer, arr. Peter Howell
Ending Theme:
"Dear Friend, Pt. 2 (We Were Superheroes)" by Michael Freckelton
Chapters:
00:00 Titles
00:32 Introduction
02:12 TV Repeats
05:18 VHS Edits
07:13 Special Editions
10:05 Conclusion
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In the US, we switched over to episodic VHS releases at roughly the same time you did, and a number of the previously released movie format VHS 's were rereleased in episodic format well before the transition to DVD.
Where movie format Doctor Who ruled was in over the air television broadcasting on the various PBS stations that carried the program.
I transferred my off-air PBS movie format VHS recordings to homemade DVD around 2005, and replaced them with official DVD's and Blu-Rays as they were released.
My bad. Looking over my writing process, apparently what happened there is the source i was pulling from told me that the majority of the omnibus VHS releases _weren't_ reissued as episodic in the States. I then just. Failed to make myself clear. Oops!
Your source was correct that the majority of previously released omnibus edits were not rereleased in episodic format, but some were.
Yes. When I discovered Who, in early 80’s, Tom Baker, they were movie edits. Some, stories are incredibly tedious - in movie edit, better in episode. The 1970’-80’s if you didn’t know where the cliffhangers were, the transition was relative. When PBS got package of the Sixties stories, quite noticeable due to variation of film grade. And The Sixties ones, on our PBS would remove story cliffhangers that there would not have a follow on story like the end of “the gunfighters” the bit to set up “the savages”. And, we lost the different bits to sesolve episodes like “seeds of death” with extra scenes. And, “the Web Planet” is just tedious, without breaks.
Out here in Australia, the only omnibus to speak of was The Brain of Morbius, owing to its failure to avoid the censors’ knife in the first place, and then cut to ribbons on a belated second attempt. Mostly we had the reverse of omnibuses - the 25 minute time slot was so attractive to the ABC, that all of Season 22 had to be divided into 25 minute episodes no matter how little justification there was for any of the cliffhangers artificially inserted whenever the elapsed time was right. On one occasion when a 45 minute slot was regularly available, the ABC was constrained by this in having to air two 25 minute episodes (that had originally been a single 45-minute episode) back-to-back! We also had four episode versions of Resurrection of the Daleks (at least this was originally scripted as four episodes, albeit broadcast by the BBC as two) and The Five Doctors.
A while ago Twitch ran a marathon of Classic Who and they used the 25 minute edits of the season 22 episodes. Those cliffhangers were the funniest thing I'd ever seen
I think many of them beat Death to the Daleks’ “Stop don’t move!” cliffhanger as the most ridiculous and inappropriate episode ends. For example in the full version of Revelation the Doctor and Peri move so slowly that they only reach Tranquil Repose proper at the very end of the first 45 minutes. In the 25 minute version its something like the Doctor and Peri climb a wall - the Doctor breaks his fob watch - Davros cackles - cut to end titles. (Maybe not quite that bad, but similar.)
@@Xanthe_CatThe additional cliffhangers are presented within the continuities feature on the DVD and BD releases. RotD1 had Natasha and Grigory hide in an alcove upon hearing Daleks approaching them. (You were close, as that is only a minute after the wall-climbing sequence.)
Across the pond in the states, most of my local PBS stations would broadcast in roughly 2 hour blocks for Doctor Who in omnibus edits. There were occasional exceptions where longer stories got broken out over 2 weeks, usually anything longer than a 4-parter got that treatment. These were how I experienced Who for most of my life. The arrival of later VHS and the start of the DVD range made for a very different experience at the time, but it also helped me make sense of some of the odd edits of those broadcasts, where you'd hear the start of the cliffhanger sting only to snap to the sound of the reprise without it. There was one station, I think it was either in El Paso, Texas, or Atlanta, Georgia that did broadcast them in their episodic forms, but only during pledge drives I think.
PBS Sci-fi Saturday nights(formerly sci-fi Friday) on channel 12 or 32(depending on if it was coming from VHF or UHF station) in eastern Iowa...took a couple weeks or more to get through the Trial of a Time Lord saga, it was such a grind! And even worse...it was Collin Baker! 💀
I believe the ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Planet of Fire’ re-edits were off the back of numerous comments from contributors on dvd commentaries and documentaries (notably Peter Davison and Fiona herself) about how older stories might look with a modern day approach. Fiona obviously being amenable to the idea and available to actively contribute was probably why they selected the stories she directed. I like them they’re interesting, if not entirely successful, experiments and I appreciate having them as an optional extra.
I don't disagree with the general concept. But I feel Enlightenment works best in its full length format, and the reframing to 16:9 doesn't really work for me at all. Still, I appreciate them giving something new a go at least
@@michaelinlofi They did a similar thing with ‘Terror of the Vervoids’ taking out all the trial scenes and just having it as a “standalone’ 4 parter with updated fx and a snazzy new title sequence (which I love). I was thinking maybe a McCoy 3 parter would be a good candidate for new series style reedit but I think those stories had loads of stuff cut to fit the broadcast slots to begin with.
Fascinating!! A very interesting video. I'm of the age where I remember the edited VHS tapes, like The Daleks & Seeds of Death. Subscribed.
Happy Doctor Who Day!
Perfect subject matter, well told. 👍
Did not realize the omnibus of the ark in space was on the season 12 set, I need to watch that.
Says someone who clearly doesn’t bother reading the booklets or J-cards, both of which tell you that’s there!
This was a really cool video! Thanks for making it!
Thank you!
The Omnibus version of the Seeds Of Doom was the very first Doctor Who I saw here in the States on Public Television although it may have been an edit by the Network. PBS in America would show episodes on weeknights and then the contiguous story on Saturday afternoons. (This was WHYY in Philadelphia). I remember catching moments of other stories and not really understanding what was going on. The Talons of Weng-Chiang didn't really make sense to my 10 year old brain broken into many parts in 1977 but seeing The Seeds of Doom all in one shot with no breaks one rainy Saturday sold me. I've been a huge Who Fan ever since. I wonder if local networks would edit the stories together on their own or if this was an aspect of exporting the show out of England. I'd be curious to know.
It seems they were generally sold episodically to other countries, and that the States just liked to edit them into omnibus format for broadcast. I can't believe I forgot to bring up public broadcasting for this video actually
@@michaelinlofi I believe Lionheart, the company that distributed Doctor Who in the US starting in the early 80s, did offer Who to PBS stations in either episodic or omnibus format. I think this is because stations had previously made their own omnibus edits when Lionheart's predecessor, Time-Life, only offered the episodic format
Shada should be remade properly with eg Paul McCann in the role
Last year, since I don't have much of a social life either, I made notes of the cuts applied to the 70s omnibuses. Don't think I managed to get them all though.
A blogger has written a three-part article about how these omnibuses were a Christmas from 1971-1975.
The Brain of Morbius original VHS edit is basically the TV omnibus repeat showing only with the removal of the scene where Solon and Condo argue about Condo's arm. The repeat omnibus along with the one for Pyramids of Mars will most likely be on the eventual Season 13 Collection, probably along with a construction of the planned edit of The Seeds of Doom.
Before Revenge of the Cybermen was chosen to be the first VHS release, the BBC were planning to release The Invasion of Time a couple of years earlier on videodisc. Graham Williams apparently made notes on how to edit it down to a 90-minute film but in the end, it wasn't made. Rumours are the notes exist. If true, I'm surprised they didn't do a construction of this edit for the upcoming S15 boxset (would've been a nice addition given there are fewer extras than usual).
When S25 comes to BluRay, hopefully there'll be an extended movie edit of Silver Nemesis (like Battlefield and The Curse of Fenric). This is what they should have done for the DVD instead of the lazy version we got.
You put The Time Warrior and Death to the Daleks the wrong way round and displayed the latter's title against the wrong title sequence.
Yeah looks like when I was editing this I got turned around between Planet of the Daleks and Death to the Daleks. In my defence they have almost the same plot
Great rundown and good research. Thank you for making the video. Here in The States I have to watch the classic series on BritBox and now I wonder what some of the serials would be like without the interruption by closing and opening credits and episode recaps.
Having edited some of these myself, I can confirm it is an interesting experience, but it can only work for some. For example all of season 7 make for great slow burn movie edits (I mostly rewatch The Ambassadors of Death in my compilation edit), but some just work better with cliffhangers or are just not feasible as movie edits (The War Games being an example that leaps to mind)
Because Shada 2017 have premiere in cinema
Thanks for the clarification! I wasn't very online back in those days so that information passed me by for sure