Circuit Breaker - The Black Archive Files: What's the deal?

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I often talk about how much care and attention to detail goes into the Classic Series releases to convince us fans to shell out on something a lot of us have already bought at least two or three times. Then comes along a random release out of the blue that makes you ask who does this appeal to? But some unexpected new bonus material alongside some unusual and rare episode variants perhaps gives enough value to justify buying.    Circuit Breaker is the latest multi-platform event from BBC Studios, following on from Time Lord Victorious (2020) and Doom’s Day (2023). This time focusing on the mysterious Fugitive Doctor as played by Jo Martin, who has refreshingly been heavily involved with the entire range. I’ve personally not been following the story that closely, but the premise involves the Doctor teaming up with Osgood who is now working in the Black Archive as objects from the Doctor’s personal timeline have gone missing. This new Blu-ray release features 10 Doctor Who stori...
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May the 4th (and 13th) Doctors be with WHO - The case of the Series 12 box set

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Whilst May the 4th is considered by the wider world Star Wars day, for Doctor Who fans in Region 2 land 2020 will be quite an exciting with two Doctor Who box sets due out on the same day.  The first being The Collection – Season 14 and other being the recent Series 12 for which is coming out on Steelbook, Blu-Ray and DVD. They retail for the same price (expect for the Series 12 Steelbook which is £10 more).


Season 14 (like every other release in The Collection) consists of 8 discs jammed packed with material.  Commentaries (and in some cases multiple on the same episodes), Documentaries (new and old), contemporary TV clips and footage and that is only the tip of the iceberg.  

In complete contrast Series 12 contains commentaries on just 3 of the 11 episodes (and as I type I still don’t know who’s on them), Behind the Scenes videos (for which most of them don’t even scrape the 5 mins mark and spend half the time just regurgitating the plot of the story) and “What to Expect in Series 12” (which is totally irrelevant seeing I have just purchased this).  We even had to campaign for Resolution to be on here as it was left of Series 11 for inexplicable reasons.

Series 12 consists of a whopping 5 discs for the 11 episodes, which it does not need to be.  You could almost certainly get everything on there down to 3 possibly 4 discs and still have ample room for more content.  

My big question is why Series 12 so lacking in extras and why do the two releases have such different approaches for the same show?  

I admit there is no way I expect something like The Collection coverage for Series 12, but even if we just go back to the Series 10 box set in 2017 we get Deleted Scenes, a few interesting documentaries (for which about 5 last for at least 15 minutes), Binaural Sound on Knock Knock,  a concert of music, 12 episodes of The Fan Show (which are worth a watch) plus a few other bits and pieces. Why the sudden change in approach?  I would argue there is even more need for this sort of content than older series when you can access the episodes for free on iPlayer and half of the extras on YouTube.

Oh, how long for the days for commentaries on every episode or even just the TV trailers on there.
And before anyone replies to me with something along the lines of “RIP DOCTOR WHO, CHIBNALL MUST GO!” etc…, I personally really enjoyed Series 12 and I know others did too.  And just because a number of fans don’t like it, it doesn’t mean it should receive the same treatment as other physical media releases.  I am sure there would be mass moaning if The Twin Dillema never received any extras on DVD!

My message to BBC Studios of you are reading this is to please put some more effort into your new series releases, I’m sure Week One sales will increase if you do.

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