Circuit Breaker - The Black Archive Files: What's the deal?
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 stories that tie into the events of Circuit Breaker. These ten are:
- Fugitive of the Judoon
- Dalek
- The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky
- Time Heist
- Genesis of the Daleks
- War of the Sontarans
- Blink
- The Shakespeare Code
- The Girl in the Fireplace
- The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon
This is such an eclectic mix. Having just one episode from the Flux saga is very strange and I am not sure works on its own. Genesis of the Daleks is getting yet another physical media outing, despite already being included on the Time Lord Victorious compilation release. Plus, only one episode actually features Jo Martin’s Doctor, Fugitive of the Judoon.
I had thought compilation “Best Of” DVD and Blu-ray releases were a thing of the past. I do wonder in the era of streaming why a compilation release like this is still considered to be a good idea? All these episodes are on iPlayer in the UK. Anyone can access them at the touch of a few presses on their TV remote. And the chances are those (like me) who still opt for physical media will probably own most if not all of the episodes already.
But unlike The Time Lord Victorious release, the Circuit Breaker release actually comes with a number of new and exclusive Special Features:
The first feature is Inside the World of Circuit Breaker where Jo Martin, Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) and Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson (Story Lead) introduce the story of Circuit Breaker and tease the story.
The third is New Sonic Revealed with Jo Martin, which is another vertically shot video where Jo shows off the new design and the references within the prop.
The fourth is From Fan to Writer with Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, a very short interview with the main writer behind Circuit Breaker.
The fifth is another short vertically shot video where Jo Martin talks about Playing the Fugitive Doctor.
The sixth is the main Special Feature where Jo Martin is interviewed by Whoniverse Show presenter Tia Kofi, lasting just over 18 minutes. Differing from the interviews released online, I found it fascinating. Jo gets to talks about her casting, filming Fugitive of the Judoon, the fan reaction to her Doctor, amongst other topics. It was a stark reminder how little behind-the-scenes content we got from the Whittaker era of the show. It’s important that key actors like Jo do get a proper interview at some point.
Frustratingly BBC Studios didn’t communicate the number of new extras on this release. In the press release they only mentioned the Jo Martin interview. For all I knew it could have been just a few minutes long. This extra information was the deal breaker for me getting this release and I would have preordered rather than wait to hear the information from another fan. Anything that makes your product unique should be properly communicated.
Whilst the episodes themselves are on the most part straight repackages; these do have some unintended advantages over previous releases due to different (possibly wrong) files being chosen.
The Series 1-4 episodes use the 2023 Blu-ray remasters as the picture source, however unlike that release, the sound is presented in Stereo rather than utilising the 5.1 Surround mix. As a result, this fixes the audio errors that were on Dalek so that they now match what was broadcast. Namely the different take of the “You tortured me” line as spoken by the Dalek and the “Bad Wolf One descending” dialogue coming in too late. Andrew Hsieh has produced a video comparing the two.
This is the first time the original Stereo audio has been made available physically in the UK since the 2005 Vanilia release 21 years ago. Combined with the restored picture from the 2023 Blu-ray release, this arguably makes it the best release of this story, although that does mean having to forgo the surround mix.
The other change concerns The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. For some reason the masters used for this release originate from the international version of the episodes (which were also used on Netflix in the UK). These contain an additional montage sequence just before the title sequence kicks in, in which Amy Pond recounts the events of Series 5 and how she met the Doctor. Produced to help introduce new viewers to the show, it is similar in style to the Torchwood intro (Beyond the government, outside the Police… etc). I think it’s the first time I have ever seen this properly which is nice.
Genesis of the Daleks also has Audio Description, which is absent on The Collection release. Anything that makes Doctor Who more accessible to watch is welcomed.
I’m really pleased to see these variations included as I already own the stories on Blu-ray, it’s nice to have access to alternate versions of the episodes. It does increase the appeal of this release to me, but I do think a bit more could have been done to help make it more special without needing extra budget to film something.
Whilst Genesis of the Daleks has received countless releases over the years, there are technically two versions of the story that have never been released physically before. The first being the restored version of the 1975 movie length Omnibus that was produced for a US cinema screening. The Season 12 box set only has an unrestored version of the vintage cut-down edit, a conscious decision made at the time before opting for restored versions for future sets. The second being the 1982 “Doctor Who and the Monsters” edit which saw the story edited down to 2x 45-minute episodes. Whilst the latter probably would require some new editing, both options would at lease give us something totally new on disc.
There’s also plenty of unreleased new series content that could have found a home here. What about Destination: Skaro? The 2023 Children in Need special that was inexplicably left off the 60th Anniversary box set. It’s a prequel to Genesis so wouldn’t feel out of place here. Or even the Daleks! animated series that was produced as part of Time Lord Victorious. There’s Tales of the TARDIS, TARDISodes, Attack of the Graske, amongst all sorts of content that has never had a physical media release, although some of these might require a bit of shoe-horning to make it work as part of the Circuit Breaker event.
Charging £33 for a bunch of episodes I already own a copy of just to get access to some new extras is a bit of a cheek if I am totally honest. But there is enough new content here for me to justify the purchase. But probably the nicest thing about this new release is that it finally puts Jo Martin on the cover of a physical-media product, something long overdue.
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