Top 5 Things I Don't Need to See on Another Doctor Who DVD

If you follow This Week in Geek at all, you already know that I buy every single Doctor Who DVD that comes down the pipeline, Classic Who as well as New Who. They feature a lot of content, especially the classic DVDs, but not all of it is interesting or entertaining. Here then are the 5 things I wouldn't mind NEVER AGAIN SEEING on a Doctor Who DVD release.

5. Continuity linksThe Classic Who releases cram as much archival footage on the disc as they can. These include presenter voice-over from just before or just after the episodes. While an example for each year or program line-up would be interesting, I don't think we need every single announcement from every single time the episode was shown on every possible BBC channel EVER. Especially when they're all the same. Yes, yes, I can buy Pyramids of Mars on video, leave me alone. I can't bear to listen to the 80s theme starting and ending again.

4. Menu spoilers
While footage is used in the animated menus for Classic Who, the shows are old enough that I don't consider them spoilers. If they would spoil you, just quickly press Play All before it goes too far. The New Who releases are a different story. The Series 4 menus, for example, spoil Davros and the Daleks' ultimate appearance. And Children of Earth uses a scene from the last episode right in its menu. And you HAVE to watch them to get to to the highlightable text! Sure, I'd usually seen the episodes beforehand, but not everyone has, and I lend my sets a lot. I'm spreading the word. I just don't want to spread the spoilers.

3. "You seem to be drifting sweetheart..." Series 4 trailer
Wilf is charming and it's a good trailer overall. Except when every single release, New and Classic, makes you sit through it (or skip through it, in my case). Can't wait for Series 5 to get the DVD treatment to they can start advertising that instead. Come back in a year and I'll be raging about the "What have you got for me this time?" trailer instead, no doubt. And hey, the New Who releases could stand to advertise the Classics a little too. Let's change it up. Even the BBC America ad did.

2. Isolated scores
I guess they have the tracks available, and so they're on there, but who thought Doctor Who 80s electronic fart music was anything anyone would listen to? Painful. And the only feature I do not "flip". And that makes me feel sad.

1. Terrence Dicks' damn Pertwee bouffant story.
There are a couple of stories Doctor Who writer/script editor Terrence Dicks likes to tell on every single release. The most annoying of these is without a doubt the one about telling what year a Jon Pertwee story was filmed in based on how big his bouffant has gotten. Yes, or you could look it up, or having innate Whovian knowledge that tells you that Inferno is in his first year, for example. Every time he tells it, it's like the first time too. Oh, he's so funny, and they all chuckle, though I imagine they've heard it before as well. Sometimes he'll tell it in both the commentary and the making of documentary. Wouldn't want anyone to miss it, after all.

But on the whole, the Classic Who DVDs are some of the best TV DVDs ever, focusing intensely on each story individually, ferreting out old cast and crew members for new interviews, giving things a fun comedic spin, and looking at all facets of the Doctor Who experience. (They should really tackle the novels in some extra some time, just like they did the comic strips. It's sorely lacking.) The New Who stuff is less surprising, and missing some things (the Series 2 TARDISodes, the Graske tv game), so it could definitely learn from its classic cousin.

What are your favorite/least favorite Doctor Who DVD features?