Commercial releases of surviving [BBC] episodes

[Ben]

Does anyone know where the BBC stands in regards to releasing series which large volumes of missing episodes or very few surviving episodes? Recently, we've seen the odd surviving Doctor Who episodes released on a three-disc set (with the other nearly complete stories also to be released in the future) and a Quatermass box set (featuring the two surviving "Experiment" episodes; released soon). But what about other series such as Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars and Doomwatch?

There was a very poor release of the first two surviving episodes of Doomwatch awhile ago - no special features, no restoration, one chapter per episode (the start), crap menus and so on. It was obvious no effort had been put into it. A planned second volume never got released. I often wonder how successful a complete set of Doomwatch would be if some money was spent on restoring it, adding a few special features, decent menus and doing a little promotion (such as leaflets in other BBC sci-fi releases or a feature on the BBCi Cult site). In my opinion, Doomwatch is one of the BBC's best sci-fi series. But I'm wandering off-topic...

As for Dixon of Dock Green, for example, it's something a lot of people remember fondly and I believe there is a fanbase even if it isn't as large as that of Doctor Who. The Blue Lamp is already out on DVD, so why not the surviving "Dixon" episodes?

And surely there's a lot of potential in Z Cars?

[Stratford Johns]

And Softly Softly

[Ben]

This Til Death Do Us Part DVD release is interestingly labelled:
www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=pab&page=title&r=R2&title=179906

I think that's a great way to release, for example, the surviving Z Cars seasons - "Z Cars: The Complete [Year] Season". And Steptoe and Son have released a couple of "Best Ofs", which is also a clever way.

However, "The First Colour Season" of Til Death Do Us a part was not a great idea, in my opinion.

Does anyone know (anyone from the RT?) if unbroadcastable material, such as the low-grade Steptoe and Son episodes, could be included as extras (so the consumer is effectively not paying for them the sense that they are paying for the main feature) alongside other episodes? (Or even as easter eggs, but that idea is probably too stupid.)

[Ben]

In summary, so far, we've established the following methods of releasing incomplete series commercially:

- The Complete Box Set ("Quatermass"): Featuring all surviving episodes.

- Volume 1, 2, 3... et cetera (Doomwatch*): Releasing surviving episodes in order over multiple volumes.

- Best Of (Steptoe and Son): Compilations of random surviving episodes.

- Complete Seasons (Til Death Do Us Part): Cleverly labelled ("The Complete 1972 Season") so that casual consumers aren't deterred by the idea of not being able to own every episode.

Themed episodes could also work on individual discs, for example, "Doctor Who: Cybermen", but preferably for series in which the episodes are stand-alone.

* Only the first volume was actually released.