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An Extended Trial for the Sixth Doctor

The Vervoids and Melanie (Bonnie Langford) in The Trial of a Time Lord (1986).

The next release in BBC Studios’ acclaimed Doctor Who: The Collection range of Blu-ray box sets will be 1986’s Season 23.

The season consists of a single 14-part story, The Trial of a Time Lord, and stars Colin Baker as the Doctor, Nicola Bryant as Peri and Bonnie Langford as Mel.

Executive producer Russell Minton tells Doctor Who Magazine: “We’ve decided to include extended edits of all 14 episodes. These will all be in HD, as will the regular broadcast episodes. Also, all 14 episodes will have a 5.1 mix created by Mark Ayres. This involved re-recording the music for Mindwarp [Parts Five to Eight], which the BBC didn’t hold any copies of as isolated music. Richard Hartley, the original composer, has re-recorded the score.

“In addition, Charles Norton has made a trial-less version of Terror of the Vervoids [Parts Nine to Twelve], with Rob Ritchie providing new special effects shots. I know fans have often asked for something like this so we thought we would try it on the story that would definitely work without the trial scenes.

“Chris Chapman has made three great documentaries: The Doctor Who Cookbook Revisited, in which Toby Hadoke visits contributors to Gary Downie’s 1985 book as they remake their recipes to see if they’re remotely edible; The Doctor’s Table, the first of a new strand taking four stars from a season and getting them to chat over a cosy lunch about that series of Doctor Who, with some probing questions; and The Writers’ Room: The Lost Season, in which Eric Saward, Philip Martin, Christopher H Bidmead and Wally K Daly discuss the ‘lost’ Season 23.”

The set also includes Matthew Sweet In Conversation with Bonnie Langford; Behind the Sofa with Colin, Nicola and Bonnie on one sofa and Mark Strickson, Matthew Waterhouse and Frazer Hines on the other; the 1986 French TV programme Temps X, which features a behindthe- scenes look at the making of Season 23; an interview with Colin from 2013; HD photo galleries; PDFs of scripts, production files, costume designs and rare documentation, plus hours of extensive special features previously released on DVD.