The Doctor faces the Daleks, the Kandyman, Cybermen and the Gods of Ragnarok in the silver anniversary series…

At the time I wasn’t best impressed with Season 24 – my opinion has changed somewhat over the intervening 35 years – so I really wasn’t sure even whether to watch the first story of the 25th season… but knowing the Daleks were back was an enticement. And I’m extremely glad I did, as Remembrance of the Daleks proved to be one of my top three stories from the classic era (and remains in my top five of the whole show). I also had something of a soft spot for Silver Nemesis, and found both The Happiness Patrol and Greatest Show very intriguing.

Now new versions of all four of these stories are the highlight of this new Blu-ray Collection, with the first three overseen by Pete McTighe and Greatest Show by Paul Vanezis. There’s a hell of a lot of other material on the set but I suspect these will be the things people go to first.

Remembrance feels fleshed out a bit – there are some interesting changes to the transmitted version (a miscalculation isn’t so terminal, so to speak), with some omissions (one of the controversial ones at the time) and some additions that help. One scene with Mike, Rachel and Allison feels a bit heavy handed, and you can see why it was taken out originally. The effects sequences are beefed up – the car alarms across the whole of London would have gone off if they had been this level – and there’s a very effective Black Dalek sequence. However, with this, the transmitted version would still be my go-to (maybe with the new effects and the 5.1 soundtrack).

The Happiness Patrol isn’t a story I know anywhere near as well as Remembrance or Nemesis, but this 90 minute version definitely holds together, and the extra effects sell it well. It’s a strong story for McCoy’s Doctor, with good character work for Aldred’s companion. I can imagine that this looked terrific on the BFI big screen (the second time around!).

As for Silver Nemesis, although the Special Edition is longer, it feels pacier – the scenes edited out (included as extras) were done so for good reason. There are loads of different edits in the set, but the Special Edition works well (there’s a couple of additions you’ll raise an eyebrow at, with a hat tip to Mr Ayres for one of them) and this probably will be my go-to version in future. (And as Tat Wood predicted back in About Time 6 in 2007, a one hour version of this story also works!)

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy benefits from longer episodes 1 and 3, as well as the effects being given some extra oomph, and again, I suspect this version will be the one I watch going forward.

As ever, the original VAM is ported across from the DVDs, but we benefit from a load of extras – material that would have felt like ephemera at the time that is now kept for posterity (I’m not going to pretend I’ve watched them all yet, but slowly working my way through). The Looking for Dursley documentary is very affecting and is recommended, as are Matthew Sweet’s interviews. The American Silver Nemesis documentary and interviews are fascinating and the Collectables of course features Mr Davison’s extraordinary abilities!

Verdict: Add in all the paperwork provided as pdfs, and you have a pretty comprehensive look at a season that suggested the show was in rude health – highly recommended. 10/10

Paul Simpson