Doctor Who Blu-ray short films to be 'rested', producer confirms
The extended trailers for the Collection boxsets have proven hugely popular with fans.
It's become a tradition that the release of classic Doctor Who seasons on Blu-ray is accompanied by an extended 'trailer' – a short film / mini-episode that will often see a companion actor reprise their classic role for a new adventure.
The latest example – Leela vs the Time War – was released to promote Doctor Who - The Collection: Season 15 and saw Louise Jameson play an older, battle-ravaged version of the Fourth Doctor's companion. It has proven to be the most popular short yet, being viewed more than 700,000 times on YouTube.
However, Pete McTighe – writer and executive producer on the films – has revealed that the popular releases are "going to have to have a bit of a rest".
Speaking at a BFI Southbank screening of Horror of Fang Rock held to mark the release of The Collection: Season 15, McTighe explained that crafting the shorts is "a lot of work", particularly producing something as ambitious as Leela vs the Time War.
"We've kind of got half of one [film] in the can that we did 18 months ago, and there's more coming up," he said. "[But] we are reaching the point where we're going to have to have a breather from those trailers for a while, because they're a lot of work.
"We kind of get to the point where it's... where do we go from that? So we're going to have to have a bit of a rest soon."
McTighe explained that, in some instances, a more traditional clips package might instead be used to promote the Collection boxsets.
Previous shorts have included Defenders of Earth starring Katy Manning as Jo Jones, The Passenger featuring Janet Fielding as Tegan and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, and The Promise starring Sophie Aldred as Ace.
Despite its impressive visual effects, McTighe insisted that newest effort Leela vs the Time War was still made with a limited budget, to a strict schedule and with a "tiny crew" of "way less than 10 people".
"It didn't [have a big budget] – they're literally made for 20 quid and a ham sandwich!" he joked. "We had about three or four hours [to film]."
Order The Collection - Tom Baker's series on Amazon now:
Doctor Who - The Collection: Season 15 is available for pre-order on Amazon now. Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Morgan Jeffery is the Digital Editor for Radio Times, overseeing all editorial output across the brand's digital platforms. He was previously TV Editor at Digital Spy and has featured as a TV expert on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Atlantic.
