Doctor Who news: The Master’s first season will be released on Blu-ray in his 50th anniversary year!

Season 8 of Doctor Who – featuring the first-ever appearance of the Master – will be released on Blu-ray in Feb 2021 – during the villain’s 50th anniversary year!

The next season of Classic Doctor Who to be released on Blu-ray has finally been announced, and it’s an extremely fitting one! Starring Jon Pertwee in his second season as the Third Doctor, not only does Season 8 introduce Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) – two major characters of the Third Doctor’s era. It also features the first-ever appearance of one of Doctor Who‘s greatest enemies – the Master!

Season 8 stands out as a rather unique season of Doctor Who, and not just because of the villain it introduces. It also stands out because it uses that villain as the main antagonist in every single story! While we do meet other alien races like Autons and Daemons, the Master is always the primary antagonist.

It’s a bold move, and it’s never been used since. (The closest examples we’ve had were in Series 3 with hints of the mysterious “Mr. Saxon”, and in Series 8, where we had several cameos of Michelle Gomez as Missy before her main appearance in the finale.) One reason why it worked so well? Roger Delgado. To this day, he stands out as the Master for many – the original and the best. With this new collection, fans will get to discover why that is.

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Special features

Along with the season’s five serials – including Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, Colony in Space, and The Dæmons – fans can once more look forward to a huge selection of special features, new and old! (Honestly, a key reason why we haven’t reviewed Season 14 on Blu-ray yet is that there are so many special features to get through!)

Here are the extras that this upcoming box set will feature:

"Behind the Sofa – New episodes with Katy Manning, Stewart Bevan, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Sacha Dhawan and Anjli Mohindra.In Conversation – Matthew Sweet chats to companion Katy Manning.A Devils Weekend – Actors Katy Manning and John Levene take a personal trip back to the picturesque village of Aldbourne, 50 years after they recorded the Doctor Who story The Daemons there.The Direct Route – Doctor Who directors Michael Briant, Graeme Harper and Tim Combe take an epic road trip to all the filming locations from Season 8 as they discuss directing the show in the early 1970s.Terrance and Me – Lifelong Doctor Who fan, Frank Skinner sets out to meet the family, friends and colleagues of the late, much-loved writer, Terrance Dicks.Blu-Ray trailer – A specially shot mini-episodeExtended Episode 1 of The Claws of Axos90-minute omnibus edition of The DaemonsImmersive 5.1 surround sound on Terror of the Autons and The DaemonsOptional updated special effects and CSO clean-up on Terror of the AutonsUnseen studio footageRare archive treatsConvention footageHD photo galleriesScripts, costume designs, rare BBC production files"

Honestly, I couldn’t be more excited about this box set. Only yesterday did I write about how 2021 would be such a big year for the Master. We’ve got quite a few releases to look forward to that focus on the villain, including multi-Master story Masterful. But none of it would have been possible if Roger Delgado hadn’t owned the role as completely and brilliantly as he did. It’s only fitting that, during the Master’s 50th anniversary year, his first-ever season gets the Blu-ray release that it deserves.

Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 8 will be released on Blu-ray in the UK on Feb 23, 2021. It will also be released in the US and Australia, although a release date has yet to be confirmed.

Are you excited about the Master’s first-ever stories being released on Blu-ray? What do you think of the teaser trailer for it? Let us know in the comments below.