I must admit, even in the age of streaming, I'm always excited to see a Doctor Who story or season released on physical media. For one thing, it's nice to see it on the shelf with the rest of the collection. For another, the special features have been consistently excellent, especially for releases in the Classic Series. As a fan of that era, it's often been fun to speculate which complete season will be released next on Blu-ray.
Of course, this brings me to an unusual aspect of Classic Who: the random order. In the case of most TV series, they're usually released on DVD and Blu-ray in the order they were broadcast. For example, the first season released on Blu-ray would usually be Season 1, followed by Season 2, and so on.
But this has never been the case with Classic Who. Since the series was first released on video - and even before that - it has always been released in a completely random order. Even today, while entire seasons are being released on Blu-ray, the order has been far from chronological. In fact, while the final season has been available for several years, Season 1 has yet to be released. For new fans hoping to watch the series in order, this can be potentially confusing at best and possibly off-putting at worst.
Why has the Classic Series always been released in such a random order? There are several factors that might explain why.
From books to videos
The random order really goes back to the novelizations. While only three stories were novelized in the '60s - namely, "The Daleks", "The Web Planet", and "The Crusades" - the '70s brought us the massively popular Target novelizations.
Looking back, this is the earliest example of stories being released in random order. The Target books are important, as for a long time, they were the only way for fans to enjoy stories that had only been broadcast once on television. This was also the best way of discovering past Doctors, and each novelization would usually find a way of introducing the Doctor and their companions to potential new readers.
When TV stories finally started to be released on video, they were also released in a non-chronological order, beginning with the Fourth Doctor serial "Revenge of the Cybermen". Looking back, it's easy to see why.
Random but necessary
First of all, Doctor Who's serial format was almost perfect for home video. At this point, it would've been extremely expensive for a complete season to be released on VHS. With other TV shows, releasing one story at a time might be considered too little. But considering all Classic Stories were told across multiple episodes, a fan was always guaranteed to watch a feature-length story.
There is an even more obvious reason for releasing stories in non-chronological order, of course: the missing episodes. Today, there are 97 episodes missing from the BBC archives, and that number would've only been higher when serials started to be released on video. At this point, there was nothing to fill those gaps - no animations or reconstructions. So it's easy to see why the BBC decided not to release the series chronologically when the gaps would've been more noticeable.
There was also the matter of restoration. I've always been extremely impressed by the work completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team, which has aimed to restore classic stories to their best possible quality. The amount of work required has usually been more noticeable with '60s stories than with later decades. As a result, it's not surprising that the BBC would want to release serials that didn't require too much work.
Theoretically, the random order also meant that fans didn't have to wait too long to watch a story featuring their favorite Doctor. I say "theoretically" because some Doctors took a long time to be released on video. Indeed, the first VHS release featuring William Hartnell's Doctor was "The Daleks" in 1989 - over five years after "Revenge of the Cybermen" was released.
DVD and Blu-ray
This last reason was better seen when the DVD format came along. The first six stories released on DVD were "The Five Doctors", "The Robots of Death", "Remembrance of the Daleks", "The Caves of Androzani", "The Movie" and "Vengeance on Varos". This is a great mix of stories that provides an excellent mix of Doctors and eras, and this mix would continue for the rest of the range.
When Doctor Who: The Collection began in 2018, it was the first time that entire seasons were consistently released on physical media. (Seasons 16 and 23 were the only complete seasons released on DVD, due to the strong arcs of each season.) But, as we mentioned earlier, the range still wasn't being released in order.
The first season released on Blu-ray was Season 12. This was actually a smart idea - as Tom Baker's first season (a season that's currently celebrating its 50th anniversary), it was definitely a great way of grabbing fans' attention. At the same time, in a nice bit of symmetry, it also ensured that "Revenge of the Cybermen" was one of the first stories released.
Significant gaps
Seven years later, the random order has been beneficial for fans of the '70s and '80s Doctors, as most of their seasons have been released already. This has been less true for fans of the '60s, however. So far, only one season has been released from that decade since The Collection began, and Patrick Troughton fans are still waiting for any of his seasons to be released.
This isn't surprising, especially considering the amount of episodes missing. Season 2 was released for a very obvious reason - it only has 2 episodes missing. Compared to Seasons 3 and 4 - which respectively have 28 and 33 episodes missing - that's shockingly low. But it's also a sad reminder of how much is missing from that period.
Having said that, we can hope for another '60s season to be released sooner or later. Since the collection started, many missing stories have been animated in full, making a complete season release for Seasons 4 and 5 far more likely than before. Also, Patrick Troughton's final season is mostly complete, with the exception of 2 episodes of "The Invasion" (which have been animated), and 5 episodes of "The Space Pirates". Also, releasing another black and white season soon would help to spread out the remaining four color seasons better.
For those used to watching complete shows from the beginning, the random order of Classic Who might be off-putting. But for many fans - especially those of us who grew up in the Wilderness Years when the show was off the air - it's been an interesting way to explore the history of the series. In the 60th anniversary special "The Giggle", the Toymaker described the Doctor's history as a "jigsaw", and that's the perfect way to describe the random order - gradually putting the pieces together before finally seeing the whole picture. It might be an unusual way of enjoying the show, but it's also satisfying in its own way.