Spliting the Early Seasons?

It was announced by the BBC earlier today that The Faceless Ones is the next Doctor Who story that will have its missing episodes animated and is expected to be released in 2020. This makes sense given that The Faceless Ones follows directly on from The Macra Terror so they will be able to use the existing drawings of Ben, Polly and Jamie that were created for that. It also has two of its six episodes existing so animation is only required on four and they will have models to follow for movement and style.

This is actually an amusing coincidence for me as I had been thinking again about the future blu ray releases of Doctor Who and how they might tackle the first six season. As I wrote in the prior post on animated Doctor Who, some of the seasons, especially Seasons Three and Four will require a lot of work to release. With the animation of The Faceless Ones, all that is left of Season Four that is unavailable is The Smugglers, The Highlanders, six of the seven episodes of The Evil of the Daleks and two episodes of The Underwater Menace for a total of sixteen episodes. A significant improvement from where that season was a few years ago.

Another thought that I had been mulling over is whether the BBC might release the first six seasons in halves as was suggested on a Doctor Who video I watched last week. All the First and Second Doctor seasons were made with an eye towards having around 40 episodes per season. Conversely, the most recently released Fourth Doctor season (18) was the largest box set yet and contained 28 regular episodes and the hour long special K-9 & Company, which is roughly the equivalent of 30 episodes. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the first six seasons and see if they might look at chopping them in half for release and where they might do it.

Season 1 (8 stories, 42 episodes)
Cutting the first season in half would make it easier on the BBC as all the episodes that would be in the second half (The Keys of Marinus, The Aztecs, The Sensorites, The Reign of Terror) exist or are animated, allowing for an easy release. It would give them more time to decide on what to do with Marco Polo and have it paired with the staples of An Uneartly Child, The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction as a juicy plum to be released at a later time.

Season 2 (9 stories, 39 episodes)
Since Season 2 has Planet of Giants and The Rescue in the first half, it makes more sense to have the first half include The Web Planet for a total of five stories. All of these stories exist so release would be fairly easy. The second half would require the animation of two episodes of The Crusade but otherwise would be in good shape for release as well.

Season 3 (10 stories, 45 episodes)
Season 3 will probably be one of the last ones released, split or no. If it were split, it would probably run Galaxy 4, Mission to the Unknown, The Mythmakers, The Daleks’ Master Plan in the first half (requiring fifteen animated episodes) and The Massacre, The Ark, The Celestial Toymaker, The Gunfighters, The Savages, The War Machines in the second half (requiring eleven animated episodes in the second). Assuming the BBC is up for this, they will need all the time they can get to accomplish this work.

Season 4 (9 stories, 43 episodes)
Season 4 has made significant progress as was noted above. Splitting the season would give The Smugglers, The Tenth Planet, The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace to the first half (requiring ten animated episodes) and The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones, The Evil of the Daleks to the second half (requiring six animated episodes). That would make the second half more likely to be released first, especially as the success of Power would naturally lead into Evil.

Season 5 (7 stories, 40 episodes)
Season 5 has an unfortunate imbalance given that most of the stories are six episodes long. I think it makes a little more sense to put The Enemy of the World in the first half with The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, which would require the animation of five of the six episodes of The Abominable Snowmen. That would leave the second half to The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep, The Wheel in Space, requiring animation of ten episodes.

Season 6 (7 stories, 44 episodes)
Season 6 is the only one that splits evenly in terms of episodes. The first half would be The Dominators, The Mind Robber, The Invasion, The Kroton which all exist or are already animated. The second half would be The Seeds of Death, The Space Pirates, The War Games which would require animation of five of the six episodes of The Space Pirates. Like the first half of Season One, I could see this one being held back as a plum which would also give them more time to work on The Space Pirates as needed.

This is obviously speculation as we have no idea if the early seasons will be split or if there is a plan by the BBC to animate everything for the season box sets. But if I were in charge, I could see things being parceled out this way and allowing more time for a more complete experience.