VHSes

The history of Doctor Who on video stretches right back to the dawn of the home video industry. Back in 1983, the BBC released Revenge of the Cybermen on VHS video (and also on the defunct Betamax and Video 2000 formats).

In the 20 years since then, nearly 150 Who-related VHS videos have appeared, which includes all complete classic series stories, compilations of the other surviving episodes, some documentaries and a number of incomplete stories (with photos and narration to fill the gaps).

By the end of 2003, the supply of episodes to be released finally ran out, and combined with the dwindling market for VHS tapes, the BBC switched solely to releasing Who on DVD instead.

Also, released was non-BBC VHS videos : documentaries, interviews and spin-off dramas.

Note: Originally, the BBC videos were released in "movie" format (i.e. with the breaks between episodes edited out so the story ran as one continuous "movie") — this proved unpopular with most fans and the practice was eventually stopped in 1989. The majority of videos released between 1983 and 1989 were subsequently re-released in the UK in unedited "episode" format. Most of these re-releases did not happen outside the UK, so so there is a situation for some stories where the UK release is unedited, but the non-UK releases are in edited "movie" format. Where appropriate, this is noted on the page for the individual video.

Also note that the UK and Australian releases are in VHS PAL format, while the US releases are in VHS NTSC format. So unless you have a multi-standard VCR, don't order UK videos if you live in the US (or vice versa) as they won't work.