The Doctor In The TARDIS

Did anyone manage to get hold of a copy of this on VHS? I remember that when it came out in (I think) '95 or '96, my dad was trying to find it everywhere but couldnt get a copy in any of the shops, then apparantly it got taken out of print two weeks after release and there was some sort of weird 'Hand Of Fear' black market thing going on. My dad ended up getting it from a friend of a friend (8)) for about £25, but I heard stories much later that people were selling it for upwards of £50-£100 because it was such a rarity.

So did anyone get a copy or know why it was taken off the shelves so quickly?

No, I've never heard anything about that before.

The most common theory is that it was taken out of release so quickly because of the upcoming release of the Movie. Hand Of Fear was the last release before the Movie aired and the more widespread theory is that the BBC expected that the popularity of the Movie would go through the roof and a new series would be picked up straight away, so rather than having people love the movie and then check out old videos with lower production quality, an attempt was made to recall as many of the videos as possible ready for a new wave of merchandise off the back of the moview and new series.

Obviously a series was never commissioned and the popularity of the Movie wasn't what they were expecting so it sort of backfired. That could all be a load of tosh, but its the rumour I have heard the most regarding it.

As for the videos that were bought, I have heard rumours of them selling at really high prices, but I always assumed it was a bit of a myth built out of the fact that it was only available for two weeks. On Ebay and Amazon now they go for standard prices generally, but the DVD is widely available now so that could be why.

If that was the case then surely the BBC were shooting themselves in the foot. If the Movie had taken off then surely it would have made more sense to have a ready built merchandise catalogue. It can't say much for their faith in the show if they thought that people watching the classic series would dislike it so much that they would give up on anything new that was produced.

The money thing could just be a myth or rumour because of the rarity. Even now people still say that 'lost' episodes are passing hands for extortionate prices, though nothing has ever been proven. It's mostly just hearsay I would assume

You've intrigued me now, I am going to go through my collection 2moz... else buy one off Ebay :P