The Chase DVD - cut in America

No American tour for the Beatles.

M Aldridge wrote:

Those outside of the UK (maybe just in North America) might want to note that the Beatles material from The Chase will not be on the R1 (and R4?) DVD, according to Steve over at GB. Too many fans were asking about it for it to creep under the radar, it seems... own worst enemy, etc.

Julian K wrote:

Has Steve suggested what they're going to do with the affected scene?

steverobertsbbc wrote:

We're not doing anything with it - I was was as much in the dark as anyone, it was announced by another participant at a panel I was taking part in at Gallifrey One last weekend. The edit has already been made by a third party and I've no idea what they've done. I imagine they've simply snipped out about two minutes of the story!

Boo! Guess I'll be holding out for the R2 version of that one.

The Beatles were also the holdup with the revised Remembrance Of The Daleks too, weren't they? At this rate, I'm surprised that the "I Am The Walrus" gag wasn't surgically excised from The Three Doctors for R1...

...and besides, didn't this come out on VHS over here in the early '90s? Was the scene missing there?

It was intact in my copy of the VHS release.

Greed. Plain and simple. One more reason for me not to bother getting The Chase for my collection. I'll just pretend it got lost in time with the other missing stories. Too bad I can't trade The Chase for Marco Polo.

I am lucky to have a dub copy of the program on dvd already. Not Vidfired or anything like that, but I am able to watch it intact!

*sigh* I'll buy it anyway. It isn't the Beeb's fault that international music licensing got INCREDIBLY complicated over the last 40+ years.

Well I'll be getting the UK version if this is true, then rip and reburn. Such a shame that this is an issue. I mean what does it really hurt to keep a piece of history in tact? Remembrance of the Daleks was bad enough, but this is tragic.

No problem here. I'll go with the R2 version. The music rights is probably another reason why so many Slyvester stories still have not been released.

ah still have the vhs version- I have been slowly replacing the dvd's but will wait on this one. Some people rip the story of the chase but I really like it..so I'm weird...ain't we all?

All the rest of my DVD's have been from WhoNA, but this sorely tempts me to go the R2 route. I can understand why it was done, but that doesn't prevent me from wanting a nice, shiney complete version of this story. It's a shame that Space Museum is included as that's a second R1 story that I'd normally happily purchase here. Gotta decide if the grooviness of the Beatles scene is worth it.

Maybe I'll need to find out more about the edit before deciding. The Remebrance of the Daleks or Spearhead from Space edits didn't cause me any harm.

Spearhead From Space edits...?

I guess I'll be getting the R2 DVD somehow, as well. I had the VHS years ago and it was uncut...

Rogue wrote:

Spearhead From Space edits...?

A Fleetwood Mac song was on the radio in the background at the doll factory. They took it out to avoid paying rights fees.

Spearhead? Yes, very minor music rights issue. The episode works perfectly well as edited for Region 1 and there is no reason not to get it from WhoNA. In fact the R2 version also has the Fleetwood Mac music removed so it can't be had (except on VHS or off-air).

It would have been nice to let the Restoration Team have a go at creating a replacement 60's band and music to fit into an International Edition of The Chase. I'd have a laugh at it and probably still get the R1 release without another thought. It's the idea of cutting out the scene that's got me annoyed. But I'll wait until it can be confirmed how the edit was completed until I skip getting all my DVDs here.