Pass out the black armbands… The dvd range is, sob, dead! At least, that’s if you believe Steve Roberts, Restoration Team member and omnirumour ripperupper.

A couple of days ago the news hit the net, Underwater Menace was up for pre-order on amazon! Awesome, right? There was nothing listed as far as episodes one and four that are currently missing from the BBC archive. Would they be animated like we all thought and hoped? Or were they to be cheap reconstructions that would do nothing but anger fans who are sure there are more missing episodes to come? Certainly the original episodes 1 and 4 weren’t to be included. At least, they wouldn’t tell us yet even if that were to be the case. So the debate started back up on the forums, facebook groups and the amazon comments. It was an exciting step forward, progress that could be tangibly seen at last.

And then Steve Roberts had to rain on the happy parade with this comment on facebook

Well], we’re the team that remasters the episodes for DVD release and even we don’t have a clue what’s going on with TUM now. From where we’re standing, it’s looking like the range is dead.”

Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Doctor-The-Underwater-Menace/19865#ixzz33alI6L00

So what are we to believe? If the BBC has cancelled the release of The Underwater Menace, and are not even attempting to do something with The Crusade then we as fans are being severely mistreated. I don’t think it’s entitlement to want something that you were told you were going to get. I don’t think it’s entitlement to be bitter and angry and incredibly disappointed if the BBC couldn’t get those last two dvd’s out for us and instead just arbitrarily declare the range dead.

But if we have learned anything from the ongoing omnirumour saga, it’s to take nothing at face value. I won’t be writing my eulogy on the dvd range just yet. Instead I am living in hope that maybe more episodes have been discovered and that we will see them someday.