This is the first selection of Tom Baker videos. The only one I have owned from new is "Revenge of the Cybermen" in the top row.

I was given "Revenge of the Cybermen" as a Christmas present back in the 1980s. I always thought I had had this tape since 1983, when it became the first-ever BBC Dr. Who video release - but looking at the date-coding at the beginning of the tape on a recent viewing, it appears to date from 1986.

I suppose then it must have been a present from Christmas 1986. My memory of things so far back is a bit hazy. I was still in short trousers back then so I can't recall exactly, but I wouldn't have thought it would be any later than 1986 as I didn't watch the programme after that.

Exactly twenty years later I received the D-V-D version of "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", a rare exception to my policy of avoiding D-V-D, simply because it is the only Tom Baker story not released in episode form on videotape.

Three of the tapes in the picture above are re-releases in episode form. I don't like these rotten omnibus versions the BBC insisted on churning out for many years so I will only buy full-episode versions. I didn't have much choice with "Revenge of the Cybermen" but you will see that I managed to add the full version to my collection many years later. The other uncut editions are "The Ark in Space" and "The Brain of Morbius".