Over the weekend, reports surfaced that The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot; the unofficial-but-officially-sanctioned half-hour special written and directed by Fifth Doctor Peter Davison and co-starring Colin Baker (Six), Sylvester McCoy (Seven), and (briefly) Paul McGann (Eight); would at some point be released on DVD. The source of this information is apparently C. Baker himself, sharing the news at a Doctor Who Appreciation Society event. Details are ridiculously sketchy, pretty much only including the fact that it’s slated to happen and that it will be part of a “special set” focused on Matt Smith.

Folks are already speculating wildly about what will be on this rumored set, though most (like me) seem to have settled on the idea that it will be something 50th anniversary-related. My favorite overly enthusiastic and admittedly too optimistic list of items that might be included encompassed everything from the Proms to Hurt interviews to a specially created farewell to Eleven.

Admittedly, if it does turn out to be an anniversary set, there is a lot of material from which to choose. A lot of material was only available in one part of the world or another (e.g., the aforementioned Proms, or the Doctors Revisited series which didn’t make it to the UK until mere weeks before the anniversary). But how likely do we really think it is that BBC Worldwide would include videos of panel interviews, for instance? Realistically, there’s a pretty short list of what they’re likely to use.

My own enthusiasm at the prospect is far from universal; plenty of folks don’t give a shit. Some figure they’ll never watch some of these episodes again; others already have their own bootleg copies and don’t see a reason to pay for DVD/blu-ray ones; still others either have no interest in any possible extra content, or take the cynical view that it’s all just another way for the BBC to milk us all of more of our cash.

Aside from the fact that I’m a completist (yes, I’ve purchased every (surviving) episode thru Series Seven), I believe in intellectual property rights, and paying creators for their work. So I will eventually buy all of them somehow. I just don’t want to buy individual episodes.

That’s why the prospect of a 50th Anniversary Boxed Set excites me. Your guess is as good as mine (perhaps better) as to what will really be in the set when it comes out (maybe we should start a betting pool…), but I’ll tell you right now what I’d like to see included.

Core Material:

• “Night of the Doctor” – prequel short, starring Paul McGann
• Day of the Doctor – anniversary special
• Time of the Doctor – Christmas special / farewell to Matt Smith’s Eleven
• The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot – unofficial “Classic Doctors” anniversary special
• An Adventure in Space and Time (AAISAT) – docudrama about the show’s beginnings

Bonus Options:

• Doctor Who Prom – music from the show, performed at the Royal Albert Hall
• Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide – overview of the show’s history, hosted by Eleven & Clara
• The Science of Doctor Who – a look at the science in the science fiction

Those I’ve listed as “core material” are what I think are most likely to appear in a 50th anniversary set—though I’m least confident about AAISAT making the cut. It is, however, one of the best of the lot, so I’m crossing my fingers hard. As for my “bonus options,” these were specially televised events in the UK that we didn’t get to see on this side of the Pond (correct me if I’m wrong, those of you lucky enough to have BBC America). I think they’d be fun and interesting additions to a set, if I were the one who got to dictate the contents, but I wouldn’t be crushed if they were excluded.

I just wonder if any of this will come to fruition before Series Eight begins.