Good news and bad news for fans of classic era Doctor Who, who also own a Blu-ray player. On March 30^th, Doctor Who: Tom Baker – The Complete First Season is getting a Blu-ray release.

The snag? Thus far, only in America.

The announcement of the release came from Warner Bros and BBC America in the US, and it’s the first time that catalogue classic era Who has been released on the Blu-ray format since Spearhead From Space (save for special reconstructions such as Shada, released before Christmas). Given that the original recordings don’t naturally lend themselves to high definition exposure, it seems that significant work will have been done to prepare for the release. We look forward to see it, and hope that it opens the door for more such releases.

The five stories in the set are Robot, The Ark In Space, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis Of The Daleks and Revenge Of The Cybermen. A price of $59.99 has been set, although etailers should discount that. Still expect to pay a good £50 plus customs charges to get it to the UK, though.

Hopefully, the BBC will release the set in the UK too. No word as of yet…