On Video and DVD

There are 20 episodes of The Sandbaggers. All episodes are available on DVD thanks to the fine folk at BFS Entertainment.

Twelve of the first 13 episodes also are available on NTSC videotapes; the episode that’s missing is Special Relationship (Episode 7). That pivotal episode is available on DVD.
No PAL videos of The Sandbaggers are available, but Sandbaggers fans who live in PAL countries might be able to play the DVDs. DVD Sets 1, 2 and 3.

On August 28, 2001, BFS Entertainment & Multimedia Limited released two box sets of “Sandbaggers” DVDs in North America. Each box set contains three discs.

Collection Set 1
Disc 1: Episodes 1 and 2
Disc 2: Episodes 3 and 4
Disc 3: Episodes 5, 6, and 7

Collection Set 2
Disc 1: Episodes 8 and 9
Disc 2: Episodes 10 and 11
Disc 3: Episodes 12 and 13, plus production photos and text “extras” (some of which were prepared for BFS by the Ops Room).

Collection Set 3
Disc 1: Episodes 14 and 15
Disc 2: Episodes 16 and 17
Disc 3: Episodes 18, 19 and 20

 

Region Encoding
What if you live outside North America? Possible good news: the Sandbaggers DVDs do not have regional encoding. They are, however, NTSC. Therefore they will play in some non-North American DVD players and televisions; they also can be played several computers with DVD-compatible drives. More information about these matters is available here.

The NTSC videos
BFS’s also released NTSC VHS videotapes of 12 episodes of The Sandbaggers.

Collection Set 1, which was released in 1994, has Episodes 1 through 6. Collection Set 2, which followed in 2000, has Episodes 8 through 13. Episode 7, “Special Relationship,” was skipped in between the two videotape sets. Because this episode is so crucial to the whole series, the Ops Room recommends that you get the first set of DVDs to see “Special Relationship.” The PAL videos

Videotapes of The Sandbaggers are not currently in print in the PAL television format (which is used in the United Kingdom, continental Europe except France, and most of the rest of the world except for North America and Japan.) The Ops Room has not heard of any plans for new PAL video releases, either.

The only PAL Sandbaggers tapes were issued in the UK in the mid-1980s by Pathe Distribution Ltd. Pathe’s two videotapes were called The Best of The Sandbaggers Cassette 1 and Cassette 2.

Cassette 1 contained episodes 6 and 8, A Feasible Solution and At All Costs. Interestingly, Episode 7, Special Relationship, also was skipped in this PAL release.

Cassette 2 featured the very first episode, First Principles, and the 12th episode, It Couldn’t Happen Here. These are fine episodes, but putting them together on the same tape is a bit odd, because two of the Sandbaggers in First Principles are long gone by the time of It Couldn’t Happen Here!