Not sure if US readers have noticed or not, but Amazon’s Unbox video downloads service is now offering you the chance to rent episodes of sci-fi series. Compared to iTunes, it’s pretty rubbish, given you can only watch the episodes for seven days before they self-destruct, but I’d thought I’d point it out anyway. Shows available include Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, Firefly, Babylon 5 and Doctor Who. Technical requirements are similar to the equally rubbish Five VoD service.
There are some interesting choices for Doctor Who, with old school stories such as The Aztecs, The Seeds of Death and The Mind Robber mixing it up with later stories (none of the new Who stories available). It’s worth noting that $1.99 will only get you an episode of Doctor Who, not a complete story, so you’ll have to pay $8 or so to rent all of The Curse of Fenric, for instance. You’d be mad to, but the option’s there.
