Annihilator Set

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The Annihilator Set (2007)

The Annihilator Set is the second main expansion of the Battles in Time trading card series. GE Fabbri officially announced the collection on 9 January 2007, with the nationwide release following on 23 February 2007.

The set expanded the existing collection by 100 cards, continuing the numbering from the Exterminator Set. The cards were numbered sequentially from 276 to 375.

The Annihilator Set contains 100 cards, making it considerably smaller than the 275-card Exterminator Set. The collection incorporated material from the revived Doctor Who series and the 2006 Christmas Special, The Runaway Bride.

At the time of production, Series 3 of Doctor Who had not yet been broadcast. Consequently, the amount of new television material available to the card production team was more limited than during the production of the Exterminator collection.

The set therefore includes material from earlier episodes alongside content from The Runaway Bride. This resulted in a collection containing characters and subjects from Series 1 and Series 2 in addition to material associated with the Christmas Special.

The final card in the collection, card 375, features Martha Jones. The character was subsequently introduced as the Doctor's companion during Series 3, which began broadcasting in March 2007.

The inclusion of Martha Jones provided an early indication of the forthcoming television series before its broadcast and represented the first appearance of the character in the Battles in Time card collection.

The comparatively small size of the Annihilator Set has been the subject of discussion among collectors. One theory is that production schedules and the absence of Series 3 television material restricted the amount of new content available when the collection was being developed.

This explanation has not been independently established as the official reason for the set containing 100 cards. The composition may therefore reflect a combination of production requirements, available source material and the planned release schedule.

The subsequent Invader Set became the third major expansion of the Battles in Time collection.

Announcement of the Annihilator Cards within Issue 379 of the Doctor Who Magazine.

My Render of what the packs for this set looked like, as it is incredibly hard to scan the packs themselves due to the foil packaging. Please do not re-use without permission as alot of work went into re-mastering these. Thank you.

Set Composition

How to Identify Annihilator Cards

Although the Annihilator Set was considerably smaller than the preceding Exterminator collection, GE Fabbri retained the same published distribution rates for its principal card rarities.

The 100 numbered cards were divided into four standard rarity classifications:

75 Common Cards (C): 8 per pack
15 Rare Cards (R): 1 per pack
6 Super-Rare Cards (SR): 1 in every 6 packs
4 Ultra-Rare Cards (UR): 1 in every 24 packs
1 Golden Ticket Card: 1 in every 1,000 packs

In addition to the 100 numbered cards, the collection included a separate Golden Ticket card. The Golden Ticket had a published distribution of 1 in every 1,000 packs.

The distribution of Annihilator cards through the fortnightly magazine changed from the format used during the Exterminator release.

Rather than supplying individual Annihilator packs with the magazines, the Annihilator issues were distributed with dual packs. Each dual pack contained 12 cards, divided equally between the two collections:

6 Exterminator cards

6 Annihilator cards

This distribution method combined cards from the original Exterminator collection with cards from the new Annihilator Set. It allowed the earlier collection to remain part of the magazine distribution while introducing the additional 100 Annihilator cards.

The use of dual packs represented a change from the magazine distribution format used during the earlier stages of the Exterminator collection.

Annihilator cards were distributed alongside Exterminator cards in dual packs. Several visual changes were introduced to distinguish the new collection from the preceding Exterminator Set. The principal identifying characteristics of Annihilator cards are as follows:

Rarity symbols: The circular rarity symbol in the bottom-left corner features a green oval background. This differs from the red styling used on Exterminator cards.
Set numbering: The card number is printed in green ink in the bottom-right corner and is numbered as part of the 100-card Annihilator collection. The numbering is displayed in the format 002/100.
Annihilator logo: The word “ANNIHILATOR” is displayed in silver lettering along the bottom-centre border of the card artwork. This provides a prominent visual distinction between Annihilator and Exterminator cards.
Copyright text: The reverse of Annihilator cards carries the copyright notice “© BBC 2007”. Exterminator cards use a 2006 copyright date.

These features allow Annihilator cards to be distinguished from Exterminator cards without relying solely on the card number or subject depicted.