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November 13th, 2021 17 comments

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Doctor Who Galaxy 4 Blu-ray

Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk, www.hive.co.uk, www.zavvi.com and other selected retailers.

This item should also be available to order at a later date from www.hive.co.uk and www.base.com

BBC Studios have announced the new Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 animation starring William Hartnell as the Doctor and can reveal artwork alongside a sneak peak of what’s included in the release. The new animated release will be available online and in store on DVD, Blu-ray and a Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook.

Galaxy 4 (alternatively spelled Galaxy Four) is the mostly-missing first serial of the third season of the British series Doctor Who, which originally aired in four weekly episodes from 11th September to 2nd October 1965.

Following the success of the existing animations, Galaxy 4 fills another gap in the missing Doctor Who content lost from the BBC’s archive soon after the programme’s original transmission. However, audio-only recordings of all four episodes have survived and have been used here to create a brand new fully animated presentation of the entirety of this lost classic, alongside the original surviving Episode 3 and over five minutes of original footage from the otherwise lost Episode 1.

The Doctor (William Hartnell) stars alongside his travel companions Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) and Steven (Peter Purves) which sees the TARDIS landing on a planet on the verge of total annihilation as it drifts too close to the three suns which it orbits. Trapped on the planet with them are the Drahvins, a race of warrior women, and the reptilian Rills. The Drahvins want to steal the Rill spaceship to escape the planet’s death throes, and enlist the Doctor’s help, which he is forced to give when Maaga, the cunning Drahvin leader, keeps first Vicki and then later Steven as her hostage. Even though the Doctor is determined to broker a peace deal between the two sides in this conflict and help everyone escape safely, Maaga doesn’t trust him, or the Rills…

The two disc release gives fans the opportunity to enjoy the four new animated episodes of Galaxy 4, in either colour or black and white.

The release will also include:

  • Remastered Surviving Original Episode 3
  • Remastered Surviving Clip from Episode 1
  • Telesnap Reconstructions of Episodes 1,2 and 4.
  • Audio Commentaries
  • Making Of Documentary
  • Finding Galaxy 4 Documentary
  • Photo Gallery
  • Production Subtitles

Gary Russell, Executive Producer from Big Finish Creative of the 2021 production said “After a gap of many years, it is very exciting to bring the era of the First Doctor back into the animation world. Galaxy 4 is one of the most traditional adventures of 1960s Doctor Who and it’s been a real honour to work on this alternative version which hopefully reflects those technicolour thrills that sci-fi moves of the ’60s had but which Doctor Who’s monochrome TV limitations couldn’t yet achieve.”

BFI Southbank will host a special screening of all 4 episodes of the newly animated story Galaxy 4 on 7th November 2021; tickets go on sale on 16th September at 11:30 to BFI Champions and Patrons, at 12:30 to BFI Members and at 16:00 to the general public.

DOCTOR WHO: GALAXY 4

Written by William Emms

Directed by Chloe Grech (2021 Production)

Directed by Derek Martinus (1965 Production)

Executive Producers for Big Finish Creative – Gary Russell, Mark B.Oliver and Jason Haigh-Ellery (2021 Production)

Executive Producer for BBC Studios – Russell Minton (2021 Production)

Produced by Verity Lambert (1965 Production)

Starring William Hartnell, Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves, Stephanie Bidmead, Marina Martin, Susanna Caroll, Lyn Ashley.


Categorised under: Blu-ray, DVD

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17 comments

  • Type 40

    October 13th, 2021 - 3:09am

    Zavvi is showing a release date of 31 December 2021.

    Reply
    • Gordon

      October 13th, 2021 - 8:16am

      That’s just a placeholder date. Sure they will update date it closer to release

    • Gordon

      October 13th, 2021 - 8:18am

      Plus 31st is a Friday so it won’t be that

    • Type 40

      October 13th, 2021 - 3:24pm

      Thanks, Gordon. I should have checked the date on a calendar. Plus NYE is a highly unlikely release date, too.

  • Acefan2005

    September 23rd, 2021 - 10:23am

    Anyone else find on the season 12 & 19 standard sets that the audio & picture are out of sync?

    Reply
    • Ian Cotterill

      November 24th, 2021 - 7:03pm

      No, I haven’t encountered such a problem on my season 19 set.

  • Hewy

    September 16th, 2021 - 2:18pm

    Interesting that the clip doesn’t feature any “humanoid” movement or even vision. The range has really development a weakness with facial expression and movement – let’s hope there is improvement if they wish to grow the range sales wise.

    Reply
  • Coleman

    September 16th, 2021 - 12:36pm

    Really looking forward to this one. The more i look at those opening scenes the more i think I might actually watch the colour version of this first, it looks so good.

    Reply
  • Robert Watkins

    September 16th, 2021 - 9:24am

    I have preordered, I always support the range. However Fury was a step back from the Faceless Ones and Macra Terror. Hope this hasn’t wobbly long arms flapping. Also i am disappointed they didn’t for for 3D Chumblies

    Reply
    • Lee D

      September 16th, 2021 - 4:17pm

      I must be one of the few people who didn’t notice the arms issue. The only one very small criticism I have, is colour banding in the background of the odd scene, which can be fixed with some dithering and a very good encode.

    • Philip Shaw

      September 24th, 2021 - 12:07pm

      The arms thing was terrible, put me off the whole thing, which was a shame as it so much going for it.

    • ChrisP

      September 28th, 2021 - 3:26pm

      I have been buying the animated range to ecourage them to do more. But I’m holding off on this one until I see if the arms are as large/distracting as Fury.

    • philip shaw

      November 16th, 2021 - 9:48pm

      There are a couple of Times in Galaxy 4 where the Dr has too long arms but mostly ok.

  • bryan

    September 15th, 2021 - 9:20pm

    That clip is lovely.

    Wonderful cover, but as someone who does not get the steelbooks, blimey that pretty.

    Superb set of extras too.

    Reply
  • Coleman

    September 15th, 2021 - 5:15pm

    The short clip looks gorgeous in colour. Although for some reason I always like watching the black and white versions of the old stories.
    Watched the Web in Black and white and still havnt watched the Colour story yet.

    Reply
  • Dylan

    September 15th, 2021 - 4:59pm

    Finally it’s been 7 years then tenth i

    Reply
    • The Mysterious Stranger

      September 15th, 2021 - 5:32pm

      Just over 8 actually.

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