November 10th, 2023
64 comments
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Doctor Who The Daleks in Colour Blu-ray
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk, www.hive.co.uk and other selected retailers.
Available to order from www.amazon.com #ad
Originally transmitted from December 1963 to February 1964, The Daleks introduced one of the Doctor’s most formidable and enduring foes.
The story follows the very first crew of the TARDIS as they land in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor (William Hartnell) leads his companions into the metal city, where they discover danger at every corner and what will become his deadliest enemy, the mutant Daleks.
The seven original 25 minute episodes have now been colourised and weaved together into a 75 minute blockbuster. With brand new sound and a new score – created by Mark Ayres – The Daleks has been gloriously updated, whilst ensuring the original classic story remains as thrilling as it was when it was first seen back in 1963.
This release also includes the original seven episodes on DVD in black & white, as they were first broadcast plus a 15 minute exclusive featurette and all special features from the previous release.
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Dave
November 24th, 2023 - 10:07pmThey are NOT doing The War Games.according to RTD, I asked him 20minutes ago and he said def not that story as 1, its set on earth and 2, the colours are too bland. he wants bold colours.
he would not be moved on any other future title.
seemed genuine, lovely chap as always. thanked him for yesterdays great tv.
Rex F
November 24th, 2023 - 2:53amI thought that this was an interesting insight into the minds of the people who put it together, and what they think is necessary to make a successful modern programme with appeal to young people.
I’m just going outside, I may be some time.
(I did think the new transfer of ep 7’s neg was decent though, not overly filtered and from broadcast you’d not realise it was suppressed field 99% of the time.)
Auton
November 24th, 2023 - 7:31amI felt the Music was way to loud and overbearing over the dialogue and the amount cut meant it jumped around a lot making it hard to watch. Plus they kept flashbacking to previous events for some stupid resson which only made it harder to watch. The way it’s been colourised though is amazing and looks perfect and I liked the teaser at the end so it will be interesting to see what they do next
Pete X
November 24th, 2023 - 10:21amI thought the colurisation was great. Though the effect of the transition from B&W to colour of the opening scene was undermined by the colourisation of the title sequence and yellow titles over black and white.
Though edited down reasonably well – was the scene of Susan writing the note to the Thals included; the Thals seem to obtain a note siged by Susan out of nowhere. The flashbacks to a scene shown 10 minutes previously was an odd choice and to do it three times within five minutes when someone commented on the box of vials found outside the TARDIS was a ridiculous choice. I wouldn’t say it says anything about the attention span of “the kids today” but says a lot about what the production team thinks is the attention span of “the kids today”.
I don’t understand why the original music and stings where played over – you could still hear the original soundscape beneath the new soundtrack, clashing with each other. The new music didn’t have – to me – a consistant sound – sometimes it sounded like it might have been composed for the show in the 60’s (maybe in the style of RIchard Rodney Bennett – The Aztecs – or Humphrey Searle – The Myth Makers) other times failing and sounding like modern Who.
The teaser at the end was great. Though I think promised more than it could deliver. More look what we can do than this is what is coming. For instance, are they going to colourise the single remaining episode of the Celestial Toymaker ?
On the whole – a curates egg. Nice to see but not something couldn’t live without. Maybe a purchase if on sale.
Andy Dodds
November 24th, 2023 - 10:38amYeah I agree I felt the music was to much appreciated the work that went into it to bring it, colour, instead I would have preferred them.to make the original all 7 episodes in colour, Even if it was broadcast over the next few days. I loved the preview at the end of the teaser that more are been made in to colour for modern audience’s. But if they are going to be edited like The Daleks it would have been ok if they just cut the music down a bit but that’s just me being critical of I classic story I do prefer the original in its own Black and White and the cliffhangers make it the success that it was to make the audience time in next time.
Richard
November 20th, 2023 - 5:52pmDo we know when the next standard edition Collection sets are due?
I was looking forward to getting 17.
I hope we get all 26 seasons in Standard and the release doesn’t get effected too much by iPlayer having all the episodes now.
Anonymous
November 20th, 2023 - 8:22amThe three minute Ian Levine Massacre clip is up on YouTube, search Doctor Who the Massacre animation clip.
I have to say it’s very South Park in its animation style (bobbing bodies and all). I can’t believe people have handed over their hard earned money for this.
anon
November 20th, 2023 - 11:26amI accidently ended up on Ian Levine’s Twitter & he came across as very bitter?
Gordon
November 20th, 2023 - 1:24pmPosted the link over in the menace steelbook page. Some really odd choice of shots. Really basic. I would classify the walking as waddling. Heavily ai assisted. Pretty soulless. For him to want £100 for this is ridiculous. Found out who is animating it. 5 minutes researching them and it gave me numerous red flags. I’m pretty convinced it’s some kind of con job and the animation team is nowhere near as professional as ian is led to believe. If he does (and that’s a big if) get a finished product it ain’t going to be anywhere near as polished as any of the official animations
Gordon
November 22nd, 2023 - 9:39amInterestingly Ian’s friend hunter o Connor who posted a video with the animation in the background and was praising it has removed it blocked Ian and told people he had been psychologically manipulated and not to support ian in any way.
Anon
December 22nd, 2023 - 2:56pmJust watched the clip… dear lord… they are asking for money for this?
Gordon
December 22nd, 2023 - 11:17pmNot really they. Just Ian Levine who is pretty much overseeing the whole thing and paying an “animation team” £20,000 to animate it. He says he’s not charging anything rather it’s an investment but considering the “investment” is a minimum £100 and if you don’t invest you don’t see it you still have to pay £100 minimum to see it. He’s pretty much calling it an investment as if he said he was selling it would be an Admittance of manufacturing producing and selling unlicensed doctor who DVDs. Sadly I doubt this animation will improve. Ian believes it’s brilliant and his friends are saying it’s as good as the moonbase. He also doesn’t want to hear any criticism about it. Any complaints he blocks them and bans them from his Facebook group. Kind of ironic when he has absolute crapped of the official releases and doxxed Russell Minton’s work address to get people to write in and complain about the quality of the toymaker animation. How are things supposed to improve when anything negative is ignored.
Bookcollector
December 23rd, 2023 - 4:36pmI have to admit Gordon I’m not sure about the toymaker animation but I will buy it and watch it with an open mind. Hopefully when watching it in full it will be better than the clips on the trailer. But, frankly, I’d rather have an animation that I’m not keen on than nothing at all! Overall I’ve been happy with the animations they do what they need to, tell the story visually. We have the reconstructions on the discs if we prefer that route but even web 3 was okay. On repeated watches it was fine. Again it does the job of telling that episode visually. Web and toymaker both (for me) have issues with character likenesses but as I say I’d rather have weak likenesses than nothing. Unless the budget were raised significantly we will have to accept limitations and if the budgets were significantly raised we would have to be willing to pay considerably more for the releases, something which many fans would object to (fancy that fans objecting)
Richard
November 18th, 2023 - 5:14pmAnyone know when SEASON 7 is likely to be released in The Collection range?
It is my favourite season of classic WHO and only one I want to own. It has such a unique style to it and very James Bond like.
I heard it might be one of the last to be released due to restoration work needed on Ambassadors of Death?
Be great if they included a omnibus version of Spearhead and Inferno.
Gordon
November 18th, 2023 - 7:55pmI’ve heard that the next pertwee will probably be 11 so I expect 7 to be a few years down the line 2026/7. As for omnibus versions of spearhead and inferno I doubt it. They never broadcast one and it was never planned (like seeds of doom) so I can’t see it happening
Richard
November 18th, 2023 - 10:38pmThanks for the info Gordon. I was thinking of getting 8 also probably the best Pertwee season after 7?
Gordon
November 18th, 2023 - 11:14pmDo it. Got a great set of new extras. The alternative effects for terror of the autons is pretty good plus the direct route and devil’s weekend is pretty great plus the terrance dicks documentary is very special indeed
Prowl 1701
November 19th, 2023 - 4:55amI agree, love the season 8 set, the updated effects for Terror do a lot of CSO clean up.
SV7
November 19th, 2023 - 8:22amAlso the 5.1 surround sound mix for Terror of the Autons is fantastic.
Gordon
November 17th, 2023 - 8:11pmWe are getting war games next according to the mirror.
daz
November 17th, 2023 - 9:02pmFrom RTD comments and fact original is ten episodes long I’d be happy to see this version.
Looking forward to The Daleks even more after that lovely Children in Need minisode too.
The future for old and newNuWho has me excited again.
Prof Horner
November 17th, 2023 - 9:46pmGiven that The War Games is one of my earliest memories of Doctor Who. I am excited by this news.
Scotel
November 17th, 2023 - 11:59pmTo quote Benjamin Cook’s reaction to this story “Yeah, good luck cutting that down to 75 minutes”
Prowl 1701
November 18th, 2023 - 1:42amI like the war games at 10 parts, fills it well IMO. I’d much rather get Seeds of Death.
SV7
November 18th, 2023 - 7:24amThe War Games would be a great choice, but I would have thought The Mind Robber would have been a better fit, considering the original is only about 100 mins long anyway.
Gordon
November 18th, 2023 - 7:55amIf it’s true it will be interesting to see how much they cut out of it. I was fully expecting tomb being honest. I suspect they didn’t go for the mind robber as they just did it for tales from the tardis.
DPHill
November 18th, 2023 - 12:46pmMaybe they could do a ninety minute one? I mean an hour and a half compared to four feels a bit thin, this is 75 of 175 roughly 42%, maybe 105 min or 2hrs? But hats a lot of work, seems a bit much for a single release
Lee. D
November 18th, 2023 - 10:36pmI would of thought, Tomb would of been next.
Prowl 1701
November 19th, 2023 - 4:56amI’m sure a cutdown of War Games would have to be longer than 75 minutes. 2 and a half hours?
D84
November 19th, 2023 - 3:35pmI guess with this one (Daleks) being condensed to 75 mins – might not mean the “benchmark” is 75 mins, or that’s the max doable etc – it may just be the run time that suited the story
I would agree War Games probably needs longer than 75 mins to do it justice but like alot of the 6+ episode story’s from the period – I think you can easily chop at least 1/3 away to get a tighter punchier story
These are of course “reimaginings” – if you want to see the original with all the detail and filler ………… Watch the original
TheOncomingStorm
November 19th, 2023 - 10:54pmProwl 1701… I LOVE your videos
Prowl1701
November 20th, 2023 - 12:16am@ the oncoming storm, thanks man! I appreciate you watching!
DPHill
November 14th, 2023 - 9:42amSo with RTDs involvement in these, and the fact we will see more of these, what other stories do people think may come? Im gonna say something like one release a year, perhaps for each birthday for Doctor Who, this time eveyr year perhaps depending on the story size… given he is staying four probably four seasons at least, or so it seems, we have four years after this year…
Season 1
The Aztecs – some people may want this, i don’t know if a historical would be easy to sell and given that it does already have two dvd releases
Season 2 – could be affected by the recent blu-ray, who knows (thinking of Tom when i type this)?
The Dalek Invasion of Earth – a great story and could follow neatly on from the first colourisation – as well as having both of the stories that were adapted into cushing’s colour films
The Time Meddler – given that they have done this for tales of the tardis, seems unlikely, but a great story
Season 3
We only have three stories complete, Gunfighters would be a bit dull, and the Ark is a good story as is the War machines, just don’t think either of them have that legendary wow factor…
Season 4
The Tenth Planet – the most complete story of this season, I wonder if they would dare touch up the animation into colour for the missing part to get the first cyberman and last hartnell story into colour – kind of depends on how that would work as Shada is a mixture, I think if any story gets the colourisation treatment that is an incomplete story, this one kinda ticks more boxes?
Season 5
The Tomb of the Cybermen – they gotta have one of the cybermen stories, and this is the only complete one, not to mention a classic! And also I am sure they will do a troughton one
The Web of Fear – if we are very lucky, we could get this, would be better of course if ep3 turns up, then I feel like this would definitely happen as the brigadier’s first appearance and its classic status too!
Season 6
The Mind Robber – this one would be so cool to see in colour, I know tales of the tardis has used it, so, again, not sure they do another omnibus so soon…
The Invasion – after tenth planet, this is the next go to for partially missing stories, and there is a lot of material still left – again depends on if they would update some of the animations to have a shada-like colourisation
The War Games – now this one I could see being a long project indeed, perhaps even over two omnibuses or even a longer one… this one would be very long to complete though
I kind of like the fact the original episodes themselves aren’t being colourised, and that it is a new format for the story, traditionalists can then see the original, and newbies or the interested people can get into this colourised version! I mean they have cut a seven parter into the runtime of a three parter, Tenth PLanet, being so slow, could end up being 45-50 minutes long if they did the animation.
I would have to pick
1 – The Tenth Planet
2 – Tomb of the Cybermen
3 – War Games 1
4 – War Games 2 [put this twice as it is rather large, would like to put Web of Fear here too]
If you had one each year, what would you pick?
MJS
November 19th, 2023 - 5:00pmGiven the photos of The Daleks In Colour so far, I think the next obvious one would be Dalek Invasion of earth.
There are loads of candidates but few with the WOW factor. Tomb of the cybermen would be good but it’d be mostly metallic and grey, so not got the colour ‘pop’.
The War Games does have scope for lots of colour and is a rollicking good yarn.
The Chase also has potential and can be easily chopped about
The Outcast
November 20th, 2023 - 6:28amSounds like they’re working on the War Games next.
Timelord63
November 12th, 2023 - 1:36pmOn an unrelated note I wish they’d release the Daleks cgi animation they did a few years ago for the time Lord victorious project?
zoidberg
November 11th, 2023 - 9:10amI prefer to so view it as it was intended to be seen In black and white. Gives me more if a feel of how I would have felt watching it back then.
Gordon
November 11th, 2023 - 11:14amThat option is also available
Duncan
November 12th, 2023 - 7:32amYeah, same here. I’ve already bought the vhs and the DVD and will probably buy the boxset when that comes out. Im not buying colourised versions too. Would only watch this once then it would gather dust.
Rex F
November 12th, 2023 - 12:45pmI’d originally written something more technical, but what I’m really feeling is this: I’m reminded of the time someone announced that there was a dead cat outside the school – morbid curiosity meant that I had a look.
RPG74
November 12th, 2023 - 1:22pmI’ll watch this on iplayer, but it’s not a purchase for me. As someone else pointed out, we already effectively have an abridged colourised version of this story with the Cushing movie.
David
November 10th, 2023 - 10:00pmFrankly I’m disappointed they didn’t colour all 7 episodes and present those on the DVD/BD.
Instead they give us filler to justify the high price – the 7 episodes in B&W which will, of course, be duplicated in the Season 1 boxset when it finally comes out, no doubt along with the edited colour edition.
That’s why I WON’T buy this Dalek release until I know 100% that the BBC are not double dipping.
Gordon
November 10th, 2023 - 10:15pmIt would have taken 2 and a half years to colourise the full thing and would probably be too expensive to do the whole thing anyway. They have already moved on to the next project.
Ddd
November 11th, 2023 - 6:10amAgree with David. A heavily edited version for modern audiences. I will stick with the B and W atmospheric original.
daz
November 11th, 2023 - 11:21amThe BBC always double dips though?
Lots of fans buy every release but you don’t have to.
You could just record it on the 23rd and it will be on the iplayer too.
Andy Dodds
November 13th, 2023 - 2:14pmYeah I think it just to see how well it goes, the 60s episodes would look great in colour, but me personally I think the black and white should be left alone as they make them unique in their original form, as for the BBC double dipping they have always done this like they released William Hartnells second season with the absence of episodes 2 & 4 of The Crusade using photographic stills, and now am hearing they continuing with animation project, so they will probably release another season 2 box set with The Crusade missing episodes animated.
The Daleks story has been released twice on VHS in (1989) as a double video cassette with the ending being edited to avoid audience confession as the original broadcast would have lead to the next episode for the next story. It was eventually released again on VHS in 2001 this time with all 7 episodes as a single video cassette, entitled The Daleks Remastered, this time the last episode had the unedited cut that was the only difference between the 2 releases you got the last 30 seconds of the story restored as it was broadcast, than it was released again on DVD as part of The Beginning box set in 2006. That’s the BBC double dipping, now we going to have it released on DVD again, with the edited colour version, and released on Blu-Ray for the first time. We will probably get the first season collection on Blu-Ray maybe with who knows all the episodes in original black and white, but also restored to edited colour versions but it’s unlikely at the moment with the loss of the first story. And rumours of missing episodes been found in the UK. in possession of former employees who worked at the BBC between 1967- 1978, at the time of the wiping process at least 2 missing episodes involving The Daleks from the Hartnell era, have come to light. These are just rumours am hearing so unless we get announcement soon than I would say this is another hoax trying to build us whovians hope.
Gordon
November 13th, 2023 - 10:12pmDue to how complex it is to do Crusade will probably be one of the last animated releases long after the collection releases will be finished plus the budgets of the collection sets simply can’t cover animation. It needs a stand alone release first before it goes anywhere near a collection set.
As for that rumour of missing episodes being found. It’s already been debunked
Andy Dodds
November 10th, 2023 - 2:43pmWould be amazing to see this in colour, but it’s a shame that with the on going dispute over the first four episodes, which I think was planed to be made in colour instead they’ve had to go with the first Dalek serial. I think it’s silly that Anthony Coburn may have wrote the story, but the BBC could argue that it was made by the BBC, therefore it’s their programme with their logo and is their copyright to do what they like. I don’t think his father would not want his work to be over shadowed by dispute and not to be shown by anyone and he is lucky it wasn’t destroyed by the BBC lost forever like many others Plus it’s not fair to the actors who played the parts some who are no longer with us will be turning in their graves. But he did try to spoil the 50th Anniversary over the TARDIS copyrights, it’s not going to stop owners of the DVD or VHS copies uploading it to YouTube. But back to The Daleks in colour on Blu-Ray with for the first time the original blank and white episodes as a bonus if it goes down well the BBC may consider in the future to recolour all of the Black and White episodes on to the future Collection Box Sets along with their original black and white episodes.
Ken
November 10th, 2023 - 3:16pmYh 100000bc would look amazing in colour too
David
November 10th, 2023 - 9:57pmI was under the impression that a few “stories” were to be colourised.
The Daleks makes sense as does An Unearthly Child (The 1st episode only, not the Tribe of Gum etc).
Would have been nice to see Dalek Invasion in colour too.
James
November 10th, 2023 - 2:05pmI’ll watch it on BBC 4 then wait for it to be released within The Collection Series 1
David
November 10th, 2023 - 2:00pmThe Movie version with Peter Cushing was only 85 minutes long.
Ken
November 10th, 2023 - 1:53pmMust buy for me.Keep em coming
demdike@Cult Labs
November 10th, 2023 - 1:02pmSorry to be a little negative on this but the screen shots in the latest Doctor Who Magazine look quite poor. Proper over saturated and a little bleedy.
If they come across in motion like they do in the images it will just be a case of checking it out on BBC4 and then turning it off.
Dave
November 13th, 2023 - 6:55pmI thought the same. The recent Tony Hancock colourisations also looked like that.
Steve B
November 10th, 2023 - 12:24pmHave they colourised all the seven 25-minute episodes? If so, why not also provide a colourised version of the whole story on blu-ray or DVD?
Jason Z
November 10th, 2023 - 12:36pmI doubt that they would colourise them and then not let anyone see their work. It’s poorly written text: you’re right that it does say, ‘The seven original 25 minute episodes have now been colourised…’ but I don’t think that’s truly the case. Rather they should have put, ‘The seven original 25 minute episodes have now been cut down to 75 minutes and the resulting fraction of the story has been colourised.’ I’m available for proof-reading and copy-editing! 🙂
booboo
November 10th, 2023 - 12:38pmthey might have just used the TV synopsis as a basis, i would wait for the official PR on this which has yet to come see what that says
Robert Sienicki
November 10th, 2023 - 1:01pmBenjamin Cook, who is the editor of this, didn’t mention episodes in colour. In his tweet he said there will be the new “The Daleks” colourisation (which is the 75 minutes cut) and all seven episodes in black and white.
Rob
November 10th, 2023 - 1:35pmIt’s the 75 minute colour version that will be shown on the BBC, PLUS the original 7 black and white episodes.
Master of M
November 10th, 2023 - 11:54amI will probably wait to see if this appears on a Season 1 blu ray set, rather than buying it twice
Whofan44
November 10th, 2023 - 12:13pmIts probably going to be a long time before that comes out as I don’t think they have even started on it yet and then add the An Uneathly Child rights issues on top of that.
Robert Sienicki
November 10th, 2023 - 1:02pmYeah, I think Season One blu-ray is on hold because of the rights issues. And I’ve read somewhere thats Coburn don’t want to extend the DVD rights, so it may take a while.
Rob
November 10th, 2023 - 1:37pmAn Unearthly Child should be covered for blu ray under Videogram rights and it’s only the streaming that is an issue. I would say Season 1 is probably a good few years away yet anyway.