The Daleks in Colour

"A new and safe world, free from the fear of war."

Writer: Terry Nation

Format: TV

Broadcast: 23 November 2023

Series: 60th Anniversary Colourisation

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara

Synopsis

It's time to encounter the Daleks once again, but this time in a way you've never seen them before.

Verdict

The Daleks in Colour was just wonderful. A truly spectacular way to help celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who! Sixty years strong and this incredible show and world of the Whoniverse continues to find ways to reinvent itself. This was just so much fun. I was so excited by the announcement that we would get The Daleks colourised, and whilst the traditionalist in me had hoped it would be all seven parts, getting a new seventy-five minute edit was honestly just as good. I didn’t know what to expect going in as cutting out around one hundred minutes worth of content seemed like an awful lot, but the pace of the story was just incredible! This really did feel brand new as the flow was so fast and the new musical score was the biggest treat of all. I was more impressed with that than I was the colourisation! It was unlike anything from 1960s Doctor Who, or maybe even the entire Classic era. It gave the story a whole new lease of life that was thrilling and exciting. It also added a deep layer of tension and the atmosphere in the petrified forest in particular was remarkable. I was a huge fan. On a personal note, the colourisation meant that I was able to convince my girlfriend to watch a First Doctor adventure for the very first time which was a nice treat. She wasn’t overly impressed by the design of the Daleks, but she found the whole thing fun and a lot of that was down to the music. The complete version of this serial is one I know very well and I’m very fond of as I’ve watched it at least five times and of course also read the brilliant novelisation. I did agree with her thoughts on not entirely knowing what was going on thanks to the cuts as that did cross my mind. Being so familiar with the adventure meant I always knew where we were in regard to the full story, but for her it got a little confusing. Despite that, it was still so much fun and for me seeing things like fast directorial cuts and the flashbacks was a nice injection of modern style into an old faithful classic like this one. My favourite edit was certainly the escape scene with Ian being inside the Dalek. The way that was done and sped up was genuinely exciting and just a sheer thrill. It was unlike anything we had seen with the First Doctor before. It really was marvellous. The tightness of the sets was a little more evident in colour with the hard backgrounds but the scale created for the forest and the different shots of the Dalek city in particular were a real treat. The colour really did add a whole new dimension to the story. It was also wonderful to see William Hartnell in colour as that felt so alien but a real privilege to be honest. If the mini montage at the end colourising extracts from numerous other serials is anything to go by then hopefully this isn’t the last time we get to see him in full colour! The Daleks themselves look resplendent in that retro grey and blue look which I adore. Seeing their city and the TARDIS interior in colour were particular highlights. Putting some colour on the Thals was also brilliant. I won’t get into the story itself now as I’ve already blogged it in more than one form, but for now this was a real treat and an intriguing and genuinely exciting edit! Hopefully the first of many more to come. Overall, a magnificent event to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary! 

Rating: 9/10