The Power of the Daleks: 50th Anniversary animationBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 7 September 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster
BBC Worldwide and BBC America have officially announced the first full story featuring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, The Power of the Daleks is to be released as a new animated version on the 50th anniversary of its first broadcast.

The Power of the Daleks (animated) - The Daleks (Credit: BBC Worldwide)
The Power of the Daleks (animated) - The Doctor (Credit: BBC Worldwide)
It's one of the Doctor’s most celebrated adventures and yet no complete film recordings of The Power of the Daleks are known to have survived. The master negatives were destroyed in an archive purge in 1974.

BBC Worldwide and BBC America have announced that a brand new black and white animation based on audio recordings of the programme using the original cast, surviving photographs and film clips will be released via the BBC Store 50 years to the minute after its only UK broadcast on BBC One, with its television premiere on BBC America taking place a week later.

The six half hour episodes feature the regeneration, or as it was then called ‘renewal’, of First Doctor William Hartnell into Second Doctor Patrick Troughton, as the Time Lord and his companions Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze) do battle with the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks was a joint commission by both BBC Worldwide and BBC America, and is produced by the team behind the highly successful animation of lost Dad’s Army episode A Stripe For Frazer - first released on the UK's BBC Store in February this year. The producer and director is Charles Norton, with character designs from acclaimed comic book artists Martin Geraghty and Adrian Salmon.

Charles Norton says:
The Power of the Daleks animation is the most ambitious Doctor Who archive restoration ever attempted and we’re all very honoured to be a part of such a an exciting project. Intelligent, suspenseful and magnificently staged, Power of the Daleks is one of the great lost classics of 1960s television and a superb example of the black and white era at its finest.

Paul Hembury, Executive Producer, BBC Worldwide says:
Charles and his team are remarkably talented and passionate about Doctor Who and we are thrilled that fans will soon be able to enjoy this rather sinister but wonderful, classic story.

Doctor Who: The Power Of The Daleks will initially be exclusively released on BBC Store, with episode one available from Saturday 5th November at 5:50pm, and the others released on consecutive days thereafter. It will then be shown on BBC America on the 12th November.

The story will become available to stream from BBC America's website and via their app from the 13rth November, and more widely in the United Kingdom from the 14th November, plus the story will be released on DVD in the United Kingdom on the 21st November (no other regions have been announced at present). UK readers can register their interest in the digital download at the BBC Store.



In addition to the story's release on the 5th November, there will be a special screening of the first three episodes at the BFI in London, which will include a Q&A with Anneke Wills, Charles Norton and Frazer Hines. Further information will be available from the BFI website from Monday 19th September.




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