Oh, my giddy aunt! The Daleks are coming!
Doctor Who News has word that BBC Worldwide has officially announced that Patrick Troughton's first televised adventure as the Second Doctor, "The Power of the Daleks," is going to be released as a new animated recreation for the 50th anniversary of its original broadcast. Here's the official press release they posted...
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 has 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 50 years to the minute after its only UK broadcast on BBC One.
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 is being produced by the team behind the highly successful animation of lost Dad’s Army episode A Stripe For Frazer, first released on 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."
According to the article, Doctor Who: The Power Of The Daleks will initially be exclusively released on BBC Store, with episode one available on November 5th at 5:50 p.m. GMT, and the others released on consecutive days thereafter. The story will become available online more widely on November 14th (No mention of where online), and will also be released on DVD in the United Kingdom on November 21st (No other regions have been announced yet).
For those of us in the States, BBC America has confirmed that Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks will be broadcast on the channel shortly after its U.K. release. The animated story premieres Saturday, November 12th, and will be available the following day to stream on BBCAmerica.com and on the BBC America app.
Oh, and look...Here's the official teaser video from the equally official Doctor Who YouTube account...
"The Evil of the Daleks" next, anyone?