The Power of the Daleks: 50th Anniversary Animation

[misterharry]

Exciting news: the BBC has announced that a fully animated version of The Power of the Daleks is to be released in November to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the story's broadcast!

Doctor Who News - The Power of the Daleks: 50th Anniversary Annimation

The story 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.

It will become available to stream from BBC America's website and via their app from the 13th 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).

There have been hints of this over the past couple of weeks, after a trailer was released (either leaked or by accident) on YouTube and quickly taken down. It's a little surprising that the BBC have undertaken this, as animations are relatively expensive and previous attempts haven't done particularly well commercially. I guess in this case it's a complete story that's animated, rather than a mix of live action and animated episodes, and of course it's the Daleks. But who knows, if this is a success, maybe we can hope to see other animations of complete stories with fan-favourite foes - The Evil of the Daleks would be most likely, but maybe The Abominable Snowmen, The Wheel in Space and, if the BBC get particularly ambitious, The Daleks' Master Plan! Well, I can dream... For the moment though, I'm just looking forward to this one.

[generalrose]

I'm incredibly excited for this. A completed official version of Power of the Daleks.

I'm honestly a bit disappointed by the animation itself. I would have rather they have gone 3D using the Team from Doctor Who The Eternity Clock. Having the 3D resources for the TARDIS, 2nd Doctor, Ben, Polly and the Daleks would only have made making Evil of the Daleks even easier.

And if they had to go 2D, I would have rathered something a bit more stylized. Something somewhere between Futurama and Archer.

Despite my criticism I'm incredibly excited

[misterharry]

The BBC have now announced that a colour version of the animated Power of the Daleks will be released on BBC Store on 30th November, with a Special Edition Bluray containing both B&W and colour versions following on 6th February in the UK. (In the US, both B&W and colour versions will be available on DVD from 24th January, exclusively from Barnes & Noble.)

I've cancelled my DVD pre-order, but the wait until February for the Bluray will be unbearable!

[misterharry]

So has anyone been watching this on BBC Store? I'm holding out for the Bluray release and am wondering how excited should I be?

[Hedgewick]

I'll be watching it for the first time in the theater on November 14th.

[cigarman]

Saw EP 1. The animation is a bit odd, but it's watchable. Looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

[Stormcrow]

I watched it in the theater, where it was presented as a single, continuous movie. It was pretty good. The animation is a little odd at first, in that the characters are obviously made up of various cut-out pieces rather than smoothly animated, but this actually works well in that the characters really look like the characters, and not just cartoon versions that kind of look like them. I was able to take off my glasses in the theater (I'm very nearsighted) and the blurry cartoons were indistinguishable from blurry actors.

Finally seeing this story visually, instead of just as a reconstruction, makes it MUCH better.

[hobbitfan]

My brother got it for me for my birthday. Took awhile to arrive but we both enjoyed it.

The animation is a little limited but the art style is pretty good.

I wish more Lost Episodes were given an animated treatment...