No details yet, I was hoping for a "Special Ed" Power of the Daleks at least DVD/Blu-ray. It was Hand-Drawn B&W animation, plus a "Colour" version on both media for U.K. market.
I've now watched all 6 episodes. Given the time/money constraints, they have done a remarkable job. Very highly recommended!
I still prefer watching the Loose Canon recon. cartoons just don't cut it for me, I feel more involved watching the original telesnaps.
Still no update on if the January U.S. media release will include Blu-ray to celebrate 50th Anniversary airing of "Power of the Daleks".
Sharing this "Unboxing" clip of the recent Steelbook released in U.K. only of Power Of The Daleks Deluxe (2 DVD / 2 Blu-ray) 4 discs. Unfortunately you need a U.S. Blu-ray player that can decode the 1080i/50 format even though the discs are Region 0. My current setup is not compatible. Just sharing the info!
I also share this viewpoint. For me, I want to see the original materials as much as possible, even if they are stills instead of moving pictures. I view the reconstructions as audiobooks with photos. I find that my brain does a good job of "connecting the dots" to create a visual image of the action taking place (just as one might do when reading a book). After I watch a good reconstruction, I truly feel as if I have seen the original program. In contrast, the animation removes the "feel" of the program. I find myself too distracted by the cartoonish character movements to really get into the story. The reconstruction vs. animation debate is one that is frequently discussed on Doctor Who forums. Fortunately, we have the choice between both formats for a story like Power of the Daleks, so both sides have their wish. Of course, the ultimate wish is that the original episodes are found and returned, rendering both the animation and the reconstructions obsolete.
I thought it was ok.. but I think it might be time for them to either put decent money into cgi for the missing episodes or re-film them with new actors taking over the parts !
Or just put more time and money in, and let the animators do a better job. (It's my understanding that the team felt rushed, and then were insulted when another team did the colourization.)
And yet there were a number of fixes done by the colorists - namely the badge on the Doctor's lapel which disappears and reappears in the b&w version, and many examples of crude animation, like legs that join bodies in weird ways, that were softened by the color. I consider it a big improvement over the recon I saw, and the story is easier to follow, but Disney it ain't.
yeah, i just switched off (color ) on the monitor to get whole B&W view w/fixes. Now i see in U.K. market more Blu-ray "SteelBook" reissues of a few Classic Who are forthcoming, collectible tins is appearantly the marketing key....
BBCAmerica has an app where both the b&w and colour versions could be viewed. They broadcast only the b&w version.
I got the standard N.American 2 disc release mostly for the extras. There is an option for telesnaps version with some described audio narration. I tend to not care for the animation approach either in either colour or b&w. There was a nice sort of animated telesnaps version of Galaxy Four on the deluxe Aztecs here, I think that worked best of all. Otherwise I go with the Loose Canon which also have great extras.
I have many of the Loose Canons, and I like them. But, neither the telesnaps or the animations can fully depict the range of expression Pat Troughton brought to the role. There are several times when it was impossible to tell what was happening on screen from just the audio when there is no dialogue, which makes neither iteration totally satisfying. They simply don't know what was on screen so how can they recreate it? This is why Enemy Of The World was rated so low by fans, until it was recovered and we could see it. Now, it's rated much higher!
If I could wish for anything to turn up right now it would be even just one more episode between 3-7 of Evil Of The Daleks. I love the idea of the contrast between Daleks and a Victorian setting. Yes, Enemy Of The World really gave Troughton a chance to act with two roles in the story! I can't imagine audio only being at all satisfying.
The only episode that we had of Enemy of the World was the worst episode too. It's a classic, in my book. Very season 7ish.
No, I mean episode 3 of Enemy of The World was the worst episode of the story. There was a missing "we" in my original post.
Oh yeah. That was the chief reason it was rated so low. The only existing episode for so many years was the truly bad one!! But, that first episode - it's kinda epic! And, you'd never have known it from just hearing the audio!
I never agreed with the consensus that episode 3 was a "bad one". I enjoyed it. and I was able to see that it was part of a bigger story.
The opening in episode 1 really surprised me. It seemed pretty elaborate for location filming and was well done.
Slightly off topic, but hopefully of relevance comes the news that after pretty much abandoning physical releases for their much hyped download service the BBC Store BBC Worldwide are likely to close down their video on demand service because apparently they don't have enough sales and Netflix and Amazon have taken all of their customers, downloads are so last year, now everyone is streaming, it might actually be that the audience willing to pay for vintage BBC programmes prefer a physical product and many resent paying quite high prices to download vintage programmes that years of paying the licence fee actually paid for in the first place. I wonder how much this fiasco will cost, I guess at least it's BBC Worldwide and not technically licence payers taking the hit, but what now, few physical archive releases, They closed down their retail operation, no pay to own downloads and no streaming for anything but the most mainstream and popular vintage BBC programmes. I believe that in North America the BBC have a different set up, but at home it looks like they don't have much of a plan to make archive material available.