Doctor Who 030 The Power Of The Daleks Six part story that aired November 5 to December 10 1966. Written by David Whitaker and Dennis Spooner (episode 1 uncredited), directed by Christopher Barry. Linking script by Sue Cowley, read by Anneke Wills. A lost story that is available in three different versions, none of which I had at the time I was first watching the series in 2013.
I listened to the audio version of this and The Highlanders on Sunday, as well as the 2016 Animated version and some of the extras. I watched the Animated version commentary and a good bit of the Telesnap version. The Telesnap version consists of photos snapped with a still camera of the telecine while the show is being broadcast. The audio that plays along is the same audio that is on the CD with Anneke Wills narrating.
I enjoyed the audio version about as much as I have the previous ones. After seeing Animated version and the Telesnap version, I think I would watch the Telesnap version the next time I get around to watching the series again. It's nicer seeing the real actors.
The animation doesn't look bad or anything but it's not quite the same as the original and they've taken a few liberties here and there. It's talked about in fair detail on the commentary segment with the animators.
The story has the Tardis land on the planet Vulcan. The Doctor regenerates and Polly and Ben are confused. Ben is more skeptical than Polly but they go with the program here. The Doctor stumbles around a bit and eventually takes them outside. He sees a man killed and takes his ID badge. It's says he's an Examiner from Earth and he has all access. Other men arrive and take the Tardis gang to the head of the colony.
The locals believe the Doctor is the Examiner and he gets right to examining. One of the first things he finds is the head scientist has a spaceship that's been in the local mud for a couple of centuries. The Tardis gang break in and find Daleks. The Doctor tries warning the station governor but no one believes him. The head science guy has a project going on with re-powering the Daleks and plans for using them as labor around the colony.
It's quite a nice spaceship, we only see part of it, like the Tardis it's much bigger inside.
Of course, once the Daleks get going they start scheming to take over planet and kill all the humans. They nearly carry out their goal, many of the humans are slaughtered before the Doctor can figure out how to stop them.
There's plenty of activity going on but like a lot of six parters there are some slow bits. One of the comments was about that, it was most cost effective to have the cost of the sets spread out over six episodes than four. Part of the cost of visiting a different world each week. Mostly entertaining, even after repeated views.
There's a good few extras: Animation and photo gallery, Animation Test Footage, Original Title Sequence, Making of, surviving footage and trailer, Telesnap recording, original Dalek recordings, plus PDFs of scripts and production notes. It took hours to go through it all.
Doctor Who 031 The Highlanders Four Part Story that aired December 17 1966 to January 7 1967. Written by Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis, directed by Hugh David. Linking script by Sue Cowley, read by Frazer Hines. Another lost story.
The Tardis sets down in the Scottish Highlands after the Battle Of Culloden. The Tardis gang get taken prisoner by Scot rebels. That doesn't last long and soon the gang is off to meet the English soldier's hangman. Luckily they get rescued.
The Doctor spends part of the story disguised as a woman. The Tardis gang get befriended by some locals and they meet Jamie McCrimmon. He helps them out and at the end of the story they take him along for a ride in the Tardis.
A decent action packed story with plenty of action and yelling. I enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind a Telesnap of this story but they didn't always take the pictures, there often wasn't enough in the budget. That low budget plagued the show but they still managed to pull off something entertaining anyway.
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