Doctor Who Power of the Daleks

Of the many classic ‘Doctor Who’ episodes to have been wiped from the BBC archives, there are a handful that almost without fail turn up on fans’ wish lists when rumors of a recovery begin to circulate. While no missing episodes have been recovered, one of those stories, ‘The Power of the Daleks’, has been scheduled for release in animated form.

Although several individual episodes have been animated for prior DVD releases (such as ‘The Invasion’, ‘The Tenth Planet’, and ‘The Ice Warriors’), this marks the first official effort by the BBC to animate an entire serial. Previous DVD releases have typically included no more than one or two animated episodes, making The animation is being handled by a team led by producer Charles Norton, whose previous work includes a similar restoration of a lost episode of the sitcom ‘Dad’s Army’.

The six part serial, which inaugurates the Patrick Troughton era, picks up in the wake of the Doctor’s first regeneration (described here as a “renewal”) and follows him and companions Ben and Polly as they become embroiled in the machinations of the Daleks.

The animated version of ‘The Power of the Daleks’ is scheduled for digital release at a rate of one episode a day for six days, beginning at 5:50pm on November 5 (fifty years to the minute from the episode’s original broadcast) through the BBC Store. This will be followed by a BBC America broadcast of the entire serial on November 12 (followed by a streaming release), a wider release through other digital storefronts on November 14, and a UK DVD release on November 21st. There has been no word as yet of a DVD release in the United States or other territories, but based on the pattern followed with the 2013 releases of ‘The Enemy of the World’ and ‘The Web of Fear’, it would be surprising if such a release didn’t happen by the end  of 2017.