Once lost, the Doctor Who serial The Evil of the Daleks will be restored through animation this September. While fans await the upcoming thirteenth series of the modern series, the BBC announced that The Evil of the Daleks is the next of the missing Doctor Who adventures to get the animation treatment, filling in one more gap in Doctor Who‘s history. The animated version of this Second Doctor adventure will release on DVD, Blu-ray, and as a Steelbook on September 27th. Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks is the final serial in Doctor Who‘s original fourth season. It first aired weekly in seven installments, running from May 20th through July 1st in 1967. The BBC announced the restoration on the 53rd anniversary of the serial’s final episode’s debut.
Like many other classic Doctor Who episode, most of The Evil of the Daleks became lost when BBC purged its archives after the serial’s original broadcast. Luckily, audio recordings of all seven episodes of the adventure survived, which the BBC will use to recreate the missing episodes.
The second episode of The Evil of the Daleks was the only episode to survive the purge. It will be remastered and used along with animated recreations of the other six missing episodes. Here’s the story’s synopsis:
“The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) stars alongside his travel companion Jamie (Frazer Hines) in this recreation in which the TARDIS has been stolen. The story unfolds as the Doctor and Jamie set out to find the missing time machine, bringing them face to face with a very old enemy – the Daleks, who have a new masterplan to conquer the universe. The Daleks force the Doctor to help them on their quest to ‘humanise’ themselves into deadlier living weapons. This particular story is notable for introducing the Doctor’s new companion Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling), first seen in the surviving second episode, and also for presenting the Dalek Emperor.”
The new The Evil of the Daleks collection will present the story in color and black and white. Here are the details on its content:
- Remastered Surviving Original Episode 2
- Telesnap Reconstructions – 6 episodes
- Audio Commentaries
- Audiobook, with recorded commentary by Tom Baker
- Making Of
- Photo Gallery
“It’s been a privilege to work on this fantastic story with such a brilliant team – thanks to the fans for supporting our work, I hope you all enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!” AnneMarie Walsh, director of the restoration, said in a statement.
Are you excited about The Evil of the Daleks animated restoration? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
Doctor Who is currently filming the thirteenth season of the modern series. If you want to get caught up with it, check out our Doctor Who streaming binge guide.