The Doctor Who serial The Evil of the Daleks that was once lost will be restored through animation this September.
Like many Doctor Who stories first aired in the 1960s, this 1967 adventure starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor was junked by the BBC in an age before regular repeat showings and home media. While fans await the upcoming 13th 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.
Only one episode of the seven-part – episode two – is thought to survive in its original form, but the surviving soundtracks to all seven parts will now be set to new animated visuals for a DVD and Blu-ray release and as a Steelbook on 27 September. The announcement comes on the 53rd anniversary of the original airing of the last episode on BBC One. 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 20 May through 1 July in 1967.
Like many other classic Doctor Who episodes, 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 new three-disc release will feature the animated episodes in both colour and black-and-white versions, plus the original surviving episode two and all six episodes as telesnap constructions, plus audio commentaries, a behind-the-scenes featurette, photo gallery and an audiobook version of the story with narration by Tom Baker.
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.
“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,” said director of the restoration AnneMarie Walsh.
Troughton, who died in 1987, stars alongside Frazer Hines, now 76, who plays companion Jamie in the episode.
