DOCTOR WHO: POWER OF THE DALEKS Special Edition
Troughton reanimated
RELEASED OUT NOW! 1966/2020 | PG | Blu-ray
Directors Christopher Barry/
Charles Norton
Cast Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze, Robert James
No, we’re not caught in a space-time trap: this is a thoroughly retooled version of the 2016 release that animated Patrick Troughton’s long-lost debut as the Doctor. It’s a noticeably more polished production, with improved movement, richer detail and an effective sense of atmosphere. While the plot’s a plod, the Daleks have never been creepier, exhumed from the shadows as silent, half-dead shells, conspiring inside their casings.
Extras A technically-minded documentary (46 minutes) explores the realities of TV production in the ’60s, while a vintage, horror-themed episode of documentary series Whicker’s World proves a glorious time capsule, complete with self-made “Dalek man” Terry Nation at the wheel of a Jaguar E-type. There’s an eight-minute fragment of the BBC’s Robin Hood from 1953, Patrick Troughton’s earliest surviving TV turn. Also included: a modelwork featurette (11 minutes); sets featurette; brief scraps of existing footage (seven minutes); a new photo-reconstruction; the 1993 audiobook, read by Tom Baker; a cut-down version of 1992 VHS release Daleks: The Early Years (38 minutes); clips from regional news, BBC Breakfast, Blue Peter, Newsnight and more. Plus all the 2016 extras. Nick Setchfield
The Whicker’s World episode also includes appearances by Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen and a marauding Yeti.