POWER OF THE DALEKS To Hit the Big Screen

[All images courtesy BBC/BBC AMERICA]

Any fan of classic Who knows the issues surrounding the early broadcasts of the series. Since it was during a time before people really believed in the lasting power of television, many of the adventures of the First and Second Doctor were lost. The BBC routinely purged their archives.

Out of the 253 total episodes from classic Who, 97 are currently missing as of October 2013, mostly from the third through fifth series, compiling 26 serials incomplete. However, thanks to the fans recording them, many of the episodes have been recovered — and all episodes are still available in audio format. Some episodes have been re-created, either through audio book versions, full-length presentations with narrations and stills in the missing parts, and animated versions.

One such missing episode is “The Power of the Daleks”. The six-part adventure is historic in that it has the first regeneration, called “renewal” here, and is Patrick Troughton’s first appearance as the Time Lord. As is now somewhat standard when the Doctor regenerates, his companions (Ben — played by Michael Craze — and Polly — played by Anneke Wills) doubt the transformation, but they join forces to battle the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.

The first two episodes of the six-episode adventure had been previously recovered by an Australian fan in 8 mm, with other scenes discovered from other shows that had clips of the broadcast as part of their show. BBC Audio released what they called an MP3-CD of the story in 2005, combining the audio and a slideshow of images from the episode, to be played on a computer. The BBC announced in September that they would be commissioning an animated version — the third so far — of the episode. Produced and directed by Charles Norton, with character designs from acclaimed comic book artists Martin Geraghty and Adrian Salmon, the episode will be released in the BBC Store on November 5, the 50th anniversary of the serial’s first broadcast. BBC America will be broadcasting it on November 19.

However, in partnership with Fathom Events, the episode will be broadcast in cinemas for one night only, November 14, at 7 pm local time. As with other Fathom Events, there will be exclusive bonus content including interviews with members of the original cast. You can see a teaser of the episode here.

For tickets and a list of theatres showing the episode, visit the Fathom Events website.

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