Doctor Who – The Dalek Invasion of Tetford

The Daleks in Colour created quite a stir at the time and Issue No. 28 of the popular Parish magazine features an exclusive The Daleks in Colour article by none other than my mum! lol

THE DALEK INVASION OF TETFORD

from the pages of The Times of Tetford and Salmonby – February 2024

Find out what links Doctor Who and its most famous adversaries with the village of Tetford …

Doctor Who began its epic journey of time travelling adventures in the winter of 1963, one day after President Kennedy was assassinated which understandably dominated the news at the time.

During the 1960’s Doctor Who starred William Hartnell, who would later due to his ill health, hand over the reins of the show to Patrick Troughton through an ingenious idea called regeneration. The viewer would literally witness their favourite tea time hero change not only their appearance but personality right before their eyes.

Every story starring these two legendary actors during 1963 to 1969 was recorded and transmitted in black and white until BBC1 switched all of its programmes to colour in 1970, starting with a brand new series of Doctor Who and a new Doctor played by the comic actor Jon Pertwee.

Over on ITV, the story was a little different as many shows were produced in colour and quite often on film. For example, Gerry Anderson’s Stingray was shot in colour even though in the UK, it was only available to be viewed in black and white.

To a young modern audience in 2023, 1960’s black and white TV is somewhat of a hard sell but there is a solution. Colourisation!

Traditionally, colourisation of classic film and TV was very controversial, often because the quality of the colourisation was unimpressive, upsetting the producers and the viewer. Not any longer . . .

Doctor Who recently celebrated its 60th birthday on 23rd November 2023 and to celebrate it, the very first story to feature The Daleks (only the second TV adventure for The Doctor) BBC4 and iPlayer commissioned a spectacular 75 minute colourisation of this epic 7 x 25 minute episodic story, adding new VFX, new music and additional dialogue using the voice of one of the original Daleks, David Graham, at a spritely 98 years old!

The Daleks has been overhauled for audiences used to fast-paced modern Doctor Who. The story follows the TARDIS as it lands in a petrified forest on a mysterious and hostile alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor leads his companions into a metal city, where they discover danger is at every corner and meeting what will become his deadliest enemy, the mutant Daleks!

Fans familiar with the story curiously tuned in to see what elements of the cut down story were retained, what had been added and crucially to see how well the colourisation would be.

Of course, we’re very lucky to have this classic story at all as the BBC famously wiped a huge number of its catalogue of programmes until the late 70’s and even today Doctor Who still has 97 missing believed wiped episodes. If you have any in the attic, give the BBC a call now!

The Daleks only colour outings in the 1960’s were not on television but in two feature films starring Peter Cushing which were themselves shorter adaptions of their respective TV stories. However, they feature an inventor called Dr. Who instead of an alien from another planet called The Doctor. The U.S.P of the films proudly displayed on the posters was to see not only the metal monsters on the BIG SCREEN but also… IN COLOUR!

William Hartnell’s widow, Heather, said her husband, the original Doctor Who, that it was his biggest regret that the series hadn’t been in colour and my son Scott has spent over a decade creating realistic looking colourisations of photos and clips from the series that can be found online by searching for @whocolour. Scott has been an avid fan of Doctor Who for many years and to work on his favourite series has been a dream come true. He says “It’s been an honour and a privilege to bring this special birthday celebration of a classic Doctor Who to BBC4. I’ve worked with two members of the team previously on one episode over the course of six years which had its one and only premiere at a convention in America just before lockdown. We worked closely together on Day of Armageddon, which is episode 2 of a classic 12 part adventure called The Dalek’s Masterplan. All but 3 episodes now exist and I’d love to see the other 7 parts returned to the BBC one day.” You can find out more about this project on Youtube by searching for “60’s Doctor Who in Colour – Documentary”

Colourisation is a long and slow process and much care needs to be taken to produce realistic results. There are systems online that will colourise photos and video but often without a lot of manual intervention produce unconvincing results with interior TV sets set on an alien planet!

My eldest son is part of a team of only four colourisation artists that brought this classic story out of the dusty archive and onto BBC4. Scott worked around the clock on some of the most challenging parts of the story with scenes set in the near total darkness of the caves and parts of the Dalek city.

Now, six decades later, we can now enjoy the BBC version on a slightly smaller screen of The Daleks IN COLOUR! The colourisation artists took just under a year to produce in total secrecy, one of the most ambitious projects of its kind in the world. Tasked by two senior executive producers of Doctor Who, Lead Colourisation Artist Rich Tipple called upon his fellow Doctor Who fans Kieran Highman, Scott Burditt and Timothy K Brown two of whom are in the UK, one in Western and one in Eastern Australia.

After “The Daleks in Colour” was transmitted both fans and newspapers were in awe of the colourisation…

Perry Thomas of Penarth in Wales wrote . . . “I was in admiration for the beautiful recreation of Dr.Who – The Daleks in Colour, a sprawling epic was carefully edited to honour the original yet give it a new lease of life, by the new score and colourisation.”

Even The Daily Telegraph, who don’t give praise lightly wrote . . .  “The Daleks in Colour – Whovians rejoice this remastered 60s classic is a treat.”

Blogtorwho.com wrote . . . “The most impressive colourisation project for any film or series ever. The delicacy of the shading on every cheekbone, the sheen on every Dalek casing, even the accurately distorted and faded reflections in every metal surface make clear that this is one of the most ambitious impressive colourisation projects attempted ever, let alone in the universe, it’s so impressive when you consider just how manual a process it is even today. The years of anyone talking about AI and just pressing a few buttons are surely ringing with the hollow laughter of the actual colourists, so hats off to Rich Tipple, Kieran Highman, Scott Burditt and Timothy K Brown for performing pure magic . . .”

Phil Collinson, Executive Producer on Doctor Who, from The Radio Times said: “It’s been my absolute pleasure to spend these past 12 months working with such a talented team to breathe new life into this classic adventure – a story that is literally the foundation stone of all that Doctor Who has become.

“The original is a masterpiece of 1960s television drama, and this new version stands on the shoulders of the pioneering spirit of 1960s Doctor Who.”

You can watch the colourisation on BBC iPlayer by searching for “The Daleks in Colour” and on 12th February 2024 it is scheduled for release on Blu-ray and DVD with the original 7 part story in black and white plus a whole host of special features including a new 15 minute behind the scenes feature.

So, understandably I am rather proud of my son Scott.

Katy Wetherby
Tetford