The Daleks in Colour (TV story)

The Daleks in Colour
Doctor:	First Doctor
Companion(s):	Susan, Ian, Barbara
Main enemy:	Skaro City Daleks
Main setting:	Skaro, circa 21st century
Key crew
Writer:	Terry Nation
Release details
Story number:	2
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	23 November 2023
Premiere networks:	BBC Four, BBC iPlayer
Format:	75-minute episode
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	Destination: Skaro
Next →	The Star Beast

The Daleks in Colour was a colourised 75-minute re-cut and updated edition of The Daleks, the second serial of season 1 of Doctor Who.

This new edition was broadcast as part of the 60th Anniversary of the show and was subsequently added alongside its 7-part black-and-white counterpart on BBC iPlayer as part of the Whoniverse roster of material.

Synopsis

The TARDIS has brought the travellers to the planet Skaro where they meet two indigenous races — the Daleks, malicious mutant creatures encased in armoured travel machines, and the Thals, beautiful humanoids with pacifist principles. They convince the Thals of the need to fight for their own survival.

Joining forces with them and braving Skaro's many dangers, they launch a two-pronged attack on the Dalek city. The Daleks are all killed when, during the course of the fighting, their power supply is cut off.

Plot

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Cast

• Dr. Who - William Hartnell
• Ian Chesterton - William Russell
• Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
• Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
• Dalek voices - Peter Hawkins, David Graham
• Daleks - Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Michael Summerton, Gerald Taylor, Peter Murphy
• Temmosus - Alan Wheatley
• Alydon - John Lee
• Dyoni - Virginia Wetherell
• Ganatus - Philip Bond
• Antodus - Marcus Hammond
• Kristas - Jonathan Crane
• Elyon - Gerald Curtis
• Thals - Chris Browning, Katie Cashfield, Vez Delahunt, Kevin Glenny, Ruth Harrison, Lesley Hill, Steve Pokol, Jeanette Rossini, Eric Smith

Crew

• Writer - Terry Nation
• Title music - Ron Grainer with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
• Incidental music - Tristram Cary
• Story editor - David Whitaker
• Designers - Raymond Cusick, Jeremy Davies
• Associate producer - Mervyn Pinfield
• Producer - Verity Lambert
• Directors - Christopher Barry, Richard Martin
• Costume supervisor - Daphne Dare
• Make-up supervisor - Elizabeth Blattner

Uncredited crew

• Assistant Floor Manager - Jeremy Hare
• Production Assistant - Norman Stewart
• Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
• Studio Lighting - Geoff Shaw, John Treays
• Studio Sound - Jack Clayton
• Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
• Grams Operator - Adrian Bishop-Laggett
• Director's Secretary - Susan Pugh
• Artists' Booker - Pauline Mansfield-Clark
• Vision Mixer - Clive Doig
• Technical Manager - Ken MacGregor, Mark Lewis
• Props Buyer - Alan Mancey
• Sound Supervisor - Jack Brummitt

Worldbuilding

Culture

• Ganatus is aware of some cultural conventions on Earth.

Daleks

• The creatures inside the Dalek armours cannot survive for very long outside their protective casings, indicating their casings employ crucial life support systems.
• The Daleks use a paralysing ray against Ian Chesterton, which affects the mobility in his legs.
• After some of their own have been poisoned by the Thal anti-radiation drug, the Daleks determine their race need radiation.

Skaro

• The Doctor reflects that "the planet is dead, totally dead".
• A good rain for crops only comes every four or five years.

Thals

• Antodus mentions Amezus, one of the members from their previous expedition.

Foods and beverages

• Ian and Barbara eat bacon and eggs in a sort of freeze-dried form from the TARDIS food machine.

The Doctor

• The Doctor has a pair of reading glasses he uses to examine written and illustrated works.
• The Doctor has knowledge of the star systems on an astrological chart belonging to the Thals.

Technology

• The Doctor's TARDIS uses mercury as a fluid.
• The Doctor calls the radiation measuring equipment in the city "advanced". The equipment includes something that resembles a seismograph and a dial with the word DANGER.
• Daleks draw static electricity from the metal floors.
• The Doctor tells Ian a neutron bomb destroys life. The Daleks plan to launch another neutron bomb but abandon the idea as it takes too long.
• Daleks can create food using synthetic sunlight.
• The Doctor compares the TARDIS food machine process of producing different flavours to combining primary colours.

Illnesses

• Barbara has a headache.
• The Doctor and his companions suffer from radiation exposure.

Notes

• The broadcast on BBC Four was opened by the Whoniverse ident in its televised debut and was followed by the 2023 re-release of An Adventure in Space and Time ^[+]Loading...["An Adventure in Space and Time (TV story)"].

Deviations from the original serial

• Rels, the Dalek unit of time, are used by the Daleks when counting down the detonation of the neutron bomb.
• Updated visual effects are used for the Dalek ray blast.
• Visual effects are used to show the TARDIS materialising and dematerialising.
• The cliffhanger leading into The Edge of Destruction has been removed.
• Significant changes are made to the soundtrack, incorporating parts of Tristram Cary's score for The Daleks' Master Plan, along with newly-composed music by Mark Ayres.

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Ratings

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Myths

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Filming locations

• Ealing Television Film Studios
• Lime Grove Studios (Studio D)

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

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Continuity

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DVD and Blu-ray releases

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Digital releases

Following its television premiere, The Daleks in Colour was added to BBC iPlayer's Whoniverse catalog of Doctor Who content.

Special Features

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